If we're being fair, that could just as easily describe everything after New Caprica. Series went downhill in season 3.

It's an interesting thought. I've always considered the two of them mirror images of each other in a lot of respects. However, my thought was that they were the same character given two different ways to play her life out, and with one crucial difference: one of them knew what she was, and the other didn't.

Which just makes it more ironic that the one that lied her way across season 1 ended up happily ever after and the one that was honest got shat on by the universe repeatedly. A rather cruel twist, would have been fun if the writers had actually played on that!

Then again, they didn't really care about making the comparison, did they? One of my favourite things about the characters in season 1/2 was that their very existence was asking some fundamental questions about what it means to be human... sci-fi in the classical sense. After the New Caprica arc, though, that element disappeared, and pretty much all of the interesting aspects of the characters with it.

I agree that it went downhill. Boomer's characterization past New Caprica made little sense, and even Athena had her moments (like shooting Natalie because story matters over character). I liked that Athena grew as a person, but TPTB did little with her once she became an officer (which is where the folding laundry criticism came from during Season 3). And Boomer going from insane to Cavil loyalist to stealing a baby for reasons only explained in fan fiction only illustrates that maybe it would have helped if RDM and gang actually had a plan.