BSG Finale Scorecard

If you haven't seen it (and want to), STOP.

If you have (or don't care), proceed.

The good:

1. The character vignettes from Caprica. I think that we see that characters are sometimes more complicated than expected (Baltar) and sometimes exactly who we think they are (Lee).
2. Kara Thrace's end. When she basically evaporated (and nobody really protested or acted surprised), I think the "what is she" question became essentially moot. Exposition about her character became impossible (although I think it might be best explained through "Deus Ex Singularity." Like the pigeon in Lee Adama's character vignette (see #1 good), Kara was never going to be caught--merely helped out the door using the "drunken broom of morality."
3. The hell breaking loose on the Cylon colony--the happy exchange was a bit to pat. Glad to see a bit of darkness creeping in.
4. Sam Anders character really became a joy to behold in these last few episodes. What was basically a throwaway character became much, much deeper as he lost his humanity. This, coupled with the fact that his decline helped him re-connect with Kara Thrace not only derailed the inevitable USD between Starbuck and Apollo, it also opened up a whole range of personality facets in other characters (Doc Coddle, Tory, etc.)
5. Love, love, love the attention to the Dylan song as coordinates to Earth. As a former musician, this just plugs into my sappy dream of music as universal language (I have a similar love of math).
6. Really enjoyed how they revisited the Opera house scene with the same choreography and recast the characters based on what the audience has subsequently learned.
7. Glad Helo lived and got redemption. If any character deserved a chance at redemption, it was him.

The Bad

1. The flash foward to last week--hamfisted warnings about robots have already saturated the show. Please do NOT cheapen it with Battlestar Galactica 1980 callbacks. Nobody needs our crappy robots or break dancing to "spice up" what is already a Masala-like mixture.
2. The almost-positive ending. I was actually hoping that the show might end up in a dark, dark, pitchdark place. Of course, it's easy to say that with the happy ending, but I hoped that this might be the show to end as a cautionary tale.
3. CG Galactica getting a "broken back." It was embarrassingly bad imagery seeing the Galactica doing "the wave" after the final jump. The battle scenes were just awesome, but this just about undid those.

The Ambiguous

1. The explanation of a living Earth that we already saw nuked. I really think that they might have easily explained this by jumping through a singularity (and going back in time); however, because the rest of the fleet seems to not have done this, I can only shrug my shoulders at its irrelevance. I like the fact that they are trashing their technology, and even like the implication of the eternal return; however, the improbability of finding ANOTHER Earth with humans could have been handled a bit more smoothly.
2. President Rosalin's death. I like the fact that she had a realistically long and drawn-out demise (much like my father's was). I also like her long and steady heroism, even when she was being less than heroic in intent (ditto). I also love the way that Adama only got to have that hilltop view with her after her death. Seems fitting that a workaholic would only get the ghost of a retirement. Still, I can't help but feel that she was already dead.
3. Cavil killing himself. I like the Hitler-bunker moment in theory, but I still think that this was a bit of an expediency moment. Seems like his cowardice would likely only be overcome after a bit more of an ego melt. Kind of weak, I thought.