Battlestar Galactica: Final Season (SPOILERS)

Well, my issue about Cavil (and yes, I needed a reminder that it was in fact stated and not just something we kicked around in here) ...was the larger question: Does he in fact know what's going down with the time travel thing?

Also if he wiped their memories this time, then does that imply that this is the FIRST cycle/loop of everything happening again? Because if they've done this more than once (or at least, some form of it, unless someone's wiping their memories every time), they would have remembered doing this before.

Wait, no, I'm missing something here.

Yeah, I think mine is complete poppycock too. (And you almost had me with your "later version of herself" thing till I thought about it for a nanosecond and realized that made no sense and was totally backwards. Then my head exploded ... apparently because I went through a black hole or a wormhole or an ******* or something.)

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Well, I think it could work, actually, if Kara didn't have the memory loss. With the current loss, they can always just say she doesn't remember the events leading to her death. Otherwise, my theory would be the only solution, following Holmes-like deduction. Future Kara would be the only possibility, no matter how unlikely, therefore it would have to be true, even if the method still escaped us, the viewers at this time. Current Kara would otherwise remember the trip.

My brain hurts. I am going home.

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Unless Cavil wiped her memory.....

*cough*

Yeah, I can't quite make sense of all that, but it's conceivable that Kara's done some kind of time traveling before, or something. Then again, her Viper was described as looking as if it "had just come off the assembly line." That makes it sound like someone reconstructed it and sent her back. Hmm.

Anyway, it all ends tonight. Thankfully, if we've learned anything, it's that all of it will happen again anyway. Though personally I think that's just the show's way of justifying a barrage of re-runs.

Don't forget, everyone: tonight's finale starts at 9 PM, not the usual 10 PM.

Quick spoiler-free quote from someone at TV Guide who saw the finale at a special press screening on Monday:

I do believe a woot is in order.

Ahem: woot.

Also, someone on AICN mentioned that, in a webisode for the series, one of the Dorals (Number Five, the PR-guy) specifically arranged for Lee Adama to be on Galactica just before the Holocaust on Caprica began. Since it's in a webisode it won't be required viewing to understanding anything, but it could feed some extra meaning into something else. Either way, I expect we'll see it explored in The Plan.

T-minus 9 hours...

I am all over it...

I'm at that stage today where it is tough to hunker down and do work I should be doing instead (laundry, proofreading, etc.). I'd rather be watching the all-day marathon of back episodes!

Well after watching about 6 hours worth of past episodes and reading another 3 hours or so worth of Battlestar threads, etc... I can honestly say that Yoda's theory works REALLY well through-out the series if you take that perspective while watching and interpret whatevers going on threw those eyes.
I think a few possible explanations of who or what Kara is are:
A.) She is either from another dimension/universe, and crossed over somehow when the "original" Starbuck went through the malestrom/worm-hole(?) and may have opened up a rift, blah blah blah and the "new" Starbuck came through having just explored the alternate "perfectly fine" Earth, hence why she couldn't understand what was going on, why her Viper looked practically new, etc...

...or..

B.) She may have been resurrected by the Seraphs, the "God-like" beings from the original series that were in the "bright, shiny, flying crystal ship" who brought Apollo back to life, etc... It's a really thin idea at best, but it isn't completely unlikely, since so far, I can't think of one "totally reasonable" explanation of her and what happened.

I have a few other theories of my own, but unfortunately, I have to go and I won't have time to post before the show airs. I hope tonights finale lives up to my hype!

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"Vader...You Must Confront Vader..."

We have Yoda's Dad to thank for that gem of a theory, I think.

Aye. Can't take credit for it, sadly, though I was all too happy to confirm the various ways it fit for him:


Less than 5 hours now!

I am watching a tiny bit of the replays today ... and the end of the piano player episode is when they ask Kara how she knows that song. She starts to say that her father taught her that song before realizing she is alone on the piano bench.

So, if her FATHER taught her that song (and it's not inherent in her system like it seems to be for Hera), then what is/was HE? That and the "Opera House" reference on his concert tape (which I confirmed with the "pause" button just now) makes me wonder about all these clues we've been given about her:

-- Her viper was seen to 'splode
-- Came back with a new Viper
-- Saw a "good" version of Earth
-- Her father taught her to play the "final five switch-on" song
-- Hera knows this song too
-- Her father happens to have played at a venue called an Opera House
-- Her body (DNA match) is on the "bad" version of Earth, apparently in her original viper (although we saw it 'splode in space and not crash-land on a planet)

I'm so thoroughly confused ...and although I don't follow AICN at all, I am relieved to read that nonspoilery reaction to the finale. If anyone saw the special on Monday night, there are several actors who reference the finale with ideas like "satisfying" and "full circle" ... and Moore mentioned the "This has happened before, this will happen again" stuff a gazillion times in that special!

We are in for a treat, I think!

I am scurrying around doing work that I usually do Friday night now, so that I don't have to worry about it later. I have a feeling Yoda and Lady C and I will be gabbing about the finale long after it's actually over.

So? Well????

Hellloooo??? (echo echo echo)

I loved it!

There were so many awesome moments in this. I love the over-all outcome. I saw the theme of the whole show as Choices and the head characters' motivation as just putting people in positions to choose to be who they want to be. I rewatched the marathon today and noticed that Elosha seemed to know that they were about to jump right in front of Adama in his Raptor, suggesting divine intervention. There have been many times that Head 6 has intervened and helped Baltar to make choices that set up either his being a better person, or the general approach of the tableau in the CIC, where he made the speech and Cavil chose a truce. THIS time it didn't work out, but it appears that the head characters amuse themselves by orchestrating situations where a lasting truce might be chosen, and hope to see it happen one day. I like that the Opera House visions were apparently emotional rehearsals for that tableau - not as important as I'd expected, but an interesting tool for getting people where they wanted them.

I was glad to see Baltar step up, Boomer rescue Hera, and we got the answer to what Kara Thrace is, and inconcievably, Baltar was right! Loved Baltar's "I know something about farming" and found it very moving. Also very moved by the shot of the moon and Earth beyond it. Actually, very moved many times. I think it was a seven Kleenex finale.

Oddly, the thing that didn't make me cry was Laura's death, maybe because we've anticipated it for years now. It just seemed a very beautiful death and I was glad she got that.

More thoughts tomorrow. I'mna watch this again and then hit the hay.

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Review: Cabin in the Woods 8/10

Wow. So the show is finally over. All of those theories and they still managed to surprise me. I thought some of the conclusions would be more dramatic (I thought the Kara Thrace reveal would've been more "impactful", but leaving it up to interpretation is fine by me) and I didn't see some of it coming at all (the fact that both Head Six and Head Baltar were conducting behind the scenes was great!) and I was really surprised that the "time warp/jump" theory really didn't pan out as I had expected, but it sure as hell made alot of sense leading up to the finale. The fact that they let the Centurions go off on their own was great, leaving the door open so to speak for another run at the series if need be. Overall, I wasn't disappointed in the series finale, it does give closure to a great 5 year run as, in my opinion, the best show on television. Thankfully, the producers are gonna bless us with more "tv crack" this summer with "The Plan", the 2 hour movie of the Cylons view on what went down on Caprica.
Hopefully, "Caprica" will fill the void left by Adama and his crew, and also fill the void left in my DVR cashe....

I won't speak for Yoda right now (he's here -- we watched it together last night and then stayed up till after 2:30 A.M. talking about it) ... but I will speak for myself.

I wish I hadn't read the spoiler-tagged theory about time travel. I think I would have enjoyed the finale a lot more. Because honestly -- the time travel theory was better than what we got.

Now, trying to factor out having read that theory in advance, I think this is/would have been my reaction:

-- I was very happy to see them find Earth (well, even a misnamed Earth, a point I found clever and amusing). I was ecstatic to see GREEN GRASS and Africa and maps with Australia on them and antelope and flamingos ... etc. etc. I kept thinking, "Finally! Oh, good! They're not disappointing us."

-- I was very UNhappy with the whole nebulous "angels" explanation for Kara and the head characters. I think it's a cheap shot and takes a show that was otherwise very gritty and realistic and down-to-earth and gives it a cheap back-door way out of a tough plot situation. It gives it an almost "Oh, it was all a dream!" feeling -- you know, one of those shows that cheapens itself by copping out of a better explanation by giving us only half of one ... and one that is so NOT in line with the rest of the series that it leaves you scratching your heads.

I'm sorry, but Kara as an angel after she died? PERHAPS I would have bought that theory a little better if she had shared ANY of the characteristics of the other angels (Head Six, Head Baltar). You know what I mean: The Heads wore the same clothes, always were well coiffed, and were seen only by certain people at specific times. And they seemed to be aware of who they were and their place in the world.

Kara, OTOH, had entirely human characteristics. She didn't know who she was. She sweated. She ate and drank. She changed clothes. She EVEN USED THE TOILET, for cryin' out loud (in front of Baltar, I might add). Oh, and she was seen and heard by everyone ... all the time.

So, as a writer, I was extremely disappointed in the fact that the BSG writers broke their own rules by setting Kara up as a "regular" person after her crash and then yanking her away in a flash, revealing her to be an angel, but with NO clues beforehand that she was one. To me that's a cop-out -- and I know they did it only so that we viewers wouldn't have guessed earlier in the season that she was an angel. Let's face it: If she had come back and acted and dressed like a Head character, we would have guessed in five seconds.

It was a cheap trick and not beautiful or explanatory to me. At all. And why? Because she hadn't fulfilled her destiny yet? Did she accidentally die too early, so the god(s) had to bring her back as an angel (and disguise her as a human) in order to give her more time to fulfill her destiny? That's an odd way to define destiny, IMHO. You would think the same being(s) that instilled or gave her that destiny would have known or controlled her ability to stay alive long enough to fulfill it. Again, it seems inconsistent.

Anyway, I have entirely mixed feelings about the episode. I'm SO happy they did find a home (I honestly was wondering if they were going to stay bleak and not get us there), but I am SO disappointed in their "angels" explanation for so much stuff.

I also thought the dialogue between Head Six and Head Baltar at the tail end was a bit heavy-handed and unnecessary (despite its lightness). For a show that usually allowed us to think for ourselves and figure things out, they sure did spend a lot of time making sure we "got" what was going on.

And honestly, it wasn't as much as I had anticipated. We (as a group, here) had discussed the idea of them settling onto our Earth in an early time period and helping civilization develop ... a few seaons back! And we had eventually dismissed it because too many questions were left unanswered. To find out that we had been right back then ... and that those same questions are being left unanswered (when they COULD have been answered by the theories above) was almost anticlimactic.

I'll continue mulling this over for a while. But that's my initial impression, the morning after. I was hoping I'd wake up and not be miffed about the "angels" bit ... but I still am.

I thought it was fantastic!

More later.

Wow. Well, as well as well the theory fit, it wasn't correct. I'm pretty stunned. And not terribly satisfied.

Half the episode, it's true, was filled with genuinely satisfying or poignant moments, but I don't think that's impressive storytelling so much as understanding what we want to see, and giving it to us. I think the desire to finally see them at peace, and happy, was so strong that it's tempting to let them off the hook for all the things they didn't even remotely explain. To me, though, it was always a given that they'd give us the emotional payoff we desired. What wasn't a given was wrapping plotlines up elegantly.

A few things that were not explained properly, or ignored outright:

• How was the 13th tribe Cylon?
• Why is there a "Temple of Five" long before there's a Final Five?
• What is Kara? We have Angels in this world, apparently, but she isn't like them. Everyone can see her.
• Even if we accept the fact that Kara's just some special exception issued by God (but why? Just because?), how did her body end up charred on (first) Earth, when we saw it explode in space?
• Why was the singularity necessary/important?
• Does Bob Dylan still get residuals for writing a song that was apparently built into the fabric of the Universe?

This is big, big stuff, and they basically ignored all of it. I hate to rain on anyone's parade, but how does this not kinda ruin it? They ignored lots of questions, and the rest were just answered with "oh, uh...Angels did it! Angels did it all!" Isn't this the most literal embodiment possible of a Deus ex Machina? They literally put God into the machines!

Just so I don't sound like a complete cynic...stuff I did like:

• Tyrol breaking the brief truce between Cylons and humans by killing Tory. Believable, logical, huge emotional payoff, and just all-around awesome. High point of the entire episode.
• The Opera House as a metaphor for the halls of Galactica. A little goofy, and maybe a bit of a cop-out, but still "fair," and very well-executed.
• The moment where Baltar realizes that the place he came from is the place he's ended up, basically. Great moment.

I'll have more thoughts later, I'm sure. Really looking forward to the huge podcast that's coming from Ron Moore and Co., though I'm not confident that it'll wrap everything up, and not that we shouldn't be able to get our answers from the show itself, anyway.

Meh. Very disappointed overall. Really liked some of the emotional payoffs, but the intellectual/storytelling side was a mess. I hope I'm missing something huge, but my mom and lady friend and I talked about it for over two hours after it was over, so I'm not terribly hopeful on that front.

Divine explanation for certain events and resolutions is only "deus ex machina" if introduced out of nowhere in the final act. Think of Chekov's rule of storytelling: a gun introduced in the first act will go off by the third. The hand of God (or whatever) has been at the core of the show since its literal beginning, so it can't properly be called some bizrre, out of nowhere copout. Honestly, for those hoping for some rational, scientific bow tying up threads, what show have you been watching? Had your solutions come to pass, it would have been like introducing a gun in the first act only to have it suddenly morph into a knife.

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You think?

Nim, you might have a point there, except for a few important issues:

-- The solution they showed us was more like the gun-morphing-into-a-knife than the one proposed here earlier in the week. The time-travel theory at least would have accounted for many of the unresolved questions that remained.

-- Yes, a few of the head characters and also Caprica Six talked of God (an active God) working in people's lives. And there was often talk (especially in earlier seasons) of the gods and prophecies, etc., although that talk dropped off sharply in the past season and a half or so.

However, I am a "religious" person who allows concepts of God and His Word to direct my life decisions every day. And yet I don't see someone sitting on a toilet one day and then blip out of existence standing next to me the next day. Just because someone talks of God doesn't mean that you can use that as a "device" to explain things that should have been better explained all along.

I know enough Christian writers (who write specifically Christian fiction) who would NEVER get away with using God as a plot device to get themselves out of plot-trouble. It just isn't fair.

And as writers, they should not have introduced head characters with very specific characteristics, only to then throw Kara into the mix as a similar character (supposedly) but then break all the rules they have set up for how those characters act. Especially since they ONLY did that in order to SHIELD the truth of her identity from us as viewers. There was no other reason except to hide it from us for as long as possible. Still feels very forced to me.

The emotional payoffs were very important to me, so I am very happy to have seen them. Hard not to get teary eyed at Adama flying Roslin around to see all the wildlife as she quietly passes away. Loved seeing green grass, strikingly blue skies ... I could almost smell and feel the fresh air after four-plus seasons of gloom and metal and shadows.

But the angel thing just really has me miffed -- as a viewer and as a writer.

The vague "Hand of God" is one thing. God randomly selecting people to return to life, and transporting their bodies onto distant planets just to mess with them, is another thing entirely. I don't really care for the explanation of Angels, but as you'll notice, it wasn't actually among the list of things that were left unexplained above.

I'm not sure I see how just toying around with ideas of fate somehow gives the show a free pass to ignore inconvenient loose ends. Every meaningful story explores themes of morality, God, and destiny in some way. That doesn't mean wrapping things up supernaturally (or ignoring glaring questions outright) suddenly becomes consistent for every one of them.

As opposed to introducing a gun, and then just firing blanks into the air? They didn't merely pose metaphysical questions; they posted questions about the timeline, too, and emphasized their importance. And then they basically just asked us to forget about them. That's the copout.

The supernatural aspects and the scientific ones aren't mutually exclusive. The synthesis between technology/science and religion/spirituality is what's at the core of the show. Going to the "Hand of God" well to explain away a few things isn't so bad...I expected as much. But that was the only well they went to, and they kept going back long after it had run dry.