After the shoot-em-up breathtaking final episodes of the past few weeks, Battlestar Galactica put on a riveting, soft spoken intellectual powerhouse of a Final Episode #5 tonight, with deep, real answers ... and, of course, a question or two.
This was mostly Ellen and Cavil (John)'s episode on the Cylon ships, and Sam's on Galactica. They both tell the story ...
Ellen created Cavil (she calls him John, much to his displeasure) and together they created the rest of the Cylons who look and walk like humans. Cavil hates his human body. Ellen considers him and all the humanoid Cylons a triumph, the best of both beings. They have free will and love...
This conversation between mother and rebellious son is one of the best in the entire series. It rivals the conversations Isaac Asimov wrote between R. Daneel and his human associates. (Added Feb 14: And in responding to a comment below by Livia, I realized that Cavil's speech about the exploding star was also reminiscent of Rutger Hauer's great musings about what he had experienced as an android, in Bladerunner.) We learn a lot about Cavil - he's the oldest looking skin job, but in many ways is still the youngest.
Back on Galactica, Sam's wound to the head has decanted his memories - of just about everything we need to know. The counterpoint of Ellen and Cavil, and Sam and his listeners, takes us through every season and century of BSG.
But ... Kara still doesn't know how she came back from Earth and the dead.
And now that the Final Five have been ID'ed in these final episodes, why not introduce one last product of Ellen's genius - Daniel, a humanoid Cylon rendered extinct by Cavil.
Who is he? Gaeta? It also turns out that the final five have no memories of earlier existences, and, therefore, relationships...
Cylons and humans have become even more intertwined, and this may come to include the Galactica herself. She's cracking, and Tyrol suggests an organic resin which will grow with the ship. Adama resists - at first - and then agrees...
And so the spiral cycle continues ... with a brand new beginning or bumper for the show. Pretty daring in itself, this far into the series and this close to the end...
See also: Battlestar Galactica, Final 1: Dee, Ellen, and Starbuck ... Final 2: Baby and Mutiny Make Three ... Final 3: Galactica Alamo! ... Final 4: Shout-Outs to Lampkin, Lee, Tyrol ... Final 6: The Necessity of Hybrid ... Final 7. 'Since I Died in Your Arms' ... Final 8. Father of a Million ... Final 9. 'Every Man and Woman Over the Age of 15' ... Finale: Not Goodbye But See You Around
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17 comments:
So, there are actually 8 humanoid cylons and 5 "finals" - 13 total, just like the colonies: 13 colonies, 13 cylons. I have been screaming this at the top of my lungs for the past couple of years that that symmetry had to exist, and no one believed me. I cannot tell you how wonderful it feels to be vindicated, even if, even now, no one is listening to me.
FYI: IMO, Starbuck is Daniel, the missing male "artistic" cylon whose fetal copies were tampered with.
Also: Cavil's impassioned speech about wanting to see an exploding star was stupendous. SF writing at its finest. I am truly going to miss this show.
Yes, I agree completely about Cavil and the exploding star speech...
That's what I meant about Asimov's robot novels ... and come to think of it, there was great scene with the Rutger Hauer saying something like in Bladerunner, too... (I'll put that in the blog post)
Good for you for calling out the 13!
About Starbuck - well, she's the obvious choice ... still you could be right...
Livia is probably right about Starbuck being Daniel for all the reasons she stated, plus one more. The character of Starbuck was originally played by a man in the classic series. It would be hilarious (and brilliant) if it is revealed that she actually is a man in the new series as well.
The one mystery I'm dying to see revealed is that of Gaius Baltar and his connection to Six. Could he be Daniel? Ellen's description of him as extremely sensitive seems to fit and may explain his religiosity and charisma.
I think Daniel is Starbuck, but I'm hoping it's Baltar.
I thought about that too - that Starbuck was originally a man, which would fit it with the whole "all this has happened before" mantra.
And, I would not be unhappy if Daniel turned out to be Baltar. I was fixating on the description of "artistic" and thought of Starbuck, but clearly Baltar has a role in all of this, as well.
Since my previous comment, I've spent several curious hours reading tons of internet speculation about this episode and who Daniel might be. Here are the theories I've come across:
Starbuck -- Mostly for the reasons I mentioned above, but there seems to be a backlash against this possibility. Apparently, a lot of fans find the idea offensive, because it takes a very strong female character and then implies that she was only that way due to being a man. Personally, I think that's silly, but I'm betting the writers are afraid to go there.
The Brain Guy -- John Hodgman is, after all, a PC, so this wouldn't be too much of a stretch.
Tigh and Six's Baby -- I saw a mention of this but not an explanation of how or why. Someone did mention that Tigh seemed happier when he was with Six in this episode than at any other time in the series, so something is bound to come along and destroy that. Perhaps it will be finding out that the baby is not his.
Baltar -- Because of his genius and unexplained connection to Six. (Or maybe he's the Cylon God?)
The Crazy Hybrid Mastermind from Razor -- I haven't seen Razor, so I can't comment.
Starbuck's Father -- Apparently, he was established as having been an artist. This may also explain why Starbuck's mother was so cold to her growing up. If true, Starbuck is the first human-Cylon child. That may explain her great destiny.
That last possibility seems to be the most plausible, and it may answer another important question: Why were the Cylons trying to interbreed with humans? Starbuck seems to have resurrected on her own with no resurrection ship. Does this mean that hybrids don't need external technology to come back? If so, that would explain why the Cylons were so intent on creating hybrids, as it would guarantee their survival (and that of humans) into the future. (Of course, it still doesn't explain the resurrection of Starbuck's viper.)
Good thoughts.
About Starbuck's viper, here's an additional possible aspect: If Galactical is infused with that organic, living resin that Tyrol was talking about to Adama, then the Galactica itself might become some sort of Cylon...
There's something a lot of people missed. Sam was talking about Daniel - then he mentioned that a "sign" visited everyone in the form of a person that *only they could see*...?
Now who does that sound like? A certain person we love to hate? A highly strung artistic type of man?
And it fits with Six seeing that very same person as a vision...
Prediction: there's one Daniel left.
One problem, though, with both Baltar and Starbuck as Daniel, is that Ellen was saying that Cavil destroyed all the Daniels.
If Cavil thought he had done that, wouldn't he have killed our Baltar and Starbuck when they were in Cylon hands?
There are lots of ways Daniel could have been preserved. Cavil kept the other five alive when he didn't have to, so maybe he did the same with Daniel and let Ellen think he was dead to torture her. Or maybe Ellen managed to save him without Cavil finding out. She may know that Daniel is alive somewhere but obviously won't let on in front of Cavil. Or Daniel may actually be gone for good, but that doesn't preclude him from having been Starbuck's father before he was killed.
I think there's a clue in that remark about Daniel being killed by having his genetic code corrupted (rather than just a simple murder). If Daniel is still around with changed DNA, he may be unrecognizable to anyone who knew the original Daniel.
I personally like the idea of his having lived on somehow in the resurrection system and embedding himself into the Sixes' psyches. (It is interesting that the first time we saw the vision of Baltar appear to a six was right after she resurrected.) But if Baltar isn't a cylon, what is his involvement with the visions?
My longshot theory on this is that when Six shielded him from the nuclear blast, it was not enough to protect him. (How could it have been?) When Six was destroyed and uploaded, part of the Daniel consciousness escaped into Baltar and resurrected him. Since he was part of the psyche of a Six, that's how he appeared to Baltar. And now that Daniel is part of Baltar, he can take that form to appear to Six.
One thing I like about this theory is that nothing about it eliminates the possibility of Daniel being Starbuck's father. Daniel may also turn out to be the one true God of the Cylon centurions. Perhaps they can sense him more directly.
Well, I agree with you completely that Baltar's living through that nuclear blast is something that has yet to be explained. And Baltar being Daniel would explain that.
But, again, Cavil had some significant interaction with Baltar, if I'm recalling correctly, when Baltar was on the Cylon ship. And Cavil gave no indication that he took Baltar all that seriously...
True, but then again, Cavil didn't seem to take Tigh or Ellen that seriously either. My theory, though, isn't that Baltar is Daniel, but rather that Daniel is a sort of disembodied consciousness in the Cylon system. Baltar just happened to be in the right place at the right time.
By that, I mean that Daniel was inside the Six that was with him during the nuclear attack, or perhaps just embedded in the upload process. In any case, not only was Baltar physically touching Six when she died and started uploading, but he also died at exactly the same instant. If Daniel was there via his incorporation into the cylon upload/resurrection system, he may have had access to Baltar and resurrected him on the spot. If Starbuck could come back without a resurrection ship, maybe Daniel was able to do something similar for Baltar.
My predictions that I post here are invariably wrong, but it will be interesting to see if the BSG writers come up with something even better.
Aha that's it! During Cavil's speech I'd a very strong sense of deja vu that I couldn't shake or place until you came up with it - bladerunner :)
TVindy - But the reason Cavil might not have reacted that much to Tigh and Ellen was that they were not supposed to have been eradicated, like Daniel...
Crimson - yeah, that Rutger Hauer speech about what he had seen out near Orion still gives me chills... Cavil's definitely had strong echoes of that...
Well, Cavil may have lied about eradicating Daniel, so he wouldn't be at all surprised to see him. But that's just hypothetical. I'm 95% sure that Baltar is *not* Daniel.
Ron Moore said in an interview that "There are similarities, and there are connections, between Starbuck and Baltar that will develop as time goes on."
Since there has not been anything yet and we have only 4 episodes left I too think it´s probable that Daniel is somehow the connection; maybe he found a way to act out of the spaces "between life and death", maybe due to genetic variations, maybe something else... Next episode seems to deal with the Starbuck issue :)
Prediction: We will never see Daniel because he's been dead for over thirty years. All of him.
The Moore podcast notes that they didn't want to raise false mysteries on this point. Fond hope.
We may never see Daniel, but we'll definitely have some revelations about him that fit into the bigger mysteries. Otherwise there would be no reason to invent him.
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