The arrangement is stripped down to a solitary, suspenseful high D in the violins as Gaeta turns to proclaim ?Visibile constellations are a match.? An uncontrollable excitement begins to bellow up, first seen in Roslin?s reaction to these words. The choir and orchestra enter with a fierce and energetic swell, that crescendos further on the reveal of the fleet approaching Earth.
For this speech, I abandoned the text?s distance from the story and allowed the choir to take on a more literal, narrative quality. In fact, the final line, ?We have arrived at Earth,? is stated by the choir at the exact moment that Adama says it himself.
But of course, the episode does not end on the serene vision of Earth from above.
The final minute of the episode completely strips away the uplifting emotion of the previous scene, making it one of the harshest twists this series has ever pulled off. And it worked beautifully without score. The lonely ripple of ocean waves and a distant thunder clap, recorded and edited brilliantly by Daniel Colman, perfectly communicated the desolation they faced. The promise of Earth has kept them alive for four years and now they finally find it, a nuclear wasteland. Any music here would only serve to dilute the power of this crushing scene.
And with that, we are left with a long wait before us. I can say little about the last ten episodes except that they are astonishing, delivering on the promise of Revelations and more.