In an effort to avoid spoiler info for next week in the thread about “The Oath”, I’m starting this thread for discussion of the preview. I’m going to do some spoiler space to avoid mouseover spoilage…
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>>>>>last spoiler space…exit now or read open spoiler info from the preview for episode 4.16<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
OK. From the preview, we see:
Zarek saying Tigh was killed trying to escape.
Zarek also says Adama was tried and convicted for his crimes.
Adama is shown blindfolded, standing in an airlock. Some order is given, possibly “Fire”, and we might have seen the airlock starting to open.
A seriously pissed off Rosilyn screaming “I am coming for you all!”
Lots of ways to understand what was shown, and my memory is probably not entirely accurate or complete. It could be Zarek was lying about Tigh. The death of Adama seems like a really frakking stupid thing to give away in a preview, but I think that may be what happened…barring a last second rescue, or one of those jarring imaginary non-happenings they’ve done before…like Tigh shooting Adama on the bridge. Rosilyn’s rage seems to be on par with D’lynn casting the decisive vote for the Earth-Minbari War in Babylon 5…like she’s lost someone very close to her, and no one is closer to her than Adama.
On the other hand, killing off Adama with 6 episodes remaining after next week seems premature. Killing off Tigh would be a shock, but considerably less than Adama, and Tigh might ressurect somehow. Killing off Tigh and Adama in the same episode, with so much remaining…I dunno…something doesn’t quite ring true. Maybe there’s just some hardcore mindfrakking going on with the preview.
I think so too. This week’s ep closed with the mutineers throwing a grenade into the airlock Adama and Tigh were defending. The thing couldn’t have gone off or the preview scenes wouldn’t be real.
I can’t imagine that Tigh and Adama will be dead by the end of the next episode. I could see Tigh dying and then being reborn, to demonstrate how the Final Five work. But killing off Adama? That’s too much. Now, I could be wrong, and this could be wishful thinking on my part, but I expect a last-minute rescue, or a change of heart from Gaeta, or something.
Can I ask questions about the “spoilers” from SciFi’s You Will Know the Truth clue page?
Every single damn preview BSG has ever shown has been a hardcore mindfrack.
What they show does not ever play out as implied – there is always some twist that subverts the snippets they have shown. Really, the only thing they’ve ever spoiled for the next show is that the set-up the previews are trying to imply will occur is the one thing that most assuredly will not occur.
Fr’ex, the previews for this week implied that the mutiny would go down completely differently – it looked as if a set-up for Anders, Tigh, Adama, and maybe Roslyn to be in front of a firing- or airlock-squad. We got all of those pieces, but arranged differently, so instead the episode was about the mutineers basically being unable to close the deal. The only thing that preview really spoiled was that the mutiny would occur, which the episode itself had already spoiled.
Does it look like Adama is facing a firing squad rather than being blown out the airlock? He’s blindfolded and has a white patch over his heart. And then there’s the command “fire.”
If so, I wonder how it will turn out. It’s one thing to find one person willing to press the airlock button from a distance. It seems much more personal to face someone and shoot them. How many of Adama’s men would be willing to stand in front of the man they’ve followed all these years and put a bullet in him?
Spoiler about the next ep, from the writer of The Oath, Mark Verheiden: Romo Lampkin is going to be in the next ep. What might that mean? Someone’s going to be on trial. Here’s hoping it’s Gaeta and Zarek and not Adama and Roslin
Maybe Lampkin will be one Colonial One with the Quroum instead of at a trial. Roslin’s not going allow another trial like Baltar’s. The mutineers would be tried under military law. They’ll be given summary courts-martial like Adm Cain gave Tyrol and Anders.
He’s not blindfolded, it’s a bandage, he’s blind. In the beginning of the episode he says he’s tired of being blind, it was foreshadowed. The flashbang blinded him.
It’s important in a revolution to have men kill the man they were previously loyal to, it cements loyalty amongst all complicit, it’s a point of no return moment.
Unfortunately, if Lampkin is defending Adama, Roslin isn’t in a position to allow or disallow anything. I could see Zarek and Gaeta arguing about whether or not Adama should be given a trial or just summarily executed. If Gaeta wins the argument, enter Lampkin. Obviously I’m just speculating here and have no idea what Lampkin’s role will be.
The mutineers realize the errors of their way, and stand down. During several angsty episodes examining the meaning of it all, Zarek is captured, tried, reimprisoned. There is a touching moment in CIC where Adama and Felix bury the hatchet and shake hands. Felix returns to duty as if nothing ever happened.
All the Colonial ships get the Cylon Hyperdrive Technology, and they all sail away happily in search of a new planet beyond Brother Cavil’s reach.\
Major question remain unanswered; Ron Moore is hoping for mini-feature or direct-to-DVD releases to hump a few more $$$ out of the franchise (see Stargate).
Battlestar Galactica becomes the laughinstock of television.
Years later, prominent cast members publicly castigate Ron Moore, who never shows his face in public without bodyguards, and assiduously avoids sci-fi conventions.
Being forgiven for mutiny/rebellion has been done in BSG for major players like Lee and Roslin, but I can’t see it being done for Gaeta, particularly when his actions have already led to several deaths. Gaeta is going to die, as is Zarek.
As for the finale, several cast members, including Eddie and Mary, have commented that while reading the script they cried and that it was a beautiful ending that made the series as a whole make sense. A few people, including Tahmoh, have said that they lobbied and won changes to their particular characters’ fates because they were initially too obvious. But if anything, that is more comforting because it doesn’t seem that there is a lot of smoke being blown by the cast about how the originally-conceived end is perfection incarnate.