No Exit

I expected that somewhere before the end of Battlestar Galactica, we'd get an episode like the one tonight. Long on exposition, short on plot and drama. And it's simply a necessity -- there's too much 'splainin to do to have it come out naturally in the time left.

And so it was that, between Anders' "sick bed" realizations and the filling-in of what Ellen has been up to since her execution in early season three, we were stuffed full of info almost like we ourselves were downloading. I wish that the writers could have found a more eloquent way to get all this across, but at least the answers themselves were rather compelling.

So the "Final Five" are actually the First Five, as it turns out, having built all seven of the other Cylon models. No, scratch that, eight of the Cylon models. Not long after it appeared we had the "who's the last Cylon" question answered, we learn there's actually another last Cylon. I don't think this was part of the writer's master plan at all. I think it probably just came about as a way of ret-conning the Sharon model's numbering of Eight. If they'd just named her Seven in the beginning, we wouldn't have this problem, but now there has to be a reason why they skipped number Seven, and here we are.

There were a few good moments for characters sprinkled in with all this exposition, though. Adama's connection to his ship; Starbuck hoping to explain her death and resurrection by imagining herself as the missing number Seven; Ellen's interplay with her wayward son "John." And the strange cameo by John Hodgman.

I guess my feeling was simple: this may have been the most revelatory of this last batch of episodes (so far), but it was also the least exciting to watch. Perhaps you'll disagree if you're in it for the answers, and certainly I didn't think it a bad episode by any means. But I am hoping that with this necessary step out of the way, things get more dramatic from here on to the end.