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guy44 · 03-21-2009, 12:55 PM

You know, I've seen so many different reactions to the finale (here and at the AV Club) that I'm beginning to be even more impressed with it. There's no way a show with this much mythology and twists and turns should have a simple, happy wrap-up that everyone finds acceptable. It seems like half the fans hate the fact that there are any religious or mythical elements at all - as if all the mysticism running throughout the series was just a head fake, and a perfectly scientific and logical explanation for everything was supposed to be just around the corner.

The other half of the fans don't mind the religious aspects, but half of those fans think that "god" and the various angels all need to be fully explained. These strike me as fundamentally similar to the fans who hate the religious aspects altogether, because what they really want is a thoroughly explicable answer to every single thing that happened throughout the run of the show with utterly no ambiguity or doubt left at all.

The final quarter of the fans, a group that includes myself, is perfectly OK with a) religion being an important piece of the show, and b) the religious aspects being mostly unexplained. As far as I'm concerned, the mysterious religious interference throughout the show, whether it took the form of Head Baltar and Head Six, or Kara's resurrection, or shared visions, or prophecies, or the hybrids' connection with god, added a layers I found both surprising and welcome. Even though I was jarred by the introduction of religion when it first appeared, I've come to accept that the very themes of BSG - human nature and society, forgiveness and redemption, even the meaning of life - cannot be explored without grappling with it. How could one construct a history of man's attempt to answer these questions without placing religion at the center? For our entire existence, humans have believed in mystical forces that hold answers to these questions, and whether or not you personally believe in such things I think any show with those themes that ignored the mystical would be incomplete.

Furthermore, the fact is that BSG has been blaring its intentions with regards to religion for a very long time. There were the prophecies that led the way to Earth, and the visions, and the Cylons' monotheistic beliefs, and prophecies that told Kara that she would lead human kind to its doom. Way back on New Caprica, Leoban called Kara an angel. Hell, Head Six (and later Head Baltar) was around since the beginning and always seemed to know precisely what was about to happen and how Baltar (or Caprica Six) should react in order to stay alive. Brother Cavill was introduced as a priest. I could go on, but my point remains that anyone complaining that unexplained religious forces played an undue part in the resolution of the series in its finale has simply not being paying good enough attention to the rest of the show. The truth is that the show has been proclaiming almost from the beginning that religious phenomena was a part of the whole, and I think a lot of fans simply didn't want to take it at its word.

More prosaically, I think the finale itself did an excellent job of wrapping up the story. The first half I think we can all stipulate to as being awesome: final battle, big scary booms, some fan favorite characters eat it, 2000's Centurions versus 1970's Centurions, etc.

The middle portion took place in the CIC, where the Opera House prophesy is realized as Roslin, Athena, Baltar, and Caprica Six each chase Hera down like a runaway superball until she winds up in the hands of Cavill himself. Here is the first moment some people seem to have a problem with - Baltar's peace negotiation - but I thought it made a lot of sense. By this time, Baltar has not only learned that Head Six isn't a Cylon plot by Cavill, the final five, or anyone else, and furthermore that CapSix sees Head Him as well - AND they can now each see the other's mind partner. So what else can they be but actual, honest-to-goodness, sent by god himself angels? After all, Head Six has spent years tutoring him on religion - maybe she was just telling the truth. So, by finally stopping his bullshit cult-of-personality religious leader persona and genuinely believing for the first time, AND by being one of the few people in existence with enough guilt on his shoulders to truly understand the value in forgiveness, he becomes the only one capable of brokering the truce that really will save humanity. Which just so happens to be what Head Six has been telling him is his prophesied role for a very long time.

Of course, all that gets buggered when Torey finally (finally!) gets hers when what seems to be BSG's biggest bugaboo about humanity, the inability to forgive and desire for vengeance, rears its Tyrol-shaped head.

So then hell breaks loose, Cavill shouts, "Frak!" and them instantly kills himself because he is, among other things, a badass, and Kara's weird Dylan-esque mental delusions finally reveal themselves to be the coordinates to our Earth, circa 150,000 years ago. There must be some way out of here, indeed.

The final half of the final episode is basically everyone's denouement, as the Centurions fly away forever, the fleet heads for the sun, and 30-some-odd-thousand folks scatter to live the simple life on Earth with the homeopithicuses or something. I loved this slow, gracious goodbye to all these characters. Helo gets to live, Roslin dies happy, and everyone splits into different groups. The controversial portion here is over Kara's disappearance - is she an angel too? How come she was tangible and didn't know her role as opposed to Head Six and Head Baltar?

While I was appropriately shocked at this development, I've come to realize: I don't care. I think that a) she's been called an angel for three seasons now, but more importantly, b) her disappearance was poetic. She never did fit in anywhere, and certainly even less so ever since she kicked and subsequently returned. As she said, her story was played out and whether Sam's final words (that he would see her on the other side) were because he knew she was really already dead or any other theory the idea that she simply stopped existing when she wasn't needed anymore is beautiful in a way.

Furthermore, BSG has said over and over again that this has all happened before and will happen again, and very clearly the point of the very last scenes (current Earth, Hera as Eve, the imminent danger of the Roomba apocalypse) is that intelligent life is a test in character and god is forever measuring us. It was true in the original thirteen colonies, true on the (original Cylon) Earth, true in the new Colonies, true throughout BSG, and true today. I like the idea that god fudged and pushed until the remaining Colonialists and Cylons landed on Earth so that we could collectively give it another go. I obviously won't argue with those who think those final scenes drove home this point a little too clearly, or too obviously, or with gratuitous use of Ronald Moore's face, but I find it hard to argue that this wasn't a point that the show has made pretty much from Day 1.

I suppose, in conclusion, that I think some folks should be far less harsh on the finale than they have been so far. I hope people take some time to digest it before declaring that it ruined the rest of the series for them or some other such nonsense (I'm look at you, AV Club recap guy). I, for one, am going to miss the frak out of this show.

03-21-2009, 12:55 PM	#1008 (permalink)
guy44 Somnabulist Location: corner of No and Where	You know, I've seen so many different reactions to the finale (here and at the AV Club) that I'm beginning to be even more impressed with it. There's no way a show with this much mythology and twists and turns should have a simple, happy wrap-up that everyone finds acceptable. It seems like half the fans hate the fact that there are any religious or mythical elements at all - as if all the mysticism running throughout the series was just a head fake, and a perfectly scientific and logical explanation for everything was supposed to be just around the corner. The other half of the fans don't mind the religious aspects, but half of those fans think that "god" and the various angels all need to be fully explained. These strike me as fundamentally similar to the fans who hate the religious aspects altogether, because what they really want is a thoroughly explicable answer to every single thing that happened throughout the run of the show with utterly no ambiguity or doubt left at all. The final quarter of the fans, a group that includes myself, is perfectly OK with a) religion being an important piece of the show, and b) the religious aspects being mostly unexplained. As far as I'm concerned, the mysterious religious interference throughout the show, whether it took the form of Head Baltar and Head Six, or Kara's resurrection, or shared visions, or prophecies, or the hybrids' connection with god, added a layers I found both surprising and welcome. Even though I was jarred by the introduction of religion when it first appeared, I've come to accept that the very themes of BSG - human nature and society, forgiveness and redemption, even the meaning of life - cannot be explored without grappling with it. How could one construct a history of man's attempt to answer these questions without placing religion at the center? For our entire existence, humans have believed in mystical forces that hold answers to these questions, and whether or not you personally believe in such things I think any show with those themes that ignored the mystical would be incomplete. Furthermore, the fact is that BSG has been blaring its intentions with regards to religion for a very long time. There were the prophecies that led the way to Earth, and the visions, and the Cylons' monotheistic beliefs, and prophecies that told Kara that she would lead human kind to its doom. Way back on New Caprica, Leoban called Kara an angel. Hell, Head Six (and later Head Baltar) was around since the beginning and always seemed to know precisely what was about to happen and how Baltar (or Caprica Six) should react in order to stay alive. Brother Cavill was introduced as a priest. I could go on, but my point remains that anyone complaining that unexplained religious forces played an undue part in the resolution of the series in its finale has simply not being paying good enough attention to the rest of the show. The truth is that the show has been proclaiming almost from the beginning that religious phenomena was a part of the whole, and I think a lot of fans simply didn't want to take it at its word. More prosaically, I think the finale itself did an excellent job of wrapping up the story. The first half I think we can all stipulate to as being awesome: final battle, big scary booms, some fan favorite characters eat it, 2000's Centurions versus 1970's Centurions, etc. The middle portion took place in the CIC, where the Opera House prophesy is realized as Roslin, Athena, Baltar, and Caprica Six each chase Hera down like a runaway superball until she winds up in the hands of Cavill himself. Here is the first moment some people seem to have a problem with - Baltar's peace negotiation - but I thought it made a lot of sense. By this time, Baltar has not only learned that Head Six isn't a Cylon plot by Cavill, the final five, or anyone else, and furthermore that CapSix sees Head Him as well - AND they can now each see the other's mind partner. So what else can they be but actual, honest-to-goodness, sent by god himself angels? After all, Head Six has spent years tutoring him on religion - maybe she was just telling the truth. So, by finally stopping his bullshit cult-of-personality religious leader persona and genuinely believing for the first time, AND by being one of the few people in existence with enough guilt on his shoulders to truly understand the value in forgiveness, he becomes the only one capable of brokering the truce that really will save humanity. Which just so happens to be what Head Six has been telling him is his prophesied role for a very long time. Of course, all that gets buggered when Torey finally (finally!) gets hers when what seems to be BSG's biggest bugaboo about humanity, the inability to forgive and desire for vengeance, rears its Tyrol-shaped head. So then hell breaks loose, Cavill shouts, "Frak!" and them instantly kills himself because he is, among other things, a badass, and Kara's weird Dylan-esque mental delusions finally reveal themselves to be the coordinates to our Earth, circa 150,000 years ago. There must be some way out of here, indeed. The final half of the final episode is basically everyone's denouement, as the Centurions fly away forever, the fleet heads for the sun, and 30-some-odd-thousand folks scatter to live the simple life on Earth with the homeopithicuses or something. I loved this slow, gracious goodbye to all these characters. Helo gets to live, Roslin dies happy, and everyone splits into different groups. The controversial portion here is over Kara's disappearance - is she an angel too? How come she was tangible and didn't know her role as opposed to Head Six and Head Baltar? While I was appropriately shocked at this development, I've come to realize: I don't care. I think that a) she's been called an angel for three seasons now, but more importantly, b) her disappearance was poetic. She never did fit in anywhere, and certainly even less so ever since she kicked and subsequently returned. As she said, her story was played out and whether Sam's final words (that he would see her on the other side) were because he knew she was really already dead or any other theory the idea that she simply stopped existing when she wasn't needed anymore is beautiful in a way. Furthermore, BSG has said over and over again that this has all happened before and will happen again, and very clearly the point of the very last scenes (current Earth, Hera as Eve, the imminent danger of the Roomba apocalypse) is that intelligent life is a test in character and god is forever measuring us. It was true in the original thirteen colonies, true on the (original Cylon) Earth, true in the new Colonies, true throughout BSG, and true today. I like the idea that god fudged and pushed until the remaining Colonialists and Cylons landed on Earth so that we could collectively give it another go. I obviously won't argue with those who think those final scenes drove home this point a little too clearly, or too obviously, or with gratuitous use of Ronald Moore's face, but I find it hard to argue that this wasn't a point that the show has made pretty much from Day 1. I suppose, in conclusion, that I think some folks should be far less harsh on the finale than they have been so far. I hope people take some time to digest it before declaring that it ruined the rest of the series for them or some other such nonsense (I'm look at you, AV Club recap guy). I, for one, am going to miss the frak out of this show. __________________ "You have reached Ritual Sacrifice. For goats press one, or say 'goats.'"