Battlestar Galactica: Where Do We Go From Here?

And so we reach the home stretch for Battlestar Galactica. The series finale is being filmed right now, and we begin the long wait for (most likely) 2009 and the last 10 to 12 episodes. The episode "Revelations" was a doozy; on its own, I loved it, but taken with a few events of the last couple of episodes, there are a few things that I am taking issue with (most are cylon-related). Oh, and there are huge spoilers in this post, so be careful if you haven't seen it yet.

Let's begin at the end. A few months ago, Ron Moore and/or David Eick said that the colonists wouldn't get to Earth until the series finale, so one of three things happened. They lied, they changed their minds, or the planet featuring a radioactive and destroyed city (I'm guessing it was Manhattan, and the colonists were on Liberty Island) wasn't Earth. I'm guessing it was option number two. As far as Earth twists go, having the fleet arrive at a post-apocalyptic Earth wasn't the most original, but seeing as how fans have had pretty much every theory imaginable, it must have been hard to come up with something completely unexpected. Other theories have included the fleet showing up in the distant past (one of my friends, who majored in history, noted that many of the characters had names that are also the names of ancient cities/locations [examples include Thrace and Tyrol] and people [Agathon; if you don't believe me, Wikipedia these names]), the fleet showing up in the present, and George W. Bush launching a nuclear attack at them, or that Earth would be populated with cylons. One of the reviewers from the Onion AV Club's TV Club wanted the fleet to show up in Hollywood and be welcomed by real-life celebrities (playing themselves) as well as people delighted by the idea of life among the stars (played by real life Galactica fans).

Personally, I was a fan of the whole, "George Bush thinks they are terrorists and blows them out of the sky", but this apocalypse works too. For one thing, seeing everyone cheering upon arriving at the beautiful (from space) blue planet, only to have them realize in horror that it is a nuclear wasteland full of ruins was heartbreaking. Also, having the colonists and rebel cylons find an Earth that has been destroyed because of warring humans opens up the question of whether humanity is worth saving again. This was examined in Season 2, when the fleet had split over ideology, and now, it can come back in full force. After the humans and cylons have finally been able to forge an alliance, it can all be taken away because of the cylons blaming the humans for others of their race destroying themselves. Humanity's pettiness ruined it for everyone. It is hard to think of any happy ending that could come from this, and thematically, a happy resolution doesn't fit with the show, but the optimist side of me hopes that there is some silver lining for these people who have suffered for so long (however, the cynic in me got such a kick of the end out of this episode).

Speaking of the cylons, there is still one yet to be revealed. D'Anna said that the fifth and final was not in the fleet, which lends credence to my theory that Kendra Shaw is the final cylon. However, Shaw died, and there have been hints that the final five don't resurrect (or, I mean, they didn't even before the resurrection hub was destroyed). This brings me to a few of the problems I'm having with the series. I really don't like the concept of the final five. I've said this before, but I'll say it again. When the writers were working on the occupation of New Caprica, they needed a reason to not reveal the last five cylons together in the third season premiere. I still think that they could have gotten away with saying that the cylons wanted to still have some sleeper agents JUST IN CASE there was dissension among the humans, and they could have spies in place to report on a possible RESISTANCE. But no, instead, we are introduced to the idea that there are five other models that the seven known models don't know the identity of.

In addition, it would appear that these final five are so different that they (seemingly; none of these are conclusive) don't resurrect, don't have model numbers, age (WHAT?!) and can get other cylons pregnant (so far, only one person aside from me, that I know of, has called foul on the fact that Tigh impregnated Caprica Six). The idea of "no model numbers" came to me through internet hearsay, though the site I got it from is trustworthy enough to make it worth considering. Apparently, Ron Moore said this in an interview. This reinforces a thought I had earlier; why do the seven original models have the numbers 1-6 and 8 instead of 1-7? To me, this is further proof of the final five being an afterthought to the occupation. I think that the only thing that could have convinced me that the final five were in the plan from the beginning is if the five's model numbers were the five prime numbers between 1 and 12. Yeah, I'm that much of a nerd. I figured out that there are five prime numbers (2, 3, 5, 7, and 11) in that range, and it would have been kind of cool if the final five were all prime (I'm such a nerd). I wonder how the seven knew that there were 12 models at all! The final five can barely be called cylons at all...

So, with only about 11 episodes left, where do we go from here? In addition to revealing the twelfth cylon, cylon numbers 1, 4 and 5 are still out there, and they will probably serve as (possibly only one of) the final villains. The centurions, who now have free will, need to rebel. A final home needs to be found. Maybe they'll find a way to settle on Earth. Maybe they'll go to Mars. Maybe they will realize that the ships in the fleet will forever be their new homes. Maybe...

Up next: Scrubs through the ages...