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Survivors:

Air Date: 10/27/2006

The Circle, a secret tribunal on Galactica, decides the fate of Jammer (Dominic Zamprogna) and other Colonials who aided the Cylons during the occupation of New Caprica.

Episode Recap

Three days after the rescue of the colonists from New Caprica, Tigh, Tyrol, Anders and three other former insurgency leaders convene in the bowels of the Galactica. With them is a bound prisoner, Jammer, whom they have convicted of treason for his membership in the colony's Cylon-controlled police force. Jammer pleads for mercy, but his judges remain implacable. They eject him into space, making him the latest in a series of enemy collaborators whom they have tried, convicted and executed without the knowledge of Admiral Adama or Laura Roslin.

Roslin is busy negotiating with Tom Zarek, who, as Gaius Baltar's vice president, has now become President in Baltar's absence. Lacking military support for his leadership, Zarek offers to cede the highest office to Roslin if she'll appoint him vice president once again. She agrees, and they schedule the power exchange for three days hence. Roslin has no idea that Zarek has authorized the secret tribunal aboard Galactica to execute all the worst collaborators before his brief presidency ends.

Tigh embraces Zarek's orders with a zealot's dedication, but the tribunal's atmosphere of revenge soon grows too stifling for Anders. When his fellow members urge him to convict Felix Gaeta of treason merely because Gaeta worked for Baltar, Anders quits. The tribunal easily finds a willing replacement for him: his wife, Starbuck, who votes to convict Gaeta. While she is eager for this deadly vengeance, Anders longs for an end to the bloodshed he's witnessed as a resistance fighter. The couple's resulting conflict, springing from the separate traumas they endured during the occupation, threatens to split them apart.

Far away, Gaius Baltar awakens to find himself confined aboard a Cylon baseship. Like the collaborators on the Galactica, his fate now hangs on the vote of an unsympathetic jury: the Cylon leaders. In the end, with the jury deadlocked, the decision comes to rest with Six, who must finally choose between her people and the human she loves.

Having convicted Gaeta of treason, the tribunal members aboard the Galactica swiftly and ruthlessly switch roles from jury to executioners. They seize Gaeta and drag him to an airlock. But they don't know — and might refuse to hear — a critical truth. Gaeta was the mysterious informant who passed classified information to Tyrol throughout the occupation, enabling not only the insurgency's survival, but also its triumph. The secret tribunal is about to execute a secret ally.

Remarkable Scenes

- Jammer being executed by the Circle.
- Tyrol speaking to Cally about how she was able to run away from her would be executioners.
- Baltar's dream, then waking up aboard a Cylon basestar.
- President Zarek declaring he will sign Roslin in as his Vice President, then voluntarily step down.
- Tigh's outburst when Gaeta entered the CIC.
- Adama confronting Tigh.
- Tigh's outburst within the Circle concerning its legitimacy during the case deliberations just prior Gaeta's case's introduction.
- Baltar's meeting with D'Anna.
- Apollo: "Now if you'll excuse me, I have a date with a jump rope." Adama gives Apollo "the look." Apollo: "Hey I've dropped half a stone." Adama: "Keep jumping."
- Gaeta's meeting with Starbuck.
- Baltar's meeting with Caprica Six.
- Tigh regarding Tyrol's hesitation to vote on Gaeta's guilt: "He doesn't want to say he's guilty because Gaeta is such a good guy. Right Chief? Everyone likes Gaeta, so let's let'm off the hook. Let's just look the other way on this one. Well a lot of good people had to pay the price for what they did. Choices they made on New Caprica. Like my wife. That's right. Ellen collaborated. Gave the Cylons information on the resistance and she died for it. Because that's the price for collaborating with the enemy. And I liked her a lot more than I like Gaeta."
- Gaeta being brought before the Circle.
- Roslin and Adama confronting Zarek about his actions as president giving the Circle impunity.
- Tigh unpacking Ellen's clothes.
- Roslin issuing a general pardon for every human being in the fleet.
- Tyrol sitting with Gaeta in the mess.

Additional Notes

-The Cylon baseships in this episode have a different appearance than those seen in previous episodes. This is not a new type of baseship, however. Producer and writer Bradley Thompson noted that Gary Hutzel, Mike Gibson and the VFX crew continually upgrade the imagery on the show. They decided to "echo the internal design elements of the baseship on the exterior."
-The story takes place on the third day of the Second Exodus, or three days after Adama's rescue of the survivors from New Caprica. The first Exodus took place after the initial Cylon attack on the Twelve Colonies.

-The list of survivors returns for the first time this season. As of the beginning of "Collaborators," there are 41,435 survivors.

- As of this episode, the opening theme has been revised again to restore the stated primary objective of the survivors being the search for Earth. Images from the surface of New Caprica have been removed.
- According to Adama, despite the success of the exodus from New Caprica, thousands of people were left behind on the planet.
- Apollo made a comment about losing "half a stone" (7lbs) of weight in this episode.

A "stone" (pl. also "stone") is a unit of weight almost unheard of in North America, but still used in the UK. It's equal to 14 pounds or about 6.4 kg. So assuming that the Twelve Colonies are using the same standard of measurement, Lee has lost 7 pounds so far.