Okay, here it is, my full on review of the final “Battlestar Galactica”, “Daybreak, Part 2?. Granted, I haven’t done any reviews prior to this, but better to save my point of view for the final.
As I had stated before in a previous comment over at BSGcast, the definition of the word “Daybreak” was simply “dawn” (according to Websters Online). And we have a definitive answer as to its meaning and how it applies to the show. Galactica reached Earth in a period of time, which is often described as “the dawn of man” on Earth. Kinda nifty of Ron, TBH.
For the story, and as a story writer myself, this episode made sense and I feel that it served as the logical conclusion of what has been one of the most intelligent science fiction shows and true humanistic dramas ever created in the first half of the 21st century. The story is a balance of “Galactica’s last hurrah”, or in other words the final mission, and humanity finally reaching Earth (our Earth). And it’s really satisfying. It had its intense moments and final character developments that made this a truly worthy episode on a story standpoint. Even with the ending, it is good. Each character got their own wrap up, which was excellent. Granted, there are some details that bug me (which I’ll mention later), but I’m willing to let it slide.
I will admit that there are details I can’t help but find interesting. For one, Roslin sleeping with a former student, especially for a first date. I couldn’t help but wonder if this was RDM’s ode to Van Halen’s “Hot for Teacher”. Though many may see it out of character of her, you would have to remind yourself that you probably would have thought she wouldn’t sleep with a married man back in Season 1, to which you would have been wrong after discovering she was knockin’ boots with Adar. So, this scenario doesn’t seem at all out of character.
To be honest, really didn’t like the Adama/Getting a new job/polygraph flashbacks were really necessary or essential to Adama and his overall story. But I’m willing to overlook that.
In “Daybreak, Part 1?, Athena believed it was too late to rescue Hera. Helo said, “You’re wrong.” And he was right. How many times have we seen some of Helo’s actions that we are left questioning if he made the right choice or a big mistake? A lot. Finally, seeing one that we KNOW was right was definitely worth it.
The assault on the Cylon Colony was, no doubt, one of the best moments in the show, as equal to such excellent battle moments such as the assault on the Cylon Mining Refinery in “Hand of God” and The Rescue of the Colonials from New Caprica in “Exodus, Part 2?. Seriously, other than seeing D’anna waking up in bed with Baltar and Caprica, how often do you ever get to see ANY kind of Cylon on Cylon action? (And yes, I’m joking) And seeing the new school and old school Centurions battling out was pretty cool.
Honestly, I forgot about what Tory did to Cally, not because it wasn’t interesting or anything. It’s just that moment was like a line from a deleted scene I have to quote. In a deleted scene for “Razor”, while under gunfire by the Old Centurions, Starbuck talks about the shooting down of the Olympic Carrier. It flashes back to a scene where Starbuck and Apollo are in the Pilot’s ready room, watching the gun camera footage, over and over again, because of Lee’s guilt. Starbuck’s line pretty much summed up why I forgot about what Tory did to Cally: “It was 12 hours ago, it’s KNEW ancient history.” Needless to say, we finally got to see Tyrol’s reaction. And we’re to believe that these two characters, in their forgotten background, were knocking boots with plans on making it a lifelong thing? But then again, what Tory did to Tyrol fits the classic line, “You always hurt the ones you love.” And to quote the Narrator of the movie “Fight Club”, “It works both ways.”
The moment I was the most scared throughout the episode was after Galactica completed her final jump. When she began twisting and breaking apart, I though she was going to rip completely apart and explode. Seriously, I knew she was going to take some sort of damage from attacking the colony, but I honestly didn’t expect her to, quoting Tigh here, “break her back.” But the reveal the Earth, our Earth, I actually said, “I IT! I KNEW THAT WASN’T OUR EARTH!” I definitely liked the character wrap ups and how each one got their own. And I found the most touching thing was that the last lines shared between Starbuck and Adama actually happened to be the very first lines they had together in the Mini-Series. For those who forgot what those lines were, here they are: “What do you hear, Starbuck?” “Nothing but the rain.” “Grab your gun and bring the cat in.” It was a perfect circle for them. Seeing Gaius Baltar and Caprica back together again was also a perfect circle, even more so with the fact that Baltar re-embraced his heritage as a farmer (which is a circle within a circle, though we weren’t aware of it until Season 3). Seeing Helo, Athena and Hera together as a happy family was great. I think maybe Athena forgave Helo for frakking Boomer in “Someone to Watch Over Me”. That’s love for you, eh? And I actually began to cry not at the death of Roslin, but the death of Galactica and the ships of the Colonial Fleet. Unlike the U.S.S. Enterprise, any letter of the alphabet, the Galactica was more than just some cool and old ship that was just the setting of some of the stories. She was just as much a character who had an arch and who evolved just like Adama who commanded her and the crew that worked in her. Seeing the Galactica flying into the sun for her demise made me cry and even now, I feeling like I’m mourning the death of someone I knew. I haven’t cried as hard as I have recently about any kind of fiction character since reading a not-so-well known novel called “Vivienne” by Richard Hoyt. But at least her end was beautiful, if not as peaceful as Roslin’s death.
Roslin’s death wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. It wasn’t so drawn out as it was in the visions she had in “The Hub”, which is great. When Adama picked her up and took her to the Raptor, I thought, “Oh my god! He is going to take her and they’re going to fly off into space and die together alone.” (it made sense to me that he was the kind of guy who would). But, it turned out as I was wrong. To be honest, I felt just having the show end with Adama sitting on the hillside overlooking the land with Roslin’s grave behind him would have been good enough of an ending, just to leave it there. But when we jump 150,000 to modern day New York. Seeing RDM in that scene was great. And hearing Jimi Hendrix’s rendering of “All Along the Watchtower” was also great. But the ending in Modern New York with Head Caprica and Head Baltar, with the sound of Hendrix’s version of “All Along the Watchtower” left me with the mood of a downer ending as opposed to the happy ending feeling I had with that final scene of Adama. Thanks for doing that, Mr. Moore. You’ve definitely harken back to the “science fiction ending with a moral” stories of the past. Best to leave open the possibility that we may be making the same mistakes our Colonial ancestors did… And that the one person who thinks we may not make the same mistake, starting another cycle, happens to be the one who had been toying around with Baltar for four years.
Now, here are the things that bugged me:
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Now, I know we were not to take things too literal when it came to Pythia and her prophecy. However, no matter how cryptic they were, they were accurate. And from what Elosha explained when Roslin told her about her vision in “Hand of God”, Elosha stated that, according to Pythia, the Dying Leader would not live to see the promised land. That means that Roslin should have died before even getting a chance to set foot on our Earth. But, I’m willing to slide.
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I am rather disappointed with Boomer’s end. Seriously, for someone like her to change her mind again, I was at least hoping for her trying to redeem herself for the wrong choices she’s made in the past (like maybe stepping in front of a bullet meant for Hera, Helo or Athena, or something like that). But to change her mind, hand off Hera and then Athena just killing her… I just feel that’s not fair, especially for Boomer who has gone through so much more pain and struggle than Athena. She deserved a chance at redeeming herself.
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“The dying leader will know the truth of the Opera House.”- This most definitely is not true.
(Continued in reply post)