As he mourns his wife Cally's apparent suicide, Galen Tyrol fights to conceal his turbulent emotions, which go beyond simple sorrow. His fellow Cylons — Tigh and Foster — offer him little comfort. Tigh can only see the situation through the lens of his own guilt and grief for executing his wife, Ellen. Foster (who, unbeknownst to everyone, murdered Cally) urges Tyrol to "shut down" his negative emotions and embrace his new identity as a perfect creation of God.
Tyrol struggles to bury his emotions in obsessive work, but he bungles a technical repair on a Raptor, nearly causing a fatal crash. Furious with himself, Tyrol grows even angrier as his crewmates smother him with well-intentioned pity.
When Admiral Adama tries to console him, Tyrol finally explodes, his crushed hopes, his anger at Cally and his fundamental identity crisis bursting out as he rants at the Admiral. In the end, he demands that Adama demote him. Adama complies. The former Chief, now a specialist, is left alone with his conflicted grief.
Tigh has found a different way to cope with his new identity and his old guilt over Ellen's death. He has begun visiting Caprica Six in the Galactica's brig, asking how she endures the guilt of participating in genocide while not telling her why he wants to know.
As they speak, Caprica's face sometimes appears to be Ellen's. Magnetically attracted by this vision, Tigh can't stay away. Eventually, he dismisses Caprica's guards so the two of them can be alone. As Caprica offers her unique brand of help to this broken man, the two move toward either a deadly crisis or a strange consummation.
Meanwhile, a gang of religious traditionalists called the Sons of Ares invades the quarters of Gaius Baltar's cult, trashing possessions and beating up Baltar's followers. Baltar retaliates in kind by disrupting a traditional religious service, nearly causing a riot.
Baltar is arrested, and Laura Roslin confronts him in the brig. She promises to institute rules for his protection but also warns him that, if he continues provoking trouble, he will find that her impending death has only made her more fearless about stopping him, no matter what. She has faith that all her actions are justified because they protect the fleet, but the Quorum of 12, led by Lee Adama, worries that she is abusing her power.
Released, Baltar returns to his cult's quarters to find Marines blocking the doors. Roslin's so-called "protective" rules, it turns out, forbid his followers to assemble as a group. The Six in Baltar's head urges him to defy the order. With her help, Baltar provokes a one-sided bloody pummeling by the Marines as he repeatedly tries to walk peacefully into his home. Roslin's restrictions are moments away from transforming Gaius Baltar into a martyr….
suicide and his demotion. He is drawn to Gaius Baltar's sermons, but when Baltar forces him into the spotlight because the cult would gain credibility by having the well-respected former deck chief as a member, Tyrol violently rejects him. More despairing than ever, Tyrol contemplates killing himself. Later, Baltar dares to visit Tyrol alone to offer him a sincere apology. Tyrol's response might mark a turning point for both men.
Back aboard Demetrius, Leoben promises Kara that Matthias's death was an accident, and he reasserts his faith that Kara is special — perhaps even an angel of God. Determined to find Earth for her people, Kara risks trusting him once more. Her order to set course for his baseship, however, is the last straw for her crew. Even Helo's principled loyalty crumbles as Sharon insists that Kara's going to get them killed. Mutiny seems inevitable.