Battlestar Galactica: Season 4

Discussion in 'SciFi & Fantasy' started by superstring01, Jan 13, 2008.

  1. The Flemster Unstoppable sex machine Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    703
    Just watched the last eppisode before the break/writer's strike.

    I don't know where you lot are up to so I won't spoil anything but if anyone else has seen it, let me ask them this:
    (written in white so as not to spoil anyhting for anyone. Right click and highlight to see)

    Is that the ruins of New York City they're standing near in the final moments? sure looks like it.


    The Flemster.
     
  2. Google AdSense Guest Advertisement



    to hide all adverts.
  3. Tiassa Let us not launch the boat ... Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    37,884
    So it would seem

    Flemster

    So it would seem. There is commentary on that in the Analysis section for the episode at Battlestar Wiki.

    • • •​

    That would seem to match up with the sketch she made. I think. It looks like two of the five are female.
     
    Last edited: Jun 20, 2008
  4. Google AdSense Guest Advertisement



    to hide all adverts.
  5. Prince_James Plutarch (Mickey's Dog) Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    9,214
    I have fucking AWFUL news.

    The producers confirmed: No new eps till NEXT YEAR sometime.

    I am so mad!
     
  6. Google AdSense Guest Advertisement



    to hide all adverts.
  7. superstring01 Moderator

    Messages:
    12,110
    That's old news pal. We knew this weeks ago.

    ~String
     
  8. The Flemster Unstoppable sex machine Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    703
    Good news tho!

    All the post-production on the remainder of Season 4 has been completed. They're ready to go!

    The producers, however, want to wait til early 2009. In the meantime, they're seriously talking about squirting out 2 or 3 movies (ala Razor) to fill the gap. The movies will be set before the events of SE04:10.

    I get my infinate knowledge on this matter from SciFiNow magazine. And they're pretty good, most of the time.

    2009. For frak's sake...


    So Say We All!
     
  9. Xelios We're setting you adrift idiot Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    2,447
    They're ready now and they're waiting until 2009?

    Those last 10 episodes had better be spectacular or people are going to be very disappointed with the way they ended this.

    But "The Hub" in 720p... awesome
     
  10. Pandaemoni Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    3,634
    I'm sure they want the finale to fall during May sweeps. SciFi has never had a good shot at capturing significant numbers of viewers during May sweeps, and if they can pull that off it could be lucrative for them (even though the show that captured viewer attention will be gone).

    I wonder if it will be aired in Britain earlier?
     
  11. lixluke Refined Reinvention Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    9,072
    I'm still PO about Cali. That was uncalled for. Tori is going to die. She's just too evil.

    As for Billy, I doubt he would be banging Baltar like Tori. He's going to pop up as the last cylon. The only reason Billy left the show was to try and star in his own crappy sitcom which he completely sucked in. His acting in that was horrible. Hopefully him or Cali will return as the final cylon. Otherwise, considering the look on #3's face in the temple, it might well be father Adama.

    Chief being a cylon makes no sense because this means his child is also a mulato. The whole point was to make the mulato child a huge significant thing. The fact that Hera is no longer the only one doesn't make her too significant anymore. All the hustle and bustle of protecting and saving Hera over the course of the entire season 3 becomes much weaker now that there is another mulato running around.

    Earth looks a hell of alot like New Capirca. If it is indeed earth, don't you think they could have picked a nicer spot to land? Hmm, let's survey the planet, and pick the gloomiest crustiest spot to land on. Let's not go to the Grand Canyon, Iraq(the fertile crescent), or even Hawaii. No. Let's go find some black dirt hole, and land there. It still baffles me why they never settled on Kobalt.
     
  12. superstring01 Moderator

    Messages:
    12,110
    The show is produced on the cheap in Vancouver, Canada which limits the outside sights to some pretty cloudy, green and mountainous areas.

    ~String

    PS, it's "Kobol" not "Kobalt".

    ~String
     
  13. lixluke Refined Reinvention Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    9,072
    Perhaps they should film in Boracay.
     
  14. Tiassa Let us not launch the boat ... Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    37,884
    They had their reasons

    It is my understanding they were pursuing what they thought was the Temple of Aurora. There's actually a funny point about that scene in the analysis at Battlestar Wiki.

    In what may be a coincidence, not far from the Eastern approaches to the real-life Brooklyn Bridge in Brooklyn, New York and close to the northern shore of the borough, there is a building owned by the Jehovah's Witnesses. It is called "The Watchtower". The relevance is that the song that the Final Four heard is actually All Along the Watchtower by Bob Dylan. Further, the building is situated very near if not the exact place the landing party stands at.

    And while I greatly appreciate the white-text spoiler protection, and while I have used it in the BSG Wiki excerpt above, I confess it may well be a bit excessive. We long ago gave over in this topic to the necessity of a certain amount of spoiler information for those running behind the current schedule.
     
  15. superstring01 Moderator

    Messages:
    12,110
    Agreed.

    There's the implicit assumption of risk when you enter a thread marked "Battlestar Galactica: Season 4".

    ~String
     
  16. Challenger78 Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    7,536
    Damn non sci fi friendly Aussie tv networks.
    Damn them.
     
  17. Xelios We're setting you adrift idiot Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    2,447
    I couldn't even watch BSG here in Germany without being 3 seasons behind and having it dubbed over in German. Thank god for bittorrent.
     
  18. Tiassa Let us not launch the boat ... Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    37,884
    Merely a theory

    Given that only four of the Final Five were found in the fleet, I have been unable to shake the question of the fifth from my mind. In the end, though, I'm going to run with—if you'll please pardon the expression—a dark-horse candidate:

    Elosha ....​

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!


    Elosha, aboard Colonial One (left), and dead after a Cylon ambush on Kobol (right).
    (via Battlestar Wiki)

    Now, work with me here. There are three primary elements to the theory:

    • Elosha died after triggering an antipersonnel mine on Kobol ("Home, Part I")
    • D'Anna, when viewing the Final Five in a vision, said, "You? Forgive me, I had no idea." ("Rapture")
    • Elosha, long dead, appears to President Roslin in a vision during a Cylon base star's FTL jumps. ("The Hub")​

    Let us start with the obvious: Who was D'Anna talking to, and what was she apologizing for?

    It is not by any means implausible that D'Anna was, in fact, speaking to Elosha; she would likely have known that the priestess died on Kobol, either through her work as a journalist in the fleet ("Final Cut") or because the information would be available in Cylon databanks as part of combat reports we might reasonably expect from centurions on Kobol.

    In order for the Final Five to be hidden from the remaining seven humanoid models, though, it would seem likely that the Five would not resurrect. There are no copies of Elosha's body to recycle her into, so it may be that her data pattern is simply hidden away in Cylon archives.

    As such, we might speculate that when the panicking hybrid initiated an FTL jump, the means by which matter and energy transcended mundane conditions allowed Elosha's pattern to interact with Roslin. While Cylons can share their projections with one another, and Baltar's experiences with Six invites questions about either Baltar's status or the ability of humanity to perceive these projections, it is at least arguable that a Cylon Elosha data pattern might, while matter and energy relate under extraordinary conditions, be capable of communicating with Roslin through projections.

    Furthermore, while Cavil had, in one form, posed as a priest in the fleet, his model is very much atheistic. His arguments of principle are coldly practical, compared to the impassioned and religious outlooks of Twos, Threes, and Sixes. If, as it is still arguable, a thematic cycle of usurpation is afoot in BSG's plot—e.g., the creations attempt to become and even replace their creators, a common literary theme—it would not be unreasonable to expect at least one genuine religious figure among the humanoid Cylons.

    In the famous "Last Supper" photograph of prominent BSG cast members, there is, of course, the empty seat. Producer Ronald David Moore has acknowledged the validity of the suggestion that this means none of the people in the picture are the last Cylon.

    This eliminates Roslin, Adama, Starbuck, Apollo, Helo, and Baltar from consideration, which is especially important to bear in mind considering that Adama, Roslin, Helo, and Baltar were all aboard the rebel base star when D'Anna stated that only four of the Final Five were in the fleet.

    Thus, there are a few options for the identity and location of the last Cylon:

    • Not yet activated; D'Anna lied. (We might refer, then, to the BetCRIS numbers provided by Madanthonywayne in the post quoted above.)

    • With the Thirteenth Tribe. (It would seem a difficult proposition to lay the groundwork for that possibility and then wrap it up in the next ten episodes.)

    • Dead. (Which leads me to consider Elosha.)

    • With the Cylons. (A problematic proposition insofar as we can only wonder what happened to the people aboard the Olympic Carrier—who appeared to be missing when the ship reappeared in "33". Also, there is some question about the survivor count after the rescue at New Caprica (see notes for "Crossroads, Part I"); was anyone left behind? What would have happened to them? Also, the proposition may include Elosha, according to the possibility that her data pattern would exist in a Cylon computer archive.)​

    If we presume D'Anna deceived Adama, relying on the fact that the final Cylon is not yet activated, we might speculate any number of suspects on the BetCRIS book. If D'Anna referred to the final Cylon being aboard the base star, Seelix becomes a candidate. In this case, though, how would D'Anna have played the situation? If she had two of the five onboard, why would she not devise a scheme for isolating the unidentified fifth?

    To the other, if the final Cylon is either with the Thirteenth Tribe or the Cylons, we should expect that hand to be tipped in the early episodes of the second bloc. Either way, though, it seems only a slight possibility; from a storytelling perspective, such plot twists would be incredibly delicate and ridiculously dangerous, likely leading to a clumsy and unsatisfying—even anti-climactic—revelation.

    I'm not proposing that Elosha would be a particularly satisfying answer to the question of the final Cylon. Nor can I say it is especially likely. But her return to the series for one episode seemed conspicuous, since there are certainly plenty of ways the writers could have brought Roslin through her soul-searching—and some of those would have spared us the weak bedside scenes.

    It seems most likely that the answer will resolve from D'Anna deceiving Adama, either outright or by grace of abstract principle (e.g. last Cylon not activated).

    But then we come back to the question of D'Anna's apology to the Final Five: Who was she talking to?
    _____________________

    Notes:

    Battlestar Wiki. http://www.battlestarwiki.org/
    Entertainment Weekly. "'Battlestar Galactica': Season 4 Preview!" January 7, 2008. http://www.ew.com/ew/article/1,,20169703,00.html
     
  19. madanthonywayne Morning in America Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    12,461
    Couldn't she have been talking to one of the four Cylons already identified? Maybe she's the one who put out Tigh's eye and she was apologizing to him!
     
  20. Tiassa Let us not launch the boat ... Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    37,884
    Well, sh@t!

    D'oh. Well, that's actually a good point. Somehow in all of that I still managed to screw the chronology. Good call.

    (A deleted scene apparently depicts the scene in which Tigh lost his eye. See "Alternate story lines and ideas" for the episode summary of "Occupation". A Number Five—e.g., Doral—apparently did the deed.)

    Anyway, damn. Back to the drawing board? I don't know. That was my one deep theory on the question, and I'm not sure what else I've got to work with.

    Anyone? Anyone?
     
  21. The Flemster Unstoppable sex machine Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    703

    You wouldn't fit 48,000 colonists on White Beach!
    (Nicer spot than brooklyn tho!)
     
  22. lixluke Refined Reinvention Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    9,072
    Yes. So they arrived in the ruins of the Jehova's Witness. They find out that the last cylon is there. The one that Dianna was apologizing to was not one of the final 4, but a member of the fleet. One who Dianna had committed horrible acts upon. The ultimate cylon that had been working within the human colonies. The one posing as a human in order to break the human-cylon peace treaty to make it seem as if the humans broke the treaty. Thereby allowing the cylons to attack. The last leader of the cylons is none other than:


    Daniel Novacek! wrink wrink wrink!
     
  23. lixluke Refined Reinvention Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    9,072
    STILL NOT CONVINCED?
    Starbuck already investigated the situation, and found out that the cylons were intentionally not hitting Danny boy down as he made his escape. Why the hell would the cylons allow Danny to freely get away? Well Danny convinced the humans that the reason the cylons let him go was because they knew he would be upset at Adama for letting him get caught. Then, proceed to kill Adama. How silly indeed. The fact is, Danny let himself get caught by the cylons long ago. The raiders allowed Danny to escape because they were the only ones that knew that Danny was a cylon. The main models still did not know. Danny was behind the whole plot to begin with. He allowed Adama to think the war was Adama's fault. He even allowed the mian models to think he was a human, and allowed Dianna to rape and batter him.
     

Share This Page