"Battlestar Galactica" Daybreak: Part 2 (2009)

Director:

Michael Rymer

Writers:

Ronald D. Moore (developer)
Ronald D. Moore (written by)

TV Series:

"Battlestar Galactica" (2004)

Original Air Date:

20 March 2009 (Season 4, Episode 20)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Drama | Sci-Fi

Plot:

Plot Keywords:

Series Finale | Cylon | Refugee | Robot | Guilt

Cast

Edward James Olmos	...	Admiral William Adama
Mary McDonnell	...	President Laura Roslin
Katee Sackhoff	...	Captain Kara 'Starbuck' Thrace
Jamie Bamber	...	Lee Adama
James Callis	...	Dr. Gaius Baltar
Tricia Helfer	...	Number Six / Caprica
Grace Park	...	Lt. Sharon 'Athena' Agathon / Sharon 'Boomer' Valerii
Michael Hogan	...	Colonel Saul Tigh
Aaron Douglas	...	Chief Galen Tyrol
Tahmoh Penikett	...	Captain Karl 'Helo' Agathon
Michael Trucco	...	Ensign Samuel Anders
Callum Keith Rennie	...	Leoben Conoy
Rekha Sharma	...	Tory Foster
Kate Vernon	...	Ellen Tigh
Matthew Bennett	...	Aaron Doral

Company:

David Eick Productions

Trivia:

Cameo: [Ronald D. Moore]man at the New York City newsstand reading about the discovery of Hera Agathon's corpse while Six and Baltar comment about it behind him

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: As the camera pans up over Adama sitting by Laura's grave a small, low to the ground fence can be seen behind him. The area is supposed to be undeveloped and uninhabited.

Quotes:

Doctor Gaius Baltar: You know, I know about farming.
[weeps for his father, who was a farmer]
Number Six: [putting her arm on his shoulder] I know.

Soundtrack:

Ain't We Famous

Ron Moore goes all the way

You cannot fault this finale much at all for style. The music, the action, the boldness all ring true to a stunning final movie. But this is about wrapping up plots too. And I can sure tell you right now that some people will be very upset at the plot finales. Without spoiling anyone, it's all about the particular answers that are given to some of the long-term questions of the series. While never anything but completely bold and amazing, like the climax of "Raiders of the Lost Ark", this is an ending that is all about never holding back. The totality of the many, many plot threads is indeed tied in a very interesting final knot on a very large tapestry, that ends up really making quite the final statement about life, the universe, and everything. God, miracles, determinism, human frailty, the status of the human condition right now on Earth -- these are the subjects of the final themes and the final significance and epic closing of this 5-year story. I'm sorry I'm being so vague, but I wouldn't dare spoil anyone yet.

So bold. So definitive. So epic. So human and so satisfying.

Is this the best moment for the series? The best? No. Just the end. The show is full of peaks with different sorts of drama peaking at each one. The journey's the thing. And it really depends on one's personal favorite character and favorite arc. So much has changed and so much has been so steady since the beginning, it is very difficult to pin down any one part and hail it the most. Certainly, this end is one of the stand outs, though.

A few other favorite episodes of yours truly would be: "33", the first episode of the first season, post-miniseries, when the dramatic intensity couldn't be pitched any higher, and yet every character still made huge strides towards the long haul, setting up an incredible epic perfectly after the marvelous reimagination and efforts of the miniseries; the episode "Six Degrees of Separation" from the first season, as funny and sexy as it gets, with a masterful psychological twist on Dr. Gaius Baltar's predicament as principal human genius/accessory to genocide; "Kobol's Last Gleaming", the two-parter finale to the first season, as epic and suspenseful as television has ever been in any form, with massive twists and an unbelievable cliffhanger; "Home part two", a mini-finale of sorts, the end to the first act of a three act story (presented in four seasons), the episode where everything that matters is supremely satisfyingly dealt with and made ready to move on to more, pointing the epic onward as much as every individual character's plots; "Occupation/Precipice", the two-parter that opened the third season, the tough-as-nails allegory of occupation tied tightly to the situation in Baghdad at present, masterful and mesmerizing; "Sometimes a Great Notion", perhaps the darkest episode of the series, where the floor falls out from before, all hopes left behind after the massive revelations of the previous episode, and also the most dramatically potent and stunning of moments, perhaps, in the series, as major epiphanies are all dwarfed by the overwhelming loss of hope.

This is a finale that satisfies all that has gone before. This series will be remembered for generations.