I waited until I heard Ron Moore’s commentary on the finale before writing because I wanted to hear if he had an explanation of some of the things that I didn’t think were properly resolved in the finale. Unfortunately that was not the case.
First, this review is full of spoilers. If you haven’t seen the finale and plan to, don’t read it.
Second, I want to say that I give the overall Battlestar Galactica series at least two up arrows as it was truly one of the best TV shows ever made. However, I was disappointed in the finale. There were two reasons for my disappointment: two big plot threads that weren’t properly resolved and the whole tone of the finale.
For a couple of seasons there have been two big issues that much of the plot has revolved around: 1) what is special about Hera and why is she the key to the salvation of both the human race and the cylons; and 2) what “is” Starbuck/Kara since she apparently died in her raptor.
Starting with Starbuck: the “resurrected” Starbuck seems human. She plays a key role in the finale by “finding” “earth” after realizing that “the” song (All Along the Watchtower) when translated into numbers are the coordinates of Earth and she jumps BSG there in its dramatic last jump. And then she disappears because her work is done. So she wasn’t human. She also doesn’t seem to be an angel like “Head” Baltar and Caprica as she has no awareness of what she is, she kills people (very unangel-like behaviour), and in every other way seems human. In Moore’s commentary he said that he didn’t want to define her and just leave it open. That would be more acceptable to me if they didn’t make such a big deal during the show (e.g. Baltar raving about the necrotic tissue found on her dogtags) raising the question time after time.
Hera is key to the plot because everyone wants her. Cavil even starts to dissect her to see what makes her tick. The whole climactic battle at the end is to get her back and she is key to the “opera” dream coming true. The shows explains this by saying that she was mitochondiral Eve, the mother of us all. However, that makes no sense. In the commentary Moore explains that in an alternate ending they didn’t use, it was “calculated” that with the number of humans remaining that they would only be viable for 3 generations and that the only reason we didn’t die out is because Hera’s combined human/cylon heritage got us past that hurdle. That would have been a satisfactory explanation for me but doesn’t fit with the ending that they did use.
There were 38,000 remaining humans and they were going to split up and inhabit different locales on Earth. So Hera would only be living in one of many habitations. So maybe all the others didn’t survive, you say. Unfortunately that doesn’t work because we are also told that the colony survivors can mate with the indigenous “humans” that are already on the planet. We don’t know how many there are but presumably they are viable.
Furthermore, in the commentary Moore says that Tyrol/Chief goes off to Scotland and becomes the ancestor of all the Scots. Since he went by himself then he must have mated with the locals and clearly Hera had nothing to do with the viability of that community.
Still Hera could be mitochondrial Eve which would mean that her descendants mixed with people from the other groups so that her DNA does exist in all of us. However, she wasn’t necessary for the survival of the species and her “special” qualities (the cylon DNA) were not necessary.
Then there is the overly optimistic tone of the ending (or should I say “never” ending because it went too long). BSG was great because of its dark tone and unpredictable plot where things always seemed to end up worse than you expect. After the peace falls apart because Tyrol breaks the final 5 mind meld to kill Tory (a great “dark” moment) and they go from peace to the destrucion of Cavil’s coalition (and Cavil’s “fun” suicide) that was a great reversal and I wish the show had ended at that moment.
To me, the whole good “earth” (versus the first “bad” Earth they found previously) ending was unsatisfying. Sure Roslin dies but we’ve expected that since the beginning (and Moore even wimped out on the Moses symbology of having her see but not reach “earth”). Tyrol is satisfyingly broken after the revelation of how his wife Cally was murdered but the rest of the characters are way too upbeat for me. Saul and Ellen Tigh riding off into the sunset seemed particularly against character. And they missed the best joke possibility with them. Ellen clearly would be the last one to give up technology and her creature comforts. And both of them were big drinkers. So her last words should have been something like, “So do you know how to build a ’still?”. But no, she happily strolled off to live in the wilderness.
Maybe Hilo and Athena deserved their happy family time but I don’t see it for Baltar and Caprica. It could have been “dark” that Baltar and Caprica don’t “pay” for their sins but it doesn’t seem to have been shot that way.
I could go on but this is way too long already. I do have to say that some of Ron Moore’s last words on the commentary were great and fitting: “Don’t turn your back on your toasters”.
