First airing on 27 October, 2006, Collaborators, written by Mark Verheiden, this episode starts dealing with the repercussions of the Cylon occupation.

The fleet is mostly back together, though there have been losses, and there are those who are seeking revenge against the people who collaborated with the Cylon forces. They are known as The Circle, and Tigh (Michael Hogan) and Tyrol (Aaron Douglas) are amongst the leaders who are serving as judge, jury and executioner.

Morale is at an all-time low, and Apollo (Jamie Bamber) notes that thirteen people have gone missing in three days. All of them collaborators. The rest of the collaborators, including Gaeta (Alessandro Juliani) are being shunned by the fleet. Even Starbuck (Katee Sackhoff) wants in on it, and that may cause the loss of the Anders (Michael Trucco)/Kara relationship. Ouch.

The whole thing turns into a bit of a witch hunt.

And thanks to Baltar (James Callis) being on a basestar, we get a peek at how that looks.

There’s also some politics. Zarek (Richard Hatch) is going to be president, with Roslin (Mary McDonnell) as his VP, but he plans to resign once sworn into office so that she can stay in the role. In exchange, she agrees to take him on as a member of her cabinet, as her VP.

However, he was the one who created The Circle. He may not have a career after this at all.

This ends up being a pretty dark episode as everyone deals with the events of New Caprica, and the resumption of their journey to Earth.

Tigh is bitter and angry, but insists on following the evidence in delivering what he sees as justice, but it brings him into conflict with Adama (Edward James Olmos), with Gaeta’s life hanging in the balance. But maybe the reveal that Gaeta was the inside source will be enough to save him, and others, as the Circle has to come to terms with the fact that people were just trying to survive.

Roslin recognizes the need for justice, so when she resumes her role as President, she issues a general pardon for all, with the understanding that everyone will record their experiences for a commission.

It’s a dark episode, with a glimmer of hope and humanity at its end. But where does it leave some of our regulars?

Torn was written by Anne Cofell Saunders, and it debuted on 3 November, 2006.

Baltar begins to think he may be a Cylon after spending more time on the basestar and seeing that he may have some of their abilities, specifically his projection of Six (Tricia Helfer). Through the course of his continuing stay wih the Cylons, he shares the hunt for Earth, everything he’s learned, and a basestar is dispatched to investigate.

The Cylons want Earth for their new home.

But a virus infects the ship and wipes everyone out! So Baltar ‘volunteers’ to investigate, even as the mysterious nature of the Cylons is explored. The virus seems to have been left in a beacon in a nebula by the Thirteenth Tribe.

In the Colonial fleet, tensions are high between those who stayed in the fleet and those who went down to New Caprica to live. The most vocal among them are Starbuck and Tigh. Adama is going to have to lay down the law, and it’s a brutal scene.

Tigh is imagining Ellen (Kate Vernon), and Starbuck is clashing with everyone and is dealing with the loss of Anders and Kacey (Madeleine Parker) in her life.

Apollo has dropped all the weight. Gaeta is going through Baltar’s work and may have been able to decipher some of his work from Kobol and the map to Earth. Sharon (Grace Park) in order to differentiate herself from the rest of her Cylon models, adopts a new call sign. Athena.

I love Bear McCreary’s music for Baltar’s stay on the basestar, lots of poignant and thoughtful piano. It’s very lovely. We’re also reminded that there are five Cylon models we haven’t seen yet.

There are a lot of things that have to be resolved because of the things that happened during the occupation, and the characters will have to figure out how to adjust to this new reality. Sttarbuck seems to want to be on the road to recovery, but Tigh?

And the episode ends with a Raptor discovering the Lion’s Head Nebula with a pulsar serving as its eye, but they also discover the dead basestar, which delivers the viewer a To Be Continued.