The following will contain SPOILERS if you have recorded the show to watch later. Read on at your own risk.
The anticipation that has been building for this season 4.5 premiere of Battlestar Galactica culminated with a well deserved and in my opinion, well written episode of darkness, dispair and shock.
They took the usual darkness that permeates the background of this tale of the stragglers of the human race and cranked it up a whole bunch of notches.
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The Disappointment:
The disappointment of finding out that Earth was ravaged by war infected the entire collective of humanity.
This Earth is nothing but ruins and weeds. It was a planet that was completely nuked over 2,000 years ago.
Our “allies”, the skin job Cylons discover old Centurion parts in the debris. (The original Centurions from the first series)
It turns out that the five final Cylons were alive on the planet 2,000 years ago when it was nuked. The 4 all had flashbacks when they came in contact with parts of the ruined city. Tyrol found his own nuclear shadow that was left over from the attacks.
The first revelation they surmised was that the 13th colony were Cylons who habitated this planet and CALLED IT EARTH. This, to me, says this is not Earth. Just a like named planet. It was this colony of Cylons 2,000 years ago who were devestated by the war.
The Depression Affects Everyone:
The depression is taking its toll. Roslin is burning the prophecies and just doesn’t care. She doesn’t even want her cancer treatments anymore. People are fighting in the hallways of the Galactica. Graffiti on the walls of the Galactica say “Frak Earth”. Admiral Adama confronts Tigh, threatening to kill himself. All that is left of humanity is falling into despair.
The most traumatic casualty of the depression was Anastasia Dualla. In the beginning, she found some childrens jacks in the dust of the wasteland. It made her cry. Later, after a date with Lee Adama, she’s got a glow about her and things look good for a reconciliation with Lee. While humming to herself, she takes off her wedding ring, puts it in her locker and without a glimmer of an emotional clue showing, uses her sidearm to end her life. It was a graphic, quick, shocking and completely unexpected moment that actually traumatized me.
I started getting irrational thinking this was her way to “come back” as the final Cylon, but I also knew that the final Cylon was going to be revealed in the last few minutes of the episode so things had to have happened fast for her to come back.
Back on “Earth”, Starbuck discovered the wreckage of her Viper and what I presume to be her corpse in the cockpit. The body was charred, had blond hair and it was wearing the necklace with her wedding ring and HER dog tags. She built her own funeral pyre and burned the body. Very surreal. So much for DNA verification. Now she doesn’t know what she is. Is she the final Cylon?
Admiral Adama looks to take the fleet away from this travesty of a mistake and asks Gaeta to find the nearest G, F or K type habitable system. Adama announces that they will find the previous inhabitants new home. That’s a promise.
As they’re getting ready to leave, Col. Tigh walks into the ocean and gets his own flashback. He sees himself in the attacks and he’s looking for his wife in the carnage and finds her. He finds Ellen under some debris. More or less, she tells him it’s OK because they will be reborn. Tigh suddenly realizes that Ellen is the 5th of the five. Ellen? Ellen??
I Have Questions:
If Ellen is the 5th, what does that make Starbuck? Is she indeed a Cylon as I am initially believing or is she something else? And where is Ellen? She passed away before the resurrection ships were destroyed last season. And obviously the final 5 did have the ability to regenerate. But there was only one copy of any of them at any one point in time.
It was a traumatic discovery that Starbuck made. Did you get caught up in that? Were you so caught up that you didn’t dwell on how her ship crashed here? She vaporized far away on another planet. Didn’t she?
The holocaust that wiped out this Cylon colony is most distressful. But who destroyed them? Was it they themselves or someone or something else?
Is there something / someone else in the background of all this?
In Closing:
I applaud Moore and Eick for not drawing this out and making us drool all over ourselves for the season. They took their depressing story and made the previous seasons seem like the Macy’s parade.
Oh, and by the way, over on my post questioning who the last Cylon was, I surmised that humanity is the final Cylon. I was off a bit but obviously I was almost on the right track being that the 13th colony turned out to be Cylons. Also, kudos to our readers: Stimcaps, Scott (April 23rd comment) and kirbeegee. Out of the 300+ comments, they nailed Ellen as their choice for who the last Cylon was. At least is wasn’t Boxey!
In the Last Supper picture of the last Cylon post, we now take a look at the image and notice it’s populated with a few couples, and the empty seat is next to Col. Tigh. Ellens seat apparently.
What are your thoughts on this newest episode of Battlestar Galactica? Intense, wasn’t it?
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58 Comments
LOL. I loved the date of the nuclear war on Earth: Janaury 21, 2009
Ron Moore is funny.
I’m starting to think that everyone is a Cylon. There are no humans.
I think the original humans destroyed themselves and only the Cylons survived.
They are recreating the human race over and over with various differences to try and create a race that won’t destroy itself.
So far no luck.
But they are trying a radical change this time. A smaller group of humans in a much more tightly controlled environment and.
How come you say the date of the nuclear war on Earth is Janaury 21, 2009? I mean based on what?
I am still not sure about FC being Ellen and all. Saul says the FC is Ellen and everyone believes in him huh.
And I think D is a cylon too because she finds jacks and an amulet on earth, then before shooting herself we see the amulet then Lee finds the jacks and also she says that she can’t remember the days she is just a kid laughing and all like on the picture Felix indicates b\c there isn’t any, the photo is fabricated and D is a cylon too. This idea can be wrong but I don’t believe she just shot herself while she is happy and on the go and that there is no hope left, also she shot herself without any indication of emotion and that is just weird.
I also think that Starbuck is a kind of a cylon or at least something similar to it. As a theory she can be just the younger version of Six and\or Ellen who both confirmed as cylons.
Another theory is that if you remember about the prophecy that she is the harbinger of death and therefore she can be modeled\created by the mastermind for that specific role and ergo she can’t be fit to a limited group of final five, she is just an another thing of another criteria.
Am I being all paranoid after that episode? Definitely yes.
this episode once proved to me that i’m watching the best show on television period! Dualla’s death i felt even more more than cally’s! why because this one i didn’t see coming i really thought there was a reconciliation between her an lee! but when it happened i was literally frozen with shock!
The feelings on despair and folly were overwhelming! none more so than the “frak earth” and colonials fighting in the halls!
this episode was “dark”
Yes, Dualla’s suicide came from out of nowhere and was a real shocker.
Kudos to Moore and Eick for giving me heart palpitations!
Ellen !?!?!?!?? ellen !???????????? Elllllllllllleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeennnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn!???????????????????????????????
Not sure if Ellen is the 5th or not because the XO has been seeing her all over the place. Right? It could have been anyone. We shall see.
LOL… my first draft of this article I had a paragraph that looked just like that… then I opted for some sane method of expressing myself though inwardly I’m still shaking my head in confusion.
I like the Dualla thought on her maybe being a Cylon but we might be thinking too hard on these things. Aren’t we?
It seems to me that this “Earth” is our Earth – and the events of the BSG story are taking place two thousand years in the future.
And why should we assume Ellen is the final Cylon just because Tigh believes she is? There’s much more evidence for Starbuck, but that could be a misdirection. We really aren’t sure yet.
At least we learned the connection between the Four and “All Along the Watchtower.”
I agree with Beckster that this earth is ours. Given the star formations that appear in the sky. I think Ellen is the 5th of the “final five” but that doesn’t necessarily mean there aren’t other Cylons. Some kind of which Starbuck must be.
I do hope that Moore and Eick resolve how this Earth was destroyed, before they leave for new diggs.
Ron Moore confirmed to Maureen Ryan of the Chicago Tribune that Ellen is the Fifth Cylon.
Sorry I dont have a link, but its out there
I think that body was a clone of Starbuck.
The cylons seem to want Baltar to be revered as a messiah.
It seems somebody else is trying to make Starbuck appear to be an angel of some sort.
I am glad it was Ellen.
It gives the whole thing an element of surprise .
I am going to miss Dee,But damn if that wasnt one of the best momentsI have seen on television in YEARS!
whatever the answers are ,
I am with this show to the bitter end.
how do we take it from here onwards ?
i got to tell ya all, nothing is falling into place. i remember all those sneak peeks sci fi channel broadcast before the end of the season begun, and the pieces still dont seem to fit together. rozalyn’s extreme anger ? i think there is a resurrection ship of the ‘old’ cylons nearby (from the nuked civilization) – after ellen told XO it will be ok and they will be together again, and the fact that starbuck is alive again (she is a clone) i think a resurrection technology is somewhere in the system with someone still in charge, or perhaps its on autopilot. ALSO – consider the robots found together with the skeletons – if the skeletons (’humans’) can resurrect – how about the robots ?
i LOVE THIS SHOW. i hope the auction goes well.
and to continue this current exciting roll of thoughts – if the humans find a resurrection ship that works for them (aka starbuck), didnt they just blast the hell out of the cylon’s resurrection ship a few episodes back ? will humans now be immortal ? how will THAT change the balance of forces ? their human nature ?
perhaps the prophecy of starbuck’s destiny means that once humanity has immortality – it is longer human, it is cylon, and therefore humanity is dead. and if those few thousands of remaining men and women of the colonial fleet find out they can now be immortal, after all what they’ve been through – wouldn’t they fight with all their might to have that chance? they will for sure. Now that we know cara can be reborn, we have to see whether cylons can be reborn as well.perhaps Diana will give us a clue into this option.
Wow now that was some compelling television. Here are my thoughts:
1. I’m still not sure if the Earth featured is our Earth. The use of All Along the Watchtower implies that it could be our Earth. Then again there is the fact that every time they show the planet from orbit land masses are deliberately obscured by clouds leaving open the possibility that it is only a planet the Cylons called “Earth”.
2. There must be some sort of resurrection facility either on a ship or in a bunker of some kind as is implied by the existence of the final 5 (after getting nuked not to mention living for over 2000 years) and blatantly stated by Ellen.
3. As someone that has known more than one person that has committed and/or attempted suicide I found D’s death very believable. That is just how people that commit suicide act; they have supreme despair right up until they decide to kill themselves, at that point they feel they have found their way out and they are happy. They also make peace (particularly with those they love) and take quick, determined action after they have made that peace.
4. WTF is the deal with Starbuck?
5. I am very excited to see the last 9 episodes because I want to see exactly how the circular “this has happened before and will happen again” is wrapped up.
1. Sorry to say but your statement that they “discover old Centurion parts in the debris. (The original Centurions from the first series)” is false. The cylons say that they discovered cylons BUT that they never saw these models before. The cylons from the original series are the same cylons in the RAZOR flashback that guarded the hybrid as well as well as in the webisodes with the young Adama. Those found on this so called “earth” (remember we never saw the continents through the cloud cover when they jumped to “earth”) are different.
2. About Starbuck; if you do some research you can find that the original series character was going to possibly be brought back as some “being of light” but that story was never fleshed out due to the cancellation. So maybe she is something totaly different.
I sat in shock over Dee’s death. Never saw it coming. My wife and I were dumbfounded.
Harry over at AICN points out a few things that i think get mentioned here, but one thing that is mentioned is that the new Caprica series is supposed to start a mere 50 years before all of this happens (current BSG series), including the creation of the cylons, so how is a war 2K years before explained.
I find it hard to believe that Ellen is the 5th. It seems very anticlimactic. But if it’s true, there’s obviously more there that they haven’t shown us.
Also, did anyone notice that they seemed to be focusing a lot on Gaeta this ep? Did I imagine it or did he make mention of “finding someone”? In other words, he had a mate/significant other. Does that serve any meaning here?
Overall, 10 stars in my book. Very emotional episode. I’m really going to miss this series when it’s done.
One can get major headaches trying to guess the origins of humanity and the Cylons, especially based on the “All this has happened before …” line.
But it IS established that Earth was settled — it wasn’t an “origin” planet for either the Cylons or humans, right? Humanity/Cylons originated on Kobol and spread out from there, I understand. Therefore, if the 13th Tribe is Cylon — and went to Earth — the destruction wreaked on the planet could have been of their making. Recall that one of the skin-job Cylons was castigated by his peers for lobotomizing a Raider … inplying that the skin-job Cylons were treating the Raiders and Centurions as expendable “slaves.” If Earth was destroyed 2000+ years ago, perhaps the humanoid Cylons created robotic Cylons as slaves back then, and THEY rebelled. Hence, nuclear destruction.
The only hassle with this theory is, how in the frak did humanity create humanoid Cylons on Kobol some 4000 years ago? It stands to reason that they could NOT. Therefore, what about it being the CYLONS who were the original inhabitants of Kobol — and THEY created a totally organic lifeform: Humans? The moral/ethical problems (and possibly war) involved with this creation eventually led to the Kobol Cylons to flee (to Earth), while the humans settled the 12 Colonies. Later, like the Cylons who fled to Earth, humanity created their own [robotic] Cylons and were wiped out — just like the original Cylons.
The question then becomes, why did the copies of the original Cylons (the skin-jobs) assist the human-created robotic Cylons in destroying humanity? To serve as a catalyst for a merging of the two species into a more perfect lifeform …??
Didn’t at all predict Ellen being the final cylon but it makes sense considering the final cylon had to not be in the fleet and also the manner in which . Don’t know why I didn’t think about dead characters or characters we believe to be dead.. but anywho that revelation was one of the lesser interesting things about the episode.
Firstly, all inhabitants of Earth were cylons so that means the Thirteenth Tribe of Kobol were cylons and at what point lived on Kobol with the other twelve tribes of ordinary organic humans. So that means either the humans on Kobol created the thirteenth tribe of cylons (which seems more sensible) or that the cylons were the ones originally on Kobol and they created the humans, which just sounds a lot cooler so I’m going to go with that. Also if the humans on Kobol created the cylons on Kobol then that seems to imply that the Twelve Tribes that left Kobol to form the Twelve Colonies were technologically advanced enough to create humanoid cylons however the humans in the Twelve Colonies never had that kind of technology but there’s other ways to explain the loss of that technology.. such as wanting to make sure humanoid cylons would never be invented again.
Also from the flashbacks that the final five had of Earth, it seems like there weren’t multiple copies of the same cylon.. but instead individual and unique cylons.
We also know that the twelve tribes abandoned Kobol 2000 years ago; the same time at which Earth was nuked. My guess is that Earth and Kobol were at war and it seems that the humans won since Earth was completely nuked but I’m guessing Kobol was as well but the humans had enough people and resources left to successfully relocate to the 12 colonies. But we also know from the flashbacks the final five cylons had that those five were on Earth 2000 years ago, which is what makes them special. The other 7 models were created only recently and are less advanced (they can’t age for example). So for those five to survive til present day, that means that they resurrected after Earth was nuked. Ellen was expecting both herself and Tigh to be resurrected so unless the final five were special on Earth in some way, you could assume that the entire population of cylon Earth was expecting to be resurrected. And this is complete speculation but that resurrected population of cylons may have then left and found a different planet, a 2nd Earth, and the show will end with the fleet discovering this planet perhaps..
Also there’s no reason to believe why there should be only 12 models of cylons that currently exist. It’s possible that more people in the fleet were Thirteenth Tribe cylons.
Dee, for example. There is an incredible amount of purposeful symbolism that leads up to her committing suicide and the writers love to use things like that to give clues. In the first scene of the episode, she finds that pocket watch on the ground and opens it and only after opening it and seeing the pictures inside does she begin to crack emotionally. I think it’s precisely that discovery of the pocket watch that leads to her killing herself because I think the pocket watch is one she used to own as a child. It was found next to some jacks and we see Lee going through a box of Dee’s personal effects and finding a set of jacks (and definitely not the ones Dee found on Earth because these ones didn’t look 2000 years old). There’s also the symbolism of the attention given to the photo of Dee as a child and her hanging of the pocket watch in her locker and the song she hums, which I’m guessing is one she used to know as a child.
And Starbuck could also be one of the Thirteenth Tribe cylons because it could help explain how she’s alive when there’s a dead body of hers in her viper on Earth. My theory is that she crashes and dies on Earth and gets resurrected in the new Thirteenth Tribe colony and gets outfitted with a brand new viper (with directions to Earth) and identical personal effects and sent back to the fleet.
daft: I thought the diaspora from Kobol occurred 4000 years or so ago. This would allow the Cylons who fled (the 13th Tribe) Kobol to establish a society on Earth in another 2000 years (or, 2000 years ago).
a few questions-
could Ellen be an older version of 6?
btw- on Kobol.. wasn’t the mythology that humans lived with the gods? what is the history/ backstory associated with that? Would that mean there were three ” factions” human, cylon AND gods? or that one of the 2 were the ” gods”…?
what if starbuck were a hybrid, like hera and tyrol’s kid- but with some twist that makes her additionally special? no idea how the clone/ copying affected though.. somehow her being the final cylon doesn’t fit. leoben pushing starbuck so hard to realize she had a destiny and all that.. not anything like that for the other final 4.. so makes no sense..
In response to Gaeta finding someone, he had a webisode released between 4 and 4.5 where he has a boyfriend. You can read about it here:
http://www.salon.com/ent/tv/feature/2009/01/16/bsg_explainer/index3.html
Also, here is an interview with the actress that plays Ellen:
http://www.accesshollywood.com/dish-of-salt-who-is-battlestar-galacticas-final-cylon_video_940001
She says that she has known she is the last Cylon for 2 years. She will be in 8 of the last 9 episodes in Saul’s head. Like 6 is in Baltar’s head. She also says that she is a hybrid, which I take to mean that the final 5 are human/cylon hybrid. Just a guess on that last one.
Those Cylons bots they found are not the cylons from the original series.
The original cylons were featured in the Razor movie and are simply older models – these they found in the debris are not older models at all, they are unrecognizable and unknown to them – like from a different species of cylons or something.
Dee’s death was pretty unexpected and very effective. Although looking back it was wierd to see her so happy after seeing her the most upset after seeing Earth for what it was.
Ellen is not the 5th cylon
At least I hope it’s not
I totally agree with daftbrain’s and Dutch’s ideas about the Thirteenth Tribe cylons and if you combine these ideas you get:
1- I think that Kara and Dee are the differentiated cylons(I believe they are The Thirteenth Tribe’s cylon/human hybrids). And Kara will lead “humans” to their end which is immortality, so that they replace the cylons and they oppress and kill the cylons, so that once humans are now cylons and once cylons become the humans.This way the “this has happened before and will happen again” prophecy will be fulfilled.
2- Other then “this has happened before and will happen again” prophecy there is also a prophecy about “the shape of things to come” which indicates next generation is combination of the Kobol’s cylon/human hybrids and The Thirteenth Tribe’s cylon/human hybrid. Kobol’s cylon/human hybrid is Hera and The Thirteenth Tribe’s cylon/human hybrid is “the final five” who manage to survive after the Earth is nuked.
3- I think that after the separation of tribes on Kobol, the twelve colonies created their own cylons who rebelled against them and wiped them out. And the same happened with The Thirteenth Tribe which created their own cylons that are completely different from the Kobol-originated cylons.
4- When people of the fleet destroyed the resurrection hub, this only affects the Kobol-originated cylons’ ability and not The Thirteenth Tribe’s cylons who are the “final five” so we can see Ellen again not just in Saul’s head and also maybe Dee if she is one of them. And definitely Kara is one of them because she is resurrected after her death orbiting Earth#1 with clouds blocking the approval of the continents.
5- Earth#2 is “The Earth” on which people of The Thirteenth Colony are living-It’s us! So the fleet will somehow come here at the end of the show.
6- The next generation-> “the shape of things to come” will end the long-lasting vicious circle of “all this has happened before and will happen again” because the most perfect life form will be attained by the crossing of the Kobol’s cylon/human hybrids and The Thirteenth Tribe’s cylon/human hybrids as they won’t hate each other anymore.
7- By the way “the final five” term is generated and used by the cylons(Kobol-originated ones)who do not know them(The Thirteenth Tribe cylons). And they can’t talk about them and it’s prohibited because their knowledge about them is next to none. So we, the viewers are tricked into believing that there are only five cylons that can age and perfectly mimic human life form because our knowledge is also limited. So there can be other human/cylon hybrids of The Thirteenth Tribe including Kara and Dee, who may be reborn just like Kara and the four of the five did.
8- We didn’t see Tory’s memories about Earth#1 and it may be significant. We saw Saul’s, Tyrol’s and Anders’ and also Dee’s and Kara’s if you count them too but not Tory’s. She just said: “I remember,” and “You’ve played it for all of us,” confirming Anders.
these are all interesting theories but Dee is dead.
Her death was not a set up for a Cylon plot twist.
Sometimes it feels like we overthink our ideas when it comes to BSG.
“t seems to me that this “Earth” is our Earth – and the events of the BSG story are taking place two thousand years in the future.”
To me, this makes a ton of sense, since I never did warm up to the overall premise. I mean, life on Caprica was so much like Earth, most mannerisms, suits, ties etc. I don’t buy the 13th colony being cylons, however. They could have been attacked by cylons at some point in time. Then an excellent point was brung up that the remains/parts may not be Cylons at all.
By the way, Lucifer did it.
hahahahahahaha
So does that mean all of us commenting here are really… Cylons?
Vic
If I am Cylon,
How do I activate my Super Strength?
@Hube: It was only the Thirteenth Tribe that left Kobol 4000 years ago. The Twelve Tribes left 2000 years ago for the Twelve Colonies.
And very sensible ideas Mert.. I also toyed with the idea of that Earth#2 being the one we live in but how exactly would Kara and her viper have gotten resurrected then?
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