Battlestar Gallactica: Season 4.5 (spoilers)

[Mr Wallstreet]

I finally finished off BSG.

Right from the start, the last episodes were amazing with twists and turns and shockers. Big shockers that knocked my socks off:

Dualla committing suicide

Felix Gaeta leading a mutiny with Tom Zerrick

The revelation of the final Cylon

Whatever the F Starbuck was.

Chief Tyrrel not being the father of his son

Coloniol Ti knocking up Caprica 6

The Final Final being alive on Earth before it was nuked but planning everything

Probably a few more but I can't remember

One of the highlights from season 4.5 was the uprising led by Gaeta. Very high, tense, nail biting moment full action, intrigue, betrayal, and bucketloads of drama. I didn't think Gaeta had it in him, to lead an uprising. In an episode as full of drama as this, the one scene that had me in stitches was when Zerrick ordered the Quarum to be killed. I imagine thats what people feel like doing to their elected representatives from time to time.

Sam Anderson, one of the final five, taking a bullet to the head and becoming an Oracle, I guess for the base ship was another great moment.

And of course the final battle scene between Battlestar Gallactica and the Cylon Colony was a fantabulous battle. A true Civil war. Cylon vs. Cylon, Centurian vs. Centurian and just when it seemed everything could've gone to shit The Final Five offer John -the crusty old man Cylon- Resurrection but its stopped when Tyrrel chokes the shit out of the President's former aide when he learns she killed Callie.

The ending could've been perfect but it had one huge flaw: Gaius fucking Baltar got to walk off with Caprica 6 and live happily ever after. That pissed me off so damn much. From the first episode Baltar was nothing but a selfish prick. He manipulated everything and everyone to serve his goals. Not to mention the fact that he is pretty much responsible for the original genocide. I really can't past this. For all the bullshit prophecies he was a part of, all he did at the very end was pick up a little girl and take her into the adjoining room and he even fucked that up when the Cylon grabbed her and was going to blow her head off.

Dualla: Dead, Gaeta: Executed but Baltar gets live out his remaining days in peace and happiness:

More later

[Stocky Boy]

I was quite annoyed with the God referencing at the end, but other then that quite happy over all.

I rather liked the ambiguous nature of Kara in the last few episodes. It's never specifically mentioned that she's an angelic spirit in a similar way to Gaius and Cap6's hallucinations. I like the possibility that she became a fleet-wide hallucination who dissapeared after she was no longer needed. But, she was clearly more material than Gaius or Cap6's spirits, or atleast we can presume so, since she interacted a number of times with the crew on a physical level.

One of my favourite moments of the final few episodes is John/Dean Stockwell's Cylon character commiting suicide. After all this desire to live forever and experience everything, he takes the easy way out of a tough situation out of, ironically, fear for his life.

Dualla's kobayshi was really shocking!

I don't feel the same about Gaius.
He was a selfish fool for giving Caprica 6 the codes needed to bring about the genocide of the human race, but he didn't give those codes knowingly. He gave them up unquestioningly due to deception and misdirection from Caprica 6 nurturing his ego and overwhelming him with the hedonistic pleasure he feeds off of. His crime was not intentional. He pretty much saves the day as well with his timely intervention, which gives both sides a chance to consider a truce - only for the shit to hit the fan all the same - but Gaius prevented a potentially early finale.

What the hell happened to Xena?

[Mr Wallstreet]

I was quite annoyed with the God referencing at the end, but other then that quite happy over all.

I didn't care for the God reference one way or another but I wasn't surprised at all by their proclamation of an all powerful diety. Religion/God, after all, fueled the show's major plot points and story for all 4 seasons.

I rather liked the ambiguous nature of Kara in the last few episodes.

Yea, I really did not know what to make of that at all so I just accepted her being a giant Dues Ex Machina without any real problem.

EDIT:

Kara Thrace is Jesus Christ.

I don't feel the same about Gaius.
He was a selfish fool for giving Caprica 6 the codes needed to bring about the genocide of the human race, but he didn't give those codes knowingly. He gave them up unquestioningly due to deception and misdirection from Caprica 6 nurturing his ego and overwhelming him with the hedonistic pleasure he feeds off of. His crime was not intentional. He pretty much saves the day as well with his timely intervention, which gives both sides a chance to consider a truce - only for the shit to hit the fan all the same - but Gaius prevented a potentially early finale.

Gaius did unknowingly give the codes to Caprica 6, but ignorance/ego worship/insecurity/weakness are not at all valid excuses for being -in part- responsible for genocide.

The very reason militaries have such stringent security in place with regards to their defense is to prevent that very thing from happening: someone sending in a spy to steal the codes, disable their defenses and launch an attack. I'm pretty sure giving up your country's military secrets qualifies as a treasonous act whether you knew the other person was a spy or not. It's not just the law, its common sense and it's just something I can't excuse regardless of the extra few seconds Gaius brought them..

What the hell happened to Xena?

Last we heard, her "line" was boxed up, but now that they're human, it's only a matter of time before she/they die, if she's not released.

Funny story about Mr. Aaron Douglass: I was watching the last 30 minutes of the final episode with director commentary on and the producers were discussing Aaron's final scene. The scene where Tyrell is saying good-bye to Sol Ti and and his wife, he says that he's going far north to get away from everyone. Below is what the director's said:

"The place Tyrell was going was supposed to be Vancouver, Canada, a nod to our home town. Aaron, however, misinterpreted it and thought his character was going to Scotland and would eventually invent the Scots. Aaron was so tickeled at the prospect of being the forefather of the Scottish folk, we didn't have the heart to tell him he was really going to Canada".



Last thing I thought was well done was giving the Centurians their freedom. Well earned I'd say.

[Mr Wallstreet]

Now that I’ve finished BSG, I’ve been wiki’ing characters, stories and themes. One of the best characters was John Cavil – Cylon #1. He went from having a small role to becoming the primary antagonist with a sadistic streak a mile wide. I think one of the reasons he was so great at being a bastard was because of his contradictory nature. He utterly loathed humans and humanity, yet he was trapped inside a human body; he claimed to not suffer from the base human emotions yet constantly gave in to anger and hatred and responded to every question with a response dripping with sarcasm and claimed to want to destroy the humans out of a sense of justice for enslaving his Cylon ancestors but clearly it was out of revenge, hatred and spite.

The speech Cavil gave Ellen Tigh, his "mother", about why he loathed being human perfectly summed up his character and all its flaws.

Also, anyone else find it funny that Cavil, who originally, posed as a priest was also the cruelest of the bunch?

[Stocky Boy]

Art immitating life my main main. Yeah, Cavil was brilliant. All of the things you mention and then the big pussy blows his brains out in fear of impending doom. Such an appropriate ending for the character.

Still not quite buying into your way of thinking concerning Gaius. I understand how what he did, unknowingly is still an act of treason, but I still feel he was sufficiently 'drunk'/misdirected. I'm not sure I would blame anyone for being conned, no matter how much better they should know. Obviously, I mean in my 'rational mind' I can forgive the conned. Personally, if the conned individual's foolishness affected me, I'd want his head on a spit,too.

You know, now you come to mention it, when Tyrel says he's going up north, I immediately assumed it meant ancestral Scotland too. Ho ho!