If you recognized the title of this entry, you know this is about the Battlestar Galactica show. For those of you not familiar with this, you can still read, but you may not understand. So last night was the series finale. I watched it off the DVR this morning.
***Spoiler Alert*** If you have not watched it yet and you want to, do not jump to the full entry.
So, a finale is supposed to help tie up loose ends, finish the story lines, and give the viewer a sense of satisfaction, but leave them wanting a little more. Aside from the last one, I found the finale disappointing.
The 2 hour plus episode started with the major characters in their pre-war lives. This set, which started in the penultimate episode, added balance to the story line, but lacked a real connection to the invasion of the Cylon Colony. They then moved on to preparation for the attack, with strategy and tactics. One of the most interesting scenes was the assignment command for the fleet that would not be joining them in the battle. Admiral Adama put the fleet and the Cylon base ship in the hands of Hoshii, an apparently junior officer, who has been seen at various times as a bridge officer and replaced Gaeta on the deck after the mutiny.
The battlestar finally parts ways with the fleet and head to the Colony and jump right into battle. They send out raptors to retrieve Hera. The battle scenes were great, worthy of the series finale. Admiral Adama ordered that the battlestar be rammed into the Colony. The combat became a fight in the halls of the Colony and BSG. During this, Boomer had a change of heart and decided to take Hera from the laboratory and head toward BSG. Along the way, she reaches a team led by Helo and Athena. After the handoff of Hera, Boomer told them "Tell the old man I owed him one.". A flashback was shown where the Admiral set Boomer straight and made her the great raptor pilot she was.
After getting back to the battlestar, the teams ran into a firefight with some Cylons. Hera ran off. At that point, we get back to the hallucinations/dreams that Roslin, Six, Baltar, and Athena have been having about Hera and an opera house. BSG plays the role of the opera house and the 4 of them begin searching for Hera. Roslin finds her as Cavil and some Centurions are about to walk upon her. Hera runs off again and this time Six and Baltar find her and take her to the bridge, where Cavil and other "human" Cylons arrived, fighting with the bridge crew. A negotiation is settled where the Final 5 promised the plans of Resurrection in exchange for BSG and the remaining crew to leave with Hera. The problem is that the final 5 must share the same thoughts. Tory asks them all to forgive each other for the sins they committed and would now be shared among the 5.
This is where I have the most problems. Chief Tyrol was one of my favorite characters in the series since it began as just a mini-series. Over the seasons, he has been diminished to a self-loathing character who seems to do more harm than good. When he sees the thoughts of Tory killing his wife Callie, who was thought to have committed suicide, he gets into a rage and kills her. Cavil sees this as a trick and orders the Cylons to fire on the humans. The Cylons realize that they are going to lose and Cavil commits suicide. So after all of the time Cavil hating his human form, not wanting the emotions brought on to him by Ellen and the Final 5, he acts with emotion and kills himself? Still, the part that irks the most is that Tyrol, who put the fleet in this mess by releasing Boomer, again screws up the negotiation by stopping the Resurrection data transfer.
After battle, Admiral Adama, realizing they have won the battle, orders Starbuck, to fire up the jump drive to get the battlestar out of there. Starbuck, not knowing the coordinates they are supposed to meet the fleet with, flashes back to her piano playing from a few episodes back and enters those notes as the coordinates. As the reach the other side, they realize the battlestar can no longer jump again. However, they have jumped to what we recognize as the real world Earth.
Landing on Earth, we realize that is early on with the existence of human life, possibly pre homo-sapien, as the fleet sees nomadic humanoids who still do not have language. We see Hoshii rejoin the fleet noting that the raptor BSG had sent out found the fleet. The decision was made to destroy most of the fleet and settle on earth. Apollo convinces them all that it would be best to start fresh by spreading out the 38,000 remaining people across the planet, instead of creating a city in one central location. As they settle in, Admiral Adama takes Roslin out for one last ride on a raptor as she passes away. The rest of the main characters are seen setting out to settle. Flash forward 150,000 years and the "angelic" versions of Baltar and Six are reading over the shoulder of executive producer Ronald Moore, in a cameo. They note that the modern earth is similar to the colonies that existing so long ago and ponder if humanity will make the same mistakes. But Six notes that things are different now and they are unlikely to take the same path.
In the end, I think Battlestar Galactica could have used another 2 or 3 episodes to spread out the remaining story line. There were questions left unanswered. What really is Starbuck? Are we to believe that all the "evil" Cylons were destroyed at the Colony? The religious undertones added depth to the story, but becomes a crutch to explain the unexplained. It happened because the God(s) decided so. Like many series finales, this helped close the story, but just missed the mark.
Tony,
I think Starbuck is, like the Head Six and Head Baltar, an angel. Not originally -- my theory is that at least one model of Daniel escaped Cavil's boxing, and is Starbuck's father. This explains how she knows All Along The Watchtower.
After her death at the end of season 3, God (the third party), "brought her back" as one of his angels. I don't get the whole "harbinger of doom", since clearly Starbuck actually led the fleet to Earth.
I think that any Evil Cylons not killed would probably have a very hard time finding Earth, especially with the fleet sent into the sun.
Also, I share you feelings on Tyrol -- of course, he's always been prone to emotional outburts, but one thinks he could've waited a little bit before throttling Tory.