BattleStar Galactica - SPOILER WARNING

[FlamesAllTheWay]

WOW!

Awesome, awesome episode. At least I got one thing right with Starbuck coming back at the end delivering a big cliffhanger. "All Along the Watchtower" fit in great too, I guess the 4 were hearing radiowaves from earth. After starting to hate Lee from last episode the big soliloquy (sp?) speech he gave definitely redeemed himself.

Can't wait till season 4...

Anyone know what version of All Along the Watchtower that was???

[Flame On]

Wow that episode blew my mind. Only just guessed what was to come basically almost before it happened. Can't believe it.
Seems like the story accelertated really far ahead tonight.

[BlackEleven]

I had a feeling before the episode began Starbuck would make an appearance.

So have we seen the final five? I think there's a lot more to it that what they shown us so far.

[CaptainCrunch]

Ok, my thoughts and if this gets long, its just too bad for you.

We knew that the season and the trial was going to end tonight, and we also knew from Ron Moore that at least one of the 5 Cylon's would be revealed, and we certainly got both and more in spades. The show certainly threw the morality play into chaos as Adama over the last few episodes has become cynical and a bit of a single minded hard ass, first with his threats against the strikers, the Callie, then declaring that Baltar didn't deserve a trial, then basically shunning his son. Tonight he took a small step into the light by encouraging his son to basically go outside of all legal practices by making a long speech that condemmned the human legal system, and in doing so set a traitor free. I have to admit that Gaeta lying on the stand took me by surprise in a small way, and his smug little smile as he did it was disturbing. I really enjoyed Baltar's defense lawyer who in the end used Apollo's honesty against his own trial strategy. Now we have to ask ourselves who were the people that saved Baltar in the end, are they part of an appeasement group that needs a hero, Cylon agents or sympathizers.

to be honest, I misjudged things totally, I had guessed that Baltar would be executed and would wake up on a Cylon basestar thus becoming one of the lost 5, and because of his death and ressurection, would become a jesus like figure for both the human's and the Cylons and would lead them both to earth. Boy would I suck as a script writer.

The dream in the entry to the opera house became a little more surreal as all members of the dream including Hera were equally effected by the dream, and they threw doubt into the missing 5 as Caprica stated that they shouldn't have been able to link like that. We knew that Athena was a cylon and hera was a half cylon and Caprica was a cylon, but Roslin being linked into it pointed to her being our mysterious Cylon.


Interesting point in using "All along the watch tower, to be honest I had figured out the tune from the way they were all humming it throughout the episode, now was this music some kind of Cylon code activation or was it a signal from earth activating the missing 5 cylons?

Revealing 4 out of 5 Cylon's was a pretty interesting turn around and a little un expected, and its interesting that Anders lost his wife to the Cylon's, Tyrell went through hell because of a cylon, Tigh had his eye ripped out of his head by a Cylon, but Torres was a relatively minor character. The interesting statement at the end was when Tigh and Torres basically pledged thier loyalties to thier masters, Tigh with Adama and Torres with Roslin, will history repeat itself and the machines will betray thier masters again? Interesting that we didn't see the 5th Cylon, which means that it wasn't on the Galactica, that leaves two, one is Apollo which isn't likely since he is Adama's natural son, the other is Starbuck, but she also had a biological mother and father. So who's the fifth Cylon or is it waitng on earth for both species to show up.

Nice swerve by Katee and Moore who interviewed on the web as being done with the show, to make an appearance, but is she real or a dream character in the same way that she died, and is she actually leading Lee to earth or to his death? Thats the true cliff hanger as the show ended with a view of what could be the planet earth, and Starbucks assertation that she'd been there.

All in all this was the Galactica that I think I was waiting for all season, it had a bit of everything as we dipped back into the mythology, into human morality and the sense of justice, some nice looking special effects, a massive twist in who the Cylon's were and two huge cliffhangers?

1) Who were the people with Baltar?

2) Is it Starbuck for real, and can she lead them to earth.

September seems so far away.

[Flame On]

Good post Captain.
I can't decide where I stand. With the wave from earth, or the cylon transmission groups. I think I lean toward the cylon transmission that heralded them to realize their nature. (no ironic pun intended)
About the choice of the final 5.
Tigh - Military
Anders - Civilian
Chief - Labor
Torres - Command or the executive
Is it a coincidence that one seems to come from each definitive group?

[worth]

unreal episode.

I had figured baltar would be found not guilty, and we hadn't seen the last of kara. I'm leaning to the theory that the four aren't really cylons at all, but it would make sense as they are the second hand man to both the president and admiral, the two most important people.

I heard that season 4 won't start until 2008. Any truth to that? Also wonder when season 3 will be out on DVD. Probably this summer. Guess it's time to start at the beginning again!

[JiriHrdina]

Great episode - but I had a bit of a problem with Lee's speech in the courtroom. The speech itself was fine but no court of law in any universe allows that type of thing to happen in a case. It was just a little unrealistic for me.

But I loved the return of Starbuck - very well handled allowing us to think to ourselves "is that Starbuck? is it?" when the bogie appeared on the radar. TV is at its best when you get caught up in stuff like that.

And now the long wait for next seasong begins.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by JiriHrdina

Great episode - but I had a bit of a problem with Lee's speech in the courtroom. The speech itself was fine but no court of law in any universe allows that type of thing to happen in a case. It was just a little unrealistic for me.

True, but even as Lee said, they're no longer a civilization, they're a gang, and a truly defined rule of law went out the window as soon as they started giving out blanket absolutions.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by Flame On

Good post Captain.
I can't decide where I stand. With the wave from earth, or the cylon transmission groups. I think I lean toward the cylon transmission that heralded them to realize their nature. (no ironic pun intended)
About the choice of the final 5.
Tigh - Military
Anders - Civilian
Chief - Labor
Torres - Command or the executive
Is it a coincidence that one seems to come from each definitive group?

Good coincidence, except Anders isn't really a civilian, he was taking Raptor training, and he was part of a resistance group and has taken part in military missions. The Chief is labor, but he's also a ranking masterchief.

If your looking at it from a couterpoint point of view, where the human leadership is eliminated and replaced in some quantum act of couter loyalty.

Adama - Tigh
Torres - Roslin
Anders - Apollo
Chief - ?

It all comes down to new Cylon # 5.

[JiriHrdina]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

True, but even as Lee said, they're no longer a civilization, they're a gang, and a truly defined rule of law went out the window as soon as they started giving out blanket absolutions.

It's a minor quibble but it felt like a heavy handed way of getting a stirring monologue into the episode. Why not just have Lee make closing remarks?

I dunno. I did like that lawyer dude though - cool voice.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by JiriHrdina

It's a minor quibble but it felt like a heavy handed way of getting a stirring monologue into the episode. Why not just have Lee make closing remarks?

I dunno. I did like that lawyer dude though - cool voice.

I kinda felt the same way about the whole testimony versus final closing, and I think it wouldn't have had the same impact if they had gone through the whole no witnesses defense rests type of thing and then did the closing argument. Especially after Gaeta lied his ass off.

I'm assuming that this is the last that we see of that lawyer by the way he walked off into the sunset, but he was a pretty cool character.

[Wookie]

Oh my...

Not much else to say.. but what a great episode! Wow.. So good, and the music was fantastic!!

I'm in love!

[ericschand]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

...but is [Starbuck] real or a dream character in the same way that she died, and is she actually leading Lee to earth or to his death? Thats the true cliff hanger as the show ended with a view of what could be the planet earth, and Starbucks assertation that she'd been there.

2) Is it Starbuck for real, and can she lead them to earth.

September seems so far away.

The "ship of lights" from the original series?

Didn't they too have an episode or two dealing with the death of
Apollo, bringing "him" back to life, then showing Galactica the path
to Earth? Replace Apollo with Starbuck...

ers

[MrMastodonFarm]

What a great episode, my thoughts (and then some) have been summed up already by other posters but I'd just like to add that the best part of the episode was Balter calling Gaeta butter fingers. That reaction to me was hilarious.

It was also funny to see how quickly Balter reverted back to his smug self immediatly after the trial.

[MrMastodonFarm]

Originally Posted by JiriHrdina

I dunno. I did like that lawyer dude though - cool voice.

Pretty cool character, would love to see him return at a later date, don't know how that would work though.

Took me a little while to realize where I knew his face from though, played Badger in FireFly.

[Cowperson]

Well that certainly sets up an interesting season 4 . . . . . and yes, its January 2008, with a Pegasus movie in about September to fill the gap.

I was pretty sure Kara was coming back and figured it would be in the final scene . . . . . . but I didn't anticipate her saying "I"ve BEEN to Earth."

Of course, if we remember back to season 2, in the cave scene, Kara, Lee Adama, Admiral Adama and Laura Roslin finds Kara exclaiming "We're standing on Earth" when they saw all the constellations around them.

Does she mean she's been to Earth in the same sense?

Is the Nebula a portal?

How would the Cylons know about her destiny? How would anyone know what her destiny is? How has the Nebula been in her head throughout her life.

In promoting the final episode, Sci-Fi channel sent out e-mails saying: "Find out who the Final Five Cylons are!!" but I'm also leaning towards the thought that the chief, Torrie, Tigh and Anders might not be Cylons or, if they are, then the glowing entities we've seen might not be them.

But who did Danna D'biers recognize among those glowing entities in the temple if not one of those five human suspects?

We knew from an earlier episode that Baltar's writings had developed a cult following in the fleet. We saw one young lady wanting him to bless her child in the previous episode. So it's likely he's being shuffled off and protected - probably as some kind of Messiah - by those supporters . . . . no doubt to be persecuted and strung up on a cross at a later date!!!

So much for the Roslin/Adama love affair. . . . . . or the mother/son sort of relationship between Roslin and Lee. Is she now an implacable enemy of those two?

The trial, I thought, came to the correct verdict and explained it well . . . . . although Baltar is certainly guilty of something, his unwitting collaboration in the original attack on the twelve colonies.

Is Gaeta merely bent on revenge. Throughout this series, including the mini-series, he's been in a perfect position to continue driving the fleet onward and outward towards Earth. Are the Cylons or some group of them "herding" the remaining humans in that direction deliberately.

The last few episodes have ramped up the special effects to a greater degree . . . . some amazing stuff . . . . although a space fighter probably doesn't have to "bank" away as Lee did . . . . just change direction and go.

The mental link of Roslin/Six, Athena and Hera is interesting . . . . . I wonder if they'll also all start seeing Baltar in their heads as Six can.

. . . . and one assumes Baltar is stilling seeing Six in his head.

I'm looking forward to the Pegasus movie. . . . . I assume it will end with the radio exchange between Cain and Galactica . . . . . "Adama . . . . is that you?"

Random thoughts.

but I'd just like to add that the best part of the episode was Balter calling Gaeta butter fingers.

I agree. I busted out laughing at that.

Cowperson

[worth]

Interesting interview. Spoilers for those who haven't seen last nights episode.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07085/770732-352.stm

[Cowperson]

Originally Posted by worth

Interesting interview. Spoilers for those who haven't seen last nights episode.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07085/770732-352.stm

Fantastic and very timely interview . . . . .

I was thinking last night that Tigh was emphasizing he'd been in the fleet 40 years and fought in two Cylon wars . . . . . which implies all sorts of things about human-appearing Cylons and their origins, that those origins go back much further than we suspected.

Will we find a human/Cylon world on Earth?

Cowperson

[MrMastodonFarm]

Originally Posted by Cowperson

Will we find a human/Cylon world on Earth?

Possible that the real Tigh was replaced by a Cylon years ago and just given his memories?

[Cowperson]

Originally Posted by MrMastodonFarm

Possible that the real Tigh was replaced by a Cylon years ago and just given his memories?

Moore says in the interview that Tigh and the others will probably be fundamentally different Cylons . . . . . you'll remember they were unaffected as Leoben was in the mini-stations at Ragnar station.

We might find that Tigh and his type of Cylon might be from Earth.

Wouldn't that be kind of cool?

Cowperson