Did any of the big questions get answered? Were our heroes able to find a home? Was there peace between human and Cylon? Click through for a play-by-play of the epic and -- from our perspective -- deeply satisfying series finale.
The Flashbacks
We begin with a series of flashbacks. Bill Adama and Saul Tigh at a strip club on Caprica. Discussing whether or not Adama should take "the job." Adama is torn over the whole thing and hit rock bottom in a super sad puking scene on the street, staring longingly up into space. Meanwhile, Lee, Zak, and Kara are at the same dinner party we saw in "Daybreak" part one. Sparks fly between Lee and Kara,. and it's clear from how their relationship begins that it was destined for tragedy. Elsewhere, Roslin is on a date with one of her former students (huh, should we alert Scanner about this?) and Gaius is being manipulated by the original Caprica Six. She tells him that he's following God's plan by "taking charge of mankind's remnants and guiding them to their end."
Back on Galactica
The crew on Galactica is planning a major battle: the invasion of the Cylon colony. Ellen, Tory, Caprica Six, Kara, and Galen Tyrol plan on using Sam to control the other hybrid, giving them an opportunity to penetrate the ship. So they decide that they need to move him to the C.I.C. Next, Bill Adama appoints Hoshi as Admiral of the fleet, and Lee Adama appoints Romo Lampkin as the President of the Colonies. Guess that whole gun-wielding incident is really water under the bridge. And after prepping two days worth of drugs for Laura Roslin (who is planning on helping tend to the wounded), Doc Coddle gets the first goodbye of the evening -- a tearful and funny farewell from a grateful Laura. Finally, at the last minute, Gaius decides not to join the last Raptor leaving Galactica for the fleet. Lee tosses him a rifle, and we get a flash of the Centurions marching out onto the hangar of Galactica.
Epic Battle. Epic Win.
"Just so there'll be no misunderstandings later, Galactica's seen a lot of history, gone through a lot of battles. This will be her last. She will not fail us if we do not fail her. If we succeed in our mission, Galactica will bring us home. If we don't, it doesn’t matter anyway." -Bill Adama
From the outside, the Colony looks like a giant, galactic insect. Galactica FTL's right into the middle of all the action, into what looks like the Colony's pincers. The assault on our girl is fierce but Sam takes down the Hybrid, and as the guns stop, the Raiders are on their way. During this small break, Bill Adama takes the opportunity to crash Galactica into the Colony. This allows Assault One (lead by Lee) and Assault Two (lead by Kara) to enter the Colony.
Gunfire breaks out between humans, Cylons, and Centurions. Boomer, true yet again to her perpetual state of self-doubt and self-destruction, makes the decision to save Hera from experiments. This move causes Cavil to start an offensive and they fight back, making a move to get onto Galactica. Meanwhile, Caprica Six and Gaius are guarding an entrance onto Galactica, and during a lull in action, she's tells him that she’s proud of him -- and that pride was the one thing she'd always wanted to feel for him. Just as we realize, a little sadly, that she and Tigh will not be making up, they start a small make-out session -- and then, suddenly, they're interrupted by the "head" selves, the interior versions of each other that have plagued thrm throughout the show -- both of which they are able to see simultaneously!
"All of the pieces are falling into place." Head Caprica Six
"You'll hold the future of Cylons and humans in your hands." Head Gaius
"I will?" Caprica Six and Gaius together
"You see them, too?" Caprica Six and Gaius together
Back on the Colony, Boomer comes face-to-face with Assault Two, which has Kara, Athena, and Helo. She turns Hera over to Athena and asks her tell the old man that she owed him one. Athena pumps her full of bullets, and we are privy to a flashback of Bill Adama giving rookie Boomer another chance at being a pilot after continually failing to land her bird correctly. In a moment that Adama at the time fails to take seriously, but that obviously has meaning now, she tells him that for a second chance, she'll pay him back someday when it really means something, creating a poignant goodbye for this, the most complex and troubled of the Cylons.
Assault One and Assault Two meet up and confirm that they have Hera so they head back for Galactica. They arrive at Caprica Six and Gaius and hurry to get Hera out of the action zone. Outside of sick bay, Roslin shoots up her medication, and starts to see the visions of Hera in the opera house, again, and runs around Galactica looking for her. Helo -- who was carrying Hera -- is shot in the leg and Hera runs off; at Helo's behest, Athena runs after her.
We see flashes of scenes from the opera house and Galactica. We've seen these scenes before, at the end of the first season -- Roslin and Athena running after Hera, seeing each other and running down to a meeting point, where they see Caprica Six and Gaius taking Hera into a room. Caprica Six and Gaius are having similar memories -- Gaius' hair used to be so long! -- and in their reverie, they wind up in the C.I.C. In a jaw-dropping moment, we see the scene of the final five Cylons looking down on them -- both in flashback, with those white hooded figures, and in present, with Tigh, Tyrol, Tori, Ellen, and Anders standing on a platform above the deck.
Somehow in the shuffle, Cavil gets his hands on Hera. Gaius tries to convince Cavil to give up Hera and gives a pivotal speech about how Hera holds the key to Cylon and humanity's future. He talks about God, Gods, and angels -- possibly referring to the "head" versions of he and Six-- saying "God's not on any one side. God's a force of nature." He begs him to break the cycle and take a leap of faith and to live in hope, not fear. Cavil is finally convinced when Saul Tigh offers them the knowledge of resurrection in exchange for Hera and a truce. Cavil pulls back his forces and Adama tells everyone to stand down.
Then, in a super, sci-fi-techie moment, Ellen, Saul, Tory, and Galen dip their hands in Sam's bath water. In this moment, they will be able to know and see everything about each other -- meaning that Galen sees that Tory airlocked Callie and out of rage, strangles her to death, breaking the download and causing the Cylons to think that it was a trap. Everyone starts shooting up the C.I.C., except for Cavil, who -- seeing that there was no way out of there -- shoots himself in the mouth.
Out in the space, the battle accidentally escalates, as a Raptor floating out in space, its nukes armed, gets knocked around by an asteroid, causing the dead pilot to accidentally launch its missiles directly at the Colony. Bill Adama orders Kara to jump the ship away. But she doesn't have the rendezvous coordinates; Adama tells her it doesn't matter, just jump anywhere. But Kara comes up with some coordinates of her own. After a montage of her past, Hera's drawing, her father's musical notes, the numbers that she assigned to his notes, and Leoben telling her that she's an Angel blazing with the light of God, she punches in the coordinates which supposedly correspond with All Along The Watchtower (again, they don't really, but who cares) and they jump! (BTW, here are the coordinates: 1123 6536 5321. Go on; try and register that URL. Too late!)
We move on to more of the flashback between Lee and Kara, where she tells him that she's not afraid of dying, she's afraid of being forgotten. Then in the present, Galactica materializes and Laura asks "Where have you taken us, Kara?"
It's FRAKKIN Earth! Our Earth! [Ed.: Um... more on this later.]
After landing on what appears to be Africa, the humans are faced with the prospect of starting anew. Except Lee wants to really start over and leave behind all their technology. In a philosophical discourse, Lee pleads that our brains have always out raced out hearts, our science charged ahead with our souls lagging behind, and that this is the only way to really start over. The decision is made, and they decide to leave their technology behind and spread the civilians out over the planet to increase the chance for survival. The Admiral announces his no-takebacks plan -- to send the empty fleet ships into the sun -- and the Final Five agree to release the Centurions from their own slavery and give them the base ship to roam around the universe on their own.
A few minutes later, just like he'd meant to in the pilot episode, Bill Adama flies the last Viper out of Galactica's hangar. A flashback shows him walking away from a lie detector test, a pre-req for that post-retirement job, saying, "I'd rather spend my career on a broken down ship then have someone question my word." And this is how he wound up back on Galactica.
The Good-byes
"Perfection. That's what it's about. It's those moments. When you can feel the perfection of creation. The beauty the physics you know the wonder of mathematics. the elations of action and reaction and that is the kind of perfection that I want to be connected to." -- Sam Anders
We pan out, in the present time, to see the fleet, with Anders leading them from the C.I.C. As the main theme from the original Battlestar Galactica swells briefly, we see the ships disappear into the sun.
Back on Earth, Galen Tyrol decides to leave civilization behind and takes off on his own to explore. Saul and Ellen finally get to spend the rest of their lives together in peace. And under a tent, Laura is attempting to spend the last days of her life together with Bill. He declares that they've earned the right to call the new planet Earth, which seems to please her, and as she begins to seriously fade, he decides to carry her English Patient-style to a Raptor, which, after having an emotional -- and final -- goodbye with Kara and Lee, they fly off in together.
"What do you hear, Starbuck?" -Bill Adama
"Nothing but the rain." -Kara Thrace
"Grab your gun and bring in the cat." -Bill Adama
The most bittersweet moment of the finale is when Kara tells Lee that she's done here and that she's completed her journey. We go to a flashback that is emblematic of their tragically complicated relationship. Back at that dinner party, after Zak has passed out on the sofa, Kara and Lee almost hook up on the dining room table. They get in a few kisses before Zak starts taking in his sleep and interrupts them; it's evident from the start that no matter how much chemistry and love the two share, the guilt of their relationship with Zak will always haunt them.
Back on Earth, Starbuck asks Lee what he wants to do now. Lee gets swept up in his response, and just as he's starting to talk of exploring the new planet, he turns around to see Kara has disappeared into thin air, an open field stretching out in every direction. Another flashback then, one we saw in Part One: Lee waking up to see a bird in his living room, only to fly off. Guess The Sopranos isn't the only TV show that can do animal symbolism; Kara is the one who was always free as a bird while Lee was always rooted in obligation and duty. And this was the draw, they saw qualities in each other that they desperately wanted, but could neither have nor cage. Now that there is no duty or Kara, Lee is finally free and Kara has faithfully fulfilled her mission.
"Good-bye Kara. You won't be forgotten." - Lee Adama
After a few minutes of flying around, seeing this lush and verdant new world, Laura Roslin has a peaceful death on the Raptor with Bill. He lands and chooses a beautiful place (possibly on the edge of the Ngorongoro Crater) to bury her and build the cabin that she had dreamed of on New Caprica. As a band of remaining humans file past them, Gaius and Caprica Six (their love rekindled) chat once more with their "head" counterparts, before heading off in a different direction to begin a life of farming together. (Question: would Gaius' father issues have been more potently poignant if we'd known about them all this time? We're not sure.) We see Hera, reunited a few minutes earlier with Athena and a limping Helo -- and then a cut to black.
Flash forward 150,000 years later. Imaginary Caprica Six and Gaius roam around New York City and compare our own civilization with the twelve colonies, the first Earth, and Kobol. Suddenly a montage of robots and humanity, set to Jimi Hendrix's version of "All Along The Watchtower," leaving us to wonder whether Imaginary Gaius and Six are really angels, devils, or simply two riders approaching as the wind begins to howl.
PREVIOUSLY
Why "The Last Frakking Special" Holds The Key To "Battlestar Galactica"
Admiral Adama At The United Nations: "SO SAY WE ALL!"
Our "Battlestar Galactica" Archive
