Battlestar Galactica: Final Season (SPOILERS)

Nah, not weak. It *does* explain a lot of things rather tidily. And, with four episodes left, I expect them to find ways to tie up several loose ends at once wherever they can.

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My take on Deadlock: they are starting to wrap up the loose ends so they can concentrate on the more central characters. LOTS of great humor in this one. Loved the lines about the delicious irony of not trusting the baby monitor, and Caprica saying, "I'll bet you've called me a few names" to Roslyn. heh!!

Austruck, I'm with you in disappointment at where Baltar's arc has gone. It's HIGH TIME they got back to him and did something more than have him think about being a better person, only to not. I liked the stuff with him and Paula though.

The scenes with Tigh and Adama I found very touching. I get the feeling those guys are really going to miss each other when the show wraps. oh, which I guess it already did, so I bet they miss each other now.

It looks like we're going to take a closer look at Kara on Friday and I can't wait. The mystery of what/who she is has really been fun and I'm salivating for answers.

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Review: Cabin in the Woods 8/10

Yeah, this is Kara's week, it seems. And what's up with Anders's brain waves now? Hmmm....

I think he's rebooting.

I think the Kara as Daniel idea is really intriguing. Whether it's true or not (and the odds are against any single theory being true, I suppose), I think it might hold together, and as has been mentioned, it definitely explains a lot. Plus, the writers seem accutely aware of the original series and like toying with both parallels and ironic reversals with it.

Thoughts on "Deadlock": totally with you, Aus, on the Ellen thing. She was so hateful initially, but when she reappeared this season, she seemed like a completely different person. In her scenes with Cavil, it's clear she's the "good" one, so I started thinking of her that way, and therefore started to make guesses about where the series was going based on what she advocated.

But put her in a room with Tigh, and all of a sudden she's the "bad" guy and he's the "good" guy, and it's HIS advocacy that I start assuming is going to steer us to the finale. All of this operates under the assumption, of course, that the ending will be somewhat happy, and that we're meant to side with certain characters.

Anyway, the Ellen thing is kinda trippy. It's almost as if she takes on the traits of whoever she's around. When she's on the baseship, she's calmer, more calculating, more machine-like. She matches Cavil's tone. When she comes to Galactica, she immediately starts in with her old jealous mind games and manipulation.

Really, REALLY interesting theory I heard that hadn't occurred to me: they've been babbling on about the idea that Cylons can't get each other pregnant without love. It always sounded like a metaphor, or just a nice idea, but it's starting to look literal. Ellen keeps insisting on it, like it's a fact, and nobody seems to be disputing her. Who else thinks they've basically programmed their creations to require love for procreation? It sounds a little goofy, but it explains a lot. My dad suggested, interestingly, that the moment Caprica Six's baby dies is the moment Tigh looks at Ellen and feels love for her instead of Six, which is why Tigh and Ellen seem so apologetic when it happens. Maybe love is in their programming. This explains why the Cylons on Earth could procreate (they've become more human and loving), and why the ones from Caprica couldn't (they were in a revolution and filled with hatred).

Interesting theory, if a little hokey. What I'll be intrigued by is whether or not the writers end up pegging this as a good or bad thing. Will it be the salvation of the Cylons, or will it a misguided attempt to make them more human?

Either way, I think it's pretty clear that integration is the main plank of the last few episodes here. Tigh's mini-speech about it, and the conspicuous and repeated use of the word "blended" all point to it. It's pretty clear that we're supposed to think this is good. Of course, as Aus pointed out, most of us figured by the second season that the series pretty much had to end that way, as they'd been working so tirelessly on making the two sides harder to tell apart.

At this point, I think we have most of the revelations we're going to get; we're just missing a few pieces of the back-story. Of course, every time I think that, they drop another bombshell on me, so we'll see. Either way, I think the bulk of the intrigue from here on out will have to do with who crosses the battle-lines that are being drawn, who survives, and what over-arching lesson the writers ascribe to it all.

Oh, regarding Baltar: I wouldn't be disappointed just yet. We're down to the last five episodes, and they're still dedicating significant amounts of time to what he's doing, even if it seems unimportant in the grand scheme of things. It isn't. I can't conceive that what he's doing now isn't going to be part of something bigger. He's still Gollum, to me; perhaps less so than before, but I still say he figures into the ending. He's got guns now, and seems ambivalent about human-Cylon integration. We've got moderate Cylons siding with humans...why wouldn't some humans jump ship and side with Cavil and the rest?

Also think that, if and when there's another big surprise (though I think we've got one or two more, tops), it probably comes from Anders after he wakes up.

Last *four* episodes, sir. We've seen six of the ten already. Time is running out to add new things...

...which brings me back to the Kara/Daniel thing. I think something with Kara has to be one of those "October surprises," if only because this week's preview is bringing it up again. And I keep asking myself, Why would they bring in the notion of ANOTHER cylon model in the final episodes of the entire series, after us thinking there were only 12 models for YEARS? Not just as a throwaway concept. That seems wrong.

SO, if it's not a dead-end toss-away remark by Anders (and Ellen), then why bring it up now? Because we also need to explain something with Kara that will make sense and account for HER situation(s) in the semi-recent past. I think the fact that Daniel was "the creative one" points directly to Kara at this point. Right now, the more I think about it, the more I'll be surprised if they're NOT tied together somehow.

There's also a tiny part of me that wonders if the time period where Kara was kidnapped and put in the "baby factory" for surgery isn't going to figure into this somehow.

Baltar? I dunno. He's starting to feel like a loose end himself -- I see him as a possible martyr at this point. Killed in a hail of gunfire. I keep assuming that the ongoing issues with him and the Sons of Aries are merely distractions at this point ... ways to keep reminding us that all is NOT entirely well in other parts of the fleet. A kind of microcosm of the general population in the fleet.

You know, a sort of almost false tension because we're not even concerned about that stuff anymore, but they need to ratchet up the tension here at the bitter end. And they worked out the revolution proper, but that doesn't mean there aren't still dissidents.

I see your point, but my gut feeling was that it just wasn't any more than a side plot. I'd love to be wrong, though. I still like Baltar, and would love to see him come back into play, his old, usual selfish self.

Yoda, I don't see humans jumping ship (literally) and siding with Cavil. Even those who are pro-cylon or accept cylons don't want to JOIN the cylons in defeating the human race. That seems more than a little bit extreme. We haven't seen one human being touch on that sort of viewpoint at all up until this point.

Yeah, meant to say four, sorry. Though the last episode is going to be crazy long. I think I heard it'd be two hours, at least.

Agree with all the Daniel stuff...though it's kind of a cheat to have another sorta-kinda Cylon model floating around all of a sudden, it's pretty obvious that we need that piece of information to make sense of what's coming next. And yeah, I've been thinking about the baby farm a lot. Really curious about what happened there.

Interesting thought about Daniel: we used to talk about how the 12 Cylon models mirrored the 12 Tribes living on Caprica. But there's a 13th Tribe that was set apart, and correspondingly, there's a 13th Cylon that's a little different, too. That's something we might have been able to guess much earlier in the series; that some sort of pseudo-Cylon would emerge to complete the parallel.

I'll be both very surprised and very put-off if the Baltar thing is just a floating side-plot. They're really going to dedicate something like 10 solid minutes to anything that isn't crucially important at this stage? I'm skeptical. I think Baltar ends up leading some kind of insurrection, or otherwise figuring into the final confrontation. But I'm not sure about this, either, and I hope this isn't just something to pad out the mood of the fleet.

Maybe not actually siding with him, but siding against the Cylon-sympathizing humans. In other words, a human rift to mirror the Cylon rift.

Ooh, I see. I thought you meant really siding with Cavil, as in "Go, Cavil! You're our leader!" Yes, the mirroring thing would be interesting, if we had more time. I just don't see that they have time for yet another rift, split, insurrection, revolution, or even someone bitching about a hangnail, frankly.

Jury's still out with me and Baltar. I suppose I get my healthy skepticism from the fact that he's been bouncing all over the map in recent seasons, and not really getting anything done. He's touched into the main plots a few times, but mostly he's been a footnote to the larger story for a LONG time now. It's frustrated me a lot, so I'd love to be wrong (except I'm sooooo tired of revolution concepts in this series right now), if only to see Baltar's character come swooping back in all its annoying, hilarious glory. But even that's a stretch -- he's not in a position (story-arc-wise) to be his marvelous funny narcissistic self anymore.

And that is just sad.

Just read a rumor (sourceless) related to some of the Daniel/Starbuck stuff. It's not exactly a spoiler, since it's just sort of going around and might just be speculation, and it's not exactly something we probably haven't all considered, but I'll play it safe:


I've heard some other people guess that Starbuck is simply the 6th survivor of the Earth Cylons; that the five were simply mistaken in thinking they were the only ones. This doesn't answer all our questions, of course, but it's just as plausible. This all still has to fit into the "you are the harbinger of death" thing the Hybrid told her, though I still think that has to do with her helping to destroy resurrection technology, making it not nearly as negative as it sounds.

By the by, I just read one person's rough timeline of all these new events, but he's actually confused and has screwed a few things up, so I won't reproduce it here for fear of adding to the confusion. I do think I might sit down in the next few days and construct something that we can add to and edit in preparation for the last month of shows.

I mostly agree, but I thought he got back to that in this last episode a bit. I mean, c'mon...the shameless rah-rahing he did to upstage Paulla? Classic Baltar. It reminded me of all those episodes in the first few years where I said to myself "I can't believe this guy has the balls to try to sell this."

Yeah, but that was about 2 minutes of air time. I used to love when he'd squirm his way out of far worse situations, one step at a time. He was brilliant at it.

Didn't seem narcissistic enough to be truly humorous in the old ways ... but I agree it was at least SOMEthing for us Baltar fans.

The only thing kicking around in the back of my mind re. Kara and Daniel is that if she is ANY sort of cylon at all, and therefore resurrected (thus explaining her reappearance and finding her own previous body on Earth), then why doesn't she remember the goo bath? Did the cylons somehow wipe her memory of that, put her into a brand-new Viper, and send her back to where she was, having forgotten the past few months the way the Final Five seem to have forgotten the past 2,000 years?

And obviously Tyrol, et al., didn't remember their OWN goo baths when they ended up on Caprica this past lifetime....

I suspect not all loose ends like this (the little tendrils) will get answered sufficiently.

Well, Baltar did give that little speech about being abandoned by God. This would put his group in alignment with the severely atheistic Cavil, yes?

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So, let's go through some of this stuff, shall we?

Rough Timeline

• Thousands of years ago, there are 13 tribes of Kobol. One of them is Cylon (presumably a remnant of some previous iteration of this basic cycle). The Cylon tribe leave and go to Earth; humans stay on Kobol.
• Humans and Cylons build up their respective societies.
• The Cylons on Earth learn to procreate, and abandon resurrection. Time passes, and they just go on living and procreating.
• At some point in all this, the Humans left on Kobol go to Caprica.
• Five of the Cylons on Earth (The Final Five) work together to bring Resurrection technology back. They succeed. They all have visions of people only they can see that warn them of a war.
• The Cylons on Earth have a nuclear holocaust. I don't think we know why yet, but presumably because something they created rose against them. The Final Five are the only ones who survive, with their newly built Resurrection ship orbiting the planet.
• The Final Five see the cycle of destruction and go to Kobol to warn humans to learn from their mistake and show compassion to their creations. They find humans have left Kobol, and use the information there to find Caprica. They don't have FTL drives yet, so the journey takes them approximately 2,000 years.
• Speculation that I think fits: before leaving Kobol, they leave that mysterious Beacon behind as a marker.
• Meanwhile, enough time has passed that humans back on Caprica have forgotten their past (or regard it as myth), think all 13 tribes were human, and invent Cylons all over. Uh-oh.
• The Centurion Cylons on Caprica rebel. The First Cylon War ensues.
• The Final Five arrive in the middle of the war, realizing they're too late.
• The Final Five persuade the Centurion Cylons on Caprica to stop fighting by offering them their technology. They accept, and the war ends.

Things get a little murky here. The following events take place around the same time, but we don't know exactly when, or in what order these take place:

• The Final Five begin to build the other models, starting with John (Cavil), who helps them build the others. Cavil becomes jealous of the next model (Daniel), and sabotages his entire line.
• At some point after the other models are created, and out of a desire to punish his creators, Cavil suffocates The Final Five, implants their resurrected selves with false memories, and inserts them into Caprican society at various points. It is here that Tigh meets Adama. Adama says in a season 3 episode that he's known Tigh for 30 years, so we can assume this part happens something like 10-12 years after the First Cylon War ends.

Back to a firmer timeline...

• The former Centurion Cylons of Caprica, armed with better technology, send spies to infiltrate human society. Caprica Six seduces Gaius Baltar and obtains information about their defenses.
• A Six (presumably a different one) strolls into the Armistice station. It blows up, and the events of the Miniseries/first episode begin.

Hints, Allegations, and Things Left Unexplained
(IE: things we don't know yet)

• We don't know what's up with Kara. All we know is that she's exhibited a lot of Cylon-like qualities.
• We don't know where or what The Colony is. Cavil mentions it to Ellen and says it has "all her old equipment," and says "they" haven't found it.
• We don't know why a number of characters have people in their heads. They include: The Final Five (pre-Earth Holocaust, warning them), Caprica Six, and Gauis.
• We don't know exactly what caused the Cylon Holocaust on Earth.
• We don't know how Tigh and Ellen met and married (again) on Caprica. It could be luck, fate drawing them together, or something Cavil influences. If it's the latter explanation, we don't know why (though it could be part of their punishment).

A couple things we don't technically know, but can probably assume:

We don't know how all these signposts and guides pointing people to Earth, Kobol, and Caprica got there, but they were probably left there as people came and went.

We also don't know how Cavil inserted The Final Five into Caprican society, or how he faked some of their papers. But this may not require an explanation, as we can probably assume he had more than enough in the way of resources and wherewithal to put together some fake IDs.


Some Quick Speculation

• I'll wrap this in spoiler tags because it's related to the thing I put in spoiler tags before, but I still think it's safe for everyone to click:
  
  
  View Spoilers

  WARNING: "Battlestar Galactica" spoilers below

  Even money that "The Colony" is the evidence of failed, attemped Daniels, and therefore evidence that Kara is somehow among them.

  Even money that "The Colony" is the evidence of failed, attemped Daniels, and therefore evidence that Kara is somehow among them.
• Learning that The Final Five had people in their heads could be a big deal, because that means we have 7 people who have this little quirk, and the only non-Cylon among them is Baltar. Could he be Daniel? Probably not, but it explains the visions he has, and Daniel was described as being very creative. He's also become very religious, making him (at least for the moment) the polar opposite of the more atheistic Cavil, who we know hates Daniel.
• If Cavil wiped the memories of the resurrected Final Five after suffocating them, he could have easily done the same thing with Kara. Perhaps her dying and learning she was a Cylon threw a wrench into his plan, so he wiped her and sent her back. We know the memory wipe is imperfect, because The Final Five are beginning to remember things, so this would explain why Kara can only hold onto a few scattered memories. Also, this would explain why she would say "I've been to Earth," but not mention that it's a crappy wasteland: she wasn't actually ON Earth, she was just on the Resurrection ship around it somewhere. She doesn't know it's desolate, but she DOES know the way to get there.

I think that last bullet point fits really well, and I'll be surprised if something like it doesn't end up being true.

Anyway: thoughts? This sound about right to anyone? Anything to add/edit?

I was going to comment on that last bullet point... I am thinking that is spot on. Nice work coming up with that!

OK, I did comment on it.

Aye, thanks. It does fit pretty nicely, but then again, so has a lot of other stuff we've thrown out there. All of us have been wrong before, and all of us will be wrong again.

More speculation: maybe Kara's actually the first grown-up Cylon-human mix. This would require any number of revelations, obviously, and it means Hera's significance is based on ignorance, but hey, just throwing it out there.