Episode Name: Daybreak, Parts 2 & 3 Episode Number: 420 Written by: Ronald D. Moore Directed by: Michael Rymer Original Air Date: 3/20/09 on SciFi Channel
Notes:
39,516 survivors. Of course, the last survivor count does not account for all the volunteers that died in the rescue mission after the last count was reported, although the number 38,000 is used more than once in the closing minutes of the episode.
Cavil's death was scripted for him to be thrown from the upper deck of CIC by Tigh, but Dean Stockwell suggested that Cavil would realize that he's not going to succeed in finding a way to survive and just decides to end it himself.
Though the final cut appears to leave open the possibility that Cylons on the Colony could have survived, the script (and perhaps the extended cut) made it clear that the nukes doomed the Colony and all those left on it.
Even though there were rumors that Specialist Prosna, Specialist Cally and perhaps even Kat would appear in flashbacks, none did so in the final cut. There is not yet word on whether scenes were filmed and cut.
Executive Producer Ronald D. Moore has a cameo in the New York Times Square scene as the man reading the National Geographic article about Midochondrial Eve.
In the final sequence of the finale, when they finish talking, Inner Baltar puts his arm around Inner Six and is on her left, but in the very last shot of them walking away, he has moved to her right.
The finale was supposed to be two hours long combining episodes 419 and 420, but the script ran long. The network and studio worked out allowing for another hour to bring the finale to three hours long. The extended cut is another 15-20 minutes longer.
According to Ron Moore, the finale was not written to be broken into two parts which explains the open-ended structure to the first hour. The finale was not even written with broken into acts, but more like a two-hour feature film which was then fitted into acts to allow for commercials. The network felt that three hours was too long and thus broke the finale into two parts.
The extended (DVD) cut of the episode (including part 1) will be 15-20 minutes longer.
Though the show ended in a fashion that seem to preclude any follow-up, the following all leave the slimmest of room:
the way that the show shifted to being as much about Cylons as humans (since they became virtually interchangeable),
the fact that Centurions are still out there
the reappearance of Inner Six and Inner Baltar in our present
the ambiguity of Starbuck and the seeming possibility that she could again return at any time.
Unanswered Questions (Yes, even with the finale, there are some unanswered questions):
Why exactly did Baltar stay on Galactica for the rescue mission? Was it because of what Inner Six said? Was it because of Caprica Six?
Why were there no Cylon Heavy Raiders in the Cylon counterattack? Did Cavil not have any? Did only the Sixes and Eights fly the Heavy Raiders?
What does Anders mean when he tells Tyrol, "Open your mind and hear what your heart wants to deny?"
Did the fulfillment of the Opera House vision play out in the way that the writers intended when the vision was first conceived? For that matter, was there any plan at all for how it would be fulfilled when it was first conceived?
Considering the attitude he displayed toward religion when he was talking Ellen on his baseship, why did Cavil listen to Baltar at all?
Why was the Doral so quick to assume a trap by the humans when Tyrol attacked Tory?
Did any humanoid Cylons survive and escape the Colony? Where were all the Cylon baseships? Were they unseen inside the Colony? Or are there a few surviving baseship somewhere?
Why were all 38,000 surviving humans so readily willing to give up their technology and establish small settlements with the barest of provisions?
What happened to Kara on Earth? Did she just wink out of existence? Did she ascend?
Is humanity on the path to repeating the cycle again?
What were Inner Six and Inner Baltar? Angels? Manifestations of another race?
What is the 'it' that Baltar references as not liking being referred to as god? A machine? Gaia? The Force?
Where the two metaphysica threads of the song and the Inner Baltar/Inner Six/Opera House Vision both working toward the same end? Or were in a sense competing?
A few long-standing questions that remained unanswered as the series ends:
Who did Caprica Six meet with in the park in Caprica City after she spoke to Baltar? (This one will probably be answered in 'The Plan")
Who left the note in Adama's quarters that there were twelve Cylon models?
What was Shelly Godfrey? Was she a Six that had downloaded Caprica's Six's memories and become infatuated with Baltar so that she wanted to help him? Was she a physical manifestation either of Inner Six or by the same means that Kara returned?
What was Ellen Tigh's involvement in the death of Tom Zarek's imprisoned associate Valance?
How did Athena go from being in the brig to having become a trusted pilot by the time of the escape from New Caprica?
Why did the proximity to the Ionian Nebula start making the Final Five hear the song?
Why did the song break enough of Cavil's memory repression so they could remember that they were Cylons, but not their past lives?
What was Kara, the Kara that came back after her Viper exploded? Was she an angel? Was she a mass hallucination? Was she a clone?
Why did the song draw them
How did Kara's father know the song? Or was that all and implanted memory?
WHAT HAPPENED TO BOXEY? (We couldn't resist.)
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