BSG 4.5: Sometimes a Great Notion - Place your bets....

[Strider]

In case anyone still cares, spoilers ahoy!


The Colonials and Cylons root around Earth, and discover that, in fact, it was nuked 2000 years ago. Roslin burns her prophecy book and cries. Starbuck looks for the source of the signal, finds that it's her downed raptor, with a corpse with her dog tags in it no less, and (reasonably) concludes she's the last Cylon model. She burns it, and seems set to keep the business a secret.

Dee has a grand old time, babysitting for Athena's kid, going on a date with Apollo, etc. Then she shoots herself in the head. This doesn't do much for the already low spirits in the fleet, though it does get Gaeta's boyfriend promoted. Adama is none too pleased, and gets drunk and goes to scream at Tigh, trying to provoke him into killing him, since he isn't quite worked up enough to kill himself. Tigh, awesome robot pirate that he is, talks him down, and Adama seems to have a new purpose in his heart afterward, and decides to lead the fleet to find a new habitable planet. Starbuck almost tells Apollo that she's a Cylon, but Apollo is broken up enough about Dee that she saves that awkward conversation for another day.

Meanwhile, all the four "Watchtower" Cylons are having visions of the past Earth with them on it, because NEWSFLASH: Earth was apparently universally inhabited by Cylons, according to a bunch of smart scientists. Near the end, Xena declares that she's staying behind, mostly because she's sick of all this shit and scared of number One. XO Robo Pirate half heartedly tries to talk her down, then goes and wanders into the Hudson river to have his mystical vision, in which he sees his wife Ellen, who is revealed to be the twelfth and final Cylon.

[MarshalPurnell]

I didn't catch the part about Dee finding a locket.

All of this has happened before, and all of this will happen again. Dee saw her own parents in the locket, I think. That's why she blew her brains out. She thought she was a Cylon. And, perhaps, she is. The human race originated on Earth, and all of them found there are Cylons. Somehow, through uploading technology, through genetic databases and mind-state records, or through mysticism, the people who died on Earth were resurrected on Kobol. And then began the cycle all over again. We know from cast photos from the last episode that other characters have similar flashbacks to life on Earth, and there are only a "Final Five" and Adama certainly isn't among them; neither can Starbuck and Ellen both be part of the Final Five. The Five may be connected to the effort that saw the remnants of humanity move to Kobol, and were specifically resurrected for a purpose, perhaps to break the cycle. It seems obvious that Starbuck was cloned or resurrected by someone, and that someone is, I think, still behind all of what has happened and is part of why the Final Five are special.

Or I'm just wild ass guessing.

[Skylon]

So...what happened to Leoben? Is he gonna keep his mouth shut about Kara's little find?

[Nieztchean Uber-Amoeba]

Plot holes:

Radiation does not last that long! After 2,000 years, neither fish nor fowl would know or care that humans once roamed Earth. Just plain dirt adequately filters radiation out of water, so there should be no worries about water or food or anything after 200 years, let alone 2000.

How the fuck did they know that the bones were of cylons? They said that all the bones from 25 different sites were Cylon, so obviously they now have an incredibly easy, fast, accurate means of determining Cylonhood without blood, skin, or anything but ancient bones.

Lee is referred to as Acting President, as I've already mentioned.

Hmm... That's all I can think of for now.

[Dark Lord of the Bith]

Plot holes:
[...]
How the fuck did they know that the bones were of cylons? They said that all the bones from 25 different sites were Cylon, so obviously they now have an incredibly easy, fast, accurate means of determining Cylonhood without blood, skin, or anything but ancient bones.

The Cylons were there, too. They're probably better at identifying Cylon anatomy than the humans are.

Lee is referred to as Acting President, as I've already mentioned.

Roslin turned all apethetic/depressed. She wasn't doing her job, so Apollo picked up the slack?

[Sam Or I]

Good episode, I love how earth was shot. A few twist. I was disappointed about the last cylon personally.

The Earth Cylons have some sort of cloning machine?

[Nieztchean Uber-Amoeba]

The Cylons were there, too. They're probably better at identifying Cylon anatomy than the humans are.

You know, you'd think Athena would have told them something about this when she was gaining their trust.

Roslin turned all apethetic/depressed. She wasn't doing her job, so Apollo picked up the slack?

I don't think that the office of President can be transferred via the President feeling mopey.

[Strider]

I don't think that the office of President can be transferred via the President feeling mopey.

But what if she's extra mopey?

[Ohma]

A very effective ep. though it still raised more fucking questions than it answered which should ideally not be happening at this point in the show.

I still stand behind my sentiment from the previous episode discussion thread. If the resolution of nBSGLJ ends up being "lol watch a bunch of people get all depressed and die lolol" (which at this point it could so easily become) then I will seriously want to throw my season 1 dvds out a window...probably wouldn't though 'cause I like season one.

[Bilbo]

You know, you'd think Athena would have told them something about this when she was gaining their trust.

It might take specific technology on the Cylon baseship. While she was on Galactica she would not have access to it which would make it rather pointless.

[Burak Gazan]

So...what happened to Leoben? Is he gonna keep his mouth shut about Kara's little find?

Thats a good question. His reaction when Kara told him what the Hybrid had said about her looked to be almost horror, and he nearly ran away from her it appeared. I hope they keep things tight, since there are now only 8 normal and the 3 hour final episode to go. We dont need more mysteries at this point, we got enough bloody things to unravell as it is

[Skylon]

So...what happened to Leoben? Is he gonna keep his mouth shut about Kara's little find?

Thats a good question. His reaction when Kara told him what the Hybrid had said about her looked to be almost horror, and he nearly ran away from her it appeared. I hope they keep things tight, since there are now only 8 normal and the 3 hour final episode to go. We dont need more mysteries at this point, we got enough bloody things to unravell as it is

Maybe it was Leoben that Kara was burning?

[McC]

Some speculation on my part, some of which is contradictory.:

• Ellen is the fifth of the "final five," which rules out Kara being one of the original twelve Cylon skinjob models. However, it does not rule out current Kara being a Cylon. Crispy Kara may have been human and then re-build as a Cylon when she died.
• If the preceding is true, someone is still around that can not only activate Cylon skinjobs, but that can create new ones with a high degree of accuracy given a human template.
• Earth blew itself to beans 2,000 years ago. At the end of the episode, the Old Man speculates that the 13th Colonials then took to the stars to find a new home. What if the 1-12 Colonials have it backwards, and Earth was the progenitor planet that led to the creation of the colonies? This doesn't mesh with the idea that there are distinct humans and Cylons, though.
• Could the Cylons of Earth have become human? That doesn't make a lot of sense.
• What connection do the similar Centurion designs have with the 1-12 Colonial Cylons? The toasters of the 12 Colonies are not 2,000 years old and unless you handwave some kind of genetic predisposition for design aesthetic, it suggests that the design of the Cylons came from one place and migrated to the other in the intervening 2,000 years.

That's all for now. Great, great episode.

[Darth Lucifer]

I'm keeping an eye on Gaeta, after having watched The Face of The Ememy webisodes...I hope I'm wrong.

[Burak Gazan]

Not unless she re-dressed him in a flight suit and helmet, before lighting the pyre ...

[DPDarkPrimus]

The locket Dee found on the beach was not the locket she had hanging in her locker - the locket on Earth was gold in color and much larger, while the locket in her locker was small and silver.

[Johonebesus]

You know, you'd think Athena would have told them something about this when she was gaining their trust.

Sadly, I expect her comment about the Cylons knowing the truth about Kobol and the "gods" will be ignored, though that's probably not what you were talking about.

...
What connection do the similar Centurion designs have with the 1-12 Colonial Cylons? The toasters of the 12 Colonies are not 2,000 years old and unless you handwave some kind of genetic predisposition for design aesthetic, it suggests that the design of the Cylons came from one place and migrated to the other in the intervening 2,000 years.

Everything is being orchestrated by someone. The Colonials' creation of the Cylons was evidently part of the plan.


So, is this all going to turn out to be a VR simulation à la Matrix?

[DrMckay]

Frak me. I can't believe Dee did that. I liked her. This means that the conscience and voice of reason of the fleet is gone. Damn. Out of my three favorite characters, Tyrol is a Cylon, Gaeta got his leg blown off, and Dee blew her brains out.

I like the new, take-charge Lee.

[Agent Fisher]

=This means that the conscience and voice of reason of the fleet is gone.

I'm pretty sure the conscience and the voice of reason in the fleet is Helo.

[DrMckay]

not to Adama

[TrailerParkJawa]

I knew if I came here after the show there would be a lot of people saying "WTF!"
I was very shocked by Dee. I actually turned my head away from the tv for a sec and soon as I turned back she shot herself.

This is just a thought but is it possible there is our "Earth" still out there full of humans?

[Flagg]

People were shocked that Dee killed herself? I saw it coming from a mile away...

[Vertigo1]

And is Lee, like, still the Acting President? How the fuck does that work?

Didn't he surrender his position as acting president back to Roslin?

He did, but since she has gone batshit insane, Lee is still keeping her chair warm.

[Strider]

The sad thing is, I was like: "No way is Helo the voice of reason! I mean, he's not a bad chap, but he's never been exactly quick on the uptake either, and he's fumbled a few balls; there must be someone better. Maybe... no wait, now he seems hell-bent on killing off the Cylons; possibly... no, she's been batshit insane since mid-season 2; what about... am I seriously even CONSIDERING Lee for the voice of reason? I'll just stop here."

This crew makes the characters from Buffy look well adjusted, emotionally grounded, and tactically skilled by comparison. That's not exactly easy to do.

[Broomstick]

Roslin turned all apethetic/depressed. She wasn't doing her job, so Apollo picked up the slack?

Admiral Adama told Apollo directly to "take up the slack". Someone had to talk to the people and clearly Roslin was "indisposed". I would assume "indisposed" would be the excuse Apollo would give as to why he was making the big announcement, and given that Roslin is known to be ill and that travel can be draining the general masses probably accepted that.