Happened before when Buffy ended. Will happen again when Lost ends. DAMN YOU, AMAZING TELEVISION MAKING ME CRY CAUSE YOU WON'T BE ON THE AIR ANYMORE.
For the record, I loved the finale. I thought it was amazing. I was satisfied with the answers I got and any answers I didn't get I was happy to read a Ron Moore interview or any recaps to find em out. The shipper in me SQUEEd at all the couples getting to be together in the end (or have at least some time to be loving, relaxed & at peace together, Adama/Roslin), especially Baltar redeeming himself, coming to terms with his roots & winning Caprica 6 and getting to see the beginning of Lee and Kara's destructive and never-quite-fulfilled relationship. Those were some of my favorite scenes, seeing how careless and cynical Lee and Kara (and hey, Baltar and 6 too, to a degree) used to be compared to the leaders & heroes they became.
At first I thought Kara came back as the same thing Head Six/Head Baltar were, but turns out she IS a different entity. She came back in the flesh, literally resurrected, to complete her journey. Angel? Messiah figure? I'm fine with it not being confirmed. How awkward would have that have been? "So, guess this has been my journey since birth and God's plan was always to resurrect me so I could leads humans to their end! Their HAPPY endING. Get it?" So yeah, needless to say, I like that it was vague. And that Lee understood and said goodbye.
Could I have done without the last 3 minutes? Sure. But I didn't mind it. Plus you know if it hadn't been there, people would have been complaining about not getting a concrete answer to the direct connection to our time. And I thought it was cool to see Angel Six & Baltar in modern day New York and I can't disagree that it's pretty stupid of us to insist on creating Artificial Intelligence when we've been consistently warned that it's gonna turn on us one day.
But anyway, what made the show for me wasn't the mythology or the answering of questions, it was all the character relationships & payoffs. Chief killing Tory, Boomer turning coat once more, but for the right side this time, Athena getting her revenge, Starbuck saying goodbye to Anders, Adama putting his wedding ring on his heavenly Roslin, where it belongs, Baltar finally becoming the person he was meant to be, earning the equally changed Six in the process, Ellen & Tigh finally getting to retire for real and be together, and to the tune of the original Battlestar theme, the fleet we've all come to know and love and its leader, the Galactica, heading off into the sun, closing that chapter forever. The dying leader really did lead the humans to Earth. It just wasn't Roslin. It was Galactica herself. When I rewatched my favorite moments of the finale last night, those were the moments I was drawn to, those were the moments that had me in tears even harder the secone time and those are the moments that have always made the show for me.
Before I leave you with some great finale links that should keep you busy today, I posit this question: So how did Frak become the word we know it to be today? Could the natives initially not pronounce "r" and the new word just stuck? And fitting that the dude with the randomly Scotch-Irish first name ends up in Scotland, no?
So here we go,
For the answers to any of your remaining questions head here, to TV Guide's interview with Ron Moore.
Entertainment Weekly has a recap with their Top 10 BSG moments built in. The answers to their "So what was the deal with Baltar's cult?" and "So why did Baltar get the speech to Cavil?" questions are in the Ron Moore interview. Also the Racetrack sending the nukes into the Colony? Those aren't odds. Safe to say after this finale, that was a greater hand at work. Also, I do think Kara was honored with her ending. She's come a long way. Definitely read the below links after you read this one, friends.
Next up, Alan Sepinwall's write up of the show, which I think is a great read. He has a lot of interesting theories/thoughts.
Devin from Chud wrote a great essay on the role of God & spirituality (and Saint Baltar!) that I definitely recommend reading, especially if you were on the fence about the spiritual elements to the show.
LA Times praises the show's graceful exit with their review
LA Times Poll - Does BSG deserve a Best Drama Emmy?
The BSG Space Timeline, explaining all that's happened up until last night's finale.
Finally, say goodbye to the show and read the goodbyes from others at Sci Fi's Memorial.
And now, some Bingostar Galactica boards that got Bingo!
3 comments:
heck, even i really liked this, and it's my unfortunate duty in life to be a curmudgeon and dislike things. i was particularly fond of the first and third hours, with the slow wind-down on earth being the highlight for me. a classy show going out with dignity and grace... until the truly abhorrent "button" that I wish would not have been canon, but rather a webisode or something. just icky.
episode single-handedly reversed made me re-evaluate starbuck as a character, and i'm much more fond of her and her arc now than i was beforehand. the spirituality stuff and how pre-determined everything was... well, felt at times like a bit too much like a cop-out or a very literal deus ex machina, but i don't think stories or mythology have ever been this show's strength. integral and convoluted to be sure, but never nearly as interesting or believable as the characters they ensnared... mythology tended to feel like a feint to me, or otherwise a cheap echo of motifs better explored in fare like ghost in the shell... and that's why i think the finale was so successful... because it recognised that the only thing that set this particular cycle apart from the others that preceded it / will follow it were the faces that populated it... well, not literally, cause the cylon faces tend to stay the same, but you know what i mean. this show has always appealed to me more as drama than as sci-fi, and i thought they played to their strengths here.
adama, the president, starbuck... all moving stuff. don't necessarily think that baltar's turn was well-earned, felt a bit cheap, and the thing with his dad was too little too late after seasons of futzing around with his harem and just being a rather consistent brand of slimy... but him becoming a farmer was certainly a nice touch. i'll also allow for some leeway here cause i didn't watch the show as religiously as LQ and others, and am perfectly willing to admit that there are nuances i missed. otherwise, i just thought this - particularly the last hour - was very classy, reasoned, well-told television, and befit the frequently excellent show it concluded.
wait, but if hera and the other cylons are cool and breeding... isn't there a little cylon blood in us all?
David writes too many words.
So I was in Boston on Friday, and until the middle of today, so I only just finished re-watching part 1, and then watching part 2. So much love for this show. I've always been a bit of a fan of how Moore has worked spirituality/religion/mythology into the show, simply because it so completely sets it apart from just about everything else on tv. That being said, I really didn't mind much when the writers leaned on "a higher power" as a means of explaining some aspects of the series.
Like you, I so so so love this show for the characters (and the kick ass acting, and the camera work and design....because Im a nerd) and there were so many beautiful character moments. Like Helo popping back up at the end?!!? I was out of my seat.
So in conclusion.....Love. Sad it's over. Will watch forever on DVD and itunes.
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