BSG - Damn

BSG's finale was Friday.

As expected, it dealt heavily in spirituality, cycles of life, and individual relationships. It also involved a good deal of introspection and recollection. Oh, and giant space battles.

I've seen a bunch of critiques along the line of "loved the first half, hated the second." To them I say - it's a shame your brain doesn't work.

Okay, spoilers from here on out. You've been warned.

The first half was the climax. The second half was the denouement that any work requires to be complete. We've spent 4 seasons with these characters, and I think giving them 40 minutes or so to reflect on their lives and plan their futures is well-deserved and brings an excellent sense of closure to the series.

The first half doesn't actually warrant too much discussion. It was an episode. A very good one, but nothing much beyond the usual quality of the series. An obviously bigger budget, and a few retrospective moments that filled in holes. That's not to say it didn't have some memorable parts.

Athena talking to Boomer in the Baseship, and Starbuck's "can we please not tell her the plan?" line was great. I love these little twists of the convention where characters actually realize how idiotic a particular action would be.

Boomer's rationale for returning Hera was also interesting to me. While it might seem trite that she "owed one" to the Old Man, it speaks to Boomer's storyline more deeply than that. You have to go back to the first season and her anguish over realizing what she was, and how devastated she was to have nearly killed Adama, who she very much considered a father figure. The brief flashback filled in the final piece, and made the choice of where her loyalities were clear.

Baltar choosing to stay with the fleet as his one selfless act was also cheered. My friend instantly dubbed Lee Adama the most powerful man in the universe for being able to convince Gaius to do that. Lee simply tossing Baltar the gun was a nice touch too. No thank you, no good job, just acceptance without question.

I also like that they cleared up my question of "what happens if they don't return?" Admiral Hoshi is a bit silly, but President Lampkin was inspired.

The false peace and promise of resurrection worked well enough as a MacGuffin to Tyrol discovering what Tory's role in Callie's death. The chief strangling his once-lover to death and nobody stepping in to stop him was well-done. Cavil's suicide was somehow fitting and humourous. He'd realized his last hand had played out and that he'd lost. His was a final act of his free will, and a middle finger to the face of his creators.

I do wonder though - why did Galactica jumping while embedded in the colony not cause more damage to the Cylons? Boomer jumping in a raptor NEAR Galactica caused a huge amount of damage... a Battlestar doing the same should be severe.

I love how they managed to keep things mildly ambiguous at the end. Was Kara an angel as well? Were Six's Baltar and Baltar's Six angels? Or were they something more? While it seemed obvious on Earth when everyone was splitting up, it was drawn back into question in the epilogue. I didn't catch it until the second viewing, but the discussion between Six and Baltar hinted that maybe they were more than simply messengers.

The discussion of the random events of complex systems over time being part of "God's plan" suggested a few things. It very much had the feeling of the stories of wagers between God and the Devil. Put Six in a red dress, and Baltar in a crisp suit and perhaps the roles become clear. Look back at the series and see how Six seemed to influence Baltar towards his own selfish motivations and how her influence often caused Baltar to endanger all of humanity, and it would appear she was trying to influence her side of the bet this last time around. Baltar's appearances to Six were seldom seen, but when they were, he was comforting and her actions often led towards reconciliation with humanity and the "right" thing. Once the end game had been reached for this round, they backed off. Baltar's speech about God being a force of nature that didn't pick sides, and that good and evil were created by man, not divine beings, mucks of the water a bit more. The final line of "You know he doesn't like that name. Silly me. Silly, silly me." shows a playfulness between them. Especially since Six was glancing below the beltline when she said "God's plan". The more I think of it, the more I think Baltar and Six were more than "angels."

In an odd way, it reminds me of Robert Hewitt Wolfe's original plan for Andromeda, where Trance was a light-bringer, or "Lucifer", but was not the devil. There was no inherent evil, merely an interpretation by humanity. I wonder if this discussion happened a few times between Moore and Wolfe while working on DS9.

So where does that put Kara? There are those who call her an angel as well. There are those who suggest that mantle was only taken when she returned. An absent father, a spiritual mother, a life of confusion, service, sin, and redemption. Saviour and destroyer both, she was literally resurrected. She had a destiny from birth, and the most spiritual of the Cylons saw her for what she was. Hell, her father appeared to her and offered comfort and direction when she was most lost. To say Kara Thrace was the Christ-figure in this allegory wouldn't be far off. In many ways, she was the most human of the cast, and constantly struggled to find herself. She was capable of incredible love and fiery anger, of reckless abandon and steel-eyed resolve. She was flawed, she was human, and in the end, she led humanity to the death of its old ways and hope for the future.

One of my favourite scenes in Dogma is when Rufus gets in Bethany's face during her crisis of faith. He asks how she'd feel if she was a 12-year old boy who just discovered he's the son of God... how long would she think it would take to get over that? How about 18 years? Pointing out the gap in Jesus' life in the Bible. It took Kara 4 seasons to come to grips with her role and find peace, even she wasn't consciously aware of that role until the very end. I think of her much like first season Boomer - a sleeper agent, unaware of her purpose, but with one programmed nonetheless.

This spirituality didn't bother me in the least. Sure, it had strong Christian themes, but I think much of it was broad enough that it spanned the concept of spirituality more than religion specifically.

There were moments of the sublime throughout the ending. Lee and Bill saying goodbye, then Kara saying goodbye to Lee, followed immediately with Roslin dying right next to Bill. The Adamas were completely alone, having lost those who they loved most, and being at peace with that. For in reality, they'd been alone the entire time, only finding those whose company they truly desired near the end of the road.

Anders' farewell to Kara was well done as well, and developed a deeper meaning once Kara disappeared. Seeing Helo alive was a relief as well.

But the most touching moment of the last act had to be Baltar saying, "I know about farming you know..." and breaking down. One line, wonderfully delivered brought his character full-circle, and even further down the road of redemption.

The final homage to the original series was touching as well with the fleet heading into the sun. It's much better than everyone arriving at Earth in 1980, that's for sure.

I also liked most of the ending. One of the complaints I'd seen out there in the past was the fact these humans from another galaxy shared many idioms and cliches with us. Cigars called stogies, curses that were the same, slang that was no different. The ultimate example was of course All Along the Watchtower. I suppose, being the descendants of Cylons (and who's to say that the Sixes, Eights, and Twos didn't procreate? Or maybe Galen got busy with the natives), there could be a form of genetic memory that passed along the concepts that led to this. As was pointed out at the end, we're now close to the same tipping point as Kobol, Caprica, and the original Earth, so the circumstances may be right for these aspects to come to the fore again.

Besides, Hendrix did his cover of Watchtower months after Dylan released it. If only they knew they were covering a song that was over 150,000 years old.

Speaking of Galen - a cold, lonely, hilly island in the highlands up north? So Galen the engineer is the ancestor of all that is Gaelic? Cute.

The epilogue was surprising. Almost as if the powers that be figured it wasn't obvious enough that they were on our Earth and wanted to leave no doubt. A lot was spelled out in those two minutes, which seemed to go against the grain. The Ron Moore cameo was nice though. Ending with Hendrix's Watchtower was a nice touch, but I think the dancing robots went on too long.

All-in-all, I loved it. I thought it was a great send-off to a great series.

Longest Four Seasons Ever

Battlestar Galactica comes to an end on Friday. I think all four seasons took something like 6 years to play out if you include the mini-series. Year long breaks in the middle of seasons are an exercise in patience.

Warning: If you're behind on the series, beyond here be spoilers, and I'm not changing the text colour.




But now they have two hours to explain and resolve a load of stuff. Who is Starbuck? What will become of Anders? Does anybody live? Why is Hera so important? Will there be piece? Will it turn out Cavil is a hologram from the future who's really helping his friend Sam figure out what to do so that his next leap may be the leap home? Why was Ellen so pissed that Tigh slept with a six? She was frakking Cavil on New Caprica.

Anyway, there's loads of speculation out there I'm sure. I haven't really read much. In any other series, one might expect everyone just barely survives and soldiers on, but with BSG, the possibility of 90% of everyone important dying is very likely. There are so few television tragedies these days, that it might be welcome.

I have little original to add to the discussion, but something struck me while I was sitting on the thinking chair. I'll assume the final episode starts with a quick brush off of the fleet, with the quorum in charge and maybe the Basestar as the only means of defence (unless it goes with Galactica. I'm assuming the old girl's going into one last battle). Then comes some strategizing, reminiscing, moral questioning, self-doubt, redemption, and some ass-kicking space battles.

The real question is - who lives and who dies? On a macro scale, do the Cylons die? Do the humans? If the Cylons die, do all of them go? Or just the Cavil-lead ones? Do the original 5 sacrifice themselves?

I only see one reason for staging the final episode on the edge of a black hole's event horizon -- someone's going in. I imagine that somehow, Galactica & crew will get the Cylon fleet over the edge, but may have to sacrifice themselves to do it. Final scene? The Cylons and Galactica getting pulled towards the oblivion. Of course, with Galactica barely holding together as it is, I imagine it may get torn apart.

Another thought - Cylon goop in the bones of the ship... does this mean they maybe don't get recognized by the sensors right away? Or confuse the centurions?

Or maybe it all ends with everyone getting along an discovering that love and faith are truly the answers that will bring peace and prosperity to both races. After all, those have been the primary themes throughout the series... oh, and family.

So Far, So Mediocre

Two BBT4 games down for me so far. So far? Out on hands I play no differently any day of the week. But as always, I can't focus on individual hands for my ousting.

I've been playing far too weak-loose so far. Yesterday's Riverchaser's game was an exercise in doubling up and giving it away, only to double up again. I had almost no follow-up bets, folded far too much to any pressure, and basically played like I was against the bloggers from the first BBT, not the ones who have actually discovered c-bets, turn bluffs, re-raises, and storytelling. I'll have to step it up.

Or stop catching up on Heroes and Dollhouse (two incredibly mediocre items themselves) while playing.

Skillz tonight, but I doubt I'll make it. Mookie tomorrow, and I MIGHT show up for that, but I'll probably be late.

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Heroes - Haven't seen last night's episode yet, but the previous two were two hours of yawn. Hiro discovers he can be a hero without his powers? I think I wrote something about that once. Incredilame. And Mohinder stays behind to bitch at Parkman about stuff? I dunno, if your main objective is to run and hide from people trying to catch you, than maybe going to your home country, where there are over a billion other people and a terribly inefficient government and infrastructure might be an option you'd look at?

And of course, Parkman continues being a dolt. He probes Noah's mind and skips the part where Angela and him come up with a plan to undermine the entire operation? Or was that just Noah blocking it from him? No... Parkman's just a moron. And it should be a surprise to absolutely nobody that Daphne is still alive.

Bah. Lame.

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Dollhouse - I'm an episode behind on this one too. The second episode was better than the first, but was all kinds of uneven in terms of plotting and editing. There MAY be hope for this, but right now it feels far too scattershot to come together cohesively. I think Joss will have another early cancelation on this one, but without the huge DVD sales to save his hide.

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BSG - Well, this is still good TV at least. I seriously question how they can effectively wrap up all the loose ends with only a handful of epsiodes left. There could be some rushing here.

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Jimmy Fallon - One episode, especially when Robert DeNiro is your first guest, isn't enough to go by, but Jimmy better shape up fast or Chevy might get a run for his money on "shortest life of a talk show."

The opening was WEAK. It's like they took Weekend Update's rejected jokes and used them. Plus, Jimmy's eyes never left the cue cards, which was obvious to anyone who was looking in the general direction of the TV.

The stuff with Conan pre-monologue wasn't that bad though. Mostly due to Conan. "Jay isn't leaving." - classic.

Here's the thing, DeNiro and Fallon are obviously at least semi-friends from the handful of stuff they did together on SNL, but Fallon was reacting like he'd never spoken to the guy in his life. Yah, DeNiro is a terrible interview, but Jimmy was sweating buckets... you could almost see the audience in the reflection off his forehad. And the DeNiro "I'm Jimmy Fallon" impression was funny, but lifted directly from when he did it on SNL.

Then Justin Timberlake came on and proved once again that he's just cool. I don't like the guy's music, but if he decided to be a regular cast member on SNL or host his own talk show, I'd watch. He strolls in to the Barry Gibb Talk Show theme (go Roots), instantly puts Fallon at ease, jokes around easily, turns to "Bob DeNiro" and jokes briefly, gets the audience laughing, gets Jimmy being a bit more spontaneous, and generally has a great time and saves the show. If they make it Late Night with Justin Timberlake next week, I wouldn't be all that surprised.

I expect Jimmy will be equally at ease when Tina Fey is on, and maybe less nervous with the other A-minus and B-list celebs he's got this week. There may be hope for him, but he has to relax and find some spontaneity.

As I said on Twitter - not Chevy bad... maybe Sajak bad.

I imagine that Craig Ferguson could see a boost in his ratings.

Monday, WTF?

Where the hell did you come from Monday? It was Friday, like, 2 minutes ago. No fucking way you're already here Monday. WHAT DID YOU DO WITH SATURDAY AND SUNDAY? Oh... right.

Friday - Beer and Robbie Burns and Haggis and Bagpipes and Scotch
Saturday - Venture Bros and Bourbon Sour and Jambalaya and Hangin' out
Sunday - Pants? I don't need no steenking pants! Who needs pants to win a few satellites to the Sunday 750k just for the T$? Oh, and Fajitas and Crème Brûlée ice cream (stage 1).

So, good weekend. Just too fast.

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BSG - Talk about trying to cram as much as they can in 10 episodes. This whole Gaeta thing isn't ringing true. I think the webisodes are key to understanding where this is coming from and where it's going to. Here's hoping the political plot gets resolved quickly or shoved to the background. I'm really quite curious how the whole thing is going to wrap up. Maybe everyone is a Cylon, and they'll all join hands and sing while a rainbow arcs overhead.

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Heroes is back next week with President Worf. So Nathan is now going to round up all the people with powers. Super. If they introduce a Jewish character to smack us over the head with how it's just like Nazi Germany, I might throw up a bit in my mouth. Unless they name him Magneto... then I'll hurl heavy objects at my TV. I mean, they have two Japanese characters on the show (even if only one has powers), so the parallel to WWII Japanese internment camps should be easy enough to draw.

But it does recall the online comic from season 1 or 2, where future Peter rescues Nikki from superhero prisons, that are staffed by people with powers to hold people with powers or something. You know, government-sanctioned Heroes in special forces units vs normal people who don't want to be Government lackeys.

Yah, let's see if they can keep the second half of the season straight. I'll leave most of the vivisection to Goat.

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Superbowl - Man, did I miss on my picks. Steelers vs Cardinals? Whatever. I'll pick the Steelers now, just because Roethlisberger is a fun name to say.

Let's see... Roethlisberger has 14 letters. Warner has 6. That's a difference of 8. So let's say Steelers by 8, in the lamest Superbowl of all-time. Unless I drink too much, in which case it will be the most awesomest Superbowl evah!