Daybreak, Part 3 (421)

[metabog]

Oh... crap... oh... crap...


I am STILL shaking.

This is now officially, at least in my humble opionion, the best science fiction piece of TV ever made, and I'm a big sci-fi fan (books, shows, movies). Everything fell into place so well, and it was absolutely GENIUS.

As an outspoken atheist, my friends thought I would hate the God revelation, but it's all fiction (and brilliant fiction at that).

Best. Show. Ever.

[huntress]

I am a bit confused about Daybreak 3 since I at least saw only one episode that was 95 minutes long.

I just finished watching and I am sitting here now with puffy, red rimmed eyes and feeling deeply sad, exhausted but also blessed to have been able to watch something THIS good. I cried like a baby through huge parts of the finale and the whole part at the end just broke my heart. I knew Laura was going to die (not from spoilers, but because it was inevitable) but it still hit me like a freight train. It was so sad and sweet and strangely perfect and I just started crying my head off.

Ron, I doubt you will be able to pull something off that can top BSG. This show was utterly amazing and the ending will go down in history as being one of the few finales that didn't leave its viewers disspaointed and with a sense of closure. Just like a really good book ...just like LotR did.

Thank you BSG team. Just THANK YOU!

[blackrobe]

Can't understand Cavil's motivation for shooting himself.

I thought that this was totally natural for the character. He's a petulant child... he never does anything gracefully. He knows he's dead but he doesn't want the enemy to have the satisfaction of either killing or capturing him so he does the one thing he CAN do.

[metabog]

That was the most retarded ending. I think they dug themselves into too deep a hole and they did do the best they could. But when all is said and done, they didn't quite wrap it up well enough. They told the individual stories well but didn't quite address the overall picture. It's like they didn't feel like explaining Kara or didn't know how to so they just left it up to your imagination. Aswell as:

Who are the head people?
What are the head people?
Was Kara a head person?
Who is "God"?
What was so special about Hera?
How did Anders suddenly turn into a hybrid by getting shot in the head?
Do they create hybrids by shooting them in the back of the head?
Why were there old centurions?

Are you serious? They explained all of those... what show have you been watching?

[metabog]

Here's something funny.

About two years ago when BSG was still in season 2, I made a short sci-fi film (that got first prize internationally btw, but that's not the point), unrelated to BSG, but with a few bsg-related easter eggs, and it had the EXACT same "cycle" that they eventually came up with, down to every detail. I was laughing with my friends about this a lot cause everything was slowly falling into place and we realized that it was almost like my cruddy short film being made into the ending of my favorite high budget TV show.

[blackrobe]

The only stupid thing was how after they jumped they just sat there and waited for the batteries to stop firing before they turned on the engines and rammed the colony. You would think that they would come out of their jump guns blazing and with their engines maxed out.

I also had a problem until the second time I watched it... then I thought of two good reasons why they parked themselves in "get-my-ass-kicked alley"

(1) An integral part of their plan was to launch their vipers and raptors and they couldn't do that before the the end of the bombardment of Galactica by the Colony's guns, nor could they risk destroying all the vipers in their tubes or the raptors in the starboard hanger bay by having them on board during the collision.

(2) They would have wanted to make sure that Anders would be able to shut down the Colony's gun batteries before they committed themselves to a maneuver that would almost certainly mean the immobilization of Galactica.

[talyn2k1]

Why couldn't you have waited until the download was OVER!


They had convinced... Cavil the Narcissistic hyper-Atheist to take a leap of faith. Cavil.

They had done it. They had broken the cycle... but no... he had to act on his very understandable... but poorly timed impulse.

Almost a happy ending.

I was begging for him to do that.

It would be all too easy to end the cycle, instead PTB wrecked that by finally giving Tory what was coming to her, and then leaving it ambigous at the end as to whether or not the cycle would repeat itself.

[Denny Crane]

Why would you NOT cannibalize your ships to make your home? And the whole spreading around thing, not how I would build a new world. If you wanted to prevent internecine warfare then splitting people up is not the way to do it. 1,000 years down the line different developmental patterns cause irreconcilable differences. Plus you need economies of scale to make such needed products like booze and Dom P.

So Earth was one jump away from the colony?

Dont understand why no one just shot Cavil in the back... The only reason I can think of is that we wouldn't get that Oh Frak scene, which added at least 10 points of awesome to the universe as a whole.

And no matter what reality really is, I choose to believe that Gaius Baltar is God. At least Gaius with sideburns is.

[cap'n nick]

Couple things.

The Head people have been seen to be able to physically interact with real objects (I think we've subtly seen head six move chairs around, and although she's beaten the crap out of baltar before, you could argue that that was just him hurting himself). So if Kara is just an "angel" of the same vein, I don't see a problem with her interacting with real stuff. Second, based on her "inner dialogues" and the things she's experienced, I would guess that she is her "spirit" given form after her body died in the viper on "real" Earth. She's been influenced by the "angels" and had been hand-picked for that purpose.

Second, that kinda throwaway line at the end where Head Baltar says god "doesn't like to be called that" or whatever. That seems to me like a dangling plot line that we're meant to think about (possibly something that will come up in The Plan?). It actually made me think of the prototype Hybrid from Razor that said some considered it a god (although we saw it destroyed).

Also, there's still the mystery behind the original lords of Kobol. Maybe "god" is that 13th Lord who's apparently behind the original exodus from kobol.

I'd like to mention that I really like Anders. His little bit about being connected to perfection . . . I think that (in the context it was presented in this finale, as opposed to the earlier episode) was one of the most poignant and touching moments of the entire series.

Anyway, I'm mostly satisfied. We got our season 1 style space battles, our hand-to-hand combat (with old-style centurions, even!), our "red team" squads of awesome cylons, an absolutely excellent exit by Cavil (keke!), and finally a true redemption and catharsis with Baltar (the farming bit was actually quite touching). There's more (like how helo survived, although he got shot in the leg . . . again), but, well . . . satisfied.

[Wayston]

*leoben's story line was disappointing, perhaps they decided they didn't need it?
*I was disappointed with some of galactica's battle scenes... it was supposed to be two things in space slugging it out yet galactica's rail guns were barely shown... I would have greatly preffered it to have galactica's final battle mimic its first battles in the miniseries with a lot of rail gun fire involved
*so the angels also tried to save cylon earth from extinction yet failed I mean they gave the song to the final five and they warned them of impending doom
*the ending shots of earth were getting boring... booooooring... we get it its a green planet with animals and naked natives
*the decision to abandon all technology was f'ing stupid but was to be expected as the colonials also abandoned much of their technology
*not enough background information about god; I hated that kind of divine intervention in that will smith zombie movie and I'm not liking it here
*wouldn't it be ironic if god is a previous robot incarnation from the camp cavil was in in this cycle (wanting desparatly to abandon humanity) who ascended just like cavil wanted to
*I guess chief loved Cally after all
*I'm going to go against the stream here and suggest it's very appropriate galactica did not die off in combat, that ending fitted Pegasus but it is fitting that Galactica should end its existence along with the fleet it protected
*Lee has got to have one of the saddest endings... you'd think he'd finally get some happiness after everything he's done...
*the ending is not as dark as they claimed really

[talyn2k1]

That was, by a million light years, the best piece of television ever made ever in the history of television!

I was *literally* on the edge of my seat the entire time. Loved every single minute of it.
I didn't like the 'Before the Fall' snippets at the beginning, but by the end of the episode I realised where they all fell in to place and they totally belonged there.

I called most of the things that everyone else did: Boomer dying, Roslin dying, Anders playing a key role in the final battle.

It is so incredibly rare for me to be so affected by a piece of television, but I had a lump in my throat the whole way through. If the wife wasn't in the next room (who would surely take the p1$$ out of me for crying at a TV show, especially 'Cheesy Sci-Fi' as she calls it), I might even have broken my manly exterior and cried a little. The scenes with Adama & Roslin, the battle, even the breaking of Galactica's back after the jump, was the most emotion I have ever felt for a TV show.

The ending was the icing on the cake, we move to the present day where the angels are wondering if the cycle will repeat itself again. I guess it is intended to act as a warning to us not to create technology that we cannot control.

The only thing I am still not sure of is what Kara was. She obviously wasn't just a head!Starbuck on account of all the killing Cylons and maiming Gaeta. I'm guessing she was just a messenger sent from the higher power to lead the humans and Cylons to 'their end', exactly as the Hybrid said.
Leading up to this episode I was hoping for absolute explanations in to God, the Angels, etc. But exactly what they are wasn't explained, and I think that was the best thing to do.
I am not a believer in a god, and I never will be, but for Galactica leaving that ambiguity was the perfect way to end the series.

If I am ever lucky enough to meet Ron Moore, I will put on every hat I own and take each of them of to him one by one. I am a lifelong Gater, and I have to say that as much as I love Stargate, BSG blows it out of the water in almost every respect. Battlestar Galactica has been the greatest TV series ever to exist imho, and that finale was the finest 3 hours of television I have ever seen, or probably ever will see.

Now I need to get rid of that lump in my throat before the Wife realises and mercilessly takes the p1$$.

[knowles2]

Well I seen it up to the last minute, bluddy ---------------- might well not put the name of the website it will only be remove anyway. But I got to wait 54 minutes. to one minute of programming, it better be good.

Overall not as bad as I thought it would be and I thought it would be pretty bad. Would of liked some answers. We were told it was not a god in the traditional sense, it would have been fun to see who it was, instead of two head angles just chatting about him. I would like to of seen Starbuck there in New York.

Roslin, I thought could of gone out in a grander way, a better ceremony. Adarma I think should of flew into the sun on board the Galactica.
Who was the leader who never made it to the promise land, Galactica saw, it Rosling saw, so they all made it, another let down.
It would of been fun if the two angles called out to starbuck and called by the name Pythia.

More links into the ancient cultures would of been fun. Seeing some people deciding not to remove of technologies and become the atlantians of greek methology and other myths being link in would of been good.

The opera scene it was obviously the writers had no clue how to get out of that one so they just use the lame scene there, with no explanation what actual opera house, or what cause or who created, sorry it being the Galactica bridge is just a bad excuse for lack of imagination.

The space scenes was a real mix bag, certainly not worth all the cutting back they did in the last nine episodes.
The metal cylons really were a wast, with no back story and no reason for rescueing the Hara, some sought of chat or negotiation scene really needed to be done, perhaps scene showing them asking for sole command of the baststar in return for there help in the rescue op.

No descent explanation of what happen on the first earth, show do not tell people, same Kabol, it needed more. Some of flashbacks was unnecessary at best boring at worst, better replace with scenes of Kabol and or earth 1. I skip through some of them and did not feel like I lost anything at all which shows to me they did not really add anything unlike they do in Lost, sorry anything that use flash backs to tell the story gets compared to lost now.

Some of the stock footage at the end was disappointing I seen it all before in hundred of films, tv programmes, it look like stock footage and you can even buy it of the internet now , usally it well hidden in tv productions, in this case it was stuck out like a saw thumb.

Some shots of Africa was nice, thought they should shown the first scenes of there integration of the locals, may be one of them rescuing Hara or perhaps the doc saving one of the natives child or something to show these separate and different people could learnt to live together.

Real hunters would of spotted them hinding in bush , from like a mile or two away, seriously they will need better camouflage if they going to survive the wilds of Africa

The joke about them learning to hunt was pretty fun. None them knows how to, which could be why hera dies so young.

A couple of scenes, showing what happen to the people left behind on new caprica and old caprica would not gone amidst, or even a few of the ships deciding to go back for them.

Showing the scenes of the cylons in the modern era was also needed it would have been great if angle six had lead Baltar to show the cylons have been acting as some sought of protector of humanity over the last 150,000 thousands and this was, is the anomaly which will end the cycle, with head Baltar saying something like we shall see.

Which lead into a new remake Galactica in 30 years time.

Showing one of the cylons colonies or ships may be taking the form of the flying source or the light ship in the original series would of rounded out the series well.
Found it strange that the old cylons were stronger an better armoured than the newer versions. The hand to hand combat scene was okay still needed better cgi and a longer, larger scene.

This would of been a descent end if it had not been proceeded by 8 hours of slow and largely rubbish tv,and cut out the flash backs and it would have an awesome ending.

[toby1kanobi]

One thing nobody seems to have mentioned yet:

The pianist who helped Starbuck remember how to play the "All Along the Watchtower" song in "Someone to Watch Over Me" DISAPPEARS as soon as the Final Five approach the piano. The Final Five don't seem to see the pianist guy as they ask Starbuck how she knows the song, which implies that Starbuck was the only one who could see/hear him. Is this "God" appearing to Kara to teach her the secret way to the second Earth?

To watch the clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WalRg...eature=related


One Interpretation of Kara's Prophecy:

The Hybrid once told Kara: "You are the harbinger of death, Kara Thrace. You will lead them all to their end." This was totally realized. When Kara first returns as an angel, her Raptor leads them to the first nuked Earth--hence, she is the "harbinger" of the potential death and destruction that inevitably ensues if humans and cylons persist along the vicious cycle of violence. This is essentially a warning from God, showing Galactica inhabitants the potential result of continuing the cycle. Later, Kara "[leads] them all to their end" in the sense that she leads humans and cylons to the end of their journey--new Earth.

I'm by no means a sci-fi fan. In fact, I was initially sort of forced to watch BSG by a close friend. I have to say, THANK GOODNESS! This series has been amazing; the finale even more fascinating. The finale was absolutely perfect. If you're looking for all the ends to be tied up neatly, you just need to think harder and everything makes sense. Every strand is satisfyingly connected as long as you follow through it. The "Angel" Kara coming back in a revamped Raptor that leads them to the nuked Earth is all part of "God"'s plan.

BSG is not only one of the best television series ever made, it's definitely one of the best piece of entertainment ever made.

i think it was obvious the pianist was either karas father (be it daniel or an "angel" of a similar head type, he had the same minnerisyms as her hather, lifting the finger to blow on, cupping her face, and all karas dialogue was about how her father used to teach her to play, just like he was

and i noticed that too that he was never around when other people were talking to kara. i cant remember if he ever spoke to anybody exept kara

[pjt]

Nothing really special about this final...

I've seen better.

Oh, now I'm intrigued! Please, please, tell me about them, I must have missed them all, and that's a shame.

[Pharaoh Atem]

Why couldn't you have waited until the download was OVER!


They had convinced... Cavil the Narcissistic hyper-Atheist to take a leap of faith. Cavil.

They had done it. They had broken the cycle... but no... he had to act on his very understandable... but poorly timed impulse.

Almost a happy ending.

i love the irony as i have a icon that mentions galen choking someome

and it was made before the finale