Final Cut (Battlestar Galactica)

Infobox Television episode
Title = Final Cut


Caption = deletable image-caption
Series = Battlestar Galactica
Season = 2
Episode = 8
Airdate = September 9, 2005
Production = 208
Writer = Mark Verheiden
Director = Robert Young
Guests = Lucy Lawless as D'Anna Biers
Episode list = Episode chronology
Prev = Home, Part 2
Next = Flight of the Phoenix

"Final Cut" is an episode of the reimagined "Battlestar Galactica" television series.

Plot

Survivor Count: 47,853

To help relieve tension between the military and civilian personnel of the fleet, Commander Adama gives a civilian reporter, D'Anna Biers, unrestricted access to document life aboard the "Galactica".

During her investigation, Biers uncovers a death threat against Colonel Tigh by a disgruntled Lt. Palladino (as revenge for his part in a disastrous raid on the "Gideon" supply ship), and also discovers that Adama is holding a pregnant Cylon (Caprica-Boomer) in the brig after following the Viper pilot, Louanne "Kat" Katraine, to sickbay for overdosing on stims. Meanwhile, Boomer is rushed to medical after she has vaginal bleeding and Dr. Cottle struggles to save her baby.

Her time aboard "Galactica" causes Biers to rethink her previous anti-military stance, and she ends up producing a flattering portrayal of the men and women of "Galactica". This is however, all a sham; Biers is revealed to be another Cylon agent. The last scene of the episode shows Biers's documentary being shown to the other humanoid Cylons in a theatre on Cylon-occupied Caprica.

Number Six is impressed by the humans' resilience, and a copy of Boomer questions the fate of the baby. Finally, we see a copy of Biers herself sitting with them (it is unlikely that this is the same Cylon that filmed and made the documentary, because there is no logical way she could have returned to Caprica without being caught). The copy of Biers tells the others that two Cylon raiders were lost attempting to get the video back to Caprica, which implies that the Biers copy aboard "Galactica" somehow transmitted the video to a Cylon ship, which returned it to Caprica. In any case, Biers tells the other Cylons that Boomer's baby was saved, to which a copy of Aaron Doral (Number Five) replies the baby is a miracle that must be protected at all costs.

Notes

* "Final Cut" contains a slight continuity error. In "Resistance", "Galactica"-Boomer tells Baltar that there are still eight human-model Cylons among the fleet. However, "Colonial One"'s whiteboard, which includes undercover Cylons in its count, shows the same figure (47,853) as the opening credits, which deliberately does "not" include Cylons. The whiteboard should be, at the very least, 47,854 including D'Anna Biers, and (if Boomer wasn't lying) as high as 47,861.

* The music played during Biers' video documentary is the theme music from the original "Battlestar Galactica" series, which, like this episode, was used as the Colonial Anthem in the miniseries.

*The documentary crew's camera is actually a cosmetically altered Panasonic DVX-100 (or possibly the 100A). Also, the video tape that Biers conceals is a regular MiniDV cassette.

External links

* at the Battlestar Wiki