The Woman King

[teachlikeroslin]

Shoot. I'm trying to think of a good opening for The Woman King but the only thing I can come up with is that Mrs. King was in the episode Deep Throat way back on the first season of The X-Files. Considering both shows shot in Vancouver, I suppose I'm more surprised there weren't more retreads. I mean, there were some, of course. That woman, John

Comments

[astreamofstars]

Wish I had a nice, long, involved comment about The Woman King, but I think I've watched it maybe once. Halfheartedly. So I don't really remember all that much about it. So I apologise that some of my comments here will be silly, rather than insightful.

I remember getting frustrated that it seemed to be a whole episode dedicated to saying "Isn't Helo good? And look, he's always right. And everyone should worship him for it." That's the exact reason I find Helo such a dull character. He's very pretty to look at, and Tahmoh is a fine actor, but Helo just ... he's constantly set up as this moral guardian for the fleet, and does things any other character in the show would be thrown in the brig for, and gets away with it, every time. Because he's So Good. Bleh. Give me complex greys instead of that black and white. If I want black and white, I'll watch Star Wars. Personally, I wish it had turned out that Helo was completely wrong about everything, and was stirring up trouble for nothing. That would have been entertaining.

And I also found most of the other characters in the episode (if I'm remembering it right) at least a little out of character, which is necessary to show How Good Helo is. It's one of the slight failings of this season, I think. There are a few episodes in season three where characters just don't seem like themselves because the writers wanted to shoehorn in a plot point, and it always throws me a little.

I kind of assumed Helo was given Dogsville to watch over because he's about the most un-racist person they have in the fleet. He married a Cylon, after all.

Definitely agree that there needed to be more set-up, here. I mean, the two Sagittarons we know best are Dee and Zarek, neither of whom seem remotely like the Sagittarons in this episode, and no one seemed to be racist towards either of them at any point previously. It seems weird.

I also love Head!Baltar. I wish everyone had a head person. Starbuck should have had a permanent Head!Leoben. Laura could have had a Head!D'Anna, just because it would have been hilarious to watch the two of them snark at each other all the time. Helo needed a Head!Cavil, because it might just have made him realise not all Cylons are nicey-nicey. And Lee could probably have done with a Head!Laura, because he was always so much better when he was working with her. Can you imagine the chaos?

[teachlikeroslin]

I've actually been thinking a lot about these Head!People. I mean, what are they? So far, my best guess is projection and it's interesting because

SPOILER ALERT FOR NEWBIES WHO MAY BE READING THE COMMENTS

Baltar has a head person, Caprica has a head person, Starbuck has a head person, Bill has a head person, Laura has a head person. No, Starbuck's, Bill's, and Laura's aren't exactly like Baltar's and Caprica's, but that doesn't mean their experience with their head people isn't as real. So, it's kind of interesting that the head people are so prominent.

[astreamofstars]

Head!Leoben is the one I find interesting. I figured Head!Carolanne and Head!Elosha were basically manifestations of Bill and Laura's subconscious minds, telling them things that deep down, they knew, but needed someone seemingly external to come along and open their eyes to. And Head!Baltar and Head!Six are ... whatever it is we supposedly find out they are in the finale. But I don't really know about Head!Leoben. Can't figure out where he fits in.