# Battlestar Galactica #15 : No Exit/Season 4 Finale



## Truth Seeker (Feb 13, 2009)

*No Exit*

Writers:Ryan Mottesheard

Director:Gwyneth Horder-Payton

Stars:Mary McDonnell (Laura Roslin)
Edward James Olmos (William Adama)
Katee Sackhoff (Kara "Starbuck" Thrace)
James Callis (Gaius Baltar)
Tricia Helfer (Caprica Six)
Grace Park (Sharon "Boomer" Valerii)
Jamie Bamber (Lee "Apollo" Adama)

Recurring Role:Michael Hogan (Saul Tigh)
Rekha Sharma (Tory Foster)
Dean Stockwell (John Cavil)
Kerry Norton (Medic Layne Ishay)
Kate Vernon (Ellen Tigh)
Donnelly Rhodes (Doc Cottle)
Aaron Douglas (Galen Tyrol)
Michael Trucco (Samuel Anders)

Guest Star:John Hodgman (Dr. Gerard)
As Sam Anders recovers from his head injury onboard the Galactica, he begins to remember events from ancient Earth.

Meanwhile, the Final Cylon struggles with the fallout from the Final Five's former plans. One of the humanoid Cylons vows to get revenge for being created in the image of Man.

Tyrol informs Admiral Adama about the extensive structural damage on the Galactica​


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## Jack7 (Feb 14, 2009)

Where there is an Eve there is an Adama.


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## Steel_Wind (Feb 14, 2009)

For an episode that was 75% exposition or so, not bad.

The explanations offered are sort of like Speedtree computer game 3d Trees. The image serves for a quick glance, but if you look at it sideways or question the illusion of reality, it is shown to be without any real substance or depth.

But... they were making this crap up as they went along, and this explanation mostly fits the facts in a stunning sweep of retcon to achieve something that _almost_ works. (Except for Saul Tigh. Saul Tigh was the part that always made any explanation break down. But we'll leave that be and chalk it up to "TV writing" - because that's what this is folks.)

I presume Ellen and Boomer will reach the fleet next episode after a four month chase and some more will be revealed - with the Cylon fleet looming out there...somewhere 

John/Cavill now has a real reason to pursue: the final five can reimplement Resurrection. This also gives him a reason why he cannot attack to destroy the fleet. The tech would be lost forever. He has to get them back alive.

Rendezvous: "The Colony"

I presume as well that we will finally have our destination set on the return of Ellen to the fleet. The "colony" which was the birthplace of the humanoid Cylon models presumably supports human life. It is the place where Resurrection can be redicovered on board the EarthCylon ship the Final Five used to make the original voyage from Earth to the Colonies upon - and it is also a place where Humanity might establish a non- irradiated, permanent home.

Looks to me that the BSG and the Rag Tag Fleet has its final heading. 

_Possibility: _I invite you to consider the possibility that R.D.Moore will not answer how it is that Starbuck was brought back from the dead before series' end; instead, that question will be left purposefully hanging without an answer...except maybe on the new _Caprica_ series.

I don't think he will do this....but I am no longer _*certain*_ that he won't.


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## Wolf72 (Feb 14, 2009)

I thought they alluded to who starbuck actually is ... The child of the surviving #7 Cylon model (daniel?).  One that John didn't get to.  So she is the first cylon/human hybrid.

But if she was resurrected being part cylon ... where did that happen (and how come the surviving rebel cylons can't use it) and where did her viper come from?


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## Pseudonym (Feb 14, 2009)

Ah, resurrection technology: how the President avoids snuffing it from the series long illness she's had.

Good episode.  Interesting side story about the mighty Battlestar falling apart.  I think it is forgotten that she was a museum piece on the way to the scrap yard when the series started.  

That nurse has a horrible bedside manner.


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## Kobold Avenger (Feb 14, 2009)

Well now I guess there's certainly another motive for Tory killing Cally, now that it's revealed she had a past with Tyrol.


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## Mark (Feb 14, 2009)

Why does the thread title say "Season 4 Finale?"


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## Mustrum_Ridcully (Feb 15, 2009)

Mark said:


> Why does the thread title say "Season 4 Finale?"




Finale of the Season, e.g. the first part is over, the second and final is on these months? 

---

A lot of exposition, indeed. Interesting stuff. I suspect Daniel is being reborn in Caprica Six. Starbuck might be off-spring of him, or he might not. I definitely like that hypothesis...


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## LightPhoenix (Feb 15, 2009)

John Hodgman as the brain surgeon was both incredibly jarring and incredibly hilarious.

I thought it was a decent episode, if a little too heavy on the exposition.  I always enjoy seeing Dean Stockwell on the show, and the scenes between him and Ellen were great.


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## Mkhaiwati (Feb 15, 2009)

Mustrum_Ridcully said:


> A lot of exposition, indeed. Interesting stuff. I suspect Daniel is being reborn in Caprica Six. Starbuck might be off-spring of him, or he might not. I definitely like that hypothesis...




I'm not sure, the group made a quick off-hand comment about how they were warned of the apocalypse, and they each saw a different figure.

Shades of Baltar and the Head-Six?

Also... I had this suspicion before this last set of episodes aired that Roslin was the final cylon, and Adama was the prophesied "Leader who dies before reaching earth." I was wrong about the first, not sure about the second. He is popping pills and drinking waaaay to much.


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## Mark (Feb 15, 2009)

LightPhoenix said:


> John Hodgman as the brain surgeon was both incredibly jarring and incredibly hilarious.





Yupper!  He is truly the newest incarnation of Dr. Science.  It's a hilarious persona.


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## Ahnehnois (Feb 15, 2009)

Pseudonym said:


> That nurse has a horrible bedside manner.



Maybe she just doesn't like Cylons.


For an episode where most of the time was spent on characters talking about mythology it was watchable.


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## Krug (Feb 17, 2009)

Fell asleep twice watching this. This one really took the air out after two excellent episodes. The Galatica falling apart subplot was definitely more interesting.


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## Arnwyn (Feb 17, 2009)

Absolutely _loved_ the exposition, because they're finally _telling me something_. And it's about time, too.

Glad they at least attempted to explain the mess that they made in previous seasons, due to lazy story-telling and mythology-building. This episode's partial payoff made the journey through the execrable S3 and beginning of S4 almost worth it. I look forward to the rest of this season for more payoffs!

(Not explaining Starbuck's death/resurrection/return thingy would be insulting. Hell, not explaining Baltar's head-cylon - who knew and communicated things to Baltar that Baltar couldn't have known - is insulting.)

Best episode this season, by far.


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## Styracosaurus (Feb 18, 2009)

Thoughts of mine, not in any particular order:

1)  Didn't Gaius Baltar know that Ellen was a cylon?  Adama gave him the blood sample to be specially tested.

2)  I think that Starbuck was resurrected by the same ship that resurrected the final five.  So, she is a cylon.  She just wasn't one of the final five that the centurions met thirty years ago.

3) Consider,  IF Saul Tigh and the Six are able to reproduce in a biological way, then what else could separate the skinjobs from regular old humans?

4) I think that humans...........are cylons.  The skinjobs live as humans do, eventually decide to make artificial life.  It is a cycle; lather, rinse and repeat (or rather; become human, build centurions, get nuked, final five show up and start over)

5) What is up with the opera house and Baltar and Six and the President?


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## delericho (Feb 18, 2009)

Styracosaurus said:


> 1)  Didn't Gaius Baltar know that Ellen was a cylon?  Adama gave him the blood sample to be specially tested.




There was a lot of back-and-forth in that episode about who was to be tested first. I forget what the outcome was. Anyway, pretty soon after the Cylon detector was completed, Baltar reprogrammed it just to give everyone a pass. Oh, and we also know that the Final Five are in some way different from other Cylons, so perhaps they wouldn't have shown up anyway?

Besides, they're making this up as they go along. She probably wasn't a Cylon back then.



> 2)  I think that Starbuck was resurrected by the same ship that resurrected the final five.  So, she is a cylon.  She just wasn't one of the final five that the centurions met thirty years ago.




Did it also resurrect her Viper? There's more going on there than we know about.



> 5) What is up with the opera house and Baltar and Six and the President?




Nothing. They're all insane.

Or, I don't know.


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## Styracosaurus (Feb 18, 2009)

[/QUOTE from delerecho]
Besides, they're making this up as they go along. She probably wasn't a Cylon back then.
[/QUOTE]

Oh, come on now,  don't be so pessimistic.  I'm pretty sure that they had the final five down because they knew the series would be only a few years long.  It feels to me as though the end of the main characters are/were already determined.

[/QUOTE from delerecho]
Did it also resurrect her Viper? There's more going on there than we know about.
[/QUOTE]

Yep, that is a weird one.  The builders could not have built the viper from observation since Starbuck crashed it on Earth.  I think that when she was resurrected, the Original Final Five ship read her memories and were able to build a viper from her memories.  Then send her home....

BUT....
But why not just write her a note and send it back to explain everything to Captain Adama?
AND....
The Original Final Five do not have FTL capacity to send Starbuck home.  Why did she show up in a few months (time to build her viper I guess) rather than in a few thousand  years?


Big One:
How did the final five all end up on the fleet though?  At the beginning I was convinced of time travel or some other nonsense to resolve the "it has happened before and will happen again" meaning.  Now I think that the show is presenting existence as a recurring cycle that just repeats certain patterns.


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## dravot (Feb 19, 2009)

Styracosaurus said:


> delerecho said:
> 
> 
> 
> ...




I heard a podcast from Ron Moore, and to some degree Delerecho is right.  I'm not sure when, but prolly between the 2nd and 3rd seasons Moore had a flash of insight as to who the Final Five were.  Prior to that Baltar had tested Ellen as a cylon, but we never knew the results.


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## Kobold Avenger (Feb 20, 2009)

delericho said:


> Besides, they're making this up as they go along.



It's one of the main reasons why they're releasing a telemovie called "The Plan" after the series ends.  So they can retcon parts of the series about what the Cylons plans were, in regards to the tagline "The Cylons have a plan".  Which they never really thought of in the beginning, but ended getting stuck with it for the marketing of the show.


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