It's almost here. The beginning of the end of Battlestar Galactica. The first of the last ten episodes debuts on the Sci Fi Channel on Friday night.

It feels... I don't want to say "anticlimactic," because that's not quite right. But there's a sense of resignation, almost: I guess there really is nothing I can do to stop BSG from being over. If you go through the stages of grief when one of your favorite TV shows dies, then I guess I'm at the acceptance stage.

I've spent the last month thinking about where the show could be going -- what's the deal with Earth and who the final Cylon might be -- and the only certain conclusion I can come to is that I'm completely flummoxed. And I love that. I love not knowing what to expect, that the roads we could take are many and varied and some of them mutally exclusive: the show could go this way or it could go that way or it could go somewhere I'm not even imagining right now, and that's perfect. I so crave surprise from my entertainment that this, right now, is a rare moment of true anticipation that I am savoring.

Not that I'm not enjoying the taunting and the guessing, either. If you haven't already seen Sci Fi's teaser site You Will Know the Truth, get the frak over there right now. It's a collection of "clues" to the final ten episodes -- they're still in the process of being revealed, with the last to come just before Friday's new episode premieres. You'll find sound clips -- some of which are so intriguingly garbled that you'll play them over and over again trying to figure out what is being said, or what that noise is in the background. (Is that the famous whomp-whomp sound the old-school Cylons made in the 1970s series? I think it might be!) You'll find video clips -- some from already aired episodes that, we're led to believe, hint at what's to come; some from upcoming episodes (one with a vital bit of dialogue muted!) that torment us with possible plot twists. (Does that one of Adama's discovery in his quarters mean what I think it means about the spaceworthiness of Galactica? I think it might!) You'll find text that reads like something out of the books of the prophets, and you'll find still images, including one that sent a little chill down my non-Cylon, non-glowy-red spine.

If you need a catchup, check out "Catch the Frak Up!" at the show's official site: it's a 13-minute recap of the entire series so far with all the basic info you need (or so we're told) to appreciate the final ten episodes. And it's worth a look even if you don't need to catch up, because probably what's included and what's left out is as much a clue to what we're in for as those explicitly labeled "You Will Know the Truth" clues are.

There's also the 30-minute "Battlestar Galactica: The Top 10 Things You Need to Know" thing that's been running on Sci Fi all this week, which is mostly a way to bring new viewers into the fold even at this late stage. Here, creators and geek prophets David Eick and Ron Moore fill us in on the important stuff, and drop a few hints that things we may never have been absolutely sure about shall indeed come to pass. Like: "There is some greater destiny to [human-skinjob hybrid kid Hera] that we have not revealed yet."

But I was particularly struck by something Moore said in this special. (At least, I think it was Moore -- his voice and Eick's are so similar that when it's only a voiceover over clips from the show, it's tough to tell who's speaking.) He said, aboout the colonials and the rebel Cylons and their disappointment at finding a ravaged Earth:

We pick them up now with no hope, with not knowing what they do next. They don't even have something to dream about anymore.

That's something that had not occurred to me before. Whatever happens now, even they resettle Earth and make peace with the Cylons and everyone lives happily ever after (I don't expect happily-ever-after), they'll have to rebuild their hopes, their religion, their entire culture. A rug has been swept out from under them, and -- to mix some metaphors -- however they choose to rebuild their emotional house of cards, it should be fascinating to watch.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
MaryAnn Johanson, not a frakkin' Cylon (email me)

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