Battlestar Galactica Spoilers Abound Throughout
Well, that was something. Who woulda thunk that the big trigger for the Final 4/5ths would be a Bob Dylan cover? And of all the Dylan songs out there, why this one? Wouldn’t Maggie’s Farm have been a better choice?
Alas, no, I kid. The husband and I did immediately start quoting the song lyrics to each other the minute the characters started speaking them line by line. Honestly, you can’t hear someone say “There must be some way out of here” without automatically thinking “…said the joker to the thief”.
This, coupled with the reappearance of Starbuck that I sort of predicted a few weeks ago makes me think that there’s something hinky with the timeline of the BSG universe, and that intrigues me.
There are a lot of snatches of music you could use as an oblique plot point. Think Close Encounters and those specific five tones, and you’ll know what I mean. But using All Along The Watchtower clearly grounds the entire Battlestar Galactica Universe in a specific time and culture. The writers are trying to tell us something, to be sure.
There are several possibilities. Is the journey of the fleet and their war with the Cylons is actually running parallel to our current time? Did the Cylons find Earth AND a way to manipulate time backwards that allowed them the use of that particular song? These are the questions which most intrigue me right now.
I will say that I don’t think the Final Five Cylons are actually Cylons in the same way that we’ve grown accustomed to. For lack of a better way to explain myself, I’m presuming we’ll see that The Five (four of whom were revealed tonight) are a sort of Meta-Cylon, much like Babylon 5‘s Elder Races. It will be as though the fleet humans and the skinjob generation of Cylon are the two feeder-streams from which the new race will be born.
Of course, as the BSG scriptures say, all of this has happened before and all of it will happen again. I suppose they could always use that as an ‘out’. I’ll be honest, though. When they said “all”, I was pretty sure that didn’t encompass things so esoteric as Bob Dylan. But who’s to say?
Heard the tongues of angels and the tongues of men. Wasn’t any difference to me.
total nerd update
I decided to go ahead and hammer out my lyrics analysis. Who said all these years of literary criticism were wasted? Well, yeah, they are. But it’s at least as fun as cross-stitching.
Just Another Pretty Farce 
I liked last night’s episode, but I have one question that is nagging me.
It’s one of those questions that really doesn’t matter in the big picture (I have been brainwashed by Lost’s abundance of Easter Eggs) and that is how did Lee actually hear Starbuck over the vacum of Space. Was it over the radio?
I know, dumb question but who knows.
The Cylon Four also had me wondering.
I wonder if I will lose interest my next year. Probably not but maybe.
so… i’m a loser. i’ve JUST NOW gotten on the BSG bandwagon. i know, right? and i’m a HUGE sci-fi freak… i own over 300 sci-fi paperbacks.
so, i’ve got a lot of catching up to do (i just finished season one last night) but i understand now! this is an amazingly well written show with deep characterizations and an impressively complicated plot.
and hearing that they aren’t afraid of using a little dylan… well that just takes the cake doesn’t it?
Nice writeup, KC. Wow on last night’s episode. I was right there with you about All Along the Watchtower. The first couple of times I heard someone say “There must be some way out of here,” I immediately thought of the song, but I thought it was just a coincidence until I heard “said the joker to the thief.” You’re right that the presence of such a well-known and legendary American song in the midst of this episode sure makes me think that there’s a specific reason it was the choice. It better be, otherwise it’s just a really random and odd choice, IMO.
I really enjoyed the episode, but it raised so many questions and leaves us with so much time to wait. Ugh.
Alternate theory: At some time in the not-too-distant future, literally every musician in the known universe has covered All Along the Watchtower. (At our current pace, we should reach that point in about six months.) Because the universe is not expanding fast enough to contain any more lame knock-off versions, the song somehow leaks through the very fabric of time and space, lodging itself in the Cylon consciousness and eventually spreading like a virus to every sentient being in every parallel universe.
On the up-side, at least they didn’t decide to lead the remnants of 12 colonies back to Earth with an ABBA song…
You don’t think that AATW was included on the future follow-up to the Voyager recordings/broadcast? (I don’t watch BSG so this may be wrong for oh so many reasons, but it’s where my mind goes first.)
NC, I think he heard Starbuck over the Comm. That whole scene was major-ly weird though. It reminded me less of BSG and a lot more of the David Lynch version of Dune, what with all the trippyness of it.
As far as losing interest goes, I was verging on it after a few of the chicken-crap episodes from earlier in the season (The Woman King, The Son Also Rises–pretty much any of the Michael Angeli-penned ones).
But they have renewed my love of the show with this season finale. I will say though that I think they’d have done better to air the two parts of the finale in one extended night. The second half bouyed the duller moments of the first half and provided a better context for the internicene Adamas.
Megaphonic, please tell me you didn’t read the spoiler-y parts of this entry, because that would be a whole lot of spoiler-yness. As for just jumping in now, it’s not bad. It’s never too late to appreciate something great. (Look! A Rhyme!) I say that as a huge The Wire fan who is also the biggest johnnycomelately to that bandwagon.
As far as BSG goes, I still think Phoenix is my favourite episode of all time.
Rob, I have that other (now largely defunct) blog “All Along The Watchtower”, about movies and television. It’s been getting google hits out the butt for people looking for every little bit of song analysis. I thought about writing up my own little breakdown of the lyrics and their applicability to the show, but I don’t know how much of a huge nerd I feel like being today.
Hubby, you are an ABBA playa hater. You must back off now, or the next time I’m grooving to Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! I’ll pull the headphones out of the jack and blast that mother through the whole house. Bet on it.
As far as covering Watchtower, nearly every blog and review I’ve read–including Sepinwall’s—calls it a ‘Jimi Hendrix song’. You can’t KNOW how furious that makes me!!!!!
‘scuse me while I kick these guys.
nm, I’m betting you’d like BSG. It’s not ordinary sci-fi and since it has it’s own cosmology it wouldn’t annoy the krep out of you the same way Rome did. (Speaking of which, I’m now officially ticked off. They didn’t kill Caeserion.)
As far as the Voyager follow-up recording, I think our ptb would pick something more lame and “come be our friends”. Something by Carly Simon or Wilson Phillips or The Wiggles.
I might like BSG. Judging by the recommendations I’ve gotten, I’d say it’s more likely than not. I’m just not so much of a TV fan. The idea of adding another show, when my husband is bound to add several more … no, turn the thing off! I’m more likely to wait for the DVD, get it out of the library for a few weeks, and watch it that way.
Re: Caesarion — no one knows what really did happen to him. It’s likely that he was killed since he disappears from the historical record, but Augustus wasn’t likely to hide deaths he was responsible for, and he took no public responsibility for Caesarion’s death, so it may not have been Augustus who had him killed. And he could just have died, from neglect or childhood illness. Most kids did, and even a significant number of aristocratic kids did. Now, considering how fast and loose the show has played with accuracy, I’d guess that none of this was of the least concern to the writers.
There was some cool stuff on the real Voyager recording.
Ron Moore has stated these are different Cylons…so we’ll see what happens.
What do you mean by “different”?
Regardless, I don’t trust Ron Moore, what with all the smooth lying he did about Kara being dead.
I also predicted Starbucks return, but am I the only one who thinks she is one of the final 5 (like Tigh, Tirol, et al?
katherine: moore said kara was “dead”? i only read that he said it was a “major event”. not “death”.
paul , i also thought (ok, i *hoped*.. i love starbuck!) kara would return, and it really makes most sense that she is cylon. but since moore hasn’t verified, it’s possible she’s something else entirely…
there’s a theory i like. i already posted it somewhere, but i’ll repost (cos i’m like that):
****
regarding the the final 4 being “different”, here’s a thought: let’s say they’re not on the side of the other 7. it’s definite that they’re separate, since the main 7 don’t know their faces, and therefore are obviously not in their fleet (not existing, not rezzing, nada).
so perhaps they are special cylons, ones who branched off from the 7 at some point because they felt for humanity, and didn’t want to harm them?
perhaps they went to earth to oversee that the 13th tribe survives, and that’s why kara has been to earth (assuming she is cylon, despite moore’s non-disclosure). let’s say she rezzed there, came back to the vicinity of the fleet, and planted the obviously earthy song of “AATW” in the final 4’s heads? to ease them into recognizing their true nature?
it’s a theory. 🙂
telene,
That’s essentially what I mean when I say that to my mind the Final Five are a type of Meta-Cylon. I believe they’re an evolved form of Cylon who intentionally seeded themselves in key positions to help the human resistance.
gotcha katherine 🙂 it’s an exciting prospect, and i near-literally can’t wait ’til jan2008… gah, it’s too long!!
Just possibly, the cylons cannot survive without man and man cannot survive without the cylons, as represented by the struggle between the two for dominance. It reminds me of a line between when does a host and parasite generate into some new species, as evidenced by the which passes on of both their genetic information as one. Remember, the Humans created the Cylons for what? To serve man? This would be relevant in the short view; but what if…… what if the real purpose of the Cylons is not to destroy humans, but to evolve a new human, to continue to transmit human genes into the future!
Just possibly, the cylons cannot survive without man and man cannot survive without the cylons, as represented by the struggle between the two for dominance. It reminds me of a line between when does a host and parasite generate into some new species, as evidenced by the passing on of both their genetic information as one. Remember, the Humans created the Cylons for what? To serve man? This would be relevant in the short view; but what if…… what if the real purpose of the Cylons is not to destroy humans, but to evolve a new human, to continue to transmit human genes into the future!
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It appeared the Ceylons and Humans moving together as potentially 2 halves of a more complete race began early on in the BSG Series. It became fairly evident during the 3rd season as perhaps the almost metaphysical existence of Baltar seems to have a destiny designed to bring the two races together in a symbiotic relationship (why else does he continually survive his tortured existence?). It’s clear humanity has lost their soul in the course of trying to survive with inferior resources and numbers, not to mention technological abilty. The Ceylons have become almost like what humanity once was, with a child like naivete as evidenced by their religous imagry and quest for purity of consciousness. Both species are incomplete and could the grand scheme of BSG be all about bringing them together in the end? And another thought emerged when I watched the final episode of season 4. Could the explanation of the 4 meta-Ceylons (I must admit to liking that description) be that perhaps the human race had previously evolved into these new type of Ceylons and were unaware of their own genesis? The original conflict could’ve been born out of almost Borg-like (as in man+machine) beings creating pure machines (the Ceylon machines) to serve them and then end up provoking them into the resultant war? And wouldn’t it be particularely delicious if humanity’s self awareness of what they really all are, can only come about by resolving the war with the original Ceylon machines they themselves invented? The obvious development of the Ceylon psyche and their quest in almost all things human (religous belief, self reproduction, individuality, rejection of authority, etc.) suggests they are looking for what humanity has long lost. And didn’t we all really expect Starbuck to come back from the dead again? Now please excuse me while I kiss the sky (sorry Mr. Dylan)…