“I’m proud of you. For doing this. For being here when you could’ve just walked away. I don’t think I’ve ever said it before, but I always wanted to be proud of you. I guess I always felt that was the only thing missing.”
- Caprica Six

For those of us who have followed Battlestar Galactica from the very beginning, I’m sure I’m not alone in feeling a little speechless at the moment. I meant to begin this post as I always have, but I think it is needless to say everyone with the necessary means for it tuned in to last night’s mind-blowing two-hour series finale, 4.20 “Daybreak: Part II”. Here’s our recap of last night’s episode as well as that of last week’s episode, 4.19 “Daybreak: Part I”.

We’re kicking things off with 4.19 “Daybreak: Part I”. As always, in the interest of spoiler-phobes who have not yet seen the episode, the text is hidden from plain view, so please highlight to read:

The episode begins with several flashbacks to the lives of the people of the fleet back on Caprica, before the Cylon Holocaust. Caprica Six meets with Dr. Gaius Baltar for the first time, and the two make love in a limo when Baltar receives a disturbing call about his debilitated and angry father, who has stabbed and scared away a third nurse. Angered by his behavior, Baltar lashes out at his father in front of Six, after which he then orders her to leave. When Baltar returns home with another girl under his shoulder, he finds to his dismay that Six has broken into his house, where she announces to a stunned Baltar she has found his father a new home. Elsewhere, the morning following a drunken but happy evening, Laura Roslin is met at her doorstep by officials who regret to tell Roslin her entire family has been killed in a car accident. Following an emotional breakdown, Roslin declines the offer to join Mayor Adar’s presidential campaign and instead agrees to a blind date. Lee Adama and Kara Thrace meet for the first time when Kara and her boyfriend, Lee’s brother Zak Adama, organize a private dinner, where Lee is made fun of by being pinned as a “girlfriend-stealer”. Lee is then pictured drunk in his home. Commander Adama is reluctant to spend an hour of his time on an unnamed task. Samuel T. Anders is interviewed about is career as a Pyramid player, during which Anders discusses the beauty and mathematics of the “perfect pitch” being of greater interest to him than success or the game itself. Back on Galactica, present day, Virtual Six appears to Dr. Gaius Baltar and announces “the end times are appoaching”. Baltar’s plea to Lee Adama for a voice in the government falls on deaf ears. The Admiral announces Galactica’s mission to the Cylon homeworld, the Colony, to save Hera from the clutches of Cavil et al., and asks for volunteers, reminding everyone it is likely to be a “one way trip”. Among others, Kara “Starbuck” Thrace, President Laura Roslin, Lee Adama, Caprica Six, and the Final Five Cylons all join Adama on his mission, while Baltar does not.

And here’s our recap of “Daybreak: Part II”, which admittedly hardly does justice to the episode. As always, please highlight to read:

As with “Daybreak: Part I”, the finale features several flashbacks into the lives of the people of the fleet pre-Second Cylon War throughout the episode. Ellen and Saul Tigh are shown drinking at a strip club with Commander Adama, where Adama shares with Tigh his reluctance at going through with his one-hour task, and eventually declines it mid-lie detector test. Zak Adama passes out in the middle of his, Lee Adama and Kara “Starbuck” Trace’s drinking session, which is then continued by the latter two. As the attraction between the two intensifies, they are only moments away from making love on the dinner table when they are interrupted by the drunken mumblings of a heavily intoxicated Zak. Baltar is shown discussing access to Caprica’s defense mainframe with Caprica Six, and inadvertently lets it slip that he might, in fact, allow her access at the risk of his own life because of love, which greatly pleases Six, despite Baltar’s attempts to brush off what he’d just said. Laura Roslin finds herself enjoying her blind date, but has second thoughts about sleeping with him, and asks him to leave. Following his departure, Roslin makes a phone call to join Mayor Adar’s presidential campaign after all. Back on Galactica, present day, everyone is prepared for the impending attack on the Colony, with the ailing President Laura Roslin helping in sickbay, Kara Thrace, Karl C. “Helo” Agathon, Sharon “Athena” Agathon and Lee Adama part of a special Galactican strike forces, and the Final Five Cylons hooking up Samuel T. Anders to the CIC, through which he is to override the Colony Hybrids. Admiral Adama submits his admiralty to Hoshi, while Lee appoints defense attorney Romo Lampkin as President. After a moment of discussion with Virtual Six, Baltar entrusts his followers to Paulla and stays behind on the Galactica with the others, much to Caprica Six’s surprise, and while the two await a counterattack on the battlestar, the two reconcile passionately. Their respective virtual copies of one another then appear to the two, giving insight into the purpose of both Baltar and Caprica Six as well as their virtual copies themselves.

Galactica then jumps into the Colony’s vicinity, automatically prompting ferocious gunfire, which Anders is able to stop via communication with the Colony Hybrids. When enemy Cylon Raiders are launched, Galactica in turn launches its Vipers, and the battlestar is then forcefully rammed into the flank of the Colony structure, with both sustaining considerable damage. The strike forces then move in, where Helo and Athena, as lead by Thrace, cross paths with Sharon “Boomer” Valerii carrying Hera in her arms after having snatched her from the Cylons. Boomer willingly hands Hera over, after which Athena shoots her dead, and the strike forces begin making their retreat back to Galactica. Meanwhile, Cylon Raiders are able to shoot down Galactica’s guns and enemy Centurions and Cylons enter the battlestar. As Lee, Kara, Helo, Athena et al. make their way through Galactica’s corridors, a Number Five copy surprises them from behind, and Helo is shot down. In the midst of the action, Hera flees the scene, and Athena runs after her at the encouragement of her bleeding husband. Roslin, sensing Hera’s presence aboard the battlestar, abandons her post in sickbay, and the Opera House vision is fulfilled when Athena and Roslin both watch Caprica Six lift Hera into her arms, with the door closing on the two. Following their vision, Baltar and Caprica Six enter the “Opera House”, which turns out to be the CIC, where all hell has broken loose, and Cavil is able to grab Hera. However, with Virtual Six and Baltar standing by, Baltar appeals convincingly to Cavil to let Hera go in exchange for Tigh’s promise of resurrection technology, and a shaky truce is agreed on. The Final Five then connect through Anders in order to allow the enemy Cylons to download the resurrection technology information, but everything goes wrong when the connection simultaneously allows the five to access eachother’s memories and knowledge, and Galen Tyrol finally learns of Tory Foster’s involvement in his wife Cally’s supposed suicide. Blinded by his rage, Tyrol breaks the connection and strangles Tory to death, and the reactions of the Hybrid Anders as well as the Colony Hybrids prompt a chaos that breaks the fragile armistice, and the enemy Cylons are gunned down, with Cavil shooting himself in the head with a handgun through his mouth. A surviving Raptor is able to launch its nukes on the Colony, and the Admiral orders Kara to jump the ship away from the destruction. Without the rendez-vous coordinates, Kara uses the notes of the mysterious melody from her past as coordinates, and the ship makes an FTL jump away.

Post-jump, the Galactica is close to falling apart, but survives barely. Another jump, however is out of the question, as FTL is offline and the Galactica would be unable to survive another jump. Kara’s coordinates, however, have lead the battlestar into the vicinity of a planet, which turns out to be the one we knows as Earth. The fleet jumps to the same coordinates, and as an inquiry team lands on the planet they discover it is inhabited by a pre-verbal, early human society. The Admiral then orders civilians to be scattered all over the planet, while Lee dislikes the idea of introducing technology and demands a clean slate, which is agreed to. Once the fleet is cleared of survivors, Anders leads the Galactica and the fleet’s ships into the Sun, while the Centurions are allowed to leave with the Cylon Basestar to form their own colony elsewhere, even with the risk of their later return. While Helo is revealed to have survived and reconciled with his wife, Admiral Adama and President Laura Roslin leave the rest the survivors on the eve of Roslin’s death, and as Adama takes Roslin on a scenic trip aboard a Raptor, Roslin passes away of her cancer, and a grieving Adama buries her on a hilltop. Following an emotional farewell to his father, Lee is further grieved to hear Kara also feels a, however inexplicable, need to leave, and while Lee discusses with Kara his desire to explore the planet, Kara is suddenly gone from sight, and Lee knows she is never to return. Tyrol, tired of company, leaves the others to live by himself on a secluded island, and Ellen and Tigh bear him no grudge for killing Tory. Tigh and Ellen, Baltar and Caprica Six, and Helo and Athena together with Hera then go their separate ways.

The episode’s final moments then cut to 150,000 years later, present-day New York, where Virtual Six and Baltar, now revealed as guiding angels of sorts, debate the future of the colony on Earth, and whether the prophecy will once again repeat itself — “all of this has happened before, and will happen again.” The episode ends with footage of recent advances in robotics.

I’m just at a loss for words. The finale was better than I ever could’ve hoped for. Did you also notice the spectacular score throughout the finale? Not to mention the attention to detail. My heart was racing throughout the action sequences, and the scene in which the Galactica withstands fire from the Colony guns is epic, even more so than the Season 3 scene in which the Galactica jumps away only moments away from crashing onto the New Caprica ground. Epic. The finale was epic. Brilliant. Epic. So say we all.

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