THE BIG REVEAL - FINAL CYLON TONIGHT

At long last, the Final Cylon is revealed tonight at the end of the episode according to Ain'tItCoolNews (they got an advance screener with the big moment cut). Gaeta's stock has dropped in the wake of the webisodes. Spoiler chatter have been pushing Ellen into the lead and throwing cold water on Dualla, while Roslin remains a contendah. A couple left-field theories are coming up the outside: Head-Six and Kara's mommy.

*Clues 27, 28, 29 are up [see post below]

FINAL CYLON FRONT-RUNNER

[Super-spoilery ... or Foilery] As the big moment for Battlestar Galactica's return approaches with tomorrow's broadcast premiere of part II of Season 4, a new front-runner has emerged for the Final Cylon (based upon spoilers floating around the internets) ... sources who claim to know are saying it's [highlight for answer] ..... Ellen.

A baffling choice in my view - she frakked Cavil all that time on New Caprica and rather lamely tried to rescue Saul Tigh, her husband, while being used and Cavil never figured it out? If he did, then he is more insidious than we imagined [cue diabolical laugh]. I sure hope this isn't true. If it is, than kudos to Katee Sackhoff for her wonderful acting in this video clip in a below post where she faked revulsion at the idea (it's hard to lie in split-seconds like that).

Like nerdy kids without Prom dates poor Roslin and Baltar would be left to contemplate their own egos if a tart like Ellen is the 5th.

CLUE EXTRAVAGANZA

[Update 1-16] Three of the final four clues are up as of 3pm PST. Here they are:

27. Still Image: Kara (probably - maybe Dee), as a little girl on a red bike - on a photo in a locker door.

28. Still Image: Kara sits at an old beat up piano with a new character and together they play. The guy has reddish hair so it could be Xeno Fenner.

29. Text: A countdown clock, which reads 22:59:44
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The SciFi clue site put up 7, count 'em seven, new clues - all video snippets - today. Mostly more backstory on the Zarek coup and Gaeta's role in it. Here's the breakdown:

20. Video Clip: Kara descends from her Viper in the landing bay to join Adama, Roslin and Lee as they approach a Colonial Raptor that a Sharon (weaing a Cylon flight suit) emerges from - screen goes dark and Roslin says "Oh my god," (singular) ... probably it is the 5th or someone they all thought was dead (Ellen? president Adar?) ... or it is Geata, sent as Zarek's representative after the coup.

21. Video Clip: corridor interactions - 1st, Lee and Adama follow Roslin and Lee tells Roslin that they need to tell the Quorum "something" and that it should come from "their president" (meaning Roslin) - Roslin gives him a blank look and walks on ... 2nd, Tigh approaches Adama immediately after the above and says "Bill, we need to talk," Adama pushes past him, ignoring him, and Tigh continues (to himself) "I've got things I've gotta explain." Michael Hogan does his best lost puppy.

22. Video Clip: Roslin didn't go blind [self-reference to an earlier analysis of an earlier shorter version of this clip] ... on the Hangar Bay a respectful and appreciative crowd is assembled and waiting as a Raptor door opens and Roslin, Adama, and Lee emerge - dressed in combat fatigues. They all look to Roslin. There is some kind of subplot with Seelix and the old dude from the Hangar bay as they get extra screen time - maybe they were traitors but repented? Roslin is taken aback and wants to say something but can't find the words. She whispers to Adama, "Get me out of here," and she marches purposefully through the crowd to an eruption of "Madam president?!" - the people want answers. At the end of the clip a bit of confusion erupts and Roslin is jostled about. This must be after the coup is over they've won - but loyalties were tested.

23. Video Clip: Adama calls Roslin in her quarters on the Galactica but she ignores the phone buzzing. She lays out an array of her medication - piles of pills, ponders them then pushes them off the table, then the bottles as well. Momma ain't gonna take her medicine no more.

24. Video Clip: Roslin and Baltar have a private chat in a storage bay - no doubt being housed there during the Zarek/Gaeta coup. "Who would have thought? You probably knew him better than anyone back on New Caprica," [in reference to Gaeta] says Roslin ... to which Baltar replies, "Obviously, his loyalties were divided even back then ... seems we both made pretty bad choices when it came to our presidential aide d'camps, wouldn't you say?" [his reference is to Tory]

25. Video Clip: More of the annoying Baltar messiah subplot, Baltar screams to a crowd of followers, "It is God himself who should come down here and beg for our forgiveness!" ... which sends the crowd into a frenzy - the crowd including Tyrol and HotDog - who see each other and approach one another through the crowd.


26. Video Clip: Baltar on a Galactica phone - "What do I want? I want this to stop, right now, this is madness." [more Zarek coup subplot probably]

IT'S MORE FUN TO GUESS

The Final Cylon's identity has leaked according to Sitrep, but I won't give it away here. I've made my call. We'll find out in Friday's episode from what the rumor-mill says. For a long time the popular consensus was Gaeta, Kara, Roslin, Zarek, Dualla, Zak Adama in roughly that order ... but in the past couple of days a lot of people now think Head-Six, Zarek, Kara's mom, or the Galactica itself .... hmmm.
Scroll down for Clues 18 & 19

REFLECTIONS IN A CYLON EYE?

Laura Roslin seems to be the front-runner for the Final Cylon. I made that call on this blog a year ago. She is the best choice. Entertainment Weekly seems to be the first place NBC-Universal (SciFi/USA) goes to promo the show and they got the Last Supper image first. EW has Laura as their second most likely choice at 8-1 and she is a fan favorite for the Final Cylon as well.

Many of the new ads (with white backgrounds) have Mary McDonnell as Laura Roslin. On the leaked Amazon free webisodes (before they were taken down) the link button to "Face of the Enemy" was Roslin's image.

This latest image of Roslin seems to show an interesting light pattern in her eye. Just the reflection of the lamps used in the photo shoot, or carefully chosen points of light (I count eleven)?


SciFi is running in heavy rotation a snippet of Adama saying "I won't betray my beliefs." Er, I don't recall that he expressed strong beliefs about much of anything other than that he should be in charge. He thought Earth was a myth, and seems dismissive of all the visions people keep having and only reluctantly put his faith in Roslin's view that they should run rather than fight. And when he found out Tigh was a Cylon he had a breakdown. He seems to believe in duty and honor but it's not clear what religious views he holds.

ALTERNATE ENDING

I've created another blog which is a series of stories finishing the Battlestar Galactica saga in an entirely different creative direction than we'll get on television starting the 16th. Ron Moore & Co. will be giving us a bleak, sad and ironic ending, and I will give you all that you hoped to see. As a below post (Sleek vs. Gritty) notes, I prefer the science-fiction and mystical elements to the story to the war story aspects. The first two 'episodes' are up, and teasers for all the other eps are up also. Look for additions over the next week or so. Link is here - Battlestar: Variant1

WHO IS THIS?

[potentially very spoilery - read at your own risk]
My guess is he's the Lemme-esplain-it-all-to-you guy (unless he's Base Ship tech support).

And here our sweet Sharon ain't lookin' so nice. Some unhappy secrets gonna start spillin' out

... Lotsa new trailers (at Sitrep) and promo stills and ads out but only this guy seems new. Is he Xeno? Here is the actor's imdb photo (David Patrick Green).

And in other later episodes Marine Allan Nowart figures prominently (anything to the name?: No art). He is played by actor Colin Corrigan. And, Zak Adama returns for a couple of episodes ... flashback?

NOTE TO BSG CREATIVE TEAM

It is the superior nature of the artistic endeavor that has been the television program Battlestar Galactica (reimagined series 2003-2009) that has engendered efforts such as this blog and the multiverse of other fan-inspired works out there. The passions would not run so deep if the level of the art were not so high.

As fans, we've come to expect excellence from this show and thus the blogosphere and elsewhere the feedback loop rings out with ideas, suggestions, perspectives, interpretations, analysis, theories, yes spoilers galore too - really, all manner of creative participation in the ongoing event. Battlestar Galactica is so special I'm not sure Ron Moore and David Eick, the shows creators of this incarnation, are even quite aware of how enduring it will be. Most of the actors on the show will count it one day as the high-point of their careers when they look back years from now.

Yes, we live in a snarky, smart-assy hipster-pose Age, and in their public remarks about the show Moore and Eick constantly throw cold water on the writing choices and attempt to distance themselves from the geekier aspects of science fiction as a genre, but this show has truly been something special because of or in spite of its genre - purely as a work of staged dramatic fiction. Television and film are the quintessential collaborative medium, and oh so rarely to the right elements come together in such a way as to make magic: When Mary McDonnell's character Laura Roslin sees the snakes on her hands ... when the camera tracks through various parts of the Galactica with that wonderful music and we see Billy and Dualla on the Observation Deck ... when Six tells Baltar "Humanity's children have returned home, today" ... when D'Anna steps into the starlight of the supernova and sees the faces of the Final Five ... when Roslin sees the recon photo image of Kobol and it is a living vibrant city that no one else sees ... rare moments of transcendence realized from the page to the screen.

Moore, Eick, and the rest of the creative team should take the fan adoration of Battlestar Galactica with a large grain of salt (and I've provided one above) ... all the efforts by all the people to participate in some way in this creative experience must be read as an homage, no matter how critical at times, because with their final ten episodes the passions are going to run high and the criticisms are going to flow.

CLUE SPLOOGE ... WAIT FOR IT

Clue 18 (Still Image): Hot Dog and Tyrol stand over a bed in the medical bay, so something must have happened to baby Nicholas [*SPOILER highlight to read - little Nicholas is revealed to be a cocktail weenie, not the offspring of a Final Fiver, which means Callie was a two-timing 'ho] Clue 19 (Still Image): Tigh (in civilian clothes) is extricating himself from the rubble of a white-hot nuclear blast [*SPOILER - probably from the earlier flashback we saw of Tyrol at the market on Earth, Terra - whatever, Final Fivers can't die]

The SciFi Battlestar Clue Site is withholding the bulk of its remaining clues until just before the return of the show on January 16th. There will be 10 new clues Jan. 15th and the 16th. So far they've mostly been filler and atmospherics.

SAD SACK FELIX

It is shaping up to be an ignominious end for the character arc of one Felix Gaeta. Sad, because he was so likeable. Nerdy, yes. Naive, yes. Loyal to a fault, yes. Full of human weakness, yes. But now the show's writers have added delusional, immature, and insecure to the mix. Felix will unravel before our eyes and disintigrate. He will choose badly, and although his character is listed in the credits for the final episodes I wouldn't be surprised if they killed him. If they keep him alive it will be to show the compassion and forgiveness his fellow humans are capable of despite his many flaws and mistakes.

CLUES 17 and 16 - WEBISODE 9 REVIEW

17. Video Clip: From the Demetrius subplot - the crew, led by the cocky red-shirt who dies in a later episode, questions Starbuck's humanity. On cue, she enters and shows who has the biggest pair.

16. Audio Clip: Spooky, echoey, ethereal mostly female voices - snippets of dialog weave in and out. Six: "Do you remember what we said when we set out?" Unknown: "... is all we have left" Kara: "How we talked about trying to return today" Unknown: "Earth?" Roslin: "I'd like to live a little before I die" Lee: "We believe it is a Cylon beacon" [this clue appeared 5 days late - perhaps a replacement?]


WEBISODE 9 - REVIEW
At last, stellar writing! Betrayer Sharon: "I'm a woman. And a Cylon. I didn't seduce you, hope seduced you, and the more you ate of it the more you saw what you wanted to see," "I'm not a monster. We're in a war. You kill the ones you have to, what probabilities dictate. You kill the ones your enemy values." We see a flashback to the Baltar/Gaeta cell chat and finally hear what Baltar whispered to Gaeta, "I know what your Eight did." Nine out of ten Galacticas

SLEEK vs. GRITTY

As science fiction has gone mainstream several sub-genres have emerged and the majority interest in action-adventure elements has morphed the whole field. I'm old-school sci-fi. For me what is appealing are the concepts, ideas and then what I call Spaceships, Aliens and Laserbeams. I think the action-adventure crowd is looking for G-G-G: guns, girls and gore.

I believe James Cameron's Aliens, released in 1986 was the turning point. From Metropolis, Things to Come and various George Pal movies to the original Outer Limits and Twilight Zone, science fiction films and television most of the time had a sleek, sophisticated aesthetic. Even though Ridley Scott's original Alien ('79) and later his Bladerunner ('82) had gritty visual elements, he is such a superior visual stylist that even these worn, industrial and sometimes disgusting environments still looked great and seemed futuristic and compelling (Paul Verhoeven's Robocop fits this pattern also). With Cameron's Aliens we got the dingy grey, militarist action-adventure overlay on the genre and it certainly has stuck. His original Terminator along with the cult-hit The Hidden both had real-world grit but were very stylistic and thus felt more old-school. But action-adventure now trumps old-school sci-fi most of the time. Partly this is due to the overall dumbing-down of culture - scientific concepts fly right over the heads of the average fan - and probably the executives greenlighting these projects too.

I think sci-fi fans today fall into two major categories - those who prefer the futurism and sleek aesthetics along with a focus on technology and profound ideas, and the new majority which likes action-adventure dressed up as science fiction. One of the best of the latter category is Predator and one of the worst is Event Horizon (which drifted over into another sub-category: sci-fi/horror).

Of course there is nothing wrong with creative mixing of genres, fans merely ask that it be done well. Give us quality and we will read, listen and watch (and buy your products).

Which brings me to a dichotomy I see in Battlestar Galactica. It is this sleek, beautiful and sophisticated visual and intellectual entertainment experience - made more whole with its ancient past and conflicting religions subplots. Yet it is also a gritty, dank war story replete with war story cliches. The two are not mutually exclusive, of course, but the biggest creative challenge for the show and for the viewer is processing these often out-of-sync story elements. For example, many fans count as a favorite the boxing episode Unfinished Business - which I loathed. Some of the backstory elements of the episode were good, but overall it was a useless episode with ridiculously excessive machismo that really served no function in the exposition. An episode which showed how conflicts and resentments built up over the course of the fleet's confinement and exodus would have been more interesting.

As the final 10-12 hours of Battlestar Galactica wraps up, these two competing story elements (I don't personally feel that they compliment very often) will have to weave together for the finale. There seems much more war story militarism to come (a fractured fleet, the Zarek coup, the attack from Cavil's forces) and gritty, bitter greyness thematically ... but I am hopeful the grand ideas of the show will be given their fair share of the focus. According to actress Grace Park (Athena/Sharons/Boomer) there is one episode in which it is all explained - I'm predicting the mad-scientist-explains-it-all-to-you-scene (or toothless homeless man such as in Twelve Monkeys). Hopefully the post-series movie The Plan will have more of the sleek aesthetic elements since it deals with the Cylon perspective, but they assigned one of the weaker writers to that project so maybe not.

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