Battlestar Galactica 3.17: "The Son Also Rises"
Airdate: Sunday, March 11th, 2007

A character like Romo Lampkin can go one of two ways. Either the multitude of ticks and quirks (sunglasses, trench coat, freaky pet cat) coalesce into a wannabe cool character trying way too hard and thereby annoying me all to hell, or the acting and writing around said character are strong enough to make those ticks seem like groovy enhancements to a genuinely cool new presence.

For now, I'm going with the latter point of view. I was pretty mesmerized by the guy and he really won me over via two things. First of all, the horrified look on Roslin's face upon encountering his stupid cat was completely awesome. Second, his habit of stealing things from people is kind of hilarious, and it makes Lee smile for the first time in forever. It also doesn't hurt that he's played by Badger from Firefly.

It's two weeks after The Death of Kara Thrace and we are now moving on to The Trial of Gaius Baltar (frakkin' finally!). Lampkin is Baltar's lawyer, hired on after the first one gets blown up. Lee, who is looking quite fetching – is that a new haircut? – is assigned to follow him around. Then Lampkin almost gets blown up, too, but not before he and Lee engage in some weird, Joseph Adama-fueled bonding ritual, the result of which is Lee getting involved with Baltar's trial. Adama objects, of course, and the tension-filled scenes between him and Lee are some of the most powerful we've seen this season.

In fact, this is really Apollo's episode. His quiet grief over Starbuck is heartbreaking and Bamber works those scenes for all their worth. Hearing him accidentally refer to Racetrack as "Starbuck" made my heart skip a beat, and watching him attempt to help the drunken Sam is pretty dang touching.

Sidenote on Sam, and please realize that it pains me very greatly to write this. In that scene wherein Sam is all drunk? I was reminded just a wee bit of (shudder)…Dane Cook. With the scraggly 'do and the bad facial hair and the generally belligerent demeanor? Yeah. Dane frakkin' Cook. Gross. Luckily, he's back to being Hot Anders by the end of the episode, and I really love that little scene between him and Lee, with Lee finally adding Kara to the Big Wall o' Death.

Oh, I almost forgot to tell you who the bomber is. Well, at first it's the creepy, gloved hands that always signify "anonymous bomber whose identity will be revealed later" in various movies and television. But ultimately we find out that it's Kelly. Which I guess is OK, since he never really seemed to have a decent purpose on this show, but…kind of a left field twist right there. The way that both Lampkin and Lee pronounce it, though, for a moment I thought it was Cally. Which would have been kind of obvious, given her general demeanor in this eppy, but I also think it might have made for some interesting story stuff.

Also, we get some Six action! Hooray! Six! She has a fairly powerhouse scene with Lampkin wherein he manipulates her like a pro. I'm just so happy to see her.

Overall, this feels like a deliciously dense ramp-up to the final two eppys. Have we returned to the amazingness of the early part of this season? For now, I will tentatively answer in the affirmative. So say…er, so says me.

iTunes Links

Battlestar Galactica - Series
Battlestar Galactica - Season 3
"The Son Also Rises"