Awesome / Wolf 359

• Eiffel has shown himself to be surprisingly good in an emergency. In the season one finale he overthrew Hilbert with a cigarette and a vocoder, and he managed to stay alive in a mostly non-functioning spacecraft for over 180 days when he was accidentally blasted into deep space in "Mayday.".
• Minkowski rescuing Eiffel in "Cataracts and Hurricanoes" definitely qualifies, as does her punching Hilbert in the face in "Gas Me Twice".
• Lovelace, more or less all the time. But her first appearance on board in "Mutually Assured Destruction" deserves special recognition.
  Lovelace: I invented being paranoid on this ship.
• In "Fire and Brimstone," Jacobi blows down a door to save Maxwell, despite the fact that, if his calculations with the explosives were not absolutely precise, he could have blown up the entire ship.
• In a rare moment of cooperation, the crew flies the Hephaestus dangerously close to the star in order to get readings from a probe in "Overture."
• Maxwell in "Memoria." For that matter, Hera in "Memoria," since she had to overcome what basically amounted to crippling anxiety hardwired into her personality drive in order to reboot.
• As upsetting as it was, "Desperate Measures" was FULL of these.
  • Hera overriding her programming, including whatever Maxwell put in her head in "Desperate Times", to help Minkowski. And later, actually overriding a direct order from Kepler.
  • Lovelace saying fuck (and on a more serious note, the entire speech she gave Kepler because hoo boy she demolished him. And probably saved Eiffel's life.)
  • Minkowski literally shutting down the engines and preparing to let it fall into the star rather than surrender to Kepler.
  • While YMMV, Minkowski shooting Maxwell. Was it cold-blooded? Yes. But after watching the SI-5 crew run rings around the Hephaestus crew, Hilbert's death, and Lovelace's death, and Hera's Mind Rape... damn if it wasn't a needed reminder that SI-5 wasn't invincible.
  • And Kepler was scary as hell in this episode.
• Jacobi's plan in "Dirty Work" is nothing if not impressive: When Hera goes down for planned self-maintenance, Jacobi hacks the station's autopilot to take control, and gives Minkowski an ultimatum: Kill Kepler, or the bomb he planted in Engineering will blow up the station. Lovelace goes to defuse the bomb, only to realize there was no bomb, just a rigged door to trap her in Engineering so she can't stop Minkowski. This way he gets revenge on Kepler for getting Maxwell killed at Minkowski's hands, and revenge on a guilt-ridden Minkowski for pulling the trigger by forcing her to kill again.
  • Minkowski foils Jacobi's plan by accepting her responsibility in the matter. Even if the situation was Kepler's fault, she made the decision to kill Maxwell, and refuses to be Jacobi's executioner.
  • In the same episode, Eiffel, unable to get back into the station due to Kepler's hacking, figures out what the Dear Listeners have been wanting them to do, and launches himself past the Red Line into the star, leading to the events of "The Watchtower."
• Doug being completely unafraid of Cutter in episode 55.
• In "Idle Hands", Kepler is called to task for the events of "Desperate Measures," particularly Doctor Maxwell's death. When asked for an explanation, he accepts his own responsibility for his part in the incident, echoing Minkowski doing the same back in "Dirty Work". This results in Kepler being brought back into the fold, and being able to be a Spanner in the Works for Cutter's plan in the finale.
• A few highlights from Brave New World:
  • Eiffel hacking the navigational controls on the Sol and crashing it full speed into the Hephaestus. Sure it gives Cutter and Co exactly what they want but it still took a lot of guts for the guy who was just suppose to man the radio.
  • Jacobi showing off his explosive expertise once again and killing Riemann while averting Bury Your Gays and getting to survive the whole series.
  Jacobi: {blows party horn} Well? Did I surprise {bomb goes off}
  • Kepler defying his superiors and siding with the good guys and humanity even if it does get him thrown out the airlock.
  • Lovelace, fighting against a much-improved mind control, manages to turn her gun back on Cutter. Then she admits that even if she could pull the trigger, which she can't, it wouldn't matter that she can't kill Cutter with the gun, because she just needed him to look away from Minkowski for a few seconds...
  • Minkowski killing Cutter with the harpoon.
  • Hera's Battle in the Center of the Mind with Pryce costs Eiffel his memories, but it's so satisfying for Pryce's creation to finally get the best of her.
    • Not to mention the Ironic Echo she gives to Pryce before doing it:
  Hera: I’m not going to hurt you. I’m just going to… hm. Clip your wings a little.
  • Villianous one for Cutter averting Sufficiently Advanced Aliens and not only getting Bob to give him everything he wanted but then killing him. Not bad for a Corrupt Corporate Executive.
• The episode "Am I Alone Now?" starts off with a creepy monologue courtesy of Doctor Hilbert, revealing to the audience that he is a much more sinister character than his Absent-Minded Professor routine has let on, and implying that Eiffel's theatrical paranoia about him might not be so poorly inspired. Then the focus shifts to Hera, lamenting on how the crew takes her for granted and complaining about some new code that Hilbert has patched into her software, before delivering this Wham Line:
  Hera: Rules. You hate rules as much as I do, don’t you Doug? I’ve been playing a game lately. It’s a really fun game, I think you’d like it. It’s called “Find the Loophole in the Programming.”