BSG Re-Watch: The Woman King

Frak Party Archives BSG Frak Party Archive
#1

It’s week forty of our planned off-season re-watch of the entire “re-imagined” BSG canon, and after a little time off to watch Razor, it’s time to move on to the season three episode “The Woman King.” So why not join us here for the GWC online frak party? There’s room for everyone, though you’ll have to bring your own snacks…

Feel free to jump in at any point with your comments on this week’s episode as the re-watch is by definition spoiler free. We’ll be in and out, but we’ll definitely take a look at your comments before we start next week’s podcast.

#2

Awe, woman king…your such a woman…king

Okay, okay, okay, okay…I’ll say it. I think this is the worst episode of Battlestar Galactica.

I don’t mena I don’t like it. It’s alright, its just alot of episodes in the series are so…GREAT. The thing is, I think Tthis episode, a Day in the Life, and Dirty hands are when BSG, for the first time, hits a bit of a…there only flaw is that there not as good as the rest of the series, to me. The only flaw is that, through no fault of there own, their just not as GREAT as the other episodes. And why should it be? Every series needs a few of these episodes.

What i really like about this episode is the interaction even Helo and Thigh. The only other scene we got was Thigh turning to Helo and telling him “I lost my post to a cylon-lover”. I really wish we could have spent more time with this dymanic. But, in a cast of hundreds, something must suffer. At least this episode aknolges there is a conflict there. And to tell you the truth, I was much more itnerested in this conflict then that love…thing lol.

Helo is a good guy. He might be stupid, but he is a good guy.

I was mcuh more interested int he conflict between Thigh and helo, and Cally and Sharon, then I ever could be with Apolo and Starbuck. Then again , at least Thigh and Helo get a episode to deal out there grudges, Cally and Sharon get a little scene, and that missing scene from “The osn also rises” Oh well.

#3

I must contradict! Dirty Hands was a GREAT episode!

#4

I sitll think it was alright hehe

#5

Tigh and Helo should have been in the ring together in Unfinished Business. They definitely have some issues they need to work through.

#6

Exactly! You coud say they had some…unfinished baseness tehehehehe

#7

I think I’m in the same boat as you on this one, Emily. I don’t hate “The Woman, King,” but it didn’t have anything in it that was jaw-droppingly amazing. I guess BSG has spoiled me, because though I don’t expect to be stunned by every episode of any other series, but BSG delivers these incredible moments so regularly that I’m a bit disappointed when an episode doesn’t have that special spark to it.

I also agree that the Tigh-Helo dynamic, and the dynamic of Helo with the rest of the crew, really (being in the doghouse with the higher-ups for pulling the stunt with the infected Cylons), is the most interesting part of the episode. That’s the other thing: I think BSG is at its best when the conflicts are focused between people we know and care about (humanoid Cylons included), rather than someone we know and care about vs. guest-star-of-the-week. There are exceptions to this rule, of course: Cain, Shaw, and Romo Lampkin all create great conflicts that we really invest in, although all but Shaw do have a chance to develop over a multi-episode arc, so we do come to know them fairly well in the end. That, and they’re frakking fabulous characters.

Anyway, that’s my 2 cubits’ worth.

Speaking of good conflicts, though, is the GWC Crew planning on commenting on “Taking a Break…”? Even if you don’t care for the love-quadrangle, the torture sequences are definitely well worth talking about…

#8

Ah, I’m not so sure about that. Lampkin at least doesn’t actually create the conflict between father and son, the conflict had been there for quite some time, Romo merely had the insight to recognize this and bring it to the surface to serve his purposes. Very Machiavellian.

#9

Well,the thing iwth this episode is really do not care about the conflict with a race of people I have never meant.The reason why I like this episode is for the Thigh Helo dymanic.

But then again, I’m weird. i wander abou the weirdest things, like how Athina and the rest of the pilots itneract when she shows up…or even more randomly, what the merines are thinking when there running around and just sort of…standing there. Those merines are a quit bunch lol

#10

Best typo yet :smiley:

#11

Sorry, I’'ve got crappy eyes so I can hardly see the screen

#12

I agree, it’s fun watching the viper crew giving Helo some fraaaaaaak at the beginning of the ep, the viper crew has really seemed on edge for the past few eps and watching them all have fun together, especially with Helo having fun with it too was nice to see.

It’s funny how we all love Doc Cottle, but officers like Dee don’t like him and call him a near sighted bastard. Sure he smokes in front of cancer patients and carries a tone that he couldn’t care less, but he’s always seemed good at what he does, especially noticed when he was unavailable during the whole Adama assassination attempt by Boomer and medics had to perform the scariest operation in fleet history, which ended up giving Adama one of the gnarliest scars from waist to collar bone. I know that later in the ep I’m going to be disappointed by Cottle though.

OOOOOH, I forgot we get some head Baltar in this ep! I’ve missed his greasiness.

Damn, even when Tigh takes a hard pop in the mouth, he comes out looking like a winner. He’s standing there with blood on his lip and he’s telling Helo to get his hand checked out, he is one grisled Tighlon!

Man, it’s one thing for Cottle to lie about Sharon and Helo’s baby, he was under orders from the President, but for him to just whip out a lie on the spot to Helo to get him to stop looking into Dr. Robert is such a different story.

I can’t wait until we finally get Season 3 on DVD so we can really see some of these extra scenes get flushed out with all the other extras if Season 3 discs are anything like previous DVD releases.

One big problem with this ep seems to be that we’ve only been allowed to see one doctor throughout this whole show (Cottle), I don’t even think we ever got to see a doc over from Pegasus and the first non-Cottle doc turns out dirty… wait, the only other doc we get to see is a fake… when Starbuck is injured on Caprica and put into the farm, we get a cylon posing as a doctor.