Profile: Karl C. Agathon "Helo"

[Tactical_Cube]

Race: Human
Gender: Male
Portrayed by: Tahmoh Penikett
Callsign: Helo
Rank: Lieutenant (seasons 1-2)
Captain (season 3)
Affiliation: Colonial Fleet

Background

Agathon is an Electronic Countermeasures Officer, part of a two-person Colonial Raptor crew based on the Battlestar Galactica, and is paired with Sharon "Boomer" Valerii before the Cylon attack on the Twelve Colonies. Unlike other major characters such as Kara Thrace or Gaius Baltar, the series reveals little about Agathon's life before the events of the series.

During the Cylon attack, their Raptor is damaged and forced to land on Caprica. While making repairs, they are mobbed by a group of survivors desperate to get off the planet. A lottery is used to decide who will be allowed to escape due to the Raptor's limited space, but Agathon additionally sacrifices his own seat to allow Dr. Gaius Baltar, discovered in the crowd, to survive.

After the Raptor leaves, Agathon flees into the wilderness and tries to elude Cylon forces, surviving by using anti-radiation injections and the other contents of his survival kit. Eventually, he is captured by a Number Six copy, but is rescued by Valerii (unknown to Agathon, his rescuer is another copy of Cylon model Number Eight). Valerii's true motive in accompanying Agathon is the participation in a Cylon experiment designed to attempt to create a viable Cylon/human hybrid offspring. The Cylons track Agathon's progress toward a military base in Delphi, placing him in situations designed to result in affection and ultimately love towards Valerii. The experiment results in a successful pregnancy after Valerii has sex with Agathon, though as an unintended side effect, she falls in love with him as well.Agathon soon discovers the truth about her Cylon nature after spotting another Number Eight copy while trying to infiltrate the Delphi military base. Believing that he is being led into a trap, he runs from the base and Valerii.

She eventually catches up to him and reveals that she is pregnant. Despite shooting her in the shoulder, Agathon realizes he can't bring himself to kill her and instead, at her urging, takes her with him to the Delphi museum. It is there that he is reunited with fellow Galactica pilot Kara "Starbuck" Thrace, who is on a special mission from President Laura Roslin to recover the Arrow of Apollo. After nearly being killed by Thrace, Valerii steals the Cylon Raider and flies off. Agathon and Thrace make their way first to Thrace's old apartment to retrieve a new mode of transportation (an old army truck she owned), and then into the woods in search of another military base. While stopping to get their bearings, they run into a group of Pyramid players-turned resistance fighters. After Thrace is wounded and captured by the Cylons, Agathon and the others track her down and attempt to rescue her from the hospital where she is being held. They are, surprisingly, aided by Valerii, who returns in a stolen Heavy Raider. With the Arrow of Apollo in hand, Agathon, Thrace and Valerii leave Caprica and make their way to Kobol to rejoin Roslin.
Upon rejoining the Colonial survivors aboard the Astral Queen, Agathon pulls his gun on Lee Adama in order to stop him from shooting Valerii, whom Adama blames for the attempt another Valerii copy makes on his father's life. Later, while searching for the Tomb of Athena on the surface of Kobol, Agathon admits to Valerii that he still loves and trusts her.
After finding the Tomb of Athena, Agathon returns with the group to Galactica, almost three months after being MIA and presumed dead. His homecoming is bittersweet; Helo's former friends turn their backs on him due to his love for a Cylon--let alone one whose doppelganger attempted to murder the beloved Commader William Adama. However, Helo finds support from Starbuck and Chief Petty Officer Galen Tyrol, who was in love with the original Galactica crew member version of Sharon before her ultimate betrayal of the fleet and death.

After the appearance of the Battlestar Pegasus, Agathon witnesses Sharon's torture and near-rape by Lieutenant Alastair Thorne, a Pegasus crew member and Cylon interrogator. Along with Tyrol, Helo stops Thorne from raping Sharon but in the process, they accidentally kill him. Admiral Cain's summary trial and death sentence of Agathon and Tyrol bring the Galactica to confrontation with Pegasus.Although the death sentence is not carried out, Agathon and Tyrol remain in the brig, where Tyrol ultimately gives Helo his blessing for a relationship with Sharon. The two are eventually released by Colonel Jack Fisk, with all charges being dropped.

Following his captivity on the Pegasus, Helo is reunited with his version of Sharon as her pregnancy continues. When President Laura Roslin proclaims her intention to force Sharon to undergo an abortion in order to eliminate the perceived threat that Helo and Sharon's child represents to the fleet, Helo begs Admiral Adama to overrule Roslin and allow himself and the pregnant Sharon to leave the fleet and find a world where they could live in peace without being persecuted. Adama refuses and Roslin rescinds her demand for a forced abortion when Gaius Baltar extracts blood from the unborn child for use as a cure for Roslin's terminal cancer.This leads to Roslin betraying Helo again by ordering Helo and Sharon's newborn daughter to be taken from the hospital after she is born. The infant's death is faked and Helo is given what are ostensibly her ashes, which he and Tyrol release into space.

Following the discovery and settlement of New Caprica, Agathon remains on the Galactica as part of her skeleton crew. He is promoted to Captain and serves as Galactica's executive officer (XO), replacing Colonel Saul Tigh. Karl Agathon marries his version of Sharon Valerii, who is commissioned as a Lieutenant in the Colonial Fleet and takes the call sign "Athena".

During an attempt by the Galactica to spread a virus in order to wipe out the Cylon race, Agathon disobeys orders and sabotages a key part of the plan in order to prevent the elimination of the Cylon race because he considers such an action to be genocidal, and therefore profoundly immoral.

When Colonel Tigh finally returns to the position of Galactica's XO after a long depression brought on by his experiences on New Caprica (in particular his execution of his wife, Ellen, for collaboration), Agathon returns to the flight line. He pilots one of the Raptors used to guide the fleet through a nearly un-navigable and highly radioactive stellar cluster.

En wist je dat

The character of Helo was originally conceived as a red-shirt character. After stranding him on the post-nuclear attack Caprica, the writers had no further plans for the character and intended his fate to be that he died (off-screen) in the radiation that followed the nuking of the planet. However, many fans took a liking to the character and wanted to know what happened to him after he was left on Caprica, resulting in the writers revising their original plans for the series to include the character and his activities on Caprica after the mini-series.

Tja sinds s31 nooit verder is gegaan. Ik wou het wel effe over Helo hebben en graag wel serieus

wat vinden jullie van het karakter?

[USS Enterprise]

Ik vind dat hij nog voor het gerecht moet worden gegooid ivm het vermoorden van de met het virus besmette cylons.
En hij kijkt altijd wel heel droog uit de ogen

[Tactical_Cube]

Voor het vermoorden van Cylons
ik snap wat je bedoelt, maar dat is niet gedaan omdat ook Adama uiteindelijk in zag dat genocide niet kon.

[.:Admiral-Janeway:.]

Een goed personage zonder hem zou BSG waarschijnlijk iets slechter zijn.

[USS Enterprise]

ik snap wat je bedoelt, maar dat is niet gedaan omdat ook Adama uiteindelijk in zag dat genocide niet kon.

Volgens mij kwam Adama er de afgelopen aflevering pas achter, dus het kan nog.

[Tactical_Cube]

dat was alleen in een bonusscene.
En Adama wist volgens mij al wel dat Helo het gedaan had, maar hij liet er met opzet geen onderzoek naar doen.

Ik ben iig blij dat ze Helo hebben gehouden na de miniserie, was een erg leuk verhaal op Caprica enz.

[CmdrCrichton]

Dat verhaal op Caprica was vrij bagger en veel filler.

[Tactical_Cube]

Dat verhaal op Caprica was vrij bagger en veel filler.

uiteindelijk is er wel veel uitgekomen, anders hadden we athena en hera niet gehad. Ik snap wat je bedoelt idd, het was soms gewoon filler maar het was nooit zoveel dat het me irriteerde ofzo.

[CmdrCrichton]

Uiteindelijk wel, dat haalt niets weg van het feit dat een aantal spannende afleveringen werd onderbroken door 'zijn verhaal'.

[Tactical_Cube]

toen ik bsg net begon te kijken kon het me niet zoveel schelen, maar na seizoen 2 weet ik wat er gebeuren gaat dus vind ik het wel leuk

maar voor de rest, nadat Helo op de bsg kwam werd het interesant, duurde dan wel tot na Home, maar dan hadden we ook wat

[Raynor's Revenge]

Dat verhaal op Caprica was vrij bagger en veel filler.

dat verhaal op caprica is voorzover ik kan zien vanaf het begin helemaal uitgepland, en daarnaast is het essentieel voor het verloop van het overall verhaal vanwege de hybrid baby. dus nee, filler kan je het niet noemen of het bagger was is een kwestie van smaak, persoonlijk vond ik het allemaal best in orde

[CmdrCrichton]

Ach zeker de eerste aantal afleveringen vond ik het aardig als filler overkomen. Daarnaast was ik sowieso al niet blij met de onthulling van Boomer als cylon en toevoeging aan die verhaallijn. Ik vind dat gedoe met die baby nog steeds niets overigens.

[Raynor's Revenge]

dat je t geen interessante verhaallijn vindt is jouw goed recht, maar dat maakt t nog geen filler, omdat het dus wel er toe doet

[CmdrCrichton]

True, verkeerde woordkeus. Dan houd ik het wel op bagger.

[Ace of Spades]

Dat verhaal op Caprica was vrij bagger en veel filler.

Zoals RR als zei, idd geen filler. Ik vond het juist erg tof om te zien hoe Caprica er nu aan toe was en de verhaallijn heeft zeker interessante gevolgen gehad.

[Vis]

^ Yup zeker.

Vind Helo best een tof karakter verder

[Section31]

Van de ene kant vind ik Helo best een tof karakter, maar die beslissing om van hem die gevangen Cylon's te laten verstikken blijft aan hem kleven voor mij.
Dat was dé ultieme kans geweest om voor eens en altijd af te rekenen met de Cylons. Het kwalijke is dat het er zelfs op lijkt dat dit met één enkele bonus-scene wordt afgedaan.

[Tactical_Cube]

Idd dan hadden ze het voor mij beter helemaal niet hoeven noemen. Het was beter geweest als het gewoon stil was gebleven.

Maar effe een vraag

Is het de bedoeling dat we de bonuscenes als canon zien? Dus dat het echt is gebeurd, of dat het gewoon deleted scenes zijn die niet echt gebeurd zijn.

[CmdrCrichton]

Geen idee, dat zeggen ze er niet bij.

[Vis]

ik denk dat het wel canon is, maar we hebben nog te weinig gezien om echt te kunnen zeggen of ze daar nu wel/niet op ingaan.. veel bonus scenes kunnen ook wel uit de context worden afgeleid

[Raynor's Revenge]

gezien wat er in de eerste bonusscene gezegd is over six' rol in de trial van baltar denk ik dat we het wel als canon moeten zien