BSG, the series finale *sniff*
Now that I've had a few days to digest, and in spite of the fact that there were things I would have done differently, over all I feel Daybreak was a fitting end to a mostly amazing journey. And I'm not just saying that because OMG! HELO THE ENTIRE AGATHON FAMILY LIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVED!!!! *ahem*
Anyway, in no particular order...
1. Dammit, Racetrack died. :(
1a. Racetrack died, but how cool was it that even in death, her luck held and she managed to save them all. If her hand hadn't slipped when it did and launched those nukes, Galactica wouldn't have had the time to make that last jump.
2. Kara finally putting all the pieces together - her father's music, Hera's "stars," the song that led her to Earth in tge first place, the way she assigned each note of the song(s) its own number that turned out to be the coordinates to our Earth... Awesome.
3. Sam broke my heart. I kept begging for TPTB to give him and Kara one last lucid moment. And I thought we weren't going to get that, that we Kara/Sam shippers were going to be as unfulfilled as the Kara/Lee shippers, but then Kara told him that she loved him and finally, FINALLY he was Sam again, just long enough to say, "See you on the other side." It wasn't a lot, in some ways, but in the end, it was enough. Especially given...
4. Kara was Kara, and yet, she was something else entirely. She was there, people saw her, felt her, interacted with her in every way, but when her purpose in coming back was fulfilled, she was gone. She didn't know what she was, not until the very end, when she accepted that things had changed, that she had changed and that she wasn't really human anymore. But when she stopped fighting it, she knew. And that was why she didn't tell Sam goodbye, but rather, "I love you." Because Sam was changed, too. And he was going somewhere that she could follow, and that was something Lee, still wholly human and alive, couldn't do.
5. Lee, at the end, so excited when he was telling Kara that he wanted to explore their new land, and not quite understanding that Kara was telling him goodbye. And then she was just gone. As though she had never been there at all. But she was there.
6. Although I still don't accept that true-love-alone-makes-Cylon-babies crap, I think there is more than enough evidence that there is a god or gods in the BSG 'verse. The divine and unexplained truly exists.
7. And the whole thing ended as it began, with Caprica and Gaius, both in there mortal forms and in their angelic. Someone finally loved Caprica for herself alone, and that someone was Gaius Baltar, arguably the most selfish and self-centered man who ever existed. When BSG started, neither of them had a clue about love or compassion, but they learned. :)
8. Helo. The man who was never supposed to survive even the first frakking HALF of the mini, survived to the very end and beyond. I was so sure he was going to die from that leg wound, and that certainty grew with each passing scene with no mention of him. I cheered when I saw that little family unit, walking hand in hand. :D
9. It was frakking awesome watching Cavil storm the Galactica, but at the same time...
9a. WTF was with him eating a bullet??? Visually, it was really well done, but... No. I got nothin'.
10. Oh, Boomer. Hera did work her way into your heart, didn't she? And oh, how I wish that TPTB hadn't seen fit to cut all of those scenes in past eps that showed your push/pull relationship with your sister's daughter.
10a. While we're on the subject, I think we could have done with waaaaaaay shorter and less frequent shots of pretty much anyone and everyone emoing about and chewing scenery and floating in oceans so that we could maybe have kept those scenes and snippets that showed why our beloved characters did the things they did. But no, instead we have to extrapolate. *sigh* Who do I have to bribe to get that "Directors' cut" DVD set?
11. While I enjoyed the Lee/Kara/Zak flashbacks in and of themselves, why the frak did the have to take up precious space in the series frakking finale???
11a. At least the L/K/Z scenes made some sense to me as to why they were included at all. The Laura flashbacks, though... I didn't get those at all. Maybe I'm missing something, but I just didn't see any reason for them other than to give the always amazing Mary more screentime. Maybe the deaths of her family added to the way Laura seemed to, in some ways, emotionally isolate herself later, after the fall of the Colonies, but the one-night-stand with her former student? You cut the Chief/Boomer/Helo flashback for THAT? Really? O_o
12. Admiral Hoshi? President Lampkin? Really??? O_o
13. Jake! Jake survived to the very end! Woof! \o/
14. Red-striped Centurions FTW!
I'm sure I'll have more thoughts later. No doubt they'll come to me as I reply to comments here and as I finally get a chance to read your reactions. But in the end...
I can't believe it's over. :(
Anyway, in no particular order...
1. Dammit, Racetrack died. :(
1a. Racetrack died, but how cool was it that even in death, her luck held and she managed to save them all. If her hand hadn't slipped when it did and launched those nukes, Galactica wouldn't have had the time to make that last jump.
2. Kara finally putting all the pieces together - her father's music, Hera's "stars," the song that led her to Earth in tge first place, the way she assigned each note of the song(s) its own number that turned out to be the coordinates to our Earth... Awesome.
3. Sam broke my heart. I kept begging for TPTB to give him and Kara one last lucid moment. And I thought we weren't going to get that, that we Kara/Sam shippers were going to be as unfulfilled as the Kara/Lee shippers, but then Kara told him that she loved him and finally, FINALLY he was Sam again, just long enough to say, "See you on the other side." It wasn't a lot, in some ways, but in the end, it was enough. Especially given...
4. Kara was Kara, and yet, she was something else entirely. She was there, people saw her, felt her, interacted with her in every way, but when her purpose in coming back was fulfilled, she was gone. She didn't know what she was, not until the very end, when she accepted that things had changed, that she had changed and that she wasn't really human anymore. But when she stopped fighting it, she knew. And that was why she didn't tell Sam goodbye, but rather, "I love you." Because Sam was changed, too. And he was going somewhere that she could follow, and that was something Lee, still wholly human and alive, couldn't do.
5. Lee, at the end, so excited when he was telling Kara that he wanted to explore their new land, and not quite understanding that Kara was telling him goodbye. And then she was just gone. As though she had never been there at all. But she was there.
6. Although I still don't accept that true-love-alone-makes-Cylon-babies crap, I think there is more than enough evidence that there is a god or gods in the BSG 'verse. The divine and unexplained truly exists.
7. And the whole thing ended as it began, with Caprica and Gaius, both in there mortal forms and in their angelic. Someone finally loved Caprica for herself alone, and that someone was Gaius Baltar, arguably the most selfish and self-centered man who ever existed. When BSG started, neither of them had a clue about love or compassion, but they learned. :)
8. Helo. The man who was never supposed to survive even the first frakking HALF of the mini, survived to the very end and beyond. I was so sure he was going to die from that leg wound, and that certainty grew with each passing scene with no mention of him. I cheered when I saw that little family unit, walking hand in hand. :D
9. It was frakking awesome watching Cavil storm the Galactica, but at the same time...
9a. WTF was with him eating a bullet??? Visually, it was really well done, but... No. I got nothin'.
10. Oh, Boomer. Hera did work her way into your heart, didn't she? And oh, how I wish that TPTB hadn't seen fit to cut all of those scenes in past eps that showed your push/pull relationship with your sister's daughter.
10a. While we're on the subject, I think we could have done with waaaaaaay shorter and less frequent shots of pretty much anyone and everyone emoing about and chewing scenery and floating in oceans so that we could maybe have kept those scenes and snippets that showed why our beloved characters did the things they did. But no, instead we have to extrapolate. *sigh* Who do I have to bribe to get that "Directors' cut" DVD set?
11. While I enjoyed the Lee/Kara/Zak flashbacks in and of themselves, why the frak did the have to take up precious space in the series frakking finale???
11a. At least the L/K/Z scenes made some sense to me as to why they were included at all. The Laura flashbacks, though... I didn't get those at all. Maybe I'm missing something, but I just didn't see any reason for them other than to give the always amazing Mary more screentime. Maybe the deaths of her family added to the way Laura seemed to, in some ways, emotionally isolate herself later, after the fall of the Colonies, but the one-night-stand with her former student? You cut the Chief/Boomer/Helo flashback for THAT? Really? O_o
12. Admiral Hoshi? President Lampkin? Really??? O_o
13. Jake! Jake survived to the very end! Woof! \o/
14. Red-striped Centurions FTW!
I'm sure I'll have more thoughts later. No doubt they'll come to me as I reply to comments here and as I finally get a chance to read your reactions. But in the end...
I can't believe it's over. :(