You do not know for sure. You have no proof noting otherwise…and ya know ya can’t cause it’s frakking fiction >.>
Well there’s also the utter absurdity of everyone just tralalaing from all technology and forgoing actually trying to prevent the over reliance and abuse of technology >.>
so really get off the logic train and welcome all possibilites really, it’s sci-fi anything is possible unless the series creators/writer states other wise.
…from MY perspective, that we did indeed get many words, ideas, names, technologies, philosophies, and myths from the 35,000+ Colonials and Cylons who seeded themselves around our planet. As for Hera being Mitochondrial Eve, I think the implications are that while many of the fleetsters did interbreed with the natives and eachother, only the decendents of those who mated with the descendents of Hera eventually survived and grew into Humanity as we know it today. But myriad cultures around the globe were at least inspired, if by nothing more than oral traditions, but more likely also by artifacts from the fleet as well, by the fleetsters. As for Kara, it is my belief that she had been the original inspiration for the many Pagan and other religions, and eventually Christianity, that centered around a divine human who dies for Humanity and is resurrected. With all the ways these ideas could possibly have come down through the ages to end up creating the world we know today, and how much fun it is to let the imagination run with, I’m at a loss as to how or why anyone is disappointed in the least.
Of course. And RDM could have introduced green pixies with antennae on their heads dancing Irish jigs, and everyone would be happy…
As I have posted many times these last weeks, it is not the definitive exposition of god, angels, whatever similar nonsense, which as annoyed me.
It is the dramatic and logical inconsistency with so much of what has gone before.
Yes, there was always a mystical element. Yes, there were things which occurred which were inexplicable without resorting to such means. There were absurd coincidences and improbable events.
But by explicitly showing our earth 150k years in the past, by explicitly showing that the ‘Heads’ were real, and for that matter, were actual ‘angels’, by explicitly stating that they had a ‘boss’ (OT’s IT), the credibility, the dramatic consistency, the very essence of what made BSG so good was undermined.
I am amazed at the people who claim that the ending was ‘left up in the air’, or that we could ‘make up our own minds’. Were they watching the same show I was? At least three massively important events occurred during Daybreak which leave us with no alternative explanations:
The ‘Head’ characters look at, and acknowledge each other, at the same time Baltar and Caprica realise that the other sees them.
Kara ‘vanishes’. Following Baltar’s speeches regarding angels and his ‘proof’ of Kara’s resurrection, there is no other way to take the disappearance. It was real. She did not fall down a rabbit-hole, or get dragged away by a leopard.
150k year flash-forward. The ‘Heads’ are real, as Baltar and Caprica Six are not present. They speak of ‘god’. To be identical in look and personality after 150,000 years, and to manifest when none of their original ‘hosts’ are present leads to only one conclusion: they are real. Very long-lived. Can appear and disappear. Possess great knowledge.
To me, these three events alone demonstrate absolutely no ambiguity; a supernatural force or entity manipulated and at times controlled the events of the series. And this is completely dramatically out-of-kilter with the previous 4.x seasons of BSG.
No, I don’t buy it. All the colonists in continents other the Africa died out, as the current world population was, as far as we can tell, settled from Africa after about 70,000 years ago. The only legacy the people from the fleet left was a genetic one through Hera (ultimate female ancestor of us all), which suggests most of the others didn’t leave any descendants whose lines have survived until today. Chief and the others outside of Africa didn’t leave any descendants, and therefore left no legacy. 140,000+ yeas is too long for culture to lie dormant in hunter-gatherer groups and then be re-expressed through the development of agriculture, cities and myths of gods when people find themselves on the path to modern complex societies after the end of the last ice age around 10,000 years ago. So any resemblance the colonials have to us is simply coincidence or needs to be explained by supernatural forces or pseudo-scientific “memories at the genetic level” or some such. That’s why it would have worked better for me if the colonials had been our descendants in a future separated from our time by a lot less than 150,000 years. The cultural similarities would have been more credible if the “influence” had gone the other way. I still loved the finale though - I just would have done it differently to make it more believable and to give more of a tangible cultural connection to “us”. It seems a pity that the survivors attempt to build a new society on ultimately Earth failed, as it must have done, with the sole exception of the genetic heritage of a very small group identified ultimately with Hera. We know Baltar’s farming either never took off or ultimately failed, as it had to be reinvented 140,000 years later. Setting it in the future would have provided more of a blank slate., although I see why RDM did what he did for the sake of the rather didactic ending in New York (which I liked more than many). I probably sound harsher than I feel about it - I loved Kara disappearing from a stylistic point of view.
I’m just saying.
I think you’ve been engaging in some self delusion for quite some time. Precisely what the head entities were was never spelled out (and still wasn’t answered in the finale), but that they had real existence and were messengers for something has been more than clear for at least a couple of seasons. The head entities provided information no ‘real’ character could have known, they prompted events that changed the fates of everyone in the show, and you’re just now waking up to the idea that RDM has intended all along to have some unexplained force behind the scenes? Never mind the non-head entity related mystical events experienced by multiple people with no rational explanation (e.g. the temple on Kobol, the shared visions, the oracle on New Caprica, etc., etc.). If RDM finally filming a scene that forced you out of your little bubble is what ruined the finale for you, you’ve got nothing to blame but yourself.
I obviously had my own issues with this, but after listening to the final RDM podcast, it’s pretty clear he does intend that at least some other colonists survived and, while not exactly canon, does leave it open that Tyrol founded the Scots, and yet he explicitly states that it is Hera as the mtEve. Basically, as was pointed out to me here, RDM and the writers don’t understand the biological or historical paradoxes in their finale. So, we can nitpick that it violates actual reality, but then so doesn’t FTL drives and synthetic bio-organic humanoids that can both breed with naturally produced Homo sapiens AND jam a USB cord into their arm to network with a computer.
It still leaves an aftertaste because, yes, they finally came up with something that we can objectively analyze since it’s clearly meant to tie in with our own reality, but ultimately we just have to leave it as fantasy and enjoy the symbolism and not get tripped up on the unfortunate reality that most popular entertainment does not bring in consultants to help writers who were probably not paying a whole lot of attention in their science classes.
Oh I agree - I’m happy to suspend disbelief and enjoy it. I loved the entire show including the ending. After all, it’s not a science documentary. I’m just entering into the spirit of things 
In any case, while we’re discussing it, I don’t object to FTL or mysterious beings guiding events - these are easier for me to take than the unworkable links between the colonials and us, as they might seem unlikely but they don’t contradict any terrestrial historical realities. The contradiction of history is more problematic for me than the acceptance of fantastical science that’s beyond our current understanding. I can go with that - one has to in order to enjoy an awful lot of sci fi.
The idea that Chief founded the Scots and that this line remained unbroken over 150,000 (through an ice age that had most of the British isles under kilometres of snow, ice sheets and glaciers) is just preposterous. But it’s OK because there’s nothing in the show to indicate that that’s what happened. It’s only in RDM’s head and not on celluloid (ok, digital storage). If Chief McTyrol was dealt with in the show it would contradict the whole mitochondrial even thing (unless most of the proto-Scots die out but some bloke is left to reproduce with one of Hera’s descendants 10s of thousands of years later, after the migration out of Africa).
Having said all that, I can just about make the finale work from a historical/archaeological perspective. The cultural connections with historical humanity are spurious, as indicated in earlier posts. But it could have been much, much worse. Egyptians and Atlantis just wouldn’t have done it for me and the writers have my eternal gratitude for avoiding such traps and at least updating the past connection thing from the cheesy 70s “gift of civilisation” nonsense.
In fact the ending was all the more poignant if you force it into the context of what we understand about the human past as, for it to work, all the descendants of the fleet have to die except for a small viable breeding group centred around Hera in Africa (although I must check the likely date of Mitochondrial Eve). That makes Hera even more important, which is kind of nice, but sad.
As someone who dabbles in archaeology professionally I probably have a greater interest than most of the audience in seeing the show work in terms of what we know about our origins. So please do forgive me my arhaeo-geekiness!
For me, the finale was both thrilling and disappointing all at the same time… but as time goes on, I’m able to lay aside my unmet expectations and enjoy the finale for the thrilling ride it is. As an episode, it’s probably one of the best of the series. But it’s still fun to think about and talk about how we had expected/hoped things would be different.
I decided long ago that if the show existed in the past, that the similarities to our own culture were racial memory. RDM used the term “collective subconscious” in his finale podcast.
We are on the same page 
It’s easy to suspend disbelief when there’s no objective test, but once they introduce it, it’s tougher. As a biologist, the paradox of Hera as mtEve bugs me not because it’s impossible, but because it flies in the face of where I think they wanted to take the colonials story-wise (and, let’s be honest, where I wanted them to take the colonials story-wise). It does mandate a pretty harsh outcome as their reward for all the noble ideas of giving up their techonology and trying to start over.
I can even swing to some degree with the whole Jungian mechanism for the how of colonial culture influencing ours with the 150,000 year date problem, but the biology implications I just have to put in the same box as Athena networking with a raptor - no good rational reason why it works the way the story said it did, but I’ll run with it because the alternative would be to miss out on the stuff that does work.
Same here - however we reacted the fact that we’re all here discussing it and theorizing and talking about archaeology, biology and Jungian mechanisms demonstrates that whatever it’s flaws, the finale was as thought provoking as the rest of it.
Finally got to see it last night on scifi.com.
First off, I have to say it was definitely better than any of the Star Trek finales, and that’s pretty good. It was epic in scope, tasteful and respectful to the show’s history, and had lots of poignant moments. They wrapped up far more loose ends than I would have imagined possible in 3 hours. However, there was still plenty missing, and plenty of it was just questionable. When it was over, after I took a minute to digest it all, I started saying things like “yeah, but what about…?” “but what the heck was…?” etc. While it was great, and far better than it MIGHT have ended up, it really wasn’t completely coherent, and didn’t tie up all of the important strings (let alone all of them.) I almost wonder if at some point they just hit a deadline and didn’t have time to mess with it anymore. Off the top of my head:
Best moments:
Worst moments:
I didn’t give this much thought, as I simply felt Bill wanted to build the cabin Laura wanted and simply be left alone to rest in peace until he passes, but it would likely become a very painful death, since he’d grow old and infirm alone and likely starve or die of thirst this way. That’s a bad way to go.
But my wife thought it was the worst aspect of the finale, and as a father myself, I can’t understand how I would leave my son. They’ve had a contentious relationship over the past four seasons, but this was finally a chance to simply be father and son without leading humanity while dancing on a razor’s edge, and it’s a shame that Bill found Laura’s remains more important than his own flesh and blood.
I tried to udnerstand how I could not be disappointed with the finale and ti finally made sense when I considered the show as a whole. The fourth season as a whole was a completely different direction for the show, and by being so different it prepared me for the ending we received. It seems incongruous with the early seasons of the show but the show BSG became is very much where the finale draws inspiration and happens.
I think the msot difficult aspect of television to accept is that shows evolve and change over time. BSG was a gritty sci-fi show with a few difficult-to-explain components early on, but it ultimately became a romantic parable of forced pioneers and the forces that guide them. The ending makes sense to me in that regard, and I could be no more disappointed with it than the entirety of what the show was when it ended.
I’m completely convinced now that Starbuck is more analogous to Gandalf than any kind of Angel I’ve ever considered, including Head Six and head Baltar. She just couldn’t be at peace in life until she understood her place in it.