Category: TV Sci-Fi (Page 65 of 81)

For months, we’ve been pondering on this blog about what state Earth would be in when the fleet finally found it. But my own personal light bulb didn’t go on until about halfway through this episode – which was called “Revelations” – when I thought about the apocalyptic nature of that part of the Bible, and I said to myself, Earth is probably going to be a nuclear wasteland.

You could just feel the weight of this looming unknown as the fleet made its final jump to Earth and its descent to the planet. (On a side note, it was a big surprise that they jumped to Earth at the end of this set of episodes. I thought for sure that the remaining 10 episodes would be dedicated to the final journey to Earth, as the fleet tried to hold together an alliance with the Cylons.) The truce with the Cylons happened about two-thirds the way through the episode, so with that much time remaining, it was clear that the creators had a big revelation in store for us. Given all the positive vibes when the fleet found Earth, there was no way that the final revelation would be a good one. This show is too dark for that.

“It has all happened before and it will happen again.”

So are we to believe that this cycle continues over and over? The human race started elsewhere (or Earth, I guess), developed enough technology to colonize other planets (or Earth, I guess), then created Cylons, which eventually turned on the humans and chased them back to Earth, which has already been destroyed by the humans living there? Now the human fleet will (possibly) colonize Earth again, build everything back up, and the cycle will continue, over and over? Is this what the hybrid meant when it told Cara that she would lead the humans to their doom? To make things even more interesting, there’s a photo on the show’s homepage that is clearly meant to resemble Leonardo Da Vinci’s painting, The Last Supper.

All right, as for the rest of the episode… I thought it was great. The final four revealed themselves pretty quickly, which was a little surprising, but it was interesting to see each relationship change. Adama had a breakdown trying to deal with the truth about Tigh and there was a huge shift in power between Roslin and Torry. It was especially compelling to watch Tigh struggle with his conscience and ultimately make the decision to reveal his true identity. Then Baltar had to step in on the basestar and negotiate with D’Anna on the behalf of what was left of humanity.

So where do we go from here? We have a planet that looks pretty fracking unlivable and we still don’t know the identity of the final Cylon. Will the fleet still colonize Earth? Will we find out what happened there? Will the final Cylon take the fleet to some other Promised Land?

This show is slated for another 10 episodes and I have no idea where it’s headed.

Week in and week out, this show does a tremendous job of inching us closer to the end without giving too much away in any given episode. Occasionally, we’ll get a filler episode that doesn’t really move the big storyline, but this wasn’t one of them. We knew that the plan was retrieve D’Anna and destroy the hub so that she would be compelled to reveal the identities of the final five Cylons, and ultimately reveal the way to Earth. But all D’Anna has is information and she’s not giving it up until she returns to the human fleet, so we have to wait at least another week to find out the identities of all the skinjobs. Of course, last week’s line to Roslin about her being one of the Cylons turned out to be a joke… a joke! Damn you, Ronald D. Moore!

Roslin kept having visions every time the basestar jumped, and I guess the point was for her to come to the realization that she couldn’t let Baltar die, even after he (finally) admitted that he (unknowingly) gave the security codes that allowed the Cylons to destroy Caprica and the other colonies. Roslin really wanted him dead, but after her last vision she apparently saved his life. The priestess said something interesting after Roslin admitted there might be something for her there (presumably, Galactica). The priestess said, “Maybe even closer.” What the hell does that mean?

We saw Roslin reading that book that was eventually found in a destroyed raptor, and I guess that was meant to explain how that book got there. Was that the same raptor that jumped away in the middle of the battle, eventually to be found by Galactica? It was finding that book that sent Adama over the edge last week, so it’s nice that they explained how it happened to be there.

The dynamic between Baltar and Roslin (when they were trying to communicate with the hybrid) was really funny. There’s a weird tension between the two of them; I dare to call it sexual, which was kind of confirmed by Baltar’s compliment of Roslin’s beauty when he was all hopped up on drugs. I also thought his interaction with the Centurion was humorous, especially when the robot tilted his head like a dog who has just heard a strange noise.

Lastly, I have to hand it to the creators once again for the wonderful special effects of the battle scene. It’s amazing to see how far these effects have come over the past thirty or forty years.

Based on the scenes from next week, it looks like we’ll have another big step forward in discovering the identities of the Cylons in the fleet and finding a way to Earth. It is the 10th episode of the season, and I’m pretty sure there will be a break before the final 10 episodes, so I’m betting we’re in for a doozy.