Battlestar Galactica fans--what did you think of the outcome of the coup? SPOILER ALERT

[yurbud]

I thought it was a little anti-climactic, and that the coup would have been part of mankind's self-destruction that led to just those three survivors in the opera house.

As it played out, it was more like cathartic self-abuse to get the despair of finding earth a nuked out shell out of their psyches.

It was good for showing the coup crumbling, kind of like Valkyrie only with the good guys winning instead of Hitler.

Any other thoughts?

[Xipe Totec]

1. I think Adama, should have shown Gaeta the airlock

The space equivalent of walking the plank.

[bamademo]

4. I wanted to see the dead bullet riddled bloody bodies or I wanted them airlocked.

I felt bad for Gaeta. He lost his moral compass after Dualla committed suicide. Roslin and Adama rocked. I haven't loved a series like this since Star Trek, TOS.

[yurbud]

5. the airlock makes more dramatic sense and more practical sense for being on a spaceship

[RoyGBiv]

18. It was deeper than that ...

Dualla was just the last straw, but it was already in there working its way out.

Did you see the webisodes that together were called The Face of the Enemy? They're on Hulu.

OnEdit: Here's the first one of 10, if you haven't seen it. http://www.hulu.com/watch/48347/battlestar-galactica-the-face-of-the-enemy---webisode-1

They give quite a bit of insight into Gaeta's state of mind.

[Xipe Totec]

23. Agreed, Gaeta was freaking out

Those were good webisodes.

Gaeta's descent began in New Caprica.

And Starbuck's little vigilante circle didn't help. Remember they were hunting for Cylon collaborators and killing them? And then it turned out that three of the vigilantes, were from the final five?

They nearly pushed Gaeta out the airlock that time.

[RoyGBiv]

26. Yeah ...

IIRC, he even mentioned that (the vigilante circle) in his showdown with Starbuck right before he held his little meeting to start putting together the mutiny.

In light of The Face of the Enemy, I think one reasonable interpretation is that he pretty much snapped on New Caprica as he started to realize what he'd been a part of doing while at least initially thinking he was doing a good thing. He'd trusted cylons before and got burned ... and kept getting burned.

[Longhorn Liberal]

2. I was disappointed

It WAS anti-climactic. The whole "Hey, you guys mutinied six hours ago and were just about to execute me...but I really, really want to take my ship back. Please join me" thing just seemed so tacked on. It felt like lazy writing. I wasn't expecting a huge gunfight to take the ship back, but something a little more complex than the mutineers suddenly regaining their respect for the Admiral just a few hours earlier they considered to be a traitor.

That said, it's still one of the best shows on TV at the moment.

[yurbud]

6. he only got one mutineer then everybody else began to chicken out or like the quorum...

once they found out what was going on, they didn't get on board in the first place.

[soleft]

3. I wonder if Starbuck ever got Sam to Coddle

[yurbud]

7. scenes from next week show Ellen downloaded into a new body, and opera house showed final five

so he either lives or gets downloaded.

[MrScorpio]

9. I would hazard a guess that that scene of Ellen's download was a flashback

Remember, the Resurrection Ship was destroyed.


What's she's been doing since her download is going to be an interesting story

[yurbud]

10. If you were the Cylons, wouldn't you make more than one resurrection ship?

I'd have at least one per base ship or at least a couple of back ups.

[MrScorpio]

12. Not from the dialogue.

The Cylons have resigned themselves to the fact that they're now mortal.

Also, Ellen died on New Caprica, before the destruction of the Resurrection Ship.

I think that we need to caught up on what's been happening to her since.

I wouldn't be surprised if she eventually caught up with Brother Cavill. And don't think that she would be too happy with what her husband did to her.

[Xipe Totec]

15. It would have been more ironic, if Gaeta turned out to be the final Cylon n/t

Didn't Ellen get tested for Cylon markers and pass?

[MrScorpio]

16. After the Boomer fiasco I think they mothballed that whole testing scheme

I don't remember her getting tested

[Xipe Totec]

19. When she first came on board the BSG

There was a big row between Roslyn and Adama as to who should be tested first.

Roslyn pushed Adama to go first, then Adama canceled the test to put Ellen through first. Then Roslyn found out and canceled Ellen's test and ordered Baltar to start testing Adama again. Then Roslyn found out who Ellen was, realized why Adama had canceled his test, and she and Adama agreed to have Ellen tested.

And she was cleared.

[MrScorpio]

21. Ah, yes... I remember that now

Thanks

I figure before the awakening the final five were made to be human in every other way. Even more than the first seven models

[RoyGBiv]

22. It's about the test itself ...

... and Baltar's sense of self-preservation.

We don't really know what her test showed, just what Baltar said.

Recall he also said Boomer passed.

[MrScorpio]

24. Well Boomer was armed

I remember he was afraid that she'd switch on and pop a cap in his ass.

Self-Preservation, exactly

[RoyGBiv]

28. He thought that about all of them ...

I re-watched a lot of those episodes to figure out just how much of Ellen being a cylon could have been telegraphed and whether there were any gaping holes.

Baltar only ever used the test to save himself from being outed for his part in the nuking of the colonies. He was afraid he was going to be discovered and was trying to deflect attention. At first, he wasn't even sure his test would actually work the way he said it would. He in fact overplayed his ability to weed out cylons to out that one guy whom he didn't even know was a cylon, but he had information that could have condemned Baltar.

From all of his experiences he was getting more and more afraid that the test actually did work, and he didn't really want it to.

The bit of dialog, mentioned elsewhere, between him and Imaginary Six is telling on this point.

[Xipe Totec]

25. Yes, but that's because Boomer was right there

and the number six in Baltar's head told him Boomer might kill him if she discovered shw was a Cylon.

The Boomer decision was explained in the script, but faking Ellen's test was never mentioned.

[Cannikin]

46. She was TECHNICALLY cleared...

IF (big if) Baltar's test could pick up the Final Five, that is...

If you recall the dialogue between Baltar and 'head Six', she said something
to the effect of "If only they knew everyone passed these days...What did her test really say?"

And Baltar replied "I'll never tell."

The resurrection HUB was destroyed. There is more than one resurrection ship.

Sam is still alive because his story is very relevant in the next episode.

[Xipe Totec]

48. That was Boomer, not Ellen that Baltar was testing then

Ellen had not even entered the stage at that time.

Number Six's question was specifically about Boomer's results.

In the Episode where Ellen appears, Baltar is still making a good faith effort of testing the samples. If he had decided to fake the tests at that time, he would not need to waste time actually performing the tests.

I think it is a plot hole.

[Cannikin]

51. He tested both....It was Ellen who he stated he'd never give the results to.

The episode is called "Tigh me up, Tigh me down".

[Xipe Totec]

52. I stand corrected

I just pulled the DVD and watched the last scene of "Tigh me up, Tigh me down".

You are right; he decided it was easier to pass every one than to do the actual tests, and this was the episode when he did that. And it was Ellen's test results he vowed never to reveal.

I got the episode mixed up with the earlier one with Boomer.

Thanks for straightening me up!

:hi:

[RoyGBiv]

20. Yes and no ...

Baltar had decided by then that everyone who took the test was going to pass, and it's an open question whether his test even actually worked or whether he really tested anyone after a certain point. He was afraid that he was putting his own life in danger by potentially exposing cylons.

There's a bit of dialog between Baltar and Imaginary Six at the very end of that episode.

She asks, ""So, what did her test really say?"

Baltar answers, "I'll never tell."

Here's a lengthy analysis of Ellen as the final cylon I posted a few weeks ago. http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=105x8431423

[Xipe Totec]

27. But Baltar saw the board, and it was red.

Then he wiped the results to show a green board.

We know the test worked.

Baltar KNEW Boomer was a Cylon, but chose to kep it secret.

Later on, it is Baltar that tries to push Boomer into commiting suicide, which she almost does.

[RoyGBiv]

30. We know it worked then ...

We didn't know it at the time, only in retrospect.

What we don't know, because we never saw the test results for those tested afterward, is whether the test worked for anyone else, whether Baltar was actually using the test as intended, etc.

[yurbud]

32. Baltar made a fake test, so real Cylons wouldn't be caught

[WolverineDG]

35. Baltar didn't reveal the results of her test

just said he'd never tell.

I'm beginning to think that he is now a Cylon (although he started out as human) as is Starbuck. (based on the clip from "Caprica" that I saw on a BSG dvd recently)

dg

[laconicsax]

53. Yes and technically.

When Ellen got tested and the light turned green, Six and Baltar had an aside about how it's a shame he'll never know the truth since everyone passes but it's easier that way.

[yurbud]

8. that whole multiple copy deal is something Star Trek could have done more with

I remember an episode of NEXT GENERATION when they found a copy of Riker who had been left on some planet unknowingly because the transporter didn't disintegrate him before making a copy on the ship.

If you were going on a really dangerous mission, wouldn't you want them to keep a copy of you in the transporter buffer so if you're killed they could just make another you with all the same experiences except the one that got you killed?

[Orrex]

44. Transporters aren't intended to make copies

You're thinking of it as a copy-and-paste process, when in fact it's cut-and-paste. The situation involving Will/Tom Riker was set up to be unique and effectively non-repeatable to avoid a proliferation of perfect clones. Also, the cut-and-paste method lets the writers avoid any really tricky issues of identity and "soul," which they've touched on several times but never really resolved.

[MicaelS]

11. According to the Battlestar Wiki website

He makes it to the Basestar and starts to remember his time as a Cylon (whatever that means). http://en.battlestarwiki.org/wiki/No_Exit

In the preview for "No Exit", it is revealed that Ellen Tigh returns and she knows everything. It has also been seen that it has been 18 months since she died. The Canadian preview also reviews that Sam Anders regains his Cylon memories.

But I was disappointed more people didn't get executed for their roles in the mutiny.

[yurbud]

13. yeah, ''tie them up'' wouldn't be my first thought if I got the drop on my own firing squad

[yurbud]

14. is there a link to that canadian preview?

[MicaelS]

17. Not that I have seen. n/t

[yurbud]

31. in the American one, there's just a quick flash of Anders face. I saw him and Starbuck

here in SoCal at seafood shack on PCH north of Malibu.

I don't get excited about many celebrities, but when I'm really into a show, it's weird to see them in real life.

[MicaelS]

56. Canadian Space trailer for No Exit 02/13/2009 Spoilers Inside

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMg1LmRoVdg

ALL WILL BE REVEALED

Anders: Kara, a wonderful thing has happened. I know everything....

Ooooh, looks great!

[WolverineDG]

36. If there's less than 40K humans left

I don't think it would be wise if they killed everyone involved.

dg

[MicaelS]

37. Good point.....

Never even crossed my mind. Going to be interesting to see next week, just how many people died over the entire course of the mutiny.

[WolverineDG]

43. I think TWOP has it at 43

that includes the Quorum.

dg

[Xipe Totec]

54. Well, it would make an awesome finale

and a fearsome prospect to contemplate; humanity as the cause of humanity's final extinction...

[ogneopasno]

29. It was so much with the awesome. I loved that episode.

[WildEyedLiberal]

33. I think it was sort of designed to get a lot of pivotal characters' heads on straight again

To get the despair of a nuked earth out of their psyche, as you put it.

A lot of major characters returned to their roots during the mutiny: Roslin snaps out of her suicidal depression and becomes kickass President Roslin again. Starbuck gets over her "what the frak am I" identity crisis and becomes the kickass jock again. Lee starts kicking ass again. Tyrol stops moping around Baltar's harem outpost and starts giving a frak about the ship again.

I think something as major as the mutiny was needed to give these people something to fight for again.

[Phillycat]

34. Totally anticlimactic, BUT. The show sucked me back in with Starbuck and Roslin

resuming their previous kick ass roles. I've been hating both those characters for ages. But I am such a sucker for Starbuck kicking ass. And Roslin, "I AM COMING FOR YOU." Well, DAMN. Where have you been, lady? You've been whining for months!

[Deep13]

38. ASSHOLE

The spoiler is not supposed to be in the subject line. The alert doesn't do any good if one reads the spoiler first. I haven't seen it yet and didn't know about the coup. Since my life does not revolve around TV, I was waiting until the final DVD set came out.

[WolverineDG]

39. So we're supposed to adjust our lives around yours?

I can understand if this was posted on Friday night, but the OP waited a couple of days to post this.

:eyes:

dg

[MicaelS]

40. Which will be 6 months from now

You really expected other to wait that long for you?

[leeroysphitz]

41. You and me are done professionally... n/t

[targetpractice]

42. Hah! Brilliant.

[DS1]

57. I'm all for berating spoiler posters, but logically

how can the fact that there was an outcome be a spoiler? The only thing it spoils is which episode it's in, and by the time you get around to watching you'll have probably forgotten which episode we're talking about in the first place.

[Phillycat]

58. Ridiculous.

I hate when people post spoilers, but this isn't even close. You expect to be able to be online for the next 6 months and not see some reference to an extremely popular TV series? He didn't say anything about what happened.

I am really really tempted to reply to you with a massive spoiler. :D

[Bake]

45. Did Eduard James Olmos really get killed?

That's what it looked like on the previews ...

Bake

[Xipe Totec]

49. Don't read this reply if you don't want to see another spoiler....

The preview is from a nightmare Baltar is having...

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

47. I'm reminded of the 5th season of Babylon 5.

They don't know how to end it, so they just have some pointless plot involving an insurrection.

I mean, honestly, the last several episode did nothing to further the series. It just killed time.

[Political Heretic]

50. I thought it was a more plausible ending than the one you suggested

However, I also agree that it felt a little anti-climatic after Part 1, which was amazing!

Still - I did think the episode was strong 8.5/10!!

Great season!

[yurbud]

55. I thought they couldn't top the occupation episodes, but this is right up there