[Rainman]

Just as a matter of curiousity, are all other Cylons now dead? As in all the Cavils, etc, and old style centurions?? Their must be some baseships still out there...........somewhere.......

That's a good point, I never thought the cylons were dead. I'm pretty sure the Colony is gone, with the whole chain reaction which probably hit its tillium supply as well. But there were about 10 basestars out there that jumped in to help the colony, you could see it on dradis. I believe all of them had spooled up FTLs. And they were a good distance away as well. Those badass red striped centurions that were set free, I bet they'd go back to the colony and try to nail the baseships that were still around the colony, either due to damage or rescue missions. Then again they'd have a hard time jumping in with all the debris. But in the end the remaining cylons have no link to earth anymore, and even if they unbox the 3's this won't help them at all.

But one thing that confused me is what are they going to do with the raptors? are they going to fly them into the ocean or push them off a cliff?

[Herra Tohtori]

"Lucy" was a famously well preserved member of the species Australopitcheus afarensis, not a memeber of genus Homo. The hominids seen in the series finale were definitely not A.afarensis. They were not H.neandertalis either. Too short hands for neanderthals, slim physique, walked in fully upright posture, and the geographic spread of neanderthal remains does not cover any parts of Africa. They were quite obviously (portrayed by) modern humans (H.sapiens sapiensis) and the most logical thing to assume would be that this is what they were - especially considering that the fleet humans were genetically compatible with them. Which is another can of worms and would suggest towards timetravel hypothesis... it's a better option than a divine hand as suggested by Baltar.

Mitochondrial eve is a term that is used to describe a common ancestory between all humanity due to a genetic bottleneck in human species in the distant past. It is estimated that at one point all of human species consisted of a few thousand people, who likely originated from one tribe that started to expand.


The assumption that Hera was the mitochondrial eve of humanity on this Earth doesn't work either, because there were a lot more females around in both ragtag fleet and the indigenous people. Moreover, Hera's mitochondrial DNA should - according to present day genetics - actually be cylon mitochondrial DNA from Athena/Number 8 line. And she could only be the true mitochondrial eve if all the other females' lineages simply ended at some point, which is... unlikely at best, and would seem to suggest to some problems that the colonial human females would have had with reproduction.

Even then it wouldn't explain why Hera's mitochondrial DNA would take over the mitochondrial DNA of the indigenous people already inhabiting the area.

Unless Cylon mitochondrial DNA comes originally from Earth that was found in the end...

It doesn't make sense. I think someone fails biology forever as well as astronomy, but it's no matter. It's also possible that the Smithsonian institute failed and just thought the remains to be of mitochondrial eve, but "Baltar" and "Caprica" knew better.

...however, if the remains were Hera's we now know that canonically Hera died young. Which is no surprise really, tribal community life expectancy is not really long.

[karajorma]

Which is another can of worms and would suggest towards timetravel hypothesis... it's a better option than a divine hand as suggested by Baltar.

Not really. Baltar is probably right on the money, Whatever Head Six and Head Baltar are (or whoever they work for) they would have have had over 40,000 years from the time Homo sapiens first appeared to transport humans from Earth to Kobol, build a perfect society, watch it crumble to dust twice (three times if you include the 13th tribe) and still had time to guide them back to Earth.

No need for time travel at all. Remember that Kobol was described as the place that humanity lived with the gods. Everyone seems to have assumed that whatever took out the civilisation on Kobol took out all the Gods too or that they were never real.

But if even one of them is still knocking about then it suddenly becomes a lot easier to explain where Head Six and Head Baltar came from.

Mitochondrial eve is a term that is used to describe a common ancestory between all humanity due to a genetic bottleneck in human species in the distant past. It is estimated that at one point all of human species consisted of a few thousand people, who likely originated from one tribe that started to expand.

Mitochondrial Eve does not require a population bottleneck to exist. In the case of humans there was a bottleneck but there definitely didn't need to be one. Every species has one (Although in some cases it's far enough back to not even be a member of the same species).

The assumption that Hera was the mitochondrial eve of humanity on this Earth doesn't work either, because there were a lot more females around in both ragtag fleet and the indigenous people. Moreover, Hera's mitochondrial DNA should - according to present day genetics - actually be cylon mitochondrial DNA from Athena/Number 8 line. And she could only be the true mitochondrial eve if all the other females' lineages simply ended at some point, which is... unlikely at best, and would seem to suggest to some problems that the colonial human females would have had with reproduction.

Now you're nitpicking.

1) We're flat out told she's Mitochondrial Eve by Head Six and Baltar.
2) In a universe where we've been expected to believe in prophecy right from the start you find it hard to believe that Hera could be Mitochondrial Eve?
3) It doesn't require anything to be wrong with anyone. All it requires is simple chance. And Prophecy > Chance.

Even then it wouldn't explain why Hera's mitochondrial DNA would take over the mitochondrial DNA of the indigenous people already inhabiting the area.

It really doesn't have to. It's really just down to sheer luck. Hera's children produced girls a little longer than everyone else's did. Someone had to do that. Why couldn't it be Hera?

[Anf23]

I wonder why D,anna didnt show up once in this ep, she seemed like a really important character a few eps back

[karajorma]

She decided to remain on the nuked Earth. Did you only just now notice she was gone?

[Anf23]

  oh yeah i forgot all about that lol

[redsniper]

Did anyone notice they only lost FOUR vipers? Or that frakkin' Lampkin was president for a while. All in all a great ending to a great show. I was so worried they'd screw it up somehow and it was so good I watched it twice.

[Angreifer]

I gotta say, the way some people are analyzing this episode, you'd think RDM was proposing BSG as an actual theory for the origins of humanity.  Really, it's a science fiction television show, and you're going to need to embrace suspension of disbelief to a certain extent. Within the context of the show, the ending makes a fair amount of sense. But if you start looking for answers to everything, backed up by real science no less, you're setting yourself up for a fall.

[Polpolion]

I gotta say, the way some people are analyzing this episode, you'd think RDM was proposing BSG as an actual theory for the origins of humanity.  Really, it's a science fiction television show, and you're going to need to embrace suspension of disbelief to a certain extent. Within the context of the show, the ending makes a fair amount of sense. But if you start looking for answers to everything, back up by real science no less, you're setting yourself up for a fall.

I wonder what a religion based on a Science Fiction work would be like. 

[Angreifer]

I gotta say, the way some people are analyzing this episode, you'd think RDM was proposing BSG as an actual theory for the origins of humanity.  Really, it's a science fiction television show, and you're going to need to embrace suspension of disbelief to a certain extent. Within the context of the show, the ending makes a fair amount of sense. But if you start looking for answers to everything, back up by real science no less, you're setting yourself up for a fall.

I wonder what a religion based on a Science Fiction work would be like. 

It's called Scientology. 

[TESLA]

I gotta say, the way some people are analyzing this episode, you'd think RDM was proposing BSG as an actual theory for the origins of humanity.  Really, it's a science fiction television show, and you're going to need to embrace suspension of disbelief to a certain extent. Within the context of the show, the ending makes a fair amount of sense. But if you start looking for answers to everything, backed up by real science no less, you're setting yourself up for a fall.

You mean its not!!

I unplugged my toaster and everything...............just in case...............and the fridge, i have my doubts......

Your right though, its a show, lets not get caught up in the small details,
But pity D`ianna, didnt have a lil more faith in God and stay with the fleet, she would have been happy on New Earth (our earth) i think

Maybe the raptors became "chariots of the god" in ancient mythology??
Eventually too old stopped working

And like someone said before

Now we know why the flight pods are retracted before jumps..........vipers tend to fall out otherwise..... 

[TripRussell8142]

Did anyone notice they only lost FOUR vipers? Or that frakkin' Lampkin was president for a while. All in all a great ending to a great show. I was so worried they'd screw it up somehow and it was so good I watched it twice.

4 vipers and 7 raptors

[Locutus of Borg]

47

[Rainman]

Did anyone notice they only lost FOUR vipers? Or that frakkin' Lampkin was president for a while. All in all a great ending to a great show. I was so worried they'd screw it up somehow and it was so good I watched it twice.

4 vipers and 7 raptors

Yea I mentioned this before and no one seemed to care... 

Either those pilots are becoming aces or they got really lucky in that fight. Then again it would make sense the raptors would lose more than the vipers on this mission, they flew right into the colony. And Also not so many vipers hung around to defend Galactica. A lot were back with the fleet on the baseship. So i guess it wasn't some accidental figure, it made sense.

[Mefustae]

Did anyone notice they only lost FOUR vipers? Or that frakkin' Lampkin was president for a while. All in all a great ending to a great show. I was so worried they'd screw it up somehow and it was so good I watched it twice.

4 vipers and 7 raptors

Including Racetrack.

[tikey]

Did anyone notice they only lost FOUR vipers? Or that frakkin' Lampkin was president for a while. All in all a great ending to a great show. I was so worried they'd screw it up somehow and it was so good I watched it twice.

4 vipers and 7 raptors

Including Racetrack.

She deserved it.

[Herra Tohtori]

"Even in death, I still serve."

Someone needs to photoshop a Dreadnought Armor with Racetrack's Raptor as it's torso...

[odo2063]

The DRADIS was close to unusable, so i guess the Raiders were not capable of acting at maximum performance and maybe their controls were somekind of disturbed by these interferences. And don't foreget they were fighting on Godsside.

btw did anyone see some old Raiders in that fight?

[FraktuRe]

I guess by the fact that cavil was even using old centurions shows how desperate his situation was.

Also, I rewatched some bits: Galactica jumps in to the colony with the pods CLOSED unlike some people said. The windows DO break when the raptors jump out (it's hard to see though) and a hole is busted out of the pod.

When Kara is typing in the numbers, it's specifically referenced that Kara is an angel.

When Galactica jumps out, she jumps with pods OPEN and a viper falls out as well as others smashing around.

also. Some clarification on the fate of the colony from one of the visual effects guys:

The fate of the Colony was somehow lost in the final cut.

The plan was to secretly jump the Raptors far away, and at the right time, lauch enough missiles to knock the Colony out of it’s very delicate orbit around the black hole and INTO the black hole. The final shots of the Colony were to be of it slipping out of orbit and breaking up.

That’s why the Raptors had to launch out of the flight pods - so no one would see them heading off AND to make sure they actually would make it a safe distance away (if they simply launched and tried to fly the distance, they’d probably get picked off).

This wasn’t very clear in the air version, but the longer, DVD version may address it.

[Kosh]

Moore certainly could have ended the series with some dialogue describing how they would keep their technology and take steps to see that AI wouldn't be abused, or that robotics wouldn't be developed into a Cylon form, but he chose NOT to take this path, a path that most of us would certainly find reasonable.

That would have been a much better ending to the show IMO. I really didn't like how the religious crap was bludgeoned into the show, and Lee's suggestion of a utopian neo-primitive fantasy was a big WTF moment for me, every else going along with it was an even bigger WTF moment. So they wanted to break the cycle, fine but how does erasing your civilization's history help anything? A big reason why the cycle was endless was because people kept forgetting what happened before.

But this time the cycle was already broken anyway, by Hera and by the renegade Cylons. By the time of Cavil's defeat they had become colonial citizens and were tasked in part with defending humanity. Humans and Cylons and Centrurions working together instead of trying to dominate or eradicate each other never happened before in the previous cycles, and so they had a good foundation to build a solid future TOGETHER. Throwing all of that away seems really pointless.

I do believe that the ending does reflect a neo-primitivist undercurrent in modern american culture.


EDIT: I'm on a roll so I'll throw some more in. I always believed that resurrected Kara was part of some kind of agent of a third party, not god but something else ala the ship of lights in TOS, and I was really disappointed that wasn't the case that she turned out to be yet another "angel", although one that can shoot stuff and fly Vipers..........which was yet another WTF moment.