4.11 Sometimes A Great Notion

There’s been a big break between episode 4.10 and this one, even for me who had, until this point, watched the entirety of Battlestar Galactica in one mass lump. Whilst waiting for this episode, I have since watched the whole lot – from miniseries to Season 4 – on DVD again so had the chance to reconsider The Final Cylon, and the nature of Cylon-Human mythology, and wonder what the truth about other unsolved mysteries were, such as Starbuck’s scar from whatever was done to her in The Farm in Season 2. Given the inherent mystery surrounding Starbuck, that small detail may be pertinent.

Anyway, basically, I considered myself well-versed for when this last and final block of ten episodes began. And since both human and Cylon landed on a desolate Earth at the end of the previous episode it was never looking to be an easy finish. That proved to be an understatement.

It was quickly established that Earth was dead. The planet had no signs of life. Not only that, it was clearly a charred remain from a mass nuking that had, apparently, taken place 2,000 years previous. As Laura ironically noted, they had left one nuked planet to find another. Gaius established that there was still radiation in the water, and so the planet was not habitable.

Suddenly New Caprica didn’t look so bad!

The episode, then, was ultimately concerned with the ‘fallout’ of this discovery of a dead Earth. This was still a raw learning for humans and Cylon alike. The expectant faces that greeted Laura when she returned to Galactica told as much, and the brawling and drunken disconsolate people that were briefly glimpsed afterwards relayed the effect on the fleet.

Laura instantly curled into a ball, burned up her scriptures, very much defeated. It’ll take a major revelation to get her back on her feet. It took a more personal shock to almost conquer Adama. Namely: Dualla’s suicide. It is here I have to say that I had suspected Dualla as being the prime candidate for the Final Cylon. Her name has ‘dual’ in it, one of the first times we ever saw her she spontaneously kissed Billy (which reminded me of Six and her tactile nature) and, in this episode, her reaction to finding Earth was marked.

I reach two interpretations. One, that Dualla was a symbol of mankind’s broken soul. She found a dead Earth, dug up some burned artefacts, and her spirit was finished. We saw her near cracking up on the journey back to Galactica, but then she composed herself, decided on her course of action, and rekindled happiness through Apollo so she could go out on a joyful note. Then she put a gun to her head. One last taste of happiness before she ducked out of the misery and turmoil she sensed the human race were destined for. It absolutely works on that level, and the handling of her character in this episode was successful – and also triggered Adama’s own flirtation with suicide before Tigh, of all ‘people’, made him pull himself together.

My second interpretation is the part of me that isn’t willing to let go of the idea that Dualla, upon getting to Earth, also ‘triggered’ the Final Cylon inside her – and perhaps realised that she would never be the same again and killed herself as a means of properly awakening her true nature. I hang on to it, but at the same time I feel consigned to the idea that Dualla was both red herring and symbol and has now served her function. But I’m still not counting her out completely.

Fact is, this episode threw some other whoppers at us that I am struggling to discuss here sensibly. Like the fact that the remains on Earth were of Cylon descent – skin-job and centurion alike. The conclusion reached was that the 13th tribe were Cylon all along. Were they all Cylon? It seems like a major conclusion to reach given the small skeletal remains discovered. Were Cylon and human not living on the planet together? This question appears entirely pivotal to the ‘all of this has happened before and will happen again’ mantra that has been stated a few times.

And Starbuck was fulcrum to a knockout surprise that totally put her in the frame as the Final Cylon. Her ship and corpse were apparently discovered on the planet, suggesting that she herself, and her ship, were entirely ‘reborn’. Interesting that Leoben became fearful the moment this truth came to light, especially when Starbuck told him of what the Hybrid had said about her being the harbinger of death. Between Starbuck, and Laura / Gaius / Six / Boomer / Hera in the Opera House, there’s an enormous void-like mystery at the heart of the show yet to be uncovered.

Given all this, we were lead to believe that Ellen Tigh was the Final Cylon by Tigh’s flashback at the end of the episode. Now, again, her being the Final Cylon was another major possibility I had reached. Gaius and his test in Season 1 opened that door of possibility and kept it that way, and her presence in Tigh’s thoughts, mingled with Six, always kept her alive. Add in Deanna’s remark about how the Final Cylon wasn’t in the fleet then it gathered more credence.

And then there she was on Earth, in the past, dying, but telling Tigh it was all right and they would be re-united. Tigh believed she was the Final Cylon, but that doesn’t necessarily make it so. It was his interpretation, and I personally believe that it was a misinterpretation, and we as an audience have been thrown a massive red herring. Perhaps that’s just because of the sense of anti-climax to such a big revelation that is prompting this belief.

So, it was a melancholy and introspective kickstart to the final ten episodes. It’s only afterwards, on reflection, do I realise how substantial and effective it was. Adama’s new quest is to find an alternative to Earth, but I get the feeling we’re not quite done with the planet just yet. . .