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Battlestar Galactica | S2 E19 & E20: Lay Down Your Burdens | Season Finale | Full Reaction

Season 2 of Battlestar Galactica didn't just end. It detonated. Episodes 19 and 20 pulled together all of the politics, personal arcs, and moral questions that this whole season (whole show) has been building on. But then they dropped a nuclear "one-year time jump". The election tension between Roslin and Baltar was already stressful enough, but to see how far the fleet was willing to compromise in the name of "hope" was wild. And deeply frustrating.

Baltar promised salvation (he always does, doesn't he), but what we got was neglect. The fleet, humanity's literal lifeline, was left abandoned in orbit. Unprotected and forgotten. While people down in the mud scraped together survival in their tent city. When the Cylons finally showed up, humanity had no plan, no defense, no hope. Watching it all play out, I couldn't help but dig further into my frustration I feel for Baltar. It felt like I was watching him fall asleep at the wheel of a bus while it plunged off a cliff. Baltar didn't just fail as a leader. He let humanity suffer in ways that felt preventable, selfish, and cowardly. But am I really surprised? No.

Season 2 kept circling back to one impossible question: Do you survive, or do you actually live? The shift from desperate survivors clinging to the stars, to a beaten-down colony trapped in tents and mud, was heartbreakingly brutal. Freedom was bartered away for the illusion of safety, and that false security opened the door for the Cylons to walk right in.

At the center of it all is Baltar. The man who promised so much life but delivered only suffering. Maybe this time, with the occupation closing in and humanity broken under his negligence, he won't be able to quietly slip away from the weight of what he's done to humanity. Again.

Thank you all so much for joining me on my journey through Battlestar Galactica Season 2! I can't wait to get right into Season 3 after a short one-week breather. I'll see you all there.

Thank you for your support on Patreon!
Relax and enjoy
 πŸΏπŸŒΏ

LINK: https://youtu.be/wBm7Q_Z4qsg
I watched this on Amazon Prime


Battlestar Galactica | S2 E19 & E20: Lay Down Your Burdens | Season Finale | Full Reaction

Comments

when is the next BGS episodes? been over 2 weeks.. i am really looking forward to the start of season 3

Ron A

Good shit, Kali

MattyK

I remember this episode when i watched it the first time, when it originally aired on Syfy. i was shocked.. and my hatred for the Cylons grew... the show has spent two seasons to make us sympathize with the cylons after the horrific genocide in the mini series.. with sharon, boomer and the abused six... then when the "priest" and the other leaders say that they made a logic error, and it seems like they cant understand why humanity cant just get over it... almost like the genocide was no big thing.. it made me crazy for feeling empathy towards them. i cant remember the word.. but almost like they view the whole first two seasons like a little oopsie. (if you belive they actually mean what they are saying) i wont spoil anything, but there is so much i want to discuss since i have seen the show many time. lol But its always horrible to see the moment when Roslin lose the compaign and actually tries to steal the race.. something that is a terrible choice for a great cause.. i love this show for having so many grey moral choices with no clear right way to go or think about it.. all sides have downsides and upsides. and when Baltar is made president.. the words at his inauguration rings so hollow when we think about what he has done.. we can argue he has back stabbed humanity at least 4 times. 1:.. when he gave six the backdoor to the defense mainframe 2:. when he made a cylon detector and lied about the results about Boomer, that got Adama shot in S1 finale 3_ when he hid abused six from the fleet and gave her a nuke 4.: when he served up humanity on a platter for the cylons for some personal glory. i also love Roslin and Adama in these episodes.. when he sits down with her to talk about honesty... and how they would be criminals if they stole the election.. but he was willing to go along with her plan.. it shows how much he is willing to sacrifice for her and how much he belives in her... that shows me that she should have talked to him when she went behind his back and sent starbuck to caprica in S1 and started a mutiny and split the fleet.. if she had been honest with him and told him everything he would probably still follow her.. imho at least :) Great Reaction Kali

Ron A

I would advise against watching the webisodes before the season 3 premiere. They kind of spoil some of the moments that happen in the 1st episode.

SultanOfSwing

There are some webisodes you can watch before you start Season 3, it's not required but it does give you a little background on what's going on New Caprica before Season 3 starts, the webisodes are only like 5-8 mins long each. If you want to watch them off-screen they should be on your Blu-ray discs you have. I think they're called The Resistance.

McShades

Well I'll say this for this show - I never have any idea what is going to happen next. For a lot of shows, once you understand the "language" of the narrative, you can start to make predictions. But this show just throws endless curveballs. One moment things are a certain way, the next moment it's a year later and EVERYTHING has changed, and the show never even broke stride. Absolutely wild. I said in my comment for the last episodes that I didn't understand why the Cylons emulated humanity so strictly, and it's interesting that they actually addressed that in this episode. Of course, it still feels like only one piece of the overall puzzle. As ever, the more answers we learn, the less we know overall. I feel like this season finale didn't "pop" quite as much as the season 1 finale - this felt more like a big setup for a new "normal" in season 3, which is honestly pretty exciting. I also said at the beginning of this season that I hoped they'd take some big swings with Baltar because I couldn't take another season of his bullshit, and they've definitely delivered on not only that, but on the entire narrative as well. When season 1 ended, I could never have imagined we'd be where we are now, and that's a good thing. Imagine where we'll be at the end of season 3? I can't wait to find out. Onward and upward!

Dude Longcouch


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