Spoiler Alert! Spoiler Alert!
So yeah, interesting way to wrap it up. Finding Earth a nuked out wasteland wasn't totally unexpected, I had thought they might go that direction. The problem is, the obvious endings are either obvious, or problematic in some way:
Earth is Eden Ending: This one is probably the most cliche. They find earth in a pristine state, something happens and the colonials end up being the basis of a new world making us their descendents. For extra pizazz only two can survive to make the whole Adam/Eve bit more obvious. Problems? Had this only been a mini-series this ending would have worked, but after 4 years of build-up you need more than such an obvious cliche. It would be like Lost going to the 'They're all Dead' ending or something.
Earth is Modern Day: So they find Earth and here we are, modern day society and all. Problem with this is, to do it right we're looking at an epic 'ID4' type story which they wouldn't have the budget for. To do it cheap, well we're back to flying motorcycles and crap like that.. cue Galactica 1980. This would have a hard time working unless they end the series immediately after they find earth and say 'Hello' which also might have been kinda empty.
Earth is Future Earth: This time they find Earth, but it's a future version of it with technology equal to or surpassing the Colonials. Problem here is you've opened a whole new can of worms that would take another series to settle. Plus this could also get expensive and you'd have to basically invent a whole new society and technology. Not even touching the fact that you then have to figure out if its 'Good' future society or 'Evil' future society. It's just too messy.
So scorched Earth may work. Now the question becomes where do we go from here? Surely the entire planet isn't toast, does anyone have a nuke pointed at New Guinea? Everyone can get penis gourds and go native. If it is somehow completely nuked they might as well pack it up and go home, some of the colonies looked intact.. at least one city was at any case. They don't need that much real estate.
What would be super cool though is if they fly on over to New Chicago and find a re-imagined version of the Earth Consolate. They can chill with Dr. heward and Twikie. Bada-bada-frack-me-star-b-b-b-b-buck
