Why doesn't Admiral <PERSON> carry out her secret plan?
This question is one big spoiler for Battlestar Galactica Season 2 episodes "Resurrection Ship Part I" and "Resurrection Ship Part II".
In Part I of "Resurrection Ship", Admiral <PERSON> and Commander <PERSON> both plan to assassinate each other after the successful completion of the mission to destroy the Cylon resurrection ship. Admiral <PERSON> plans to order her XO to "relieve Commander <PERSON> of duty", and it's implied that this should be done violently with the help of a bunch of marines from Pegasus. Commander <PERSON> plans to order <PERSON> to shoot <PERSON> in the head, with <PERSON> there to watch her back.
When <PERSON> tells <PERSON> about these orders, <PERSON> visits Commander <PERSON> and expresses his discomfort. This prompts Commander <PERSON> to consult the captive <PERSON> copy they keep in the brig, who tells him:
It's what you said at the ceremony before the attack, when Galactica was being decommissioned. You gave a speech, it sounded like it wasn't the one you prepared. You said that humanity was a flawed creation, and that people still kill one another for petty jealousy and greed. 865
You said that humanity never asked itself why it deserved to survive. Maybe you don't.
The result of all of this is that Commander <PERSON> decides not to execute the plan he ordered <PERSON> and <PERSON> to carry out, even though he "has the drop" on <PERSON> (because he gets the chance to talk to <PERSON> before she gets the chance to talk to Colonel <PERSON>). He says: "It's not enough to survive. One has to be worthy of survival."
Admiral <PERSON> also calls off her plan to relieve the Commander of duty. Why?
Does she have a "change of heart"? (Seems unlikely for someone with tunnel vision as severe as <PERSON>'s.)
Does she realize that Commander <PERSON> was calling off an assassination plot when he spoke with <PERSON> while she was in <PERSON>'s CIC? (It seems to me that she's too ruthless to let that soften her attitude toward Commander <PERSON>. If she knew that Commander <PERSON> had plotted to assassinate her at all, even if he decided not to do so at the last minute, it would be more reason for her to execute her own plan. She shot her previous XO in the head for simply disobeying an order, after all.) 865