I have to admit it – the blood shed was not exactly whose I’d expected.

Your only warning: Don’t read if you didn’t watch.

After watching Friday’s installment of BSG, I found myself in awe of the perfect show.

I had a lot of trouble writing this post, I must admit, so I’m going to take it character by character – or, at least, character group by character group.

Tom Zarek and Felix Gaeta:

I have to admit, I’m sad they’re gone.

Tom Zarek was right, I must admit, when he basically told Gaeta to man up and deal with the fact that this was a coup. Gaeta’s disbelief that Zarek had the Quorum killed reflected his inability to understand what he had started.

I don’t really blame Zarek for anything he did. He, at least, was honest with himself, with Felix, with everyone. Well, except when he lied about Tigh and Adama having been killed.

I felt sorry for Felix, in a way. He truly did believe in his cause. He felt strongly that wrong had been done, and not just to him, but to all the survivors of the Colonial Holocaust.

Zarek took advantage of that and tried to make his naked bid for power.

Does this mean, however, that now Roslin and Lee are the only two surviving members of the Colonial government? And with Roslin dying, does this mean Lee might become the president much in the same way that Roslin did? By virtue of being alive?

So that brings me to

Apollo and Starbuck:

How awesome was it to see the two of them together, kicking ass and taking names?

First off, totally laughed when Starbuck knocked out the guy at the urinal, took his weapons and Lee took them without comment.

The two of them need to work together more often. And Lee looks so much more at home with a weapon than in a suit.

If Anders were to die, will Starbuck and Apollo actually finally get together? Starbuck will never leave Anders, not even with him being a Cylon.

But I’m not convinced that he’s dead. He was still alive at episode’s end, and on the way to Doc Cottle. And he’s a Cylon, so might he still be able to resurrect?

Which brings me to

The Cylons in the Fleet:

I’d say the Final Four, but Athena Sharon, Hera and Caprica Six were in the mix, so…

They didn’t have much of a role in the episode, but I found a few things interesting.

First off, the Sharons are a really interesting line of Cylon. We have Athena, who broke from the Cylons in order to be with the man she loved. We have Boomer, who fought (with Caprica Six) to have the Cylons stop killing humans after she resurrected back on Caprica. We have the Eight model who broke from the rest of her line to vote with Cavil, Simon and Aaron. I just wonder how she has so much diversity in the one model; so many diverging opionions. It shouldn’t be possible. Or should it?

I couldn’t help but think that Tori might end up being the only Cylon left alive by episode’s end. When Tyrol was running through the Galactica, I thought he might be going to blow it up.

When they started spooling up the FTL drives, I realized what he was really after.

This episode showed the true integration of Cylons and humans into one group. While many humans stood by Adama, the Cylons in the fleet unflinchingly stood by him, even when they knew it could mean their deaths. They never tried to flee.

And by sheer force of will, Roslin got the Cylons on the Base Star to stick around – though Leoben appeared to have wanted it more than the other models.

SPOILER if you don’t watch previews:

And next week, we start seeing the truth about the Final Five, with the return of Ellen Tigh.

What I wonder: How long has she been resurrected? I’m assuming right after her death. So Cavil knows she’s alive, I’m assuming. And he’s been hiding her. Do the Simons and Aarons know?

Roslin and Adama:

If Mary McConnell and Edward James Olmos don’t get nominated for Emmys next time around, this is a travesty.

The two actors put so much into these characters in this episode, I was blown away.

Roslin’s anger when she believed Adama to be dead was truly a force to behold. And Adama’s quiet anger at those who betrayed him cut like a knife.

McConnell and Olmos weren’t acting; they WERE those characters. If the Academy chooses not to recognize that …

Watching last night, I felt better about the choices made in having Roslin retreat into nothingness and hid out on Galactica. If she hadn’t withdrawn so utterly and left a vacuum in which Tom Zarek could take hold of power, last night’s episode would not have been possible.

Baltar:

It’s impossible to hate Baltar.

Which is kind of the point, I guess.

He is such a characteriture of himself and, yet, every time you think he’s unredeemable, he finds a way to be just ever so slightly less reprehensible.

He followed his desire to flee, in large part to escape his insane followers. But even he recognized how wrong that was and sees he must return. Damn Gaius Baltar for being human!

The final six episodes:

SPOILER IF YOU DONT’ WATCH PREVIEWS:

We know that Ellen Tigh is returning next week. I’m assuming she resurrected above New Caprica after Saul killed her. I’m also assuming Cavil knew and has been keeping her in hiding.

That would explain his intense desire to keep D’Anna boxed and knowledge of the Final Five from everyone.

Ellen seems different.

Her connection to Saul was such a mystery and yet so intense. It goes back 2,000+ years; that explains it. But she also, in Saul’s flashback, had made preparations for their future. She knew they’d be resurrected; did the others? Were they even aware of their ability to be resurrected?

I think we now will start finding out some big-time answers to questions and I’m very excited. My only regret is that this also means we’re coming to a close. In six weeks, BSG will be but a memory.

Fortunately, the Caprica pilot will be available online or through iTunes in April. Unfortunately, that’s the only way it will be available until it premieres to kick off the Caprica series in 2010.

Guess I’ll be making an iTunes purchase.

Don’t forget: So Say We All: The Battlestar Galactica blog carnival posts Tuesday. If you know anyone who writes about the show, please let him or her know and urge them to submit their post here. I’ve been loving reading all the divergent views of these final episodes.