Helo and A Measure of Salvation

[JDS]

This is something I've been thinking about for a while now...

Remember when Helo killed off the Cylons in A Measure of Salvation, ruining the plan to destroy the Cylons and end the war?

Did you watch the full version of that scene, later on, where Helo tells Adama that he did it?

I've been thinking about that...Adama warns Helo that if Helo took responsibility for it, he'd be arrested and there would be real consequences this time...

Rather than leaving it in a dead-end, would anybody else have liked to see that story line play out? For Helo to man up and take responsibility would actually be the most interesting thing the character has done so far. That, and I would have liked to see him tell Adama, "I was right . You were wrong. THAT'S why I did it." That would be more fun than watching him say, "We both know I did it, but I'm gonna weasel out of it and walk away and this whole thing will just disappear."

Plus, I think that one incident really pushed the limits too far in terms of what the characters can get away with. I mean sure, they all do stuff they shouldn't do without having to face up to the consequences, it's a recurring theme, but aren't there limits? I mean basically every human killed by a Cylon after that point could be laid on Helo's shoulders, if you think about it.

What do you guys think?

[alpha5099]

Honestly, I try not to think about A Measure of Salvation. It's one of my least favorite episodes of the entire series. There was great momentum from New Caprica; Torn seemed a promising first-parter. Then A Measure of Salvation comes and is just not very good.

The problem wasn't with Helo though, I think. It was the writers for coming up with that cockamamie virus plotline. There's no feasible way the Colonials could actually use it. What, the entire race of antagonists gets wiped out in one fell swoop? No, that cannot happen, so silly, stupid ideas were used to defuse a situation that everyone knew was not going to happen.

Now, maybe, maybe the virus angle could have worked if the two-parter came at a hiatus. If it were the season finale, and the humans hold in their hands the way to kill all the Cylons, you might actually for a second believe they might use it. But no, in the sixth episode of the season, they are not going to obliterate the Cylons, and wander around without the driving force of their enemies for the next 14 episodes.

I'm only mad at Helo for being forced to take the fall for the writers. "Hmm, who should we get to commit horrendous, horrendous treason to get us out of this plot? Hey, Helo hasn't had much to do since we got him off Caprica. This'll spice things up nicely." And then they just forgot the damned treason. Maybe if there had been some pay-off, maybe if the Cylons being murdered was a huge scandal and lasted into future episodes and Helo was feeling the heat. Maybe then, A Measure of Salvation would have been worth two fraks.

[Joe Beaudoin Jr.]

I agree. Which is why I had some problems with this episode.

The episode itself was too typical sci-fi for my taste already... not that this is a bad thing, but the way the whole thing is handled far too neatly. Like a Star Trek episode, and after that... it's like the whole virus thing never happened. Same thing with "Bulldog", but I digress.

To be honest, having Helo stick by his guns and admit responsibility for his actions would be much more interesting than the sap he comes to be, with the whole "The Woman King" fiasco.

Helo is a badly used character now... they gave damn Kelly a better ending than this bloke. Sad.

[ThPrime]

I always found it interesting that in CylonGod's Skiffy viewer satifaction polls, "Hero" is one of highest rated episodes from season three. 88% giving 7 to 10 stars. Continuity as a complaint only really popped up some time after the fact. The lasting problem with the fan base then it seems, is that Novacek never came back.

In a similar vein, the enormous asset of the virus vanishes from the story. Technobabble aversions nonwithstanding, wouldn't it have made for an excellent Cylon detector or passive defense, at the very least to protect the fleet itself from any further Cylon infiltration.

[Joe Beaudoin Jr.]

At best, using the virus would have given the Cylons pause; put a few Trojan Horse fake buoys together and see what the Cylons do with them.

As for the poll regarding "Hero"... I honestly don't get it. I probably never will, since my brain matter may liquefy and pour out from my ears should I think about it for too long.

[alpha5099]

I haven't seen this poll, but the idea of Hero being well-regarded boggles the mind. It is, without a doubt, my least favorite episode of the entire series. It fraks up continuity, and adds absolutely nothing to the series.

Like AMOS, I probably would think more highly of Hero if they had just run with it. It seems silly, but I think I'd prefer a crummy idea they developed over a crummy idea they drop after the episode. If Adama actually did show signs of being crazily guilt ridden over causing the war (preferably, they would have hinted at this bombshell at any point in the previous 40 episodes) from then on, or if Bulldog came back and had to deal with the stress of being a Cylon prison, of being used, of attacking Adama, all that crap, it'd probably be pretty interesting. I'd especially like to see how he'd act around Sharon.

Personally, I'm not a Helo hater. I'm a huge fan of the man. It would take a whole lot of AMOS-sized frak ups for him to burn through the good will I still carry from his amazing arc in Season One. I personally kind of liked The Woman King. It wasn't fantastic, and I would have preferred more continuity heavy stuff, but I thought the episode was entertaining enough.

The only one of those three stand-alones in 3.5 I hated was A Day in the Life, which fell into the same pitfall of AMOS and Hero (those three are the only Season Three episodes I harbor much animosity toward, for the record): it added frakking nothing. Cally is starting to get on my nerves. I loved the character, but lately I'm less enthused. And all that crazy Adama projecting with his wife stuff. Ugh, waste of an episode. Say what you will about The Woman King and Dirty Hands, but they at least had something to do with the arc, i.e. touching on Baltar's trial. That was no where in ADITL.

Pretty much all I need to be happy with a stand-alone episode is some development of the larger arc. Just cut away every few minutes to Helo on Caprica or Baltar brooding on a basestar, and I'm happy.

[JDS]

Honestly, it seems to be like just about every show falls into the trap of writing some girlfriend/wife character into the position of the illogical, unsatisfiable woman who insists on holding her boyfriend/husband responsible for something or other that's just beyond his control and then making him miserable over it. Battlestar Galactica, Damages, Eureka, etc etc etc. I'm kinda sad they chose Cally for this, as it really doesn't seem to fit her character otherwise. I'm going to write it off as a fluke due to stress and hormones :D

On the subject of flukes, I'd say Hero is just about stupid enough for me to think about writing it off as one. Maybe it was just a booze-fueled hallucination on Adama's part. Oh no, Adama, the one surviving military commander, actually caused the war by provoking the supposedly evil Cylons, who actually were just trying to defend themselves. Either:

(A) RDM and David Eick had a moment of bad taste and thought it was time to waste an episode of BSG on lame political commentary,

or

(B) They were trying to write a dramatic storyline and just came up with a moronic idea.

Regardless of which one it was, that episode was the dramatic equivalent of this guy:

http://www.samuelscomputer.com/Files/Spaz.png

[jryoho]

To me the whole issue just didn't make sense. I mean, if you had a chance to completely eliminate your ever present, ever bearing enemy once and for all, wouldn't you? I feel as though this was almost a non debateable issue. If they had this oppurtunity during the original cylon attack they wouldn't have hesitated, and if anything, the cylon threat has only increased.

[nerdygurl]

Regarding "A measure of salvation", I was also disappointed with the way the issues brought up by the virus (and Helo's actions) were dropped. What was most surprising and disappointing was the alternate resolution that was set up and not used.

While it was clear that the Cylons believed the virus could be transmitted through reincarnation, there was no evidence of this possibility set up in the episode or the series (and who ever heard of a computer virus giving you the flu or vice versa? The premise is too farfetched for the series) What if the Cylons were so shaken at contracting a virus that they were engaging in an hysterical speculation, and the danger was limited to those in physical contact with infected individuals? What would that have revealed about the nature of the Cylon society? What if the Colonials attempted Cylon genocide and failed? How would the moral culpability of attempted genocide combined with that failure have played out over time?

While the storyline the writers used created some "family drama" on board Galactica, I can't help but wonder at how things would have unfolded if they used the virus as a Bioweapon only to find that its effects were localized. Sigh.

[KillerMcDead]

I think the reason they were so quick to turn their backs on Helo's treason was because of the mixed feeling the all had with the plan from the beginning. They had all mentioned their feelings on commiting genocide and how it made them no better than the Cylons. Helo had just saved them from making a decision they didnt want to make.

[Joe Beaudoin Jr.]

I think the reason they were so quick to turn their backs on Helo's treason was because of the mixed feeling the all had with the plan from the beginning. They had all mentioned their feelings on commiting genocide and how it made them no better than the Cylons. Helo had just saved them from making a decision they didnt want to make.

Basically my feeling on the subject. My qualms with the episode stem from how everything was so absurdly and cleanly handled, however. Not to mention how everything was pressed and starched.

[JDS]

Maybe so, but they all KNOW that the virus was their one possibility for ending the war and saving themselves. They got used to making tough, painful calls right from the beginning, when they vented dozens of men out of the ship rather than wait ten more seconds to evacuate them. They might not have liked it, but they were certainly going to do it, and while Helo made it easier by taking their chance away, I think they all know that they would have been better off if they had infected the Cylons. So while they might know that Helo made that one day easier for them, they also know that he made the rest of their lives (or at least the next few months/years) that much harder, not to mention everybody who died because of the Cylons afterwards. So no, I don't buy into the idea that they all said "Wow, thanks Helo!" under their breath and felt really relieved.

Instead of the bizarre, illogical public Baltar trial, I would have rather seen a Helo court martial and execution. Not because I want to get rid of the character [well, okay, I consider him "expendable", but that's beside the point], but rather because he's very principled, whether he's right or wrong, and I would have liked to see him take a stand, do what he feels he has to do, and then accept the consequences. Instead, Adama gave him the chance to pussy out, and he took it.

And they all got up the next day and went on like it never happened.
Booooorrring.

[OrionFour]

It's interesting how the Nielsen's seem to reflect your thoughts on the episodes in question. They were at a stable 1.5 around the time of A Measure of Salvation and Hero, and then they dropped to 1.3 (a loss of 13%). And then it seemed like they were coming back for a while - they got back to 1.5 on an upward trend and then Woman King came along and it was liked somebody dropped the bomb and they haven't been the same since.

[JDS]

That's pretty interesting...I'm not sure whether The Woman King would have killed the ratings because people find Helo boring (possible), or because that episode simply was useless filler that went nowhere (much more likely).

As a note about that show...if I were Adama, I would have just kept Dr. Robert away from the Sagittarons and put him back to work. I mean seriously, there are 41,000 people, a lot of them are sick, and HOW MANY doctors do you have? And you're going to throw one in a cell to rot? Yeah right. I have trouble buying that after Helo (as we are reminded by his STARRING IN THE EPISODE) was permitted to derail the Colonial war-ending plan, and get off scot-free.

Sentence him to hard labor, fixing sick people.

[OrionFour]

I'll bet you it's a little bit of both.

I mean personally I've never been much of a big Helo fan. You're right he's rather dull. And I hate that same look he gets on his face for pretty much everything, you know the 'I believe I'm doing the right thing' look or the 'I disagree but I have to take it' look.

Moreover, if the sci-fi channel keeps demanding these filler episodes, this is what they're gonna get.

[JDS]

I sure hope not. I'm really, really hoping that SciFi has given them the green light to do all Season 4 episodes with the assumption that the viewers have seen each and every preceding episode multiple times, with none of this "accessibility" crap. If they waste the last 20 episodes on
filler, they're going to waste a beautiful opportunity.

[OrionFour]

Seriously. I mean isn't that what the whole two minute teaser at the front of every episode supposed to do? Why do we need bs fillers to attract viewers? I hate it when a show takes off and the network feels it needs to tighten the noose to make sure that the ratings stay up. That's how pretty much every great show in history has been taken down. BSG is an epic, the same way the Aeneid is an epic, and the Odyssey is an epic. No filler!

[JDS]

Or The Dark Tower.

I have to wonder what this looooong ass break is going to do to the ratings...are they going to feel that they've lost so many viewers that they have to attract a lot of new ones, and hence make the last season kind of standalone? ESPECIALLY if the shit hits the fan, letters go out to a few showrunners and they all stop producing in solidarity, and then the first episodes of Season 4 get delayed even beyond April.

[hansamurai]

Hello, I came to this forum with the intent to ask a question about Helo in A Measure of Salvation, and lo and behold, there's already a thread about it.

Anyway, slightly off topic to the original discussion at hand, at about 30:13 into the episode, when Helo enters the room where Sharon is and they're happy to see each other, there's a curious object near the floor. It looks to be a floating Helo head, just kind of chilling out by a bed. It's actually onscreen for about 10 seconds while Sharon is explaining how she survived the virus but I don't think you can spot it again.

Does anybody have any idea what this head is and what it is for? It's kind of morbid! This is the latest episode I've watched so if it has something to do with a future episode, just say so and I'll find out. Thanks.

[JDS]

I completely did not see this, do you have any screen captures? I haven't seen the episode since it aired, and I don't have it on my DVR anymore.

[hansamurai]

Here's a capture...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v106/hansamurai/helo-head.png

[JDS]

The fact that there's a picture frame around his head makes me suspect that the "head" is in fact a photograph.

[hansamurai]

Yeah, I see the cut corners now and what may look like to be Helo's upper torso. Too bad, that's not as exciting as a floating head. :(

[JDS]

Anyone here familiar with that TV show "Scrubs"?

They've got a recurring joke where Zach Braff's head flies around independent of his body in an attempt to be in two places at once. Or something.

[Joe Beaudoin Jr.]

I've seen a part or two of "Scrubs"... just couldn't get into it.

[JDS]

I suppose it's more amusing if you're more familiar with medicine. Sometimes I wonder if hospital patients constantly dying might not interfere with the humor for other viewers. I guess I'll never really know.