What the frack was 'BSG's final scene about?

The hype for Battlestar Galactica's finale was immense, with expectations of a blood-soaked climax in line with the show's increasingly grim tone. But instead, the guns stopped blazing midway through the episode and the last half hour was bathed in contemplation and mystery. Earth was found by the united Caprican and Cylon survivors, they established settlements and Starbuck vanished somewhat angelically into thin air. Then came one stunning last scene set 150,000 years in the future - on our planet right now...

In a crowded metropolitan setting, Number Six and Gaius Baltar are reading a National Geographic magazine over a man's shoulder (played by BSG showrunner Ronald D. Moore). The article reveals that the fossilised female remains of one of the original settlers had been found in Tanzania, which prompts Baltar to comment that she lived "along with her Cylon mother and human father". This suggests that the remains are of Hera - the hybrid daughter of Karl 'Helo' and Sharon 'Athena' Agathon.

The smartly dressed pair, who are seemingly ageless and invisible to those around them, stroll down a busy pavement surveying the scene.

"Commercialism. Decadence. Technology run amok. Remind you of anything?" asks Six.

"Take your pick," replies Baltar. "Kobol. Earth. The real Earth before this one. Caprica before the fall."

"All of this has happened before," Six adds.

"But the question remains - does all of this have to happen again?" ponders Baltar.

"This time I bet no," she states.

"You know, I've never known you to play the optimist. Why the change of heart?"

"Mathematics," Six responds. "Law of averages. Let a complex system repeat itself long enough and eventually something surprising might occur. That too is in God's plan."

"You know it doesn't like that name," Baltar seethes, before lightening the tone by jovially saying "silly me, silly, silly me".

As they walk past a shop window, a familiar song blares out of a beggar's radio. It's the Jimi Hendrix version of 'All Along The Watchtower', the track that brought four of the Final Five Cylons together on board Galactica because they kept hearing it.

The camera then pans to the window of the store, which has a television on display. The screen is showing a news report entitled 'Advances In Robotics' and features a montage of Artificial Intelligence 'beings' - stemming from little robotic toys to a synthetic creation that looks just like a young Japanese woman. Scarily so. Such imagery harks back to the very beginning of the BSG miniseries, which started with a procession of robotic Cylons appearing, followed by a very human looking Cylon.

"There must be some kind of way out of here," pleads the song's lyrics. It appears not to be the case for Earth, as Baltar's prophecy is coming true and it does all have to happen again. Given what occurred with the rise and rebellion of the man-made Cylons on Caprica (to be further explored in the forthcoming prequel series), how long before the machines start becoming too real for comfort in the real world?

The beauty of the eerie final scene of Battlestar Galactica is that it forces us to confront the environment and society that surrounds us, like all good science fiction works do. Furthermore, just like history is destined to repeat itself with 'technology running amok', the cyclical nature of BSG itself is also demonstrated by the presence of Number Six and Baltar milling around at the very end - just as they did at the start of the show. It's all a case of history repeating...

Watch the final scene:





> Click here for our full review of the BSG finale