12.31.2008

PIECING THE PUZZLE - XENO's PARADOX

[Spoilery, so read at your own risk] Quite a bit of information has trickled out over time regarding the final episodes of Battlestar Galactica, some official from the Sci-Fi clue site and the trailers they've shown in heavy rotation, and some as spoilers from a variety of sources on the web. If we think of them as puzzle pieces we can begin to see how it all fits together.

We know that Zarek will launch a coup and will likely be killed and take a lot of people with him. Gaeta is very likely not the final Cylon and seems to make a bad choice in aligning with Zarek and may end up dead or at least ostracized. There may be three factions, not just two: Zarek followers, Baltar followers, and those loyal to Adama and his rebel Cylon alliance.

Dualla takes on a larger role based upon images we've seen and what some have reported are her family's ties to the Adamas - and she is dressed in a more elegant fashion, perhaps because she is the 5th, and the Cylon wardrobe closet has her size in chic garments?

Tigh is uncomfortable, as always, and marches into the sea (perhaps a nod in reference to the god Poseiden?). There are flashbacks to earlier times on Caprica - Tigh and Adama at a strip club no less - where Ellen and Six are both present (is it a dream, did it really happen?). Tigh and Adama have another liquored up manly tiff - didn't they do this already? Tigh pulls a gun this time but of course doesn't shoot.

There are shootouts and people die and are maimed: Doral takes a head-shot on the Galactica and likely expires, and Helo looks like he loses a leg (Is Gaeta responsible? Forwarding the bad karma after Anders shot him on the Demetrius?) and possibly bleeds out and dies.

Tyrol sees the past by touching the wall of the Temple of Aurora and says, "I remember everything," and this seems to mean he walked Earth before it was a bombed-out wasteland and was possibly there for, or even responsible for its destruction.

So far Tory has not been foreshadowed for the final episodes, so she may not last long either.


Anders, Leoben and Lee all still orbit Kara as love-interests, and Lee fights alongside her at least a couple of times, but she no longer owns his heart it seems. Leoben goes with Kara on a walk and they find her (A: original dead body, B: original Viper wreckage, C: a lovely field of Morel mushrooms), Leoben still loves her, but since this is a surprise to him, perhaps he did not save her from her death in the Vortex and did not clone her. Who did? Kara is ostracized even more once the whatever is found by she and Leoben on crispy Earth (as a clue video clip has a Pegasus pilot hating on her for not being human).

D'Anna we have learned will be left behind on the burned out Earth. This will be interesting. Why would she relinquish power now that she's free from being boxed?

Head-Six returns but for how long? In the deleted scenes from Season 4, Part I they were going to fade her out before one of Baltar's religious speeches doing the Jesus allegory thing (Horrors! Talk about sacrilege). Poor Tricia Helfer had to wear that skimpy red dress on the cold outdoor beach location in Canada for Head-Six's reappearance. The character has said she's an angel again and again, and she did physically pick Baltar up after a corridor beat-down.

Cavil will no doubt try to hunt down the humans and maybe the Betrayer Sharon of the webisodes has led him to the fleet with her fiberoptic wire-into-the-hand routine? Cavil is the "Keeper of the keys," according to series creator Ron Moore and he figures prominently in the post-series movie The Plan. Head-Six is seen in front of a newstand in modern New York City (pre-blast I'm guessing).

Simon the Cylon gets a part in one show sounds like, but probably only to be killed. Anders will be featured prominently in the post-series movie The Plan which will focus in part on his days as a sports celebrity on Caprica (expect some skin Trucco-lovers). Doc Cottle no doubt treats more wounded and dying and has more gruff remarks. Ellen makes an appearance - perhaps only in flashback. Roslin takes a mega-dose of Kamala and sees the truth of it all and it makes her go blind (possibly), and she seems to end up back on the rebel Base Ship on that smooth sleeping slab (or couch thingy) after having been back on the Galactica and possibly incarcerated. Roslin is seen laughing/crying in the fountain at Citywalk Market on Caprica where Six and Baltar had that fateful meeting prior to Six meeting an unseen associate and saying, "It's about time."

Adama is on the march with Marines and weapons - probably to put down the coup in at least one instance. Very probably Zarek's coup works for a while but Kara, Lee, Helo, Adama, Roslin and others (including Cylons) overcome it and this is when Roslin shouts "I'm coming for all of you," and Adama is seen blindfolded in an air-lock.
There is the possibility that Earth is not Earth, as in their haste to find that signal Kara's Magic Viper is picking up, they went to the wrong planet around a nearby star but which is close enough that Gaeata's reading of the constellation star patterns lined up anyway.

Tyrol is going to kill somebody - the knife in the Last Supper image tells us this ... will it be one of the hybrid Cylon children - Hera or his own boy?

Visually Sci-Fi has teased Helo, Lee, Dualla, Gaeta, and Roslin as the Final Cylon (and a few others), and SyFyPortal claims they've known fo'eva who the 5th is, and only teased five names (of course): Roslin, Gaeta, Ellen, Lee and Cally (!?). Ron Moore says the 5th is not in the Last Supper image, and Roslin's image was altered once to color-match the burning pot of Kamala to her charcoal grey suit, and in the 7th clue on the Sci-Fi clue site they have now removed Roslin from the Last Supper image. The actors have almost all raved that the ending is great, and it is an ending, but Moore has cautioned that it is an ending that is somewhat open-ended and leaves room for doubt. The key character to emerge is likely to be Xeno Fenner and I expect the ending to reference Xeno's Paradox in explaining the repeating cycles of time.

On IMDB the cast lists for the episodes give some clue as to what will happen: 11-Sometimes A Great Notion - no guest stars 12-A Disquiet Follows My Soul - no guest stars 13-The Oath - no guest stars 14-Blood On the Scales - no guest stars 15-No Exit - Nowart - Colin Corrigan 16-Deadlock - Nowart - Colin Corrigan 17-Someone To Watch Over me Tracey Ann - played by Leela Savasta (Road Less Travelled and Escape Velocity) 18-Marine Nathanson - Curtis Caravaggio, Zak Adama - Tobias Mehler, Tracey Ann - Leela Savasta 19- Marine Nathanson - Curtis Caravaggio, Crewman Specialist Prosna - Michael Eklund, Rafferty - Patrick Gilmore, Tracey Ann - Leela Savasta, Zak Adama - Tobias Mehler, Captain Sarah Alchemer (Jacqueline Ann Steuart) 20--Everyone in the Last Supper image is listed, as are Dualla, Gaeta, Tory, and Police Officer(Stefanie Samuels), Xeno Fenner (David Patrick Green),Captain Sarah Alchemer (Jacqueline Ann Steuart), Zak Adama (Tobias Mehler), Nowart - Colonial Marine (actor Colin Corrigan), Captain Doyle Franks - Susan Hogan (wife of Michael Hogan ... was in Crossroads Pts I and II), Judge #2 (from Crossroads) - actor William Samples

12.30.2008

CLUE 15 & ROSLIN TRAILER

15. Audio Clip: Gaeta: "We're communicating with Colonial One" Adama: "Let's hear it" Lee: "What do you want Gaius?" [Much high-rate interference - sounds like computer language] Baltar: "...If you feel [inaudible] ... stop this madness ... our little secret ... If you hunger for redemption I'll lead the way ... Felix, please listen to me" - message cut off. Seems to be from the Zarek coup subplot.

[Revised: 1/1] There has also been released a new set of teasers, but the one with Roslin is the good one: We see Roslin holding a plant on crispy "Earth" and pondering that, yes, things grow there. It is Roslin burning the pages of the book of the Old Gods and crying, and we are told she's, "lost her faith." Then images from the Opera House vision/dream and Roslin walks deliberately one way, Hera another with a voiceover saying she's "haunted by something in her past."

12.28.2008

FINAL CYLON *SPOILER*

The image says it all. Roslin is the 5th. Baltar makes the next best choice. Then Dualla. Even though the webisodes pretty much vetoed Gaeta's chances, he's still more likely than any other lesser characters. My January 2008 post on this blog predicted Roslin or Baltar. The only two likely candidates from SyFyPortal's list of five candidates were Roslin and Gaeta, and Gaeta's stock dropped quite a bit after the webisodes.

D'Anna wasn't psyching-out Roslin when she told her she was the Fifth and Final Cylon (after her rescue from being boxed on the Cylon Resurrection Hub). She was fascinated that Roslin didn't know and merely sought to prod her. Only this explains why D'Anna said, "the four in your fleet," once on the Galactica when all along it had been the Five the rebel Cylons were seeking. D'Anna already had Roslin on her damaged Base Ship.

This Kamala-induced vision is probably where Roslin learns the truth about herself. When she does the fleet will most likely divide into two factions as represented by the Last Supper image (one with the book of the Old Gods open the other with the book closed) - putting her at odds with her love Bill Adama.

WEBISODES 6-10 (-9) REVIEWS

Once again Sci-Fi has technically mucked-up their jewel in the crown ... with Amazon posting all the webisodes (but #9) [revised 12/30 - Amazon took them down] here (backup here [scroll down to Post #7]).

EPISODE 6
Hoshi and Racetack on a Colonial Raptor search for our wayward lifeboat with fewer live bodies. Gaeta dreams of recent events, wakes to find sweet Sharon has untied herself and tells her he was going to untie her anyway. He gives her the scalpel he's hidden away and with the others still asleep she slices open her hand and he inserts the blue-flashing wire (complete with moans to complete the stupid sexual penetration metaphor). Cable laid, Sharon projects - flashing back to an intimate candle-lit encounter with Gaeta on New Caprica which is crosscut with a real kiss between them in the Raptor, then Sharon intones: "I found it. Memory address 5-A-2-5 ... Get ready for the jump ... Felix, I'm taking us home." Five out of ten Galacticas



EPISODE 7
The Galactica's Raptor is still looking for our lost little Lifeboat. Sharon jumps the lost Raptor with the rest of the crew still asleep (conserving oxygen) and the countdown clock now shows less than 9 hours. Gaeta rushes to wake Finn and Esren(?) but they be dead, having had their throats slit in Grand Guignol style. It's looking like our sweet little Sharon is perhaps Sweeney Todd Sharon (or crazy-in-love-stalker-to-Gaeta-Sharon) and he looks to her with a Oh-no-you-dint look and she gives him an Oh-yes-I-did look back. Five out of ten Galacticas.


EPISODE 8
This episode could be titled "Betrayal" or "Felix Pulls Out." Racetrack and Hoshi are still searching for Gaeta and the lifeboat Raptor, and Racetrack tries to talk Hoshi into abandoning the search since they are just jumping randomly in hopes of finding it. Hoshi has an introspective moment and there is a momentary flash of the murdered Esren and Finn (is Hoshi psychic or gimmicky editing?). Cut back to Felix Gaeta in a panic over the dead all around him. "Sweet" Sharon tells him "I picked you over my own kind, over my own model ... I did what you couldn't do," "We needed the air." He looks at her with horror - how could she kill so easily? Flashback to Felix sleeping after sex with Sharon on New Caprica and she passes off a note to another Sharon and says "Kill them all." That note of names we saw earlier in the webisodes. Back on the Raptor the horror of it all settles in - Gaeta got played. [Prediction: this Sharon is a Boomer Sharon and is trying to find Cavil, not the fleet] Eight out of ten Galacticas.



EPISODE 9 (Coming)
... for some reason this ep isn't up yet on Amazon but Gaeta and Betrayer Sharon fight to the death and guess who wins ...

EPISODE 10
No countdown clock, so it must be down to the final minutes. Gaeta seems all alone and is now covered in blood - so did he kill Sweeney Sharon? Gaeta finds his morph pack and has 2 doses left and shoots up again into that red hole in his elbow crease. Panting, crying and sad, he pulls out the other syringe dose (a lethal amount as foreshadowed earlier) and hesitates ... he sings that song again and in his delirium he barely notices the light from a vessel jumping into his Raptor's zone. Hoshi and Racetrack have found him - the sole survivor (Betrayer Sharon must have been offed in a fight in ep 9). Crossfade to Gaeata on stretcher being wheeled into the medical bay. He's got some 'splainin' to do. We do a camera pan across the fleet to the Galactica - and back inside C&C Tigh tells Gaeta strange things can happen at sea (Poseiden would know wouldn't he?) and says the Old Man (Adama) isn't inclined to look into the issue lest he risk the alliance with the rebel Cylons. Gaeta quietly but sternly protests that there shouldn't be an alliance and says he wants to meet with Adama directly - Tigh says he can talk to him at a meeting later that day. Shortly after Hoshi approaches him in a corridor and it is implied that Gaeta will seek out Zarek and instigate or help in Zarek's coup efforts to come. Four out of ten Galacticas.

In total these webisodes didn't lend much to the overall story. They didn't even serve as filler, coming so close to the return of the series.

12.26.2008

CLUE 14 and NEW TRAILERS

14.Video Clip: Adama enters his quarters in a hurry, takes a drink, washes his face, looks in the mirror and catches the reflection of something that horrifies him. He turns abruptly and looks up at the wall near the ceiling - there is a huge tear. Is it a metaphor for the ship coming apart at the seams? A representation of the wear-and-tear on this vessel after several years without dry-dock and a refit? Is it indicative of his pschological state? All three? [Galactica is falling apart yet Zephyr gets rebuilt?]
Sitrep has a couple new trailers posted and what's new is Tigh walking into the water (Neptune?), and Roslin appears to go blind and is apprehended. The Last Supper Image shows Roslin and Adama on opposite sides of the table, Roslin's faction with the Book of the Old Gods closed, Adama's with the Book open. The Roslin clip starts with her burning Kamala and reading again the prophecy of Pythia (or it is her hand tearing pages from the book as seen in earlier trailers).

12.24.2008

WEBISODE 5 - REVIEW

Much better. Leather Sharon is given the heave-ho (see booty-licious CGI version below), and the countdown clock ticks away, 16 hours ... Gaeta looks around, he's in pain, everyone else is asleep. He pulls out the Morphine that his boyfriend Hoshi gave him prior to his departure and shoots up in a rough-and-ready red spot in the crease of his arm. Nice Sharon sneeks a peek. Crossfade to countdown clock and now 4 hours have gone by and Gaeta wakes up and nice Sharon wakes up and she suggests the old stick-the-wire-into-the-Cylon-palm trick to find out their exact location and has an eXacto-knife in hand when Gaeta notices the murderous red-shirt isn't moving and tries to wake him (which wakes the other sleeping crewmembers) - a couple needles fall from redshirt (he shot-up Gaeta's stash! ... or did he?). ... Immediately the helmeted Raptor pilots accuse nice Sharon of killing him (he was a red-shirt after all, so, yes, he's dead Jim) and Sharon is tied up (but I think she kinda likes it). So the lifeboat gets a little lighter and suspicions get a little thicker. Seven out of ten Galacticas.