Battlestar GalacticaDaybreak Part 2
Original Air Date: Mar 20, 2009
Brittany – Associate Staff Writer
Brittany@thetwocentscorp.com
It’s taken me a while to be able to write this recap and review, especially as I read that people either loved or hated the final episode. Love or hate, you have to admit that Ron D. Moore was kind of a genius, and I’ve never felt that more now that I’ve gone back and rewatched season 1. Season 1 is where the Opera House started and that completely blows my mind. But I should recap so you’ll understand why.
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[photo: SciFi.com]
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It’s taken me a while to be able to write this recap and review, especially as I read that people either loved or hated the final episode. Love or hate, you have to admit that Ron D. Moore was kind of a genius, and I’ve never felt that more now that I’ve gone back and rewatched season 1. Season 1 is where the Opera House started and that completely blows my mind. But I should recap so you’ll understand why.
ReplyDeleteGalactica is getting ready for her final fight. Those who either aren’t able or are too valuable are transported to the base ship before Galactica jumps to the Colony. If there’s one thing this show has always been known for, it’s its visual effects and they certainly aren’t a let down here. Hoshi is promoted to Admiral and as Laura is give just enough medicine to keep functioning through this final fight, Romo Lampkin is sworn in as President. There are Centurions marked with red on the fleet’s side getting ready to go into battle, and then, well, let the battle begin. Gaius stayed behind and is decked out in military gear with Caprica and she tells him that she’s proud; that she’s always wanted to be proud of him. And then Head Gaius and Head Six are there, able to be seen in what was probably the only light moment of the episode. The first time I choked up (yes I cried more than once) was during Adama’s final speech, and you know what? This being the last recap ever, I’m going to indulge a little and type it up:
"This is the Admiral. Just so there'll be no misunderstandings later. Galactica's seen a lot of history, gone through a lot of battles. This will be her last. She will not fail us, if we do not fail her. If we succeed in our mission, Galactica will bring us home. If we don't, it doesn't matter anyway. Action stations!"
How can you not get chills is what I’m asking, here. And then Galactica jumps in, all hell breaks loose and she rams herself right up the Colony’s ass. A team led by Starbuck and Lee, along with Helo and Athena go find Hera, and along the way, Boomer does the fleet a huge solid by meeting them halfway with the kid. Of course, Athena kills her but that was to be expected. Sam meanwhile, is hooked up in the CIC to communicate with the hybrids within the Colony. Somehow he gets them to stop firing on Galactica, but that does not keep the raiders from launching. The Battlestar takes hit after hit and people are pouring into sick bay where it’s Laura’s job to mark the too critical to save. And then the truth of the Opera House is revealed: Hera runs away after Helo is shot in the leg and it results in Athena and Laura chasing the child. She runs right to Gaius and Caprica and when they all converge in the CIC and look up, they see the final five illuminated from behind. It’s exactly like the visions from the Opera House. (which RDM made up this season and had no idea how it was going to work back in season 1. Genius, I’m telling you.)
Cavil has boarded Galactica and is in the midst of trying to take Hera again when surprisingly, it’s Baltar who saves the day. He starts speaking passionately about seeing angels and a decision is finally made. The Five will give Cavil the resurrection information if in return he will leave them all be. It’s agreed, and in order to share what they know, Ellen, Tory, Tigh and Chief all put their hands in Sam’s goo bath. This causes them to share memories and wouldn’t you know it; the truth of how Cally died is revealed. Chief goes ballistic and strangles Tory and for the second time, hell breaks loose in the CIC. Bill shields Laura with his body, Cavil kills himself and Adama yells for Starbuck to jump them somewhere; anywhere. After a long moment of not knowing, Starbuck plays All Along the Watchtower into the FTL coordinates and they jump.
Right to a planet with continents shaped like Australia and Africa. So here’s how I have to explain it: Earth was Earth; it was exactly the way they found it. So, the next habitable planet they found – the one Starbuck jumped to – is only what we know to be Earth. They created what we know as Earth and we are their descendants. So yeah, you chew on that for a while.
There were plenty of flashbacks this episode. Bill was retiring and taking a desk job but it was humiliating, being asked questions regarding his ethics while strapped to a lie detector, so he said frak to retirement and so did Tigh (after a lot of WOOHOO’s at the strip club with Ellen) and that’s how they both ended up on Galactica. And then we had Lee and Kara who just about got it on the first time they ever met while Zak was passed out on the couch. Gaius let Caprica right into the defense main frame and Laura? Well, Laura’s dating former students named Sean Ellison. She’s a total cougar and dressed in a hot pink negligee before booting him out of bed and calling Adar to tell him she’ll be a part of his campaign.
Then? Then there’s life on the planet. Lee decides that it will be better to let everyone spread out where they want rather than stick together and build a city (which I don’t get AT ALL) and Chief goes off to an island alone. As Bill and Laura look at the life surrounding them, Laura’s cancer has spread to her lungs and she tells Bill that it’s getting harder for her to breathe. As such, he picks her up and takes her to a raptor and they fly off together so that she can get a good long look at everything. And then quietly she dies as Bill rambles on about the cabin he’s going to build her and the gardens they’ll grow. When he realizes she’s died, he slips his ring onto her finger and lands them on a hill. He buries her and speaks quietly, and again I’m going to just go verbatim here:
“You should see the light that we get up here when the sun comes up from behind those mountains. It’s almost heavenly. Reminds me of you.”
Brb, crying again.
Starbuck tells Lee that she’s done; that her mission is complete and in the blink of an eye she disappears. Gaius and Caprica are together to love one another once again, and our last shots of the fleet come through Hera’s eyes.
Flash forward 150,000 years later and we’re in New York City. Head Baltar and Head Six watch as Ron Moore himself reads that mitochondrial Eve has been discovered. And as we watch a montage of robots that we; our humanity has made, the show fades forever. If we’re being completely honest? I wasn’t a fan of that last little part with the robots via MSNBC. It felt a little over the top and for me the episode should have ended with Bill at Laura’s grave. I am curious why he decided to be alone; why not be with Lee at the very least? Something tells me the Admiral wasn’t long for this world and not long after Laura’s death he fell asleep and dreamt that he was on a boat, with Laura waiting for him on the shore. At least, that’s what I would like to think.
Did you love it or hate it? I hated it for a while just because Laura’s death was a fist to the stomach (even though we’ve known it was coming since the mini-series). How did you feel about Starbuck ‘leading them all to their end’? And how do you think the fleet spent the rest of their days after Sam led all the ships right into the sun? For the final time, leave me your TwoCents in the comments! It may very well be our last chance to ever discuss such an amazing show together.
I'm going to put my vote affirmatively for "Loved it". I've made a lot of predictions over the seasons, and I'm glad to say they were only 50% right. I always wanted to see catastrophic changes and death to main cast members, and although not everything that I predicted came to pass, there was no shortage of unseen moments that were just as great. I was happy to be surprised and totally enthralled through a good chunk of the last episode. Watching the stream of missiles hitting Galactica as it dropped next to the colony had me giggling. Watching it ram the colony to dock was even better.
ReplyDeleteThe main thing that I didn't like was leaving the mystery of Kara Thrace's body on old Earth. I really really really want to know what was going on there. I'd trade a couple of other loose ends for that one.
I agree though that some of the endings were a bit odd. I can see Galen going off on his lonesome, but I would have loved to see Bill, Lee and Kara sitting down together as they hold Laura's funeral and start to build the cabin. It just doesn't seem right to hold humanity together that long and then just disband.
And even with the little epilogue, which was fun but ultimately didn't make much sense as the dialogue goes, I think the Asimo and friends footage was a horrible idea. I think after all we've gone though with the Cylons to throw in some Skynet nonsense goes against what I thought at times we were building up.
Anyway, it was a great series and a well done ending. I'm looking forward to Caprica. And if Two Cents doesn't beg Brittany to write up the recaps for that series, I'll throw them out all out the airlock.
I completely agree with you about trading loose ends. I still don't understand the part where Kara was the harbinger of death. That one...is mystifying.
ReplyDeleteI'll be excited to recap Caprica if it ever airs (it was supposed to start in December) but knowing what we know now about technology in this universe, it's making it hard to understand how RDM is going to pull it off.
Thanks Josh, for being a reader :)
Ok, almost a month later and I'm STILL baffled, befuddled and feeling like my dog died.
ReplyDeleteI HATED the last hour of this. I smelled cop out the minute I saw the aboriginals walking along and my stomach just FELL to my knees.
I was so totally ticked at RDM for not letting Laura live long enough to see the spot Bill picks out for them - any spot. Even if it was a fake spot that he did to placate her. And what about a vision of Laura, on a boat seeing her family?
Don't even ask me about Kara poofing off on us. WTF? (frak)
One thing that makes me giggle every time I think of it though - the censors NOT catching Baltar yelling the Earth alternate to Frak at his father. It's loud and clear "I DON'T F*C*ING NEED THIS."
Sigh, someone give me my Friday night back.