timeimmortal

TK writes in with a comment on my surprisingly prolific final Cylon theory (which, for the Reader who does not know, points to Karl Agathon — Helo, by callsign — as the final Cylon yet to be revealed on the television show Battlestar Galactica).

I’m finding myself somewhat in agreement with your hypothesis regarding Helo as a Cylon, well the numero uno cylon. I was watching The Farm the other day and I noticed when Starbuck had her vision (dream), that it was [Samuel Anders] and Helo who held her wrists while Anders said he wanted to have a baby with her. When it was all said and done, it turns out Anders is a Cylon, and they are interested in procreation. Why was it not Lee Adama holding Kara’s other hand??? He is her other love interest, so why shouldn’t he be there in opposition to Anders?? Your essay was well thought out and presented. I wish we did not have to wait until 2009 to see who the big kahuna Cylon is.

TK

TK raises a valuable point, one I had previously not considered — the vision in The Farm. I am going to have to re-watch that episode this weekend to refresh my memory as to the specific sequence, but if so, it could indeed be another valuable clue.

It is a pity that we have to wait until 2009 to find out who the last Cylon really is, but I don’t imagine that we’ll have to wait that long once the series starts back up again. The next episode, Sometimes A Great Notion, would have served as the series finalé had the WGA strike gone on too long. Since I can’t see Ron Moore leaving us hanging in such an eventuality, there’s a good probability that the opening episode of the second half of this final season of BSG may in fact see the last Cylon revealed.

Certainly, the trailer for the next episode implies this to be the case. And really, I can’t see the producers thinking it a wise choice to waste time — when there’s already going to be fan tension due to a delay — going back and re-shooting parts of the episode just to prolong the tension a bit more.

At any rate: thanks, TK, for adding your own insight to this matter.

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.
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One can only hope so. From the sound of it (and this from the mouth of one of the producers — always a good sign!) they’ll be completing the fourth season (which was intended to be the final season anyhow), although the end result will probably be a “Season 2 situation” wherein the season itself gets split into two “miniseasons.”

Whatever — I’m just happy that the WGA strike didn’t kill the show entirely. It was too good for that fate.