February 12, 2007 - Battlestar shifted its focus this week to a specific member of the supporting cast, who was definitely due for his own spotlight. That person was Helo, who's been around since the miniseries, and certainly factored into some major storylines, but always in conjunction with Sharon, and later, their baby. True, he did have a subplot on the episode "A Measure of Salvation", but still, while his decision on that episode was pivotal to the storyline, Helo wasn't the central focus of the story. Here though, it was all about Helo. Once more, as happened several times in season two, Galactica featured a scene in the "previously on" segment that we've never seen before - an annoying trait they should try to move past, since if it's important enough for us to know now, it should have stayed in the episode in the first place - that established that Helo had been put in charge of a large number of refugees left homeless, or shipless as it were, after the escape from New Caprica.

Bruce Davison (best known as Senator Kelly from X-Men) was very good as Dr. Robert, a civilian doctor that had been put in charge of checking the health of these new passengers onboard Galactica. This was an episode that didn't go light on the real life analogies, as a disease broke out, that with its sexually transmitted element, couldn't help but evoke AIDS. However, there was a cure for this disease, if the symptoms were spotted and medication was given quickly enough. Problem was, several people who should have been cured in time were dying, and as Helo discovered, they were all Sagittarons. Continuing the real life analogies, this was notable because most Sagittarons were of a Christian Science like faith that refused medicine. Hence, the fact that the few of them that were seeking treatment were still dying stood out in a big way.

What followed was a bit of a detective story, with Helo becoming convinced that Robert was killing the Sagittarons, and scrambling to find proof. The last time Galactica did a similar single character focused detective story, the result was the Lee-centric "Black Market," the single worst episode ever for Galactica. Fortunately, "The Woman King" was a much stronger story. Instead of throwing way too much new information at us about Helo, as "Black Market" did with Lee, it went hand in hand with the perception of Helo we already have, as a very focused and righteous guy.

SCI FI Channel Helo (Tahmoh Penikett) and Dr. Robert (Bruce Davison)

Along the way, there were also some nice moments for other characters. It's always refreshing to see the Galactica crew relaxing a bit, as we did here, with nearly all of the pilots and supporting characters hanging out at the bar together. This scene also added a new facet to Dualla, who called most of her fellow Sagittarons, "paranoid, pigheaded and argumentative."

And it was absolutely great to see "Chip" Gaius appear again, as we learned that Caprica Six is indeed still seeing an imaginary (or is it?), idealized version of the good Dr. Baltar speaking to her. Roslin's confusion as Caprica was kissing the air -- for Caprica, Baltar was right in front of her -- was priceless. Even more compelling was Zarek warning Roslin that the fleet will see, "civil unrest on a level they've never seen," if they let Baltar's trial go forward. It's hard not to assume the power loving Zarek might be trying to sabotage Roslin, as he encouraged her to declare martial law if she goes through with the trial, but Roslin seemed convinced that Zarek was truly frightened.

Helo's story wasn't exactly the most intricate one the show has ever had; in the end, his hunches about Robert were exactly right, and the guy was indeed killing off members of a group he felt were living a backwards life and wasting valuable resources. But there were some strong scenes and moments for Helo along the way, as the episode did a bit of meta-commentary on a guy who felt that as far as everyone else was concerned, his defining characteristic was that he's, "the guy who married a Cylon." Seeing him and Sharon so at odds for awhile here was a good idea, because it has been them against the world for so much of the series.

Sure, Helo is indeed rather specifically good and right most of the time, but when you've got characters as frakked up as Starbuck, you need someone to balance things out now and again. As for the next single character spotlight episode, Dualla would be a great choice, as that is a character in need of some better definition.

Bonus Scene Review: Last week I neglected to acknowledge the bonus scene SCI FI Channel showed, which I addressed in a mailbag. I think this is a bizarre new addition to the show, as it muddles things a lot. Are we supposed to think of these scenes as actually having taken place, or as the discarded material they are? The one this week, as Helo confesses to Adama that he killed the Cylon prisoners during "A Measure of Salvation" seemed to set up even more deleted moments we didn't see. It sure was a tantalizing scene in and of itself, but throwing it on to the end of an episode like this is a disconcerting element.