>>>>SPOLILERS<<<<<

 

A lot of this post is in response to Mordicai’s analysis of the finale, with which I largely agree. I’ve decided that the penultimate episode’s boring (by and large) flashbacks were not filler, but I don’t think they were important content-wise. The reason why they work is structural and temporal. I don’t care that Lee was chasing a bird or that Roslyn was hooking up with some young lad, but I do think that by making me flashback to four years previous, the writers created a sense of vastness in my mind—these characters are the ones I know, but their world is radically different. And this sense of vastness, but on an even grander scale, is what the ending produces. Some people didn’t like that the Cylons and humans landed on Earth (II) in prehistoric times, but I loved this. Suddenly the sense of “a long time ago. Far, far away,” as produced by the flashbacks, becomes HUGE: 150,000 years huge. Also, the best thing an ending can do is make you imagine how the characters’ lives will continue. The ending of BSG is truly rare because it encourages you think of those lives in a radically different context. In many ways, the crew’s lives will be at peril, but instead of waging space wars, they’ll face famine, wild beasties, no dentistry and running water, etc. Who wants to think about Helo fighting a saber-tooth tiger? Me! 

 

Now, flaws. I wasn’t so taken with Chief killing Tory, mostly because of the way it happened. I mean, weren’t Chief and Tory engaged on Earth I? If he had to kill her, wouldn’t it have been more interesting if he at least remembered some fine old times with her? At least then her death would be a little poignant, instead of just like, “Oh, yeah, better tie up that plot line.” Also, the whole “let’s dip our hands into Sam’s bath” thing didn’t make lots of sense. Why didn’t they do it earlier, to get back their memories?

 

Re: Mordicai’s observation that, suddenly, the Centurions are way easier to kill on the colony than they ever were, I’d liken that to the ending of Buffy, where the uber-vamps are surprisingly killable, even though Buffy almost couldn’t take down even one in a previous ep. Joss Whedon said that, while he recognized this, creating a sense of empowerment in the finale was more important than consistency with previous episodes. And I guess it’s much the same for BSG, though the Centurions being more mortal seemed to be for the sake of expediency. But, whatever, I didn’t mind.

 

What I DID mind was what the finale did with Starbuck. I wouldn’t say it was the achilles heel of the episode, because that would suggest that it sunk the whole thing. And it didn’t, but the more I think about it, the grouchier I am. Kara was never the “Guess I’ll disappear now” type, even when she died. In the coup episodes, she was kissing Lee and saying how good it was to be alive! The writers didn’t change her character to the point where I could believe she wouldn’t be up for doing some saber-tooth tiger wrassling. I’ve always been in favor of the idea that Kara was half-cylon/half-human, and I think that would have provided a more satisfying explanation for her strange flashes of insight than the idea that she’s an angel. And even if she had to be an angel, we didn’t even get time to process that. It should have been at least an interesting reveal, instead of some slapdash effort to explain her (and the explanation sucks. Like, how did her viper get to Earth I? And what did It/God do? Build her a new viper? What happened to the angel viper? Grr…). 

 

But I’ll hope that Mordicai is right, and that some Kara explanations will be in The Plan.

 

Also, the longish, leonine hair really worked for the finale!