Galactica finally reached earth in the final episode we will see until the series completes the final season next year. Unfortunately earth was not what they were expecting. While we only see a small portion of the planet, it appears that there has been a nuclear war, or perhaps a Cylon attack. Many viewers, such as The Remote Island, believe we are looking at Manhattan from the Brooklyn Bridge. Another example is here.
The finale certainly gave us much to wonder about until next year. Most likely this area is representative of the planet but we do not know for sure. We do not know for certain if this really is earth, or whether there is only one “earth” considering how we have frequently been told that, “All of this has happened before. And all of this will happen again.” It certainly does not look like the earth as seen in the finale of season three. In the original series, the fleet went to Terra Prime initially believing it was earth, and later discovered otherwise.
Assuming that this is earth, the big questions are when it is and what happened to the planet. Was earth destroyed by building their own Cylons, possibly leading to the settlement of the colonies in the past? With all the talk of human/Cylon hybrids, perhaps they are to be the Adam and Eve to rebuild the earth. This could either make them our ancestors, or the rebuilders of an earth we destroyed. If they do rebuild the earth, are their descendants fated to rebuild Cylons who will again destroy this civilization?
Before reaching earth, one mystery was answered. We were told that the four Cylons in the fleet would lead the way to earth but from what we could tell they had no such knowledge. Instead it turned out that they were instrumental in finding the signal in Starbuck’s viper which led them to earth.
The identity of the fifth Cylon remains a mystery. D’Anna’s statement that only four of the final five were in the fleet could be a clue. As she couldn’t know everyone in the fleet, in order to say that the fifth is not in the fleet suggests that she knew where the fifth was. This might involve information we do not have yet, but it could also suggest that it is one of the members of the fleet who were already on the Cylon basestar. As half the fleet was over there, we can only speculate.