BSG: Battlestar Galactica, Daybreak Part 2 (1 of 2)
Caution: spoilers for “Daybreak, Part 2″ (4.20)
I am finally writing up my post-second-viewing report of the Battlestar Galactica series finale. My initial reaction to the episode was not wholeheartedly positive. The second viewing was not as painful because I knew what was coming. I was mentally and emotionally prepared for this type of ending.
One of the great things about this show was that it didn’t stick to the conventions of any one genre or subject matter.
So really, going in, the ending of such a series could have been almost anything.
I, personally, was not prepared for the second half of Daybreak, Part 2. But, just because it isn’t my ending, it doesn’t make it an illegitimate one.
And that’s what I accepted on my second time through. The creators had their vision. It probably meshes with the series as a whole. My preference would have been to go another way with the conclusion, but that’s not my main point of contention.
I didn’t like, in the last forty or so minutes, what felt like a break in tone and structure with the rest of the run. I’ll get to that later.
In the meantime, let’s try to go somewhat in order.
Hour One
The first hour, in my opinion, was extremely well done. Sure I have some nitpicks, but as an action hour—I’m rating it thumbs up.
Roslin and Cottle
I have to single out this beautiful scene. Mary McDonnell, yet once again (c’mon Emmys!), nailed it to the wall. I thought that this was the exit scene for Cottle, and it was just the right note for him too. My first tears of the finale go here.
At this point, I thought we were going to have two entire hours of awesome.
Nitpick: I don’t understand how they can just randomly name a president. Although, Lee’s been randomly president a couple of times so the fleet did set this precedence.
Around the Horn
I loved this sequence. It showed the plan without ten minutes of standing around a model board spewing exposition. It allowed the action to play out and for me to experience the plan in (semi-)real time. Great mood setter as well. Death and destruction are eminent. Got it.
Battle Sequence
Holy cow, that point blank range bombardment was truly horrible and terrifying. It made me want to scream.
Nitpick: The two shown jumps—the Raptors from aboard Galactica and Galactic itself—should have resulted in more damage. After all the trouble they went to to emphasize Boomer’s jump away with Hera, I would have liked to have seem a more consistent presentation on this point.
Racetrack
Man, Racetrack should have stayed in the brig. You don’t get to go in weapons hot without authorization from above. You don’t go in nukes hot in an asteroid field.
Nitpick: What the hell were the eight nukes supposed to do? Did all the other Raptors have nukes too? What if an asteroid hit a Raptor and exploded the weapons. The entire squad would have been wiped out. Pointless part of the plan.
Nitpick: Why were the assault teams not using explosive rounds? They were so effective in that one episode where Centurions boarded Galactica.
Boomer
I don’t remember what happened to Boomer’s family. Why was the service all she had?
I thought Boomer’s end was appropriate. Sometimes life is a series of corridors. You just keep choosing your paths until you run out of choices. Boomer knew where she ended up and that this was her end.
Opera House
The opera house sequence was amazing. I was on the edge of my seat. It was beautiful and felt revelatory.
I really wish Tory had been used more this half season. It seems like the show just gave up on her.
Nitpick: The opera house sequence led us to the CIC showdown. Baltar suggests that God or something fantastic planted signposts and dreams and messengers along the way to lead them all to that moment.
I can buy that. Except—right on the verge of peace, right at the moment of … if not reconciliation than at least détente, a random, entropic quirk of the universe blows it all to hell.
Even if the Cylons didn’t start shooting, Racetrack’s nukes still would have deployed. Galactica still would have had to jump away and the Colony still would have gone into the black hole.
I don’t understand this. Is god not able to foresee this event? Is god cruel enough to lead them all on a mythic quest only to laugh at its pointless end?
Or is it really all about Starbuck? Perhaps it doesn’t matter what the others choose to do. Maybe the real point is to get Hera to (new) earth and to do so, Starbuck needed to get to a place where she had to stop thinking and doubting and just trust her instincts.
I don’t like that I had to stretch so much to get to a sensible resolution that may exist only in my head. For all the prophetic elements acting on all these people, the end result came down to a hunk of rock and a dead person who shouldn’t have had active nukes anyway? Boo!
So yes, I am disappointed in the resolution of this particular over-arching storyline. But, given the overall execution and the emotional trueness of this first hour, I can accept this.
And since this is getting very long, I’ll save Part 2 of my write-up for a different day.
See you on the other side.