Galactica: Revelations - Mid-Season Finale

Posted by ScuzzBuster

June 14, 2008

If your like me and I assume most Battlestar fans, you are sitting in stunned silence right now. Unlike season 3, Season 4 seems to be progressing at breakneck speed toward the conclusion of the saga. The mid-season finale “Revelations” took the show in some very unexpected directions, and some not so unexpected.

I think the overwhelming senitment I feel regarding the events of this episode are “What now?” It’s certainly what our main characters must be thinking. Do not read another word if you haven’t seen it yet and want to remain spoiler free.
Ron Moore has said for some time that they would find Earth by the conclusion of the series. This has driven much speculation over the last couple of years. The overwhelming question really was what time in Earth’s history would they arrive? Quite frankly, arriving at present day Earth has been done. We could have seen the crew of Galactica swoop into the solar system and send Bamber and Sackhoff down to Earth on flying motorcycles getting in crazy misadventures week after week. For those of you who haven’t seen GALACTICA 1980 or the original 1978 GALACTICA I highly recommend visiting it, but not until after the new series finale next year. Its an eye opener.

Well, we’ve found Earth now, something I didn’t expect to happen until the series finale or in the last episode or so leading up to it. Now we’re left with 11 hours of story left next year to come to terms with the implications of the discovery. Quite frankly, I’m conflicted about this development. Part of the incredible wonder of the show for so long now has been about how the prophecies will come to pass that will eventually lead our heros (and anti-heros) to Earth. Now much of that mystery is gone. How the final 4 would be revealed to the fleet and the Cylons has been answered. How they instigated the eventual finding of Earth is mostly answered.

In one sense, Moore has bent us over and rammed us a good one. The event that was supposed to signal the end of the journey in cheers has happened well before the end of the saga. I actually see this as the smart move. If we had waited until the last episode, the expectations would have been overwhelming and completely unreasonable. By springing it on us now, it exceeded our expectations for this episode and indeed the first half of the season.

Now, about the Earth we found. It has been my opinion for some time that this was the only way we could have found Earth without being cheesy or without betraying the overall darkness and tone of the show, so my surprise that they found Earth this early was certainly not surpassed by my reaction to the fact that they’ve found it in a post-apocolyptic state. Radiation levels high, the soil worthless, the signs of a former civilization in ruins. This is how it had to be for the series to have an impact and make sense.

Regardless, I’m still very torn by the discovery. It’s like premature ejaculation. I came 10 episodes too early, I guess. I even question the impact of who the final Cylon is and whether I actually care. The only thing we can wonder about is whether or not the final Cylon will be friend or foe. But with no guidance or clues as to what the purpose or signifigance is of the revelation to come, I find it hard to get excited speculating about it.

As this is a show about characters, I think the thing that I found the most fascinating about tonight’s episode is what I consider to be the redemption of Saul Tigh. I found Galactica two episodes into season 1 when it first aired at a time I was facing some serious alcohol struggles myself. I found the portrayal of Tigh, his drinking, and how it shaped and impacted him as a person and his life was absolutely the most honest and accurate portrayal of an alcholic I’ve ever seen on television. He’s frakked a lot of shit up over the first 3 and a half seasons, but tonight he put it all behind him. Outing himself as a sacrifice for the good of the colonial fleet was him finally becoming the man he wanted to be. And Adama’s reaction to Tigh’s confession that he was Cylon was note perfect. Olmos is brilliant and the glue that holds the universe of BATTLESTAR GALICTA together. It was a true shame, but not unwelcome as a fan, to see that after it all wound down, that we, for the first time in a long time, see Saul in front of the bottle again. And will they continue to deal with the obvious route of Adama himself becoming an alcoholic.

So what are we left with?

An Earth, we assume, but don’t know for sure, is lifeless and uninhabitable.
A band of Cylons and the last of the Human Race with no direction and no place to go
One more Cylon living in secret. We don’t know where it is, or when it will be revealed.
A mystery proposed concerning who or what is orchestrating the Human/Cylon alliance and for what purpose…can we assume it’s the final unrevealed Cylon that is driving this?
Where did Kara’s clone-viper come from or is it directly related to the previous point? How, when and why have the final five been to Earth?
What of Tigh and Six’s child? We now officially have an example of Cylons reproducing with other Cylons but is hasn’t been mentioned yet at all.

I was not floored or astounded by Revelations, but it was certainly one of the best episodes produced of the series. Extremely tense, well-paced and exciting. Hardly a second of screen time wasted. But I’m so conflicted right now about where the final 10 episodes could possibly be going that I’m asking myself how much I really care. In one sense, I think apart from the fact that we don’t know who the final Cylon is, I could have been content with the series ending with this episode. The characters, in stunned silence…seeing the total destruction of their hopes and dreams for the previous 4 years.

On a side note, a question left unanswerd for me over the last 3 episodes. When Galactica found the shuttle and the wreckage of the base ship, Adama immediately identified the Roslin’s abandoned shuttle by the presence of her copy of Searider Falcon that she had taken with her. I need to go back and watch, but I’m almost sure that during the scenes of Roslin on the base ship, we see that she indeed has the book with her there, having brought it with her off the shuttle. Either I completely saw this incorrectly or there is something to it. Possibly part of the “orchestration” plan of who or whatever is guiding our characters now. Interesting.

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