From the multitudes of flashbacks to the dismantling of Galactica, it’s certainly starting to feel like the end. Finally, the tension is building and we’re getting a larger sense of urgency that was rather lost in the past several episodes. When was the last time we saw a frakking space battle on this show? It’s time for us to see this saved budget money being spent, Mr. Moore, and with it all pent up for the last two hours next week, that’s going to be one hell of a climax.
Like the past few episodes, there wasn’t necessarily a whole lot going on in terms of advancing the story in this episode, but it just felt meatier. It felt tighter and better written, including the flashback scenes, which, for any self-respecting fan of the show, were a thrill to see. I’m sure a lot of those shots of pre-destroyed Caprica will look quite familiar to us when the show of the same name starts next year.
For some reason I continue to like the Baltar character. Alright, maybe “like” isn’t the right word to describe how to feel toward sniveling Baltar, so maybe I’m more “interested.” He seems to have a lot more going on with him than anyone else on the show: he’s got a large-ish group following him, a section of the ship reserved aside for his little posse, and Head Six as his own shouldered devil, one only he and we are privy to seeing and knowing about. Add to this that he apparently is supposed to have a Scottish-like accent like his father and, my gods, what is it with this guy?
In the flashbacks, I was happy to see Laura Roslin’s because we got to see that it’s not the cancer nor being on the ship that’s making her crazy, she was just crazy to begin with. Any clues as to who the mysterious Shawn Ellison she mentioned was supposed to be? It seemed like an important fact thrown in there, otherwise why mention it like she did? It was also great to see Zak Adama once more. And did you notice how eerily familiar Kara’s apartment looked, mural and all? And Lee … apparently is no good at catching pigeons.
Getting back to the action I mentioned, I figured out who died in that crashed Viper on Earth: Starbuck, the ace Viper pilot. Now all we have had since then is Kara Thrace, who’s pretty damned boring when she’s not strapped into a Viper and shooting something to little bits. At this stage in the game, I’m really confused as to how her secret is going to have anything significant to do with the overall story. I mean, it has to, but how can something like that be explained in a mere two hours while appeasing us rabid fans? Unfortunately little Hera is stealing that limelight.
I was considering having a little live-blog/chat here next week during the finale, but I think that’s going to wind up being a bad idea. I’ve noticed with shows like this one that, when the show is actually on, nobody wants to stare at a computer screen to type — they save it for the commercial breaks. Being that this will be the final episode of the entire series, I wouldn’t expect anyone would want miss a nanosecond of what will be explained (and hopefully it will be a whole frakking lot). If you disagree, let me know in the comments.
Judging by the teaser for next week, we’re going to be in one a treat, answers or not.
Clacked by Keith McDuffee 
on Mar 13, 2009 @ 23:32 EST5EDT
I may have heard things, but did Baltar say the non-frack version of frack during the scene with his father. He mumbled it, but I could swear I missed the hard ‘fra’ and instead heard the soft ‘fuc’. I wonder if someone else sensed the same thing.
I rewound that because I was shocked at what I thought I heard and even on replay it was hard to actually determine if he said frak or the other word. I’m sure it will be diagnosed by others more closely!
I figured I should politely say that I hate all of you as I”m traveling and won’t be able to watch or “view” for a couple of days. So, on the off chance that someone is actually looking for my commentary, we’ll see if the Internet Gods allow me to view it sooner than I get to a DVR. Otherwise, sorry for wasting your time :)
We will look forward to your review Dorv. Safe traveling.
I love the title. There are 40,000 people left, Earth was nothing, you all live a so called life that is horrible, why would you fear death at this stage?
Seriously
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!
to beautiful….GRACE PARK!!!!!!!!
Richard- I think you are right! When I watched the episode just now, I was kind of shocked when I heard Baltar say the real F word because I was thinking “Is that allowed on the Sci-Fi Channel?” and then I thought, “Well, they allow ‘frak’ so maybe they thought we would assume he said frak” – but that’s definitely not what I heard! I’m glad I saw your comment because I thought maybe it was just me hearing things.
He didn’t say the real F-word. I’ve listened to it twice now, and none of the few times that he said frak did it sound to me like he was saying anything other than that.
I think that this Ellison was the teacher’s union representative that Roslin negotiated with in the episode where she remembered Baltar was with Six in the park. It was the one where Adar said “The interesting thing about being president…”
Sorry, not him:
https://en.battlestarwiki.org/wiki/Naylin_Stans
“none of the few times that he said frak did it sound to me like he was saying anything other than that.”
He definitely said “fucking”
Also:
“Scottish-like accent” – that would be Irish, then. :-\
*POST AUTHOR*
Well, I said “Scottish-like” because Scotland and Ireland don’t exist on Caprica. ;-)
While there may not be a Ireland or Scotland anywhere in Caprica, perhaps there is one in Aerelon where Baltar was born and raised ;)
Besides, it’s obvious that there is a France in the colonies. Roslin and her sisters were having Champagne.
*POST AUTHOR*
Holy crap, you’re right. That’s hysterical!
So maybe the answer to everything is that Caprica was Earth all along. ;-)
“I was happy to see Laura Roslin’s because we got to see that it’s not the cancer nor being on the ship that’s making her crazy, she was just crazy to begin with.”
I don’t think that is fair to say at all. Try having every member of your nuclear family die all at once and not be a bit emotionally unraveled temporarily.
*POST AUTHOR*
Alright, you’re right — it wasn’t quite fair. She’s still a loon, if you ask me.
Wow, I don’t think I have ever considered Roslin crazy. A bit unhinged at times but considering what she has gone through, she has handled things well as far as I am concerned.
Obviously the time we saw on Caprica was different for each character (what exactly did Adama have to do for an hour? Did I miss something?) Roslin’s time seemed far enough back that perhaps she had just recently gotten over he family loss. Think back to the other time we saw her at the fountain. To me that was a nice call back that showed she went back to the fountain as a moment of remembrance of her family (not unlike Bond playing at Casino Royale every year in remembrance of Vesper.) Just then think how tragic things got for Roslin.
-Affair with the big man? Over.
-Cancer? Present.
-Job? Supposed to be over.
-Colonies? Nuked.
Remember RDM’s great line from a recent podcast (paraphrased)
“If it’s this tragic…it’s got to be Battlestar Galactica”
I think I will like this part of the episode more as time goes by, and I can view this portion with the rest included. Probably a shame to split it up. It was really nice to see happy Kara, and the interaction between her, Zak, and Lee. Also, Adama telling Kara she’s his daughter was nice. (Was it me, or did anyone think the emotional music was missing..?)
Tigh – “Take your time deciding, we have four and a half minutes to get down there.” So funny!
Baltar, how I’m looking forward to him doing something heroic! I find him thoroughly nauseating of late. Tory is still lame too.
Lee in uniform again – excellent.
The writers sure fooled me, I thought we’d be dealing in some mystical stuff by now. Now I’m wondering if that part will ever come.
Speculation about the ending: The pigeon trying to get through the glass and shot of solar system/galaxy was pointed out to us in the very beginning. Since the pigeon was Lee’s dilemma and we know Lee is supposed to have “the key idea” that brings about the ending; what might the pigeon be telling us? And the black hole? hmmmm..
Also thinking about Kara bringing them to their end. How about she executes a blind getaway jump and they find themselves near a lovely habitable planet?
The waiting is killing me.
I thought the episode was pretty good.
While I enjoyed most of the flashbacks (Save Roslin’s), I didn’t understand why they were there. I didn’t necessarily see parallels to the current story’s as I would have expected too. Hopefully, that will come out in the other 2/3rds of the finale.
For us not supposed to be getting true resolution on “what” Starbuck is, we sure seem to be spending a lot of time on.
Absolutely LOVED the interchange between Adama and Starbuck, “I know what you are, you are my daughter.” Even tugged on my ice-like heartstrings.
At this point, its pretty clear to me that the only thing RDM has to do to include a specific line of dialog into the finale for me to devolve into a pile of fanboy ooze. I think I’ve probably droned on about it, but, “I is what I is.”
I missed mentioning this, but directly after Anders’ flashback, delivered in Hybrid-Speak, was an interesting turn of phrase:
“…slip the surly bonds of Earth and touched the face of Perfection.”
That was a twist on a phrase used by President Reagan (Paraphrased from a sonnet by John Gillespie Magee) in his speech about the Challenger tragedy, and has always stuck with me. Reagan said “God” and not “Perfection” but I’m wondering if a parallel is being made here that we don’t see.
*POST AUTHOR*
Wow, nice catch there Dorv. Here’s some source for the whole poem:
https://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_source_did_reagan_get_slip_the_surly_bonds_of_earth_to_touch_the_face_of_God
We don’t have long to wait to find out. I just wish Moore would post the last two frakking podcasts before this coming epiode!
Yeah good memory. Were you like 9?
Good guess. No, I was more like 6. However, I watched the whole thing go down on the playground at my elementary school, so the details stick with me better than most.
Also, Sorkin cribbed it in S1 of the West Wing: “Surely we can do it again, as we did in the time when our eyes looked towards the heavens, and with outstretched fingers we touched the face of God.” And, as a couple of you know, I can pretty much quote whole episodes of the West Wing on demand :)
(In retrospect, I don’t know if I should be proud of that or not)
From Wiki
The Space Shuttle Challenger disaster occurred on January 28, 1986.
I remember I was home sick from the 5th grade that day.
Not to freak you out or anything but I recall reading you were born in 77. Am I wrong?
So you were 9. Right?
I was in 5th grade too. In fact.. my own 5th grade teacher was on the top 100 list of candidates to go up on the shuttle.
Man that day really affected us.
No, I was born in 79. You’re all right that time period sucked. We lived in Florida at the time (obviously) and while I can’t speak to what it was like everywhere else in the country, but it was horrible there. Every one was connected in some way to NASA. My best friend (as far as kindergarten best friends go) was in the family area, as his father’s best friend was on board.
Ironic, as it fueled my interest in the real life space program, which lead to my love of science fiction. And thus, posting here :)
Alright then, instead of asking you to produce a birth certificate, all you need to do is say this aloud. “Tyrol is a bad boy for letting Boomer out of the brig.” ;)
Wow..I was home sick that day too. I remember it like it was yesterday. The world before 24/7 news, but that was all that was on tv that day.
cj – interesting coincidence.
BSG… You realize that I’m not going to say that, right?
We’ll shall see, we’ll shall see.
All right, here’s my theory: the “earth” they found wasn’t the real earth (the one we live on), because all they found were signs of the Cylons living there, not humans. The real earth remains out there to be found, and they will.
Of course, I have no idea how this theory or fantasy of mine plays into Hera, whatever-the-frack Starbuck is, the opera house, or pigeons.
you arent too far off in your thinking there.
I still stand by the fact that the Earth we saw at the end of Season 3 was ours (North and South America quite clear) yet when we got to the 13th tribe Earth, there was never a orbital shot confirming a land mass.
my theory:
All good things good to an end. That includes good ideas. We had one with RDM’s re-imagining, but even his team could not carry it past its origins. Let’s face it, what started as a great adventure about HUMANS and how they survive in the most dire of circumstances devolved into a bunch of mumbo-jumbo Cylon mysticism where even in season three you can see the writers have no idea where they are going.
It’s really a damn shame. Baltar is one of the greatest wasted characters out there. At this point I feel like he was better in the original series.
I just hope they are able to revisit things later.