Finally finished Battlestar Galactica 4.5.
My thoughts below after the SPOILER WARNING!
SPOILERS
Was only supposed to watch The Last Frakking Special but finished with a mad dash through episodes 13 to 20.
The Dualla suicide (Episode 11) I didn't see it coming only because it didn't have the usual foreshadowing shorthand - - - like those quick cuts to Gaeta's disgruntled face before he embarks on his violent revolution with Zarek - - -but she was in many ways a summing up of the emotional tenor of the fleet: juggling an illusion of normalcy while standing on the precipice of a suicide ledge. The trauma of Earth, the last outpost of relief, turning out to be a wasteland - - and all the traumas piling up on them for the last three seasons - - -pushed everyone to some kind of brink. For Dualla, it was a bullet to the brain after the happiest night of her life . . ."your smile has returned" Gaeta tells her just seconds before. It's quite chilling, that.
I also quite like the arc of both Zarek and Gaeta. Much as I understand how his ambitions have corrupted Zarek's idealism and the brunt of Gaeta's traumas(his persecution, his maiming),these two have always had a streak of snaky in them and the arc their characters took made perfect sense - - -specially given the last thing Gaeta says to Baltar before they shoot him. (Don't have a clue - - or don't remember - - what secret they share, though. Help?:?: ) When Zarek and Gaeta smile at each other before their execution, there was something conspirational and shadowy yet oddly benign in that exchange.
I like that sole tube of toothpaste. Humanity's remains reduced to fighting over one tube of toothpaste.
As for the three-part finale . . .still processing.
A bit iffy with the Dylan song use, still.
I felt iffy about the Starbuck ending,too, but am warming to it.
The pathos of Tyrol was touching. A bit more so than Adama and Roslin's final scene. And Adama's last line of dialogue . . yeah.
Saul Tigh turned out to be the character I liked the most from all four seasons.
More later.