And That, As They Say, Is That

Ok, I've gotten countless emails saying "Where are my BSG reviews?" Wait... Ok, they weren't countless I just hadn't counted them. Um. Three. Whatev.

Where did I leave off? I guess I didn't do any of S4.5. Not great. I might change my mind if I watch it again. I had a much higher opinion of S3 the second go-round. (Except for three or so episodes. Those were still boring as dirt.) I loved the first half of S4. Something about 4.5 just didn't click for me. It wasn't so much that they were making it up as they went along as it was that they were making it up as the went along and it was stupid. There were a couple a serious cop-outs. Nicky not being Tyrol's kid was a real loser moment. Especially since when we found out Tyrol was a toaster Moore assured us that he knew what he was doing and Nicky would be just a significant as Hera. Ah well.

Oh, and for the three people that read this that care? The Final Five aren't immortal. They aren't even especially long lived. They just traveled at light speed for a few thousand years. So for them it was only a year or two. (Months?) Relativistic travel. Go read Speaker for the Dead.

We'd pretty much given up after the episode where Six and iTigh's kid died (keeping Hera special). Or at least I had. The mutiny was ok. The "falling apart battlestar" storyline should have been introduced more gradually. Now we know why they did it but it was still a little too rushed. So yesterday we sat down and watched the last FIVE HOURS of BSG. And were largely un-disappointed. (Unless you're a die-hard Kara/Lee shipper. Sorry, sweetie.)

First off? I want my glowing white spaceships. Grrrr.

It was a bang-howdy finish. And it felt like it should have happened about a season and a half ago. Finding "Earth" actually felt pretty natural. The Hand of God in all of BSG was something that had been sorely missing for a few seasons. As I will constantly grouse about, first season BSG managed to balance the spiritual, the political, and the soap opera with thrilling space action so so so perfectly. It was really missed. It was nice to see the echoes of it here. All Along the Watchtower even felt nicely woven in. Why not?

The big "let's go get Hera" op did not feel anything other than "Heck, it's the end of the show. Let's blow it all up." Sometimes you have to roll the hard six when you know you're not coming back next season.

Nice to see that Wild Bill is still consistently inconsistent. A suicide raptor mission? Who'd be crazy enough to try THAT? Oh, yeah, Wild Bill like nine episodes ago.

Six and Baltar! Yay! I'm a Six/Baltar shipper. Who knew? That was a thread that was never successfully picked up from when Caprica and Gaius met up back on New Cap. It was also nice to see Gaius be smart again. Gaius is supposed to be a jerk, but he's also supposed to be brilliant. They were always much better at the jerk part.

NOT. ENOUGH. STARBUCK. AND. LEOBEN. Come ON! They dropped the ball so much on these two it was like New Years in Times Square. Starbuck meets her destiny and turns out to be an angel and Leoben isn't even there to say "Wow, whatdayaknow?" Bleah.

And the whole Kara Thrace: Harbinger of Doom? Yeah, that was so -- Wait, you can't even dismiss that as "we changed our minds"! They were still nattering on about it an episode ago! How does THAT make sense?!? And how is this the FINAL chapter of the human race?!?

So did anyone else come to the conclusion that Starbuck's dad was the Thirteenth cylon? -- Um, apparently so:

How about fan theories over the show, like mention of a missing Cylon named Daniel? After his name was mentioned, the fans just went wild online. Did you intend for that to happen, and was he supposed to inspire this big fan-driven backstory?

RDM: You know, the Daniel thing is going to be one of the great fiascos of the show, in terms of what fans thought and what the truth was. Because Daniel was not intended to be anything more than an interesting bit of backstory in that episode. And that's how we approached it. It was just a story that Cavil and Ellen tell each other, that sort of goes to the idea of who Cavil was and how deep his resentments were, and his jealous nature - and [we wanted to] do a Cain and Abel allegory. That was all it was. And then after the show aired. I started picking up all this stuff about how fans were obsessing about Daniel and how [people thought] Daniel was Kara's father, and he was the big surprise. I started thinking, "Oh sh-t, slow down people, I don't want you to really get
invested." I usually don't like to go out there and say, "Oh, that's a bad theory," because part of the enjoyment of watching the show is coming up with ideas. But this was gathering such momentum, I didn't want people to be going into the finale and really be waiting for the Daniel shoe to drop, when there's no shoe. It's one of those things where you're inside the show, [and] you look at it, and go one way. And then it's broadcast, and an audience sees it, and then they seize on this piece that you never really anticipated, and then you're sort of amazed. And you're saying, "Slow down, no - come back."

So much for THAT.

The whole "Clyons losing resurrection" plot was still silly. That should have been backed up on disk someplace. Seriously. And WHAT was THE PLAN? Other than a miniseries this fall? If Cavil hated having a human body so much why was he so all-fired hot to get resurrection back? Why not just go back to the Centurions?

But it was really nice to see Tyrol choke the felgercarb out of Tori.

Did Hotdog make it? He'd be the only Nugget that did. EDIT: Looked it up. Well, he wasn't explicitly killed, so I call that a win!

They finally got to kill off Racetrack and Skulls. They even made a gag about it.

"Could we PLEASE not tell her the plan?"

They didn't hook up Boomer and the Chief. Nice one.

I'm glad the Fighting Agathons made it, but I'd have been ok if Helo had bought it fighting for his daughter.

Sam flying the fleet into the sun was a little unsatisfying. Flying off someplace undetermined might have been better. It wasn't a bad send off for the Old Girl as far as it goes, but it was somehow not quite a satisfying as it should have been. But they played the theme. That goes a long way.

Lee got the short end, as he almost always did. And he was upstaged by Kara the Friendly Ghost, as he almost always was.

The most perfect and natural and easy part of the whole episode was Laura and Bill. (iTigh and Ellen wasn't bad either.) And the dying leader lead her people to Earth. With the help of a crazy maybe dead viper pilot. Bill at Laura's grave was one of the best images of the whole series.

Annnnnnd the Six in Baltar's head and the Baltar in Six's head were ANGELS???? What the frak?

Well, there's still Clone Wars.