Yesterday I watched the two and a half hour finale to the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica saga, entitled “Daybreak,” and was moved by the series’ last episode that I haven’t been able to get it out of my head since. I knew going in that the finale was nothing shy of controversial. Having spoken to many fans about it, including at Comic-Con, I knew that it was sort of a “love it or hate it” situation, and was getting a “hate” vibe from most of the people I spoke to. Researching on the interwebs, I found that it also received mixed reviews. Some critics outright hated it, like this dumbass, who entitled his article “Why the Battlestar Galactica Finale is a Huge Cop-Out and it Doesn’t Matter.” Watching the episode, I could see why people would hate it. Namely, because it leaves so many of the show’s “big questions” unanswered, or rather, open to interpretation. So I think it all comes down to the kind of person you are. Do you like your entertainment completely straightforward and down-to-earth? Do you like every riddle and mystery in your favorite story to be answered explicitly by the last chapter, no matter how stupid and unsatisfying they might be? If so, you probably didn’t like “Daybreak,” and in all liklihood you won’t like the upcoming May 2010 finale of LOST either.
But me- I loved the ambiguity. I felt the show answered enough of the remaining mysteries that the ones it left unanswered- who are the “angels” and “god,” and how did Starbuck come back to life- didn’t bother me. Listening to the commentary by creator Ronald D. Moore, it makes sense why those two were left open to the audience’s interpretation. Any explanation, no matter how complex, would have been unsatisfying. In the episode “Someone to Watch Over Me,” I actually did develop a theory about Starbuck’s origin and resurrection, one that obviously never came to fruition. I postulated that her father, the man she was having a vision of, was in fact the last remaining Number Seven, or Daniel. I postulated that a single Seven managed to survive Cavil’s genocide, and hid amongst the Colonies to avoid detection. There, it fathered a child with a human- Starbuck, and taught her the “All Along the Watchtower” theme. When Starbuck died she downloaded to some secret resurrection facility and was reprogrammed to seek out the fleet and bring them to Earth.
Of course this was not the case. But you know what, I’m cool with that? I like the idea that Starbuck was an angel of God just like Head Six and Head Baltar, but one that was manifested physically, and that once her journey was complete- she just vanished, brought back to heaven or wherever it is dead people go to.
You see, people often get grouchy about the religious overtones on Galactica; being staunchly non-religious myself, I was for a while suspicious of where the religious aspects of the show were headed. But I think almost everyone has at least once entertained the notion that there is some greater power out there, and BSG treats it like that. This isn’t a specific god- “God isn’t on any one side,” Baltar says. Nor is it necessarily the creator of the universe. It’s just some kind of higher intelligence that’s looking out for us. As Head Baltar says in the final scene, “You know it hates that name.”
To be honest, at one point during the episode I too grew nervous that the show was turning into a cop-out. When the Galactica flew over the Moon, and then you see Earth- the real Earth, I said to myself, “I thought that shit was nuked.” It wasn’t so much that I was disappointed, it was more I was annoyed with the writers for implementing such a narrative conceit. When it comes to cinema- films and television shows- I feel that if you make a declaration to the audience- i.e. “this is Earth, it was repopulated by Cylons and then nuked” – you need to stick with it. You can’t all of a sudden say, “actually that wasn’t the real Earth, this is.” And yet- it worked. It frakking worked. It worked because they didn’t arrive on Earth and shake hands with Obama. They arrived on Earth at it was prehistory, with cavemen and everything. And to top it off, Adama decides to name this new paradise of a world they’ve discovered, Earth because “Earth is a dream.” What better way to forget all the torment and suffering one’s experienced while searching for Earth than renaming their new home that?
The last thirty minutes is where the episode really excels. We get nice closure moments for all the characters, and it was really nice to see the Tighs end up back together, as well as Gaius and Caprica, and the Agathons. The scene with Adama and Roslin was gut-wrenching and the shot of him sitting beside her grave was actually how I predicted the show would end.
But then we get the epitaph.
And I think it’s great. You know how movies and shows always have title cards that say things like, “Ten years later.” Yeah, well, BSG has one that says “150,000 years later.” And suddenly we’re in Times Square, and it all comes together at once- this story was all about the quest to end the cycle of violence between man and machine. And what better way to do that then to interbreed the two? Making Hera Agathon the “Mitochondrial Eve” not only reaffirms her epic importance, but connects all of the show’s characters to our own world. They’re our ancestors, and so are the Cylons, as it turns out. So the war between man and machine will end, right? Maybe. But even the Thirteenth Tribe, an all Cylon race, created their own robotic slaves, which lead to their downfall. And considering the “Advances in Robotics” the final scene’s montage displays, who’s to say us Human/Cylon hybrids won’t end up doing the same? The scene is great, and I like that while the show doesn’t devolve into just a warning against the dangers of technology, it does take a second to remind us that nothing good will ever come of artificial intelligence. Seriously. Somebody explain to me why A.I. would be a good idea.
Anyway, that’s my two cents. If you’re a fan of the show, what did you think?