Battlestar Recap: There Must Be Some Way Out of Here

To borrow a phrase from the Star Trek: The Next Generation finale, all good things must end. Battlestar Galactica has been a very good thing and its ending leaves its upcoming TV movie The Plan and upcoming prequel Caprica with a lot to live up to. So join us as we jump the old girl on one last suicide mission because that’s just who Bill Adama and his crew are.

Pictured: Katee Sackhoff as Kara “Starbuck” Thrace — SCI FI Channel Photo: Carole Segal

We start at a Caprica City strip club with the Tighs and Bill Adama drinking to his retirement.  Whatever. Even without benefit of Cylon attack, I don’t think retirement was for Bill Adama at that point. He doesn’t even make it all the way through the interview for his corporate job before leaving.

In Laura Roslin’s flashback, her blind date turns out to be one of her former students. She goes cougar on him but tells him it won’t happen again. He makes a really sad face and Laura decides to join a political campaign. In present day, Laura thanks Doc Cottle for everything he’s done to keep her alive. Cottle almost loses it, as do I. This scene just hits all the right notes.

Laura’s not the only one dealing with romantic entanglement in her flashback as Lee and Kara almost engage in drunken passion while Zak sleeps. This flashback just drives home that while these two obviously love each other, it just wasn’t meant to happen.

One final crazy mission into the heart of Cylon territory demands one last Adama pep talk. It’s classic Adama as he tells his crew Galactica will not fail them if they do not fail her. If they succeed, he tells them Galactica will bring them home.If not, he says, it doesn’t matter. This was just awesome followed immediately by more awesome. Oh and yes,Gaius Baltar actually mans up and comes on the suicide mission, giving his cult over to Paula.

The scenes in which Galactica fights it out with the Cylon big guns are excellent, the best stuff this show has offered yet for action. We feel the shockwaves as the old girl takes everything the Cylons have to offer. It’s time for the classic “ram the enemy with the ship” maneuver. Sam Anders gets an assist for taking the Cylons’ hybrids offline.

So from there, its Centurion against Centurion action. It’s surreal to see our human heroes fighting alongside skinjobs and Centurions. Boomer asks a Cylon scientist if he’s going to keep working on Hera during the assault. He tells her she’s overestimated the humans’ chances and underestimated the importance of numbers. Then Boomer smooth kills him and runs off with Hera. Folks, Boomer switches sides more than the average pro wrestler. There’s a great moment with Caprica Six and Baltar in which Caprica explains that she’s proud of him. She’s always wanted to be, she says. And we get some humor as both of them can see the other’s head projections.

When she brings Hera back to her parents, Boomer explains that she owes the old man one. We get a flashback in which Adama reads Boomer the riot act but allows her one last chance to earn her billet. Coming back to the present, Boomer said she knows this was probably her last choice. She’s right, as Athena fills her full of bullets.

As they try to battle back to Galactica, Helo gets seriously wounded and a frightened Hera takes off. Athena chases after her at Helo’s urging. Roslin, still bonded to Hera, is drawn to her. All the people from the vision of the opera house recognize where to go, and Caprica Six and Baltar take Hera into the Opera House, which turns out to be the CIC. Epic. Unfortunately Cavil is there too and he snatches up Hera again.

It’s Baltar of all people that talks sense into Cavil, telling him there are things at play he does not understand. Baltar says there are angels in this very room and that he may be quite mad for believing that, but that doesn’t mean he’s not right.

A deal is struck: the Final Five will trade their knowledge of resurrection to the Cavil Cylons in exchange for Hera. They’ll need to place their hands into the super goop that keeps Sam hybrided up and in that instant, they’ll all know everything the others know. Tory realizes this means Galen will know that she killed his wife. She tries to talk her way out of this, but when Galen gains that awareness he snaps her neck like a twig.

That interrupt stops the download and there’s a huge firefight between Cavil and Adama’s charges. In the melee, Cavil commits suicide by eating a bullet and the Cylon colony gets nuked. Adama asks Starbuck to get them out of there. She wants to know where she should jump but no one cares, they just want away. Then Starbuck realizes that the notes she’s memorized are actually the FTL coordinates for Earth, or what will become Earth.

There are inevitable comparisons to Lord of the Rings from here on out. We get endings for several of our fave characters. Lee comes up with the interesting plan to get rid of all technology, having Sam pilot the ships into the sun. The Centurions get the baseship to live out their lives as they choose, as everyone’s in agreement they’ve earned it. Kara and Lee have to say some emotional goodbyes. I didn’t cry yet, but I was close.

But they hit us with all the other endings, Adama taking a flight off an abandoned Viper deck. Galen decided to head for what will one day be called Scotland, he said he was tired of people and wanted some time alone. No word on whether Duncan McLeod will prove one of Galen’s descendants. Saul and Ellen will live out their days in happiness (in theory).

Caprica and Gaius will live on a farm (Gaius breaks down, remembering his farming father) and Caprica consoles him. Powerful stuff. I’m still holding it together.

Adama gets ready to take Roslin for one last Viper ride but not before saying goodbye to Lee and Starbuck. Yeah, I’m gonna cry soon. Lee said his earliest memories are of his dad leaving on a spaceship. Starbuck says he’s not coming back this time and Lee knows that. But Starbuck said she’s not either and then vanishes.

What was Kara Thrace? She was a harbinger of death, leading the crew to two different Earths and finally ending a centuries-long conflict. At least we think she did. She was the best damn pilot in the whole fleet, one hell of a poker player and somebody you’d want on your side in any fight. And she was Bill Adama’s daughter.

For Fridays for the past four years, she’s been one of the best reasons in history to turn on the TV. Part of me, the reporter part, wants all the answers to the questions. But you know, I guess it doesn’t matter to me what Kara Thrace was as much as who she was. In her final flashback, she tells Lee that more than anything else she fears being forgotten. Lee never will forget her and neither will the rest of us.

Oh and the Agathons? Helo actually lived, presumably happily with Athena and Hera. We flash forward 150,000 to find that Hera was Mitochondrial Eve, the mother of modern humanity. Our two angels Gaius and Caprica are talking about how things are happening as they have before. Caprica says God’s watching and Gaius says “God” doesn’t like to be called that. What a frakkin’ ride, gang.