How much fun would the series finale of a show as good as Battlestar Galactica be without a little discussion? No fun at all, that’s how much. That would be my sign to share thoughts on the show and how they wrapped things up. This is also you the reader’s chance to praise or vent on what you loved and hated about the show.
If you have not yet seen any episodes of Battlestar Galactica, it is highly recommended that you not read any further! There will be pretty thorough coverage of this finale and the last thing we want is for things to be ruined for those who haven’t had the chance to enjoy this amazing show. I’m going to do my best not to explain every last detail, but important segments will obviously not be spoiler-free.
The biggest fear that fans of the show had was that Ronald D. Moore and David Eick wouldn’t be able to close out the show cleanly. So many things had happened; so many things were going on; so many fragile areas. One wrong move could possibly ruin everything and this was a very delicate situation to approach. One thing was for sure going into all of this: some people would love it and some would hate it, so it was all about trying to make it as complete and appealing as possible.
For myself personally, there were a few things I was really looking for them to do here.
One was to eventually find a place to rebuild humanity. Throughout the show’s existence, there was always a search for this mythical place called “Earth” — a search that didn’t turn out so well when it came down to it. But because of the importance of this search, I felt the show wouldn’t be complete without them finding somewhere to land; somewhere to call home. In the episodes leading up to the two-part finale, there was no “goal,” no place they were trying to get to, so my hopes of this happening were becoming dim.
Click over for more, and remember — SPOILERS AHEAD!
The second thing I was personally hoping for was unification. The most logical thing that needed to happen to save the human race was for the humans and Cylons to rise up together. They had discovered that human and Cylon could procreate, so it was only a natural and smart solution to consider. To me, there didn’t seem to be another fathomable way to close things properly.
Last of these things was: loose ends. One thing that tears at me when something of this magnitude is coming to a close, is making sure that every last detail is made sense of. There’s nothing worse than a big gaping whole in your mythology, most especially when there is never to be another show that might explain it.
Now that we know what I was personally looking for, we can talk about what went down!
The first hour of tonight’s two-hour long finale was about as intense as Galactica has ever been. It consisted of the one-way mission to find and rescue the child Hera from the still-evil Cylons who were performing tests on her. I have nothing but good things to say about this first hour. It was everything a BSG fan could ask for in drama, intensity, action, devastation, and survival. While most people probably wanted the entire episode to be like this, I was ecstatic that it only was the first part. This one hour brought everything together; it aligned the stars, and set up the show’s closure perfectly.
After the chaos had calmed down just a bit, the savior in Starbuck uses that song we all know so well as the key to Galactica’s final jump. A jump that took them to the Earth they had thought never existed.
The next half of the show is where people will find the most to dislike and the most to discuss or maybe even argue! This half shows everyone finally on a planet (our Earth complete with Moon) they can safely inhabit. Instead of taking all of the ships and technologies that they have, they send the dying Galactica along with everything else into the fires of the sun. With only supplies and a few smaller ships to get around, they begin anew, sending groups of people all over the different continents in order to spread themselves out and begin re-population among some of the tribal and completely primitive people who already seem to live on the planet.
The biggest twist of the night — and this is the major spoiler of this post… last warning — is when we are whisked off 150,000 years into the future and we realize that we’re looking at our very own modern-day New York City. Yes, indeed, Galactica went all Star Wars on us (A long time ago… and such), and it turns out this whole show was actually taking place hundreds of thousands of years before us, and not in the distant future as it seemed.
For me personally, I loved the finale. In a world where we’re used to finale’s being major let downs, I think it’s very difficult for anyone to be critical of BSG‘s. It had all that we loved about the show, it covered most bases, and most importantly, there was some good, clean finality to it all.
Although I did love the show, I can understand where people may be let down. I wasn’t big on the whole “this is the past, not the future” fast one they pulled on us at all. That little twist attempts to take some of Galactica OUT of its fictitious realms, and tries to insert itself into our very own reality. Doing this raises questions like “IF this was how it happened, why are we still evolving as we are now? Wouldn’t this alien civilization have passed along their knowledge of the English language and of their technologies, allowing us to be much further along than we are?” and other very curious head-scratchers that may or may not have answers. Keep in mind, this show is all about the rise and fall of mankind repeating over and over (it’s happened before, it will happen again), so theoretically, this could actually make some sense.
I would have much rather they kept it as a futuristic story, maybe finding an Earth-like planet, or if they needed to find Earth, have it be habitable… maybe even have humans already there and advanced. We’re at a time where we’re sending out satellites to find literally hundreds of suspected Earth-like planets that we’ve never been able to reach, so the thought of other evolved civilizations finding us is more realistic than ever, and would have maybe fit Galactica‘s finale more comfortably.
Overall, though, I don’t look at any of this negatively, or as a failure. Again, I loved the finale, I love how it played out, and I’m completely content with the show as a whole. If you try too hard to find things to hate, you might just miss out on all of the beautiful things there are to love.
One answer we never received, was “Who the hell is this Daniel dude?” We’ve covered the prequel series that’s coming — Caprica — quite a bit, and my personal guess was always that Daniel was Eric Stoltz‘s Daniel Graystone character. We have to keep in mind that while the BSG series is over, Caprica as well as the two-hour TV movie Battlestar Galactica: The Plan, which shows some of the events from the Cylon perspective, may still hold answers. I certainly would not be at all shocked if this wasn’t the last we heard of the Galactica world. We’ve seen it plenty of times. If you build a great science fiction world, it can always come back for more.
Now it’s your turn! We want to hear what you guys thought of the Battlestar Galactica series finale. What made you smile, what made you furious; what do you agree or disagree with me about; we want to know!
Feel free to let your thoughts scream in the comments below.
Thanks for the ride, Galactica, and farewell… for now.
I thought the finale was decent, but I am sad they didn’t wrap up more of the loose ends. I wrote an article on my impressions, which can be read here:
http://blog.nicholascloud.com/?p=255
Comment by ncloud — March 21, 2009 @ 10:32 am
I am still unsure if I give a thumbs up or down for the finale. I would not have done the 150,000 year in the future thing. I would have kept BSG as a show of the future, not the past. I do not like the idea of the head Baltar/Caprica 6 being angels, especially considering that Baltar had such intimate relations with his Caprica 6 head version, even a very explicit sex scene one time in his lab where he was coming up with the “cylon blood test.” I don’t know what better answer there is off hand, though.
I suppose Starbuck was truly an angel. This was somewhat disappointing, but again, I don’t know a better alternative. They messed up by having her “die” to begin with. It was stupid having Admiral Adama act as though he was never returning to see his son…way to dramatic. Was he going to commit suicide or simply live as a hermit? Very stupid!! Roslyn dying…of course, and was done VERY well I think. Hera being the “ancient ancestor” was a nice touch, but again, the whole 150,000 flash forward thing, although interesting, again, I wouldn’t have ended it that way. And given all the hate that Cavil had, I don’t know if I believe that receiving resurection technology would have been enough to satisfy him unless he also realized he was not getting off the bridge in one piece any other way. Having Baltar actually playing a major part of the finale and turning to the “good side of the force” so to speak was one of the highlights, personally. I also expected something more from Starbuck and Apollo for the ending, but with her being an angel, I don’t what else could have been written. I did like seeing the flashbacks of how they met–it explained a lot. The opera house visions were answered, but not as powerful as I expected. Afterall, it ended up having Hera being captured by Cavil if you really think about it…although it lead to a chain of events that brought them ultimately to the new “earth.” Overall, I give the finale a 7-8/10 only because I hate the 150,000 yr thing, thought Adama “not coming back” way too dramatic and stupid, and the ending between Apollo and Starbuck a bit weak considering that their relationship was such a big part of the entire backbone of BSG
Comment by clay williams — March 21, 2009 @ 11:10 am
what about the opera house. they used it again but they never explain what it is. an allegory? to what? that annoyed me most. and that they never explained what starbuck was. and that they never explained who the six gaius kept seeing and the gaius the six kept seeing were. angels pffft that is a weak reason in an otherwise very grounded series.
Comment by stubbs — March 21, 2009 @ 7:06 pm
I thought everything up until they find “Earth” was amazing. That space battle was one of the best in science fiction history. Once they landed on Earth and decide to ditch the fleet and separate around the world, that’s when it went sour for me. Why would they want to start over again? And shouldn’t they have been eaten by lions like immediately? They might be an advanced civilization, but they don’t know shit about surviving withOUT technology, especially NOT in a primitive environment.
And the whole “Angels” thing, hmm… didn’t really go for that.
They always said Hera was the savior of humanity, but if it turns out she was the Mitochondrial Eve, that means that the human race 150,000 later was human no more, but rather a human/cylon mix, just like Hera.
And Ronald Moore’s cameo stuck out like a sore thumb. A little more subtly next time.
Comment by Empress Eve — March 21, 2009 @ 10:39 pm
I loved the finale, it tied every thing up, way better that i had hoped. It all makes such perfect and clear sence now. The only downside were the flashbacks, come on, we aren’t that stupid, they were all very irrelevat facts that came out of them, but hey, i guess there’s gotta be something to fill the two hours.. Then to the biggest guestion, the 150 millenia leap: here goes, I’m personally all for it, the ones who complain for not bringing the technolygy and the language with them: how can’t You see, that that’s the whole point, they ment them selfs to blend in as well as they could. Hera being the mother of nowday man, is a really nice thing to do, that way the whole “Hera is important”-thing makes some sence. And offcourse Adama had to leave, it’s not like he could be a productive member of the society after Roselyns death (which was a really beautifull way to go btw. )Then the angels, I’m not the most religious guy there is, but doesen’t it bring a nice sence of purpose to life, to know that there might be something bigger than You and me in this universe..? But to keep this even decently readable lenghts, I give the finale two thumbs up and a soaring 11/10. Great way to end a beautiful saga.
Comment by Pekkis — March 22, 2009 @ 9:06 am
I had no problem with the finale. It was not a cop out.
It ranks up there with The Wire and Six Feet Under as the best finales I have seen.
This was beautiful series and perhaps one of the best things I have seen on television period.
Comment by Jerry — March 22, 2009 @ 3:18 pm
LIKES:
My favorite parts included:
– the reckoning for Tory (well done and well deserved!)
– Bill and Laura at the end
– the old style centurions (not sure why they didn’t become obsolete and replaced by the newer centurions)
– the scene with Caprica and Baltar realizing that they can each see their Head
– the dispersal of the combined Colonial/Skinjob remnants on the new Earth
– our last sight of the Colonial fleet was beautiful and heartbreaking.
The biggest “holy frak!” moment for me was Kara’s fate (honestly did not see that coming).
Disappointments/unanswered questions:
– We never saw any real interaction with the centurions themselves during the series outside of combat. First they were humanity’s slaves; then they were humanity’s enemies; then, somehow, I feel that they and the raiders became the slaves of Cavil and the skinjobs. All that was left of them was whichever ones survived to take the Cylon baseship to parts unknown. Was that their final emancipation? Too little, too late.
– Slightly disappointed that we never saw any interaction with other alien life besides algae, but I can deal with that.
– How on Earth would the Colonials ever have had any concept of angels, since they had a polytheistic religion that was based on (or the precursor of) Greek mythology?
– Cavil taking himself out was a bit lacking, in the sense that I feel that if all of the skinjob models figured out what he did to deceive them all about the nature of the Final Five, they probably would have boxed his model, which might have been a bit more satisfying
– Leoben turned out to be a bit of a letdown and more or less irrelevant by the end of the series
– Still not sure about the true nature of the hybrids and some of the abilities they had to see into the future (?)
– The fact that there were these celestial beings and a higher power that were “looking out” for humanity must be a bit of a bitter pill to swallow for those who died:
-> on the Colonies during both the Cylon War and the Cylon Ambush
-> New Caprica
-> the mutiny
-> when Boomer went FTL and punctured the Galactica’s hull
-> etc.
OK, that came off a bit negative. Still a beautiful ending, even if I didn’t like parts of it.
Comment by Mark Dykeman — March 22, 2009 @ 4:46 pm
i liked the finale except the very ending. i’ve got no problem with it being in the past, i always thought that was a given anyways, them ending up being our ancestors. what ruined it for me was the idiotic tirade Six & Gaius go on about consumerism and the robot commercials right before the credits roll. wtf kind of stupid way to end a show is that??
at first i was kinda bummed we didn’t get a clear answer as to what exactly Starbuck was, but it’s nice that it was left open to interpretation i now think.
the only plot flaw i can think of that really bugs me is the same one that i didn’t like about the season 2 ending, and that was that they were just too quick to settle down. back at the end of season 2 they were right in the middle of all this fighting and dying and as soon as they find a new planet they just jump ship and settle and suddenly it’s a mere 1 year later and so many people have left the ships once the cylons make their return the skeleton crews have no choice but to run away because they left themselves too vulnerable. there was no logic in that as they knew damn well all the cylons were still out there actively looking for them. now in this ending sure they think they have peace with the cylons but remember in the beginning the only way they knew where to jump in front of the big cylon base was because they said as they were scouting it they got lucky and 2 cylon base ships jumped in & out while they were photographing it. so they know for a fact that there is at the very least 2 full base ships (most likely alot more) out there still loyal to Cavil’s way of thinking that didn’t show up during the fight so might not know what happened. now soon as they find Earth it’s “let’s go settle with sticks & stones and trash all our ships in the sun and cross our fingers they don’t bother to look for us again”? i can accept them wanting to trust the Centurions, but what about all the other cylons out flying around the galaxy? it’s a common sense flaw that bugs me, but oh well.
as for who was Daniel, that didn’t bother me as when he was first mentioned it made sense to me that when the five were first helping the cylons make skin jobs there would be trial & error. i think back the Star Trek TNG and Data finding out about Lore. Data discovers that even Lore wasn’t the 1st android created but they never showed any of the other failed attempts. there wasn’t a need to, as it’s the ones that survived that are in the storyline.
overall Battlestar Galactica was one of the best shows i’ve ever seen, and this was a pretty damn great ending, with the exception of the final minute as i mentioned above. 20 years from now when i decide to watch the entire series again on DVD i know i’ll be hitting the stop button just a few moments before the credits roll.
Comment by Dax — March 22, 2009 @ 4:46 pm
I loved the series but the finale was a mixed bag for me. I loved how they finished the story of the fleet itself, Laura Roslyn, and Admiral Adama but Starbucks ending (Alakazam! I’m gone!) and lack of explanation of her resurrection’s origin was a severe disappointment. Also “head” Six and Baltar being some kind of angel things made it all the more frustrating. “Everything has happened before and will happen again” because God makes it so? Call me crazy but I expected more than just “God did it” to be the reason for everything.
Comment by Rob T — March 22, 2009 @ 5:49 pm
Everyone keeps mentioning God. We have to remember that at the very end, they say “He doesn’t like being called that” — referencing some kind of higher being and not specifically God as WE know it.
Maybe it’s just some kind of being, maybe it’s Daniel (who is the creator of Cylons, keep in brain), maybe it’s something else. We don’t need to go right to it being religious. There could be so much more to the things everyone seems to dislike about the episode then we realize at the moment.
This could all still be storyline that we’re unaware of. Maybe Caprica will tell, maybe we’ll never know.
Lots of maybe goin’ down here.
Comment by The Movie God — March 23, 2009 @ 2:50 am
Daniel is Baltar. Was. Whatever.
Read the Bible – Daniel’s name was changed to Belshazzar, or Balthazar – or Baltar.
Comment by daniel — March 23, 2009 @ 5:05 pm
To summarize, I liked the ending.
I was a bit disappointed in several points:
– The whole Kara is an angel thing. I admit that there was no other way to end it after finding her dead body on earth. But why the hell lead humanity to the destoyed earth an only later to the real one??!! God is mysterious in his ways.. puh
– What happend to the other “evil” cylon-models. I mean, they did not get their resurrection ability, so they should have a strong motive to find the 4 (resp. 3) of the final five to try to get the information from them. So it was a bit disappointing that the earth was still standin 150000 years later ;)
– Balter/Caprica 6: What the f**k are they?? Angels?? Strange…
But again, I liked the ending of the show…
Comment by TheEmperorProtects — March 24, 2009 @ 9:39 am
I don’t think it’s Baltar.
In Caprica, Eric Stoltz plays Daniel Graystone — the man who created the Cylons.
So if Daniel is the creator of the Cylons, and Hera is mother to our modern civilization in which everyone has some cylon in them, then wouldn’t it make sense that the absolute highest “God”-like being would be Daniel Graystone?
It’s too easy for Ronald D Moore and David Eick to just say it’s all God and religion. No, no. Those two would create their own religion and religious beings.
There’s a whole lot more story to this than we know about yet.
This is my shot in the freakin’ dark guess to it all.
Comment by The Movie God — March 24, 2009 @ 6:51 pm
If Hera was the “Mitochondrial Eve”, that means that no other female, of all the Colonials, Cylon sixes and eights, or any of Earth’s primitive, indigenous peoples, had descendants that produced the current human race. Did the writers understand the meaning of “Mitochondrial Eve”?
Comment by HoustonReal — March 29, 2009 @ 2:53 pm
I think that most viewers are grabbing onto the “angels” bit a little prematurely.
The end of the show has Baltar and Six strolling through New York. To me, this points more to a hint that those two belong to a group that existed before all of this… that is still around from a previous “cycle”.
“This has all happened before and it will all happen again”
Does that mean that everyone died when it happened before? No. Could someone still be alive from a previous cycle? Yes, with the resurrection technology they are effectively immortal. Gaius and Six could have been planted into the BSG cycle we witnessed to guide events, having their memories of their previous lives removed, but being influenced by other copies of themselves.
As to why nobody else could see their copies, who knows what kind of technology can be created when a race has millennia to study and invent? Mind control? Perception transmissions? Teleportation? Doesn’t seem to far fetched given enough time. The cylons from this cycle already have intimate knowledge of the brain and they’ve not had all that long to work it out.
As to who “God” is for the purposes of the storyline, God could simply be an ancient cylon or program designed to seed humanity throughout the stars. Which would explain why the natives on earth were genetically compatible with the BSG crew and colonists, the chance of which is near impossible to explain mathmatically. They’re genetically compatible because “God” seeded them there.
As for Starbuck, she’d have to be one of these precursor people also, with “God” having enough knowledge about her brain and mental processes to know what clues would ensure she could to get them to earth.
As for HoustonReal’s problem with the Mitochondrial Eve being Hera… Perhaps there were a lot of 8’s dropped here and there on the new earth… and she’d be closely related to Hera, being her mother. Mitochondrial Eve would have been an 8 though, not Hera. And why the 6’s didn’t factor into this the same way, I dunno. A little bit of writer’s error in such a grand tale is acceptable. It wasn’t enough to ruin it for me. They did seem to point to Hera being Eve, but it was never actually stated… the 8’s make more sense.
Comment by Jeff — April 1, 2009 @ 12:59 am
Is it possible that Daniel is Kara’s Dad? Remember how Daniel was supposed to be all artistic and creative? Kara’s Dad was apparently a musician and somehow connected to everything with that song he wrote. If Kara were half-cylon, perhaps she could resurrect like a cylon? That could also explain her connection to Hera.
Comment by PBacon — July 25, 2009 @ 3:53 pm
*** “If Hera was the “Mitochondrial Eveâ€, that means that no other female, of all the Colonials, Cylon sixes and eights, or any of Earth’s primitive, indigenous peoples, had descendants that produced the current human race. Did the writers understand the meaning of ‘Mitochondrial Eve’?” ***
Maybe, maybe not – but clearly you don’t. I realize I’m chiming in late, but here’s the thing with Mitochondrial Eve – she is not the only female from her generation who passed on any offspring. She is simply the one whose mitochondrial DNA was passed on to all of us. Other females may have passed on progeny – in fact they almost certainly did. Mitochondrial Eve is simply the woman whose mitochondrial DNA have managed to crowd out everyone else’s.
Simple example – most of us (all of us, one would hope) have 4 grandparents. Whose mitochondrial DNA did we inherit? That of our maternal grandmother. Does that mean our other 3 grandparents didn’t pass on any genes, or don’t have any surviving descendants? Of course not! They simply did not pass on their mitochondrial DNA to you. It’s quite possible, in fact, that you have received less than 25% of your 30,000 or so genes from your maternal grandmother, so she may actually have passed on fewer of her genes to you than any of your 3 other grandparents – but you did get her motcihondrial DNA.
The same logic holds true for BSG’s Hera. She might not have passed on any genes *but* her mitcohondrial DNA.
No, that isn’t what bothers me, scientifically, about the finale of BSG, whose writing really went downhill after the first season. What bothers me is that they puroport these people to have arrived 150,000 years ago. What didn’t humans have 150,000 years ago? Complex language, writing, *agriculture.* Modern humans had not yet even left Africa if most theories are to be believed. Did the 12 colony survivors choose not to pass on language, writing or agriculture to their progeny? We see in the finale one character discussing teaching Hera how to plant crops. But agriculture was invented only 10,000 years ago, and writing only about 5,000 years ago. So the timeline is off by about 145,000 years, at least.
Comment by Bill Alden — October 1, 2009 @ 3:16 pm
NO NO NO!
God is …Duncan Idaho. After he gets bored with being Kwisatz Haderach he decides he wants to merge man and machine. So he, and Murbella and Sheeana settle on Kobold and become the gods who happilly lived with humans, while secretly manipulating them to create a hybrid.
Off course he doesnt like to be called God, he had so much to learn from Leto. Anyway, Starbuck is Jessica reborn, Baltar is Muad’dib and Six must be some weird descendant of Erasmus. Cavil was a Face Dancer for sure. And they dont use axolotl tanks anymore, now they have the tub of goo and resurrection, whatever.
Ok, 150 millenia pass, we invent robots, in 1997 Skynet becomes sentient and Head Baltar and Six cry over the skull mountain saw by Bender when he travels in Farnsworth’s time machine. Later all is good, humanity conqueres known universe until Harry Seldon comes up with his crazy psychohistory ideas. Then Trantor and …more robots.
There, that’s how series should have ended. I did enjoy the way it did however.
Comment by Zamolxes — September 24, 2010 @ 11:02 pm
Just saw the final episodes yesterday. I am a bit saddened by how it all ended. Never mind the inaccuracy of some details like agriculture and writing not having been invented. But Kara just disappearing as if she just ceased to exist? The “old man” taking off to live as a hermit for the rest of his days? Lee going all Bear Grills on us? The chief living out his days in seclusion? Actually, most of the main characters seem to end up alone or in pairs, isolated from each other, never to meet again. If this is indeed the case, I find it to be a crappy way to end such a great show. Rather they all lived together, in harmony, either secluded or not. But don’t have them live alone like discarded waste. I for one was totally bummed out.
Comment by Nmgmarques — February 23, 2011 @ 12:17 pm
I just saw the finale an hour ago. Since I didn’t watch the show while
it was on tv, I didn’t know what storylines/theories people were talking
about at the time. Seems to me that Daniel was a big one..I actually
thought from the beginning that Zach was going to be a cylon; not
necessarily the unknown cylon, or “Daniel,” but more involved somehow.
Obviously, I was wrong. I also thought from the very beginning that
there was no way Gaius could have survived the original explosion in
Caprica City. A Six made him duck, so he magically survived? Are we now
to assume that it was the so-called “Head Six,” and that he survived
because the Head Six had/has supernatural/divine power? Also, since when
did it become the Head Six and the Head Gaius..wasn’t it mainly always
the Six that kept appearing?
I have a lot of comments about the finale and the series.
I definitely agree with Dax..I think the final few minutes of the series
really cheapened the finale and cheapened the effect of the series as a
whole. The robot videos and the discussion of consumerism just made the
whole message of the show seem like the generic idea of machines taking
over humanity, like in I, Robot and many other books/shows/movies, etc.
This show was about sooo much more than that. Plus, the robot videos
were just stupid. I really hated that and cannot believe they threw that
in there.
I don’t fully understand why Adama had to leave. I thought he was going
to commit suicide to be with Laura forever, but why couldn’t he have
just built a cabin near Lee? That seemed sooooooooo strange that he
would just abandon his son for no real reason.
In terms of Kara…I’m glad that she was able to fulfill her role. When
they kept calling her the harbinger of death and they said she would
bring them to their end, I thought that meant she was going to get them
all killed. Am I the only one that thought that? I guess it just means
she was going to get them to their final destination, but that seemed
weak. I also was disappointed that she had to go and that she just
vanished without saying goodbye. I knew as soon as she came back from
the dead that her character would never be the same again, but I would
have been more convinced if she had gone off with Sam into the sun. I
guess they leave it up in the air as to where she goes and why she goes
on purpose, but it didn’t really feel complete. It’s one thing not to
spell it out, but it just didn’t feel right, which really upset me
because I loved her character. After having seen the finale now, I kind
of wish the show ended after she jumps them to “Earth.” I guess they
wanted to do the 150,000 years thing so that wouldn’t be possible. I
thought certain things were really touching once they were on the
planet, but they didn’t really get explained.
I also feel like the flashbacks revealed very little about the
characters and the story. The only thing that was really relevant was
Kara saying she didn’t want to be forgotten. Otherwise, they didn’t
really accomplish anything. It wasn’t really necessary to know why Adama
was retiring..it wasn’t really necessary to know how Kara and Lee met,
since we knew that she dated his brother, so it was obvious they would
have met..it wasn’t really necessary to know why Baltar initially
decided to help Six get access to the mainframe; it was obvious they
were dating and he was careless, so it wasn’t really any new
information..it wasn’t really necessary to know why Laura went into
politics. Her flashback was just depressing that she lost her family,
got cancer and then had to save humanity. But it didn’t add anything. I
feel like they could have added SOOO much more with the flashbacks. I
was very disappointed with that. I thought when they introduced Zach
that he was going to be a cylon or something (since, as I said before, I
had been thinking that since the beginning of the show), but nothing
important came from the flashbacks.
Looking back on the show as a whole now, I feel like they revealed the
final 5 way too early. I feel like that was the most shocking part of
the show, and that they didn’t really tell us anything that
interesting/surprising/shocking since then. Plus, they revealed them all
at the same time. Maybe in some respects it was logistically necessary
to do so, but I feel like they could have accomplished it by telling us 2
or 3 of them and leaving 1-2 surprises for later on. It just seemed
like bigger things were going to happen after they told us that..that
more extreme developments would be introduced/revealed. But if you think
about it, nothing else was revealed. And Helen being part of the final 5
does not count as being a shocking development. I NEVER understood why
that was supposed to be a surprise AT ALL. We knew from the very
beginning that Helen was a cylon because she didn’t pass Baltar’s cylon
test. Why in the world did they treat that as a shocking revelation?!? I
thought that was one of the worst parts of the entire series..I never
understood that.
I’m really anxious to discuss some of this with people who have seen the
show..please let me know what you think. Thanks so much!!!
Comment by Anonymous — January 30, 2012 @ 11:43 pm
ALSO!! In terms of the flashbacks, what the heck was with the pigeon when Lee was in his apartment? Was that supposed to be Kara “the angel” checking up on him? That was sooo random. What in the world did that mean/what was the point of that?
Also, while I thought the 150,000 years thing was a surprise (I definitely didn’t see that coming), it’s kind of depressing because it shows that they really didn’t break the cycle. They helped evolve civilization, but it’s not like people stop killing people and stop fighting wars..I guess the creators of the show were really just concerned with making political statements about the current state of the world. I thought this show was so much more than that..pretty disappointing.
And it certainly DOES NOT reflect well on humanity (or whatever you
want to call it) that Cavill and all the other cylons on the base ship were just killed in the
end. It wasn’t anyone’s fault, since Chief starting strangling Tory, but
I actually thought the two sides were going to make peace with each
other..I guess not. I guess that wasn’t really feasible, and at least this way Adama and company didn’t have to make an immoral decision of backstabbing Cavill and killing them and only did so in self-defense, but it just shows that peace could never be reached.
Comment by Anonymous — January 30, 2012 @ 11:58 pm
Without giving away any spoilers or info about them, do you think it’s worth it for me to watch Caprica and/or The Plan? I just finished the BSG series and I’m beside myself that it’s over..
Comment by Anonymous — January 31, 2012 @ 12:01 am
Loved the series. Loved the questions it raised about what makes us
human, and the divides we create between ourselves and others, and both
the crappy behaviors, and the life-affirming philosophies and
awe-inspiring sacrifices that result. Can we all get along (ever)? As
individuals, humans and cylons both do unpredictable (or predictable)
things out of fear, disgust, subjugation, arrogance, etc.
I
didn’t understand how post-resurrection Ellen could be so all-knowing
and well-balanced, but also completely jealous of Caprica 6. That
seemed out of character and weird. She should have had the intelligence
to be in pain, but let it go that Saul and 6 were having a full-cylon
baby. I would have liked (more) explanation for 6’s miscarriage. It
was weird, too, how Saul and 6 got all lovey-dovey and giggly over the
fetus. Shouldn’t Saul have been more weirded out by it all, trying to
make sense of his whole situation. He didn’t love 6. He loved Ellen,
and projected her image onto 6 in his grief over her death/murder. The
fact that he got her pregnant while doing it should have completely
freaked him out, nevermind that it was the first cylon/cylon baby.
It’s such a complex story.
The
ending was a bit of a bummer–didn’t make sense to me that they would
ditch their technology and strike out all over Earth and rough it,
starting with basically nothing. Chances of survival through the first
year would have been pretty small, given that they had no seeds to grow
vegetables with, and it’s doubtful they would have figured out how to
forage enough for that many people, no matter how rich in flora and
fauna.
Wanted something more for Kara, and for the relationship
between her and Lee. I thought Kara was going to turn out to to be the
very first half-cylon (before Hera), or the first biologically born
cylon, and have a special ability like traveling through time or
spontaneous resurrection (without the resurrection ship). That would
have explained her mom calling her “special.” Maybe she would have left
at the end, saying goodbye to Lee, because she needed to do more good
elsewhere in time or in the universe (helping other civilizations
survive)–the Mary Poppins of the Universe. Or maybe she and Lee would
have had a child who would grow up to be a leader of the people.
Roslin’s
death was good, but why the heck would Adama go off and become a
recluse to live out his life remembering Roslin. Umm, hello? Boring?
That was pretty dumb.
How the heck was Lee going to explore the
world–on foot–without any skills for surviving in the wild on this
foreign planet? Maybe that was part of their military training?
Possibly.
The very temporary truce between humans and cylons,
we’ll give you resurrection if you’ll end the war/leave us alone, was
completely stupid. The cylons were still coming into their own,
discovering their ability to think for themselves. The chances of one
cylon making an agreement that all the rest would hold to is pretty
slim. “It’s a trick” and then start shooting indiscriminately, Cavil
shooting himself–stupid, stupid, stupid.
Why didn’t the cylon
who killed Callie (sp?) ever explain to the others that Callie was going
to kill both herself and her son, or expose them as cyclons if left
alive? As awful as it was to kill Callie, I could imagine being freaked
out enough to do it if I was worried about being exposed as a cylon.
Better would have been to have Callie live and come around to make peace
with the fact that Galen was a cylon. It was always interesting to me
that no one (Galen first, and then the others when he was later exposed)
made much of a fuss over the other cylon/human baby (Galen’s
baby)–Callie’s being pregnant with another man’s baby was a fine plot
twist.
The only other lingering thing for me is how the cylons
could still be considered “machines” when they were seemingly purely
biological. Did Galen and Saul and the others have
childhoods–pictures, memories–or were they all planted? Same for
Kara. That’s why I thought maybe she was a half-cylon or full-cylon,
and was born and grew up from a baby. The others theoretically had
families and social networks of people that would have known them as
children. Instead of the flashbacks we got about the human characters,
it would have been better to have flashbacks that gave insight into the
backgrounds of the cylons.
I watched Caprica before BSG, so I had
some context for downloading consciousness/artificial intelligence into
a skin job. It was a way to have a loved one who had died be reborn,
using their virtual signature or collection of digital experiences. The
final 5 in BSG would have had to base their models on actual humans for
this, so some back story on the original humans would have been cool to
work into the plot somehow, too. In Caprica, though, the AI started
developing it’s own unique personality and individualized immediately
when it was “born,” so the social experiment of how to make sense of all
these fellow “copies” of yourself as a cylon would be rich exploration,
but having them all be “sheep,” i.e. act/behave according to their
programming doesn’t really make sense.
Anything that breathes and
can act of its own volition, i.e. animals, deserves consideration and
respect. But then Africans and their descendents were thought to be
savages/animals by Europeans. Women thought to be less capable and
intelligent by men. Yes, very interesting series! Wish there was
more–I became an official BSG junkie!
Bring me more SciFi you writers of SciFi!
Comment by Kim — July 2, 2013 @ 6:19 pm