Mark Re-Watches ‘Battlestar Galactica’: Final Cut

Lord, when this show was good, it was good. And now it’s time for us to flail over D’Anna Biers, one of many queens of my heart. SHE’S SO AMAZING.

This episode was commissioned by my friend and editor Mitchell. You can find the video for download here, and all Mark Watches videos are indexed on Dropbox!

• I still think that “Final Cut” is so much better than it appears. It’s a subtle episode (until the end sequence) for a show that isn’t always subtle. (HELLO, SEASONS THREE AND FOUR.) Which isn’t an insult, because the joy of watching BSG for me was the ridiculous, suspenseful nature of it, especially watching this show in order without any knowledge of what it’s about! My god, I had never really seen a show that was so consistently intense and agonizing like this was for me, and I’m a big fan of thrillers and suspense. 
• (Side note: I have seen the first episodes of Friday Night Lights, since I had to write all of my posts for tour ahead of time. I CANNOT DEAL WITH HOW TENSE IT IS, OH MY GOD.)
• I always appreciated that the writers found a way to make Battlestar Galactica this fascinating examination of the role of the military in the government, particularly in the context of what’s happened here. The metaphor never quite worked as a criticism of the American military-industrial complex, though at times it could. In this episode, though, we see how D’Anna Biers must cope with the contradictions present in this situation. She knows that the massacre on the Gideon was the result of poor planning, bad decision making, and that the military will most likely get away with it because… well, it’s also true that the fleet needs the military to stay alive.
• But at the heart of this is a nuance I think I missed the first time around: It’s about humanization. The end result of the report that Adama commissions is that it shows that the officers about the Galactica really are deeply flawed, and that’s what makes them so human. In the early episodes of this show, we often see the Cylons act fascinated by human behavior while being detached from it, and I totally got that vibe during the screening scene at the end.
• HAHAHAH MORE FORESHADOWING THAT ELLEN TIGH IS A CYLON H E L P
• I want to also definitively state that I am a huge fan of Dualla, and I kind of hate what happens to her? I miss her a lot.
• I feel pretty much the same about Gaeta, and his ending breaks my heart.
• Hey, guess what’s awesome? The entire scene where the battle with the Cylon raider is only experienced through audio. I understand that it fits the fact that we’re seeing a “documentary,” but as a viewer, it was my first chance to truly experience what it was like for much of the crew to be on the Galactica, waiting to find out if their friends were going to die, or if they were going to die.
• I love this show.

Thanks, Mitchell! We have “The Captain’s Hand” tomorrow, and then “Downloaded” on Thursday!!!