I’ve been thinking altogether too much about Battlestar Galactica lately. Not sure why.

Maybe because news has come out about The Plan telemovie. Maybe because Katee Sackhoff was cast in Season 8 of 24. Maybe because the Season 4.5 DVD drops next month. Maybe because I have the Caprica DVD sitting on the piano, mocking me for not having watched it yet.

Maybe just because I haven’t been able to cope with the fact that the series is over and it was just that frakkin’ good.

But I was thinking to myself about all the ways the new series was better than the old, and I realized that the old series doesn’t quite get its due among fans of the reimagining.

So I thought I’d do an old-fashioned matchup and see how the two stack up:

• Adama: Sorry Lorne Greene, I know you’re dead and all, and you were definitely awesome as Cmdr. Adama back in 1979, but Eddie kicks your ass. Edward James Olmos scared me in the way that the commander of a mixed civilian/military fleet should. When Lorne got mad, I felt like I’d disappointed my grandfather. When Eddie got mad, I wanted to hide under the sofa. Advantage: Reimagining.

• Starbuck: This is a tough one. Many were taken aback when Starbuck was turned into a woman for the new series, but I thought that Katee Sackhoff did a great job of embodying the spirit of Starbuck at the start, but then turning the character into something of her own. But how can you not love the classic Dirk Benedict character, cigar in mouth, winning at Pyramid games, romancing the ladies? I’d call it a draw. I can’t decide.

• Apollo: A young Richard Hatch v. Jamie Bamber? In and of itself, that’s a nearly impossible decision to make. But I have to go with the classic flavor here. Old-school Apollo was always good, always made the right decision and was damn cute while making it. New-school Apollo had great abs, but made bad choice after bad choice, screwed over Dualla and just made me want to slap him silly on more than on occasion. Advantage: Classic.

• Fight scenes: Hands down, the new series. Part of this was due to the advances in special effects, of course. But part was also because the old one recycled the same freakin’ scenes over and over and over and over again. How many times did you see the triangle of Cylon fighters flying in perfect formation, with one Colonial viper on their ass, shooting them up? Did the Cylons learn NOTHING from previous fights? These new Cylons were crazy! They randomly flew around, shooting anything that moved. And the fighters themselves were Cylons! There’s a twist. Advantage: Reimagining.

• Baltar: No contest. The new Baltar was a sniveling genius who just wanted to have sex with women. Old-school Baltar was evil with a capital E. John Colicos looked mean and evil and scary. You did not want to cross this man. A little-known fact is that an alternate ending of the original miniseries had Baltar being killed by the Cylons because the humans weren’t completely wiped out. He argued that his colony was supposed to have been spared. They beheaded him. So that’s why he did it. Yeah, I have the boxed set of the original series, the one that comes in the centurion-head-shaped box. Don’t judge me. Advantage: Classic.

• Cylons: “By your command.” That roving red eye. That humming sound whenever they walked into the room (hard for them to sneak up on anyone with all their clanking metal and that humming, but still cool). And some of them even had those little toga-ish skirts, which was just so stylish. But the idea to have the Cylons be Centurions, Fighters, Base Stars and the human form? Soooooo cool. The fact that they were all partly organic and that all machines were Cylons was a stroke of genius, IMHO. Advantage: Reimagining.

• The Quorum: Frankly, both versions of the Quorum of 12 needed to be slapped into submission. In the old series, they were always second-guessing Adama, despite his being proven right EVERY SINGLE TIME. Idiots. And they were all a bunch of really old white guys. The new quorum, however, typified every single thing that’s wrong with modern-day politics. Wait – they’re basically the same thing. I gotta call it a draw. I hated both of them.

• Pets: Old series wins this one, hands down. No daggits? No Muffit, real or mechanical? Come on, Moore & Eick. You totally could have gone the merchandising route. Advantage: Classic.

• Boomer: Another major character turned into a woman. But whereas the old Boomer was a loyal pal to Apollo and Starbuck and generally a third wheel, Sharon Valerii was third wheel to no one. She was, however, a Cylon, and almost killed Adama. I gotta go with Herb Jefferson Jr. on this one. He only tried to kill Cylons. Advantage: Classic.

• Aliens: Now this is a weird one. The old series had those weird bugs in the miniseries, some chicks with three eyes and a whole bunch of planets they kept mistaking for Earth that had humans on them. The new one: Nothin’. There were humans and Cylons and that’s it. I can’t decide which is better, but for realism, I’d have to go with the new one, because if there were a whole bunch of habitable planets out there, what are the odds that they’d all be just like Earth and evolve beings just like those on Earth? Advantage: Reimagining.

• The Galactica: She was an awesome ship in both series. Huge, well-armed and with all sorts of funky hiding places. I have to go with the new Galactica, though, because she wasn’t all networked up and showed her age. I liked her external design better, too. Advantage: Reimagining (but not by a heckuva lot).

Score

Reimagining: 5
Classic: 4
Draw: 2

Not too shabby, Glen A. Larson.

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I’ve not ended the So Say We All blog carnival for simply one reason: Battlestar Galactica: The Plan – the BSG telemovie – airs in September and from what I read this weekend on SciFi Wire, it’s gonna be amazing.

It’s written by Jane Espenson and directed by Edward James Olmos and it’s not exactly a secret what it’s about: It’s the Cylon perspective on basically the entire series. How and why the Cylons did what they did.

I think it’s a brilliant move because we pretty much were conditioned to believe the Cylons were just bad, unfeeling machines. Sure, they were given more humanity than the original BSG allowed, but in the end, they were bent on the destruction of humanity and, being human, that didn’t go over too well with us, the viewers.

Lest we forget, it was humanity who made the first move, by making slaves out of the machines. (I have the Caprica miniseries on DVD, by the way, and just haven’t had a chance to watch it. I’m hoping the slow summer season gives me the opportunity to watch it and finish Season 1 of Torchwood, too, but that’s another story for another day.)

One of the nice things about the telemovie, I believe, is that it’s going to give more airtime to some of the lesser-known characters. We had lots of time with the various iterations of Six, we got lots of D’Anna and the Sharons. Leoben had a not insignificant amount of screentime. But considering his role in everything, Cavil didn’t get as much play as one might have expected.

And Simon and Theodore (sorry, Aaron) got so little screentime it was easy to forget one or both of them. Aaron had virtually no facetime with the audience after the miniseries and Simon was in those couple of episodes that took place on the radioactive Caprica when Starbuck met Anders, and then showed up most as window dressing after that.

One might think we’d see more of those two in particular because they sided with Brother Cavil, and this is, after all, Cavil’s war.

Olmos pretty much confirmed that much in the SciFi Wire article, saying Dean Stockwell was basically the star of the telemovie:

I have to tell you right now, Dean Stockwell is a brilliant artist. He does a magnificent job of leading The Plan. The Plan is exactly that. It was how they planned to do what they did and what happened. It was monumental. All I can tell you is it’s an extraordinary look at the Cylons, how they masterminded what they did.

It’ll be interesting, too, if we learn more about the Final Five Cylons’ backstories, which seems possible. And maybe more about Daniel?

Olmos thinks the telemovie will give fans a reason and desire to go back to the beginning of the series and watch it again, with a new perspective.

I’d wager he’s right. After all, we don’t need much of a reason to go back and watch it all over again.

It’s supposed to air in September and I, for one, can’t frakkin’ wait.

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Everyone, it seems, felt as if they were in a holding pattern this week, with a really good ep of Battlestar Galactica that was totally just the first hour of the end, and answered really nothing at all.

The biggest question seemed to be what the point of the flashbacks was, though the consensus was that they were quite good, whether or not they were necessary.

I would like to make this comment about the Baltar flashbacks – I think that Caprica Six was so solicitus toward Julius Baltar for more than one reason. I think she saw solving that problem as a way to get on Gaius’ good side, and that was vital. But she was, indeed, taken with Julius, despite his crudeness. Was it a matter of having a respect for one’s parents, parents whom Six did not know but, somehow, deep down, knew she had and had respect for?

Or, and this is TOTALLY speculative and I have no reason to think it other than I’m trying to figure it all out, is Julius some frakked up version of Daniel and Six knows on some level that he’s important and should be taken care of? There’s been some speculation in the blogosphere that Kara and Gaius could be brother and sister, both children of Daniel. I find it hard to believe that Julius could actually be Daniel, but don’t forget that Daniel disappeared from Kara’s life when she was quite young, and there were multiple copies of all the “new” skinjobs.

There are a zillion reasons none of this makes sense, but that doesn’t necessarily mean anything in the broader scope of BSG.

Oh, and just one more thing: way back when, Ron Moore told Mo Ryan that the ruined Earth WAS indeed our Earth. Not some other Earth. It’s Earth. There’s no Earth they’re suddenly going to discover.

They have found Earth. This is the Earth that the 13th Colony discovered, they christened it Earth. They found Earth.

And with that, I give you the penultimate So Say We All: The Battlestar Galactica Blog Carnival.

First off, we have two posts from Kenneth Hynek‘s blog. First, he submitted a post dissecting online spoilers about the upcoming finale, in Could this be the way BSG ends? – I am desperately trying to remain spoiler-free, so I stopped reading a few paragraphs in. And then there’s his recap of the first hour of the last three hours of our beloved show, in I’d almost call it “Twilight” myself… He looks at the flashbacks and what we learned about our characters from watching them.

Tru presents BSG – 9 down, 1 this-frakkin-better-be-good series finale to go posted at True Science Fiction. She felt as many of us did – that giving us this one hour without the other two right behind it left us all hanging. I don’t blame the writers, though. I blame the Sci Fi Channel (or SyFy, as they’ve renamed themselves – whatever) for splitting it up.

Norman Doering presents Battlestar Galactica: “Daybreak” – Part 1 posted at A Blog from Hell. Like many, Norman can’t help but wonder what, exactly, these micro-stories have to do with the finale. He fears he’s going to be quite disappointed. He’s hoping he’s not.

Ms. SP presents The Dark Before The Dawn posted at Ms. Smarty Pants Know It All. You know what? Ms. Smarty Pants is gonna be OK with however it goes, so long as the two-hour finale is kick-ass. It’s been one helluva ride, and she appreciates it.

Lisa Paitz Spindler presents Slip the surly bonds of Earth posted at Lisa Paitz Spindler, Danger Gal. She poses this question: What if this all takes place in an alternate universe? Not a Star Trek-type alternate universe where Baltar’s a selfless leader and Adama’s an evil megalomaniac, but just another universe where things are very similar, yet quite different. Where everything just happened slightly differently.

And last, but not least, Nina presents Battlestar Galactica Season 4.5 Epi. 19: Daybreak, Part I posted at Blog it out, Bitch. She loved the episode, has no idea what the scene with Lee and the pigeon was about and suggests that Hoshi buy a Shamwow – it’ll be a lot easier to clean up spilled coffee that way. Be sure to read her captions – you’ll LOL.

And that’s it for this week.

As I’ve mentioned previously, I’m going to be away from Friday through the following weekend. When I get to review the two-hour finale and when I get to post the blog carnival depends entirely upon when NBC Universal decides to post the finale on Hulu. They’ve been waiting eight days for the past few episodes, so I might be a week late.

Even so, submit your blog article to the next edition of so say we all using our
carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our
blog carnival index page.

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Poor Starbuck. Serves her right for trusting Gaius Baltar.

Oh, did I mention that spoilers abound? Read at your own risk.

For a moment of night we have a glimpse of ourselves and of our world islanded in a stream of stars – pilgrims of mortality, voyaging between horizons across the eternal seas of space and time.

That quote is from Henri Beston, from his book, “The Outermost House.”

It has such resonance for last night’s episode.

The Galactica is, itself, an island in the sea of stars, and also is islanded – stranded – in the sea of stars, as it has nowhere to go and is about to fall apart.

And they are “pilgrims of mortality,” with Starbuck the harbinger of death and, herself, dead. Or not.

OK, I have to tackle this episode character by character, as I usually do, or else my pea brain might just explode.

Boomer

I knew it. Boomer does actually love the Chief. Her pretend projected world on Picon was not just a ruse to mislead Tyrol. She loved him, dreamed up a whole place where she could be with him.

With no chance of ever being accepted back in the Fleet and no desire to truly be a part of the Cylon world, she created her own world. Eventually, seeing she had no chance to ever be with Tyrol (New Caprica pretty much solidified that for her), she decided if she was going to be a Cylon, she was going to be CYLON. She aligned herself with Cavil.

Still, she loves Tyrol. If she could be accepted as human again, she’d do it in a heartbeat. But she knows it’ll never happen.

And so she sees in Hera the child she never got to have with Tyrol. She didn’t want to, and that’s why she treated her like so much cargo. But in the end, she saw this child, this frightened child. And Hera knows that – so she calls to Boomer.

Cavil

I’m not exactly sure what he wants from Hera. Is he looking for a way to use Hera to unlock resurrection? To unlock procreation? As a tool? As a guinea pig to dissect?

By the way, wtf is that ship/facility that Cavil is in? Was that the ship the Final Five traveled in to find the 12 Colonies? Whatever it was, it was very cool.

Baltar & Caprica Six

Caprica Six has, indeed, changed. When she brought Athena and Hera back to the fleet those many episodes ago, she knew she’d be thrown in the brig. But she accepted it.

She no longer harbored any feelings for Baltar, seeing him as she did on New Caprica and with his “harem,” and feeling what she did for Tigh – though, I can’t say I’m sure exactly what’s up between them anymore. Are they even still together now that Ellen’s back and Caprica Six miscarried?

By the way, I honestly believe that Baltar still has these intense feelings for Caprica Six and that wasn’t an act.

Ellen & Saul Tigh

What’s up with that?

OK, I totally think Kate Vernon needs to win an Emmy.

I liked Ellen Tigh again this week.

She does so love Saul. And she loves her “children.” She really sees this as the future of her race that she tried so hard to save.

Ellen isn’t merely a Cylon. She’s truly something more. She’s not the One True God, or anything, but she is definitely what that god is working through.

Anders

He has become a hybrid in some weird way. I mean, he’s still a Cylon, but he’s echoing everything the hybrids have said. What is going on in his head? Was his reaction to Starbuck the goo pool talking or was that just the only words he could get out to tell her not to kill him?

And, note, he did say Starbuck was the “harbinger of death,” not of the apocalypse. She is death. And, apparently, she’s also dead.

Starbuck

OK, I had to do her last, because if I had started with her, I’d never have gotten off her.

First off, love her sitting on the can while talking to Baltar (who’s seeing Head Six). And nice, Baltar, pretending you don’t remember the name of the woman who called out another man’s name while you were having sex with her. Right.

Anyhow, I actually thought it was kind of nice to see him being a scientist again in studying Starbuck’s dog tags. And I understand why she went to him. She couldn’t go to Doc Cottle. He had his hands full with lots of dying and injured Colonials and Cylons, and she couldn’t be sure he wouldn’t tell anyone.

Of course, Baltar went and told EVERYone. Loved it when she slapped him.

But I’m glad he blurted it all out. Honestly, I grew tired of no one knowing what was up with Starbuck. At least it’s out in the open now. She died on Earth. She is still among the Colonials, but how? We will know the truth, they promise.

So where do we stand now?

Starbuck’s photo is finally up on the memorial wall – for good – between Kat & Dee. And she’s OK with it.

Lee’s still all in love with her, but she’s all in on Anders.

Galactica’s falling apart, Roslin’s dying and Adama’s finally going to move it all over to the Base Star, the only ship in the fleet that can defend it. (I was a bit disappointed that Adama just did the whole “scream and freak out and trash my quarters” thing again this episode.)

We’re hurtling toward some sort of ending that’s not going to satisfy anyone.

And you know what? I’m pretty good with that. At this point, I think I don’t want a satisfactory ending. I want an ending that’s uncomfortable and sad and wholly unsatisfactory – but completely satisfactory in an unsatisfactory way.

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And so we move one step closer to the end.

The fandom seems a bit split by Someone to Watch Over Me, with some believing it advanced our knowledge of what, exactly, is going on and others wondering what the frak they were watching. I started more in the camp of the latter, but with time and pondering, I’m more convinced that we learned a heckuva lot, though I’m still not sure exactly what.

OK, so I’ll just let you read what others had to say, in this week’s edition of the blog carnival:

First off, Tru presents BSG – 7 down, 3 to go posted at True Science Fiction. He points out that now Starbuck also has a head person, the piano player who may or may not be her father (but at the very least represents him). Does that mean she’s a hybrid?

Norman Doering presents Battlestar Galactica: “Someone to Watch Over Me” posted at A Blog from Hell. He outlines the two main storylines and has some interesting thoughts about the musical score and links to Bear McCreary’s excellent blog. As usual, Norman has some excellent turns of phrase, such as “exposition dump-itis.”

Ms. SP presents There’s a Somebody I’m Longing to See posted at Ms. Smarty Pants Know It All. She watched the episode a second time immediately after it ended its first run-through, even though she still isn’t quite sure what happened. But Starbuck and Tyrol, she realizes, were both faced with mirages.

Kenneth Hynek presents Someone to Watch Over Hera & Starbuck posted at Kenneth Hynek. All I can say is, wow. Lots of good stuff here, so here’s what he had to say by way of introduction: ” I was reminded, watching “Someone to Watch Over Me,” of an earlier “Starbuck“-themed episode, which (not coincidentally?) came near the end of one of the show’s seasons (its third). Of course, I’m speaking about “Maelstrom,” in which Kara has to confront one of her personal demons — her relationship with her mother — before she can pursue her destiny to its next stage. This episode puts her through a similar situation, albeit without the apparition of Leoben Conoy guiding her through it; this time, however, the demon she’s confronting is her relationship with her father. ”

Erika presents Battlestar Galactica – “Deadlock” posted at Seriality. She hated Deadlock, as did many in fandom, though I actually liked it. Her reasons are well spelled out, though. But one thing: The last 3 (D’Anna) decided to stay beind on the nuked Earth. She’s done. That was the last episode Lucy Lawless filmed.

Roberta presents BSG So Say We All Blog Carnival – I have a new theory! posted at CouchSlobs – A Monument To Human Idleness. Roberta is on the “Daniel is Starbuck’s father” train, and I’m with her.

Nina presents Battlestar Galactica Season 4.5 Epi. 17: Someone to Watch Over Me posted at Blog It Out Bitch. As usual, Nina points out some of the best lines in the episode, including Tigh’s oh-so-appropriate “What the frak?!” when Kara is playing The Final Four Theme (which Bear McCreary describes as pretty much All Along the Watchtower, but different).

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of so say we all using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

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In blogging last week about BSG, I ignored a huge part of the episode, as I got rather wrapped up in the whole “Ellen Tigh really is as crazy as she seemed, but I love it” part of things.

Don’t worry, lots of Baltar goodness to go around in this week’s carnival, but I thought I’d share some things I’ve been musing on:

Baltar is crazy. Like a fox. He quickly sees that control of his cult has been all but wrested from him. But the ladies still have an eye for our brilliant, possibly insane, doctor, and he has a last chance to get it back.

All he needs to do is appeal to their inner sense of strength. And if that doesn’t work, their desire to have bigger guns than the bad guys. That should do the trick.

Head Six is still totally in on the game. What does that mean? We know that some of the Final Five had visions that preceded the blowing up of Earth, etc., so what does that mean for Baltar? We know that he has some sort of strange connection to the Cylons, but what is it? Is he perhaps a hybrid? And why does Caprica Six hallucinate Baltar?

And, is Baltar and his merry band of insane women going to become the new militia? Sort of the National Guard, if you will? And I simply must ask this (as did, I think, EVERYone else watching the show): WTF did he say to Adama/Roslin/Lee to convince them to give him the big guns? I mean, really?

Anyway, there’s a lot to get to here, lots of entries, so let me get started:

First off, Jayson Peters presents ‘Battlestar Galactica’ finale will be a two-parter posted at Nerdvana: Sci-fi, comics, games & more. Jayson reports that the finale will be three hours, split in two segments. FRAK!

Lisa Paitz Spindler, a first-timer here, presents Among Bright Stars I’m Lost posted at Lisa Paitz Spindler. It’s a recap of No Exit, actually, but has some really excellent points. She caught a few things I heard at the time, but never really registered with me – such as when Ellen asks Boomer about “the swirl,” which I take to be the image that Starbuck painted/sketched/drew her entire life. Connection to Daniel?

Kenneth Hynek, another newbie to our carnival, presents A potential inspiration for BSG? posted at Kenneth Hynek. It’s a fascinating look at a book I’ve never read, “On the Beach,” and the similiarities it has with our beloved BSG. If the show were to continue to echo the book, that could mean things end poorly. Which we expect already, given the show and everything Edward James Olmos has said. I want to read this book now.

Norman Doering presents All My Cylons … these are the days of our fives … As The Galaxy Turns posted at A Blog from Hell. In it, he coins my favorite word of the year: Balcubines, to describe Baltar’s female minions.

Nina presents Battlestar Galactica – Season 4.5 Epi 16: Deadlock posted at Blog It Out Bitch. It’s long, but it’s funny. And she quotes Adama’s best line of the entire series, when he declares he has to go to the head. And like most of us, she can’t figure out what the frak Adama’s doing arming Baltar and his balcubines.

Tru presents BSG – 6 down, 4 to go posted at True Science Fiction. He was a bit disappointed that not more was resolved or moved forward. I’ve heard that from several folks, though I don’t necessarily agree.

Roberta presents BSG So Say We All Blog Carnival – Ellen, Baltar & his blanket and possible BSG movie posted at CouchSlobs – A Monument To Human Idleness. She reconciles the thought that this crazy lady could have been responsible for the skinjob Cylons with the recognition that Baltar is also bat-guano crazy and yet was considered the most brilliant man in the Colonies before, well, he helped get them all ‘sploded. And she also links to an article about Universal considering a BSG movie – based on the original series, because only Glen A. Larson has movie rights.

Ms. SP presents If I Go There Will Be Trouble, If I Stay There Will Be Double posted at Ms. Smarty Pants Know It All. She posits some very interesting thoughts about the idea that one has to be in love in order to procreate, and what kind of person would follow a God who enforced that. It made me wonder if that is the reason the “new” Cylons could never procreate. They tried to procreate to make new Cylons, not out of love. Hera was born out of love between Helo and Sharon. Hmm?

Phew! That’s it for this week. “Someone to Watch Over Me” comes this Friday, and then there just three more episodes. I’m not clear, however, if three episodes counts the two-part finale as one, in which case there are really five hours left. I’ll let you know when I figure it out.

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I don’t think I need to repeat how fantastic I thought Friday’s ep was, so I’m not gonna say much here. Let’s just get into the week’s

submissions, no? (I can’t believe there are only five episodes left!!!!!) By the way, if after reading all this, you still want more, head over to Mo Ryan’s blog at the Chicago Tribune and check out her Q&A with the writers. We will find out what Starbuck is and we’ll get more Boomer. Oh, and the devastation on Earth was, indeed, the result of a Cylon Civil War.

Nina presents Battlestar Galactica Season 4.5 Epi. 15: No Exit posted at Blog It Out Bitch. She has a very interesting theory about Starbuck that actually makes more sense than mine. Be sure to check out the pre- and post-episode questions. Amazing how many questions the ep actually did answer.

Tru presents BSG – 5 down, 5 to go posted at True Science Fiction. John/Cavil’s rebellion against the Final Five is very much the stuff of nightmares for every parent of a teenager, he notes.

Norman Doering presents A few Pieces of a Puzzle posted at A Blog from Hell. “In a way,” he says, “Ellen Tigh is our Doctor Frankenstein and Cavil is her monster. The others making up the final five are apparently just a collection of Igors.”

Jayson Peters presents “Battlestar Galactica: No Exit” — It’s all coming together posted at Nerdvana. He points out that Ellen Tigh wasn’t the Final Cylon after all, and that Moore & Eick were all tricky on us, hiding a No. 7.

Ms. Smarty Pants presents Hell is Clunky Exposition posted at Ms. Smarty Pants Know It All. Not a fan of the exposition dump (as Norman, above, called the episode), Ms. SP still found there to be some interesting answers, not least of which is that the Final Five all had “head angels” like Baltar has. Hmmm. What the frak does that mean, though???

Roberta presents BSG So Say We All Blog Carnival – brainfry anyone? posted at CouchSlobs – A Monument To Human Idleness. She managed to pull her frazzled brain together enough to ponder Daniel (and express relief that my urgent cries of WHY IS SHARON NO. 8??? were finally answered) and express rather interesting thoughts about the Cylons’ desire to be more human.

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of so say we all using our
carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our
blog carnival index page.

Technorati tags:

so say we all, blog carnival.

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Before I get into the meat and potatoes of what may just be the best episode EVAR of BSG, I would like to say, “Thank you Ron Moore and David Eick.”

I have lamented many times that I am totally confused as to why the Sharon model is an Eight, yet there are only seven models of “new Cylons.”

Bless their hearts, there actually was a method to their madness and we got our answer.

By the way, have I said yet that you shouldn’t read if you didn’t watch? No? Well, I have now.

OK, so I just need to say this: WOWWOWWOWWOWWOW. Just. W.O.W.

My mind is still reeling, having just finished watching the episode on Hulu, so let me just recap to make sure I’ve got the backstory straight:

Humans made the Cylons on Kobol as a slave class. They rebelled. When the tribes  left Kobol, 12 created the astrologically named Colonies and the 13th were the Cylons, who ended up on Earth.

OK, so far so good. Once the Cylons blew themselves up (are we to assume that the current Civil War amongs the Cylons is also something that happened before and therefore is happening again?), Ellen, Saul, Galen, Tori and Anders downloaded to a ship orbiting the planet, because they saw the apocalypse coming and worked furiously to rediscover the resurrection technology.

They didn’t have FTL technology, so it took them thousands of years to reach the Colonies, where they’d planned to tell the humans to be nice to the Cylons (because, I’m sure, that would have worked), and found themselves in the midst of the First Cylon War.

Cylons were having one hell of a time developing hybrids, but the arrival of the Final Five enabled them to gain that technology. So they immediately ended their war against the humans and went away somewhere to get all human. Explains the suddenness with which the war ended, leaving Husker to ponder wtf (frak) was going on.

• Side note: I believe more than ever that the young blonde girl trapped on that planet whom Husker tried to save is somehow connected to Starbuck. Why? The “lost” model, the Seven (Daniel), was an artist. Starbuck’s always been artistic. Ellen said that Cavil (sorry, John) had “corrupted the genetic material” for the Daniel. Could Starbuck somehow be a way that the Final Five managed to save some of the work they’d put into the Daniel? This would also make the antagonistic relationship between Tigh and Starbuck even more … twisted.

OK, so back to the story at hand.

Ellen seems to have made the One, Cavil/John, too much in the image of her father, who appears to have been a colossal ass. Talk about an Oedipal complex John has.

Somehow, likely because there were so many copies of him, the Cavil/Johns managed to trick the Final Five (or, the Original Five, which is really what they are) into an airlock and killed them. When they resurrected, he put some kind of blocker in their brains and la di da, shipped them off to the Colonies to have a front-row seat to the apocalypse.

Ellen’s right, though. Cavil/John was never able to actually KILL them, finish them off for good. Despite being able to do that to Daniel (Cain and Abel, perhaps?), he couldn’t off his parents.

He could, however, torture and have sex with them, which is what he did on New Caprica. I mean, ewww. Especially seeing as Mommy didn’t know she was his Mommy. Cavil/John seriously needs to see a shrink.

And so here we are.

Thing is, this episode answered SO many questions:
• Why the Final Five didn’t know who they were.
• How Ellen managed to escape Caprica and end up in the fleet. (Baltar’s Cylon tester thingy didn’t work on her, because she was a different sort of Cylon, I’d suppose. If memory serves, her test truly did come up negative. Or, did we just never know how it really came up, after the snafu with Sharon?)
• Why in the name of all that is holy Ellen and Saul stayed together. Their love, truly, transcended time and space.
• Why Boomer broke with the rest of her line. She stayed with Cavil/John (I believe now) because she knew that if she didn’t, Ellen eventually would be killed and the answers to so many questions might never be answered.
• For that matter, why Cavil/John boxed the D’Annas and refused to go along with the Sixes in unboxing her and joining with the humans.
• Why Cavil/John limited the ability of the Centurions and Raiders to think — they had the belief in the One True God and were a connection back to the Final Five. It wasn’t until Natalie removed that barrier that a Raider connected with Anders. Or was it just that was the first time a Raider had come face-to-face with one of the Final Five because it was Anders first mission? Think about it — Tyrol, Tori, Tigh and Ellen were never out in the thick of it. There wouldn’t have been an opportunity for them to come face-to-face with a Raider.

Other thoughts:
• Loved the moment where Ellen offers an apple to Boomer. Garden of Eden, anyone?
• Loved when the Centurion in the resurrection chamber retracts his claws to help Ellen out of the goo tub. How sweet.
• The fact that the Centurions were the ones to develop the belief in the One True God sheds a whole new light on the conversation Baltar had with a Centurion back when he first came aboard the Base Ship with Roslin after they joined forces with the Rebel Cylons. Remember how the Centurion cocks his head? That’s because he was probably all like, “What the frak is this human preaching to me about One True God?”
• OK, Moore & Eick – you’ve answered why Sharon is a Model Eight, not Seven, so riddle me this: The old-school Cylons could speak. How come the new-model ones can’t? Or is that also part of the limitation on their intelligence?

I love this frakkin’ show. I’m sure I’ll come up with a whole bunch of other thoughts and questions in the coming days. The So Say We All blog carnival will post sometime Tuesday – submit your article here if you want to join in the fun.

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The thing that has kept running through my brain since Friday night is this: What the frak is Starbuck?

It would seem she’s not a Cylon. We know the final Cylon is Ellen Tigh. Don’t we? (Questions – was Ellen resurrected somewhere before the resurrection hub was destroyed? Is there another resurrection hub somewhere for the Earth Cylons? Did Brother Cavil know she and/or Saul were Cylons?)

But we know that there’s a dead Starbuck on Earth. She did crash-land there and die. Her dogtags, her wedding band, her ship. All were there. And we know that she’s the harbinger of death. But what does that even mean????

Leoben seemed to think she was the final Cylon until they saw her dogtags. Then he seemed so uncertain about everything. I found that a bit puzzling, because the dogtags would initially have seemed to confirm it to him. Until she mentioned what the hybrid had told her.

Then, Leoben couldn’t get far enough away from her. But the Leobens have always known something about Starbuck and her destiny. They just didn’t know what they knew.

The only thing I can think of is something that makes no sense chronologically, but I’ve believed from the moment I saw the Razor telemovie.

Remember the scene where Husker’s in the creepy Cylon building with all the human parts in tanks, just before he finds out an armistice has been signed?

Some people are trapped in a room and he can’t quite get the door open. One of those trapped in there is a young girl with blonde hair.

I’ve been convinced ever since that she was Starbuck.

Now, the Cylon Wars were 40 years ago, and Kara Thrace isn’t 40.

But what if she’s some sort of hybrid who ages differently? Obviously, the Cylons were creating hybrids there. Perhaps she’s the missing link, of a sort. I’m not sure which link, even, because we don’t know how the Earth Cylons fit into all this yet.

But we know that Hera and Nicholas (Tyrol’s son) are hybrids. But they’re different kinds of hybrids, as Tyrol is an Earth Cylon and Sharon’s a New Cylon. What does that even mean? I don’t know.

The theme of the show is and has always been, “All this has happened before and all of it will happen again.” The Cylons and humans obviously intermingled (intermarried?) on Kobol. The Earth Cylons had some sort of Civil War that culminated in the destruction of the planet and the race – which might happen again with the Cavil v. Six war among the New Cylons.

Did Starbuck die on Earth before or after they made the jump there? Why was her distress call not even activated until four of the final five were uncovered?

Who, or what, is Starbuck? Is she alive? Is she dead? Is she a hybrid? Is she a hallucination? Will the final episode end with her taking a shower, telling Zack Adama she had the weirdest dream last night?

OK, I’m obviously joking with the last one there, but I’m really intrigued, and curious to find out the rest of this story.

Nine more weeks to go.

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I’m not going to post a full review just right yet; so much happened tonight that I must let it all seep in.

But despite the fact that we shouldn’t have had to wait this long, tonight’s episode was more than worth the wait.

Hey! You haven’t watched yet? Then don’t read any further, OK? NO FURTHER. I cannot be held responsible for spoiling anything if you do.

First time my jaw dropped. Dualla’s suicide.

She’d finally had enough. She always loved Lee and couldn’t really go on without him. Despite their “date,” she knew he would always go back to Kara and wasn’t going to go through that again. So she had her perfect night with her perfect knight and ended it all there.

Never saw it coming.

The second jaw-drop: Ellen Tigh? Really?

I know her name came up from time to time in theories of the final Cylon, but I never gave that any credence, and I don’t think anyone else ever really truly did, either.

Until Dualla killed herself, I wondered about her again. And when Starbuck found her dead self, I really truly wondered if it was going to be just that obvious.

Nope. Ellen Tigh.

When Saul finally remembers his past on Earth, he watches his beloved Ellen die the first time. But it will all be OK – they will be reborn, together.

Does that mean Ellen may still actually be reborn? If so, does that mean she might actually be able to broker a peace between the warring Cylon factions, given her “relationship” with Brother Cavil?

OK. It’s very cold and I really must sleep. But I will be back at some point tomorrow to discuss all the other issues that came up tonight, and there were many.

I am not in the slightest bit disappointed with tonight’s return; I only regret there are just 9 episodes left

So Say We All: The Battlestar Galactica Blog Carnival will post here on Tuesday. If you’d like to participate in the carnival, please submit your article here.

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