“Huh.”
That was my first reaction after watching the series finale. Not so much that it was great or that it was lame, just that I needed time to think about it all. There was a lot of information to work through! And then I would decide whether I loved it or hated it. Now, a couple of days into processing all the information and implications, I have decided that I LIKED it. It didn’t really “wow” me, because all of the pieces we’ve been fed throughout the last couple of years (This has all happened before, it will happen again; God has a plan for humanity; Questions about the intentions of God or the possibility of multiple gods; Kara Thrace’s special upbringing and purpose in life, etc.) fit naturally and fluidly into the ending. There wasn’t a big twist that I hadn’t suspected or hypothesized somewhere along the way (proof that I genuinely spent WAY too many of my waking hours trying to figure this series out!).
In fact, the idea that everyone was already a cylon-human hybrid crossed my mind earlier in the season. Tigh’s visions of Ellen the thousand years earlier jumpstarted the idea that possibly that the entire colony of survivors from Caprica was actually the mythic/missing 13th colony - just resurrected, unbeknown to them. Or I thought possibly time travel was involved. Was Kara Thrace an early version of Ellen? Was Hera the mother of the entire Caprica civilization, and all were cylons? My theories weren’t right, but they did incorporate some of the fundamental ideas of the finale. So, I wasn’t terribly surprised.
One thing I did like about it was that it mixed a lot of mythologies together, and didn’t adhere to one religious viewpoint. Obviously, I would have had an easy review if it was a direct parallel to Christianity, but the fact that it wasn’t makes the conversation even more interesting.
For instance, I loved that the two “angels,” Gaius and Caprica, might possibly have been God or gods. Was Gaius the one true God? Was Caprica? Or were they together the one true God? The idea of two immortal beings traversing time together draws from at least two mythological references (Mother Earth/Father time; Zeus/Hera). But it also leaves room for a Trinitarian viewpoint as well. Anyone who has read the Bible can observe traditionally male/female characteristics within the Trinity: the Holy Spirit having the traditionally female characteristics - comforter, counselor, guide; while God the Father holds the male character traits - creator, manager, decision-maker. Christ the Son carries several possibilities, but primarily his being both human and divine makes him something slightly different than pure spirit. I do believe Jesus was God (and as such part of the Trinity), so don’t read this the wrong way. But in terms of physical composition, even the idea of the Trinity carries with it the concept of two purely spirit beings, and one hybrid being - all divine, all united, but very different from one another.
So, that’s a start. There are many, many more things to hash out, and I hope this will be an ongoing conversation with you guys. However, I’ll post those in separate blogs this week. This would be a 10 page review otherwise!! That way, you can pick and choose which topics to read over.
