So say we...ugh Really?! My thoughts on the BSG "End Times"

(!!! SPOILER WARNING !!! - This post will probably be spoilertastic so if you haven't seen the last say 5 episodes of BSG Season 4 then stop reading now. You've been warned.)

Well I finally sat down this morning and finished watching the Battlestar Galactica series finale. Yes you read that right I only just today watched the finale despite the fact that it aired several weeks ago now and up to this point with few exceptions I had at least seen every new episode within the week that it aired. There can be no doubt my "geek cred" is irrevocably tarnished for not having seen the finale as it aired and I won't deny that it might have been fun to be at a party watching it with people, save the fact that I don't really know anyone else who watches the show...well at least in real life.

As time went on the desire to watch became even less. While I had managed to remain relatively spoiler free I did pick up impressions from people here and there that they were less than blown away. Even without those impressions though, my own feelings as time went on were that there was no possible way the finale could live up to what the series had become. They just set the bar way to high for themselves.

In the end, sadly, I was ultimately right and somewhat disappointed. The Galactica swan song battle was pretty cool but it kind of seemed like a rehash of when the Pegasus went out. You have Galactica ramming the colony, Adama once again asking for volunteers, giving some rousing speeches, etc. I will say that the whole setup of the colony was pretty cool though.

I do have to give them some credit for tying together a lot of things that have been languishing since season 1 or 2 in terms of unanswered questions plot threads, etc. I feel like the flash backs to Caprica City were completely uncalled for and utterly out of place and I would have been fine with them not being there at all. Perhaps the two most interesting things to come out of them I thought was the explanation of Baltar's accent and seeing Starbuck and Zak together in her apartment what we'd only seen before on post-apocoylpse Caprica. It was also kind of cool to see Caprica City in all it's glory I won't deny that but I don't think they added all that much. Also what the heck was this cooshy job that Adama clearly turned down to stay on Galactica? But really why are we just having these flashbacks now about things that happened YEARS ago in the timeline of the show. I guess they were just trying to show how close things were to playing out much differently. What if Adama had taken the job and was never on Galactica?

So the battle ensues Galin finds out the truth about what happened to Cali which was interesting, all you know what breaks loose several times and as Galactica prepares to jump to safety from the battle it is Starbuck with control of the FTL drive, who else would it be really? It was interesting to see what a true coward Cavil really was when he offed himself. It's pretty obvious what's happening even without them hand holding the viewer through it all with the flashbacks, etc. They jump, the camera pans back to reveal a completely destroyed, almost, Galactica with some really cool effects here in terms of just the entire frame of the ship has buckled and seems like it will rip apart at any moment although in the end she olds together as Adama predicts. It's worth noting that I did throughly enjoy all the battle and various effects sequences they really did some cool stuff with the colony, etc. Also how cool was it to see the old school style Centurions? I liked that. So now the camera pans out and we see what is very clearly our Earth this time with the continent of Africa plainly visible through the clouds.

Frankly if the show had ended with that shot of Earth off the front of Galactica's bow that would have been okay with me. Unfortunately it doesn't and it comes off the rails very quickly. I was left with the impression that the whole series is some kind of environmental statement? I don't know I just don't buy this whole we'll all spread out and be farmers now thing and what just because Lee decides that's how it is going to be? I mean okay I get that they are kind of psyched to be on terra firma after years of being cooped up in ships but I don't know really? I'm not sure what I would have done well actually I would have ended at the shot of Earth and let the viewer decide instead of trying to make some weird environmental or whatever statement about humanity. And how did that whole clean slate thing work out in the end? Not all that well really.

Of course you could fly Galactica through the number of holes left in the plot. For example Hera? What's up with her we've been hearing she is the savior of all humanity for the last four years but in the end she's just there to be a news report? How exactly does she save humanity? Maybe I'm just dense but it seems like the humans could all breed perfectly fine without her...or is it just the idea that the Cylons need to breed too...maybe.

Next, there is the matter of Galactica being able to jump away at the end of the battle. The sad thing here is that this doesn't even keep continuity with what they established just a few episodes before. When boomer takes off with the raptor using FTL she tears part of Galactica out with her, why then doesn't this happen when Galactica FTLs while still embedded in the colony?

Perhaps the biggest unanswered question is that of the tribal creatures we see on Earth through Adama's binoculars. They looked fairly cavemen-esque but are they supposed to be our ancestors? I find it interesting that there are no qualms what so ever about interfering with the development of whatever this race is or perhaps the Colonial humans showing up there ultimately wipe them out anyways. Won't these creatures notice Raptors flying around and people building cabins and settlements all over the place? Presumably the first generation of Colonial humans will die out eventually but will have offspring and presumably these offspring would be much more advanced than any life on Earth at that time. If that were the case wouldn't there be some archeological evidence of this besides just Hera?

Here's what I think the producers wanted us to see from the story as it was told in the episode, the colonials settled on Earth at the very beginnings of our species development. They spread out to all parts of the Earth and this accounts for the various cultural similarities such as similar events occurring in all of Earth's cultures, etc. In our world some have speculated that an outside event must explain certain events or technologies appearing all over the globe in cultures that would have no way of communicating with each other, except for Colonials traversing the globe in Raptors with radio communications, etc. Eventually humans and cylons and maybe even the indigenous people start to mate and all the lines get mixed and Hera is the rosetta stone, allegedly. Then just for good SciFi measure we end with the whole "eventually AI/Robots/Skynet will take over and wreak havoc on their human masters."

But why would it take humans 150,000 years to build cities, technology, etc? I mean does the first generation really just start over with a clean the slate and never teach their children of anything beyond hunting with spears and farming? They never talk of Caprica or anything before? I guess that is a leap of faith or whatever that I just can't quite seem to buy.

"All of this has happened before, and it will happen again." So say we all!