So Battlestar Galactica kicked off its final season Friday with a series of shockers that I'm still trying to wrap my head around. This may have been the bleakest, most depressing episode ever. I'm going to start talking about spoilers, so if you haven't watched, beware. If you have, then. . .
Where to begin? The missing 13th colony was Cylon. Starbuck discovers her own corpse. Dee blows her brains out. And Ellen in the final Cylon.
Let's start with the 13th colony. They were Cylons. Holy crap. So are humans and Cylons really the same? But Cylons can't reproduce. They had to be created, but by whom? And who nuked Earth? Was Earth populated by Cylons before the 13th colony arrived, and some kind of Cylon civil war broke out? Or did Cylons and humans come into contact with each other and blew each other up? Remember, "it's all happened before and it will happen again." So, so, so many questions. And I have no clue. Here's one theory: The humans nuked Earth and killed all the Cylons, and the Cylon attack on the 12 colonies was their revenge.
Who/what is Starbuck? The signal from the rescue beacon brought Starbuck to her own crashed Viper, with her charred corpse inside, a development that freaked out even the ever-creepy Leoben. So how is Starbuck still alive? Is she a Cylon? Not unless she's a heretofore-unknown 13th model (oooooh, the missing 13th colony, and unknown 13th Cylon . . . . that could be interesting). Was she cloned? That's my guess. But by who? Cylons? Remember when she was held captive on Caprica, the Cylons did something to her in that baby factory -- removed eggs? Got a nice DNA sample? Hmmmmm. Then there's the whole prophecy -- "Kara Thrace will lead the human race to its end. She is the herald of the Apocalypse, the harbinger of death." Did she bring about the destruction of Earth? Her body seemed too fresh for that. Will she bring about the end of humans? Or Cylons? Or is she some kind of human-Cylon hybrid, the first of a new race that marks the end of both humanity AND Cylons as separate species?
Poor Dee. Her suicide was one of the biggest shocks for me, and one of the saddest moments of the series. Her character was never particularly interesting, but she had eyes that could melt you, and yeah, I'm that shallow. Her death came seemingly out of nowhere, after a perfect date with ex-hubby Apollo. But really, it spoke to the utter despair felt by the survivors in the fleet. Putting all their hopes in finding the refuge that is Earth, and then finding that dream shattered must have been devastating. And what better way to illustrate that than by one of the seemingly most level-headed officers finally giving up? For once, a plot device that was understandable, though heartbreaking.
And Ellen Tigh is the final Cylon. Wow, I did not see that coming. I have to say, I'm a little underwhelmed. Her character was never fully fleshed out, and I wish we knew more about her. Her Wikipedia entry has a pretty good summary of what we know though, including lots of stuff I had forgotten about. And there were clues all along that she might have been a Cylon. I suppose I was expecting someone more shocking -- Roslin, Adama, Starbuck. But this makes a little more sense. There's been a lot of online chatter about Ellen and Saul's relationship being an epic, eternal romance, but I'm not quite buying that yet. They always seemed horribly dysfunctional, and she had slept with half the fleet. He killed her, for gods' sake! Whether it offeres a ray of hope or not, if that's the greatest romance in the galaxy, then we're all in trouble.
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