Olaf Willow

Olaf Willow was a Monotheist and member of the Soldiers of the One on Caprica, one of the husbands in a group marriage. For all his faith he was a keen player of the virtual game New Cap City, and he lost years of work there when his character was killed and removed from the game. Within his marriage much of the cell's operational work fell to Olaf and his husband Nestor, both taking orders from their wife, Sister Clarice Willow. (Caprica, "Rebirth", "The Dirteaters")

The Willow cell#

The Willows as a household were Monotheists with Soldiers of the One ties, but much of the cell's operational work fell to Olaf and his husband Nestor, both taking orders from their wife Sister Clarice Willow. Like Nestor, Olaf was highly adept with computers. The cell became dedicated to obtaining Zoe Graystone's avatar program after her death in a Soldiers of the One bombing. (Caprica, "Rebirth", "Know Thy Enemy")

Presuming the program to be on a computer at the Graystone residence, Olaf and Nestor produced a swipe drive, a device able to copy a computer's contents, so that Clarice could copy Daniel Graystone's home lab computer. When it became clear the program had once been on the computer but had since been removed, Clarice kept up her friendship with Amanda Graystone in the hope of another way in. (Caprica, "Know Thy Enemy", "The Imperfections of Memory")

Hunting the Greeley cell#

Clarice came into conflict with Barnabas Greeley, a zealous Soldiers of the One cell leader acting without sanction, for control of the organisation on Caprica. Greeley tried to kill her by having a bomb planted in her car while she and Nestor were on their way to the spaceport to meet the Monotheist leadership on Gemenon, and the two survived only because they were distracted at the key moment. (Caprica, "End of Line")

Once the Monotheist Church had given Clarice its official sanction, Olaf joined her in hunting down Greeley and his followers. Clarice dealt with Greeley himself, and Olaf took Lacy Rand captive. Rand was held in the Willow house, where Olaf subdued her when she tried to escape. Later he put her into a car for the flight to Gemenon and Soldiers of the One training. (Caprica, "Retribution", "Things We Lock Away")

The killing of Mar-Beth#

Amanda Graystone, estranged from her husband Daniel, was taken into the Willow household, and she was quietly working with the GDD against them. Suspicion of an informant in the house fell instead on Olaf's wife Mar-Beth. Clarice murdered her, and Olaf and Nestor took the body away and arranged for it to be mutilated and sunk. (Caprica, "Things We Lock Away", "Blowback")

Rather than grieve, Olaf and Nestor went back to New Cap City to confront the "Avenging Angels" who had been terrorising the game. Olaf waited for them with a sword, but the Angels drew handguns, and his character was killed and permanently removed, wiping out several years of play. The Angels were the Zoe and Tamara avatars, creations of the very program the Willows were chasing. Clarice scolded both men for wasting their time, and again when their designs for the virtual heaven meant to greet the cell's martyrs disappointed her. (Caprica, "The Dirteaters")

Atlas Arena#

With the virtual heaven taking shape, the cell prepared its great attack, a suicide bombing at Atlas Arena. Nestor began to doubt the plan's morality, but Olaf defended it, calling the bombers' martyrdom an honour. Then the three discovered that Clarice's Holoband, which held information about the attack, had been stolen and replaced. Olaf realised the only possible culprit was Amanda Graystone, that Mar-Beth had been killed for nothing, and he openly criticised Clarice for it. (Caprica, "The Heavens Will Rise")

The three raided the Graystone estate to eliminate Amanda, with Olaf providing firepower and helping override the house's security. He tried to convince Clarice that Daniel's sudden interest in learning about God was a stalling tactic, without success. Then the U-87 prototype carrying the Zoe avatar woke and killed Nestor, and Olaf fired into one of its fluid lines, slowing it long enough for him and Clarice to escape. Back home, he realised he was being sent to die as a martyr while Clarice stayed behind to live, and he angrily lectured her for her cowardice. He went to Atlas Arena all the same, believing the One True God would save his soul. (Caprica, "Here Be Dragons", "Apotheosis")

Like the other bombers, Olaf slipped into the arena with help from Soldiers of the One allies on the security staff. During the pyramid opening ceremonies, a team of U-87 Cylons attached to the Caprican marines under Daniel Graystone's command landed, sought out the bombers and picked off all but Olaf. He lost his detonator in the chaos of the crowd, found it, and rose to see six Cylons converging on him. Shouting that the one true God would drive out the many, he set off his explosives as they jumped on him, killing himself and the robots but doing little other damage. His avatar woke in the heaven program as planned, but the Zoe avatar had already torn that world apart, and it quickly destabilised. (Caprica, "Apotheosis")