timeimmortal

Well, Grace and I just watched the latest episode of Battlestar Galactica, Revelations, and I have to say that on the whole, I rather agree with Barb Nicolosi as far as the last few minutes of the show are concerned. The discovery of Earth (pictured below) is a delight, a moment of pure and unrestrained joy. It’s exceptionally well-filmed (or well-rendered, in the case of the effects), well-timed, and well-scored (in fact, the music is phenomenal)…so uplifting.

And then, three minutes later, the show leaves you with the feeling that you’ve been punched in the gut, as the show ends in “desolation and shock.” The transition between high and low is at once sudden and (impossibly) gradual, as Earth turns out to be not the “promised land” that everyone on the Colonial fleet — even the atheistic William Adama — thought it would prove to be. Instead of teeming with vibrant human life in the form of the Thirteenth Tribe, Earth is a burnt-out, irradiated wasteland.

What is more, the nuclear holocaust does not appear to be a recent one — this is not the handiwork of the Cylon faction headed by the Cavils (Number Ones). The series producers were very good about showing us a world in the immediate aftermath of a nuclear attack with the scenes set on post-apocalyptic Caprica; it was yellow, the atmosphere was murky, and it was obvious that fallout had polluted the atmosphere. By contrast, Earth is blue, its skies cloudy, but not in that “airborne dust” kind of way. Whatever the nature of the destruction that is evident in those final, gut-wrenching moments of the mid-season finale of BSG, it is not a recent destruction.

The episode as a whole is intense — some of the best television I’ve seen in a while, in fact. About halfway through the show, Grace remarked that there was a lot of interesting stuff happening, and indeed there was…the events of the show could easily have been spaced out into at least two, maybe three episodes. I suppose, taken in comparison to the relatively plodding pace of events so far this season, the argument could be made that Revelations feels rushed. But I observe that for myself, the only reason that the rest of the season feels rather plodding has to do with hindsight. I’ve had no problems with the pacing of the other episodes this season, either as rushed or as plodding, and I’ve no problems with the intense level of action and narrative that is in this mid-season cliffhanger.

The episode splits into roughly three acts: a first, longer act that deals with D’Anna’s attempts to liberate the Penultimate Four Cylons from the Fleet, a shorter second act that deals with the Colonials playing hardball right back, and a third act that deals with Earth both as a legitimate destination that is finally within reach, and as a larger, unifying principle. Spread throughout each act are the seeds of an idea that Kara Thrace explicitly states during the bridge between second act and the third: something or someone beyond human comprehension is orchestrating events.

What’s more, her reasoning is edifying. It’s rare when I actually applaud (inwardly, at least) something theological said on a television show these days — most of the entertainment industry, it seems, has no clue about how serious, intelligent religious people actually think. But there went Starbuck with her analysis of events, and it really was spot-on. With a dubious Lee Adama, sarcastically dismissing the notion that a “higher power” might be at work in events, Starbuck replies with conviction and clarity, and makes her case well:

Kara: Gaeta’s confirmed it. The channel is empty except for this Viper. [pause] It’s gotta be a signal from Earth.

Lee: You’re reaching, Kara.

Kara: C’mon Lee, add it up. [Lee gets out of the Viper] I vanished into a storm, ride this Viper to Earth. Coming back, I get a vision that leads me to the baseship. It’s Hybrid tells me that the Final Five Cylons have been to Earth. But we need the missing Three — D’Anna — to bring them out to the open.

Lee: [somewhat sarcastically] And now we’re starting to get messages from the beyond.

Kara: You heard the signal. The final Cylons led me to it. If it’s Earth, they’ve given us the home of the Thirteenth Tribe…just the way the Hybrid said it would happen. Like it or not, Lee, something is orchestrating this for a purpose

Lee: [still sarcastic] *sniff* A higher power.

Kara: Call it whatever you want. But it seems to want us to find Earth with the Cylons.

God has, within the BSG universe, been ever more present as the plot has progressed, and here again He turns up, defying the expectations of most. It will be interesting to see how the second half of the series, which all leads up to the finalé, will handle the issue of deity.

(Interesting note: in the final scene, as the camera pans over the various people standing amidst the ruins on Earth, take note of the cross rather plainly emblazoned onto the rock near Helo and Athena.)

>> The Final Five

Well, it turns out that I was completely wrong on one account — Samuel Anders was not the first of the Final Five to be outed. Indeed, the argument could be made that he was the last one to be outed, in a more or less complete reversal of what I had expected. Tory Foster is the first one revealed (though not on Galactica proper; she uses duplicity to get onto the rebel basestar and it is there that she outs herself, eventually telling off Laura Roslin).

What is interesting is how the rift that had previously emerged in the Penultimate Four has now, more or less, become a fixed divide. Foster more or less completely embraces her Cylonity, to the point of misanthropy. Her hatred of humanity is palpable, and I wouldn’t be surprised if at some point she flipped sides to join Cavil’s faction, when next we meet them.

Tigh’s revelation to Adama was shattering, and Adama’s flipping out was a perfectly natural result. Kudos to Edward James Olmos for a dramatic and heart-rending scene; one would totally believe that Adama had, in the span of mere minutes, been totally broken and reduced to primal rage, and then to tears. A lifetime worth of emotional pain exploded out of the Admiral in the aftermath of what was, for him, one final act of betrayal…and then by his best friend of three decades. Every act, every bad call, and every kid he sent out in a Viper to get killed haunted and hounded him, until he was drooling and sobbing into his son’s arms.

It was a painful scene to watch.

>> Old ways, new ways

I liked that Lee Adama raised an interesting point when talking with Number Three — D’Anna Biers. It was actually a point I’d raised before: throughout the mythology of the series, the idea that history is somehow cyclical has been the predominant philosophy. The way out, if any existed, was in my view to somehow break that cycle, to strike out in a new direction.

Lee Adama said this directly when proposing an alliance, and a peace, with the rebel Cylons.

What was interesting is how soundly this episode utterly rejected, in multiple ways, the old paradigm of eternal conflict between man and Cylon. D’Anna is operating on that paradigm, and Tory Foster (expressing her anti-human sentiments well) eggs her on in a violent, standoffish course when it comes to dealing with the humans. The humans react in kind, and the situation escalates almost to the point of a nuclear exchange between the two sides, which surely would have resulted in the near-anhiliation of humanity and the rebel Cylon faction (and, quite probably, the Final Five).

Into the midst of this, nothing less than God steps in to intercede. Baltar appeals to D’Anna, arguing passionately that the violent course of action failed on New Caprica and then again on the algae planet just prior to her being boxed — why would she think that this time, violence would achieve the desired ends? Meanwhile, Starbuck pleads with Lee Adama that events have been unfolding in an orchestrated, planned, intentional way that involves both humans and Cylons playing the agentic roles in God’s greater design. She all but begs Lee to realize that whatever the way forward must be, it must be in partnership with the Cylons, because everything unravels without their involvement as well. Both arguments — that of Gaius Baltar and that of Kara Thrace — are arguments from faith, and have resounding, and astounding, power.

There seems to be dawning, on everyone, a realization that the old way of doing things — hatred, distrust, eternal war — will only lead both human and Cylon closer and closer to their respective endings, which are already dangerously close enough.

>> The Other Cylons

Just a couple of remarks here. I agree with Dale Price’s remarks concerning Leoben. The Leoben Conoy Cylons began as tricksters and deceivers, like Loki with stubble and a slightly raspy voice. Since then, they have become genuinely devout prophets and servants, and are increasingly benevolent in both their desired ends and the means they use to achieve them.

I also observe that the Number Eights are still fickle, and readily swarm to the aid of D’Anna when she returns and launches her initially anti-human crusade for the Final Five.

>> Earth

One thing I noticed right off the bat was that the producers weren’t showing us everything about Earth.

Think about it for a minute, O Reader. At the end of Season 3, in the final wild, galactic-scale zooming shot, the Earth was very visibly our planet — North America was prominently featured:

And yet now, with the fleet having finally arrived at this fabled planet, the shots are murky or dark (and one notes that there’s a subtle visual clue in the dark portions of Earth suggesting it is abandoned — were it populated, lights of cities would surely be visible!), clouds obscure the continental landmasses, and in the ruins there are no easy visual indicators suggesting a familiar location to the viewer (some have tried to suggest that the one bridge-like ruin in the background might be the Brooklyn Bridge — I remain agnostic on this point).

So is this Earth? It would seem to be, especially since Felix Gaeta confirmed the presence of constellations. And yet, the producers are being deliberately vague; it is possible that the Fleet has gone astray, and somehow arrived at the wrong place in spite of all the signs. Is this Earth?

The issue of Laura Roslin actually…you know…surviving to see the surface of the planet is a key point here; if she really is the dying leader of the Pythian prophecy, she shouldn’t actually get to see Earth (think of Moses and the Promised Land). But here she is, standing right beside Bill Adama on the surface of the planet. Most intriguing…either this isn’t Earth, or else Roslin isn’t the dying leader the thought she was (though she is dying, to be sure).

I’m of two minds about the planet that everyone seems to think is Earth, myself.

On one hand, it could very well be Earth. As noted, everyone — even the non-believers — had built themselves up a myth of Earth as some kind of promised land. I don’t know why, but it honestly seemed as though the people of the Colonies thought they could just show up in orbit of their long-lost brothers and sisters in the Thirteenth Tribe, drop anchor (so to speak), land, and be welcomed with open arms into a lush, fruitful land overflowing with ambrosia and…uhm…Tauron sugar biscuits…?

Whatever…the point is that their expectations failed to take one thing into account: the Thirteenth Tribe was also composed of humans, flawed and imperfect, and prone to things like murder, dishonesty, and all the same sins that Bill Adama listed off in his speech during the Miniseries. Not more than a few hours prior to finding Earth, humanity and the Cylon rebels were no more than a handful of seconds away from using nuclear weapons to wipe each other out…can they really be surprised to find, then, that the Thirteenth Tribe may well have done the same?

On the other hand, maybe this isn’t Earth. Maybe it was just a way-station on the way to Earth, just another marker/pointer like the beacon, the algae planet, and the Ionian Nebula. It’s wholly possible that Kara Thrace’s mission as guide is not over, and that her Viper was just pointing out the next waypoint rather than the final destination. This seems unlikely given Gaeta’s confirmation of the constellations, however — it would be very nearly impossible to find another point in the galaxy in which all those stars appeared to align in just that way.

Whatever the reality, the discovery is going to cause real problems in the coming episodes. The alliance with the Cylons is fragile enough as it is, and this could potentially weaken it to the breaking point again. Or it could make the alliance stronger, as humanity and Cylon have now come face to face with the fullest implications of their mutually destructive ways.

It will almost surely trigger a wave of despair and suicides in the body of the Fleet proper. Riots too, most likely. For many of the Colonial survivors, Earth was not only their final hope, but their only hope — now that it’s gone, it will drive many of them to instability and violence, either against others or, more probably, against themselves.

>> The Last Cylon

If we pick apart D’Anna’s curt statement — that there are only four Cylons in the Fleet — we have to come to one of a handful of conclusions as to where the final Cylon might be. As I see it, the possibilities are thus:

1. Earth
2. The rebel basestar
3. Cavil’s basestar (or one of the other ships loyal to him)
4. Caprica
5. The final Cylon is not someone currently known to be living (e.g. a character currently listed as “dead”

Each of these theories is problematic, save one. Every other possibility save for the second has one major glaring flaw, and that is the scope of D’Anna’s knowledge. She has been boxed for (about) a year. In that time, she has received no knowledge of what has transpired between humanity and the Cylons, nor does she have the slightest reason to think, apart from the claims of those on the ship with her, that any other humans besides those that are on the rebel basestar are even alive.

The question that we must raise here concerns the scope of D’Anna’s knowledge of individual human beings. One of two things is possible:

1. Either she knew all of the Final Five on sight when she encountered them in her vision, or
2. She only knew four of them; the fifth was someone she’d never met before

The latter option is unlikely; D’Anna has always, always maintained that she knows all of the Five. So really, the former is the only option that makes sense, both from the perspective of the narrative thus far, and from the perspective of the quality of the series (introducing some new face just to out him or her as a Cylon would, I think, be a rather insulting cheap-shot by the series producers).

Assuming, then, that D’Anna knows who all of the Final Five are, her knowledge that only four of them are with the Fleet means one of three things:

1. D’Anna encountered the final Cylon on the rebel basestar, but did not acknowledge him or her
2. D’Anna has exterior knowledge of every human being currently in the Fleet, and knows that none of them is the final Cylon

That second option splits into two possibilities:

• Her knowledge stems from when she was briefly among the people of the Fleet as a journalist; she was somehow able to catalogue every last survivor and knows all of them on sight
• Her knowledge has a supernatural origin

Personally, I discount the two possibilities above as unlikely, which renders the second point above them equally invalid. I trust the Reader can see why I elect to do this.

Which leaves the first point — D’Anna encountered the final Cylon on the rebel basestar, but said nothing. This is actually a very reasonable conjecture — D’Anna’s silence can be explained away by the fact that the D’Anna Cylon model always has an agenda, and her silence could easily be useful in service of that agenda.

>> Predictions (mind the spoilers)

1. Invigorated by the fact that D’Anna specifically stated that only four of the Final Five were in the Fleet, I remain steadfast in my conviction that Helo — Karl Agathon — is the final Cylon.

The reason for this renewed conviction has to do with what Grace and I discussed about D’Anna’s meaning when she said that only four of the Final Five were in the Fleet. Grace agreed that the statement most likely meant that the fifth was on the basestar…but she wondered why D’Anna had not singled the fifth out in that case.

My reply was the last line of the analysis section pertaining to this topic, above: D’Anna has an agenda. Grace wondered what her agenda would be, and how her silence would benefit it. In thinking about this today, it seems to me that the answer might once again be little Hera Agathon. D’Anna was passionate in her search for the child, and could well be after Hera once again (for all we know). She could well be keeping silent on the matter of Helo’s Cylonity in order to achieve that end.

Which brings us back to the issue of the First Hybrid’s prophecy that the final Cylon would be revealed only in the “howl of terrible suffering”. Given Sharon Agathon’s passionate defence of Hera in the past — including her willingness to kill any Cylon who might even remotely threaten her child (even by way of mere proximity) — it stands to reason that if D’Anna harbours any designs on Hera, that fact will bring Sharon and D’Anna into direct conflict in the near future.

And perhaps neither Sharon nor D’Anna will survive the encounter. Perhaps Hera will be gravely endangered. And perhaps Helo will weather that terrible suffering only by discovering, and somehow coming to terms, with his Cylonity.

2. It is ultimately Roslin, in a tender, loving moment, who pulls Adama out of his abyss. More and more, she is affecting him, and it’s a beautiful, if subtle trend.

I think she’ll eventually lead him into the fold of faith; I don’t think he’ll end the series mired down in atheism.

3. As noted above (and as predicted), Tory is increasingly anti-human in her outlook and actions. When next we see Cavil (and we will see him soon, methinks), I wouldn’t be surprised at all if Tory joined up with his forces.

4. The basestar Hybrids seem to have their own agenda as well, and I’m thinking that Cavil’s people will find out from their own Hybrids that Earth has been discovered.

Update: Welcome, Dale Price readers!

Grace and I sat down to watch the latest episode of Battlestar Galactica last night. Being that we don’t get Space Channel as part of our cable package, the arrangement that we have in place involves me getting my younger brother to tape the episodes for us (which reminds me: I need to lend him the second season of Deep Space Nine at some point).

Guess What’s Coming to Dinner was, I thought, just a great episode. It wasn’t as theologically deep as the previous episode, but it was a nice return to the methodical, paced, straightforward and tense drama that has been such a hallmark of the show. It moved rapidly, fluidly, from scene to scene, and kept a good pace.

Some observations I took away from the episode follow.

>> The Final Five

The Colonials now know that the Final Five are in the fleet, that it was the Raiders that discovered this fact, and that it was their discovery — and subsequent refusal to fight — that was the impetus behind the Cylon retreat from the Ionian Nebula. Colonel Tigh doesn’t appear to have made the connection between this revelation and what Samuel Anders had to say about the events of the nebula battle.

>> Justice and morality

Once again, the tension is there between human and Cylon concepts of justice and Morality, and the Cylons in particular seem to be struggling mightily to move away from “eye for an eye” justice. Intially, the stage is set with basically back-to-back scenes of first the humans (Laura Roslin, Saul Tigh, and William Adama) plotting to in effect double-cross their newfound Cylon allies by withholding the Final Five once they are revealed, then of the Cylons planning to hold the human crew aboard the basestar hostage until the Final Five are turned over. Both plans hinge on re-activating the Number Threes.

Natalie goes back on the plan, though. While her initial argument was that while the Cylons may have changed, the humans haven’t, her follow-up argument is basically that it is more important that the Cylons have changed, and that this reality needs to be demonstrated. Again, the message is clear: the cycle of tit-for-tat has to end in order for both races to progress.

(This is interesting for another reason: assuming my prediction is right about the series being, essentially, eschatological in nature, and given my guessing that the end of the show hinges, in part, on the idea of breaking the cycle of history that has so far driven the backstory of the show, coult it perhaps be the case that the attempt by the Cylons to break out of the cycle of blood for blood and betrayal for betrayal is a hint of things to come?)

This shift appears in another place. Natalie, perhaps correctly guessing at Roslin’s apparent bloody-mindedness where Cylons are concerned, initially offers the possibility of an attack on the Resurrection Hub as a method by which humanity might get some vengeance. But it is made clear later that she doesn’t actually believe this: for Natalie, the issue is not one of revenge, but of development and meaning. Her speech to the Quorum of Twelve reflects this:

In our civil war, we’ve seen death. We watched our people die. Gone forever. As terrible as it was, beyond the reach of the Resurrection Ships, something began to change. We could feel a sense of time. As if each moment held its own significance. We began to realize that for our existence to hold any value it must end. To live meaningful lives we must die, and not return. The one human flaw, that you spend your lifetimes distressing over — mortality — is the one thing…well, it’s the one thing that makes you whole.

It’s almost as if she’s moved past the whole issue of fighting the civil war at this point; her desire seems to be for the Cylons to, in her words, become “whole.” She desires that her brothers and sisters be able to live “meaningful lives,” and she realizes that another cycle must be broken for this to happen: the cycle of Cylon resurrection.

>> Kara Thrace and her special destiny

It really does sound like the name of a bad cover band, doesn’t it?

At any rate, Starbuck’s destiny begins to move in a potentially different direction with this episode, and both Grace and I sat up a bit straighter during the rather well-edited sequence of Natalie giving her speech to the Quorum. Inter-cut with that sequence are a series of momentary flashbacks that Kara Thrace (watching the speech from a few feet away) has of the Cylon Hybrid professing to her that she is the “harbinger of death” who will “lead them all to their end.”

I think Grace realized it first, actually. “I thought of that too,” she remarked, meaning the possible implication that Starbuck would be the “harbinger of death” for the Cylons. I kind of talked about the idea when discussing the previous episode, Faith: rumours concerning what will transpire later on in the season suggest that the Colonials will attempt to destroy the Cylon Resurrection Hub, without which no Cylon will be able to resurrect even if a Resurrection Ship is present. I’m beginning to wonder if perhaps the repeated warnings that Kara Thrace is the harbinger of the apocalypse might be an indication that if the Colonials follow her, she will lead the Cylons to their end, if not humanity.

>> Hera

Little Hera Agathon basically is the last act of the episode, and while she only gets a few minutes of screen time (and even fewer lines of dialogue), she is back in a big way after being essentially ignored since the previous season. From her cryptic, spooky “Bye bye!” that she says to Sharon Agathon after the latter awakes from another opera house dream, to the scribbler full of sixes (and Sixes!), the fact that Hera is significant in a way that Nicholas Tyrol is not is very evident.

>> The Hybrid and the President

Starting with Razor, and now with the events of this episode, little hints are beginning to develop that the Hybrids may have their own agenda that is at cross-purposes with the intentions of the Cylons and the humans. Laura Roslin’s decision to visit the Hybrid on the basestar, in the wake of Starbuck revealing that the Hybrid has intimate knowledge of the content of Roslin’s visions, is foolhardy at best, and demonstrates an almost hubristic impulsiveness that may well be her undoing.

I have no idea what the Hybrid’s motives might be in abducting the President, if in fact that was “her” intent (Possible spoiler: episode summaries released to various television guides specifically mention that the Hybrid has abducted Roslin). I expect it ties in to the bit about the “dying leader” coming to know the “truth of the opera house,” although that’s hardly a certainty either.

>> Predictions, various and sundry

1) I still think Karl Agathon — Helo — is the final Cylon, especially in light of the attention (and the nature thereof) given to Hera in this episode.

2) I still think the identity of the final Cylon is in some way tied up with Cylon reproduction, especially in light of what is shaping up to be a major mission to destroy the ability of all Cylons, everywhere, to resurrect. If in fact the Cylons are to survive as a species, in the wake of the Hub’s destruction (which is by no means a certainty, although it probably will happen), then they will need to be able to reproduce.

3) I’m almost certain, now, that Cally Tyrol is not the final Cylon, especially if the unboxing of the Number Threes is to coincide with the destruction of the Resurrection Hub. It would be hard for the Threes to reveal the identity of the last Cylon if, in fact, there was no means by which that last Cylon could be introduced back into the narrative.

Although, having said that, I suppose there might be a certain dramatic validity to the revelation that one of the Final Five is permanently gone.

4) There’s a lot of nervousness in Anders, and I’m still fairly certain that he’ll end up being “outed” first. His nervousness was played up a lot in this episode, and if the Threes do not out him at once I’m almost certain he’ll do something to out himself.

5) I still think Adama will not end the series an atheist.

6) An interesting situation has developed with the abduction of Roslin by the rebel Hybrid. Firstly, Roslin herself is in the end stages of her cancer; that far from the Galactica and its doctor, she may end up in very dire straits in the coming episodes. Indeed, it’s certainly possible that she won’t make it back to the fleet alive. Another issue that crops up is the issue of the attack on the Hub itself; will Galactica make the attempt on her own, with what Vipers and pilots remain?

7) Did anyone else notice that the camera lingered on a very nervous-looking Leoben Conoy after he told Natalie to stall for time while he dealt with the Centurions? Obviously, the Hybrid’s actions change everything, but I wonder if perhaps he’ll end up getting killed off permanently — especially since we know that the Leoben that Kara interrogated way back in Flesh and Bone did manage to resurrect, and yet nevertheless told Kara that her destiny would be to send his soul off to God.

James McGrath writes in to provide some alternative commentary on the issue of Battlestar Galactica’s Theology, which I discussed in this article.

I thought I’d draw attention to some of the posts on my blog about BSG and theology (I’m a religion professor who is also a fan), such as :

http://exploringourmatrix.blogspot.com/2008/05/gospel- according-to-gaius.html

http://exploringourmatrix.blogspot.com/2008/04/bartlestar- theodica.html

I’d welcome your comments!

While I could say more for Professor McGrath’s opinions regarding Bart Ehrman (my own views on the “problem” of evil and theodicy are well known; I don’t see the existence of evil and/or suffering in the world as any kind of challenge to the Christian conception of God, and regard those who use said issue(s) as an objection to Religion as being, shall we say, rather deluded themselves), some of his views on BSG and the theology of Gaius Baltar’s new religious movement (itself a derivation of the Cylon religion) are rather interesting.

For example, McGrath remarks thusly concerning the first episode of the latest, and final, season of BSG:

In the BSG Season 4 premiere, entitled “He That Believeth In Me“, a more relevant verse would seem to be “Whosoever seeks to save his life will lose it…” Gaius Baltar moves from an unwilling Messiah disgusted by the gaudy Hindu-style flashing votive lights surrounding his picture, to one who seems genuinely willing to give up his life to save another. The “one true God” has yet to be explored fully as a concept on the show, but in the mean time, interesting questions continue to be asked about how we live our lives and what matters most to us.

I observed to my wife, while we were watching the latest episode of the series to date, that Baltar seems unable to avoid some manner of beating in each and every episode he has been in this season. I’d have to go over all the episodes again (we have them on tape), but I can’t recall yet a time when Baltar has not been pistol-whipped, choked, or punched during the course of an episode since the fleet departed the Ionian Nebula

And in each and every case, Baltar’s personal sufferings have been intimately relevant to the narrative of the show. Indeed, through examples as varied as the knife attack on Baltar in the head to Galen Tyrol attempting to choke him, the series has demonstrated in almost every episode this season that the God whom Baltar is preaching effects His plan for humanity in part through human suffering.
Read the rest of this entry »

Since the following no longer contains spoilers — at least as far as Grace is concerned, which is all I was really worried about — I am moving it up to today, so that I can officially say that I’m putting my chips into the pot as far as “final Cylon” speculation is concerned********.

I’ve been kicking around the idea that one of the Adamas — the admiral, Lee, or possibly even Zak (the dead brother) — is the final Cylon. I tend to agree with the analysis at Battlestar Wiki that the final member of the twelve Humanoid Cylons “would probably need to be a more prominent character than those of the Four.” In the Wiki’s analysis, that pretty much limits the field to Roslin, Admiral Adama, Lee, Baltar, and Starbuck.

Of course, I also happen to think that revealing some of the above as being Cylons would also be…anticlimactic, and in some cases just dumb. Take Roslin for example, and the way that Baltar is able to temporarily cure her cancer. It would seem to me that if the introduction of Cylon (or, to be completely specific, humano-Cylon) blood was enough to cure Roslin (albeit briefly), that pretty much cements the fact that she herself does not have anything Cylon about her physiology.

Likewise, revealing Baltar as a Cylon would, given the events in the middle of Season 3 (i.e. Baltar’s own uncertainty as to whether he is human or Cylon, and his desperate quest for answers in this regard), would be a let-down — really, it would seem contrived.

To be fair, I can see the merit of the argument that Baltar could be revealed as a sort of Cylon “Christ”, especially in regard to the prophecy of the First Hybrid in Razor:

The First Hybrid who says his children believe he is a god, makes a prediction about the final Cylon: “…the fifth is still is in shadow, drawn toward the light, hungering for redemption, that will only come in the howl of terrible suffering.” (Razor) This statement, while not concrete, may relate to Baltar. Of the major living characters, he most has begged for redemption, and is most in need of it, and it will indeed be painful for him. While Lee Adama seeks redemption for the Olympic Carrier this has been at best a minor theme in his character. Only Baltar begs for it, and only Baltar has said he would find redemption in learning he was a Cylon.

But equally, I just don’t think it’s Baltar. He strikes me more as a sort of “false prophet,” really — a misguided human demagogue who attempts to take on the mantle of an authority figure (first as a scientist, then as a politician, and now as a quasi-religious guru) in order to advance his own agenda (which, experience shows, typically involves the contents of his pants). I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Baltar’s “saviours” in the last episode of Season 3 were all beautiful women.

And let’s not even begin to discuss Starbuck. Yes, I know she died (or seemed to die) in Maelstrom. Yes, I know she came back in the last episode of the Season 3. Yes, I know she has a destiny. No, I still don’t think she’s a Cylon.

There’s also a logistical consideration that gets in the way of Starbuck’s being a Cylon. One of the things we know about the Final Five is that none of the other seven humanoid Cylons have any clue who the Final Five are. If Kara Thrace was really a Cylon, resurrected and sent back to the Colonials in a captured (and then nicely shined-up) Viper, it stands to reason that when she appeared to Lee, she must have come from one of the nearby Cylon ships (Vipers, as far as we know, do not have FTL jump drives), possibly a Resurrection Ship. It seems pretty incredible to suggest that the Cylons could have built a shipboard resurrection apparatus that included copies of the bodies of at least one of the Final Five and still remained “in the dark” about who the Five were. The only possible dodge that Ron Moore could use here, I think, is to say that the Colonials have somehow gotten very close to the Cylon homeworld, but I don’t think he’s going to go there.

And then there’s the fact that it would just be too bloody obvious if Starbuck were a Cylon. Her “resurrection” is significant, but it’s also a red herring as far as speculating who the final Cylon might be is concerned. Starbuck’s death was a rite of purification that she had to pass through before she could take on the task her destiny had appointed for her (ostensibly, to guide the Colonials to Earth, or possibly to their extinction).

And really, I think I’m even going to add at least two of the Adamas to that list as well. I know that Leoben said that “Adama is a Cylon”, but that was well before the writers had decided on who the final Cylon was (and, indeed, well before the search for the Final Five became a significant component of the show’s plot). I think it would be somewhat dramatically compelling if Admiral Adama did turn out to be a Cylon, but at the same time it would also be contrived given both his experiences during the First Cylon War and given the fact that his closest buddy from the war, Saul Tigh, has already been “outed.”

Lee being revealed as being a Cylon would be a bit more dramatic, and certainly would seem to meet two important criteria of the First Hybrid’s prophecy concerning the last Cylon (Lee has a ton of regrets and stabs of guilt — “hungering for redemption” — and has recently set himself on a course that utterly defies everything his father stands for — “still in shadow, drawn toward the light”). Then again, though, more than a few people seem to be guessing that Lee is a shoe-in for the final Cylon, and Ron Moore is (I think) too crafty to let folks off the hook that easily. Additionally, it would be tricky to explain how exactly Lee could be a Cylon, given that the Adama family has a pretty well-known history. Suggesting that perhaps the real baby Lee was switched at birth with a Cylon infant would be one possible explanation…but that raises more questions than it answers. Who carried out the switch? Was it a human or a Cylon? If it was a Cylon, how do the other Cylons not know about (at least) this one member of the Final Five? If it wasn’t a Cylon, what motive did that person have?

Too complicated, kind of contrived, and not the sort of road one wants to wander when one only has one season of episodes left to produce; the final season is a time for tying up loose threads, not picking new ones free of the fabric.

And of course, it would be remiss to not mention the fact that Ron Moore himself doesn’t want to reveal Admiral Adama, Lee Adama, or Laura Roslin as being the final Cylon.

Revealing Zak Adama as a Cylon would certainly be compelling, although I think Zak might be too obscure a character; everyone who knows the series knows that Admiral Adama had a son named Zak, and that said son died, but I doubt many BSG fans would know Zak on sight. The character that is the final Cylon needs to be someone who is instantly recognizable. Even having William Adama exclaim “Zak!” is too much time to waste during the revelation scene — the audience has to know instantly who it is.

Besides, how would Zak even get to the Colonial Fleet in the first place? He’d either have to be waiting for them on Earth (which prompts the question: how?) or he’d have to be on a Cylon basestar, awaiting his moment in the Sun (so to speak). The same logistical objection I have to Starbuck’s being a Cylon I can now raise here as well.

So there’s my lengthy explanation of who I don’t think will be the final Cylon, and especially where Zak Adama is concerned it’s as much a repudiation of my own prior theories as it is a rejection of any of the current theories that are out there. Who then, the Reader may yet be wondering, do I think the final Cylon actually is?

Remember what I said above, how the final Cylon would have to be someone at once instantly recognizable, and also someone whose revelation as a Cylon would be even more dramatic than learning that Chief Tyrol or Saul Tigh were Cylons? There’s only one person I can think of whose revelation would be that dramatic. Briefly, I think it’s Karl “Helo” Agathon. Yes: Helo. The same Helo who fathered a child with Sharon “Athena” Agathon.

And in fact, a goodly number of my reasons for thinking this center around little baby Hera, supposedly special as a humano-Cylon hybrid. If in fact her partly human, partly Cylon parentage makes Hera unique and pivotal to the plot of the series, then the revelation that Nicholas Tyrol is also a hybrid strips that away from her, which seems anti-climactic to me. It doesn’t really make all that much sense to build up Hera’s significance for the better part of an entire season, only to discard it second-hand with the revelation that she isn’t the only one with a Cylon for a parent after all.

Hera is special. But evidently, being a half-human, half-Cylon child is not so special anymore. So why is Hera special? Could she be a child of a Cylon/Cylon union?

“But wait!” the Reader may now be about to exclaim. “Cylons cannot reproduce with Cylons!” In my defence, I would like to point out that we don’t exactly know that Cylons can’t reproduce with each other. All we know is that Cylon experimentation in this area has thus far been fruitless. But fruitless doesn’t necessarily mean impossible.

In the analysis for “The Farm”, the writers at Battlestar Wiki note the following:

• Love serves as a theme in this episode. First, we find out how important love is for the Cylons: it is considered essential for Cylon procreation. In the first episode, Number Six asked Dr. Baltar several times if he loved her. Number Six also said that “God is love”. That was after she tried to conceive from him. Love is also the reason Sharon aids Helo and the reason Helo accepts her help. Also we hear that Starbuck was abused as a child. In the last episode she said that everyone seems to fight to get their old life back and she fights because it’s all she knows how to do. In this episode she seems to develop affections to Anders. Will Starbuck find ‘reason’ in love? Commander Adama tells his subordinates that he loves them. He asks Chief Tyrol if one could love a machine. Ultimately, Commander Adama weeps over Galactica-Sharon’s body because he loved her
• Number Six mentioned that “procreation is one of God’s commandments” in the first episode, “33″. This could mean that the Cylons are trying to procreate out of a feeling that they are sinning by not being able to have children on their own

If love is such a necessary component of Cylon procreation, it stands to reason that it makes rather a lot of sense why the “in the lab” results of procreation experiments amongst the Cylons all came up negative. When one is reduced to taking a clinical approach to such things, or when one acts out of fear that by not acting one is committing a sin, one’s actions are not motivated by love. Guilt? Yes, probably. Inquiry and curiosity? Most assuredly. But love? No, probably not.

Now, we know based on the events of the first season surrounding baby Hera’s conception that the “love” necessary in a sexual union does not have to be bi-directional. The Reader may recall that while Helo very genuinely loved Sharon Valeri, the Sharon that he impregnated was (at the time) working for the Cylons and was, we can assume, very likely acting not out of love, but out of a Cylon scheme. Is it possible that Helo, ignorant of his Cylon nature and ignorant of the difficulties of Cylon/Cylon procreation surrounding the issue of genuine love, acted out of genuine love and was able to impregnate Sharon?

“But wait!” the Reader may now be about to exclaim. “What about the odd fetal blood work? Doesn’t that cement the fact that Hera is part human and part Cylon?” And I will grant that it is true that Hera’s blood, as discovered by Dr. Cottle and Dr. Baltar during the debate over whether or not Sharon’s pregnancy should be forcibly terminated, has some unique properties. But it’s those very unique properties that make me doubt that she is in fact a half-human, half-Cylon child.

Baltar explained fairly plainly that human blood contains antigens, and that Hera’s blood contains no antigens at all. We can perhaps infer that she got this from her Cylon mother…but then, that doesn’t make sense, because one would think that Baltar’s Cylon detector would have been a lot less complicated if all Cylons had antigen-free blood. Moreover, wouldn’t Dr. Cottle have noticed something “damn odd” about Sharon’s blood work? And wouldn’t an injection of Sharon’s own blood have been sufficient to cure Roslin’s cancer in that case? I think we can safely conclude that Sharon’s blood is not as easily distinguished from human blood as in the example Baltar draws for Admiral Adama.

There is something special about Hera’s blood that her parents lacked. But how can that be? If neither her father nor her mother had antigen-free (or “damned odd,” to use Cottle’s term for it) blood, where did she get it from? What if the unique structure of Hera’s blood is analogous to, say, the way that Frank Herbert’s Bene Gesserit breeding program and the ultimate goal of the Kwisatz Haderach? What if, because of the union of two Cylons and the emergence of a pregnancy from that, a special category of being was created that did have truly antigen-free blood (among other differences)? What if that’s the real reason that the Cylons were attempting to breed? What if that’s the real reason Virtual Six, the image of Six that Baltar keeps seeing, called the child a “miracle from God?”

THe above becomes especially important when one considers, again, the presence of Nicholas Tyrol, the Chief’s son. It stands to reason that if Nicholas was the same manner of being as Hera (that is, half-human and half-Cylon) that his blood would have similar properties; Dr. Cottle was on New Caprica during the time that Cally was pregnant, and would almost certainly have given the pregnant woman a good standard of care, including fetal blood work. Failing that, he would have likely done as much once Nicholas was born, and realized either way that baby Nicholas also had something “damned odd” about his blood. That, in turn, would have cast suspicion on either Chief Tyrol or Cally as being possible Cylons. And yet, none of these plot threads came up in the third season of