Season 2, episode 1.. eh... episode 8: "The Final Cut"

Fenster

Its back after a week's break with an episode featuring Lucy Lawless as a reporter.

Cina

Great episode, wasnt expecting to see Lucy Lawless but she does her job well. It;s done in a different way to the other episodes, I don't want to spoil anything for you but you'll know what I mean when you watch it.
Great for me, and what an ending !

Fenster

Fantastic episode, the ending was like a sucker punch to the gut.

Stark

I really liked the ending, but I felt the whole episode up to that point was just a reshash of old Star Trek TNG /Babylon 5 (and now for a word, the illusion of truth)/Farscape (constellation of doubt) episodes.

Lucy Lawless was great in it by the way. The blonde hair really suits her as well.

Venom

Really good episode that just shows how good the writers are when they can take a concept thats been done to death in other sci-fi shows and still bring out a gem like Final Cut. Lucy Lawless did a great job and the ending was damm cool

Next weeks episode looks really good and you can see the previews on www.scifi.com.

Fenster

Venom wrote:

Really good episode that just shows how good the writers are when they can take a concept thats been done to death in other sci-fi shows and still bring out a gem like Final Cut. Lucy Lawless did a great job and the ending was damm cool

Next weeks episode looks really good and you can see the previews on www.scifi.com.

I saw an exploding bridge console in the preview. I guess someone is nostalgic for their Trek days, eh?

Stark

I'm just glad they didn't do the "reporter makes new dialogue by cutting and pasting interviewer dialogue" bit. I was so convinced she would do it when Apollo said "That's pronounced A-Sap"

Oh and

Lucy's a cylon. Xena suddenly makes more sense, all that super strength, all those unexplained returns from the dead...

spooydermot

Stark wrote:

I really liked the ending, but I felt the whole episode up to that point was just a reshash of old Star Trek TNG /Babylon 5 (and now for a word, the illusion of truth)/Farscape (constellation of doubt) episodes.

yeah you'd think that commanders of large space stations / star ships would be more wary of letting news crews run around (especially after they watch babylon 5) , the plot of 'news reporter makes heroes look inept' is pretty much a common staple in every TV show, sci-fi or otherwise...but the ending really made up for it

You think the cylons were playing Mystery Science Theatre 3000?

madrab

lucy lawless, i knew i recognised her from something, and i was too lazy to re-read the credits

Stark

Ah the ending

Lucy: So we lost two Cylon raiders getting that footage because you wouldn't take my word for it.
Sharon: Yeah, whatever. Ooh, show my bit!
Sharon: Oh my god, it's me!! I'm alive! Is the baby alive?
Lucy: I wasn't actually going to mention that little fact until you said it, but yeah.
Six: My god, that is important, Sharon I'm so glad you asked Lucy that, otherwise we'd have never known.
Lucy: Yes it really is a miracle of God.

Suit guy: It's a pity the other cylons haven't been worked into the plot yet, they'd have loved to have seen this.
Six: Yeah but remember when Sharon burst in on a meeting at the end of the miniseries? Don't want to throw all our surprises at the audience at once. Oh, Hi Adama! Oops.

Excelent ending to a very good episode.

About half way through I wanted to tell that reporter to frack off another sign of some good acting.

clearly my subconscious knows a cylon when I see one ... now lets see who else do I hate...

Stark

By the way, did anyone get the

signifigance of the book the junior officer was reading? The name was meaningless to me

.

Watched the episode again, it's more interesting after you've seen the end of it. The little things become more signifigant.

ixoy

I'm with Stark in that it's a concept that's been done to death and, I feel, done better in the likes of Babylon 5. In fact I was rolling my eyes at the happy *****in' end, even if I smiled at hearing the original BSG music play over it (how come ye ain't all commented on that?!). I didn't even find the bit where they discover the murderer particularly interesting - how often have we seen shows where the clue is revealed by people noticing some detail in a video reel?

However,

Xena as a cylon means I've felt I've missed something perhaps. We can assume most of it was intel gathering but was there some other agenda to the report?

Although Stark's pastiche of the final moments has also lessened their impact for me...

I can only rate this one okay...

spooydermot

ixoy wrote:

even if I smiled at hearing the original BSG music play over it (how come ye ain't all commented on that?!)..

yeah that was a nice touch allright..bit cheesy, but hey, why not?

ButcherOfNog

ixoy wrote:

***************

Jasus, spoiler tag please!

jor el

Stark wrote:

By the way, did anyone get the

signifigance of the book the junior officer was reading? The name was meaningless to me

.

It was a book of poetry, and an excert from one of these poems was what was written on Tigh's mirror, the death threat.

So the reporter put two and two together when she saw it.

I didn't recognise Lucy Lawless at all, I must be getting old.

Still, I enjoyed this one, didn't see that ending coming at all. I thought she'd re-edit the video before it broadcast to the fleet and add in some jucy bits to encite rebellion.

I thought though that Adama would have checked the tape he took from her. I mean, come on, it was obvious that she would have changed it when she was left, unsupervised, with the most sensational video footage that any reporter could possibly have.

Praetorian

Lots of good points, lots of bad points. I can only give this episode an okay rating.

It will be interesting to see what damage the new cylon will do.

Vokes

Loving the original BSG theme more please!

But the beginning credits are back being spoilerific

Rated Great.

Stark

ixoy wrote:

Xena as a cylon means I've felt I've missed something perhaps. We can assume most of it was intel gathering but was there some other agenda to the report?

I felt that her initial purpose was to go in as a Cylon manipulator, pouring fuel on the fire and fracturing the fleet. However I feel that after the discovery of the baby, fracturing the fleet could put the baby's life in danger so she decided to put a positive spin on the story to restore fleet stability until the cylons could retrieve the baby.

Another take on the whole thing, could be that she genuinely meant what she said at the end, that just as Caprica Boomer had been won over by the human Helo, that D'anna had been won over by the "human face". Herself and Dee seemed to build a strong repore over the course of the episode, and watching the episode second time through made that very interesting.

Nuttzz

Not Ok but not great either, I'd vote good if I could.

I like your take on it there stark, it will make for some interesting viewing

iguana

Stark wrote:

Ah the ending

Lucy: So we lost two Cylon raiders getting that footage because you wouldn't take my word for it.

I think this episode seems to prove Starbuck's theory that the cylons can't transmit to each other over very far distances. Neither Sharon or Six on Caprica were aware of the fate of pregnant Sharon although on Galactica both Sharon (obviously) and Six are aware that she is alive and carrying the baby. This would mean that D'anna needed the cylon raidars to approach Galactica in order to relay the information she had back to one of her bodies on Caprica.

While she probably had a less showy plan in place to transmit the finished article back she had to do something to get the Sharon footage out as soon as possible. As it was possible that Adama would discover she still had footage, she arranged for the cylons to simulate an attack. Then she managed to get the information to them and they passed it on before they were destroyed.

I think the I think the bulk of the episode was reasonable good, the best part of it being the new perspectives on Dualla and Gaeta rather than the main story.

However the end of the episode was great in that it hints at so much about how the cylons abilities work. The limitations of their communications to each other and how they work around it. The way they are manipulating the fleet and how their apparent willingness to change their approach after realising pregnant Sharon is on board shows that maybe their plan isn't as all straightforward as could previously have been believed.

That and the final scenes have me wondering again exactly what is Galactica Six and how does she work as the Caprica Six did not seem as clued in as her. I'm not sure if any other episode has thrown out quite as many clues about the cylons. Even though I had suspected D'anna to be a cylon all the way through, there was something in her mannerisms, the ending has really given me a lot to think about. And we now know they identity of half the cylons.

Rew

Didnt see this thread (due to the crappy nameing ) so I may as well repost what I put in the other thread:

Good episode great too have a new

cylon revealed!

When watchin the footage of the marines fireing at the crowd did anyone else think that i looked like the

footage was through the eys of a cylon as opposed to through the lens of a camers...??

As well as that she is a bit ctrptic about the source of the footage... Probably nothing.

Stark

While she probably had a less showy plan in place to transmit the finished article back she had to do something to get the Sharon footage out as soon as possible. As it was possible that Adama would discover she still had footage, she arranged for the cylons to simulate an attack. Then she managed to get the information to them and they passed it on before they were destroyed.

My point was if she could signal the raiders to come close, why not just transmit the information to them without them coming closer?

iguana

Stark wrote:

My point was if she could signal the raiders to come close, why not just transmit the information to them without them coming closer?

I'm suspecting she had some sort of pre-arranged emergency signal that could transmit a small message like "now" over the distance but not a large file such as the footage of pregnant Sharon. She had the emergency signal in case she got caught out so she could get them to come close enough for a full download.

madrab

i find it interesting that

six wanted baltar to go on the broadcast & assert himself(?) but d'anna didnt want him on it at all, wierd, descention in the ranks?

spooydermot

i think there might be a hint of battlestar 6 perhaps having her own adgenda, also she seems to be very interested in experiencing love, but unable to do so unlike some of the other cylons

MisterAnarchy

Probably one of the poorest episodes of the show so far.
I liked the twist though.
However one thing is baffling me.
Why doesnt Adama ask Boomer what the remaining Cylon models look like,as she most likely knows ?
Is he afraid she will lie to him ,surely Baltar's test would clarify this ?

Rev Hellfire

Dont forget that they believe that Baltars test doesnt work.

As for G Six, it certainly is starting to look more like she is working to her own agenda, assuming Baltar himself isnt a cylon which would explain the existance of his very own personal six ( which I personally hope he's not ), the show seems to be assigning a certain supernatural characteristic to to her.

I'm just wondering has anyone seen anything to date which would point to the cylon actually been aware of baltars six ?

The Corinthian

A poor episode as it was primarily meant as a bit of a ‘filler’ and only the last 54 seconds were relevant to the overall story arc.

Nonetheless in these last 54 seconds, there were a few interesting observations to be made:

* As has been mentioned, the introduction of a new Cylon model as well as the fact that a copy of this model is presently loose and undetected on Galactica.

* The Caprica-based Boomer’s comment that “I’m still alive! She’s still alive!” is interesting as seems that there may be some ambiguity in the individuality of Cylons.

* The Cylons know where the fleet is; leading us to ask why they haven’t just wiped it out? (the presence of the pregnant Boomer might explain why this is so now, but why not before?)

* Question: The Xena-Cylon knew the child had survived - how, given she’d only managed to grab a few seconds of footage before being bundled off?

Rev Hellfire

* Question: The Xena-Cylon knew the child had survived - how, given she’d only managed to grab a few seconds of footage before being bundled off?

Given that she was in the medic bay, its quite likely she would have been aware of what happening with the big emergancy there at the time. She was still there when the footage was taken from her by adama

jor el

Rev Hellfire wrote:

Dont forget that they believe that Baltars test doesnt work.

Not anymore. Baltar said he could fix the test using the Boomer beta-data. We can assume they now believe in the test or else the Chief would have been dumped out of an air lock by now.

As for G Six, it certainly is starting to look more like she is working to her own agenda, assuming Baltar himself isn't a Cylon which would explain the existence of his very own personal six ( which I personally hope he's not ), the show seems to be assigning a certain supernatural characteristic to to her.

I'm just wondering has anyone seen anything to date which would point to the cylon actually been aware of baltars six ?

None of the other Cylons have ever made any indication that they are aware of the cylon in Baltar's head.

I'd also say that Six definitely has her own agenda. Each time the issue of love or the baby comes up, any of the real-life sixes (as opposed to the one in Baltar's head) have a habit of turning away from the others and sneaking out a quick tear. She is the one who wants to be pregnant but obviously that wasn't the Cylon master plan. She wasn't to be in love but Sharon was chosen instead. Perhaps none of the other Cylons are even aware that the baby is hers and Baltars, if indeed it actually is. Maybe six is a bit of a bunny-boiler?

Anyway, as for not destroying the fleet, I thought it was obvious that the Cylons want the fleet to survive, for the moment anyway. It serves a purpose, to find earth. Then they can move on all of the humans at once.

MisterAnarchy wrote:

Why doesnt Adama ask Boomer what the remaining Cylon models look like,as she most likely knows ?

I don't think Baltar told anyone of his little Q&A session with the first Galactica Sharon. Hence, no one else is aware that the current Sharon can reveal the identity of the other Cylons. Though you'd imagine they would be at least questioning her and perhaps using her baby as leverage if she's not forthcoming with answers.

As for communications, it's fairly obvious that the Cylons can't transmit information to the others until they die. That's why none of the others knew Sharon was aboard Galactica. And at great distances, that information may not get transmitted at all. They may be aware of each others presence when in close proximity though. As in this episode the Zena-cylon knew to go to sick bay when Sharon was there.

Johnny Storm

Just about an OK episode.
Balthar was very funny but not in it much. Tigh was cool as always - wspecially when he was confronting the guy with the gun.
I couldn't believe Adama fell for the age-old I've got the real tape down my bra trick, FFS! That was so obvious.
I liked the use of the origianal series music in the mini-series and I like the way they only used it that one time and so kept it special so to speak. But this was not the episode to bring it out for only the second time. They did start off the theme in quite a subtle way and they should have left it at that but then I felt they over-played their hand.

Oh well, every ep can't be great - bring on next week!

savemejebus

2 quick spoilerific questions:

1) Do you think that the "We're in" Xena whispered to her cameraman when they got to the bridge has any more "significant" meaning or was just reporter getting a story crap

2) If she called in raiders to relay the signal to the rest of the cylons then how did she get the full program out afterwards? I doubt that in the state of war they are in that the fleet would be broadcasting tv programs with such strength that the cylons could pick them up?

CuLT

You know, shame on me, I didn't even realize it was Lucy Lawless.