Summary
- Battlestar Galactica's final line remains unexplained, leaving viewers to speculate on its meaning and purpose.
- The line "silly me" could be a private joke between the angelic beings and their unseen deity, showing their familiarity and playfulness.
- The original script provides a different context for the final line, suggesting that it relates to the stakes of a bet between the angelic beings about whether history will repeat itself.
Battlestar Galactica ending infamously left much to the imagination. Ronald D. Moore's revered sci-fi reboot neglected to fully explain the godlike entity that had been orchestrating events since the beginning, and left numerous question marks hanging over both Starbuck's resurrection, and her connection to the song that led the battered-star Galactica toward Earth 2.0. Despite being one of the most meaningful and lore-significant moments in the entire show, however, even Battlestar Galactica's final line has no obvious explanation.
Taking place on present-day Earth, many millennia after Galactica's arrival, the two angelic beings that had been taking the forms of Number Six and Gaius Baltar share one final conversation about whether history will repeat itself, and another human-Cylon war will break out. After the Six makes a reference to "God's plan," her Gaius-shaped counterpart retorts, "You know it doesn't like that name." Six gives him a stern look, then Gaius ends Battlestar Galactica with the line, "Silly me... Silly, silly me." Exactly why this celestial rent-a-Gaius would playfully onish himself with "silly me" at this moment is unclear - even more so considering this is the final line in the entire show.
Why The Gaius Baltar Angel Says "Silly Me" As Battlestar Galactica's Final Line
"Silly me" comes across as a private joke between the two angelic beings - something the audience is deliberately not privy to. Whatever Battlestar Galactica's godlike entity actually is, it does not enjoy being called "God," and for reasons that are unclear, the Gaius angel pointing this out is somehow ironic or amusing. Without knowing more about Battlestar Galactica's unseen deity, the true meaning is impossible to decipher.
Another possible interpretation of Battlestar Galactica's final line would confirm the two angels themselves are actually the show's God. Six's expression when she says "that too is in God's plan" is almost a playful smirk, as if she's teasing. When Gaius then retorts "it doesn't like that name" before tapping his head and saying "silly me," he could be humoring her - going along with the idea of a higher power before jokingly "ing" it's actually them and uttering "silly me." Given their apparent omnipotence and desire to mold the future, "Head Six" and "Head Gaius" being extensions of God, rather than angels or messengers working for God, is not so far-fetched.
Battlestar Galactica Cut The Real Meaning Of Its Final Line
At this point, a clear-cut explanation for Battlestar Galactica's final line is as likely as Gaius Baltar publishing a book on monogamy, but one helpful piece of behind-the-scenes insight does shine a light upon the ambiguous "silly me" joke. The Battlestar Galactica finale's original script contains a very different version of the closing conversation between the Gaius and Six angels, completely changing the meaning of Battlestar Galactica's ending. The uncut scene went as follows:
Gaius: "You know it doesn't like that name. In any case, it would require mankind, in all its flaws, to learn from its mistakes."
Six: "Stranger things have happened."
Gaius: "I think I'll take that bet. What are the stakes? Silly me..."
In this context, Battlestar Galactica's final line carries a wholly different purpose. Rather than "silly me" relating to what God may or may not like being called, the line becomes about the stakes of Gaius and Six's bet over whether history will repeat itself. Even here, Battlestar Galactica's closing words are ambiguous, but the original script at least allows for a more concrete explanation to be inferred. Most likely, the Gaius angel saying "silly me" is an acknowledgment that the stakes of their bet are obvious. Nothing less than the existence of life in the universe is on the line, and both angels are only too aware of that fact.