I’m sorry, but what plot points need to be resolved other than Starbuck and the significance of “All Along the Watchtower?”
Who cares what the Lords of Kobol were? If they answer that question then the writers settle the religious issue by stating, unequivocally, that God/the gods is/are real and that there truly is no mystery to the universe.
The head people? Again, who cares? Like Sean, I’ve always felt that these were strongest when left open to interpretation. Are they chips? Manifestations of a different set of players in the drama? Manifestations of a character’s subconscious? Memories? Figments of the imagination? Yes, yes, yes and yes.
What was the purpose of the final five? To end the cycle of war between man and machine.
What is the significance of Hera? She’s the “shape of things to come,” a symbol for the need for these two races to unite as one. (One of my favorite things they’ve done this second half of the season has been how they’ve brought this plot point from season one to a point where it needs a resolution.)
One question I do want answers for is whether or not these people will find a home. I want them to. I fear a dark, difficult ending and feel that these characters deserve some happiness in their lives, at least here at the end. I don’t think they’re getting their happy ending.
What do the flashbacks add to these “already developed characters?” More depth. They serve to remind us how far they (and we) have come on this journey and show us a glimpse to the time before the very beginning and how much deeper the connections between these people are than we ever really knew.
I am reminded of something very astute that Kurt Vonnegut wrote in “Breakfast of Champions” (I’m afraid I’ll have to paraphrase, though): life has neither a middle nor an end and things don’t resolve neatly, so I’m not going to give you a neat ending to this story. Things are constantly left unresolved in life. Why should this show, which has been, even (especially?) within the context of science fiction, so much about reflecting a sense of verisimilitude in the lives of its characters as a reflection of our own, tie up EVERY lose end neatly with a bow? Life does not work that way. People die suddenly. Relationships fall apart without warning. The end just comes without the benefit of a middle (sometimes not even a beginning).
We’ll get a resolution next week. It might not be the resolution all of us want, but it will be a resolution.
- Was senior military leadership of The Colonies somehow involved in consciously setting this whole “thing” in motion? (Or is “someone/something” pulling their strings too?) Several of us already suspect this based on the “Hero” episode. The ship that attacked Bulldog and disappeared before what seem to be the “real” Cylons show up has always been tantalizing. Now we have Adama’s one hour mission. Of all the flashbacks last night, that may be the most important to the “big” story.
My issue with this theory (I’m not even touching no. 2, Old Timer, as I imagine the answer is simpler than what you’re suggesting) is that both Adama and the guy he was talking to were wearing civilian clothing. If this were a military briefing, doesn’t it follow that they’d both be in uniform? (Could any of you who are members of the armed forces shed some light on this?). Unless he’s taking up a job for a intelligence agency or freelancing (illegally?) for the private sector…in any case, there’s not enough information yet to answer that question.
I will say this, the episode certainly felt arbitrarliy cut off at the “to be continued” card. This really should have been a three hour finale movie and I hope that the DVD set will edit the three sections of “Daybreak” together so they can be seen the way they were obviously originally intended to be seen.
Originally Posted by Old Timer
Who/what are the Lords of Kobol?
Sigh…I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know.
And I don’t think I’ll know next week either.
I think that back-story is just too big (and too late) for them to tackle.
But, at least I got see Baltar’s dad.
Seriously, who gives a flying frak about the Lords of Kobol? Back stories are meant to give depth to the “front” story. One of the flaws with the Star Wars prequels is that, since they’re based on the back story for the original trilogy, they themselves lack a back story. They’re ALL back story, and this makes them structurally weak (and yet I still liked those. Go figure!).
Baltar’s dad, on the other hand, was not so much a character as a way to give Baltar and Caprica Six’s relationship a bit more depth. While it seemed a tad ret-conny to have Caprica Six suddenly seem more sympathetic in the pre-attack days, I found it interesting, given what we now know about the Final Five and their relationship to the other cylons, that she would take offense at Gaius’ treatment of his father and do something to make the old man more comfortable and happy (though part of me–the part that remembers the miniseries–wonders if she REALLY put him in that rest home and didn’t simply dispose of him).
That flashback also adds significant depth to Gaius’ view of himself as he tells Lee, perhaps taking the first honest look at himself in his life, that “no, I wouldn’t trust me either.”
That’s far more interesting to me than who the Lords of Kobol are/were. (Though I’d venture that, like the Final Five are rather idealized cylons, the LOK are idealized humans who have become gods in the colonials’ legends, much in the same way that OUR gods follow the same pattern.)
EDIT:
Stroogie, you make a GREAT point. I’m glad I’m not the only one who feels the way you do.
