Review: Battlestar Galactica - Dirty Hands
Written by Anne Cofell and Jane Espenson

Now that is what I am talking about. After gods know how many one-off 'filler' episodes, Gaius Baltar finally returns in the flesh to a main storyline on Battlestar Galactica. Yup, it looked like things were finally starting to get rolling again. But then tragedy hit...

In episode 3.16, Dirty Hands, Chief Tyrol (Aaron Douglas) finds himself torn between a growing class war between the officer elite and common workers of the fleet. Stoking the flames is the imprisoned Gaius Baltar (James Callis) who is compiling a sort of communist manifesto from his jail cell. Meanwhile, background character Seelix (Jen Halley) is trying to get into flight training.

Bravo, Mr. Callis, bravo. I don't want to sound like some rabid, gushing fan, but I tip my hat to any actor that can make an otherwise useless episode excellent simply by appearing in it for only a few minutes. His little monologue about the hardships of being born to a poor farming family and working his way to the top of high-society on Caprica was riveting with a capital 'R'. I didn't think it possible, but I think my respect for Callis' performance as Gaius has actually grown after Dirty Hands.

It's just too bad the rest of the episode nearly fell apart.

It started strong and the class warfare story arch was as great as it was topical. In top form, the plot continued the show's usually powerful look at current social problems and made for intelligent and gripping television. But wow...that ending totally blew.

I've never really had a problem with Battlestar endings until now. About as far from the 'reset button' endings of say Star Trek the Next Generation, BSG has kept a flowing narrative that avoids the status quo at all costs. It's just too bad that it didn't keep that up with Dirty Hands. It seemed that just as the class struggle was about to reach a climatic (and violent) peak, Tyrol all of a sudden gets invited to a one-on-one chat with the President who far too easily solves everyone's problems. Then Seelix gets her wings from a tacked-on Starbuck appearance and everyone gets to smile and have a bit of tea.

Lame.

Worth it for James Callis' brief appearance, Dirty Hands unfortunately takes the cake as the worst ended episode of Battlestar to date. If only problems were that easy to solve in the real world.

Rating: 7.5 / 10 "Did you say 'the book'?"