Daybreak, Part II

"Daybreak, Part II" An episode of the Re-imagined Series
Episode No.	Season 4, Episode 20
Writer(s)	Ronald D. Moore
Story by
Director
Assistant Director
Special guest(s)
Production No.	422
Nielsen Rating
US airdate	March 20, 2009
CAN airdate	March 20, 2009
UK airdate	March 24, 2009
DVD release
Population	survivors
Additional Info	Series Finale - 2 Hour Episode
Full Credits
Episode Chronology
Previous		Next
Daybreak, Part I	Daybreak, Part II	The Plan
Related Information
Official Summary
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Listing of props for this episode
Related Media
			@ BW Media
Promotional Materials
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Overview

The volunteers for the mission to rescue Hera launch their assault on the Cylon Colony, and the Fleet's journey comes to an end.

Summary

Notes

• A portion of this episode was being filmed in Kamloops, BC during the week of June 16, 2008. Local extras of all ages were utilized for this scene (or scenes) and were required to have an athletic build and a clean-cut look, or to be slim with long hair or dreadlocks. Extras were auditioned at Best Western room 137 (in Kamloops) on June 12th . The rural area surrounding Kamloops was previously utilized to depict the algae planet in "The Eye of Jupiter" and "Rapture".
• Although Part I had a runtime of one hour, Part II will run for two hours. An even longer cut of Daybreak will later be released on DVD.
• This episode marks the deaths of Boomer, Cavil, Racetrack, Skulls, Tory Foster, Samuel Anders and Laura Roslin and the destruction of Cavil's forces. The Doral and Simon lines are also presumably wiped out, or at least decimated beyond recovery. Kara Thrace, having fulfilled her purpose, vanishes without a trace and her whereabouts are unknown. In detail:
  • Boomer was killed by Athena in revenge for taking Hera, sleeping with Helo and beating her in the lavatory.
  • Cavil took his own life in Galactica's CIC when his side lost.
  • Racetrack and Skulls's Raptor was stuck by a meteor penetrating their wind screen and striking them, Skulls was killed on impact. Racetrack was later able to launch her nuclear missiles before she died.
  • Tory was killed by Galen Tyrol in revenge for Tory killing his wife Cally after he learned Tory murdered her during the mutual and involuntary exchange of private information of the Final Five's minds while downloading Resurrection technology data to the Cavil forces.
  • Anders guided himself in Galactica and the Fleet into the Sun.
  • Roslin died of cancer as Adama was giving her a bird's eye view of their new home on second Earth in a Raptor.
  • Since they did not have either Cylon females or Resurrection the Cavil, Simon and Doral models on the various Cylon Baseships presumably died out after their natural life spans were exhausted.
  • Kara was presumably taken by the same force, probably God, that resurrected her.
• This episode also marks the destruction of the Galactica and her Fleet.
• Humanity, along with the Cylons, finally reaches its new homeworld, names it Earth and the humans of today are the Colonials and probably the Rebel Cylons, descendants 150,000 years later. The Leobens, Sixs and Sharon models from the Baseship joined the Colonials on the new Earth.
• The Centurions are granted full independence and subsequently depart in the rebel Baseship to pursue their own destiny.
• The Kodiak, the command ship of the Global Defence Initiative (GDI) faction from the computer game Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun is seen among the fleet in one establishing shot.

Analysis

• The coordinates that Thrace enters, 1123 / 6536 / 5321 correspond to the notation of the Final Four theme [1]. The song is in a C# Phrygian scale (enharmonic with A major and F# minor). 1 represents C#, and each higher integer indicates the next note in the scale, such that

1 = C#

2 = D

3 = E

(4 = F#)

5 = G#

6 = A

(7 = B)

The linked graphic omits the first and last note of the theme, but both can be heard in the soundtrack during the jump montage. The second "five" (in the third chunk of four digits) corresponds to the tuplet G#/A/G#, effectively omitting the trill up to high A. Every note has the same duration except for the last two, which are twice the length of the others.

• The Virtual Beings are angels of God who came to guide Baltar and Caprica Six in their destiny of protecting Hera.
• Kara Thrace is an angel who was sent back from the dead to guide humanity to a new home the coordinates of which were hidden in The Music.
• As noted in the "Notes" section it is unlikely that the Cavil, Simon and Doral lines will continue without Cylon females. The Threes are extinct with the last copy D'Anna Biers herself dying on the original Earth; Boomer killed in the Colony (and in anycase couldn't single handedly save the lines even if she were alive); and the last Sixes and Eights staying with the humans on the second Earth. However, there is the possibility of having a few remaining human females from the survivors of the various Colonial worlds including Caprica being viable, so the lines could in theory continue. However, given the total lack of success in the forced breeding of Cylons and humans and the Cavil, Dorals and Simon's cynical view of love, an apparent requirement of conception between both Cylon-Cylon and Cylon-human combinations, it is unlikely.
• The scene where Adama is being questioned and abruptly quits the interview references the classic Sci-Fi film Blade Runner, which also starred Edward James Olmos.
• Ronald D. Moore appears in a cameo as the man holding a National Geographic magazine in New York City.
• The shelters erected by the Colonials on Earth resemble Quonset huts, World War II-era temporary structures.
• The final scenes of this episode, in fast-forwarding through time and attempting to set the entire work as a backstory, make the ending similar to that of the film How the West Was Won.

Questions

• What becomes of the Centurions?
  • Do they go after the remnants of Cavil's forces, or go their separate ways?
  • Will the freed Centurions eventually develop their own humanoid forms?
• Did any copies of Cavil, Doral, or Simon survive?
• Why does Cavil choose to commit suicide?
  • He probably realized he lost and just gave up.
• What becomes of the Baseships seen orbiting the Colony?
  • It's possible the nuclear blast could have propelled them right into the blackhole.
• Are any other human-Cylon hybrids born on Earth, or do the Twos, Sixes, and Eights remain childless?
• If "it" doesn't like to be called God, what does "it" like to be called?
• Will modern humans discover remains of Colonial technology such as Raptors?
  • That probably depends on how hard we look.
• Why do the angels still look like Baltar and Six 150,000 years later?
  • Probably so the audience will still recognize them, or it may have been a time jump of sorts by them to look into the future.
• Will humanity repeat the Cycle?
• Are Thrace and Anders together?
• Can Thrace ever return again?
• Do Baltar and Caprica-Six marry? Do they go into isolation like Adama and Tyrol, or will they be near a human colony?
• Do Adama and Tyrol stay isolated for the rest of their lives?
• Why was Romo Lampkin chosen as President? Wouldn't a member of the Quorum of Captains have been selected?
• What became of the remaining prisoners aboard the Astral Queen? Were they sent out amongst the rest of the human population, or were all of them deposited in some geographical area completely isolated from the other humans?
• Were any of the groups provided with medicine, or medical training or at least someone with medical knowledge before spreading out among the world?
• Is God related to the Lords of Kobol or something completely different?
• Why did the First Hybrid not want humanity to follow Thrace?
• How many angels are there? Are the ones that resemble Six and Baltar the same as those that appeared to the Final Five and Thrace, or distinct?
• Why have angels not been appearing to the Final Five since Old Earth's destruction, only to Baltar, Six, and Thrace?
• Since the notes of All Along the Watchtower lead to Earth, do they still serve a purpose on Earth?
• Will analysis of Hera's remains reveal that she was not a normal human?
  • No, since our reference for "normal human" is her descendants, she'd look like the rest of us.
• Does human life evolve on planets other than Kobol and the new Earth?
• Who did Hera eventually have children with? A human or a Cylon?
  • Most likely a human. Saul Tigh and the Leobens would be too old for her. While it was common in ancient times for men far older than their brides, for example as young as the female being 12 and and the male being 60, Colonial mores, which are much like our own in real life, would forbid the Leobens from sexual congress with Hera when she reach the accepted reproductive age. On the other hand there were many human children about her age and slightly older in the Fleet. She could had also had children with a human child unborn at the time of the landing on Second Earth perhaps within five years to ten years of her age. It is possible that other hybrid children could had been born after the landing given that the Sixes and Eights joined the humans. And it is possible that pure Cylon children could had been born to the age compatible Sixes, Eights and Leobens but as noted in the series it is difficult if not impossible for a pure Cylon child to come to term. Hera's offspring is most likely with a human or a more remote possibility another Cylon-human hybrid. Her breeding with a pure Cylon offspring is the least likely.
• Was it coincidence or divine intervention that an asteroid caused Racetrack's hand to hit the launch button for the nuclear weapons at the exact right moment?

Noteworthy Dialogue

"Silly me.... silly, silly me."
--Virtual Baltar in the last line of the series.

"Frak!"
--Cavil's last word before he blows his brains out.

"Can we not tell her the plan?"
"Right." (Athena kills Boomer)
--Starbuck and Athena about Boomer before Athena kills her.

"There must be some way out of here."
--Starbuck attempting to figure out the jump coordinates.