I agree. It definitely felt very flat and slow compared to the previous one that contained a lot of fast paced sequences and interesting ideas/story. In comparison it was suddenly very slow and plodding with very little going on and a lot of character self pity. I got the feeling it was a filler in episode before a big special effect based episode which I'm hoping will be the next one.

That episode felt wrong for a number of reasons. The renegade base ship had suddenly jumped taking loads of the BSG pilots (ie the fleets defence), and instead of Adama taking immediate action to try and find them and fix the situation, plus get the President back, he instead wallowed in self pity and resigned his commission. For me that seemed very out of character. Based on his previous actions he would have gone straight into combat mode. As did the actions of Zarek as you mentioned.

Although in Zarek's case I expect he already has another agenda in mind to benefit from the situation.