Who is the final Cylon - Part I

Let it be said that I do not know who the final Cylon is. I have avoided spoilers on this topic like the plague. Some things I do like to know, but this is one thing that I want to find out with the rest of the world; on David Eick and Ron Moore's dime. So, this is just going to be my thoughts on who I think the final Cylon could be.

I promise, no spoilers for the upcoming season at all.

Candidate number one:

Laura Roslin

Okay, now hear me out. You all know how deep my love is for Laura Roslin. And even though she's my number one option, there are good arguments that go both ways. Back in season one, Gaius Baltar was creating his cylon detector. Using a bit of DNA, it would purportedly reveal who was a cylon and who was not. (We saw this work in the case of Boomer, but Gaius lied about the results to keep her from going crazy on him.) When trying to decide who should get tested first, Adama and Laura held this exchange:

Roslin: So, who's going to go first?

Adama: Oh, the tests, right. Well, I think people in sensitive positions should go first.

Roslin: I completely agree. How about you?

Adama: Excuse me?

Roslin: If you're a Cylon, I'd like to know.

Adama: If I'm a Cylon, you're really screwed.

Roslin: Seriously. I do think that you should go first. Show everyone in the fleet that they can trust the people at the top.

Adama: Then maybe you should go first. [Pause] All right. I'll go first.

Roslin: I think that's good. I do.

Now, nowhere after that do we get to have a conversation or scene where Laura gets her test done. She pushed for Adama to go before her and really wasn't going to rest until he did. Did she ever get a test? We could argue though that the final five don't know that they're cylons, but what if some part of her programming was kicked on instinctively - self preservation and all that? My argument for why she shouldn't be the final cylon, and why I honestly hope she isn't is that she is the most human character out of all the characters on the show. (At least in my 'hardly ever matters' opinion.) She's had the very real struggle of breast cancer and her morality, and through those two things has had the most character development out of anyone in four seasons. I would hate to see all of that washed away with the revelation that she was just a skin job.

Candidate number two:

Felix Gaeta

There are a lot of pros and cons weighing against Felix. For one, he's been Baltar's biggest fanboy since the first episode they were in the same room together. Even on New Caprica when he could have left his position and gone to live with the rest of the fleet, he stayed by Baltar's side. Could it be because Gaius knows that Felix is a cylon? Could something like that have been revealed to Gaius? One could argue that Felix helped the insurgency by feeding them information, but then again, the insurgency was led by Tyrol and Tigh. We also had the Hybrid babbling on something about the final Cylon crawling out of the darkness. With Gaeta's leg amputated that could metaphorically be him, but it looks like he gets around pretty well with a crutch.

Candidate number three:

Anastasia 'Dee' Dualla

All I have for Dee is that back in season one, Leoben whispered in Laura Roslin's ear: "Adama is a cylon". He could have been frakking with her, and we saw that she was suspicious of Bill after that, but what if he meant a different Adama? It's true he could have been talking about Lee or even Zak...Carolanne? (Please, no.) But he also could have been talking about Dee who is now an Adama by marriage, even if said marriage is apparently over because Lee is...well, that's a conversation for another post.

Candidate number four:

Oprah Winfrey

She alone will have survived Earth's terrible apocalypse (and if it's the past; Oprah is a 2,000 year old oracle) and will be the one to surprise the fleet. "You're all getting BRAND NEW CAAAA-AAAARS! Welcome to Earth!"

Tune in next week for Who is the final Cylon part II!

The below photo has nothing to do with the post.

I've been sitting here for probably two days now, just trying to think of a topic to write about. You see, interweb, I've been trying to get noticed and I put a stat counter on the page. After I post and advertise it all over the internet (read: Livejournal.com), I then log into the stat counter and watch the numbers. I just about pee myself when we get into the hundreds. I know that I don't get record breaking numbers; I don't even get 200 hits a day, but for some who usually spouts random musings about television, I'm impressed with myself.

(I've just re-read that last sentence; narcissism is alive and well. Also, spell check wants me to capitalize the 'i' in internet, but I refuse.) I don't know who reads this on a daily basis, and I realize the above paragraph was extremely boring, but the point is if you do for some reason read this, and you enjoy television, bookmark me. And if you think you have friends who might find anything I say interesting, don't be shy about linking back to me.

I don't want to leave you all without something T.V. related, but this week I feel like a T.V. Zombie. Monday and Tuesday feel like hyper-drive because I'm re-watching Heroes and Fringe 18 times in one hour so that I can post my recaps at TheTwoCents.com. By the time Wednesday rolls around I feel like I just ran a marathon and can finally sit down. I'm too exhausted to watch anything on Wednesdays (I'm sorry, Pushing Daisies, but I'm not even in the Nielsen Group, so there.) and I'm already thinking about how amazing Thursday night is going to be. This segues me into T.V. schedules. Thinking about how much I watch makes my mind want to explode, but typing it out, it doesn't really seem like that much.

Monday

Chuck

Heroes

---

Tuesday

House

Fringe

---

Wednesday

Project Runway*

---

Thursday

My Name is Earl

Kath & Kim

The Office

30 Rock

LOST*

Grey's Anatomy (if Mary McDonnell is on and/or Denny finally goes away.)

---

Friday

Monk*

Psych*

Battlestar Galactica*

---

Saturday

Nothing; oh glorious nothing except for football.

---

Sunday

Extreme Home Makeover (shut up.)

Desperate Housewives

Brothers & Sisters

Mad Men*

(*I realize that these shows are not on right now, but this is what a full schedule has the potential to be.)

That's at least two shows a night, two that I recap, and that's not even counting shows like Caprica and Dollhouse that don't even have an estimated premiere date yet. (And maybe that's more than I thought.) With all of this I watch, there are still shows that everyone talks about that I don't watch but feel terribly out of the loop no matter how dumb I think they may be. Actually, they may not even be dumb shows, just shows I've never watched for one reason or another. Including but not limited to Samantha Who?, Ghost Whisperer, Dirty Sexy Money, Eli Stone, 24, any and all cable shows, plus that Dr. Drew rehab show. (Which I would actually totally watch for Gary Busey alone.)

I'm a little sad that I keep saying I'll watch Samantha Who? and then never do it because by all accounts, it's an amazing show and I think Christina Applegate is the most adorable person on the planet. Plus, I love Jean Smart a lot. The will is there, but without looking I don't even know if the show is an hour or thirty minutes, and I have no idea when it airs. One of these days, probably after it's ended, I'll get the DVDs from Netflix, but until then, I'll just continue to wish I watched the show.

I've watched Ghost Whisperer approximately once, and the whole time I was watching, I was hypnotized by Jennifer Love Hewitt's breasts. Honestly, if you're going to put boobs in my face that's not a bad way to do it, but the boob problem is the same in every show: It's just not necessary. And yes, I am talking to you Marg Helgenberger on CSI. But other than the boobs I was really, really bored and so I never watched another episode. I almost wished that I did now because of all the REALLY! ANGRY! PEOPLE! all over the internet. I've never watched one episode of Dirty Sexy Money because the title makes me feel the way I do when I realize I've just stuck a dollar bill in my mouth while I organize my change. 24 never appealed to me because I'm not a huge fan of cars exploding and people dying in every single episode (unless it's death by robots, apparently) or Keifer Sutherland in general. But that's my cross to bear.

I'm interested to know what you watch and why you do or do not watch it. Why do some people only watch shows like Keeping up with the Kardashian's and The Girls Next Door? I have a theory that mind-numbing reality shows are going to be the demise of my generation's last remaining brain cells. Prove me wrong.

Grey's Anatomy - how ridiculous

Let me give you a brief history of my roller coaster ride with this show. When it first started, I was amazed with the show. I thought it was a great, different take on a medical show, I thought the writing was superb, and I loved the character interactions. So, all 9 episodes of season 1 were a win in my book. Then we had season 2. That was the season with the bomb and while at first I was really worried it would be like an ER story line (how much can happen in one ER?) I thought it was executed very well. We had the train episode where the people were impaled together. Awesome episode. And then we had the Denny stuff.

I bought that for that time frame. I thought it was an amazing, heart breaking story line.

And then there was George/Izzie, Meredith/George, Callie/George, a ferry boat accident, Jane Doe/Ava, and OH MY GOD MAKE IT ALL STOP. I don't understand why. I don't understand why all of that was necessary. It made me stop watching. I tossed in the towel. And then, for reasons unknown, in May I happened to watch the finale.

No Denny. The relationships (with the exception of Burke and Cristina) seemed to be back where they were supposed to be. A heartbreaking clinical trial. Izzie and Alex. Meredith and Derek. Chief and Adele. Things were as they were supposed to be and I thought 'I can start watching this show again'. So, I decided to tune in this season.

I was on board for the first couple of episodes. And then they started bringing back Denny. Really? I love Jeffery Dean Morgan as much as the next person, but oh my God. They are dragging the dead horse out of the closet and beating it again. Why? Whhhhhhy? And now Denny is haunting Izzie? He's a ghost? He won't go away and the previews for next week have them getting ready to do the naked pretzel.

Is there about to be a Supernatural cross over?

This is the hokiest, far-fetched story line I have ever seen. I could believe it and maybe even handle it a little better if this show came on between the hours of 12-4 in the afternoon. It belongs sandwiched somewhere between ABC's soaps. If not for Mary McDonnell guest staring last night, I would have thrown in the towel and switched it over to 30 Rock.

So of course, the good for me was Mary McDonnell. She's supposedly hanging around for 2-3 episodes and it's wonderful to see her as a renowned heart surgeon with Aspergers. I love her so much as Laura Roslin that it was almost shocking to see her in such a different role. My love for this actress really knows no bounds, but instead of tuning in live to see it, I'll be DVRing the show. I've been recording The Office and 30 Rock, but I think I'll be making that switch. I'll take the Jim and Pam romance and Tracy Jordan trying to make the perfect porn video game over the ridiculous and unbelievable ghost ridden Grey's Anatomy any day.

Battlestar Galactica - Counting down to the end

You will never know how much it hurts to write that subject line. If you think back to when the mini-series originally aired which was back in 2003, we've been inundated with this show for a good five years. We've had four seasons, with the final half starting in January, and I'm approaching it now with mixed feelings. On one hand, I am glad that this show knows when to bow out. I admire Ron Moore and David Eick for being able to look at such an amazing show and decide that the story is coming to an end. It will wrap up on their terms and not because of an actor's contract expiring and temper tantrums over pay or the networks yanking the show early. That should give all of us something to be happy about. But on the other hand, it feels like there's this heavy weight in the pit of my stomach. I'm excited for the show to come back - in fact I feel like I'm starting to go through withdrawals right now. In the same breath, once it comes back, there will be no more hiatuses. No more waiting for the premiere date, no more counting the days on my calender. It will really be over.

Before it sings its final swan song, there are just a few things I want to see happen. Nothing major; not really. Just things that as a fan I've been hoping to see or at the very least see acknowledged on the show. In no particular order, here they are:

Bill & Laura

We got the 'I love you' in the first installment of season 4, and even my father (who has an exterior as gruff as Adama's) seemed to melt just a little. It was sweet and whispered, it felt like the right moment, and it was a perfect scene for the two of them. When that basestar jumped into view and Adama couldn't take his eyes off of it, in my head he was thinking I'm going to get my woman. (Am I alone in this train of thought?) The scene was just as perfect as their brief kiss way back in season two after she promoted him to Admiral. Tender and soft and with just enough emotion to make you get a lump in your throat. All of that being said, I'm not saying I want to see Bill and Laura getting hot and heavy in a rack (secretly; yes), but I am dying to see at least another kiss. Something that gives all us A/R shippers a little more validity to their relationship. Edward James Olmos and Mary McDonnell are such phenomenal actors that they could pull off that scene with the classiness their characters deserve. So, before the end, I'd like more regarding their relationship.

Laura's cancer

Before you all skip over this one, let me make one thing clear. I am unbelievably attached to the character of Laura Roslin. I love the character, I love the actress, I love what she stands for and I feel sorry for the person who tells me they hate Madame President. That being said, my heart will not be able to take watching her die. I will end up having a nervous break down and probably call out sick from work. I don't care what they have to do to make it not so. A magical unicorn could be found on Earth and cure her for all I care. It could all be a dream or Earth could actually be the island on LOST. I. Don't. Care. I know that this would make the whole 'dying leader' thing a moot point but when it comes to continuity and her cancer it wouldn't even bother me. Adama has finally found a woman he loves who loves him back and she's going to get killed off - just like every other person he loves. I mean, except for Starbuck, but she's questionable. And I know that Lee's not dead but he flip flops so much between being pissed at his dad and crying over him that Adama needs the stability of Laura being a rock for him.

I totally forgot where I was going with this, but my point is, I don't want Laura Roslin to die, even though I know there are reasons for it and the writers would do it with dignity.

(At the risk of sounding like Seinfeld) What is up with Earth?

I'd like for there to be a way for the characters to find out why Earth is a wasteland. Is it future Earth, or are they stuck in between eras? Is that even Earth? I think it would be great if Laura pulled out her scrolls of Pythia and after a moment of silence said "Oh, guys...my bad. My bad, everyone back in the battlestar, we took a wrong turn at the Lion's Head Nebula."

Is it a boy or a girl?

I'm not talking about the final cylon because we know the writers won't end the show without telling us that. I'm talking about Six and Tigh's baby. I want to see her go through pregnancy and Tigh get all freaked out about fatherhood in his 60s. (Has to be early 60s, right?) I think the writers have a great set up on their hands full of potential tender moments from Tigh. Not that he's ever been a teddy bear, but it will be awkward and sweet to see the old alcoholic holding his own infant.

Aside from things like happy endings and Adama and Roslin riding off into the sunset (which I know will never happen) this is pretty much my check-list going into the end of the show. I know it's a shallow list, but a fangirl can dream, right?

Addendum: I also hope down to the last fiber of my soul that this show finally gets an Emmy after it's off the air. Please, please, PLEASE for the love of all that is good and just in this world, hand out Emmy's for outstanding actor, actress, writing and show. It's been over-looked for far too long, and is loved by too many people for it to be ignored.

I was blindsided

Over at TheTwoCents.com, I submitted a Heroes recap that praised the episode which is something that hasn't happened in a long while. I was ecstatic, happy with what I saw, and even called a couple of people and triumphantly proclaimed 'It's back!'. But I think that I've been duped.

You know how when you've been drinking, and someone seems really attractive and totally awesome, so you invite them home and you have what you think is the best time you've had in a while? And then the next day you wake up and you realize the person you thought was great was just smoke and mirrors to distract you and now all your money is gone and you're left wondering how you ever became so naive?

Yeah, that's how Heroes made me feel this week.

From this point on, there will be spoilers, so beware!

If you take the point of view of 'casual watcher' and take the show for what it is (a show about people with abilities) it was pretty awesome. We had family betrayal, betrayal of the heart and some interesting twists that connected the characters in ways that were previously unknown. But if you're like me, a watcher who tunes in to get some form of continuity and understanding, this episode did nothing but blow smoke in your eyes. Let's take it plot by plot and see exactly how far we've come.

The Petrelli family

We find out that the accident that paralyzed Heidi, Nathan's wife, was intended to kill Nathan because as ADA, he was investigating Linderman and intent on bringing him down. His previous crimes are unknown (at least to me; anyone know why Nathan is so hell-bent on this?) but we do know that if Linderman is brought down, all of Arthur's plans for world domination (?) will be discovered. Angela over hears Arthur telling Linderman that they'll have to try killing Nathan again, but he warps her mind and makes her believe that Nathan has to die. Good thing Linderman is secretly betraying Arthur though, because he heals Angela's brain so that her next logical step is to try and kill her husband so he can't kill her son.

The only thing this gives us is a reason for Arthur to mind-rape his wife and put her into her coma this season. It doesn't further the plot, it didn't give us anything new to work with. And I don't really feel like it told me anything that I needed to know. It was intense for sure, what with Angela pulling a knife on Arthur, and her little quip when she poisoned him: "It's not your mother's recipe." That's all though. Nothing groundbreaking happened.

Meredith and The Company

It turns out that Meredith's brother is Flint, the Level 5 baddie we've seen who can shoot blue flames. They were both caught by Thompson and Meredith was turned into an agent almost right off the bat. The gig didn't work out though, and she ended up breaking out her brother and hopping on the first train to Mexico with him. Of course, Thompson followed them and just happened to be on the train for who knows how long. It all led to a confrontation in which Meredith uses her power and starts a fire in the train car, resulting in the need for everyone to jump out of the moving train just as it explodes. It feels this entire story line, from Meredith getting caught robbing a convenience store to jumping out of the train was written for the last 2 minutes of screen time Meredith had: She explained to Thompson that she hated The Company because they got Claire killed when she was a baby. Of course Thompson knows the truth, and for reasons unknown, he lets her go. The penultimate moment though was the realization that the train accident Meredith caused was the same one Claire ran into back in the first episode of season one.

I was so excited initially when I watched the scene live because we caught a glimpse of young Claire running into the flames. But now that I've watched it again and thought about it, I'm mostly upset that we had to go through all of that long drawn out story line to get to that moment. A moment that seemed completely pointless and that I don't even see the meaning of. Can someone (anyone) explain the relevance of that scene to me?

Elle, Sylar, and Noah

Again, I was so excited by this story line that when it initially played out, I thought it was one of the best story lines this season. Now I'm mostly confused by it because it seems like there were a lot of glaring continuity issues, but it could just be me. We pick up just after Sylar has killed his first victim, the man he first stole a power from. He's suicidal and is just about to hang himself when in comes Elle. She claims to have a broken watch, but really she's partnered with Noah and their assignment is to get Sylar to kill as they witness it via streaming video. Throughout the process of baiting him, Elle starts to fall for him a little bit and he even feels like he's been given a second chance. He confides in her his power, and the fact that he gets so jealous of other people with abilities that he kills them to get what they have. With Elle around though, he thinks that maybe he doesn't have to be special. She gives him the Sesame Street lecture of 'everyone is special just the way they are' before luring in a young man named Trevor. He apparently has the ability of a sharp shooter, Sylar gets jealous and tries to kill him, then gets furious when Elle reveals that she too has an ability and she's been using him all along. Thus, the monster that is Sylar is born and instead of bagging and tagging, Noah tells Elle that their mission is to set him free. So they've let this monster out on the world and Noah doesn't even feel badly about it. That'll really come back to bite him in the rear, won't it?

After all of this; after Noah tells Elle that he has to follow orders (that come from Arthur?), he gets into a taxi cab heading to JFK Airport. And wouldn't you know, it's the same cab Mohinder was driving in season one. Which is where my biggest moment of confusion hit. Sylar was upset about killing a man with the ability he stole as we saw from his flashbacks. If Mohinder was driving his father's cab, that means that his father was already dead, because Mohinder only went to New York after his father was murdered. And I could have sworn that by that point, Sylar had already escalated into the monster we came to know in season 1. So, is there a continuity issue there, or do I have the timeline wrong in my head? Something is nagging at me, telling me that Sylar had probably killed more than 2 people by the time Mohinder was in New York.

Hiro, Ando, and African Isaac

Of course, we've seen all of these things that happened in the past via Hiro's spirit walk. Which was useless because the only reason it was even done was to set up African Isac's death. I'm all for killing needless characters, but how did Arthur Petrelli even know where Hiro was? Are we to assume that he used Molly Walker somehow to find him?

So, there it is. The shiny exterior has been buffed away, and this is the episode as I finally see it. It's not as great as I initially thought it was which is a little saddening. It seems as if the only thing we accomplished in the hour was the death of African Isaac and something adverse happening to Hiro, although we're not exactly sure yet if he's been killed or drained of his powers. I'd like to know what you thought. Am I dwelling too deeply on this?

Not an advocate

Most websites and magazines are trying to find ways to make Heroes better. Not I. I say yank it off the air. It's done. Finished. Never going to be good again. Am I the only one who sees this? I want it to be great; I want it to be stellar again, but I'm only kidding myself at this point. I'll give you five reasons why it should be yanked.

1. The people (collectively) are begging for the same Heroes we had back in season 1. Folks, this is not going to happen. The shock and awe of revealing new heroes isn't the same. When we were first learning about this phenomenon and people with special powers, everything was shiny and new. We were glued to our seats and couldn't wait to find out what the next piece of the puzzle was. Now though? Everything is so convoluted that I can't tell the A story from the B story, and I fall asleep during all of the C story. For the record, I think that the A story is something about the Petrelli family and something Oedipal, the B story is something about Hiro being an idiot, and the C story has to do with the black dude in Africa. I could be wrong though.

2. All the cool powers are already taken. This was proven a few weeks ago with Vortex Guy. I kept thinking back to the Family Guy episode where the family was splashed with radio-active sludge and Meg got the power to grow her fingernails really quickly. Seriously, ask the question 'if you could have any super power what would it be?' to a group of people, and these will always be your answers: Invisibility (done), never being able to get hurt (done), the power to fly (done), to move objects with your mind (done), to read people's minds (done), and the ability to make time go by faster to get out of work (done). I think the only thing that hasn't been covered is x-ray vision, but I could be wrong. So really, what else is there to cover? The show proved that there are awesome powers that I never even thought of, like freezing everything I touch and super sonic moving, but being able to create a vortex? Black ooze out of your eyes? Lame. (And, lest everyone forget, black ooze was done on The X-Files and it was done about 40 times better. So, there you go.)

3. No one really cares anymore. At least the people I talk to. The story has been so clogged with pointless information that it's too exhausting to care. On shows like Battlestar Galactica, no matter what they throw at you, everything comes back full circle and makes sense. This hasn't happened in a long time on Heroes. For example, we all know that back in that disaster we'll call season two, Sylar had no powers and it was a time of rehab for him. Fine, I'll believe that. But it is my full belief that the writers forgot which powers he had. For example, super sonic hearing? For someone who supposedly has that ability, he sure didn't hear Claire sneaking up on him back in the first episode of the season. And he didn't seem to pick up on that conversation with Noah, Claire, and Vortex Guy. I'm willing to believe that he's had some trouble gaining some powers back, but could the writers please go back and say that? I'm thinking they just forgot, and if they just had Sylar say something to the effect of 'when I regained my powers some were missing' I'd completely delete this paragraph and I'd go back to thinking the writers were awesome again. (Well, awesome is a stretch.)

4. They take away likable characters and keep characters that are pointless. For example, Maya and Adam. (I totally just typed Adama.) I have never been able to stand Maya, even when she was part of the Mexican Banditos. I think she's a pointless character with a stupid 'power'. When I thought Mohinder killed her, I thought it was the smartest thing the show had ever done. And then, for some inexplicable reason they brought her back! She's not dead; she might be gone now to live happily ever after without her 'power', but it was so much better when I thought the writers took a cue and killed her off. And then there's Adam. His story line was really stupid back in season two, but he could have been awesome this season. And just when I was starting to warm up to him, Arthur Petrelli sucked the life out of him. Why bring him back at all, then? And instead of bringing in new characters like Knox and Daphne, could you please tell me what's up with Micah and Molly?

5. I don't care anymore about characters I should because they've turned stupid. I blame this solely on the writers. For example, Mohinder. This was a dude who was supposed to be there to explain the sciency stuff and be the cool head amid all the chaos. Now he's injecting himself with formulas before they've ever been tested. Uh, hello? Mohinder? Attention writers: Isn't he supposed to be brilliant? Even a three year old knows you don't go around sticking yourself with stuff. I really don't care that he's turning into The Fly. Serves him right. Idiot. And I feel like I should feel something for Matt Parkman as he was easily one of the most sympathetic characters in the first season. But now I feel nothing but sleepiness when he's on screen. With Hiro I'm in a constant state of stupor because not only is he stupid, he's taking the stupid to a whole new level. What super hero goes out LOOKING for something bad because they're bored? Hiro, apparently.

Other miscellaneous things that add to the death count are the number of characters in the show which was already kind of addressed, and the fact that they won't let us really get to know any characters anymore. They tried it with Hiro in Japan and that sucked really bad. But rather than learn from their mistakes, the writers just keep piling on pointless fodder.

Do I think the writers could take this list and fix it all? They could but instead I think they should just cancel it. It's never going to be great again. Ever. Ever. Not ever. You're right, I have no faith. No hope. It's all lost. Never to be seen again. Let's just pretend that the show was a made for t.v. movie back in season one and that nothing else after that point exists.