Battlestar GalacticaSometimes a Great Notion
Original Air Date: Jan 16, 2009
Brittany – TwoCents Reviewer
Brittany@thetwocentscorp.com
After 217 days, we have finally seen the first of the finale episodes of Battlestar Galactica. I won’t lie; I was tense, nervous and excited in the days leading up to Friday and now that the episode has aired, I’m left thinking one thing: What the frak? I’m also trying out a new style of recapping. Because I could go on for two pages about the dark downward spiral of Adama and Roslin alone, I’m going to recap the top five events that need to be known.
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[photo: scifi.com]
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After 217 days, we have finally seen the first of the finale episodes of Battlestar Galactica. I won’t lie; I was tense, nervous and excited in the days leading up to Friday and now that the episode has aired, I’m left thinking one thing: What the frak? I’m also trying out a new style of recapping. Because I could go on for two pages about the dark downward spiral of Adama and Roslin alone, I’m going to recap the top five events that need to be known.
ReplyDeleteNumber one: Earth still really sucks. And suck isn’t a strong enough word. Adama and Roslin look absolutely shell-shocked as crew members wander aimlessly on the planet. Tigh stands near water; Dee finds a child’s game of jacks and breaks down in tears. After some testing, it turns out that the planet was nuked 2,000 years ago. There’s also a tiny bit of excavation and bones are uncovered. Gaius tests them all and after collaborating with the cylons, it’s discovered that they’re cylon bones. Cylon skeletal remains – on Earth. Laura finds green plant life and clutches it; the only sign of life. The crew members go back to Galactica and give the people the bad news: Earth is unlivable. As Laura put it: “We traded one nuked civilization for another.”
Number two: When Starbuck died at the end of season three, she really died. Scouting the planet with Leoben she finds pieces of her Viper everywhere. When she finally finds her own skeletal remains (she knows it’s her; the body is still wearing her dog tags.) Leoben completely freaks out. He backs away from her very, very quickly. Starbuck has a little bonfire, keeping the dog tags as proof. But it’s not just her who has a past on Earth. Seeing a shadow burned into a crumbling wall, the Chief has a flash back. He’s in a market buying fresh vegetables when a nuclear attack happens. Sam Anders finds a broken piece of guitar and realizes he was a guitar hero on this planet once upon a time. Tory remembers that the song that switched them on was a song Anders wrote and sang, and Tigh was in a building with his wife when the bombs went off. (More on this in number five.) All of the final cylons have a connection with the planet already.
Number three: Dee, who has been very shaken by the turn of events surrounding Earth find Lee and they discuss what’s happened. They talk about how many people gave their lives to find Earth. After a few moments, they discuss how many good times they had once upon a time on Pegasus and agree to go on a date. She tells Lee not to try and spin what’s happened; tell the Quorum the truth about everything and they’ll all try to make the best of it. After their date, and as he walks her back to her quarters, he recaps for her how he told the Quorum, and the two of them laugh and talk. They kiss briefly and Lee leaves with a soft smile. Humming, Dee goes to her locker and after telling Gaeta that she wants to be as happy as she can for as long as possible, she shoots herself in the head.
Number four: Adama and Roslin are completely devastated. In their own separate ways they start to self destruct. After returning to Galactica, Laura refuses to talk to the press and instead finds a lighter to start burning the pages of the book of Pythia. She burns the book page by page and when Bill tries to explain to her that she lead them this far, she cries that he should have never listened to her back when the war started. His attempts at comfort are rejected, and she refuses to go to her cancer treatments in sick bay because in her heart, she feels she’s killed everyone by leading them to the devastated planet. Bill, meanwhile, takes to drinking right out of the bottle after Dee dies. He’s an angry drunk and heads with a loaded gun to Tigh’s quarters. Adama laughs crazily, recounting how Ellen slept around, trying to find men from the fleet to frak. He says that she even tried to come onto him and he could smell her and she wanted him. All of this in an effort to get Tigh to shoot him in the head so that he doesn’t have to kill himself. It doesn’t work though, and Tigh removes the ammunition from the guns.
Number five: Back on Earth, after cutting Bill off from the alcohol, Tigh is gathering up the crew to head back to Galactica. Something draws him to the water and as the waves wash over him, he remembers the holocaust on Earth once again. He runs to his wife who is trapped under rubble. His wife on Earth, 2,000 years ago was Ellen. He tries to save her but she whispers to him that everything is in place: they’ll be reborn together. At that moment, Tigh realizes that Ellen is the final and fifth cylon.
So, my loyal readers, what are your theories and speculations? Here’s what I’ve got: 2,000 years ago, the cylons created humans. The humans rebelled and nuked the planet. The cylon survivors left Earth in search of a new home. Wash, rinse, and repeat until we get to the story line we’re in now. As for questions, if Starbuck really is dead, but she’s there walking around, what is she exactly? We know (unless it’s a red herring) that Ellen is the final cylon, so Kara isn’t the final one. How does this all work? And if Ellen really is the final cylon, how are they going to bring her back to the show (if they are)? The Hub was destroyed! I can’t wait to hear what you all think, so email me your comments and theories, or leave them in a comment below!
OK. So I was upset with the reveal of the fifth cylon. First of all, it was too quick and clumsy. Second, I hate Ellen (and she really creeps me out when she is all dressed up like Six in Tigh's hallucinations). That got me thinking... Maybe she is not the Final cylon with a capital F. Maybe it WAS a red herring, like you said. Here is my theory:
ReplyDeleteSo the five models split off from the other seven and went to Earth, right? Well, it's possible that they took some individuals from the other seven models with them, just for fun. Anyway, they did the Earth thing, and over thousands of years, evolved in such a way that they gained the ability to both procreate and age.
1. The procreation explains the other people in the market in Chief's flashback who were NOT of the models we know (cause they are all cylon on Earth, right?).
2. And, the ability to age? Well, Adama and Tigh have known each other for over 30 years. He has watched Saul age. AND... and here is my REALLY big theory... Ellen is just an aged Six. What? Yeah.
But... just a theory. ;)
I'll jump on the Ellen-is-an-aged-Six bandwagon too. Not just because I really really don't want Ellen to be the final Cylon (and the reveal was pretty sloppy), but because of the leaked photos of what appears to be Six standing in Times Square. But while it's clear it's supposed to be Six, it's also clearly not the same actress, she's at least 10 years too young.
ReplyDeleteIt's still Roslin. Because she's not dead yet, and I want the Cylons to have gotten so close to humanity that they not only age and procreate, but also get sick (keep in mind Roslin isn't suffering from a virus, but from a disease caused by the simple process of cellular division).
Now about the Earth-isn't-Earth part, the problem is that they're hopefully leading up to the reveal that when they find Earth it's in modern day, like the first series. The architecture was clearly recognizable, and saying that the 'original' Earth inspired ours is a big stretch. I think that our Earth really was destroyed by the Cylons we created shortly before Earth was destroyed. The Final Five were human at the time of the destruction, and their DNA is what is used to create the higher level Cylons. This wasn't in an attempt to create better Cylons though, it was to create better humans. They are the best of both of us.
So the Cylons get full citizenship, because they are human, and the reveal that Laura is a Cylon isn't a big scary thing, but a pardon from death.
Feel free to disagree, but that's how I would do it.
Josh, I love this and I think that you should have sent a letter to Ron Moore and David Eick long, long ago.
ReplyDelete