All along the watchtower princes kept the view
While all the women came and went, barefoot servants too
Outside in the distance a wild cat did growl
Two riders were approaching, the wind began to howl
So. Yeah.
Ze mind, she is blown.
I should have expected something like this. Well, really, all you can expect from BSG season finales is the unexpected. Things change, secrets are revealed, it’s all exciting and scary and awesome, and the best you can do is go with the flow. And then, once you’ve watched it a couple more times, try to make some sense of it all.
Okay, so first things first: there was supposed to be a Big Reveal in this ep. Namely, we’d get to see the Final Five. Did we? I’m still not 100% convinced. Sure, there’s something screwy going on with Tori, Anders, Tigh and Tyrol. They’re definitely connected somehow (to each other and to the Nebula, since they only started hearing the music when the fleet got close), but it doesn’t follow they’re Cylons. After all, in the BSG universe psychic powers exist, with prophecies and various flavours of ESP from oracles and sacred Scriptures. Plus, Tigh predates the creation of human-form Cylons. So even though they are convinced they’re Cylons, I’m just saying there could be alternative explanations—even though Ron Moore himself said there aren’t, so there goes that theory.
I still want to hear the real explanation. I’ve got vague theories that the Final Five are incorporeal Cylons, existing as pure information on the boundary between life and death, and are somehow taking over—or at least sharing—these four human minds. That for some reason they went rogue and wanted to live among humans, which was such a betrayal that the other seven models refused to ever speak of them again. And unlike the known seven Cylons, there are no duplicates of the Five. Each model is alone, unique. This philosophical difference, of duplication vs non-duplication, may have been a part of the rift that caused the Five to leave or be kicked out. This would also explain why Cylons never recognized Tigh et al. as their own. Or, maybe they deliberately erased all knowledge of them, including their appearance, except for the simple fact of their existence, from their own memories. Which I guess you can do if you’re a machine, though it seems a wee bit extreme.
Roslin, now… what about Roslin? She’s sharing dreams with Sharon, Six and Hera. All three women are connected to the child in different ways. Sharon is her birth mother, Six is her godmother/adoptive mother (maybe), Roslin has some of her blood flowing in her veins. But she—along with Sharon and Six—was also affected by the nebula’s proximity, though in different ways from the other four “Cylons.” What if Roslin is the fifth of the Final Five? Wouldn’t that be a kick in the head?
Starbuck’s alive? And she’s been to Earth? And she’ll lead the fleet there? I’ll just squeak out a feeble “What the frak?!?” because… yeah. I got nothing.
Where’s Earth supposed to be, anyways? The final shot shows the fleet and the Cylons to be deep in a galaxy that looks a lot like the Milky Way, and the Earth to be in a small satellite galaxy like the Magellanic Clouds. Huh. Well, no big deal. Let’s just say it’s a different universe, and leave it at that.
But will I really have to wait until 2008 to see how this all plays out? Two thousand fucking eight? Are you kidding me? Sigh. Well, I guess I’ll have time to buy the DVDs and watch them over and over and over…