I’ve had a very hard time blogging about the incredible finale of Battlestar Galactica, as most of you have likely noticed. (Not that Adam and Rickey have been harassing me about it. Not at all, not one little bit.)
But I truly think the finale ranks up there with the great series finales of all time, exemplified best in recent television history by The Wire and Six Feet Under.
I still hardly know how to approach looking at the finale, so I thought I’d actually start with what I thought were the problems with it:
• Daniel was a red herring. No answer as to whether Daniel truly was Starbuck’s father and WHY she came back as an “angel” and why she was connected to “All Along the Watchtower.” (An interesting thought, though – the song was among the things that have happened before and will happen again, as Anders composed it way back on Earth, Starbuck’s father played it for her and it became popular on “our” Earth many thousands of years later.
• Who inspired the design/personality of the other Cylons? I’d have loved to have known more about Leoben and Sharon and Six and D’Anna and Simon and Aaron. We know Cavil was made in Ellen’s father’s image. And I’m fascinated that Six was one of the “angels” and so how did the Cylon model Six come to be made in that image?
• Why was Gaius an “angel”? How did he come to be born in that body? Was he truly a full human?
Those are all relatively minor issues, however.
So let’s look at how it all came to an end:
Kara/Starbuck
Turns out she was dead, after all.
But she had a mission to finish and had to help lead everyone to Earth, so they could see how it all fell apart once before, hopefully helping them avoid the same fate again.
It’s probably best that she didn’t know she was actually dead; she would have had a harder time taking herself seriously, I think. By believing she was fulfilling a destiny and was an actual person, she forced others to take her seriously. I don’t think Starbuck could have taken herself seriously enough knowing she was dead to convince anyone else of that.
Lee/Apollo
Lee learned he was a soldier. Didn’t matter what he did to help bring along democracy, didn’t matter how idealistic (and cynical) he was; he was a soldier first, last and always.
And he’s also a loner.
So much the better given that he’s alone now; utterly and completely.
Dad flew off somewhere to live out his last days alone. Zac’s dead. Kara’s dead. Dee’s dead.
That loner part of his personality is what led him to push Romo to take over the presidency (brilliant move, IMHO; Romo is the consummate politician who, deep down, actually believes in democracy and wants to do the right thing) and then suggest that the new settlements on the New Earth (our Earth) not be made as a modern city, but rather small settlements scattered around the planet.
Adama/Roslin
True love prevails.
Bizarre that the most enduring love story of the series started out as a Cold War of sorts and involved two of the oldest characters on the series.
But even the hardest of hearts had to have shed a tear as Adama kissed Roslin’s hand after she died and put his ring on her finger. If you didn’t, you have no soul. Really. No. Soul.
And both of them did everything they ever promised anyone – they found the fleet a new home on a planet free of strife and safe from the Cylons. (The ‘bad’ Cylons were blown up with the Colony and the ‘good’ ones decided to settle on New Earth with them.)
Baltar and Caprica Six
Another true love story, oddly enough.
It seemed destined after that season 2 episode where Caprica Six starts seeing Head Baltar. But after the fiasco of New Caprica and post-New Caprica, Caprica Six and Baltar seemed destined to be apart forevermore.
But when it absolutely, finally came down to it, Baltar did the right thing. For perhaps the first and only time in his life. But the most important time in his life.
And everything Caprica Six had ever done paid off in the end. She and Baltar were the worst thing that could happen to the human race, yet, in the end, they perhaps were the best thing ever to happen to it.
The jury’s still out on that, though, given that the cycle may be starting again, with smart robots. Took longer to get there this time, though, because of Lee’s smart idea of spreading out in small settlements and farms around the globe.
I do, however, want to know why the two “angels” of Head Six and Head Baltar are in those forms. (By the by, who caught that it was Ron Moore reading the magazine when the pair were reading about Hera’s fossilized remains found?)
And one other thing – how bizarre, really, that Baltar really was preaching the gospel of the One God and was being guided by an actual angel? Who saw that one coming? Not me.
Helo/Athena/Hera
How did Helo survive?
Good he did. And now, Hera becomes Eve, of sorts.
Athena was pretty hardcore, though, killing Boomer after she brought Hera back to her. Gotta admit that Boomer deserved it; and she knew it was coming, too. Which made her bringing Hera back to her mommy all the more poignant.
Nice bookending, too. In the miniseries, who thought that Helo would actually be an important character? We all assumed he was done for when he stayed on Caprica.
The Final Five
Is it just me, or were other people glad to see Tyrol strangle Tori? She embraced being a Cylon for all the utterly wrong reasons. She saw it as an opportunity to exert control, to kick ass for no apparent reason.
That the person who killed her was the man (Cylon) she once loved so much so many eons ago on Earth was poetic justice. Tyrol was still the man/Cylon he always was. Tori was not, and didn’t care that she wasn’t.
Saul & Ellen? How can you not root for them? The couple we all loved to hate but who always loved each other for no apparent reason whatsoever. The best kind of love, actually.
Anders? Tell me you didn’t feel sad he was going to the great beyond. Tell me that and I tell you, again, that you have no soul. Maybe you didn’t cry, but you felt SOMEthing.
The Cylons
We find out more about them and what, really, led to the civil war and more in “The Plan,” the telemovie coming this fall. I’m torn between being intrigued by it and wishing it weren’t happening because I’m emotionally spent from the finale.
But why Cavil killed himself? I have to admit I was a bit surprised by that. Not unhappy, but surprised.
The last blog carnival
We had lots of submissions for our final blog carnival, and I wanted to give them all their due:
James Newberry presents And Just Like That, She Walked Out of Our Lives Forever posted at NewbSpeak, saying, “There’s so much life…”
Kenneth Hynek presents “You know, I know about farming.” (BSG) posted at Kenneth Hynek. Kenneth also submitted a post ahead of time, How I’d like to see it end (BSG) posted at Kenneth Hynek, saying, “This is probably as far from how it will play out as can be…but I still think it’d be cool if Sam used the Galactica’s jump wake to take out the colony. I hope that’s why they introduced that late-in-the-game contrivance.”
Jayson Peters presents ‘Frell,’ ‘Frak’ and beyond – the dirty words of other worlds posted at Nerdvana: Sci-fi, comics, games & more, saying, “Frak! The show that gave us everybody’s favorite faux profanity comes to an epic conclusion tonight. To mark this bittersweet occasion, here are 10 fake swear words that have each, to some extent, bled into the fan vernacular from science fiction”
Erika presents Nothing But the Rain – “Daybreak” (all 3 parts) posted at Seriality.
A flashback: Tanveer Naseer presents BSG “Blood on the Scales” – Off Bloody Spot, Off posted at So, what were we talking about again?.
Ms. SP presents Battlestar Galactica, Daybreak Part 2 (1 of 2) posted at Ms. Smarty Pants Know It All.
That concludes this final edition. Past posts can be found on our blog carnival index page.
Thank you all for joining me on this ride. Shows like (the re-imagined) Battlestar Galactica don’t come along that often and we’re fortunate when we’re able to share it.
And, don’t worry, I WILL blog on “The Plan,” the Cylon telemovie in the fall.