It has been a long time since we were together like this good holidays?
Say hi to your mother for me but I couldnt tell you how glad I am to see you.
(Somewhere, Col. Taylor is nodding in silent sympathy.)
Credit: Carole Segal/SCI FI Channel
With that hope gone, nuked two millennia ago, what are people to do?
Where do they turn?
How can you trust anything, even yourself when faith is so thoroughly betrayed?
There was an awful lot of information thrown at us this episode.
Lets take each bit separately.
And since this is the beginning of the end, lets begin at the end:
ELLEN TIGH?
But instead, it was Ellen Tigh.
I hate to say it, but:lame.
SO, THEN, WHATS THE DEAL WITH STARBUCK?
But what does that mean?
Whered the other Starbuck come from?
Whos fabricating Vipers out there and, while theyre at it, cloning people?
Was that mandala-storm-thing that killed her at the end of Season 3 some kind of wormhole?
Is time travel, for the first time, rearing its ugly head inGalactica?
Gods, I hope not.
If so, I wonder if a holodeck isnt gonna show up in the penultimate episode.
Giving the only gifts she had to offer: companionship, inspiration, relief, clarity.
And it mustve all been so clear for her, how to spend her last day alive.
Such clarity can be frightening.
Because one of the hardest things to recognize in ourselves is weakness.
Not only did Dee recognize that she wasnt strong enough to carry on, but she embraced it.
Abject despair is like a fingerprint; its different for everyone.
And its as if Duallas death is what kicked the desperation into high gear.
Everyone on that ship was looking for a way to numb the pain.
Too deliberate, too forced, too much weird stuff happening with his mouth.
But, as Baltar discovers, theyre not so human after all.
A tribe of Cylons came to this planet and called it Earth.
So, does this mean thateveryoneis a Cylon?
All of the tribes were machines?
Tyrol shopping in a market; Anders playing All Along the Watchtower; Tory watching him perform but how?
They age like humans, or Adama wouldve noticed his best friend never got older.
According to the 2,000-year-old Ellen, theyll be reborn…but why these five?
Whats so special about them that theyre chosen, Kal-El-style, to be the standardbearers for their dead civilization?
As ever, we got some answers, but they were answers that begged even more questions.
So, here we are, right back where we started.
Adama making a promise to the fleet that he will lead them to a new home.
Lying to himself, and everyone else, to motivate them.
But does anyone still believe?
I will say this: Aside from the Ellen reveal, everything about this episode felt right.
Every emotion rang true, even if, at times, a little extreme.
It was a funereal hour of television, and it couldnt have gone any other way.
But I also cant say that it was dramatic.
Revelation, and the aftershocks of revelation, is an inert experience.
Emotional devastation is powerful, but it doesntmove.
We learned some stuff, sure, but aside from Duallas suicide, not that much actually happened.
Just one mention of the Separatist Cylon threat from the Cavils.
Barely a word from Baltar and the Sixes.
What did you think?
Who would you rather have seen revealed as the Fifth Cylon?
Is Lee gonna find himself back in the Big Chair?
How will the fact that, apparently,everyoneis a Cylon affect the ongoing war?
