Time Immortal

At the end of Revelations, the mid-season cliffhanger of Battlestar Galactica’s fourth and final season, the Colonial fleet and their renegade Cylon allies find and land on a planet that all involved believe to be Earth, the legendary home of the 13th Tribe of Kobol.

The planet itself appears blue from space, but is quickly discovered to be a nuclear wasteland, devoid of life and marked only by decimated buildings and burnt-out ruins. The immediate conclusion that the producers of the show likely wanted us to jump to was that yes, this was Earth, and that the 13th colony had somehow destroyed itself. As a lesson in human concupiscence, that wouldn’t be a bad ending in and of itself, but there are a few questions left unanswered if one simply assumes that one can take the show at face value as to the identity of this ruined planet.

First off, there’s the issue of how vague and masked the shots of the planet from orbit are. I mentioned this before, but I just found a handy comparison image (as well as a reasonable theory about who the final Cylon might just be) on another blog that tells the tale better than before:

Now, there’s been a fair bit of argument that the ruins themselves tell the tale. In particular, a number of people have made the association between the ruined bridge seen at the end of Revelations and the Brooklyn Bridge. Personally, I’m not convinced; this show has been marked by repeated examples that what the characters think they see is not necessarily what is (e.g. Starbuck’s seeing a gas giant that was thought to be Jupiter, but turned out not to be, or her seeing a comet that turned out to be the damaged rebel basestar). I certainly think that the ending scene was composed so as to make us think of New York, but I won’t say for certain whether that’s what was being depicted.

At the end of the third season, the CGI was unambiguous: Earth was easily recognized, and the shape of the North American continent was distinct. As the comparison photos above tell, in this discovery of Earth there is nothing about the planet itself which obviously suggests that it is Earth. No continents are visible, and much of the world is dark. Ron Moore et. al. are far too “tricksy” (apologies to Smeagol) for this to be a mere coincidence, or simple artistic license. There is some meaning to the sudden lack of clarity.

There is also the matter of pretty much every main character, including Laura Roslin (supposedly the “dying leader” who will not live to see the proper end of the journey of humanity across the stars), being on the surface of the planet. Unless the producers are setting us up for some kind of “actually, it was this dead character all along” sort of letdown, it seems that a second objection to the probability that this devastated planet is actually Earth must be raised¹.

On the other hand, there is the matter that Felix Gaeta did match the various constellations when the fleet first arrived into orbit of this ruined planet. Initially, I remarked that “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.” However, in making that statement, I forgot to take three things into account, which I was reminded of when I read this article at The Science of Battlestar Galactica:

1. How accurate were the images of the constellations that Gaeta was working from?
2. How many of the constellations were visible to Gaeta when he made his checks (e.g. were any of them occluded by the planet or the system’s Sun)?
3. Is it actually impossible that the stars might not line up in more or less the same manner from some other point?

The answer to the third question has actually already been given to us in a subtle way by BSG’s producers: the constellation Orion appears, more or less properly configured, in the episode The Ties that Bind, in the backdrop of the ambush on the rebel basestars by the pro-Raider-lobotomy Cylon faction. Surely the Cylons would have noticed whether or not there was a habitable world in reasonably close proximity to the location of said fracas?

Of course, one constellation lining up could just be a coincidence — in theory, so long as the Cylons were on a more or less straight-line path between Earth and the approximate middle of Orion’s shape, the alignment of the stars would remain the same — one would expect to see the constellation get “larger” in one’s view, perhaps, and one might also reasonably expect to note changes in the apparent brightness of the various stars themselves. The shape of the constellation, though, would be essentially unchanged.

That by no means implies that the shape of eleven other constellations visible from Earth would likewise remain constant. This illustration demonstrates how different Orion would look to us were we viewing it from a position situated roughly 90 degrees counter-clockwise from Earth’s present location.

However, the distances we are talking about in such a hypothetical situation are immense; were we fairly close to Earth, would the constellations look drastically different, or would they appear somewhat similar?

It turns out that “similar” is the correct answer (and it further turns out that this brings us to the second question):

If Gaeta was checking the position of the zodiacal constellations with a sketch made from the Temple of Athena data, he’s out of luck. As seen from Alpha Centauri, those constellations would be virtually identical to those seen from Earth, the chief difference being that Castor and Pollux, the Heads of the Gemini Twins, don’t quite line up with their bodies. If Gaeta had incomplete data, or if the constellation Gemini was not visible for some reason (being occulted by Alpha Centauri, for example), he’d be absolutely correct in reporting that all “visible” constellations are a match, even though the fleet would be in the wrong place.

In the same way, the fleet could have arrived at Tai Ceti or Epsilon Eridani, two other type G sunlike stars in our local neighborhood. The zodiacal constellations as seen from those systems would be more distorted, especially around the cancer-Leo and Aries-Taurus regions. But again, if Gaeta’s data are sketchy and the local star is blocking out the appropriate regions of the zodiac, the rest of the constellations should pass muster.

This issue of distorted constellations leads us back to the first question. The data set Gaeta would be working from would be some manner of representation of the constellations seen by those few who entered into the Tomb of Athena and saw the holographic projection therein. As far as we, the viewer, know, nobody took any kind of recording of the images displayed therein, and it is reasonable to assume that any reproduction of the positions of the stars would be hand-drawn sketches made while the memory of what was seen was reasonably fresh. That’s all well and good, but it is by no means an assurance of accuracy.

Lt. Gaeta, when checking to see whether the fleet had jumped to the right spot, said that the visible constellations are a match. But a match with what set of data? Lee said that they had “projected a course to the signal” and that it would probably take some revising. That tells me the Colonial beacon signal did not include a 3-d starmap. Is Gaeta checking the constellations with what the jump calculations predicted the resulting constellations should look like? That would only prove that they jumped to where they expected to jump — it wouldn’t prove that they had jumped to Earth.

Or is he comparing the visible constellations with the constellations they saw in the planetarium show back at the Temple of Athena on Kobol? It’s hardly likely — the display in the temple focused on the twelve constellations of our Zodiac. Lee spotted the Lagoon Nebula, and his father backed him up by calling it “M8” — but did we see either of them record those constellations? (If it was a shared hallucination, was it even possible to have recorded the constellations? ) And if they did record the constellations, to what level of precision did they do so? I think it’s much more likely that the pilots come out of the planetarium and, at best, drew the stick figures from memory. And if that’s that happened, then Gaeta’s comparison data are going to be literally sketchy.

To this point in the series, we’ve seen or heard of over a dozen human-habitable worlds: the Twelve Colonies, New Caprica, the algae planet, Kobol, and now this newly-discovered ruined world. That’s a fairly substantial chunk of real estate that the humans have discovered simply by jumping from place to place.

In the original series, there was an instance of an Earth-like planet being found, and for which several hints were dropped suggesting that it might be Earth. That planet was Terra, home of two warring factions that nearly wiped each other out in a nuclear confrontation. Indeed, they were saved only by Galactica’s timely arrival.

It’s possible, then, that in this iteration of BSG, Galactica has arrived too late, and has discovered a wiped-out Terra. But perhaps, in the ruins somewhere, will be found the final pointers toward Earth. This would certainly be a good reason for the show’s producers to make the planet so ambiguous when viewed from orbit as in Revelations — an unfamiliar continental form would give things away far too quickly².

At any rate, we know this show must go on from here³, and a big part of where it goes come 2009 is likely going to be caught up in the exact identity of this ruined world that the Colonials and Cylons have now come to. There’s plenty of good reason, based both in fact and in the idea of dramatic, message-driven storytelling, to think that the planet that was found was, in fact, Earth. But there’s also plenty of room for doubt. This season especially, BSG’s writers have pulled off one act of sleight-of-hand after another, and it’s entirely possible that they’re doing it to us again.

In fact, I think it’s probably likely.

Notes — mind the spoilers:

1. Admittedly, in the case that this planet is actually Earth, and the “promised land” which the dying leader shall not see is another planet (e.g. Terra or its equivalent), this objection is pretty much null and void.

2. Edward James Olmos asserted that there would be a dark end to the series, and I would be remiss if I didn’t mention this blogger’s counter-theory regarding Earth/Terra: perhaps this really is Earth, and the Fleet moves on to find the Thirteenth Tribe on Terra (or some analogous world).

3. Scenes for the final episodes of the series were shot in and around Kamloops, British Columbia, and involved lots of physically fit extras with crop-cut hair or dreadlocks. Scenes were also evidently shot in the city of Kamloops proper, which would imply that the series ends on some manner of inhabited world. Whether this is the Colonials realizing that they are the 13th tribe — itself perhaps a product of the twelve tribes united into one — and accepting that it is their bitter fate to be the ones to re-settle the Earth, or whether this is the Colonials finding their bretheren on another planet is yet to be seen.

Also, it should be noted that other scenes of the series finale were shot at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, in the area that had previously been used for the Riverwalk district on Caprica. The scenes apparently involved Laura Roslin. This would suggest either a return to Caprica (now that would be dark!) by the remnants of the Fleet, or perhaps various persistent visions/hallucinations on the part of some of the characters (William Adama, perhaps, pining for Roslin?).

Then too, perhaps my theory that BSG is an eschatological tale for our time will pan out, and the closing scenes of the series will be like those in Roslin and Emily’s dreams in the episode Faith. Certainly, there is a religious metaphor (and possibly more than just a metaphor — one would not be surprised to see humanity come into a confrontation with the divine in this show) at work within the plot of the series, and it has more or less been confirmed that God is an active, present force within the BSG universe.

More than a few people have suggested that there is a “creation myth” element to the series, and while many of these appeal to the significance of Hera Agathon, I think they miss something. Assuming I am wrong — that is, assuming that Karl Agathon — Helo — is not the final Cylon, and assuming that Hera is the humano-Cylon child who is exclusively significant (in keeping with everything we’ve seen on the series to date), then in her and Nicholas Tyrol there is not to be found a parallel in Adam and Eve.

There is, however, a parallel to be found in Joseph and Mary, in the Blessed Virgin and her carpenter husband.

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.

polyeggman writes in with his thoughts on this article, my initial final Cylon theory.

You’ve convinced me! It’s been bugging me that Hera is seen as special considering Tyrol’s baby is also a half and half. And, in all my final-Cylon ponderings, I never once considered Helo. That makes him the perfect dark horse. Thanks for the article!

polyeggman is quite welcome! It’s good to hear that he found the theory useful.

In fairness, Ron Moore threw us a bit of a curve ball this season by focusing more closely on Nicholas Tyrol in the last few episodes. From the way that Tory Foster went out of her way to safely secure baby Nicholas before airlocking Cally Tyrol, to the way that Gaius Baltar’s broadcast seemed to soothe Nicholas while the Chief was exercising, there’s been more than a little screen time devoted to the other apparently half-human, half-Cylon child.

And to be equally fair, I did concede that Cally is my second bet for who the last Cylon might be. Whether Nicholas or Hera Agathon, I think the final Cylon will in some way be related to the theme of Cylon reproduction that has permeated the entire series.

And it serves, also, to note that we really haven’t seen much of Hera in this latest, and final, season of Battlestar Galactica.

Personally, though, I think that Nicholas is being served up as a red herring. All of the third season of BSG was devoted to making Hera out to be “special” — to the point, indeed, that Laura Roslin, Sharon Agathon, and Caprica Six were all running through the same dream state in a desperate attempt to protect the child (from what is not yet known).

I expect that Cylon reproduction will come into very sharp focus if, as is currently rumoured, one of the last episodes of the first half of the fourth and final season of BSG will deal with the destruction of the Cylon Resurrection Hub, without which no Cylon can resurrect even if a Resurrection Ship is present (in essence, the Cylons would be rendered “mortal”).

Cylon reproduction hasn’t been visited, as a topic, for a few episodes now, but things seem to be shaping up in such a way that the topic may indeed be re-opened with a new and drastic sense of urgency, if in fact the Colonial fleet succeeds in destroying the Hub.

At any rate, O Reader, at the end of it all, I think various plot threads will converge in the revelation of the last “toaster.” The hunt for the final Cylon is on. The Cylons desire to be able to reproduce. The Cylon civil war is raging, and the split has pitted three models against another three — one side has already demonstrated its willingness to use denial of resurrection capability as a battle tactic, and it stands to reason that before the end of the war both sides will have attempted to turn the issue of resurrection to their tactical advantage.

And in a sense, Karl Agathon is already in the middle of it, as both he and Athena are a part of Starbuck’s crew on the Demetrius — which, the Reader may recall, just met up with a representative of the rebel Cylon faction.

Michael writes in with a comment on the article that was responsible for the site going down briefly about a week ago — my final Cylon theory.

I like your theory, in fact, I like it a lot. BUT, Ron Moore mentioned none of the people in “The Last Supper” photo are the final Cylon. Helo is in that photo. That’s a pretty big veto unless you believe Ron is purposely lying to fans.

I wouldn’t put it past Ron Moore, good Reader, to mislead people a little bit, especially if there was a danger of too much being revealed in some way. Equally, it’s entirely possible he was telling the truth. I do know that he later remarked that he “probably shouldn’t have said” what he said about the people in “The Last Supper,” but whether that was because he felt he’d given too much away or because he had now put himself into a position whereby he’d have to contradict himself later on, I can’t say.

I am aware, at any rate, of what Ron Moore did say, and I admit that it’s a rather obvious counter-argument to my theory — a veto, as Michael puts it.

I suppose we’ll have to wait until late 2008 or early 2009 to find out who the final Cylon really is. And for the record, Karl Agathon — Helo, as he is also known — is still my principal suspect.

In looking over my theory, it could be argued that the same reasoning could also be applied, in many cases, to Cally Tyrol, and certainly her revelation as a Cylon would be rather dramatic in light of the fact that she was airlocked (killed) by Tory Foster a couple of episodes ago. The first Cylon hybrid spoke of how the final Cylon’s revelation would take place: “And the fifth, still in shadow, will claw toward the light, hungering for redemption that will only come in the howl of terrible suffering.”

Certainly, there has been a lot of terrible suffering on the part of those whom Cally is survived by — Galen Tyrol, the Chief, her husband, spent all of the last episode (Escape Velocity) cracking at the seams, and certainly Nicholas Tyrol, the baby, is going to suffer in the absence of his mother.

And I take Cally as my “hedge bet” as to who the final Cylon is. Of course, my main objection to her being the last Cylon is that we do not know anything at all about whether the Final Five can resurrect, or whether there exists a Resurrection Ship or Resurrection Hub at which copies of the bodies of the Final Five are stored (one has difficulty imagining that this could be the case, given that it would risk the possibility that one or more of the Significant Seven would have seen the faces of the Five).

And, unlike Helo, Cally isn’t in “The Last Supper” as well.

Regardless, I think the main point here is that whoever the final Cylon is revealed to be, he (or, possibly) she will be the part of one of the babies currently believed to by half-Cylon and half-human. The whole series has revolved around the issue of the “humanity” of the Cylons and their apparently inability to reproduce. I think that the revelation of the final Cylon will necessarily accompany the additional (and simultaneous) revelation that Cylons can, in fact, reproduce successfully.

And I still think that Hera will be revealed as the fully Cylon child, given that Season 3 spent an awful lot of time trying to build up her significance. I’ve only read the first Dune book, but it seems to me that there is a parallel between the Kwisatz Haderach and what Hera is.

Which brings us back to Helo.

So, did Ron Moore lie to us? Time will tell…but I will say that I have no problem believing that Ron Moore is trying to deflect speculation down incorrect avenues.

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 durin