Battlestar Galactica concluded its four-year run Friday night. Following the handful of humans who survived a nuclear war launched by their former robot (Cylon) slaves, the story riffed beautifully from its Frankenstein archetype origins to brilliant metaphors about the occupation of Iraq. But in the end, it threw in the towel with a simplistic "back to Eden" ploy. Having finally found Earth, the survivors choose to settle the planet and send their fleet of ships packed with technology into the sun. (The sun???) This will hopefully break the chain of violence between Cylon and human, and give everyone a chance to "start over again." At one point, in a sop to The Scarlet Letter, they choose to not build a city since that's the first step towards war.
Sure it hits the right utopian notes -- if only we didn't have weapons, we wouldn't hurt each other. But from Cain and Abel to that scene at the opening of 2001, isn't it clear that sticks and stones are all one needs to do harm?
Here's Wikipedia's entry on all the religious symbolism in the show and Television Without Pity's summary of the last episode.
