nBSG ep 4.19: "Daybreak" pt 1 Talkback (SPOILERS)

[LadyTevar]

That was a frakkin' fast hour!

But yeah... I wondered if Gaius would cross over, but he wimped out after Roslyn did. However... we do see him in the teaser... Hmmmmmmmmmmm

Still, the flashbacks were interesting.

[CaptJodan]

Spoiler

Oh yeah, that looks like it'll be two hours of battle porn.

Moore still has a hell of a lot to tie up. The more this goes on, the more I feel like it'll be a DS9 ending: rushed (hopefully sans the clips of previous battles fought, which we've been assured it isn't). There's no excuse for a rushed ending here, he's known since the beginning of the 4th that this was the last season. Like others have said, this ending, perhaps the whole show, will stand or fall on the last episode. That's a hell of a lot to put on an episode that has to tie up all or the majority of lose ends, AND have multiple-orgasm battle porn.

I certainly don't understand why we have so many shots of the lives on NC, except to take us back to where we started, only earlier. Other than being interesting character building (which should have been done earlier, in my view), I don't see the purpose. Feels too late to be bringing in this stuff now.

Because this episode is really meant to be tied with the last two, I'm going to forgo voting this week and wait to see how it all comes together.

[Jon]

Was there really no better way they could spend the penultimate hour than fill it with flashbacks? All that effectively happened in this episode was the decision to ride off into battle, which was knew about last week.

[LadyTevar]

The bit about the 'perfect' shot is going to be important to Hybrid-Anders and what he does with the Galactica.

[Braedley]

Because this episode is really meant to be tied with the last two, I'm going to forgo voting this week and wait to see how it all comes together.

I agree. I'll withhold my vote until next week.

Also, I'm sure RDM has a good reason for taking us back. Way back, since it's before Zac's accident. It's just that none of use know what that reason is yet.

[Strider]

The naked singularity would seem to imply that the Cylon base is actually inside the Event Horizon of the Black Hole. Since we know almost nothing about the jump drive, it's entirely possible that this is actually the case. Of course, its also entirely possible that it's just writers wanking to terms they don't understand.

[JLTucker]

I certainly don't understand why we have so many shots of the lives on NC, except to take us back to where we started, only earlier. Other than being interesting character building (which should have been done earlier, in my view), I don't see the purpose. Feels too late to be bringing in this stuff now.

The writers probably pulled some shit like those particular characters will survive or die.

[Agent Fisher]

Roslin has some good looking sisters.

[DPDarkPrimus]

I'm sure the flashbacks will color the (possibly final) decisions of the characters somehow, giving us insight into how they came to where they are now.

I found Gaius Baltar's flashbacks to be the most interesting, personally, as he's had the least development of the main cast as far as what he was doing before the attacks. Also because it cast an interesting light on Caprica Six.

[LadyTevar]

Gaius also had a good one-on-one with Lee.

"Tell me one thing you've done that wasn't for your own self-interest!"
".... You're right. I wouldn't trust me either."

[Anguirus]

Because this episode is really meant to be tied with the last two, I'm going to forgo voting this week and wait to see how it all comes together.

I second that. I liked the show but...very little actually happened, considering how much has to, y'know, happen. I mean, I can't freaking believe that we still have that whole business with Starbuck and the Angels to tie up. On the other hand, if they really broke it as a three-hour ep instead of one hour and then two hours it makes perfect sense that nothing was resolved in this one. Think about how the New Caprica storyline played out...it was broken into two two-parters, and it basically plays like a four-parter. Nothing's resolved until the last hour.

I did find it extremely curious that flashbacks took over the show while the critical plot point...Anders revealing the location of the Colony...was no even shown.

I did rather like the "we always do the scouting missions" bit with Skulls and Racetrack. It's so true. Mutineering scum that they were, I missed them.

While it was nice to see Lee back in uniform, it would be a real waste of material if he was killed and some schmuck wound up leading the fleet.

[RedImperator]

Trying to rate this episode would be like trying to rate a regular 1-hour episode based on the first two acts (not that that's stopped people in the past; by the way, lulz to whoever gave the ep a "1" in the first thirteen minutes). There's no way to know if this episode works without seeing the second two hours. The flashbacks, for example--we have no idea if they pay off.

[CaptJodan]

I found Gaius Baltar's flashbacks to be the most interesting, personally, as he's had the least development of the main cast as far as what he was doing before the attacks. Also because it cast an interesting light on Caprica Six.

I'm helping my parents from time to time with dealing with my mom's Alzheimer mother. Baltar's little story rang especially true for his kinds of actions that you want to take, but can't (and don't). Just beat them with the paper, and cuss them out. But you can't do that, and you don't. Still, it was a good scene that I could relate to.

[Covenant]

I try to be objective with numerical rankings, as most as you can be. I threw a 2 at this, not because it was poorly done but because there was so little done. If I was doing an OGEG (Opinionated Galactica Episode Guide) I'd justify it by saying that while the character portraits were fun to see, such as a sober and happy Kara Thrace, as an episode it really doesn't work. While this is obviously a lead-in to the next episode, the material in this hour of television could just as easily have been divided up amongst earlier episodes. So, from the perspective of other episodes and the actual content of the watchable hour, it was decently acted but devoid of any dramatic moments or action at all, and advanced nearly no part of the story yet.

Definately a let-down as a prelude to the final battle. I think the previous episode would have been better for that, and they should have thrown the scenes from this episode into various previous episodes to leave us with denser television and less dead space. No mistakes, just kinda dull. I'm not against "filler" episodes at all, since they are at least entertaining, even if they are the GNDN Tubes of plot. But this is like the anti-filler episode. Totally indispensible, but of no at-the-moment entertainment value.

[Morilore]

Wild Mass Guess of the week: Head Six wanted Baltar to stay behind because with Adama, Roslin, and Lee gone, he now has a chance to use his cultists to take control, in one way or another, of the entire fleet.

I hated the flashbacks in general, but I liked the Baltar/father scene, because just in general I love any scene that humanizes Baltar.

For the final episode, eye candy would be nice, but what I'm really looking for is plot resolution. The episodes since the mutiny have all felt drawn-out and slow, and this one was no exception. In the last three episodes before the Season Two finale, we had Roslin ban abortion resulting in Baltar's campaign for presidency leading in to the settlement of New Caprica, and they dealt with Athena's child, and we had an unprecedented Cylon POV episode, and Lee became Commander of Pegasus, and Starbuck led the SAR to Caprica. In these last three episodes, we've had Hera's abduction, the inevitable deterioration of Galactica, and the Mystery of Starbuck. Oh, and a bunch of "character-building" that didn't tell us anything we didn't already know or is thus far inexplicable. They haven't whetted my appetite for the finale at all. Not to say that I don't still like the show and want to see how it ends, but there's my criticism apologia.

Oh, and one more time, since the "naked singularity" thing brought the idea back into my head: time travel ending.

[Chris OFarrell]

Well, that flashed by rather fast.

Some points:

1. Its all but impossible to give this a rating, as its really part of a much larger episode. I'll have to wait and see that before I can judge this one. I DO think the flashbacks were irrelevant -unless they are shown not to be- and in either case, could have been moved into some of the previous episodes very easily.

2. Good to see Skulls and Racetrack and getting the 'there is an excellent chance you'll jump into a star or something, have a nice day!' jobs. Too few pilots to let them sit in the brig, but they are -and know they are- disposable as far as Adama is concerned.

3. Galactica is really NOT being striped to the bone as I thought she would be. I seriously expected panels out, lights, life support systems, EVERYTHING being stripped. Of course, its also entirely possible they were barely started with the stripping at this point and it was going to take weeks to really finish it, they were just finalizing the plans...

I do like how Lee calls it a 'decommission', not a salvage operation or something, just more polite to the old Girl

4. I really have to admit I like Ellen here, mostly because she tells Torri to shut the FUCK UP and do as she's told, Gods I wanted someone to do that for AGES...

5. Is it just too fanboyish of me to hope that Bulldog makes a comeback here as well?

6. Good to see Lee back in Uniform. But if he goes and Roslyn goes and Adama goes, what the FRACK happens to the fleets leadership?

7. I wonder if the Cylons will donate a strike force of their own heavy raiders to help. Heck, it would be cool to hear that the last scattering of normal raiders, which never had their AI limitation switch reactivates, all 'crossed the line' and volunteered to help! Or the Centurions for that matter.

8. I can't help but think with such a reduced crew, that they are going to have to network the computers and plug Sam in to help run the ship.

9. Tyrol just comes across as self hating now, slipping right back into the early S4 mode, Boomer really did a number on him.

10. Gota love Dean, Caval is at least consistently an asshole

11. Anyone else hope that Hera's 'code' when Caval figures it out and enters it into the computers causes the Colony Hybrid to activate the self destruct sequence of every non Rebel Cylon model?

12. Black hole...such a question mark of a plot point. Time travel? Alternate reality?

13. Gaius's 'Yes I've been a bad boy, but I really mean it this time!' getting smacked down by Lee, awesome. No 'Okay, well you've screwed us the last 15 times we trusted you, but this time perhaps you REALLY mean it?', just 'Get out of my face'.

I still think they've left it too long to answer too many questions, but we'll see how this goes.

[Minischoles]

Not rating for much the same reasons said already, its part of a larger set of episodes. If i did judge it on its own it'd be a 2 if i was quite honest, it really seemed mostly filler. The flashbacks were cool (especially Baltars), but they seemed really to have very little point.
Here's hoping that RDM was just doing what TV writers have done for ages, putting in one relatively cheap episode so they can blow half the special effects budget in 2 hours of battle porn.

[Burak Gazan]

That naked singularity can't be just hanging on the wall for decoration, there's got to be something to it. As you guys have already said, *time-travel - not to mention some theorys suggest that they are perhaps necessary in the creation of a stable wormhole for point-to-point travel at FTL .

All of this has happened before and all of this will happen again...

Oh, I hope not

[Skylon]

To be honest, I suspected flashbacks galore, as I'd seen a cast list for the episode on imdb that had Zak Adama (and since I doubted loopy, off-the-wall "he's a CYLON! resurrections, after "No Exit"). As noted Baltar's was the best, "this the new one you be bangin'!" . Roslin's seemed to be there just to make her life suck more. Adama's was too brief to judge. Lee/Kara/Zak, I'm neutral on.

I loved when the Chief dragged Tori over to the "going" side. I've still got my fingers crossed for Tori meeting a bloody, creative demise at the Chief's hands.

I gave it a neutral three.

Is two commercial filled hours enough to reveal:
- The secret of the Opera House/Hera's fate
- Reveal WTF Kara is
- The mystery of the "angels" (to be frank, I don't see this one getting answered...although, as it is the final episode, they can say aliens and not worry about Olmos walking )
- Show lots of gratuitous battle porn, in which many of the players in this story shall certainly meet their demise?

[tezunegari]

It appears that most of the flashbacks in this episode will only make sense if it is watched with the shows finale. So I will withhold my vote on this one.

I liked the fly-by of Caprica City with the what appeared to be landing pads or even the drydocks for the Colonial Heavy class ships (Colonial One) in the forground.
But the best scenes were Adama packing his stuff into cardboard boxes labled "Admirals Quartiers CYLON BASESTAR" and when Lee shot down Baltars attempt at geting a seat in the new Quorum for his little cult (!!! Might that be in relation to the thirteenth god of the colonial pantheon? The one who lead his people to earth?)
My gues about the black hole: Spoiler

Starbuck will somehow end up being sucked into it with the song from Hera in ther radio. She'll crash-land on Earth in the past and lead her older self (which still needs an explanation for her survival) to earth.

And for the finale... I truelly hope for the mother of all space battle porns.
[Two hours with commercials... so I guess we'll get about 90 minutes of episode material. If less than 30 minutes of it aren't space battel porn I'll be grossly disappointed]

DO NOT READ THIS! I CANNOT BE HELD RELIABLE FOR ANY LASTING BRAIN DAMAGE YOU MIGHT END UP WITH!!! Spoiler

I say Galactica survives the suicide mission and is sucked through the black hole. The volunteers end up on an uninhabited planet and begin to form a new civilization. The fleet left behind is grinded into space dust by Cavil just before he self-destructs because he hates his human body. Cut to a few hundred or thousand years later... big catastrophe which forces the twelve tribes of Kobol to abandon the planet and create the colonies

I warned you not to read it... live with it.

[charlemagne]

But the best scenes were Adama packing his stuff into cardboard boxes labled "Admirals Quartiers CYLON BASESTAR"

Yeah, but my first thought was where the frak did they get all those cardboard boxes, is there a cardboard box factory ship in the fleet or what? Then again, I guess they were stored right next to the Admiral's everlasting booze supplies.

[Phantasee]

Heh, I just looked up Cavil on Google to see some pictures of him as the priest talking to Tyrol, and it turns out there's a definition on Merriam Webster:

cavil
One entry found.

Main Entry:
cav·il Listen to the pronunciation of cavil
Pronunciation:
\ˈka-vəl\
Function:
verb
Inflected Form(s):
cav·iled or cav·illed; cav·il·ing or cav·il·ling Listen to the pronunciation of cavilling \ˈka-və-liŋ, ˈkav-liŋ\
Etymology:
Latin cavillari to jest, cavil, from cavilla raillery; akin to Latin calvi to deceive — more at calumny
Date:
1542

intransitive verb : to raise trivial and frivolous objection transitive verb : to raise trivial objections to
— cavil noun
— cav·il·er or cav·il·ler Listen to the pronunciation of caviller \ˈka-və-lər, ˈkav-lər\ noun

[Aeolus]

Was there really no better way they could spend the penultimate hour than fill it with flashbacks? All that effectively happened in this episode was the decision to ride off into battle, which was knew about last week.

I thought it did a wonderful job of showing the characters and why they made the choices they have made. I can't even begin to understand the posters who hated it. I was literally moved to tears once and came close several other times.

[Jon]

I didn't hate it, and the character exploration was certainly fine, it was just... why now? Hopefully it plays as important into the next two episodes but at the same time, with so little time left, it was an unexpected change of pace.

[Aaron]

Yeah, but my first thought was where the frak did they get all those cardboard boxes, is there a cardboard box factory ship in the fleet or what? Then again, I guess they were stored right next to the Admiral's everlasting booze supplies.

How big were they? Because the first thing that comes to mind is they had a bunch in storage to put the effects of dead crew members in. It is a warship after all.