![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alexiscartwheelI’ve finally finished watching the third season of Battlestar Galactica. I was spoiled for the ending because I’ve already seen season four promos, but I enjoyed it anyway. In my opinion this was the best season thus far. Not every episode was perfect, but the amazingly good episodes certainly outweighed the mediocre.
My favorite episode: “Unfinished Business” (3x09)
I couldn’t help but feel a little bit cheated in the season two finale and season three premiere. First there was a jump forward to one year after the settlement of New Caprica. Suddenly most of the Galactica crew is on the surface, Starbuck is married, and she and Lee are for some reason not on great terms. Then—frak!—the cylons. Fast forward again, and it’s one year into the occupation, Lee is fat, and the entire cast (almost) is in prison.
There will always be holes, but some of them did get filled in during “Unfinished Business.” The “dance” was, I thought, a great frame for the flashbacks. It infused them with a lot of intensity, because it was obvious that a major revelation—on of the missing pieces—was on its way. The episode also serves as proof that the more prominently Kara features in an episode, the better it is, or at least the more I enjoy it. At this point Kara and Lee’s relationship is still a complete disaster, but its still fascinating to watch, in part because Katee Sackhoff is just that good.
Also… there were Adama/Roslin moments aplenty in this episode. (They’re so adorable! Don’t you just wanna pinch there cheeks?) Normally Adama’s being the Admiral and ordering peons around, and usually Roslin’s trying to throw Cylons (or Gaius Baltar) out the airlock, but together they soften and act like normal people. And don’t you just wish for them to have that? That one bit of normalcy in their lives?
My least favorite episode: “The Woman King” (3x14)
Here’s the main problem: No episode should focus primarily on Helo. Why? He’s too good. He’s the most inherently good and honorable character in the main cast, and probably the least mentally unstable. If we wanted a new name for the show we could call it Intergalactic Voyages of a Spaceship Full of Crazy People and Helo. Helo handles everything well from helping fat!Lee work out to saving the Cylon race from genocide to being promoted and demoted every other episode. (Seriously. He’s XO, he’s a raptor pilot, he’s mayor of Dogsville, he’s a pilot, he’s XO, he’s CAG… Remember when Lee got moved to Pegasus and was demoted and it was such an omg!angsty BIG DEAL. Helo’s like, eh, whatever. This kinda blows, but I’m adaptable.) My point is, in comparison with the extreme craziness of pretty much everyone else on board, Helo is boring.
So yeah, everyone hates Sagittarion’s, including the Dogsville doctor, who is killing them instead of curing them. Dualla plays a pawn again so that Helo can conveniently (and ever so honorably) rescue her. Helo was right, because he is awesomely good, everyone else is wrong because they suck. Case closed. Can we now get back to an episode that actually advances the plot, instead of establishing that Helo is still, in fact, a good guy?
Now I’m just going to keep talking about Helo some more because I’ve found that he’s oddly relevant to the close of the season. I’m not talking his de-/pro-motion to CAG, I’m talking about Baltar and the Trial of Doom™. Your see:
IT’S ALL HELO’S FAULT!
I thought Helo was a goner after the mini-series (and according to Wikipedia, he really was supposed to be a red shirt.) And why was Helo a goner? Because he gives his seat on the Raptor to Gaius Baltar! So if we were to just rewind, and Helo decided to stick with the system and leave Baltar on Caprica, Baltar probably would’ve been killed by a Centurion, eliminating him as a candidate for the presidency of the Twelve Colonies, and removing all possibility of Cylon threesomes from his future.
This is what happens, Helo, when you do something honorable!
I do have some thoughts for Helo in season four. Lee is not fat again, thank goodness, but he’s being kind of dumb. He has some good principles, but he always wants to prove a point to his father at the worst time and in the most ill-thought out way. (i.e. Baltar’s trial.) And then he goes and jumps in a Viper, even though at that point he’s technically a civilian. He’s got to have some kind of punishment coming to him, and I kind of want Helo to be in charge of that. (Yes, for the comic value, shut up.) They’re both so fixated on honor all the time, so, really, who could be more appropriate?
The tl;dr version: I <3 Kara Thrace (and Her Special Destiny), Adama/Roslin OTP, blame Helo, and somebody smack Lee.
My favorite episode: “Unfinished Business” (3x09)
I couldn’t help but feel a little bit cheated in the season two finale and season three premiere. First there was a jump forward to one year after the settlement of New Caprica. Suddenly most of the Galactica crew is on the surface, Starbuck is married, and she and Lee are for some reason not on great terms. Then—frak!—the cylons. Fast forward again, and it’s one year into the occupation, Lee is fat, and the entire cast (almost) is in prison.
There will always be holes, but some of them did get filled in during “Unfinished Business.” The “dance” was, I thought, a great frame for the flashbacks. It infused them with a lot of intensity, because it was obvious that a major revelation—on of the missing pieces—was on its way. The episode also serves as proof that the more prominently Kara features in an episode, the better it is, or at least the more I enjoy it. At this point Kara and Lee’s relationship is still a complete disaster, but its still fascinating to watch, in part because Katee Sackhoff is just that good.
Also… there were Adama/Roslin moments aplenty in this episode. (They’re so adorable! Don’t you just wanna pinch there cheeks?) Normally Adama’s being the Admiral and ordering peons around, and usually Roslin’s trying to throw Cylons (or Gaius Baltar) out the airlock, but together they soften and act like normal people. And don’t you just wish for them to have that? That one bit of normalcy in their lives?
My least favorite episode: “The Woman King” (3x14)
Here’s the main problem: No episode should focus primarily on Helo. Why? He’s too good. He’s the most inherently good and honorable character in the main cast, and probably the least mentally unstable. If we wanted a new name for the show we could call it Intergalactic Voyages of a Spaceship Full of Crazy People and Helo. Helo handles everything well from helping fat!Lee work out to saving the Cylon race from genocide to being promoted and demoted every other episode. (Seriously. He’s XO, he’s a raptor pilot, he’s mayor of Dogsville, he’s a pilot, he’s XO, he’s CAG… Remember when Lee got moved to Pegasus and was demoted and it was such an omg!angsty BIG DEAL. Helo’s like, eh, whatever. This kinda blows, but I’m adaptable.) My point is, in comparison with the extreme craziness of pretty much everyone else on board, Helo is boring.
So yeah, everyone hates Sagittarion’s, including the Dogsville doctor, who is killing them instead of curing them. Dualla plays a pawn again so that Helo can conveniently (and ever so honorably) rescue her. Helo was right, because he is awesomely good, everyone else is wrong because they suck. Case closed. Can we now get back to an episode that actually advances the plot, instead of establishing that Helo is still, in fact, a good guy?
Now I’m just going to keep talking about Helo some more because I’ve found that he’s oddly relevant to the close of the season. I’m not talking his de-/pro-motion to CAG, I’m talking about Baltar and the Trial of Doom™. Your see:
IT’S ALL HELO’S FAULT!
I thought Helo was a goner after the mini-series (and according to Wikipedia, he really was supposed to be a red shirt.) And why was Helo a goner? Because he gives his seat on the Raptor to Gaius Baltar! So if we were to just rewind, and Helo decided to stick with the system and leave Baltar on Caprica, Baltar probably would’ve been killed by a Centurion, eliminating him as a candidate for the presidency of the Twelve Colonies, and removing all possibility of Cylon threesomes from his future.
This is what happens, Helo, when you do something honorable!
I do have some thoughts for Helo in season four. Lee is not fat again, thank goodness, but he’s being kind of dumb. He has some good principles, but he always wants to prove a point to his father at the worst time and in the most ill-thought out way. (i.e. Baltar’s trial.) And then he goes and jumps in a Viper, even though at that point he’s technically a civilian. He’s got to have some kind of punishment coming to him, and I kind of want Helo to be in charge of that. (Yes, for the comic value, shut up.) They’re both so fixated on honor all the time, so, really, who could be more appropriate?
The tl;dr version: I <3 Kara Thrace (and Her Special Destiny), Adama/Roslin OTP, blame Helo, and somebody smack Lee.
Tags:
