By the way, I love the random references you guys use throughout your recaps. A "Ceti Eel?" Wow! Amazing you thought of that. The Wrath of Khan is the best Trek movie by far! (although I'll admit that I didn't know or recall that that thing was called a Ceti Eel).

Regarding the question mark after Carl's wife in the sentence "apparently Carl's wife[?] said it was the prayer to the cloud of unknowing," "Carl's wife" is Sharon, as Carl = Karl = Karl Agathon = Helo.

Anyhow, this season's writing still stinks compared to the previous two seasons (which were amazing!).

This week there was more stuff that doesn't make any sense:

Why would the Cylons need/want to find Earth for a new beginning? I could understand if they want to find Earth because they are still bent on wiping out the entire human race. However, don't they already have at least one perfectly fine planet to find a new beginning on? i.e. Caprica, (No, not New Caprica, but Caprica) which last we saw, they had built themselves a nice little civilization on and all of the "skin jobs" had apartments and were hangin' out on the streets, in the cafes, etc. Why wouldn't they just go back there and re-occupy instead of screwing around looking for earth? They don't even know if they'll find it and if they do, they know there will be humans (descendants of the 13th colony) there who will put up a fight before allowing the planet to be occupied. Why not Caprica? Why not any of the other 12 colony planets they took over? Heck, why not Kobal? Why Earth??????

Why would Helo make the decision to go against everyone else and foil their plan so lightly? Is he forgetting that the Cylons killed billions and BILLIONS of humans? Shouldn't he still be pissed off about that? Didn't he have any family or friends that were wiped out in the attacks? I would think that all of the survivors (including him) would still have quite a bit of rage in them and would jump at the opportunity to wipe out as many cylons as they could in one swoop to a) maybe get a little revenge, but b) even more importantly to give themselves a better chance of staying alive since they have consistantly been hunted by the cylons. For all he knows these are the only 40,000 people left period.

Also, vast numbers of cylons are of the metal centurion, raider, and heavy raider variety, as opposed to the "skin job" variety, and people obviously don't care about wiping the metal cylons out. For all Helo and everyone else knows, the skin jobs could only represent a small portion of the cylon population. Maybe they wouldn't even be killing that many skin jobs. But yeah, who knows? Either way, Helo, nor anyone else even paused to think about the metal versus non-metal.

Oh, and I agree Shannon that Adama's non-investigation doesn't make any sense either.

Another thing: Why is everyone acting as though Apollo's genocide plan is completely out the window because their prisoners died before they had a chance to execute them in range of the resurrection ship?? Can't they just wait until they capture another cylon and do the same thing later? Afterall, we know the disease lived on a beacon in deep space for THREE THOUSAND years. I'm sure they can keep their samples of it alive in their labs on galactica for a little while.

Is there any chance we can go back in time and get the producers and writers of this show to NOT push the "reset button" in last year's season finale Lay Down Your Burdens 2?? I would really prefer to keep going along last season's story arcs instead of abandoning them and leaping one year forward to this stuff.

Regards to you all, your friend djjoeycool...

I’m compelled to comment on the lackluster response to this season’s writing. I believe that this season has actually represented both the best and the worst writing the show has endured thus far.

I had the opportunity this weekend to go back and watch the 2-hour season opener with a friend who was catching up on season 3. As I suspected, I found myself once again very engaged in the story and the writing regarding the refugees on New Caprica. (The only plotline I still don’t really dig on is the Kara and Kasey Show, but that’s mostly because all the other plotlines were so strong, one inevitably had to fall to the bottom of the list.) The first four hours of season 3 included some of the best story ideas I’ve seen on the show so far. My disappointment is mainly that the producers saw fit to swoop in and rescue humanity from Cylon occupation WAY too quickly. After “Exodus, Part 2” aired, I was amazed that any show could invent such a dramatic departure from the main story line, and then resolve the entire thing in a matter of 5 or 6 episodes… but now on reflection, I’m dissatisfied with the rapid resolution, mainly because there was so much new story possibility left behind on New Caprica. When season 2 ended with the Cylon invasion of New Caprica, I was shocked that the show seemed to be taking on such a daring, untested new direction. But ultimately, by the time the new season (finally) debuted, I found myself ready for almost anything Ron & Co. decided to fling in the audience’s direction. Instead of stepping up to their own challenge, it feels like New Caprica was abandoned as easily as Apollo’s fat suit (which was, by far, the dumbest thing the show has done to date).

What makes this evolution of season 3 even more disappointing is the quality of the past couple of episodes. Thankfully, this week’s “A Measure of Salvation” didn’t spend much time with Baltar on the Basestar, but – man! – all that soft-focus, slow dissolves with Eno-esque piano tinkly music crap in “Torn” was lame compared to pretty much every episode aired to date. Thankfully, I wasn’t one of the fans dying to catch a glimpse into life on a Basestar, or I’m sure my disappointment would have boiled over into rage. But the hard truth is I’d MUCH rather have learned more about Cylon motives for human occupation, or a day in the life of an insurgent rebel – or ANY damned thing on New Caprica – over time spent on a Basestar.

This brings me to the point discussed here, regarding the Cylon’s desire to find Earth… The previous seasons have maintained a few multi-episode story arcs. Helo and Boomer’s journey from Caprica, the acquisition of the Arrow of Apollo and the map to Earth, re-discovery of the Pegasus, colonization of New Caprica. It seems that we’re currently in between major story arcs (save a few threads, such as baby Hera, and the question of Jammer’s true identity as a Cylon). While the viewing audience waits for a new arc to be introduced (hopefully sooner rather than later), the whole “lonely quest” objective seems like a thinner plot motivator than ever before. Especially now that the Cylons wish to find Earth, why would the fugitive fleet continue to desire the same thing? In the original 70’s series, the assumption was that the 13th colony had technology far in advance of the Cylons’. I’d have to go back to the miniseries to hear Adama’s initial “so say we all” speech, but has the goal become to ally all of the shattered remains of humanity in one final attempt to destroy the Cylons? The lack of clarity makes the episodes that don’t fit into some other overall structure even harder to remain interested in.

Because Helo is SMART ENOUGH to realize that using violence to solve a problem doesn't always work. And by committing genocide against the Cylons, the Colonists will sink to the same level of those very being who tried to destroy them - as genocidal murderers.

And this is why Helo - aside from Sharon - remains my favorite character.

Thanks for your comments! You know, I listened to that line a few times and was never quite sure what she said. Your version sounds better so I'll amend the post to say that.

I'm still not 100% sold on Sharon but that's probably the skeptic in me. I totally agree that she's going to lose her mind when she learns about Hera. It will be interesting to see how the writers/producers play that out. It will be amazingly cool if she keeps her oath.

First to save some face.... Carl = Karl = Helo. Er... I knew that. :) Seriously, I thought it was probably Helo, but I couldn't figure out why Apollo would refer to Sharon/Athena as Karl's wife instead of Sharon/Athena. Seriously. Were the writers just messing with me? Worst part - when I'm writing these things on Saturday morning, the battlestarwiki.org site (which has great details on characters) ALWAYS seems to be down so I can't double check on names/characters. I know they've been having server issues, but geesh!

So... I'll just pretend that my [?] was because I didn't understand why Apollo addressed Sharon/Athena that way and not because I didn't remember that Karl was Helo. :) Yep. That's my story.

I agree that they COULD pick up Apollo's plan to execute another Cylon at some point. There's gotta be one hiding in the fleet somewhere, right? BUT... I have a feeling that the heated genocide debate itself will bring that plot point to a close. Moore said in his Podcast that many of the issues raised by Helo, Adama, Roslin and Apollo where issues debated in the writers' room. I have a feeling that they'd rather let the debate die - kind of like they did the suicide bombing thing - than raise it again.

At the very least, I hope that they are consistent enough to let them mention the virus as a weapon in their arsenal and not just drop it all together.

As for this season versus last... I dunno. I definitely liked all the action and plotting when they were down on the planet. Perhaps more of that would have been better. Obviously, I can't fault them for the events in Exodus Pt2, but since then I've been somewhat bored. Is that a result of the powerful Exodus? I'm not sure. I think it's more because ... despite the lengthy recaps I write... not much has happened since then.

Well... we're only 7 episodes into a season with 20ish episodes slated. Lots can happen between now and March. Hopefully, it will.

You said, {"Because Helo is SMART ENOUGH to realize that using violence to solve a problem doesn't always work."}

Are you forgetting that Helo uses violence to solve problems every day??? Helo is a solider. That IS WHAT HE DOES during a time of war.

You said, {"And by committing genocide against the Cylons, the Colonists will sink to the same level of those very being who tried to destroy them - as genocidal murderers."}

But is it genocide? First of all, do you think it would be genocide if there were no "skin jobs" and the Cylons were still all metal? (No, you don't.) Secondly, what if the skin jobs were only a small percentage of the Cylon population which also includes Centurions, Raiders, and Heavy Raiders? Yes, we have no idea what the percentages are, but would you view their plan to be some heinous genocide if what they were wiping out was 20 million metal cylons and only 10,000 skin jobs?

Third, how do our heroes really know that plan would actually wipe out the whole Cylon race? They don't! All they had to go on was one Cylon (Simon) saying they were afraid it would download to the resurrection ship and spread. Does this really make any sense? As an aside, perhaps this could be yet another writing flaw this season. How can a biological disease get transmitted along with a being's consciousness? Honestly, because I'm a sci fi fan, I suspended disbelief and I let that go and will continue to let that go. But here's a writing inconsistency I probably shouldn't let go... If resurrection ships have to be "in range," how would all of the infected cylons transmit the disease back to the rest of their fleet and to the Cylon homeworld we've heard referred to??? Obviously the disease works pretty quickly on the Cylons (given the fact that it hadn't been that long since that base star was dispatched to check out the pulsar), so don't tell me they would have had time to jump all the way back to the Cylon homeworld.

Lastly, You said: {"And this is why Helo - aside from Sharon - remains my favorite character."}
Hey, for what its worth, I like Helo and Sharon too. no debate here. =) I really dug their story arcs last year and felt like I was robbed from seeing where things were going to go with them once the writers did the "one year later" thing. Yeah, we see where they are now, but it would have been nice to see how they got there, since Sharon was very cold to Helo after she thought she lost the baby and you didn't know whether they were going to get back together.

Regarding the "Karl's Wife" thing... don't worry, if it makes you feel any better, when Apollo first said "Karl's wife," my first thought was also who the heck is Karl? It took me a second to realize and the only reason I figured it out so quickly is because I automatically understood that Apollo was talking about something Sharon said. (So I sort of worked backwards!) I think its pretty rare that ANYBODY on that show ever calls Helo "Karl." Its always either Helo or Lt. Agathon. Hearing someone refer to him as Karl is like one of the other characters saying they just ran into Felix, Anastasia and Galen in the mess hall. Most of the viewers (including me) would have thought "Who?!" only to eventually realize/figure out that they were talking about Gaeta, D and the Chief. (actually, I'm sure a decent sized-percentage of viewers never would have figured that out.)

So Shannon, what do YOU think about the Cylon's desire to find Earth for a new beginning (as opposed to some other reason, like wiping out humans)? Does that make any sense to you?

Well.. the only way I can figure that the Cylon's desire to find Earth for a new beginning is that they still think their mission from god is to make nice with humans and they are hoping that the humans on Earth will be more open to them because they don't have the same history. If they can somehow prevent the fleet from reaching Earth, then the humans on Earth need never know of the Cylons' bloody past.

That aside, I don't like it. I still don't get why they just can't go off on their own and live on one of their own planets - or Caprica... or New Caprica.. or Kobol - and just evolve on their own. I'm sure they have plenty of human prisoners still on Caprica or New Caprica to conduct research into breeding/reproducing.

I'm sure the plot will evolve in such a way that we learn the Cylons think the Earth folks could "love" then in a way that the fleet's humans can't. Too much built up resentment. It's that "love" component that's been preventing them from having children (at least I think that was the latest rationale).

If the Cylons can find some humans to love them, maybe peace will sweep across the galaxy and all will be well. Until the Cylons run into a polytheist, that is, then blammo! Then again, we humans currently fight over our monotheism so maybe Cyons would fit right in here.

Why would it wipe out the entire race? Are there not other ships out of range. Would it not just be the attack force following them.

I'm sure there are others sections of the fleet. Would this have helped cover there tracks to Earth...