Battlestar Galactica: The Beginning of the End

[jarddavis]

And now.... it's over.

A fitting end. Although Starbuck's departure was kind of creepy. Well done... but creepy.

[michaelpaciocco]

Agreed.

Of course, I saw the part where Roslin was on a date with one of her students and I said aloud. "Oh, they're writing this just for Kirk, aren't they?"

Michael

[paulpogue]

I just realized: In that now-famous rant at the UN, Edward James Olmos laid out PRECISELY the end of the series.

[paulpogue]

Quick random thoughts: Nerds are going to be debating this one for YEARS, and never come to a solid consensus. Appropriate, really, for a show that owes quite a bit to "Quantum Leap" and "The Prisoner" -- both shows with vastly more inconclusive finales than this one. At least this was written with the intention to wind it all down, rather than get stuck with a hasty ending!

Nearly everything was explained, when you think about it. Only two serious questions remain, and they can both be chalked up to "wrote themselves into a corner and just tried to slide around it as best they could." What was all that business with the Cylons knowing much more about human religion than humans did (given that Athena frequently talked like she knew so much more than Adama et al, you'd figure she would let them in on some of those secrets once she was part of the team.) But all that dates to the first dozen episodes of the series -- I can accept that the plan changed.

Somewhat more problematic is "So, what the heck WERE the Lords of Kobol, and what happened three thousand years ago, and ... and ..." To which the only real answer is that the cycle really did restart again and again, and the reason the Lords of Kobol look just like the Final Five is because they were the previous incarnations of the Final Five, and that's that. Why were there so many prophecies going on that almost always came true? Because certain beings -- Hybrid pilots, persons on serious drugs, etc. -- had a closer connection to the guiding force.

The explanation for why Hera was so important all along was, I think, very elegantly handled, and although it's an obvious theory in retrospect, it's not one I'd ever heard before.

I was conflicted about the revelation or lack thereof of what the Invisible Hand was. Truth is, almost ANY answer would have been anticlimactic: "Aha! The visions were being projected by the Hybrids all along, and they were playing both sides!" "Aha! Cavil was projecting the visions all along in order to draw out the humans!" And so forth. There WAS an answer given; the question really is whether or not we like it. That said, it turns out there's a lot more explanation than we think when you consider that everything Baltar ever said about "God" can now be taken completely at face value. Even his self-serving speech a few weeks about Starbuck was, word-for-word, absolutely correct.

I'm just glad that the Phantoms weren't handwaved away as "Oh, they were crazy all along." We know there IS a God -- though he doesn't like to be called that -- and whoever or whatever he is, he's not an omnipotent, all-powerful being, but perhaps some sort of cosmic scientist, a quantum mechanic playing dice with the universe, nudging things in the right direction trying to get it right.

To veer into extreme nerdery for a moment, I think there's a strong argument to be made that Romo Lampkin is God watching over things, but it's probably the equivalent of the "Marcellus' soul was in the briefcase all along" -- makes sense, but isn't necessarily right. Still, the hints are there if you want to see them -- the fact that he actually did very little himself every time he showed up, but frequently showed people the right way (it was LEE who completely saved Baltar's trial); the whole "is his cat alive or dead" bit is very quantum-theory/Schrodinger's Cat material; the very odd way he was counting off people as they made their exodus at the end. Pure nerd speculation, but fun nonetheless.

I was confused by the significance of the bird, but Jesse was dead-on right when he talked about it as harbinger of death. For all practical and metaphorical purposes, Kara Thrace was The Crow, right down to all the death and destruction she sowed, especially in the mutiny.

We never got exact confirmation about whether her father was Daniel or not, but it was never precisely denied, either.

Lots of openings for future stories should they decide to play in this particular sandbox again. The Centurions jumped to who-knows-where, and Anders and Galactica herself went out according to the Comic Book Prime Directive.

And putting aside all the is-this-the-truth-or-not jazz: Holy FRAK, everything from "Previously, on ..." to "JUMP!" was teeth-grinding, fingernail-marks-in-the-seat HYPERFUCKINGINTENSE. Absolute television gold.

I feel that Moore got a little too self-indulgent in the end -- seriously, did we need THAT much about Laura feeling adrift in life? -- but that's forgivable.

I would probably be a little more annoyed at the lack of real information about Adama's lie detector test if not for the fact I felt it was a clear Blade Runner shout-out. (When Hoshi gave the admiral's pins back, I honest-to-god expected Olmos to intone "You did a man's job here today.")

[paulpogue]

BTW: In the end, it all really DOES track very nicely to "All Along the Watchtower."

My favorite bit is the ending line, which in Watchtower is actually the beginning of the narrative: "Two riders were approaching, and the wind began to howl ..." Two riders -- Phantom Baltar and Phantom Six -- have always served as harbingers of the winds of war. They appeared to Torie and Tyrol 2,000 years ago, they appeared this time around, and now they're here on earth ...

[paulpogue]

One last thought: At the BSG party I was at, I was the only one who didn't cheer at Boomer's death. I never felt hate for her, only pity, even when she did absolutely evil things. She never really had a chance; she thought she was a good and honorable human, but had a built-in override that would cause her to shoot the man she respected most in the world without a second's hesitation. She had two, maybe three personalities at constant war with each other; her brain was frakked from the get-go. She always wanted to do the right thing, but she was so completely unwound she never knew what the right thing WAS until the very end. I like to believe that this was the final emergence of In-Between Boomer, the one that knew she was a Cylon but wanted to be better, during her transition periods -- who wrote secret notes to herself warning of her true nature, and maybe dropped off notes to Adama warning him what was going on. She deserved to die, but in a tragic way.

Cheered when Torie bit it, though. Totally had it coming. And wow, was that ever a sharp "crack"!

[jessebaker]

Note to Shawn Ryan, David Chase, and David Simons: THIS IS HOW YOU DO A SERIES FINALE

While I cheered when Torrie got killed, I have to admit that I was going "Tyrol, wait until after you upload the resurrection tech to the Cylons before you go strangling the bitch!" right before he actually did it. I was so expecting them to let Torrie get away with killing Cally but nice to see her go down.

The reveal that Kara was a ghost (granted a corporeal ghost) was a great twist and one that offers a nice out to the whole 'Shipper war of who she'd end up.

The stuff with Baltar and Caprica was also great, especially with their confrontation with their phantom angel counterparts. And the Opera House payoff was great IMHO, especially with the shot comparision bit with the five hooded figures and Tyrol, Tigh, Torrie, and Ellen standing next to poor Hybridized Anders.

Also, I kind of cried when Laura died. I've always had a love-hate relationship with the character and I have to admit, that I was kind of wanting Laura to live or at the very least, for Ron Moore to simply not show Laura die and simply make her/Bill's last scene together, be the two pondering how they'll spend their prescious remaining amount of time together.

As for Boomer, I felt sad at her fate but I have to think there was a level of meta reguading Sharon killing Boomer. Sharon was always the far more interesting version of the Number 8 model and having her kill Boomer was kind of fitting given how the roles were ultimately reversed.

In short, WAY better than the finales for "The Shield", "The Sopranos", and "The Wire". In the end, Moore delivered and produced an ending that made good on resolving the plotlines and bringing everything to a close.

[K-Box]

Mar 20, 2009 20:10:32 GMT -8 michaelpaciocco said:

Of course, I saw the part where Roslin was on a date with one of her students and I said aloud. "Oh, they're writing this just for Kirk, aren't they?"

IT'S LIKE THEY READ MY FUCKING MIND

[K-Box]

Mar 20, 2009 20:40:46 GMT -8 paulpogue said:

To veer into extreme nerdery for a moment, I think there's a strong argument to be made that Romo Lampkin is God watching over things, but it's probably the equivalent of the "Marcellus' soul was in the briefcase all along" -- makes sense, but isn't necessarily right. Still, the hints are there if you want to see them -- the fact that he actually did very little himself every time he showed up, but frequently showed people the right way (it was LEE who completely saved Baltar's trial); the whole "is his cat alive or dead" bit is very quantum-theory/Schrodinger's Cat material; the very odd way he was counting off people as they made their exodus at the end. Pure nerd speculation, but fun nonetheless.

In other words, Romo Lampkin = Tom Bombadil?

[paulpogue]

It sure would make sense, for a character whose name sounds like a Tokien reject and whose demeanor appeared to be from some other different show entirely!

[K-Box]

Mar 21, 2009 3:16:05 GMT -8 paulpogue said:

It sure would make sense, for a character whose name sounds like a Tokien reject and whose demeanor appeared to be from some other different show entirely!

From what I recall of the actor's demeanor in his guest-starring role as a firestarter on an episode of The X-Files, I'm thinking that's just his default performance mode.

You know, kind of like Dean Stockwell, who at times made his Cylon character so intolerant of anything even remotely resembling bullshit that it almost seemed like he was metafictionally aware of the flaws of the show itself.

[K-Box]

Also, relevant macro is now relevant:

[michaelpaciocco]

Mar 21, 2009 1:21:56 GMT -8 K-Box said:

Mar 20, 2009 20:10:32 GMT -8 michaelpaciocco said:

Of course, I saw the part where Roslin was on a date with one of her students and I said aloud. "Oh, they're writing this just for Kirk, aren't they?"

IT'S LIKE THEY READ MY FUCKING MIND

Or more likely, your LJ.

[jkcarrier]

I suppose it was an appropriate ending, since like the rest of the series it was equal parts Epic Win and Epic Fail. Yay for nail-biting action and heartbreaking human drama, boo for religious mumbo-jumbo and "it's magic, we don't have to explain it".

So, ultimately, what was the message of the series?
1. Technology is evil, so everyone should just be farmers.
2. God will go to great lengths to jack people around.

[paulpogue]

Alternate Romo Lampkin thought: The show is vaguely metatextual, though never to Morrisonian levels. But when you consider Romo was named after showrunner Ronald Moore -- Romo IS God!