Dear Writers,

Thank you for giving me a brilliant, thought-provoking show for three and a half years. I realize the difficulty of keeping up the wow factor after an extended period of time and appreciate your dilemna. That being said, the last half of season four, including the finale, disappointed me. The shortcuts you did not allow yourself to take for three and a half years accumulated in the finale.

- I did not believe that Cavil, arrogant and distrusting as he is, would listen to Gaius’ speech and so readily trade Hera for Resurrection. Also, he is not a man so ready to give up and commit suicide in that last moment.

Image by brianfling via Flickr

- Chief killed Tory, and this is not discussed nor dealt with. Is that supposed to be justice for what she did? It certainly didn’t feel like justice. More like revenge. For a woman he didn’t love.

- The fact that the ship was destroyed by an accidental touch of a button by a dead woman seemed convenient. This combined with the above came across as an easy way out of a bad situation.

- That was the fulfillment of the opera house dream? Disappointing.

- Hera’s necessity to the human race was never explained. Humans can reproduce. Why did they need to save Hera? Especially since after she was saved, she settles down with her parents and lives the same life that everyone else lives. Was it merely a catalyst to kill the bad cylons? The archeaologocial findings of Mitochondrial Eve, and having that be Hera, was a slight of the hand to distract us from the fact that she gave us no real answers (except to the cylons).

- For all the hullabaloo, Gaius’ and Six’s place in the part of humanity was also a let-down. I appreciated that you redeemed their characters from destructive forces of humanity, but you built up a lot of prophecy for nothing.

- Speaking of, am I supposed to believe that Sleek Gaius and Red-Dressed Six are God?

- And I didn’t need that speech at the end. A couple of areas got preachy.

- I didn’t believe Boomer would have taken Hera in the first place, though you redeemed her character by having her save Hera.

- And Starbuck: what to do with that. She fought and fought her resurrection, then one day accepted it without reason except that Gaius said, yes, you are dead. And if she saw her body, it wasn’t a true resurrection, as a true resurrection is body and soul (see Jesus Christ). Of what materials was she made (and was her clothing and dog tags mad, especially since she found them, as well, at the sight of her death)? And she resurrected merely because she went into death willingly and bravely? Sounds Neitszchian. Or maybe closer to kamikaze pilots and suicidal bombers. Is she some sort of Christ figure who then ascends at the end? (Although, the line the piano player tells her, "Just because you don’t know your purpose doesn’t mean you don’t have one," is brilliant.)

- My final complaint: I understand the survivors of humanity forming communities all over the world, but they didn’t. They pursued their lives individualistically. Admiral Adama decides to go off to a mountain to die alone. Lee explores on his own. Chief goes off to Scotland, wanting nothing more to do with humanity or cylonity. Families distance themselves from one another. Empty.

Again, loved the show for three and a half years, and think it would have been magnificent if it had ended when they landed on the first earth. After that, most of the show came across forced and superfluous, with the exception of Gaeta’s struggles with the new human-cylon living arrangements. (His death was beautiful.)

A fan,

Heather A. Goodman