“Black Market” is episode fourteen of season two of the new Battlestar Galactica.
Apollo is pointing a gun at a man who doesn’t seem bothered. He says Apollo won’t shoot; Apollo isn’t like him. It then goes back 48 hours. Apollo is in bed with a woman on Cloud 9.
Fisk, Gaius and Adama are in Adama’s quarters with President Roslin, fully recovered from her cancer thanks to the events of the previous episode, “Epiphanies”. The president let things slide when she was ill and says supplies are running low. Fisk thinks the civilians wouldn’t be civilians without something to complain about. Roslin thinks they are entitled; inventory is tight but not critical, but all across the fleet, people are reporting shortages of essential goods and what they can get is at a high price, from the black market. The president wants them to control the supply chain, not thugs, and hopes the military will support this. Adama agrees.
After, Fisk is talking to Gaius about the president; he doesn’t think anything will come of this. Gaius says that Adama supports the president for the moment; Fisk says and therefore so does he. For the moment. And did Gaius get those cigars he sent?
Apollo is remembering being adrift after ejecting in “Resurrection Ship: Part 2” and thinking of a woman whilst he gets ready. He notices a bottle of medication and the woman says she got them from a friend. Her daughter, Paya, comes in; Apollo has a present for her. A one-eyed doll. She runs away. Her mother, Shevon, tells Apollo that it’s another 100 because he stayed the night. A mercantile relationship, then.
Fisk arrives in the commander’s quarters on Pegasus. He here’s a noise turns and tells the other he wondered when they’d show. And someone garottes him from behind as the man Apollo was pointing a gun at watches.
Dr Cottle greets Adama and Tigh. Fisk is dead and Cottle fishes a cubit from his mouth. As Adama and Tigh leave, Adama says he thinks someone is sending a message. Tigh wonders if there’s another Cylon in the fleet; Adama would prefer that than the alternative. If they are killing their own, all the Cylons have to do is sit back and watch. Adama is telling Apollo later; he wants Apollo to lead the investigation. Kane’s influence lingers on Pegasus and the admiral wants someone he can trust.
Apollo finds boxes of cigars in Fisk’s quarters, along with a stock of valuables, including a bangle with ‘E.T.’ on it. Gaius arrives outside and comes in; he didn’t know Fisk was dead and was turning up for a meeting. Number 6 stiffens Gaius’s spine when Apollo starts quizzing him and says he came here of his own free will to assuage Fisk’s doubts on the trade policy.
On Galactica‘s flight deck, Adama and Tigh are talking about the murder. Tigh says a crew can fall apart when a commander is killed and Pegasus has lost two in a matter of weeks. Both, as it happens, in their quarters. So much for security. Apollo suggests that this time the crew may have been lucky; Fisk was rerouting supplies without command authorisation, and had valuables in his quarters. Fisk was likely working the black market, as is much of the fleet, but perhaps Fisk got greedy and was killed.
Apollo heads to the Tighs’ quarters; Ellen Tigh isn’t there. Apollo asks if the bangle he found is hers. Tigh claims it was lost, then, when Apollo says where he found it, admits that it was traded for some things. And it’s not something most on the ship haven’t done, including Apollo. Apollo says that doesn’t make it right; it just makes a lot of people wrong.
Apollo decides to take Shevon and Paya back to Galactica, but is ambushed by thugs in her quarters. The man from the beginning is sending a message, though one that doesn’t involve Apollo’s death.
Apollo is spending time remembering being adrift in space and a woman on Caprica. Dee wants to know if what may be between them is going anywhere.