I will second this. If I don’t have mind blowing realizations in the last episode, I’m going to write a letter…
The secret, Ultimate Cylon Overlord puts in an appearance.
I would just abruptly end it mid season. That would be funny for me at least.
All humans land on earth and celebrate by swimming in the ocean. All the toasters fall out of the sky into the ocean. All are fried. Oh, the embarrassment. But one lonely human man was looking at the stock of food cans in the human landing party, and one #6 was poking around looking for the can-opener of caliopoli. So everyone is dead but these two, and he melts all the into a large ring for her, and she chops off her ring fingers while killing him with the can opener. Ha Ha Ha! Humor is easy, folks!
The survivors of the Cylon Civil War have made peace with the human fleet. They all arrive together in Earth orbit. They stare down at the blue-green marble, with wide-eyed expressions of childlike wonder. “What will we find?” they ask themselves.
Adama, Roslin, and other dignitaries board a fleet of Raptors, and descend to the planet. Everyone is absolutely quiet; nobody talks. Adrenaline sings in their veins. They are about to complete not just a prophecy, but THE prophecy.
Their landing gear bumps against solid ground. The engines whine and fade to silence.
The pilot murmurs: “We’re here.”
With a clank and a hiss, the Raptor’s hatch swings upward. Light streams into the cabin.
Slowly, and hardly able to accept they aren’t dreaming, Adama and Roslin move to the exit. We are in closeup on their faces as they move from shadow into the sun, and look out at what is waiting for them.
Then Roslin frowns slightly. “What’s that?” she asks.
Cut to black, cue song: “Don’t Stop Believing…”
Firefly has aired on SciFi so Serenity doesn’t belong in your exception.
Furthermore, SciFi has also run reruns of B5 and Enterprise, and I think they’ve occasionally run some of the Star Trek movies, so you don’t have to leave those franchises out in the cold.
As for ending the show on a less than serious note, you have everyone in the fleet die, and all the Cylons die, and the only survivors who land on Earth in some sort of escape pod are the two human/cylon Hybrids, Nicky and Hera. They’re discovered by the only person left on Earth, some old guy with a long beard and white hair that lives in a garden, and he decides to raise these kids. He doesn’t know thier real names, however, and they’re too young to know, so he renames them Adam and Eve. They just better not eat anything from his prized apple tree, no matter what his cybernetic pet snake says!
Oh lord. If only. The humans are trapped in a giant game of ball in a bucket. Although, if Adama has a cream pie gun…
I just want Dirk Benedict to show up.
They show up at Earth.
Then a Vogon Destruction Fleet shows up and gives Earth the finger.
But not before Marvin logs on to ToasterNet and depresses the whole zarking bunch, the Centurions are the hardest hit, they’ve never experienced pain of that magnitude in all the diodes down their left side…
Serenity’s already been by Caprica City.
I think the last Cylon should be revealed when s/he ends up hearing Avril Lavigne’s “Girlfriend” and no one else does.