Battlestar Galactica Episode 3.08 Hero

When three Cylon Raiders Jump into the middle of the fleet, the Galactica braces for a fight. But two of the Raiders are actually chasing the third. Taking advantage of their enemies' preoccupation, Starbuck and Kat gun down the two pursuing ships. Then a man calling himself "Bulldog" sends a desperate radio signal from the third Raider. Hearing it, Adama orders the craft escorted onto the Galactica. A haggard man disembarks. DNA comparisons confirm that he is Lt. Daniel "Bulldog" Novacek, who once served under Adama.

Novacek and Adama tell Roslin that they conducted a mission together about a year before the Cylons attacked the Colonies. While investigating illegal mining near the Cylon armistice line, Novacek was shot down by the miners. Adama gave him up for dead, but Novacek ejected and was picked up by the Cylons. For three years, they held him in a cell aboard a baseship, but he finally escaped, stole a Raider, and fled to the human fleet.

Roslin suspects that this simple narrative is not the whole truth, but Adama just asks her to trust him. Later, he confides the true story to his son, Lee. The admiralty actually ordered Adama to spy on the Cylons, not on renegade miners. While he observed aboard the battlestar Valkyrie, Novacek, his best pilot, flew a small stealth ship over the armistice line to hunt for evidence of Cylon military preparations. There, an unknown vessel attacked Novacek. As more mystery spacecraft circled in for the kill, Adama ordered Novacek's ship destroyed by a missile to cover up the spy mission. Having endured guilt about that decision for years, now he must face the additional fact that, despite his actions, the Cylons discovered and captured Novacek. Indeed, Adama now believes that this failed spy mission provoked the Cylons' massive attack on the Colonies.

While Adama confesses this to Lee, Novacek hears the same story from Col. Tigh, who was also aboard the Valkyrie that day. Novacek never knew that the missile strike which sent him into enemy hands was ordered by his own commanding officer. He's appalled to learn the truth.

Meanwhile, as Starbuck reviews film of the Raiders' high-speed chase, she notices that the pursuing Cylon ships deliberately fired their weapons past Novacek's craft, missing him. She can only conclude that the Cylons wanted their prisoner to escape. Whatever the reason for that, it can't bode well for the human fleet. Then, without warning, Novacek violently ambushes Adama. Betrayed and furious, he'll be satisfied only when Adama is dead...