No doubt I'm in the minority here, but I think that if
Deadlock was bad,
STWOM was much, much worse. This was self-indulgent, narcissistic soap opera twaddle, with the writers at their most self-absorbed worst. These last episodes have left me frustrated. This is what comes of farming out each episode to a different group of writers -- it doesn't seem that anyone is in real artistic control of the story arc anymore, and each group of writers gets to indulge its whims at the expense of clarity and intelligent, linear continuity.
Gosh, we're supposed to put together all these arcane, opaque little clues scattered throughout the episodes, and somehow make sense of it all? "It's the journey, not the destination" claims one of STWOM's writers in the Tribune blog. Horsefeathers! BSG fans have invested over four years in this "journey," carefully trying to track and remember all these clues and story threads because the show's creators have implicitly promised to take us to a particular, and particularly attractive, destination -- a denouement that answers all of the questions and ties together all the myriad story lines into a comprehensible, internally consistent, and ultimately satisfying conclusion.
While the "journey" so far has certainly been enjoyable, it is the anticipation of the destination that has given the journey its meaning and has compelled us to stay with it. Putting aside the fact that we haven't been getting much "sci-fi" lately in a show that aspired to be the all time sci-fi adventure, and that plot and action have taken a back seat to self-involved "internal character development" that adds little to the show, the fans still deserve better than what has often come to resemble Days of Our Lives or General Hospital lately.
My real fear is that when all is said and done, the final episodes won't answer all of the so far unanswered questions, that many compelling story threads won't be tied up satisfactorily, and especially that many of the clues planted by a host of different writers will lead either to huge inconsistencies -- or worse, simply nothing at all.
Here's one example of what I see coming:
The Final Five (FF), of whom Tigh is one, supposedly existed thousands of years ago on Earth. They died in the first human-cylon conflict, resurrected, and flew (sub-light) to the colonies, apparently to prevent history from repeating itself. Too late. But they showed the machine cylons how to make "skin jobs" in return for stopping the conflict. The FF made the 8 skin job prototypes, of whom Cavil was one. He subsequently killed the FF, boxed them, but ultimately resurrected them and programmed them with false human memories, presumably as a punishment, to teach them first hand that making cylons with human limitations and defects is a bad idea.
But we see that Tigh looked to be about 62 years old back on Earth thousands of years ago, the same age he looks now and presumably must have been after his various resurrections. Yet Adama has remarked several times throughout the show that he has known Ty for over 40 years, putting both men in their early 20's when they first met.
It is this type of internal inconsistency that just kills the show for me -- and you know it came about because when the original characters of the FF were initially conceived and written into the show, absolutely no one connected with the show had any idea a) that they would eventually turn out to be cylons, or b) where in hell the show's story arc was actually going.
Now, if you will just give me a hand off this soapbox...
it is like I thought some other sites pretty much hated this episode...
