BSG Finale

Patience and I finished Battlestar Galactica this week, and I must
say: despite the complaints and disgruntled rumblings I've heard from
some corners of the internet, that was by the far the most intensely
engaging television I've ever seen. The final half-season was like a
ten-hour climax to the series, so relentlessly brutal and brave, I was
breathless at the end of every episode. I can see a few nit-picks here
and there with the finale, but nothing that detracts from my overall
satisfaction with the resolution.

For anyone who hasn't seen it, I can't recommend this show highly
enough. It's not as warm and fuzzy as "Firefly," (which remains my
favorite of the two), but I can certainly see why it was Joss'
favorite show. Brilliant space opera from top to bottom.

*** spoilers ensue from this point forward ***

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gonna discuss some stuff you shouldn't read if you haven't watched the series

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seriously, if you haven't seen the show, it's on Netflix in HD

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Okay, so, the good stuff...

1)  Starbuck was some kind of angel? Is that what we're meant to
believe? I *loved* this. She was a character that I loved in the
beginning, but after New Caprica, I began to hate her more with every
passing episode. By the time she essentially pushed Kat to an
unneccessary death, I was actively rooting for Starbuck to die. Then
she *did* die, but I knew she was coming back (mostly because her
picture is on the cover of seasons 4 and 4.5), so when she was
resurrected, I thought perhaps she was coming back as a kinder,
gentler soul, more at peace with herself.

Not even. If anything, she was worse than ever. After she found her
own body on Earth, I was so confused and had no idea how they were
gonna wrap it all up -- and then they did it in the most unexpected
way ever. Not a cylon, not the product of some time/space continuum
loop (which is what I was fearing), and not tied to the story of Kobol
at all; just a dead chick sent back as a messenger from God to help
humanity finish it's long journey out of night. Got a problem with
that? (Okay, so a lot of people apparently did, but I thought it was
brilliant.)

2) Chief crushing Tory's neck might be the most pimp move I've ever
seen on television. I loved Cally, and was pissed at the way they kind
of trashed her character after she died. It had been so long since
Tory blew her out of the airlock that I honestly thought that
storyline was over, and everyone had forgotten about it and moved on.
Then as soon as the Final Five stuck their hands in the goo and Chief
started seeing flashes of what happened, I started to get chills of
antici...pation. When he looked up at Tory with his face full of fury,
I swear I literally jumped up off the sofa with a full-throated cry of
vengeance and fist-pumped the air. God, I hated that bitch. :)

3) I know it caused a lot of anger among fans, but I was intrigued by
the way Ron Moore and Co. turned the show in such an overtly religious
direction. Six was babbling about God's plan from the very beginning,
but I always expected that to be nothing more than an evil Cylon
device to manipulate people. Sometime around the Temple of Athena it
became clear that there was more to it, but the final season they
really turned it on. It's so rare one sees religion treated in such a
serious (reverent?) manner, particularly in the sci-fi genre.

4) They did a fantastic job of making the final season *feel* final.
With the government structure falling apart, characters committing
suicide, a devastating coup attempt that left the military in tatters,
Adama turning into Tigh, Roslin losing her religion, and Galactica
herself crumbling to pieces, they really sold the desperation and
finality of it all. When Zarek had the entire quorum shot to death, I
couldn't believe it. That was the moment I realized the writers were
going balls out, and it was only going to get worse, not better.

Things that made me sad:

1) Gaeta. I always like Gaeta, and I felt that he got screwed over by
New Caprica more than anyone. It became clear that he was coming off
the rails somewhere around the time that he tried to murder Baltar,
but I never expected him to go so far off the deep end. I understand
why Adama had him executed, but it still bummed me out. Up until the
coup, he was never anything but loyal to humanity, and I wanted
redemption for him.

2) Dee. Almost felt like the writers never quite knew what to do with
her. They matched her up with Billy, then abandoned that and matched
her up with Apollo, then abandoned that and she more or less
disappeared in the final season. I didn't see her end coming *at all.*

3) Cally.  :(

4) Lee's hair. If the show had been renewed for another season, I'm
afraid his hair would have simply taken control of the fleet.

Nit-picks:

1) I'm not much of a grudge-holder, but I did feel it was unreasonable
to expect us to sympathize with the Cylons in the final season. I
mean, in the pilot, Caprica Six MURDERED A BABY IN A STROLLER. I
understand that the humans ended up making an alliance with the Cylons
out of desperation, but... I dunno. These are the same robots who
literally murdered *everyone* the humans knew and loved, and, by the
way, never really expressed any remorse or offered any legitimate
explanation for their actions. This was probably the biggest
believability stretcher for me.

2) Cavil's sudden and unexplained suicide was a big "huh?" moment for
me. He was such a sneaky, conniving, and bloodthirsty bastard, it
seemed odd to me that in the space of two seconds he would give up and
blow his own brains out.

3) Ellen being the final Cylon. Felt random to me, and sort of robbed
her original death scene of it's considerable power.

Things that really, really angered me:

1) Helo needed to die. I wanted someone to kill him. Gaeta, Starbuck,
Adama, Athena, Apollo... anyone would have sufficed. I was very, very
disappointed that he lived to see new Earth. Gaeta was executed for
trying to stage a coup, meanwhile Helo consciously betrayed humanity
and snuck behind everyone's back to save the lives of the killers who
were hunting them -- and everyone more or less knew it. No
consequences? Frak that guy.

-- 
-pcg
 [email protected]

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