Galactica: Daybreak Part 1- Facing the End
I’ve actually toyed with the idea that I won’t watch the series finale next week. It is with some shame that I have to admit that even though I’m a grown man that loves his action flix, Star Trek and the occasional adult magazine I tend to allow myself to get a little overly emotional in the face the conclusion of a nearly 5 year investment of my time and attention. And so, yes, I did start the process of beginning to choke up during Daybreak Part 1.
After last week’s rather ho-hum snoozer of an episode (I didn’t review it here, but it was probably the worst of the season) this was a powerful wallup of a start to the final three hours of Galactica.
I have a feeling that I may get some rather strong disagreement from Galactica fans on this. There was really no action and not much more happened than the previous week. However, from an emotional standpoint this episode was like Ron Moore and friends slowly raising a giant banner that says “This is it Folks.”
I was completely sucked in by the opening segment of flashbacks taking us into the pre-holocaust lives of our main characters on Caprica. Laura Roslin’s tragic loss was like a right cross across the jaw, brilliantly set up to pack the biggest punch it could with such a meager amount of set up time. For the first time since the beginning of season 4 we actually had some meaningful and insightful moments with Gaius Baltar, showing us his dysfunctional relationship with his father and the beginnings of his awkward affair with Caprica Six.
We’re also teased with the return of Zak Adama in the course of Kara and Lee’s flashback. Zak is still my money horse in the race to find out who the hell is going to end up being the fabled Daniel, the final undisclosed Cylon silenced unceremoniously by Cavil.
It was also good to bring us back to all the previous Cylon models and see them actually being functioning members of the Cylon race. All of course except for our poor martyr Deanna that I guess is still sitting on a lump of radioactive soil back on Earth with the bones of her 2000 year old dead ancestors.
And in the final chapter of the beginning of the end we get a couple of other signals that foreshadow a tragic end to a large contingent of our grizzled crew with the stepping up of those that are volunteering to join the dying battlestar on her final suicide mission. Again, Baltar surprises us after his frank discussion with Lee Adama and decides that he must step forward and commit the only selfless act of his life knowing it will probably be his last. A faltering, unhealthy Laura Roslin joins the suicide mission choosing to spend her last hours of life with Bill Adama. In a small but meaningful moment Kara grabs Roslin’s hand to steady and comfort her, the same Kara Thrace that Roslin rose a weapon to and tried to shoot point blank in the head last year. Even the too oft used for comic relief, chain smoking Doc Cottle steps forward to show that there’s more to him than a pack of Marlboro’s and snide remark.
Yep, this is where we final get the payout on this long-term investment in Battlestar Galactica, one of the finest dramas on television. This is why turning on the television next Friday is going to be one tough task. Not only am I dreading the prospect of losing the most entertaining 60 minutes of television in any given week, I just don’t want to have to suffer through what seems to be shaping as the inevitable cold, lonely fate of many of these people that have grown to be comforting friends over the past few years.
I don’t care what gender you are, how old you are, or what walk of life you happen to be from, when we have to watch some of these beloved characters make the ultimate sacrifice in the service of the survival of mankind, you ARE NOT HUMAN if you don’t get at least a little choked up.
Face the facts. Even if your like me, a thirty something geek that grew up on a steady diet of Star Trek, Arnold Schwarzenegger, video games, Doritos and Coca Cola, you can’t turn away from the truth: no matter how many hot women, robots, laser cannons and bloody wounds you dress this thing up with, this is OUR soap opera. THIS is the reason we own a TV, to have 50 dollars in electronic parts that you’re still paying $55.00 a month for over a couple of years for: to show you something that’s going to make a grown man cry.
Before we set out on this final 2 hours next week, I think I need to get this out of the way first: Goodbye, Galactica, we hardly knew ya.
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4 Responses to “Galactica: Daybreak Part 1- Facing the End”
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March 15th, 2009 at 7:01 pm
I’m really prepped for a crazy episode. I keep thinking of what the show has been repeating… “All of this has happened before and it will happen again.” Will they finally resolve all of that? I also wonder if Anders is going to suddenly wake the frak up.
It’s going to be a sad sad day, I believe. Is it going to be one side winning or a sort of cease fire is intriguing. Really, REALLY interesting shit.
March 19th, 2009 at 8:55 pm
Better late than never, but I’m watching Daybreak part 1 again tonight. In my perspective “All of this has happened before and it will happen again” has already been answered. We’ve established during the course of season 4 with the discovery of the Cylon populated Earth. First, WE are Cylons. That’s been established. There’s a chain of events that keeps repeating:
A race creates a sub-race (human’s create Cylons)
Sub-race becomes primary race (the “Earth Cylons, US, create Cylon’s mark 2, the dead centurion models found on Earth”
The sub race becomes the new primary race (The old Cylons evolve into “humans”)
The new humans create a new sub-race, the new Cylons, who then rebel…
and the cycle starts over.
The end of Galactica is now no longer about resolving the war or finding Earth. The goal of the show is now CAN WE BREAK THE CYCLE. Breaking the cycle can only happen if the humans and Cylons can merge and co-exist, hence the cycle breaking. Kara Thrace is prophesized to be the “end of the human race.” This is not saying she is going to wipe out the human race. Both the Human and the Cylon races will both cease to exist because they are coming together to form a completely new race, the human-cylon hybrids. The children of the human and Cylon reproduction cycle will over-take either race. This is the end of the human AND the cylon races.
March 20th, 2009 at 12:36 pm
Nicely put and I’m really anxious yet not at all ready for this last show. I can almost guarantee I wont watch it until Saturday. Breaking the cycle is really what I’m so interested in and it would appear to me that Boomer is going to be right in the middle of everything.
March 22nd, 2009 at 10:49 am
I’m still picking through my review of the finale. It’s going to be a really long boring review. If you still haven’t watched it yet, grab the tissues.