Article written by Mike

Mike is an aspiring writer of all kinds of topics. He’s dabbled in sports writing, covering some of the local professional teams in Phoenix, Arizona, done a bit of work for the Associated Press and have written for local papers.

66 responses to “Battlestar Galactica recap: "Revelations" (04×10)”

  1. R.A. Porter

    You know I'm with you about that *maybe* being the B'klyn Bridge or maybe being the Temple of Aurora. The dome in the ruins just doesn't belong. But this is a pretty compelling side-by-side.

    I'm still waiting for Bear to update his blog tonight, because the music was *awesome* throughout. I played it over several times, but I couldn't tell if the choral piece they were playing for the final jump to Earth and then the celebrations was a re-worked version of “Gaeta's Lament”, or if it was something else entirely. If it was Gaeta's, that's a pretty interesting ironic commentary on the celebration.

    Like a fool, for a few minutes I thought Starbuck's Viper was the fifth Cylon. I know I'm not the only one who thought that, but I still feel silly about it.

    And now I'm going to punch a window and sob on the floor of my bathroom for the next several months while I wait for the return. :(

  2. Mike Olbinski

    Yeah, I was one of those nut jobs who thought the Viper was the 5th…but only for a few minutes :)

    Nice link to the side by side, although that bridge looks smaller…but nice. I think I'll toss a link to it in the recap.

    And yeah, I've been waiting for Bear's recap too..

  3. Jason A Clark

    Best episode of the season and one of (if not) the best of the entire show. I was completely blown away that they found Earth at the end since I figured that would be the end of the show almost.

    The ending definitely does away with some of the theories that they would find a prehistoric earth before our modern history started as well as some other theories. I have no idea what they're going to do now.

  4. Mike Olbinski

    In case you missed it, check out the photo I just added in the recap, from Richard's link.

  5. Jason A Clark

    I don't know for sure, but wasn't there a prophecy that Roslin would lead them to Earth but never set foot on it herself or something to that effect? If that's the case then maybe they didn't find Earth after all? They never showed any distinguishing land masses or anything.

  6. R.A. Porter

    If Roslin's the dying leader. Maybe it was Natalie?

  7. Mike Olbinski

    Forgot about that, but it seems familiar.

    Wouldn't she have known the prophecies enough that they would have mentioned that?

    Weird.

  8. spec

    i loved it. going by how respectfull this new series has been towards the origional im gona guess that the earth we see is what will happen if cylon skins go to earth. Some force is decieving galactica for the good of the rac lol. Thats my guess. Just look at the origional gods episodes and episode 1 of 180 series.
    As for the 5th cylon, i would love it to be the president but i feel baltar is the 5th. reasons are. first he survived a nuclear explosion by mearly being huged be skin job in first ever episode. Skin jobs dont have shields do they??? second the reason the cylon asked for the four remaining cylons i felt was because the 5th was already on the cylon ship, making baltar my favoured choice

  9. Joshua Poulson

    The picture Lee and Kara were looking at the book was supposed to be a temple in Kobol, as it is exactly the SAME shot as in Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part 1, where Roslin and the priest are reading together.

  10. Mike Olbinski

    Yeah, I thought it looked a lot like that…but Lee also said it was the Temple of Aurora on Earth…maybe the one on Kobol was modeled after it?

  11. Mike Olbinski

    I am with you with Baltar…it's either him or Roslin.

  12. sk8ter01a

    The final cylon is saul ties and caprica 6's baby.

  13. sk8ter01a

    A cylon born of two…a voice to unite the 12 models…the final model being the offspring of the remaining 11.

  14. Mike Olbinski

    Hmm…interesting suggestion, but I just don't think so. Especially from the preview for the final 10 episodes.

    I like the idea though!

  15. sk8ter01a

    what preview? i didn't know any where out

  16. Mike Olbinski

    See, I would be more in the line of thinking Hera is the final one, not Tigh's kid.

  17. Mike Olbinski

    I'll be posting it here soon, but this the link to the YouTube:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5WPM_obGic

  18. Mike Olbinski

    I apologize for the duplicate comments guys, not sure what the frak is going on with Disqus, trying to get some help :(

  19. sk8ter01a

    Ya know he could be talking to his new born baby in his arms =p..it was just a thought lol

  20. Mike Olbinski

    hahah, yeah, true :)

  21. Cap'n Schwartz

    Holllllllllly Hell what an episode!!!!! Here are the answers…
    Its Rosalin and they are not on earth. The Viper is from one of those big white crystal ship thingies (form the original seires), and the viper knew the way to that races home planet, and took them there.

    There ya have it…

  22. Mike Olbinski

    I think it's definitely Earth…I dunno, I just can't imagine it would be some fake place.

    Unless it's just intended to be there to build some sort of unity between the Cylons and Humans, before they go to their final destination.

  23. Cap'n Schwartz

    eh… nobody knows… that episode is leavin us guessin for sure!!!

  24. R.A. Porter

    Kobol came first, so the temple on Earth would be a copy, just like the Opera house on Caprica is a copy of the original on Kobol.

  25. Mike Olbinski

    Duh, thanks…thinking too much about this stuff :)

    Either way, I think the one on Earth is supposed to be modeled after the one on Kobol

  26. sk8ter01a

    What do you mean its rosalin?..moore has made it completely clear that no one at the “Last supper” table was the final cylon.

  27. sk8ter01a

    And I think that this great revelation is that they have to turn around and go back to the colonies because earth is uninhabitable. but the only way they can get back is if the cylons help them. (just a crazy thought)…around the end of season 3 they were playing a commercial on scifi ..where the words “Destiny isn't what it seems” flashed across the screen. *shrug* just another crazy thought…oh and it can't be hera btw…she's a hybrid, not a full cylon and her roll is to lead the first of “Gods” new generation.

  28. Mike Olbinski

    Yeah, I know he's said that, but who knows…I think I'd like it to be her, but at the same time, now that she loves Adama, it would be better if they left her alone…I think he's had to much betrayal in his life to add one more to the plate.

  29. Cap'n Schwartz

    Watch the final Cylon will be Tom Zerrick…now that would be something wouldnt it, and nobody is talkin about it could be him…

  30. Mike Olbinski

    Well, I'm not now, but early on this season he was the one I chose.

    But now…I mean, he just hasn't done much…Zarek is not around, they didn't even show him on the planet at the end.

    I just don't know if it can be him.

  31. Chris

    R.A. Portyer – You're saying Kobol came first, but I think the whole point of them finding Earth in its current situation is the producer's way of reconciling the show with “our” universe.

    Humans evolved on Earth, we screwed it up, left and went to Kobol, screwed that up too and forgot about our history, go to the twelve colonies, screw them up (the cylons did it, but it's our fault indirectly). We've been assuming the 13th tribe really does(did) exist. Maybe it was just how history was twisted (aka. “They went to Earth” instead of “We came from Earth”).

    The Temple of Five might have been built by humans coming FROM Earth, not going to it. And everything on Kobol was a copy of what was built on Earth. BTW, it could be both New York City AND where the Temple of Aurora was located. We don't know when the destruction happened – I imagine they're still going to be building stuff in New York hundreds of years from now.

  32. R.A. Porter

    Your points may be right. I'm merely repeating the history they've given us. My one problem with thinking it went Earth -> Kobol -> 12 colonies is the polytheism of Kobol and the colonies. And not just polytheism, of which there are one or two million believers on Earth today, but the Hellenic pantheon.

    It just doesn't make any sense to me how in our future we ruin the Earth, colonize another world, and bring along Hellenic religious beliefs.

    My guess is, they loop indefinitely. Something like
    Kobol -> Colonies -> Earth -> Colonies -> Kobol and repeat.

    But we'll see in a few months…if I don't go crazy and need to be locked away from the waiting.

  33. Mike Olbinski

    I would really like to see (and I wonder if they will do it) some sort of resolution with the “this has all happened before, and will happen again.”

  34. Chris

    Porter – I like your thinking, it's an awesome concept.

    I guess it depends on what direction the writers want to take it. Considering the crazy stuff they've done so far I wouldn't be surprised if you were closer to the truth then me.

    I just wonder if Earth is currently habitable as it is. If not they'll have to go to Kobol since the colonies are irradiated too.

  35. R.A. Porter

    Just like everyone else, once I think I know where the RDM and the writers are taking us, they make a sharp left turn and trick me. Never thought they'd show up at Earth so soon, for example.

    Actually…this leads me to a new theory…

    They passed Earth on that series of jumps and ended up at *another* planet instead. What happened was, they “should have taken that left turn at Albuquerque.”

  36. Mike Olbinski

    I just think we'll learn what happened on Earth, we'll learn about the Cylons, we'll learn they've been around for a long time, and they'll all settle there and eventually the pattern will repeat, but it will be tribes leaving and finding new planets, and it will all start over again somehow.

  37. Bill

    The fifth being Tom Zarek would be funny, since Tigh, Tyrol, and Tori all have “T”s in their names.

    The shot of the Brooklyn bridge next to the episode screen shot means nothing. You could go to almost ANY bridge over any river around the world near a city and find an angle that looks similar. Of course, I *did* think the ruins looked a bit like The Cloisters in NYC the very first time I watched the episode before seeing any blogs…maybe it's the G.W. bridge…

  38. R.A. Porter

    I'm pretty confident it's not the GW. Those were stone bridge supports, not steel. And that's about as definitive as I can be. :)

  39. Mike Olbinski

    Yeah, it does look like ANY bridge, I agree, and if you looked at the art for the Temple of Aurora, there were bridges shown on it crossing over water.

    it could have been those, it could be meant to indicate New York, who knows.

    As far as Zarek, I was high on that choice awhile ago, because the final one is supposed to be:

    “…the fifth is still is in shadow, drawn toward the light, hungering for redemption, that will only come in the howl of terrible suffering.”

    I love that quote…but who will be hungering for redemption? Baltar? Zarek? Both seem like good choices, but Zarek is just so absent this year and pretty worthless.

  40. sk8ter01a

    can't be baltar, he's in the “Last supper” picture

  41. sk8ter01a

    Ya know what i find very odd…the fact that Tori isn't in the picture…but thats neither here nor there..

  42. sk8ter01a

    Wow, sitting here thinking about this.(sorry for multiple posts)…It fits…Tom Zarek…Fought the government all his life..Helped blow up a government building…he's been a constant political force in the gov't since he was freed….Adama would not recongnize him as president even after all he's done…he still has his own agenda….”The Fifth is still in shadow, Drawn toward the light.” he wants to be accepted…and regardless of where he's been this season the fact remains that as a story plot he's still there…swaying political power…Hungering for redemption from what he's done…and the only way it will ever happen for him is if he can do something in the wake of great destruction to earn the trust of everyone….

  43. Marco

    “Visible constellations are a match.”

    That line alone disproves that this is Terra (from the original BSG), the false Earth. In the original series the colonial fleet finds a planet they thought was Earth, only to be disproving and thus continuing their journey.

    HOWEVER, the only other known star to have matching constellations to ours would be Alpha Centauri, some light years away from Sol (our sun). If they indeed found Alpha Centauri, there is still hope that this will lead them to Earth. It's not out of the question that humans colonized this star system so since it is so close to our birth planet.

    There are also hints in the prophecies that this can't be Earth:

    The Final Five will show them the way to Earth (they haven't, a Viper did in this case).

    The dying leader would never set foot on the planet (and Rosalyn clearly did land on this planet).

    The planet Starbuck described was a paradise, and this is clearly no paradise.

    Starbuck would lead humanity to its doom. So far they have followed her every lead (first with her planet hunting and now with her Viper coordinates), yet they are all fine and dandy.

    Yes, they reached a Gaia type world, but not only does the geography not match, but NOTHING in the prophecy came to pass. We all know the show always delivers on prophecy, and such blatant discrepancies couldn't have been overlooked by the writers.

    Can't wait to see what happens next.

  44. Mike Olbinski

    Good points Marco, although I would venture to say that at least 3 of the 5 led the way to Earth, because they are the ones who found out about the Viper being the “compass”…so that could fulfill that.

    But still, you are right about the dying leader.

    BTW, the Hybrid never said Starbuck would lead HUMANITY to their doom, she just said this:

    “…you are the harbinger of death Kara Thrace…you will lead them all to their end.”

    THEM…who does that mean? I think it's purposely indifferent.

  45. sk8ter01a

    Something i'm not sure if you guys remember or not tho…in the miniseries Head Six told baltar that he had been chosen by god…”To what end”? ….Head Six: “To the end of the human race”

  46. Bobby Ewing

    They have posted up a UHQ Ultra High Resolution panorama of the bridge scene over at the BS section here

    http://www.jlaforums.com/viewforum.php?f=329

    I am not so sure what it is supposed to be.

  47. Rich

    I took “…you are the harbinger of death Kara Thrace…you will lead them all to their end.”
    to be a reference to the fact that Kara's finding of the Base Star leads to the destruction of the Resurrection hub ship which brings mortality to the Cylons.

  48. battlestar

    [...] Revelations 04×10The shocking conclusion to the first half of the season. Un-frakking-believable.http://www.popcritics.com/2008/06/battlestar-galactica-recap-revelations-04×10/&39Battlestar Galactica&39: Dinner mishaps Show Tracker Los …May 22, 2008 … Get the latest news [...]

  49. Paul

    It can't be Roslin because after D'Anna got rescued from the Resurrection hub, she punked Roslin into thinking for a moment that Madame President was one of the Final Five. Roslin gets this shocked look on her face, and then D'Anna bursts out with a “Wow, you're a bigger idiot than I thought” kind of laugh.

    My theory? The final Cylon is the planet itself. Not that improbably. Raiders are Cylons. Baseships are essentially Cylons. A Cylon planet would be the ultimate Cylon. Impossible? Think the Keeper of the Earth from Orson Scott Card's “Memory of Earth” series or even Cybertron from the Transformers.

    The leap for the audience to accept the idea of a Cylon planet is no bigger than the leap the humans in BSG had to make when they first found out about Cylon skinjobs.

    This theory would explain a lot, including “this has happened before, and will happen again” prophecy. The Cylon planet is essentially the Cylon God, tasked to provide a home for humanity. But at some point, the humans destroy themselves and so the Cylon planet sends the surviving humans out into space while it tries to heal itself. When enough time has passed, it send out the Cylons to initiate a plan to bring humanity back to itself to try again. And for a while, it succeeds and humanity reestablishes itself on “Earth.” But then, people blow themselves to bits again, and so the same process repeats, over and over again because, as you know, people never learn their lessons for long.

  50. Paul

    Nice theory, but it can't be Alpha Centauri. For one thing, Alpha Centauri is part of a trinary system – yep, there are 3 stars that are part of that system, and we clearly only saw one main star. Since the constellations match, this must be Earth.

  51. Paul

    It's can't be Tom Zarek – D'Anna already said only four of the Final Five are within the fleet.

    For that reason, it's can't be Helo, Will Adama, Roslin, or anyone who is currently alive, including Baltar.

  52. Paul

    By the way, the chances that you have a solar system with 12 habitable Earth-like planets, all with oxygen-nitrogen atmospheres that are all in different orbits and have approximately all the same mass (and thus gravities) is, like, ZERO.

    Unless the planets of the Twelve Colonies itself was constructed.

    By the Cylon God, which is itself a planet-sized Cylon.

  53. Dan1378

    this is a bit of a loose theory and not even thought through but whos to say that humans arn't original cylon skins and jsut forgot they are as you can see with sol and six's kid cylons are starting to have kids maybe cylons just become a new skin job species evolve start to us the centurions as slaves… the centurions get p*ssed kick off war between skins and toasters round and round we go. like i said very loose and not thought through but is worth thinking about i'd say.

  54. Dan1378

    o and i forgot plus cylons can't respawn now so they are also mortal… like humans

  55. Mike Olbinski

    I don't think it's the planet, I really feel that would just suck as a final revelation.

    Besides, if you watched the preview for the final episodes, what you hear is something that would lead me to believe it's a person.

    I agree it's probably not Roslin, but I just feel it HAS to be someone important for it to be meaningful.

    Baltar, Adama, Roslin, etc.

    I like your theory, but mine basically is that this whole Cylon thing…that perhaps everyone is a Cylon already, and they find that out later.

  56. Mike Olbinski

    Yeah, I truly believe THIS is Earth, because the constellations matched from what they saw on Kobol.

    I just don't get how it could be a “fake” Earth.

  57. Mike Olbinski

    See, I like this theory. I think perhaps everyone could be Cylons, but that these new models, the Sixes, Athena, etc., are actually inferior to the Final Five, who are the most advanced because they are actually like everyone else.

    I dunno…there is going to be something about that I think at the end.

  58. Mike Olbinski

    See, I like this theory. I think perhaps everyone could be Cylons, but that these new models, the Sixes, Athena, etc., are actually inferior to the Final Five, who are the most advanced because they are actually like everyone else.

    I dunno…there is going to be something about that I think at the end.

  59. Jason A Clark

    Yeah, I'm with Mike. I think this could be right in line with where the show is headed. It would make a lot of sense.

  60. Jason A Clark

    Yeah, I'm with Mike. I think this could be right in line with where the show is headed. It would make a lot of sense.

  61. Mike Olbinski

    Well, that's not exactly try, they way she said it, she didn't seem to indicate that that NONE of them were the final Cylon, just not the ones on the fleet.

    It could have meant that Helo, Bill, Roslin and Baltar were eligible to be the final one.

    That's how I took it.

  62. Mike Olbinski

    Well, that's not exactly try, they way she said it, she didn't seem to indicate that that NONE of them were the final Cylon, just not the ones on the fleet.

    It could have meant that Helo, Bill, Roslin and Baltar were eligible to be the final one.

    That's how I took it.

  63. Mike Olbinski

    See, that's a good point Rich…doesn't mean the death to the humans, it just meant “the end of the Cylons”…mortality.

    I like it.

  64. Mike Olbinski

    See, that's a good point Rich…doesn't mean the death to the humans, it just meant “the end of the Cylons”…mortality.

    I like it.

  65. Becky R

    so i just have to say
    1) that is deffinently Earth no matter what, the constellations match and they zoom past other planets in our solar system and then they show the planet with our continents. So it is def earth, however that doesn’t make it the promised land that the dying leader brings them to. Roselin is still alive therefor this can’t be the promised land, so they will prolly end up having to move on.
    2) while Moore said that no one in that picture was the final cylon, if you think about it, tech baltar could be the final cylon even tho he is there because is all plausibility that could be the “mind baltar” that six sees, it might not be the actual baltar that we all know, so there is still a chance for him to be the final cylon. Kara however will not be the final cylon becuase she already has her role and it would be too much for her to be the final cylon and be the harbinger of death and all the other stuff she is. Same with Roselin her place is already well defined as the dying leader so i feel liek that would count her out as the final cylon. the idea that tom zarek is the final cylon is interesting since he does come back in 4.5 in the promo so he might end up being important.
    3) the 13th colony i feel like might have been a mix of cylon and human who lived peacefully since the final five did come from earth.
    4) the idea of tigh and 6’s baby is also a good thought since that would be the first step towards cylons being able to reproduce within themselves which they have never been able to do.

    i really hope baltar is the final cylon tho partially becuase he is my favorite but i guess we will see :-D

  66. Becky R

    and another thing, the reason why roselin can have visions of the opera house with the other cylons and hera is becuase she has heras blood in her, its amazing what a little cylon dna can do for you. lol

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