(S03E20) First of all I want to thank everyone who attended the chat tonight during the episode. The room's still open for anyone who wants to hop in and discuss what went on (if I'm there, I go by 'TVSKeith'). I'm pretty sure there's plenty to talk about.

As I was watching the show tonight, and having read so many comments on this show here at TV Squad throughout the season, I realized there are going to be two main schools of thought here. One one side we'll have those who felt the trial was the most important piece of the episode, while the other will find it to be the haunting music, those who were driven by it and surprise ending. But of course if you've got any sense about you, you'll realize they're all important pieces to the puzzle.

I wanted to try something a little different tonight during the third season finale of Battlestar Galactica. Rather than do a liveblog, I thought I'd try a live chat during the show.

I'll have tonight's review post up at 10 PM Eastern time, though at first it will only have a link to a chat room where you can discuss the episode as it airs. Later in the night, I'll update the post with my review and possibly a few highlights from the chat (if I can pay attention to both at the same time!)

Hey, if this first chat's a success, we'll consider doing more of them. So make sure you drop on by!

(S03E19) Don't you sort of have a love-hate relationship with the final episodes of your favorite shows? There's the heightened anticipation of what's typically some of the best episodes of the season, while at the same time you get that disappointing feeling in your gut when you realize things are soon coming to an end. Two-part finales are cruel.

No early podcast this week, which is a good thing for purists who want to keep surprised as each episode airs.

(S03E18) Since Ron Moore's podcast came out a few days ago, I'll do a little bit of recap of what he said along with the review.

Something that Battlestar does well that has bothered me with some other shows is how, when we have a primary cast of characters amongst a much larger involved population, I'm not left wondering why more background cast doesn't come forward more often. There's a decent balance here. It makes sense why someone like Kara is so highly mourned and regarded, while some other pilots aren't so much. And when a background character comes forward, it's done at the right time and place where it fits.

(S03E17) There are shows that I watch where I can't stand when they rely too much on flashbacks to keep the story moving. Battlestar did this a bit too much in the previous two seasons, though they seem to be getting much smarter about it. This episode was one small example of that.

Now I'll say a bit of something that's spoilery if you haven't caught this episode. I'm a bit disappointed when the goings on outside the show - like casting and contracts - leads to strong hints to the fate of certain members of the cast. Then again, maybe only we nutcase fans of this show knew this information, while others are blissfully ignorant and surprised. Damn you!

(S03E14) Before I start on this episode, I want to update on something from the previous episode. When Baltar whispers something to Gaeta, Ron Moore says in his podcast that it was part of a sub-plot they had planned but seemingly scrapped, where Baltar was going to pin some killings of Saggitarons on Gaeta. Anyway, that seems to clear up what was going on there, but it still seems confusing if they're not following through with that sub-plot now.

As for the story this week, I have to say it was quite a snoozer. Look, I know not every episode has to advance things along plotwise significantly, but I'm just being honest here. I didn't much care for what was going on, and a big part of that might be that I find Helo to be one of the least interesting characters on the show.

Hey, at least we barely saw Starpollo this week.