(Favorite Moment #8: One Year Later. Gaius Baltar assumed the role of President of the Colonies, and he made his first order of business settling on the inhospitable New Caprica. As the weight of the role — and the detonation of a nuke in the fleet — settled in, Baltar rested his head on his desk. When he raised it again, we were already a year into life on New Caprica, with President Baltar surrounded by harlots and hopped up on pills. A ballsy storytelling maneuver that worked like a charm.)
Anyway, a truce was called: the Five agreed to give the Cylons the Resurrection tech once more, if Cavil would call off the attack and return Hera. Too bad the only way for the Five to pass on that info was to join in some goopy mind meld that allowed them to share each other's memories. And the minute Tory's little ''I killed Cally'' secret wasn't a secret anymore, Tyrol totally lost his cool, snapped her neck like a twig, and inadvertently started another firefight...one which ends with Cavil dead, the Colony crippled, and Kara jumping Galactica to safety by tapping the ''All Along the Watchtower'' music into the FTL drive. (We'll skip over the incredibly long odds of a raptor with a dead crew firing its missiles at just the right time, and every missile hitting the Colony.)
Galactica reappeared, having used her very last jump to get clear of the Colony, but she was bucking like a bronco, buckling like a tin can. It was a Battlestar that looked like a toy that'd been played with too much. And then we got to Earth. Or, at least, the planet we know as Earth...which isn't the real Earth, just a lush prehistoric rock with all kinds of wildlife and Cro-Magnons walking the savannah.
(Favorite Moment #9: ''33.'' The miniseries was its own brand of slow-burn awesome, but the first episode out of the gate — which had the Cylons pouncing on the fleet every 33 minutes — established it's lived-in grizzliness with speed and economy.)
From here on out, ''Daybreak'' was just a series of endings. For me, some of them worked very well: the Centurions getting the baseship, Sam piloting Galactica and the fleet into the sun (while the classic Battlestar Galactica theme crept in to Bear McCreary's score), Adama taking his final viper flight off an abandoned flight deck, Tyrol heading off to be a Scottish highlander, Adama and Starbuck's final exchange:
''Whaddya hear, Starbuck?''
''Nothing but the rain.''
''Well grab your gun and bring in the cat.''
And Laura's death could've been some kind of histrionic, melodramatic affair...but it was handled with class and grace. (And the flashback to her all sexy in her lingerie, kicking her cub to the curb and deciding to get into the political game, was a nice bookend.) With her demise came the dissolution of BSG's first family. I don't understand why Bill Adama was never going to see his son again. Why did Laura's death have to send him into a self-imposed exile? Why should he turn his back on Lee and Tigh and live out his days alone, in the cabin he'll build?
NEXT: Kara's surprising exit
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