Finale Review *Very Minor Spoilers*

Leprachaun

Have you ever experienced a moment in your life where the weight and significance of the event is so great you can’t even really focus on what’s actually going on? Or is that just my ADD? To be sure, as I watched the last two hours of Battlestar Galactica Monday night at a special screening here in New York, I was paying extremely close attention to the events unfolding before me - and I even took notes! However, the reality that this is the end was with me the whole time. But in the telling of a good story, it’s never really about when it ends, but how that matters.

Before I begin this review in earnest, let’s take a minute and talk (or rather not talk) about spoilers. I’m not going to tell you the details of what happens to who or what but I will tell you how I feel about what happens. It’s going to be a little tricky, but I can’t imagine now that we’re less than twenty-four hours away from the finale, you’d want to be severely spoiled. However, I’m definitely going to dip my toe in the spoiler kiddie pool (and it’s questionably warm!) But you probably wouldn’t be reading this if you were deathly allergic to spoilers. Let that serve as my equivalent to that long red line drawn down the hanger deck by Adama last week. Cross over with the knowledge that you will be somewhat spoiled.

Tonight marks the ending to a show that has truly earned every bit of praise heaped upon it. How silly it seems now, four terrific seasons later, that there was ever any question amongst both fans of, and an actor from, the original series that
this show should have been made. Many of us, myself included thought the idea of a re-imagining was lame and I am now here I am not wanting it to end. Doh.

On to the episode. The biggest fear I had, and I suspect all fans have, is that tonight will be a massive letdown. So to address that, was I disappointed?

(Jump!!!!)

The answer is yes. Of course I was. We’re talking two hours here, the two final hours of Battlestar Galactica, there are going to be things that don’t work or feel right to certain people. I was also thrilled, amused, surprised and saddened at times. We’ve all got our idea, whether or not we even know what that is going into a series finale, of how we feel things should play out. For some, this episode will be perfection, others will absolutely hate it and many will have mixed feelings. I’d say I’m in the mixed feelings crowd.

Visually, it’s incredible. If you’ve got a nice, big flatscreen, “Daybreak Part 2” is going to make good use of every inch (ooh, that sounds a little perverse...). Seriously though, I did watch it in a gorgeous screening room with nice, cushy seats and purple neon lights flanking the screen, but even if it was on the crappy old 17” RCA TV in my kitchen, the awesomeness of the finale’s effects would still be evident (and something would probably be burning).

As far as resolution for individual characters, we’ll see some minor players step into some major roles, which I found personally very surprising but perhaps other, more astute fans won’t feel these developments come out of left field. But cut me some slack, it’s a show where a bunch of characters look exactly the same, plus I’m bad with numbers…

In wrapping up several character’s storylines we’ll be visiting their pasts and consequences will be faced. This is one facet of the finale that I found very satisfying. I guess I like watching people get their comeuppance. However there are choices made by certain characters which close out their story that I found really hard to buy. A second viewing tonight might sell me on them though. My feelings for the characters themselves and knowing that this would be their end might just have overwhelmed any real logical assessment of each one’s own little finale. It was hard to say goodbye to Chief. Yes, I cried a tiny, little bit.

On a larger scale, the ending felt good to me but it also felt like it happened several times. I wasn’t looking at my watch (I wasn’t wearing it but even if I was, it was really dark in there and mine doesn’t glow) but I think the magnitude of what was I seeing and where I was watching it threw off my whole sense of time. But there were several scenes where I felt like “ok, so this is how it ends”...and then it didn’t.

As a whole, I think I’m still processing the finality of well, the finale. I don’t think it’s really sunk in that there won’t be another episode next week. When that does settle with me, I think my feelings on the end will really come to the surface. Like I said a few paragraphs above, I was at times extremely disappointed and at other moments delighted.

It goes without saying that people will feel very strongly about BSG’s swan song but I think the fact that some elements are conclusively resolved while others which have riddled viewers for a while now, aren’t so much, will make fans take to the forums at FTL speeds post-show tonight. I’ve never been a big fan of ambiguity and interpretive endings. I think the word “end” implies finality, in the sense that I don’t need to go on thinking about it. I don’t want to have to contemplate too much or use my imagination and all that crap. So unfortunately in my case, Battlestar Galactica’s finish has challenged me to do that to some degree with certain outcomes. How’s that for vague?

One thing that really hit me with all the Battlestar events this week and build-up to tonight is just how much pressure Ron Moore and David Eick had to deliver pretty much the best two hours of Battlestar Galactica ever. And with where we are in the story, ya know, the end and all, I think that’s really a lot to ask. Sure there’s a ton of great action sequences and more high-drama than you can throw a drag queen at, but there’s a degree of predictability, which only makes sense if you follow threads in the story to their natural ends. And there’s also a quietness to it, particularly in the second hour that I wasn’t really prepared for.

It felt much like the end of a great party. Maybe someone had a little too much to drink and knocked over a lamp (I’m looking at you, Saul!). Maybe someone caught their man making out with another girl (I know it hurts Athena, but it’s not like he wasn’t thinking of you the whole time) and maybe someone got in a fight (Starbuck, save it for the ring!) but at the end of night, you know you had a blast…

Dartz

Sounds like it's *not* what I was expecting then.

I was expecting somethin g similar to Neon Genesis Evangelions End of Evangelion ending.... legendeary for it's really cool first half where everybody dies, and it's second half where they all get turned into juice and have their neuroses analysed by each other.


This sounds different to that.....