James On the End

James (Callis), Tricia (Helfer), Katee (Sackhoff) and Michael Trucco were interviewed for Space channel's podcast. There's a download link here, and I'd link to Space's own website if I could figure it out. James' bit comes at 12:20 and on, and I'm very happy that they let him think and talk, without intruding with a hundred comments and questions. It's brief but it feels like a real interview, not just a soundbyte. Transcript by me.

Will Baltar find redemption in the end?

"I'm not sure about redemption, but there is... he starts to have an understanding of himself. And you're going to see thru the end, so many of the characters who you've followed and you've loved, you're going to see... it is actually that, all of the characters coming to terms with themselves. I think... not about the situation and the plot and everything, it's when you've been on this odyssey and the odyssey is over, you're left with yourself. You know, and uh... that can be very frightening. And uh.. what's that word, uh... It can make you feel um.. exposed. Exposed, you're like you know, this here... it's just me. And everything you've done, everything you've gone thru, has come to this point. So it's been... I can't wait til you guys all see this thing, it's been so incredible to film, I can't... I don't even know what it's going... it's going to be so fantastic. It's gonna be, it's going to totally, totally blow your minds."

How did he feel reading the final scripts?

"I'd never really read anything like it. I was so excited because, like I say, everybody... Everybody's arc has been looked after. It's not like you get to the end and "But what happens to so and so?" Everything has been beautifully stitched together, it's like the most perfect, beautiful way to finish off this... I would say a form of cinematic literature. It's like coming to the end of um... it's not LIKE coming to the end, it IS coming to the end, of an incredible saga. And so many times in a saga, the events that have taken you there have been very exciting and the end can let you down, you're like... oh well, this um.. the ending is almost the making of everything. because you're going to see a lot of people that you have not seen before, and behaving in ways that you haven't seen before. And that's been so... It's been... it's been incredible. Just incredible. Out of this world!"

He sounds SO excited. I am psyched. I'd say he's overdoing the praise, but in this case, it might actually be valid. He certainly sounds genuine. (Bonus points for not bringing up Adolf Hitler.)

To be honest, I've been worried about, like he said, being let down. 4.5 has felt so jumbled and chaotic, with so many plots to tie up and so many characters to go through. But Daybreak, Part 1 was the exact opposite: calm, unhurried, beautiful, character-centric. It gives me a lot of hope for the final episodes. Maybe it won't be a letdown. Maybe it will be frakking awesome.