Well, last night was it: the last episode of Battlestar Galactica for 2007. It was an absolutely amazing episode. If you’ve not watched it yet, I’m warning you: get away from this post right now. Massive spoilers ahead! Having said that, if you have watched it:
I can’t believe they introduced four new Cylons. I think everyone was expecting one new Cylon, but four? And the four they chose! Sam and Tory Foster (the President’s aide) aren’t big deals; Tigh and Tyrol, however, are huge. I’m anxious to see how Tigh’s character progresses in the next season. When will the others find out about the new Cylons? How will they respond? How will Admiral Adama respond? They’ve been friends for their whole lives; they’ve hated Cylons together for years. And now it comes out that Tigh is a Cylon.
Tyrol is a huge deal for one major reason: there are now two human-Cylon hybrids instead of just one. Hera, from Athena and Helo, and Tyrol and Cally’s child (who’s name I can’t remember at the moment). I haven’t quite figured out what the big deal is about the hybrids, though. Roslin from the start has been obsessed with the hybrid kid, and now she’ll have a second one to obsess about.
While the other two, Sam and Tory, aren’t as huge as Tigh and Tyrol, they still introduce some interesting problems. A Cylon helping the President? That won’t bode well with the population if it gets out. And, if Starbuck rejoins the Colonial Fleet (more on her in a minute), I’m sure her husband being a toaster won’t go too well, either.
On the topic of Starbuck… well, I’m lost. I don’t think she’s a Cylon anymore. The end of the episode, with Starbuck dropping in next to Lee and saying “hi”, was a major surprise. I think they’re going into uncharted water with her, probably furthering the whole subplot about her being a prophet of some sort. Whether she ends up being divine, or a Cylon Starbuck trying to trick Lee, we won’t know until 2008, but I’d wager that it’s the former and not the latter.
Regarding Gaius Baltar’s trial and the outcome, I was actually happy with it. As I’ve mentioned before in my posts about Baltar, I hate him. He’s arrogant, sneaky, and just generally unlikable. However, that doesn’t change the fact that what Lee Adama said is true: just because you don’t like someone doesn’t mean you can kill them. He was also right in that, while Baltar did surrender to the Cylons and signed the death order, what choice did he have? None, really. He could have refused, they would have killed him, and then went on with their plans anyway. I was also happy to find out that Admiral Adama saw the light and voted for Baltar’s acquittal.
There’s one last bit that I’m wondering about. I know nothing about Sam and Tory’s past, and very little about Tyrol’s, so I’ll skip them and get right to Tigh. We know about Tigh’s past: he’s been in the Colonial Fleet for nearly his whole life, and Bill along with him! So if he’s a Cylon, does that mean Cylons that look like humans grow like real humans? When Cylons have died before, and are then shown being downloaded into a new body, the bodies have been fully developed. We’ve never seen a child Cylon. But if Tigh really is a Cylon, the Cylon human-lookalikes have to be able to grow, otherwise Tigh would have looked exactly the same for the past 40 years while he’s been in the service with Bill.
I hope they have all of this figured out, because currently, from my point of view, it looks like they’ve opened a can of worms they might have needed to leave closed. Any ideas?
Tags: Battlestar Galactica, Scifi
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The happenings in this episode were truly unexpected by me. Perhaps Tigh was replaced at some point…maybe during his incarceration on New Caprica. When Tigh says “There must be some kind of way out of here” I busted up laughing. I think the grow option is better as the five are obviously special.
Starbuck has definitely passed beyond and is now supernatural… will she return to Galactica after this battle or will she be a phantom that only Lee sees?
Do Is Gaeta [sic] number five? He has been in the perfect spot to watch it all go down…and he did attempt, inexplicably, to kill Baltar and then lie at the trial. Perhaps number five got nervous.. since Baltar has been aboard the base ships and in contact with other cylons for quite some time now… just a thought.
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I assume “skinjobs” grow. The very fact that hybrids are possible means they’re genetically very much human. Perhaps they have methods to more quickly grow them without consciousness to a certain point, but being nearly human I’d think they could go through any physical process a regular human can.
Tyrol is actually the new Cylon that strikes me as most curious at this time. In Tory and Tigh you have the right-hand people to the fleet’s two leaders. In Anders you have a connection to Starbuck, who is… unspecifiedly important. But the Chief?
The best thing about these new Cylons, however different they may be, is how much irony it retroactively adds to the series. Cylons leading the New (and Old) Caprica resistance. Cylon retrieving Baltar from the Cylons on the algae planet. Boomer and Tyrol as a completely Cylon couple.
The conclusion to Baltar’s trial was great. Lee put eloquently what was wrong with the whole thing, and then we got to see Baltar go through moods. Nervousness, relief, fright, self-assured cockiness, and back to worry about what the hell he’s going to do now.
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They never aired the new BSG anywhere here. Not on the BBC, not on other foreign networks, not on any of the commercial ones we have.
So, apart from hearing about it now and again, I never did anything about it. I then tried watching a few episodes online but I am now so behind that downloading them all would fry my processors.
Maybe I should look for the DVDs somewhere.
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Cris: Nah, I don’t think Tigh was replaced. I think that’s the real Tigh, and he really is a Cylon. We just don’t know how that came to be yet.
Starbuck being a phantom/ghost that only Lee sees is something I hadn’t considered. However, I’m leaning more towards her being divine / supernatural, and perhaps she was resurrected somehow or another. At any rate, if she doesn’t rejoin the Galactica crew, I will be a very unhappy Josh.
Regarding Gaeta… who knows? After what they pulled on the last episode, it wouldn’t surprise me if Admiral Adama or Roslin end up being the fifth Cylon.
Joshua: Good point about Tyrol. I still think they’re going somewhere with the fact that, now that we know he’s a Cylon, we also know that instead of there being one hybrid baby, there’s two.
I hadn’t thought about all of those ironies. That’s rather humorous, especially about Cylons leading the resistance against.. the other Cylons on New Caprica.
And yes, I absolutely loved the trial. Lee’s speech was awesome. Getting to see Baltar go through the phases from “yay, I’m free!” to “oh shit, I’m still going to end up dead” was fun, too.
Nils: That’s weird that it never aired over there. It being so popular, I would have figured that one of the networks would have picked it up.
I wholeheartedly recommend the DVDs. The series is absolutely stunning, if you hadn’t gathered that yet.
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On Tigh: Maybe this explains the alcoholism. Don’t robots need alcohol to fuel their circuits or something. (Wait, I’m thinking Futurama, aren’t I?)
On Tory: I suspected her was a Cylon all along. She, like all other female Cylons, is incredibly hot.
On Tyrol: Seriously, WTF? Unless… Well, there was that whole “Dreams” thing right before New Caprica…
On Sam: Makes sense. Not much, but some, especially since he seemed to be almost immune to explosions and falling rocks (think: the garage).
I gotta tell ya, none of this makes much sense at all. I mean, loosely it sort of does: D’Anna’s reaction to one of the five she saw could have been because of Anders (who, if you recall, was wreaking havoc for the Cylons in Caprica), but that’s speculation; Tyrol was apparently fairly healthy rather quickly after being sucked out into space, whereas Caly was in a Michael Jackson tube for gods only know how long; Tory… uhm… is… err… right next to the President (who for some reason is able to project herself into Cylon dreams; I’m guessing it’s got something to do with the baby’s blood in her system); and Tigh… hell, I have no clue what to make of him, especially since they all helped lead the resistance in New Caprica.
Maybe while there, they were all implanted… or something. It looks as if the 7 don’t know who the 5 are, so I doubt any of the 7 knew that they were messing around with at least 4 of the 5.
Really, it looks like they were looking for some sort of shocker and this was the best way to deliver one. Unfortunately, it looks like they might have set themselves up for a really bad explanation out of it, like “Well, these human-like Cylons have been around since right after the first Cylon war.” Which would make absolutely no sense. Then again, the final five may be Cylon models who were at war with the rest of the Cylons, or descendants of the 5 priests (or the 5 priests themselves)… *ARGH!*
You know what, screw you, BSG! I’m going to get my sanity back (and GIS for pictures of Tory (Rekha Sharma)).
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Are they cylons – or maybe something else? The fleet is near or at the beacon sites (remember they found a broken one a number of episodes ago) Maybe these four are humans, but special. They might be keepers to the thirteenth colonies origin. Guardians of some type, only to be awaken when near one of the beacons. Just trying to throw in another curve. Would be an interesting twist????
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I will take that last “maybe something else” comment one step further… I don’t think many, if any, of the the show’s characters are truly “human”. I think that what you have are different evolutions of life that are not 100% human (originated from the first cloning efforts that ever would have taken place on Earth).
I do believe that the 4 revealed to be cylons are in fact part of the “final 5″, but that doesn’t mean they have the same make-up of the other 7. Taking *that* one even further, I definitely think Gaita is the 5th cylon and is responsible for the creation and ideals of the final 7. It may not go exactly like that, but something close. Like maybe the 5 created the 7 models of cylons, there was disagreement with Gaita and these 7, more advanced models were the culminating result.
As for Starbuck… *shrug* and I don’t care. No one’s really human anyway… and if there is human life on “Earth” presently, I think there
is a very strong potential for new enemies there… that will result in the fleet having to ally themselves with cylon forces to survive… -
Can i float something here?
My T theory – The 4 cylons of the final 5 have one thing in common – They have the letter ‘T’ prominent in their name. Samuel T Anders (as said by Helo on Caprica when they fist meet the C-Bucks), Tyrol, Tigh and Tory. That could mean that Starbuck (aka Kara Thrace with a ‘T’) is the final 5th cylon. Thats just one though.
Stay with me guys…
Right when Leoben was flushed out the airlock, what did he whisper to Roslin? He said “Adama’s a Cylon”. Now, I for one had held for a while that he meant The Old Man, but i now believe he means Lee. I don’t have the brain power to think of ALL the reasons R.F.N, but a major reason is that he now sees Starbuck. That could be only in HIS head, just as Baltar now resides in 6’s head and so on. Just an idea, because i can’t really imagine WHO the 5th cylon really is….
I wanted to post my theories here cause I see some great minds in this page and wanted your input.
Either way, this last episode was amazing!!
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All of those who I’ve not responded to yet: I’ll get to you! It’s the beginning of the quarter, so I’m a bit swamped right now. I’ll respond to all of you this coming weekend at the latest.
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