Saturday, March 14, 2009

Battlestar Galactica - Daybreak Part 1

Battlestar Galactica started the beginning of the end with part one of Daybreak, and if last night's episode was any indication, it will be a huge frakking ending to the best frakking TV show out there. WOW! I am so hooked and was on the edge of my seat as things wrapped up in the first part of the finale. The series is going out with a bang (as promised) and it looks like our Battlestar will be doing one final mission and a one way trip to rescue Hera and fulfill a few prophecies.

The flashbacks back to Caprica before the fall were all fascinating, and it's an interesting way to go back to the very beginning and see some of the other impetus that brought our characters to where we are at in the story, that penultimate chapter before the end of this story. I know that there are other stories to tell and more of this fascinating universe that they have created and I am looking forward to more tales, but this story happening right now is so enthralling. We learn how Adama was reluctant to take on the Galactica, how Roslin was stricken with great personal tragedy and lost her father and sisters in a terrible accident and the transition scene from her dealing with her grief in the fountain transposing to her chemotherapy treatment was very well done. Seeing Kara and Zack (and her first meeting of his brother Lee) was poignant, and as it is history that we have not seen much of (but heard about earlier in the series) it gave even more insight into what makes Kara tick, and her ties with the Adama family. Seeing the first meeting between Gaius and Six was a shocker, Gaius was a complete prick with his infirm father, and after literally dismissing her, she turns around and in an very emotional turn of events get his father placed into a great nursing home to take care of him and worms her way into his heart. Six always surprises me with her level of emotion and empathy, pretty frakking awesome for a machine. Anders was the surprise of the flashbacks, showing his love of the mathematics of his sport and his quest for perfection which sounded pretty Cylon from way back when. The deeper you scratch the surface of all these characters the more and more you discover about each of them and how complex and fascinating each and everyone of them is.

With all of that going on, and the continuing dismantling of Galactica, Adama decides that they have a final mission, and they are going to rescue Hera from the Cylons. They draw a line down the center of the hangar and after a huge rousing speech, sides are chosen and they prepare for their final showdown with the Cylons. The biggest shock was seeing Roslin arrive, frail and dying but willing to fight with her last breath and I am in awe of the transformation of the character.

This is it.. the final act ... and I can hardly wait until next Friday to see how it all plays out. This was probably one of the best hours of television that I have ever seen and can now only wait for it to be surpassed with the finale. There are so many questions to be answered and I can hardly believe that it will all be over in just a week...