Battlestar Galactica--"Revelations"

I cannot describe to you how much I dislike the fact Sci Fi is attempting to eke out yet another season of BSG by splitting the current season in half, but I certainly do like the shocking cliffhanger they left us with to keep use coming back for more. There was a plan afoot for this to be the series finale should the writers strike cancel the remainder of the season. While I never expected a happy ending to a series this dark, that would have been a hard kick in the gut. As it is, I have to wonder what the real ending might be. Cast members who have commented on the script for the series have expressed a certain melancholy regarding the last scene. One has to wonder.

But that is 2009. In the here and now, we have D’Anna announcing to Adama there are only four of the final five Cylons in his fleet. She will hold the colonials aboard the BaseStar hostage until the four are handed over to her. D’Anna orders Adama to escort her to Galactica. Before they leave, Roslin quietly insists Adama destroy the BaseStar if he has to..

Tori is allowed to go to the BaseStar and tend to the cancer stricken Roslin. She reveals herself as one of the four Cylons and joins up with D’Anna, who begins making good on her threat to kill a hostage every fifteen minutes until the other three are handed over. The remaining three begin to hear the music again, this time from Starbuck’s Viper. Anders and Galen head to the hanger, but Tigh seeks out Adama to inform him of his true nature. Meanwhile, Lee sets in motion a rescue mission for the hostages and prepares to destroy the BaseStar altogether if need be.

Adama’s world is turned upside down by the news. It gets much worse when tigh insists he be killed to prevent D’Anna from getting all four of them. Baltar tries to convince d’Anna to stand down on the BaseStarwith little result. Anders and Tyrol realize Starbuck’s Viper has a homing beacon pointing the way to earth. As tensions escalate, Adama decides to follow the beacon and jump to Earth. The entire fleet celebrates as they believe their journey is over. But when they arrive, all is lost. Earth is in irradiated ruins after some sort of nuclear attack.

This was a really good episode. It was the culmination of many personal moments that have been running through the season. I thought the last act was rushed, particularly considering how much story had to be packed into it, but that ending was a shocker. Has Galactica arrived in Earth’s past or the future? Is it in fact earth at all? Either way, what happened there?

The hybrid warned in Ravor Starbuck was going to lead the surviving humans into the apocalypse. Perhaps this is what it meant. At the end of last season, Starbuck said she had been to Earth and gave no indication anything was wrong with it, much less that it was a lifeless husk. I am curiousasto the explanation for that. Was she taken to Earth at a different time period, a different Earth, or did something happen in the interim that both humans and Cylons are going to have to deal with?

Or maybe this is what the hybrid meant when it said all of this has happened before and all of this will happen again. Perhaps he was speaking of Earth being attacked and refugees escaping in search of a new home the same as Caprica and Galactica. It is all one big cycle. I do not know. There were a lot of questions answered here, but so many more asked. I am excited for2009. .

Rating: ***** (out of 5)

If a picture is worth a thousand words, what is the value of a video clip of the last seven minutes of "Revelations?"