Yes and yes. A brilliant and terrible moment, and beautifully acted.

I guess she just wanted to go out happy, while she still could...

Especially by Jen Halley (Seelix), whose reaction felt very, very real. Gah.

There's an interview up with Kandyse McClure about her feelings exiting the show at SciFi Wire. Good stuff.

MASSIVE SPOILERS! (Fo shizz)

Yes indeed!

I'm torn as to whether I want to read that or not. Spoilers are sometimes fun, but I'm enjoying the suspense of not knowing too. Gah.

You're bloody good.

Still confused after that. People just stand around being broody and not talking to or shouting at each other. That might feel gritty and serious for Sci-Fi, but that doesn't make it good.

Can we unspoil now it's been on US and UK TV?

Why did Adama say the dead people on earth were humans and not Cylons, a lie to protect the crew? And how they hell are they Cylons anyway? Why the hell is Starbuck dead 2000 years ago?

I'm sure most of this will be answered, but I was expecting things to kick off with some answers, not more of the same.

Technically, though, we did get some answers. We got a huge one with Ellen, even though it's part of a larger mystery that remains to be solved. And with respect to Starbuck, I don't think they're implying that her body has been there 2000 years like everyone/everything else, but rather that she very recently crashed there after blowing up in the nebula. Still a major WTF, but a minutely more plausible one.

Like I said, they have their work cut out for them in nine remaining eps. I would imagine they can work it out if they keep the filler to a minimum, preferably of "none." (We can't afford another episode where Helo battles bad Dr. Bruce Davison over the Christian Scientists in space.)

did we though?

it looks like starbuck, as well as tigh, ellen, chief and the pyramid player, who's name i forget, have all been there before. i'm not sure it's going to be that simple and wonder if the fifth is going to be something all together bigger, conceptually speaking...



all of this has happened before and will happen again.

you are the harbinger of death, kara thrace - you will lead them all to their end..

i'm predicting some time travel, with thrace inadvertently ending the series in a way that sets things up to start all over again...

Yes, we did.

In subsqeuent interviews following the airing of the back-end season premiere, Eick and Moore have confirmed that Ellen is the fifth Cylon. Not just wishful thinking on Saul's part. Storyline hints have indicated that someone thought dead would return in the final episodes, and it's more than likely her (and not Zac Adama, as some suggested, which really would be reaching pretty far back. )

Like I mentioned in response to Adam's post, there's always a chance I'm wrong, but I would bet serious money that the crashed Viper that Kara found is NOT meant to imply that she was there 2000 years ago with the others. Rather, that when she flew into the storm and exploded, her charred remains were somehow warped into Earth orbit where she crashed, on the present-day Earth, yet somehow a duplicate Kara with memories of a beautiful Earth that she flew by and took pictures of turns up back in the nebula. Still really, really weird and demanding an explanation, but I doubt this one involves the passage of time (well, outside of the 2 months that Anders told her she was gone between going "kaboom" and returning.)

On another note, spoilers ahoy, but a good read:
Is Battlestar Galactica relevant in the Obama era?
A lot of interesting ideas kicked around, good fodder for debate.

Whoa.

Seriously. Awesome. Episode.

Best episode yet.

And that was just at the halfway point!

Yeaaaaaah. Shit, meet fan.

Gaeta, while a bummer, at this point seems totally logical in his actions... but WTF, Seelix? Just because Anders wouldn't give you some lovin? Okay, fair enough, she seemed like she kind of cracked when Dee was bleeding out in her arms, but still. And I guess they figured they'd play fair and decent once Cain was out of the way, but was I the only one kind of skeeved out to realize that there were still Pegasus rapists on the ship?

Baltar was my fave in this ep, he seems good and ready to put the harem behind him and start really redeeming himself; the look he gave Kool-Aid girl to get her to back off of Roslin was priceless. (Although Laura gets full credit for the line about "I was sort of counting on your extensive capabilities for self-preservation" or whatever it was. Tee hee.) And his attempt to get Gaeta to back off was excellent. (And as Jacob rightly pointed out in the recaplet, the best part of that was Felix's "My ex won't stop calling me" face. Classic.)

I take it back, Kara being back in "fuck all of y'all" ass-kicking mode was my favorite. Finally.

That, was fantastic.

So say we all.

Now that was a good episode (directed by John Dahl I noticed - the man behind Red Rock West and Last Seduction. Alas, no shagging against fences)

Agreed! I know it couldn't be that action-packed all the time but it stood out head-and-shoulders above all the talky-talky of the last two seasons.

I have two episodes left of the first half of season 4 which I shall be watching this weekend, and then I can catch up on my Sky+'ed episodes of the second half so far. Who knows, I may actually be up to date just in time for the finale!

Hee, that was funny. It's also been pretty funny watching this with Bronagh at the moment, not that I am immune to the drama & of course am enjoying it thoroughly, she is totally freaking out about Bill Adama.
I think she thinks he's her real Dad.

Amazingly tense stuff.

Kara in full on mode, killing arseholes and snogging Lee. She's wonderful.

And I'm loving Bill and Rosalind's fuck y'all attitude to their relationship.

ETA oops! Sorry to anyone I've spoilered. Thanks for the heads up Rua.

Nice one. No worries dude. It's not much that you're saying really, but best to let folk find out themselves.

Whoa.

That will be all.

Another cracking episode. I really loved the way they wrapped up Gaeta and Zarick's stories the way they did. And did anyone see the trailer for next week? Whoa.

It was rather good wasn't it. Didn't see the teaser for next week though. If it's even half as good as this mini-arc has been then it'll be awesome squared.

Grrrr, I was hoping to be up to date and enjoy joining in on discussions etc but I went to watch the episode you are all talking about up there and it was shaping up to amazing when the whole thing starting juddering and the sound quality went. Bloody snow has frakked up the recording so I'll have to download it on SkyPlayer tonight. Annoying doesn't come into it.

Still, I am now closer to being up to date than ever before, less than a week behind the rest of you.

That happened during broadcast & I'm with Virgin. It was annoying.

How long did it last because we didn't want to fast forward and check in case it ruined anything...actually, thinking about it I deleted it in anger last night so never mind.

We got juddering too. It stopped after a while. Made them all sound like Cylons. Huh.

Beware the Judder Man.

I have just Eps 12 and 13 to catch up with now. Anticipation set to 'maximum'.

That was great. Not as good as last weeks, but still wrapped up everything nicely with all the top characters acting bad ass, some humorous moments & with some great cheesy lines to boot.

Chief endlessly crawling through air vents & the like, & just generally being in perpetual motion for the entire episode was really funny.

I haven't enjoyed a series like this in a good long while.

Teh Chiefs is ace.

Poor, silly Gaeta. He was just a grumpy cos he had an itchy sore stump. A nice soft cloth to line his plastic leg and he'd've been best friends with everyone.

Laura's fury was awesome! I'd shit my pants if she shouted at me like that!.

And I adored the scene of Adama marching to the bridge to take back his ship, with a whole crowd of Galactians following on behind. You really can believe they'd follow him into hell if he needed it.

Yes. I like the way he did that without a gun, for most of the way.

Right? How many lives would have been saved if they'd just taken the time to find that boy a good analgesic cream. Cottle could have phoned in a few favors if need be, and he'd save himself a lot of work in gunshot wounds to boot.

I am now up to date after a late night last night of catching up on the last two episodes. They were amazing although I'm in the same boat as Rua watching it with Sarah except it was her Felix love that meant she was in tears after the second episode ended. It took all my effort not to outright mock her for it as she sobbed, "poor Felix, he didn't deserve that." It's going to be strange now not being able to watch the next episode whenever I feel like it but at least its only for a few more episodes. Roll on Tuesday!

I watched "No Exit" twice last night.

Like, woah. That was a lot to download.

Well. I'm not sure I saw any of that coming.

I wonder if Ron Moore did, at the start...

Judging from his commentary in the enhanced version on SciFi.com, No. Some of it, but certainly not all of it. For example, Daniel the Seven was clearly written in as a way to explain the fact that they'd written themselves into a plot hole by making Sharon an Eight.

Well, given that originally Helo was going to be a redshirt, dying on Caprica and never being seen from again you really have to wonder how much they're just making up as they go along. Which is impressive as it all seems to be rigorously thought out and plotted in advance. Something the Lost and Heroes writers could probably take lessons in.

I think that's true to a certain degree of just about every show, no one can have every little detail planned out in advance. (And that has happened with some characters in other shows - they were going to kill off Carol Hathaway in the ER pilot but everyone liked Julianna Margulies so much that they let her survive her suicide attempt.) But yes, in genre shows it pays to at least have the crux of your mythology planned out if you're going to bother to have a mythology at all, and I think BSGs was probably better drawn out than most but not without some stuff that they allowed themselves to shape on the fly. Aims probably changed a great deal in S3 once they realized the next season would be their last; when they started out, maybe they were aiming for more like five or six years in which to play everything out.



Oh, I'd say the Lost crew have tightened the reigns considerably over the last two seasons in anticipation of their sign-off date, they seem to have a definite end game in mind now. As for Heroes... yes, they could use a significant re-education.

That was excellent. I'll be honest, I didn't know how they were going to be able to wrap it all up in a satisfactory way but last nights episode really started to give us some answers and set us on the road for the end. I didn't see any of it coming but I'm really happy with it and it all makes sense with hardly any Deus Ex Machina. I did like the whole brain trauma stretching out of giving away all of the answers in one go but was happy to get a massive chunk of information in one go.

Infodump! It felt a little bit rushed to blurt out so much in only one episode. And it took me a while (talking through it with Ellie who had watched twice already!) to wrap my head around the timeline. It has never felt as directionless as 'Lost', but it would be interesting to know how much of this was planned or retro-fitted.

My main questions now are:

Who is the 13th Cylon, Daniel?

Did the 13th colony, who discovered Earth after founding the temple, comprise of Cylons and Humans?

And is there a time-travel phenomenon yet to be revealed - one which enabled Starbuck to 'crash' and 'die' on Earth a long time ago?

I'm now wondering if 13 Cylon models- one dead, 13 colonies, one lost, and wasn't there something about 13 lords of Kobol as well? has any significance. Or maybe the writers just like the number 13 a lot.

Weren't the 12 colonies - named after signs of the Zodiac - in the original series? I guess having mysterious #13s is a way of surprising everyone.

I was thinking that maybe the number of colonies and the number of Cylons are in some way connected, with each of the Cylons in some way representing one of the colonies. It would kinda fit in some ways, particularly with the dead Cylon model and Earth being dead. Or maybe I'm just reading too much into something simple.

I'd like a Blake's 7 ending.

I've always thought it was deliberate, but whether it will be significant remains to be seen.

I'm not sure how I WANT it to end. It feels like forever since a show I have watched from the beginning is actually ending of its own accord, with relatively few problems along the way.

That's pretty much how I feel, too. I'd like to see certain characters have some kind of hopeful resolution, while others I'm sure won't be so lucky... still, I'm pretty open to anything so long as it feels earned.

And I'm back to loathing SciFi Channel, as they have decided not to make the last five episodes available to stream until a week after air. Which means I missed "Deadlock" and will have to go back and watch it later. Bastards.