4.18 Islanded In A Stream Of Stars

I was aware before this episode started that the last remaining episodes, one single and one double-header, had all been written by Ron D. Moore. I got the impression that those 2 hours (of running time) were all his to wrap up the whole show. As such, I also expected this episode to have something of a filler feel to it and be used purely to get the pieces arranged on the board ready for the grand finale.

I would say that was a fairly good assessment of what this episode was about.

There wasn’t much of a central plot thrust, rather lots of little scenes with all the main characters to get us up to speed with where they were at. If there was a spine to the episode it was ultimately about the end of the Battlestar Galactica. Hera moved the toy Galactica towards the Cylon Base Ship at the start of the episode, perhaps indicative of the move that Adama would eventually be forced to use.

Adama’s explanation for it was the best there could have been. As he explained to Tigh, Galactica had never let them down and so he wanted to honour her with the dignity of letting her go now, rather than see her taken down and destroyed by dragging her on further. Cue a little bit of Adama’s theme as the two men were left to reflect to themselves and it was a perfect ending moment captured.

But that was the ending. And there are plenty of other issues going on with the other characters. Apollo and Baltar have been the two characters that have most notably been left on the fringe of things of late, Apollo especially. Whilst Apollo may not be the most interesting person at present, he is a good character and I hope the finale gives him something crucial. Baltar, meantime, tried to use Starbuck as a sign that angels were amongst them, eulogising of a life after death. Given Head Six, and the weird place between life and death that Deanna explored a while back, it’s hard not to imagine it’s a notion that holds a place in the Battlestar Galactica universe.

Helo’s reaction was very powerful, his performance in practically begging Adama for a Raptor to go and look for his daughter incredibly well-delivered. Adama was fairly tough, I thought – equating Hera with his own dead son was not quite a fair comparison; Hera was still alive! Although everyone seems fairly assured that she definitely is the most important child around so her remaining in Cavil’s clutches is surely a matter to be resolved for the finale.

Good to see the opera house dream sequences being revisited. Clearly an area that needs more focus, and paves the way for Laura’s role in the big send-off to be laid out. And Boomer, also, having handed Hera over appears to have formed a bond with her (ironically, Hera used the same ‘projection’ trick Boomer used on Tyrol to get into her affections) and might just once more turn traitorous, against Cavil this time. I’d put nothing past that crazy Cylon!

I presume the place we saw Hera delivered to was the Colony, and the tantalising glimpse of that place probably didn’t give us anything like the full story about what that place holds. I would expect there to be ‘tanks’ for the Final Five should they need to download – and it has occurred to me that it may be the logical and tactical plan to have that happen - kill them so they can wake up at the Colony - in order for them to locate and infiltrate Cavil's HQ. . .

Lastly was Starbuck. She delivered the episode’s biggest shock moment when she almost shot Anders. (Again, begs the question about where he would have woken up!) He was linked into Galactica like a Hybrid, clearly fusing the line between human and Cylon in ways we could not have imagined a Season or two ago. The moment of finding out the truth about Kara Thrace, harbinger of death or angel, Cylon or human, is close at hand.

Perhaps Hera’s movement of the Galactica to the Base Ship is pre-empting a last strike attempt by Galactica on Cavil. If Anders can be used to run the systems like a Hybrid then it can almost be like a kamikaze mission – with the “harbinger of death” leading the charge? Is that what this term indicates? It seems like a tantalising proposition.