'Battlestar Galactica' Retro Recap: 'Collaborators'

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Over the course of its first two seasons, Battlestar Galactica quickly established the fact that it was going to try and explore just about every single emotion and element of the human condition. It looked at fear in season one. It looked at numerous complex concepts in season two, but season three has changed things up greatly, since the first four episodes steered clear of analysis and focused instead on experience, taking us on quite the wild emotional ride. 

So imagine my surprise when I settled in to rewatch the first 'Post New Caprica' episode of the show, only to discover that this sweeping saga decided to return to its roots and explore the human condition and our emotions once again, this time focusing on revenge in 'Collaborators'. Now if anything, they could not have picked a better topic to look at because this particular episode picks up a few days after the escape from New Caprica wherein a group of six aboard Galactica, including Tyrol, Tigh and Anders are working hard to identify Cylon collaborators and figure out whether or not they are guilty of crimes against humanity and if they are...they are to be sentenced to death for aiding and abetting the enemy, and well...that plot summary alone should make it inherently clear that this story goes to some extremely dark places.

Because this story holds nothing back. We are witness to the entire selection process in Tigh's group, and the awful debate that everyone has to go through to make the decision to rob a person of their life for their actions while living on New Caprica, and we are also witness to the subsequent death of the guilty for that matter, and what made this part of the story so fascinating to watch is that it demonstrated exactly how revenge can take over a person's soul. For the most part, it didn't matter what the extenuating circumstances were or if there was a shred of doubt that there might be innocence. If it seems as though they truly helped the Cylons, they were sentenced to death and the power and possibility of getting even was enough to consume Kara Thrace completely and get her in on the process when her husband walked away from it.

Which is another element of this story that I truly enjoyed, the fact that some people were able to recognize that revenge isn't always a good thing and for Anders...the whole idea of putting people to death without a proper trial or hearing the other side of the story was too much to bear and once this little secret made its way out into the open, where we learned that the outgoing President, Tom Zarek, sanctioned this in secret to save the fleet years of strife in the legal system, it was revealed there were others that agreed with Anders' way of thinking. Specifically, the Admiral and the incoming President of the Colonies, Laura Roslin, who quite frankly, handled this matter in the classiest fashion possible, by delivering a broad and sweeping pardon for everyone in the Fleet the instant she returned to the presidency. 

If anything, the actions performed in this episode aren't that surprising, simply because I think we all knew that bad blood was brewing under the skin of just about everyone in the fleet. No one was happy with the Cylon occupation of New Caprica and unfortunately, sometimes when people have time to think, they let their anger get the better of them. So really, the surprise in this episode, is how quickly Tom Zarek acted to indulge humanity's darker side and let that revenge come out because that's downright dangerous. All that had to happen was for word to spread that anyone who helped the Cylons was being dealt with, and bedlam would have taken over as neighbor turned against neighbor to deal with past transgressions. Zarek wasn't heading chaos off at the pass, he was laying the foundation for it. So thank heavens for cooler heads prevailing and hopefully now, the fleet can find peace and heal as they continue their journey toward a new home. Until next time.

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