Battlestar Galactica 4x11 Reaction | Sometimes a Great Notion 

The most horrible thing about Dee's death, is how realistic it is. The way she does a 180 and suddenly seems fine and happy after a period where they have been struggling a lot is a massive red flag, as it is a sign, they've crossed the threshold and have accepted their impending death, that their happiness is knowing they're going to escape whatever is trapping them and that they're having one final good day, ending it on a high note. It's even worse when you don't fully comprehend what they're going through, that you don't catch the small signs of the things eating away at them, and their last day comes about and then you find out the full truth afterwards.

18:10 Blast shadow, it’s a real phenomenon in which a nuclear explosion will bleach concrete and stone, leaving a perfect dark mark of whatever was casting a shadow when it was vaporized. Several examples exist in Hiroshima and are akin to the Pompeii body casts.

Starbuck wasn’t hiding the body from anyone, she was as giving herself a funeral

Remember also Dee was *very* religious. She believed in the gods and the scripture with every fiber of her being. She believed the President was the Leader of Pythia's prophecy. She hung her entire being on these things being true. And all that was ripped away from her in an instant. She had no ground left to stand on.

When this aired, I was kinda with someone (def would've had the "its complicated" checked) and we spent the day together and watched the episode before heading to bed... Then the Dee scene landed, and something clicked; the gal I was with was having her last day. We ended up talking for about five hours, and it was hard- but at the least it ended up not being her last day. (Honestly, so many props to the suicide prevention line phone workers- it felt like it cost a piece of my soul, and I don't know how they do that day in and day out This show literally saved the life of someone important to me.

"What's the purpose of leading them here?" To emphasize that *this* is their future if they don't figure out how to coexist. "All of this has happened before..."

Dee's death HITS hard every single time!!! Kandyse McClure portrayed the sheer helplessness and devastation of finding Earth uninhabitable perfectly. There was never a doubt in her mind about what she was about to do and to do it after a last "date" night with her Ex Lee wasn't enough to keep her alive!! RIP Dee & D'Anna

Adama’s breakdown and Saul picking him back up is easily my favorite scene from the entire show

Dee’s death was shocking but cinematically and story tellingly it was beautiful. Her acting was just perfect made 5he shock of it so much more impactful.

I love that you have called half the cast a cylon and then said I KNEW IT.

And this is why im so nice to our Rumba, Siri, and Alexa.

This one with Dee hits hard. Suicide isn't about ending your life. It's about ending your pain. And anyone considering it thinking no one cares or will remember you, know you are wrong. I still remember my friend who took his life 30 years ago, and another friend who took his life 20 years ago.

Thee way Leoben backs away from Starbuck, speechless and scared. Damn.

It's a Geiger Counter. It "counts" the radiation, LOL. Also, remember anti-radiation meds are a thing in this universe. Helo, Sam, and others lived on freshly nuked Caprica for months without issue.

Dee's death scene was a bit notorious during the original airing, because the first commercial afterward was for Campbell's Soup, showing a bunch of exploding bowls of soup while music proudly declared "I just want to celebrate, another day of living!" You can find that on YT, although the uploader chose to add spoilers for a few upcoming episodes to the bottom of the screen.

The fact you can see when see decided to kill herself, sitting in the raptor with Helo 14:16, is a powerful moment that you probably only see on a re-watch!

Kandyse McClure on why she believed that Dee chose suicide. "I was floored. I think I was just as floored reading it as I’m sure people were seeing it. It’s such a personal and violent and shocking way to go, not only for her, but for the implications for the people around her. Suicide is a difficult topic at the best of times. People see it as being an ultimate act of selfishness on one end, but certainly from the research that I did and the people that I spoke to, there are so many different reasons that people get to that point. But I think for Dee it was just the ultimate act of surrender and the final act of control over her own life. She really wanted to find some kind of peace."

"Is that the necklace she found on the beach?" Oh boy ...

Man, I was waiting for this reaction - Dee's death was so shocking, but that what happens when you lose all hope. She wanted one last happy memory with Lee before she ended it.

In season 2, episode 8 when Deeana was making the Battlestar documentary, after an attack she asked Dee if it ever got any easier. She answered "No. It gets harder".

I said this on another reaction of this video and I’ll say it again: Welcome to one of the most devastating, existentially depressing episodes of television ever.

As for Dee, I felt really horrible for her. I think it was a great way to illustrate the despair a lot of the survivors would experience. There needed to be a way to bring that home rather than rely on something like a random person no one has a connection to committing suicide or just a general "A number of suicides are being reported throughout the fleet."

I CAN NOT wait for you to see, what I consider, as the final big reveal. Brains will explode and you WILL NEED an entire box of tissues......THANK YOU so much for allowing me to relieve this adventure with you! Honestly, thank you.

For marathon runners there is a dreaded moment near the end that they call "the wall." Its when exhaustion finally sets it and the runner has no reserves left to draw upon. From that point on the choice is so seductive. Quit, or run on, not on stamina, but sheer will. BSGs humanity has hit their wall.

Btw, Michael Hogan is in REALLY rough shape right now and if anyone wants to help him out there is a go fund me...

When I watched this back in the day it was broadcast so no spoilers on social media -- I was one of the people who did not see Dee's end coming at all. On a rewatch all the signpost are there but Kandyse plays it so well that that you just Dee is the the path through the pain. This one hit hard, I took a PPA day and called off work that Monday -- that's good writing. BSG is the best Sci-Fi that has even been on TV.

This is one of my favourite episodes of television ever. The shock of the truth of Earth. The brutal impact of Dee's death. The confrontation between Bill and Saul, which I like to think of as the "Guns & Whiskey" scene. So many raw moments, with the fleet's long-held hopes of salvation dashed. Just brilliantly written, directed and acted. Looking forward to your next BSG reactions.

The RL beach is Boundary Bay's Centennial Beach in British Columbia but the ruins and backgrounds are mostly visual effects.

Your List was most of the cast lol. Dee was understandable. When all your hopes fail again and again When you have had to pick yourself up too many times, sometimes you just don't want to pick yourself up any more. Lost pretty much everything I cared about this last year or so and the thought did cross my mind. Nearest I can come up with for going forward is like in Tom Hanks "Castaway". Just keep breathing. It aint much, but its something until something better happens

The fact Leobin is so shook by that...

Tigh really is one of my favorite characters, you start off hating him, but he has one of the best kind of redemption arcs in the series.

"Shutup Leoben" Literally what we're all thinking every time he opens his mouth 🤣

The moment Tigh realices why Bill is doing what he is doing..and that slow moment for Bill to realice it too

Dee was a true religious believer and like Roslyn couldn’t handle the destruction of her faith.

That's why Battlestar Galaktica is the best Sci Fi series for me in the last 25 years. It's a constant carousel of emotions of disappointment, sadness and surprises.

In the remains of Hiroshima there were shadows etched in stone where people once stood.

Dee's death was a terrible shock that really brougjt home the feelings of defeat and despair that so many people in the fleet were feeling after the crushing dissapointment of Earth.

Been watching your BSG videos for ages, waiting for this episode with Dee, broke me at the time, your reaction was totally as I expected :( Crushing emotional journey with some of the most amazing writing and performances on TV

What the hell is an aluminium falcon?!?! lmao I love the Robot chicken reference you were throwing out the whole video lmao.

Do you remember way back at 24:18 when Angela was full of optimism and hope for our recently disappointed fam with the certainty that love will conquer if good people believe in it? Yeah, those were good times...

Ellen the fifth. Weve been biting our lips so hard for so long not to wreck that reveal. And there are BIGGER reveals to come.

"If that's me lying there, then what am I?" Leoben to Kara in 4x5: "I look at you now and I don't see Kara Thrace. I see an angel blazing with the light of God."

I didn't see Dee coming when I watched this initially. Usually I catch these things, and when you re-watch it you see it. But yeah... heartbreaking.

@funnylilgalreacts Angela, I just started watching your BSG reactions a couple days ago, and one of my favorite things about them is how deeply you seem to feel everything. You bring such sensitivity and compassion to the experience of watching these characters get pushed to the breaking point and beyond. Your reaction to THAT scene with Dee was as heartbreaking as the scene itself. I have always loved the show for the way it challenges the audience to put themselves in the shoes of a bunch of messy, complicated characters who find themselves in impossible situations, and it's a real treat to rewatch the series with a viewer who brings such empathy and thoughtfulness to the table. Thanks for all the work you've done putting these videos together, and for the emotional honesty and nuance of your commentary. This channel was quite the discovery for me.

"I done Saul Tigh'd myself." 🤣🤣🤣

More and more you can see the hand of an invisible power guiding everything

This episode broke me when it first aired. Its crushing and thrn cut to some happy advert.

I hope you see this comment! Watch The Plan after the episode titled No Exit. It was a TV movie that came out after the finale. It is interesting, but not a true finale. Watching it this way doesn’t spoil anything either. Go out on the actual series finale itself, please!

You gotta gotta gotta watch The Plan. I been watching and rewatching BSG since 2009 and never got around to watching the plan until a couple weeks ago when Carmen Young reacted to it. It filled in sooo many holes. A lot of it was stuff I already knew from knowing the lore, but boy oh boy. It's a meaty meal. I had assumed all those years that it would have been comparable to Razor, which was fine and gave SOME perspective, but wasn't really necessary in my opinion. I was wrong! I loved it. Can't wait to see you react to the rest of the season. Also, I just wanna second what some are already pointing out: Starbuck wasn't hiding her body per se, she was in fact giving her body a funeral. Paying respect to what was, even though she has no clue what IS. Since Ellen is the 5th, what is Starbuck? Not a cylon, but surely not JUST human anymore... Right? She's something else entirely and I personally find not knowing to be the beautiful part of her story. She is quite literally like the Phoenix that rose from the ashes to show her people the way. But what does that mean? It's open to interpretation. I have my theories.

There's a few channels on RU-vid that I watch for folks reactions to things. I must say, all of your BSG reactions have been brilliant. I always check my subscriptions first thing in the morning here in the UK to see if you've posted the latest instalment. I'm almost overjoyed to see a new one posted. What am I going to do when you've finished? Thank you so much for all of these. It's one of the highlights of my day when I see a new one waiting for me. Them all day, waiting to get home and watch.

We learned there was trouble on Kobol, Which leads to the exodus of the 13 tribes, 12 of those tribes found the colonies. The 13th tribe was said back at the beginning of the show to be the first to leave kobol. Now learning the 13th tribe was Cylon gives context to both what the trouble on kobol was and why the 13th tribe headed off on their own & why they lost contact with the remaining tribes and receded into mythology.. Question that remains, is how the story of the final five as they have been called links back to the 12 colonies.. ? 🤔 And no one answer that. That's for the show to reveal. 👍

I always think about how Dee saved the human race on at least two separate occasions: once when she convinced Adama to reunite the fleet in season 2, and when she similarly encouraged Lee to save his people in season 3.

31:24 “Oh god, I totally missed that.” That got a good, hearty laugh out of me. It’s an interesting mark of how drawn in you are, that Ellen totally slipped by you for a moment, like that.

Summary of this episode: "You thought the end of the last one was a mindfuck? No, this is the mindfuck! No, *this* is the mindfuck! No, *THIS* is the mindfuck!"

There`s some wild space 💩 yet to happen!!

When I heard you say that the show likes to hurt you, I thought to myself, you have no idea how this episode is going to hurt you. The death of Dee was so shocking when I saw it. Ever since you started watching this series, I have been waiting for this episode to see your reaction.

in every rewatch this is one of the hardest episodes to watch if not the hardest. I am always is bit scared when I know I reach this episode. But its also one of the best episodes.

😊 moment,...seeing Leoben scared so bad he motor oiled his skivvies.

I don’t want to give any spoilers so I will save my comments for the next episode. Losing Dee happens so fast that it hits like a train.

"well, now I'm confused." Join the club. A decade and a half later I still don't always totally understand it. "The plan" film helps somewhat.

Tigh offering to be spaced was him living up to his pledge to continue to be who he was: a Colonial officer and XO of Galactica. It made me think back to when he ordered venting of sections of Galactica to save the ship in the miniseries. Had he been in one of those sections, I'm pretty sure he still would have ordered it, cuz that's just who he is. When you lamented the loss of Dee because Kandyse McClure is such a good actor, my reaction was, "Well, who the hell on this show isn't?" Funny thing is that Ellen as Cylon was from when bad = Cylon. My how things change. Too many shows have characters that never change.

thinking about it again, this probably is my favourite episode of the series, its the perfect start to a breathtaking finale. superb acting, some questions answered, some new questions, loss, drama, hope, its all in there and it leads to some great storylines

20:42 AND 31:26 Besides the Final Five, the other Cylon models emphasized an aspect humanity, often going overboard. Leoben was the self-proclaimed philosopher and thinker. He runs away from Kara because she and her corpse defy all explanations within his observations of the world, not because she is the Harbinger of Death. If all the models are accounted for (drumroll please...), WHAT IS KARA THRACE THEN?

To understand why Saul went into the water.... 2000 years ago, it wasn't water, it was a building in that spot. Just like how chief was able to remember, when he touched his shadow... Both Hiroshima and Nagasaki, have places burned into the walls where a 'shadow' was created when the nook-ya-lar bombs detonated. Just like how Anders was able to remember, when he picked up the fret board... Saul was compelled to return to the exact spot where he and Ellen died.. Only now, it's under water. He wasn't trying to 'scoop' the water out of the way, he was trying to remove the bricks and debris that was covering Ellen. This was clever of the writers. Saul could have just walked up to some patch of sand, or some pile of twisted metal and tried to relive the idea of digging out Ellen from under the bricks. But the writers chose to do this with water. Something that the actor could interact with, but not actually move it out of the way. Where it comes to Kara and Leoben, it's almost as if they could be interchangeable with one another. Each cylon model, represents certain character trope. Whether it is a dictator, a doctor, a warrior, priest, or a poet. In each way, they hold a balance between life and death. I could only imagine that 'Daniel' (the model that was boxed before the series even began), but I'd imagine him to be akin to the 'angel of life', seeking peace and harmony, who would rather avoid human contact... But of course, Cavil would not stand for it. In the early days before the war, I could see the other cylons seeing these traits as 'weak' or 'emotional'. But like any dictator, when you remove those that are the most opposite, you gain favor over your opposition. Its a shame we never got to meet 'Daniel'. But the show worked out well, just the same. Because each of the other models had to determine for themselves, what was right and wrong. Perhaps repeating themselves, over the course of thousands of years, or are they all just 'new creations' that follow the same 'evolutionary' course? And this brings us back to Kara. She died... The Galactica crew witnessed her death, and now she has finally witnessed the result of her own death. Like the cylons, maybe she represents the 'fighting spirit of determination' that all humans have. That under-dog, that never gives up, and always comes out standing tall in the end. What does Leoben have to do with it? What if he represents 'love'... in all of it's quirks. Whether it's a one-sided infatuation, or how he 'dreams' that things will be, for him, it's not about flowers and romance, but love on a unique level, a shared reality, a common goal, trust. But like most, the harder he pushes, the further he pushes 'her' away. A hopeless romantic? A sinister stalker? Has he really ever done anything against the humans? He didn't torture anyone on New Caprica, and his infatuation, his 'dream' was to get Kara to love him back. In all of the wrong ways, of course. Maybe he was on to something. Something that the other cylons missed. But the reason cylons can't have children is because they can't feel 'true love'. Why Leoben singled out Kara, might always remain a mystery. But I think, at least in his mind, he knew he could make a connection with the one person who was incapable of 'love'. Sure, she had some flings, but that was the 'little head' doing her thinking for her. Just like Bill is like a father to her, Lee, was more like a brother than a husband. Kara could never find love, and to Leoben, that's all he ever wanted. How these roles change every few thousand years, that's beyond us to figure out. But all of this has happened before, and it will happen again...and again... and again...

Way back when this first aired... I mean, I always felt bad when a character died, to varying degrees. But Dee, I cried real tears for her when this happened. I felt like I completely understood why. Everything they had been through since the 12 colonies were wiped out only to reach a destination that was similarly destroyed long ago and uninhabitable. None of the insane amount of sacrifice to survive was worth it. This show has so many sledgehammer to the chest moments and this was one of the biggest of them all.

I've been dreading this episode for you. You definitely noticed the most impactful scene for me. The scene where Apollo refused a drink. When I lost my family, divorce not death, I didn't take a single sip of alcohol for more than 3 years. Never let it touch my tongue. Not because I didn't think it would help ease the pain, but I was terrified that it would.

I've been dreading this episode, and it always hits so hard. This is literally rock bottom. Everything they've been through they endured because they believed, fiercely, that Earth would be the solution, that everything would be fine once they found Earth. No one ever even questioned it, because they couldn't, because questioning Earth would mean questioning whether there was deliverance from this nightmare they were enduring at all, and that this was just it, this was their existence now until they could no loger sustain it and their entire civilisation would just... end. And now they are here, and it's a dead, destroyed hunk of rock, uninhabitable, useless. How do you recover from that, as a people or as an individual? You almost can't. Dee, to me, represents the inability to cope with that absolute hopelessness, and it's one of the most heartbreaking ends to a character in anything I've watched. She reached a point where she could not see any light anymore, so she took that last day to be as happy as she possibly could, and go out on as high as she could feel after that revelation. This is the breaking point for the series. How can they possibly get over this? We'll see. But also, this is the episode that gave one of the most interesting and fun revelations of the entire show to this point: The 13th colony that founded Earth were Cylons. So what does that say about us?

"Oh, Dee!" Yeah, about that... don't get too attached.

I've been waiting to see your reaction to Dee's death. It's a truly heart shattering moment, and you just don't see it coming.

The moment you said "I hope he leans on her" I began crying....

Now you can start a drinking game. Every time Leoben in on screen from now on, take a drink.

I remembered Dee's suicide as being very upsetting. Ive been watching the last few episodes with trepidation, as I didnt remember where it happened ... I remember talk at the time the episode aired, that it was very realistic to the emotional state of people who commit suicide - that they're troubled, upset or depressed - but once the decision has been made, their mood lightens and they seem happy and at peace...Just as Dee demonstrated.

RE: Starbuck So okay, how is she back is a perfectly good question. Before that though, I'd like to know this: She explodes in the gas giant in Maelstorm. HOW did she end up on earth?

I didn't want to spoil it earlier but Dee was my pick for the 5th cylon because of Leoben saying that "Adama is a cylon". He hadn't lied about anything until that point so I thought it was just prophetic for after she married Lee.

Great questions. you will get answers... to some of them.

Dee's character came full circle,from just sitting in cic and having very little lines to speak,to marrying Lee and having more screen time,to suicide.I was shocked when it happened tho.

Brace for impact! This is THE eposide where a lot of people reach their limits, first Dee when she saw "Eearth" is a nuclear wasteland, then Roslyn when she saw that the religious faith she believed into was all bullshit because the 13th tribe were human Cylons, Gaeta because of Dee's suicide and even Leoben when Starbuck find her own corpse and Viper, he abandon her because he had no explanation of what she is!

Obligatory No One Is Safe

I was a faithful watcher of RDM's BSG when it originally aired. I'm STILL ANGRY about Dee's death.

A friend of mine has the parachute from Starbucks crashed viper, he got it from the auction. They referred to that character as “Char-Buck”

This episode hits so hard! Goodbye Dee 😢 And Ellen….it just had to be Ellen! So much madness to come!

I totally forgot about what happened to Dee until she started humming at her locker. As soon as she started humming, I was like, oh crap.

I’ve been dreading this episode. I still think Dee is the most shocking death in the series.

yup.... the second "dark age" is here....

Another note about Dee is that because she is raised on faith, her faith in the scriptures were also shaken because the 13th Colony was Cylon, and their civilization also ended in annihilation.

I remember when I watched this on TV. Right after Dee died, they went to commercials and the first one was for tomato soup, greeting you with a puddle of red. It was so bizarre, yet well placed, I wonder if it was on purpose.

Another reason to set aside a full day for the last episode is that the finale is three parts. And for a bonus non-sequitur, I love what you did with your hair for this one

I'm with you. Dee shooting herself was a huge shock for me the first time I saw this. :(

Woohoo! What a rollercoaster of an episode! :D Glad to get to see it again and your reactions to it. :D

You know, with the case of Dee, Adama and Roslyn, in the very first episode, Baltar said that: everything has its limit, ships, people, everyone. Rosalyn reached her limit and she broke down under the weight of despair (you will see this later), Dee reached her limit and did not want to suffer anymore, and Adam fell into despair. Thank you for being his friend Tigth, bringing him out of despair and giving him new hope. About Ellen, when you first said she could be a Cylon, I was surprised how you hit the nail on the head. About Kara, did you think that she could be an angel, the same as Angel Six and angel Baltar?. P.S. By the way, does it scare you that: the humans of the Earth are not humans, but machines and that EVERYONE is in a cycle?.

I was waiting for the realization to kick in. 🤣

Great Reaction Angela 🌻

In case you haven’t been paying attention: “All this has happened before, and all this will happen again.” 🙂

Dee represent there would be a segement of the population that would find peace and end everything.

this episode fucking wrecked me when i first saw it. watching Dee die was harder than watching all of humanity getting nuked.

Imagine if 4x10 had ended up being the actual series finale which it very nearly did!

First time I watched this Episode I was with a Friend of mine. Seeing Dee BARELY holding herself together as they left the Planet then Seeing her Acting almost Blissful when talking to Lee, I turned to my friend and I said "She's going to Kill herself". He was Stunned by what I said and refused to believe me. I told him "She's Done, that is the behavior of someone who has reached their limit and have decided 'That's it, no more'. She's going to off herself and she's giving herself one last moment of joy." ... Sadly I was right a few minutes later.

All I can say is ... buckle up, the rollercoaster ride is only *just* getting started!

I tend to get pretty invested in shows. Emotionally drawn in. I've never felt as sick as when Dee happened back in the day. I felt that kind of sick again anticipating today. What's worst to me is that it's such a scary thing to realize that people talk today very well about care and awareness. But it can go exactly like that - where there's no sign at all, in fact it looks like there's joy and calm. Stay close to people, everyone.

Dee's death never fails to hot me in the gut, despite knowing that it's going to come. It's heartbreaking.