Thoughts on "Sometimes a Great Notion" (BSG 4.11)
The way that they were going with Dee, I thought she was the final Cylon. But her suicide was shocking and powerful. I'd seen the clip of Adama and Tigh drinking in previews, but it makes more sense now that I know Adama just found out about his daughter-in-law's death. Even before Dee/Lee started annoying Kara/Lee shippers everywhere, Adama trusted Dee and asked for her input (see: "Home, Part 1").
The main complaint I have with the episode is the same complaint I've had for most of S4: They're trying to put so many things in the episode that it doesn't have a sense of overall coherency. But I'll sacrifice coherency for finding out juicy tidbits about Earth.
I was almost shocked to see Baltar acting as a scientist. He's been a crazy religious/cult person for so long, I had to take a minute and remind myself that he is also a genius scientist.
I'm not sure I understand why D'Anna chose to stay on Earth rather than accompany the fleet. In some ways it makes sense, but I would have liked to see more of her character.
As usual, even though there were a ton of answers, the episode raised way more questions. Especially about the Final Five. Who are actually the First Five if you look at it one way. Ellen as the fifth makes sense -- it's not a shocking reveal, more of a "yeah, I guessed that". Then again, with the long hiatus and nothing better to do than speculate -- nothing would have been surprising. I was one of the people who only warmed up to Ellen around/after her death.
Pointless speculation: The "skinjob" cylons are descendants from the cylons who fled Earth after the nuclear holocaust (what caused it?). Why there became only seven (twelve?) models later, and how they got to the Colonies -- I hope we find out in the closing episodes, and I'm pretty sure we will.