Look, I know that Paul Campbell was wanting to get out of Battlestar Galactica to pursue other projects, and sure, he definitely had this right. But oh, Billy. Billy Billy Billy. You shouldn’t have died, my dude. Part of me wishes he’d survived just so Dee could realize that her relationship with Lee was the worst decision she ever made, because it fucking was. And the other part of me – the writer part – looks at the series as a whole and thinks, “Oh, my GOD, there are so many stories here to tell.”

But before we get to that, Billy’s death was heartbreaking. I loved his character and his general goodness, so to see him sacrifice his life for the woman he loved was heroic and tragic. And seeing Roslin bawl at the loss of the man she considered her family was almost too much to bear.

Onto my ideas, though. Because that’s the sort of thing I’m here for today. What if Billy had been one of the Final Five? That would have fucked with Roslin’s head SO. HARD. Her connection with him is so deep, and he’d been with her the entire time, even before she inherited the presidency. It would have been an amazing foil to the Adama/Tigh dynamic there, because let’s face it, Roslin didn’t care too much for Tory by the time her identity as a Cylon was revealed. Billy being a Final Five Cylon would have also better explained Dee’s eventual suicide after finding the nuked Earth; she truly had lost everything: the man she loved was one of the enemy, and the hope of finding the mythical planet was just a pipe dream. She wouldn’t have been able to have one last pleasant night to hold onto; like Gina in “Resurrection Ship,” she would have just wanted to end her suffering.

And then! You have to let me continue on my speculative universe here, guys. Dee turns out to be one of the Final Five, instead of Ellen, and resurrects (mind you, they have found another resurrection ship in this alternate timeline of mine) right after her suicide. As much as I love the character of Ellen, having her be one of the Final Five removes any of the meaning behind her death in “Exodus.” But with Dee, her meaningless death could provide her with the salvation of being able to save both the Cylons and the humans, easily falling into the role as a mother figure that Ellen adopted. Her and Billy’s attraction could have been explained by their past relationship, much like Tigh and Ellen, and all things would have been right in the world. But instead, we get the Worst Timeline, and now I’m all grumpy again.

Hmph.

Art Credit: Wikipedia