Battlestar Galactica (2003) · Season 3
[Helo is accusing Doctor Robert of intentionally letting the Sagitarrons die]
I'm not gonna listen to this, you hear me? That man has his hands full down there.
He's singling out Sagitarrons. That doesn't bother you? Doctor, that doesn't bother you?
What exactly is he doing?
I don't know, I'm not a doctor.
Well, now, that's the first sensible thing you've said yet.
[Helo is about to go and face Doctor Robert]
You know what's wrong with this ship? You and the Sagitarrons. How you might actually be listening to them.
It's my job.
They're dying because they're refusing medication, Karl.
You want me to look the other way, is that it? Is that it? Our daughter's fine, that's all that matters?
No.
Or is it cause as long as everyone hates the Sagitarrons you forget you are a Cylon for five minutes?
You shut the frak up. Yeah, I want you to look the other way. I have to fight on this ship every day to be accepted.
This has nothing to do with you. Okay? You think that's what I am? That's what I've become? That's my defining characteristic, the guy married to a Cylon?
[Helo and Hot Dog are at a briefing in the ready room. Sitting next to each other, Helo notices Hot Dog scratching near his groin area]
What's the matter with you?
Sorry, I've got the weirdest rash.
Really? [Helo looks askance at Hot Dog] I hope she was worth it buddy!
[Helo gets up and moves one seat over to the aisle seat. Athena, overhearing the exchange, moves with her husband simultaneously over to her aisle seat directly behind Helo while also giving Hot Dog a humorously wary look and a smile.]
I've known people from Aerelon. You don't sound anything like them.
I don't sound like I'm from Aerelon?
No.
Well, you know, I take that as a particular compliment. I don't know about you, but I've always founds the Aerelon dialect to be particularly hard on the ears. [affects a Yorkshire accent] Something about the consonants that scrape the back of the throat. [murmurs] Of course, I should know an awful lot about my native tongue; I spent hours on end trying to overcome it. Do you have any idea how hard it is for a ten-year-old boy to change the way he speaks? To unlearn everything he ever learned so that one day, one day there might be the small hope that he might be considered as not comin' from Aerelon? Maybe... I don't know... [switches back to Received Pronunciation.] Caprica. Caprican. Oh, to be Caprican. The seat of politics, culture, art, science, learning. And what was Aerelon, just a drab, ugly rock condemned to be the food basket for the Twelve Worlds. And that's how we were treated: like servants, like laborers, like working class. You know, you'd have fitted right in there, Chief. Lots of men who [switches back to Yorkshire accent] liked to work with their hands and, grab a pint down t'pub, and finish off the evening with a good old-fashioned fight.[switches back to Received Pronunciation] Oh yes, I left Aerelon after my eighteenth birthday. I turned my back on my family, on my heritage. All of them. 'Course it doesn't matter, that. They're all dead now.
See, there's nothing so terrible about death, when you finally face it...it's beautiful. You're free now... to become who you really are.
[smiling] You're not Leoben.
Never said I was. I'm here to prepare you to pass through the next door. To discover what hovers in the space between life and death.
[Baltar and Lampkin are discussing the upcoming trial]
Caprica Six. I'm worried about her. She's the key. They can use her to completely destroy me. We need to get to her. We need to know what she's thinking. We need to.. talk to her. Tell her.. Tell her that I love her very much. I am thinking about her a lot.
I can sense that, yes.
[Adama and Apollo argue after the assassination attempt]
What the hell were you doing out there? I gave you an order. To do a job.
Excuse me, I was doing my job.
Yeah, being led around by the nose! That bastard yanked your chain and you jumped.
He wanted files from the Colonial One.
It was the middle of the night.
You assigned me to security.
Yeah. And there was a bomb on that ship and you missed it.
[Apollo details the security policy]
You take a good look at this room. Every time you leave, memorize it. If anything changes, don't touch it. A book moves, shoes in a wrong place, something smells different, you get the frak out. Someone knocks, don't answer the door, don't open the door. Look, you have to do what I say.
If they wanna kill me, they'll find a way. Now, who do I have to bribe to see the Cylon woman?
[Lampkin visits Caprica Six]
Did he ask about me? Gaius?
[removes his sunglasses] He wanted to know if you're well. He wanted you to know that he misses you.. Loves you. Because he can't be here to tell you, he gave me this, a gift to you. [takes out Baltar's pen and gives it to Six] He uses that at the risk of grave reprisal to express his feelings, to put his world into some kind of recognizable order. To be heard. He's kept it hidden because he knows he will not get another. [Caprica Six takes the pen and caresses it] He wants you to have it. Because without you it has no meaning. He wants you to have it because he would do anything, ANYTHING to be with you again.
Well, that's a shame isn't it? [gives back the pen] Since they'll never let me keep it.
You understand that your days are owned and tallied by those people, the ones out there watching us. [points to the glass] I think you realize what's likely to become of you. I couldn't help you if they paid me ten times what they offered me for Baltar. You won't get a trial. Not even a bad one. So I have to ask you, does your love hurt as much as mine?
[Defense attorney Romo Lampkin's letter to Gaius Baltar]
There is no greater ally, no force more powerful, no enemy more resolved, than a son who chooses to step from his father's shadow.
[Lampkin is defending Baltar]
It's obvious my client is guilty. He's a traitor. And a killer. He's no better than a Cylon and what do we do with them?
Throw them out the airlock!
That's right! Throw them out the airlock. This man sold us to our enemy. This man is our enemy and if there's one thing that is good in a war, that is right and just and proper: it's slaughtering our enemy! Getting some righteous payback!
[Baltar and Lampkin are discussing options after Roslin's testimony with Lee idly listening to them]
We need to find something, anything that can discredit her testimony. She's a fanatic, right. I don't know if that's gonna..
[glances at Lee] You're awfully quiet.
Just listening.
You see, your problem is that I'm a really good liar and you're not. So let's have it.
Have what?
My gods he's right, you do know something. You know something and you're not saying.
It's probably not even true.
I like it already.
[Lee asks Adama about Roslin]
After what you did to Tigh, you're the last person I'd confide in.
Me? I didn't do anything to Tigh. He was drunk. It's really not my fault.
You told Lampkin about Ellen.
I didn't even know about Ellen.
Yeah, right.
You're calling me a liar?
I'm calling you a liar and a coward. One who doesn't have the guts to go after the man himself. Instead you hand the shiv to a stranger. Let him stab Tigh in the back. And for what? Traitor, piece of garbage, Gaius Baltar. Doesn't even deserve a trial.
[Lee is resigning]
I refuse to serve under a man who questions my integrity.
I refuse to have a man who has none.
Why do you believe that the defendant, Gaius Baltar, deserves to be acquitted?
Well, because the evidence does not support the charges.
Come on...
Did the defendant make mistakes? Sure he did, serious mistakes, but did he actually commit any crimes? Did he commit treason? No. It was an impossible situation. When the Cylons arrived what could he possibly do? What could anyone have done? I mean, ask yourself, what would you have done? What would you have done? If he had refused to surrender, the Cylons would've probably nuked the planet, right then and there. So did he appear to co-operate with the Cylons? Sure, so did hundreds of others. What's the difference between him and them? The President issued a blanket pardon. They were all forgiven, no questions asked. Colonel Tigh? Colonel Tigh used suicide bombers, killed dozens of people, forgiven. Lieutenant Agathon and chief Tyrol murdered an officer on the Pegasus, forgiven. The admiral? The admiral instituted a military coup d'etat against the President, forgiven. And me? Well, where do I begin? I shot down a civilian passenger ship, the Olympic Carrier, over a thousand people on board, forgiven. I raised my weapon to a superior officer, committed an act of mutiny, forgiven. And then on the very day when Baltar surrendered to those Cylons, I, as commander of Pegasus, jumped away! I left everybody on that planet, alone, undefended for months. I even tried to persuade the admiral never to return, to abandon you all there for good. If I'd had my way nobody would have made it off that planet. I'm the coward, I'm the traitor, I'm forgiven. I'd say we're very forgiving of mistakes. We make our own laws now, our own justice, and we've been pretty creative with ways to let people off the hook. For everything from theft to murder. And we've had to be, because we're not a civilization anymore, we are a gang, and we're on the run, and we have to fight to survive. We have to break rules, we have to bend laws, we have to improvise! But not this time, no, not this time, not for Gaius Baltar. No, you, you have to die! You have to die, because, well, because we don't like you very much. Because you're arrogant, because you're weak, because you're a coward, and we, the mob, want to throw you out the airlock because you didn't stand up to the Cylons and get yourself killed in the process! That's justice now! You should've been killed back on New Caprica, but since you had the temerity to live, we're going to execute you now. That's justice!
[crowd murmurs angrily]
Order, order!
This case, this case is built on emotion, on anger, bitterness, but most of all it's built on shame. It's about the shame of what we did to ourselves back on that planet. It's about the guilt of those of us who ran away, who ran away. And we are trying to dump all of that guilt and all that shame onto one man, and then flush him out the airlock, and just hope that that gets rid of it all. So that we can live with ourselves. But that won't work. That won't work. That's not justice, not to me. Not to me.
No further questions.
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