Battlestar Galactica Recap: “The Woman King”

Title: “The Woman King”
Original Airdate: February 11, 2007
GMMR Recapper: Jo

Previously, Helo is the ultimate Cylon proponent and killed Athena to rescue Hera. There’s extra civilians on Galactica living in Dogsville, a cot city in an empty hanger deck. Civilians on Galactica always spells trouble.

Helo can’t sleep. He doesn’t like being in charge of Dogsville and his friends tease him for it. The melting Senator from the first X-Men movie is playing a civilian doctor. He upsets a group of sick Sagitarron.

41,401. This episode is all about Helo and the fight against racisim. The Sagitarron’s religious beliefs prevent them from using modern medicine. The other 11 colonies don’t look fondly on them and our beloved Dee is a Sagitarron.

Meeting of the Minds. A deadly but treatable illness has come over the civilians primarily in the Sagitarrons. There’s a limited amount of medicines so Doc Cottle suggests the Galactica crew involved with Dogsville be vaccinated first. It’s clear that Dr. X, Tigh and even Adama all have some prejudice against the Sagitarrons.

Colonial One. Zarek warns Roslin about giving Baltar a public trial. He believes the fleet will revolt and Roslin takes his worries to heart. Sharon visits Caprica Six in her cell. Figment!Baltar joins them. Sharon tells her that to survive she’ll have to rat out Baltar. Roslin watches the entire thing, including when Six starts making out with Figment!Baltar. He tells her that she’s only there because she wants to be human and to be human she’ll have to think only about herself.

Dogsville. The civilians line up to complain to Helo. A Sagitarron mom, Mrs. King, let Dr. X treat her son, Willy, and now he’s dead. Helo suspiciously questions Dr. X about the treatment while getting his own vaccine.

The Bar. Apollo throws a pyramid ball into the goal. Wow, there’s the rest of the cast. I wondered if they were in this episode. Helo joins his friends and gets razzed some more about being Mayor of Dogsville. The Chief talks smack about the Sagitarrons on New Caprica until Apollo shuts him up. He apologizes to Dee, but she’s not offended- she’s okay with medicine. Apollo kisses her in front of Kara to remind the audience that their saga is far from over.

The Sagitarrons riot against Dr X, accusing him of murder since several more Sagitarrons have died. Helo pulls rank to save him and then finds out Dr X dosed the Sagitarrons without their consent and he’s not rationing the meds. Helo brings his case to Adama, Cottle, and Tigh, but they don’t hear him. Tigh catches Helo in the hall to spew more racism so Helo decks him.

Dogsville. Sharon finds Helo to ask about Hera. He didn’t know she was sick and they rush to Dr. X. He reluctantly lets Hera get a shot. Helo returns Willy’s bracelet to Mrs. King. He tries to understand why she brought her son to the doc, but she’s not helpful.

Helo’s quarters. Sharon wants Helo to open up and he unleashes his frustrations. He hates his job and wonders why he’s always the dissenter. He leaves angrily to go snoop in Dr. X’s records. Cottle busts him and doesn’t believe Dr. X is singling out Sagitarrons to kill. Cottle did an autopsy on Mrs. King’s son and he died from the disease. Cottle’s end, however, will be from chain smoking. It’s a wonder they have any cigarettes left in the fleet at all.
Dogsville. Dee shows up sick to Dr. X. Mrs. King beats down Helo’s door to warn him. A marine drags her away. While Helo’s getting dressed, Sharon’s mad at him too for caring so much about the Sagitarrons. Helo pulls the “so they won’t talk about you being a Cylon for once” card which is dirty but true. He flies down to the civilian sick bay and finds an unconscious Dee. She’s alive, so Helo picks her up to take to Cottle. Dr. X calls security. Helo takes on several armed marines. Cottle and Tigh show up. Doc Cottle checked Willy’s blood again. Dr. X gave him a different drug that killed him quietly. Dr. X tries to pull Tigh into his racism, but Tigh gives Helo the order to arrest him. Adama apologizes to Helo and all is well in the universe again.

Two small complaints from me. Um, B-plot much? Like a full 60 seconds of the Baltar dilemma. I know normally I don’t like Baltar, but I just don’t dig episodes that heavily focus on one character unless there’s a really good B-plot to balance. Second, I love Helo and Tamoh’s arms are to die for. Helo’s moral compass is clearly grounded in universal love for all beings, but I am so bored with him always being right. Every other character in the fleet has a flaw except him. I love that he doesn’t believe the ends justify the means and I don’t expect him to do something crazy just to be flawed, but it would have been more satisfying to me if he had been wrong about Dr. X.

Jo works a boring job in a small Texas town and reserves the right to spell it “ya’ll”. One day she’ll be a novelist, but until then you can read her sarcastic thoughts about TV at http://brickstorm.blogspot.com

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