Karl Agathon

Karl Agathon
[[Image:File:Bsg-helo-1.jpg|200px|Karl Agathon]]
Name	{{{name}}}
Age	Late 20s
Colony	Unspecified
Birth place	{{{birthplace}}}
Birth Name	Karl C. Agathon
Birth Date	{{{birthdate}}}
Callsign	Helo
Nickname	{{{nickname}}}
Introduced	[[{{{seen}}}]]
Death
Parents	Unknown
Siblings	Unknown
Children	1 (Human-Cylon hybrid)
Marital Status	Single
Family Tree	View
Role	Raptor ECO, Raptor 478, assigned to Battlestar Galactica (previously)
Rank	Lieutenant (Junior Grade)
Serial Number	{{{serial}}}
Portrayed by	Tahmoh Penikett
Karl Agathon is a Cylon
Karl Agathon is a Final Five Cylon
Karl Agathon is a Human/Cylon Hybrid
Karl Agathon is an Original Series Cylon
Related Media
		@ BW Media
Additional Information
[[Image:|200px|Karl Agathon]]

Karl C. "Helo" Agathon was the ECO aboard Raptor 478, piloted by Lt. Sharon "Boomer" Valerii. He is in his mid-twenties, loyal, capable, resourceful and attracted to Valerii.

Biography

At the time of the Cylon Attack, Agathon and Valerii were on patrol with battlestar Galactica's last fully-operational Viper squadron, and witnessed the destruction of the squadron by Cylon Raiders, after the latter had used the Command Navigation Program (CNP) to disable the Vipers.

Following the attack, Agathon and Valerii attempted to return to Galactica, avoiding Cylon patrols, but were unsuccessful: their Raptor was damaged in a Cylon missile strike, and Helo received a wound in his leg. As a result of the damage received, the Raptor was forced down on Caprica, where Valerii made emergency repairs, and the ship was mobbed by civilians desperate to get off the planet.

With limited space for survivors aboard the Raptor, Agathon volunteered his seat to Dr. Gaius Baltar and remained on Caprica in the hope that Baltar would be of benefit to the Colonials in their renewed fight against the Cylons. Both Helo and Boomer felt that there was no chance that he could survive the Cylon nuclear attack on Caprica, but he selflessly chose to stay behind anyway, giving up his own life so Baltar could get to the Fleet.

Marooned

After Boomer's departure, Helo apparently separated from the surviving refugees and fled from the Cylon ground forces. After six days on Caprica, surviving on anti-radiation medications from his survival pack, he was captured after noticing a version of the Cylon called Number Six.

He was then "rescued" by a copy of Sharon Valerii/Boomer, as part of an elaborate (if potentially hastily-conceived) plan / experiment designed to make this second Valerii the object of Agathon's affections. Several situations are engineered to make this happen:

• A "honey trap" offering reasonably-secure accommodation (a "fall-out shelter") together with sufficient supplies for two people beneath a restaurant (Act of Contrition)
• Engineering Valerii's capture to test Helo's loyalty towards her (You Can't Go Home Again / Litmus)
• Establishing a further (long-term) "honey trap" for Helo and Valerii in the wilderness of Caprica.

However, the Cylon plan goes awry when Valerii appears to fall in love with Agathon, and she forces them both on the run once more, this time genuinely seeking to escape from Caprica via the military base at Delphi, now under Cylon control.

During their attempts to reach Delphi, Agathon witnesses a troop of Cylon Centurions being lead by Number Six - the woman he thought he had killed when Valerii rescued him. This draws him to the conclusion that the Cylons are using human clones they have created (Colonial Day). Once at Delphi, Agathon receives another shock: not only are further versions of Six on-hand - he also comes face-to-face with another Valerii, thus revealing the truth about "Boomer" to him. Believing he has been lured into a trap, Agathon goes on the run, leaving Valerii at the base.

Valerii later caught up with Helo, and while he shoots her in the arm, he does not kill her as she might be of use to him in escaping the planet. Caprica-Valerii then informed Helo that she was pregnant with his child, and that they should go to the Delphi museum. There, Agathon was reunited with Kara "Starbuck" Thrace (who just arrived from Galactica using a stolen Cylon Raider) immediately after she had killed a copy of Number Six and retrieved the Arrow of Apollo. Thrace tried to kill "Sharon the Cylon" but Agathon stopped her because she was pregnant with his child (Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part II, Scattered).

Helo and Starbuck in her apartment in Delphi, Caprica in Valley of Darkness. ((c) Sci-Fi Channel)

Valerii then ran away out of fear of Thrace, taking her Cylon Raider. Fearing that Number Six would finish transferring her consciousness to a new body, and thus be able to warn the Cylons about the humans' presence in Delphi, Agathon and Thrace made their way to Thrace's old apartment (Scattered, Valley of Darkness). Later, Thrace and Agathon joined up with the human resistance on Caprica (Resistance).

The Resistance and Escape from Caprica

Agathon, Anders and others would later rescue Thrace from the Cylons' "hospital". Valerii returns to aid Helo in locating the missing Thrace, and later saves the day by gunning down several Centurions in a stolen Heavy Raider. Helo, Thrace, and Valerii leave Caprica en route to the fleet (The Farm). The group land on the Astral Queen, which has broken off from the rest of the fleet (Home, Part I). When Lee Adama grabs the new copy of Valerii and threatens to shoot her, Helo raises his gun at Lee's head in response. They are calmed by Roslin, who then orders Valerii out of an airlock. Valerii convinces Roslin of her usefulness before this happens, and later accompanies Helo and others to Kobol to find the Tomb of Athena ("Home, Part I"). On the way to the tomb of Athena, Apollo remarks to Starbuck that he is disquieted that Helo and this Valerii copy love each other, and Helo admits to Valerii that he now loves and trusts her. When they finally reached the tomb Commander Adama ordered Helo to stay outside with Valerii and Tom Zarek while Chief Tyrol guarded all of them. Afterwards the group headed back to the Fleet.

Home on Galactica

Subsequently, Helo finally returned to Galactica, months after being declared KIA on Caprica ("Home, Part II"). Helo's welcome wasn't a generally warm one; many others in the crew find his romance with the Caprica Valerii disquieting or disgusting. A few crew warmed up to Helo after his suggestion of using carbon composites on the new fighter, the Blackbird, turned the pet project into a significant stealth technology (Flight of the Phoenix).

Chief Tyrol was still nursing the loss of Boomer, and now was dealing the return of another Valerii, her "memories" of him, and the fact that Helo was romantically involved with her. The friction between the two became too much and a fight ensued before both realized that doing so would gain them little. The two tacitly appeared to accept the awkward situation for what it was.

When Helo and Tyrol learned of the sexual assaults to a captured Cylon on battlestar Pegasus, Helo and Tyrol was shocked to learn that the "Cylon interrogator", Lieutenant Thorne, would be "interrogating" the incarcerated Valerii that day. Helo was prepared to fight the drunken Pegasus crewmembers for essentially being disrespectful, but Tyrol convinced him to head to the brig to aid Valerii instead. While successful in stopping the assault, the two were arrested and taken to Pegasus when Thorne was accidentally killed. Admiral Nelena Cain conducted what amounted to a kangaroo courts-martial on the two Galactica crewmembers, finding them guilty and slating them for execution. When Commander Adama hears of this abrupt treatment, he launches a Raptor with Marine units as well as his Viper squadrons to get Helo and Tyrol back. A standoff ensues, with not only Helo's life in the balance, but thousands of others in the Fleet (Pegasus).

Notes

Name

The new Battlestar Galactica plays heavily on Greek mythology / history (the Olympian Gods, use of names such as Delphi, etc.). Therefore it might be interesting to note that "Agathon" may be derived from Agathos Daemon - meaning good spirit, one of the group of spirits (daemons) that lie between the gods and mortals. Also, the name Helo bears some similarity to Helios/Helius, the greek god of the sun. Helo is also slang for helicopter, and the Raptor craft Helo and Boomer fly is fashioned after a US Army helicopter.

Character

Helo's full name (or even his fate) wasn't revealed until "33". He was initially intended as an expendable character; originally he was supposed to have actually died when the Raptor had to leave him behind on Caprica. Penikett's performance in the mini-series convinced TPTB otherwise. Curiously, Helo's second replacement on "Boomer" Valerii's Raptor, Racetrack, was also intended as a one-shot character, but was retained by TPTB for similar reasons as Penikett's character and his performance.