Excellent atmosphere. The visits to the old lives were painful and touching. Really helped create an atmosphere that was both tense and melancholy leading up to next week’s finale.
I liked it. BSG has never been an explosion fest; I don’t know why anyone would expect it to be now. Since this was basically the first act of the last episode, I liked the slow build up.
The flashbacks weren’t really resolved so I bet we see more of it next week. The name Ellison sounded familiar to me. Is there a character we’ve seen with that name?
I’m kind of surprised Lee volunteered. That seems to me like it means we won’t be at the fleet at all next week. That leaves Baltar out of the mix though.
I really liked this episode. It was interesting to see how Caprica Six worked her way into Baltar’s life, and especially how close she came to failing. Hadn’t thought about it before, but that makes sense - after all, Baltar never had any difficulty getting insanely attractive women into his bed, though the Gods alone know how. It would have taken more than being hot for Six to get him under her thumb.
Also - damn, it was heartbreaking to see Roslin stagger across the line. I defy anyone to watch that scene and not be moved.
I was disappointed, though, in how utterly stupid Baltar’s play for a role in the government was. Sure, he has lots of adherents - but they’re represented in the (lamentably undemocratic) Forum of Ship’s Captains, just like everybody else. The argument that they’re be disenfranchised without a special seat is absurd, just like it would be nuts for me to argue that members of Religion X are disenfranchised because there isn’t a seat reserved for them in Congress.
Allowing Lee to volunteer seems like a mistake. Who the hell is going to lead the fleet when he fails to come back? I guess the series is going to end with nearly all the main cast dead and Baltar back in charge of the fleet, since there’s no one else to step into the mantle.
I thought the episode was good, though. The show has always been about the characters and it seems only right to reflect back on how their stories began before we see how they end.
Not a very satisfying episode for me at all. Unless they connect all the flashback scenes to some deeper meaning next week they’re nothing but time fillers. We knew after last week that the old man will go after Hera; it was so blatantly obvious. The only thing revealed this week is that they got Cavil’s location from the Anders-hybrid. What else was Adama going to do – leave the Galactica and retire on the Cylon ship? So the buildup to the “choose your side of the line” scene was just unnecessary melodrama. At this point I have a sinking feeling that the great finale will be a dud. The last few episodes sure feels like a series that has run out of ideas and is crawling to an end. The last great episode was “Blood on the Scales” over a month ago. Since Ellen returned to the Galactica in “Deadlock” the episodes have been disappointing. So next week will be BSG’s last shot to redeem itself as the great series it has been.
Okay ep I guess. I thought they were conserving some of the budget for FX, but they shot some of that wad on more actors this ep. Hello Simon & Doral, nice to know you are still around.
Very skippable episode when it comes out on DVD. I highly doubt I’d watch it again. Not that I didn’t like it, but it’s just not an ep I need to see again. It was nice seeing Cottle step to Starboard. Not that I expected he wouldn’t.
A little odd though. “Cottle, the fleet needs you, you can’t come. But, I will take over half the military on what is probably a one-way trip, 'cause the fleet doesn’t need them.” :dubious:
Oh, and is the Basestar coming along for fun, is or this going to be Galactica’s last stand only?
Gorgeous episode! Loved all the flashbacks to life before the fall. Roslin’s in particular was very moving. I only wish we got to see some of Saul and Ellen. These characters are so wonderfully alive, I can’t wait to see what happens to them in the final hours. Brilliant.
I feel like all the people wondering where all the explosions were and why we were wasting time on the characters have been watching a completely different series than me. Most of the mysteries, if they were ever important, have been answered. It’s time to farewell our beloved friends and see where their choices take them. Somewhere difficult, heroic, and epic, by the looks of it.
For those of you that have it recorded:
Check about 9 minutes into the episodes, when Gaius and Six are at Julius’s apartment. Julius is talking crudely to Six (although she just pities him), and Gaius blows up at him.
As Gaius walks away, he mutters, “I need this. I need this like a f__king hole in the head.”
Not “frak”, but “f__k”.
The close-captioning says “frakking”, but it definately sounds like “f__king” to me.
Can anyone confirm what I heard?
Both my son & I heard F*ck and remarked on it at the time.
I’d point out I do not think it was a crap-tacular episode because it didn’t have splody-goodness. It was a crap episode because with under 3 hours in the series remaining they did absolutely nothing in this episode. 99% of the flashbacks was items we already knew from past episodes. What we didn’t know:
[ul]
[li]Laura loses her father and sisters in a crash and goes tip-toeing through the fountain.[/li][li]Adama was forced into some 1 hour meeting of unknown nature.[/li][/ul]
I find it hard to find any tie-in to the last two hours in Laura losing her father and sisters especially in light of billions dead and the thousands of survivors who have since gone. Adama’s meeting may have some relevance but really, with all the unanswered questions why put another one out there now? Lastly, the only thing that happened to move the story forward was the decision to go get Hera. We all knew that was going to happen and in total the scenes around that decision took up maybe 10 minutes?!?
This is not disappointment because there were no good blow-em ups. This is disappointment because there was no character advancement and very, very little that moved the story forward.
I’ve really not criticized this show that I can recall. I take the good episodes with the bad. When it is good, it is some of the best stuff on t.v. This one was bad and a Very Bad Sign with only 2 hours remaining.
As always, IMHO…
MeanJoe
Don’t expect the Final 5 to be explained. There’s going to be a miniseries over the summer that discusses their origins. That will save some time in the finale to explain all the rest.
I have some questions:
–What meeting did Bill Adama not want to go to? Is it relevant, and if not, why was it included?
–Why was Lee drunk when he was chasing that pigeon? Is it because he realized he was in love with his brother’s fiancee?
–Did Six really put Mr. Baltar in a home or did she kill him and tell Gaius a nice story?
–Why are people like Lee and Hot Dog willing to go on this mission? They both have larger obligations that should take precedence over a suicide mission.
I particularly liked the Chief telling Helo that Athena was just a blow-up doll.
Yeah, I liked that scene too. I hate to see what has become of the Chief and how far down the spiral he has gone but it was an excellent scene.
Poor Chief.
MeanJoe
I think we will either see a bunch of dead folks, or some will turn out to be Cylons. :rolleyes:
Maybe he prefers death to presiding over another session of the Quorum of Ship’s Captains. 
Still; who the hell is going to command the fleet if nobody comes back? Does anybody really believe that the Fleet will stary together with Roslin & Adama gone and a Cylon Baseship as flag?
It sounded like her was (reluctantly) looking for work in the private sector. I think Six really did put Mr Baltar in a home. She’s not the gonna run the risk (however small) that Baltar decides to visit his father (plus he might get suspicious if no bill came).
How long was it between that incident and the destruction of Caprica? If it were mere days or weeks, Six may have figured that Baltar wouldn’t have had the time or inclination to check on his father.
I read something recently (might have been Ron Moore) saying that Baltar never actually know Caprica Six’s given name. This episode had him saying, “I’m sorry, I forgot your name…” If the destruction of Caprica was shortly thereafter, it would explain why he never found it out.
It happened before, and it will happen again. How ever they end the series I bet they will show the whole cycle starting again. I don’t want to see that but that is the impression Ron M has given.
This episode felt a bit like LOST meets BSG, but I liked it. I think it’s intent is to remind us where these characters have come from. While it might not be entirely necessary in terms of plot, I think BSG continues to be bold Sci-Fi by really emphasizing character drama. Laura’s stand at the end was so touching, and I’m really curious to see how Baltar will play out next week I have a hunch that he will try some sort of redemptive action. My own personal hunch is that BSG reached it’s climax with Earth and that this season has sort of been the epilogue / denouement of the whole thing. While I do think the show will be going with a bang next week, I like that the show has slowed a bit before it’s ending. I’ve liked most of the episodes this season.
First, a minor complaint. Champagne? Really? There was a time when they were at least pretending to present a non-Earth culture, with the fictional games and cultural references and curse words and such. And then they have characters drinking something that is very specifically named after a region in France. Sigh.
I’m also concerned at the mention of a naked singularity. I’m hoping that just a case of the writer hearing a science term and deciding it sounded cool. Otherwise I’m fearing that the only reason they made it a naked singularity instead of just a black hole is to throw together a plot resolution involving time travel or alternate universes or something like that, which would be disappointing.
The signifigance of Laura’s scene is that it was after the deaths that she was approached to do some sort of political event - she had nothing better to do, so she got ‘talked into it’.
Its basically the beginning of the steps that ended up with her as Madam President.
The flashback to Caprica scenes made me think “My God(s); these people didn’t know it, but they were living in paradise”.