Revolutions are nasty business.
If you are not up for what it takes, don’t start one.
Zarek was up for it; Gaeta wasn’t. Gaeta quickly found himself in over his head.
That is correct... Gaeta was wishy washy...
When the jump drive failed, Gaeta stood down because he knew that it was over. Zarek would've gone scorched Earth and taken most of the human race out with him. Gaeta wouldn't.
On a side note, the wholesale slaughter of characters just because we're getting close to the end, is getting a little monotonous. (But, of course, they had to get rid of any romantic entanglements that Apollo had so that he can finally hook up with Starbuck, whatever she really is.)
I disagree with that. Gaeta was up for it, just not Zarek's dark version of it. And I think that at least part of the problem is that the writers of the show realized that if they had made the revolutionaries even a bit more competent that they would have pulled it off, thus in scene after scene we have the revolutionaries giving up without a fight, turned into straw men for the "heroes" to knock over. Zarek had enforcers willing to exterminate the entire Quorum and didn't think to send any of them along with Adama (acknowledged as his biggest threat) to make sure he had an "accident"? Adama escapes capture not once but twice (three times, if you count not dying when the shuttle escaped), the last time with his executioners apparently all giving up without a shot (which happens off camera, so we don't get to see how they pulled this miracle off)? Rosalyn just happens to get a viper pilot who won't shoot at her and the other doesn't shoot until it's too late and she gets away? The chief just happens to run into a sensitive guy who hates "skin jobs" but let him go, anyway, so he can disable the jump drive? No, their plan was solid (including the backup plan to jump away) and the revolution only failed because the writers stacked the deck with one deus ex machina after another to let their "heroes" win in the end.