Faces Of Galactica, Season 3

Season 3 of Battlestar Galactica has focused on relations and their interdynamics. The first two seasons had a huge enphasis on the human struggle from the fleet's perspective. Yes there were some relationship issues, but they spent the first two seasons fighting and running from the Cylons. The focus has shifted from the fleet to cells of people, be it partners, co-workers, subordinates, superiors, friends, lovers, or spouses.

Alot of relationships changed between season 2 and 3. Starbuck and Anders get married. Lee and Dualla get married. Tyrol and Calley get married. Helo and Sharon (later she takes the callsign Athena) get married. We even get a hint of Admiral Adama and Laura Roslin having some intimate moments.

While the conflict with the Cylons wanes in the background, relationships of all types are flurishing and dying at the drop of a hat. We had the shaky relationship of Colonel Tigh and his wife. She had a history, that's for sure. And after her inproprieties with the Cylon humans, and her betrayal of the colonists, Saul killed her.

Starbuck (Kara) was a hostage of the Cylon Leoben; he thought he could make her fall in love with him. He even introduced her to a child he said was "theirs". After months of brainwashing she began to believe the child was her's and Leoben's. After the colonists returned to their ships, Starbuck continued to have relationship issues. We learned that her and Apollo (Lee) had been having affair. Surprisingly, Dualla knew as did Anders.

The psychological affects of their situation took it's toll. We had "The Circle" that was killed off suspected collaborators from the occupation of New Caprica. They killed fellow crewmembers, friends, and anyone else they believed helped the Cylons, even if unintentional. There was Bulldog, a pilot that escaped from the Cylons. If Colonel Tigh has not stopped him he would have killed Admiral Adama. Things got so bad, the people began killing each other because of their rage and anger, and the stress of being hunted by the Cylons. It had driven them to the brink self destruction.

Led by Starbuck and Colonel Tigh, a cancerous hatred and discontent was being spread to anyone that would listen. Discipline was falling apart on Galactica. But a quick and decisive action by Admiral Adama stopped the source of the "cancer" in it's tracks. He went to the Pilots rec room and confronted Starbuck and Tigh. After he slapped Starbuck around and basically disowned her, her turned to his friend, and Executive Office Colonel Tigh. He thrashed him for spreading hate and descent amongst the crew, and advised him to hold up in his quarters until he was fit to return to duty.

We had the boxing night (the episode "Unfinished Business"). What I'm sure was supposed to be an event to burn off some stress, turned into a lesson of command, and then some. After Admiral Adama invites Tyrol into the ring, Tyrol proceeds to beat him senseless. But the Admiral had reason for going through that. He harbored guilt and misgivings about decisions he's made during the exodus to New Caprica. He felt responsible for the lives that were lost, and he felt guilty for allowing key pieces of his crew to leave the ship, one of them being Chief Tyrol, his wife and son. He felt he had become too close to people, and did not make the right decisions.

"Unfinished Business" is also where we see events that occurred on New Caprica between Admiral Adama and Laura Roslin, but they only hint at what might have transpired. But the secrets of Lee and Kara are thrown into the ring as they duke it out. This love-hate thing they've had, senior and subordinate, extra-marital thing was now out in public.

n the episode "The Passage", we had Capt. Louanne "Kat" Katraine who is confronted with a man from her past. Starbuck confronts her about the man, and it is learned that she was a drug runner before the Cylon attacks, and took the identify from a pilot that was killed on her planet. If you recall there's always been tension between Kat and Starbuck. This only served to make things that much worse. And now they were conducting dangerous missions through heavy radiation to obtain edible algae for replenish the fleets food supplies.

Regardless of what Kat did in the past, she had become a trusted and dedicated pilot. She perormed and completed her flights through "the passage", in the end killing her. While on her deathbed, she and Starbuck share a special moment, "everyone has a past", and Kat's secret died with her as Starbuck realized she had lost a kindred spirit.

In the "Eye of Jupitar" and "Rapture", we see Dualla rescue Starbuck, and they choose their words carefully. But they seem to work it out. There are tender but awkward moments for them and their husbands upon their return to Galactica. We also see the decent between the Human Cylons. We've seen it before, but this time we had individual Cylons taking actions that were not in concert with the Cylon's objectives. D'Anna takes matters into her own hands with Baltar to see what is in the temple. Meanwhile she'd been killing herself and downloading. The group decide that D'Anna's model must be "boxed" and put into cold storage because she is "flawed".

To get their baby back, Helo kills Sharon. She downloads to the Cylon ship and is taken to see her sick child. The baby immmediately recognizes her mother, although asthetically identical to the other Sharon models. The other Sharon model threatens to kill the baby, so Six manages to incapacitate the other Sharon. The three escape back to Galactica. Is Six turning sides, or does she have an alterior motive? We don't know at this point.

Then we have Baltar. The man that won the presidency by telling people that life would be best for them to settle on a newly discoverd planet called New Caprica. Well it wasn't so good, conditions were harsh, and there was alot to be desired of the political powers. Then the Cylons came.... Baltar being his normal self, caved to them. But I think even he realized soon enough that it was a no-win situation for the humans. He had his vice-president thrown in jail, along with many others. The resistance was, however, more then the Cylons could handle. He chief advisor, Gaeta, was feeding critical data to the resistence. As the Colonial Fleet attacked the Cylons on New Caprica, Mr. Gaeta turns down an opportunity to kill Baltar. Mr. Gaeta would later face "The Circle", and at the last minute prove he did not betray the colonists.

As the humans made their getaway, Baltar was taken by the Cylons. Baltar helped the Cylons keep track of the fleet, he helped them find the eye of Jupiter, and has helped them on their way to finding Earth. Now Baltar is in Galactica's brig awaiting trial. While some believe he is a Cylon, even he does not know. Mr. Gaeta again bypasses an opportunity to kill Baltar. But Baltar definately knows Gaeta is not his friend.

The last few episodes we get to see Tyrol and Calley's strained relationship. We realize they work everyday, no weekends or days off. Their son is tossed back and forth to a daycare, and it doesn't take much to see they don't have alot of quality family time at the end of the day.

In the "The Woman King", we seen the different classes of colonists. The Sagittarons, for example have strict religious views about medicine. This became a major issue when some of them contracted Mellorak sickness. To make matters worse, a civilian doctor named Dr. Robert, was purposely mistreating or not treating them at all due to ethnic hatred.

In "Dirty Hands" we realize that our main characters are all part of the upper class. There are a few scenes that cause us to think of them as the bad guys. The president, the admiral, the pilots, and all of those aboard Galactica are living good compared to those on the other ships. After a raptor catches fire and crashes into Coloniel One, problems aboard the tylium refinery ship are brought to light. The president and the admiral take the hard line, and arrest the leader of the plant for asking for better work conditions. Chief Tyrol is pushed into his shoes, but is sympathetic to the workers and himself declares a general strike. He points out to the leadership there are wide gaps in way people are treated based which of the 12 colonies they are from, such as those from Sagittarius, or the colonists on the tylium refinery ship. He even suggests that those aboard Colonial One take a turn working the assembly line. After a short stint in the brig and a threat of being shot for mutiny, Tyrol decides to call off the strike. At the same time, the president agrees to hear their concessions. Tyrol is to be the head of the Colonies Workers Union.

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