As said, if the option already has a value, `setOptionDefault()` does nothing. In addition, the value of the options is used in plugin loading. So `1` may not be the correct value.
If the plugin has a statement like `$plugin_is_filter = 9|THEME_PLUGIN;` (the one for colorbox) that is the value that should be set for the option.
The other approach you can take is to have your plugin do a `require_once` on the colorbox script.
[edit] Of course, `setOption(x, y)` will force the value. There is no "recorded" default value so it is not possible to make a function that would set to that.
The line is zenpage does in fact work, although it is not in general the correct code. It works because the colorbox plugin is a "theme plugin" as we have implemented it. the value `1` is equivalent to `1|THEME_PLUGIN` so the only issue here is that the load priority of colorbox is "wrong" (And that priority is changed on the 1.4.2 release.)
Just fyi, `setOption(x, y, true)` is identical to `setOption(x, y)` as `true` is the default for the `persistent` parameter. Perhaps you wanted `setOption('zp_plugin_colorbox', 129, false);` Which sets the option only for the duration of your script. The themes probably should not be setting this option's default anyway, though. They really should be ambivalent to its value.