And the Final Cylon Is . . .

Mystery-person_3The final ten episodes of Battlestar Galactica start airing this Friday, and the producers plan to answer a bunch of questions, some of which have been around since the beginning of the show and some of which were only recently introduced: What happened to Earth? What are the Virtual "Head" beings (e.g., Head Six, Head Baltar) that only some people see? Can Human and Cylon live together? Who lives and who dies? And, of course, who is the final Cylon?

I'm going to tell you.

Or at least I'm going to tell you who I think it is.

I've made a significant number of BSG predictions before and gotten more than my share right, so I'm going to put my cards on the table here and tell you who I think the clues point to.

If I can shift from a cards metaphor to a dice metaphor, sometimes you have to roll the hard six, so here goes.

Continued below the fold for those who don't want to read this speculation.

First let me say the fundamental thing that the producers of the show need to do with revealing the final Cylon: They need to impress us. After peeling away the masks of eleven Cylon models one at a time (or four at a time, in one case), they've created a sense of expectancy. By having the fourth season opening credits declare "TWELVE CYLON MODELS . . . SEVEN ARE KNOWN . . . FOUR LIVE IN SECRET . . . ONE WILL BE REVEALED" they are promising the viewers a dramatic revelation. If it's a letdown, if it's anticlimactic, then they haven't done their job.

This has implications for who the final Cylon can and can't be.

1) It can't be a new character. We won't have any dramatic investment in a new character, meaning any such revelation would be a letdown.

2) It can't be a minor character. There just would be a collective "So what?" reaction if it turned out that the final Cylon was Hotdog or Racetrack or Helo or Mr. Gaeta or Tom Zarek. The final Cylon must be an established, major character.

3) It won't be someone who has been recently pointed at by the producers as a possible Cylon. This means it can't be Baltar, who was desperate to be a Cylon just one season ago. It would be very anti-climactic if the producers said "Guess what! After all that Baltar-is-a-Cylon speculation, it turns out he's a Cylon after all!"

For the same reason it can't be Kara Thrace–the current character being given the "Is she a Cylon?" routine. They've been working the "Is Kara a Cylon?" theme heavily since she first got back from Earth–which is why President Roslin tried to shoot her dead and why she spent all that time screaming in the brig and why her crew on the Demetrius mutinied against her. Every character on the show–including Kara herself in a weak moment or two–has wondered if she's a Cylon, so it can't be her.

Smart money, though, would be for them to make it look more like she's a Cylon before turning around and revealing that she's not (possibly by the revelation of the final Cylon's identity).

4) If you take the list of established major characters and cross off the ones eliminated above (or already established as Cylons) then you get a very small number of possible candidates, so at this point I'll just go ahead and tell you who the final Cylon is . . .

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(EXTRA SPOILER SPACE)

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(LAST CHANCE!)

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"Adama's a Cylon."

We were told it in the very first season, by Leoben, the Cylon with mystical insights, who was also right that Kara would lead the fleet to Earth. I'm not saying that Leoben consciously knew that Admiral (then Commander) Adama was a Cylon. But for some mystical or subconscious reason, he spoke the truth.

Before I present reasons why Adama is a Cylon, think about who the remaining candidates would be–what other major characters are left that could play this role?

1) Adama's son, Lee. He's a major character, but he's also a major snoozefest. Which is the bigger dramatic revelation? That Admiral Adama, who has been leading the fleet all this time, is a Cylon or that his easily-manipulated puppydog politician son is?

2) Head Six. Baltar's inner vision of a Six, who may or may not take other virtual forms, is a major character and hasn't been shown to be one of the twelve Cylon models. She could be one, but since she's taken the form of a Cylon for either all or almost all of the series, it would just be weird–not stunning–to reveal that the final Cylon is nonphysical. She's also much more interesting as a character if she is, as she claims "an angel" of the Cylon God.

3) President Roslin. This is the only other dramatically sound contender for the part of final Cylon. Through all four seasons the fleet has been led by Roslin and Adama–sometimes with them at odds with each other–and you get the most dramatic oomph if the final Cylon turns out to be one of humanity's two greatest protectors.

And there would be oomph to revealing that it's Roslin. At this point, I'd be more shocked for it to be her than for it to be Adama.

That's for two reasons: (a) It would interfere with her whole cancer/dying leader mojo and (b) they haven't set her up to be the final Cylon the way they have Adama. There won't be that moment of seeing how all the clues connect if it turned out to be her.

The logical thing to do would be to have Roslin's cancer plotline progress (possibly resulting in her death, possibly not) and reveal Adama as the final Cylon.

What clues are there that Adama is a Cylon?

Starting with on-screen clues, I've already mentioned one: We were told he was one, by the one Cylon with the mystical chops to speak the truth even without realizing it consciously.

In terms of dramatic structure, that's a really big clue. It harks back all the way to the first season, and that means it brings a large amount of "closure payload" with it.

Another possible on-screen clue is that at the very end of the original mini-series, Adama found a slip of paper in his quarters that said "There are twelve Cylon models." They've never explained that. Who wrote it? How did it get there? My guess is that Adama himself wrote the paper under the influence of subconscious Cylon programming, the way Boomer found herself doing strange things back in those days.

That's a very minor thing, but here is a larger one: When four of the Final Five had their "All Along the Watchtower" moment and realized who they were, it was preceded by them hearing snatches of the song and thinking it was coming from within the ship. Colonel Tigh even went to Adama and angrily demanded an investigation of the frustrating music he was hearing.

Adama didn't bat an eyelash and promised him one. Then nothing happened with that thread.

This is a dog-that-didn't-bark situation.

Instead of expressing incredulity at the existence of mysterious music his XO was claiming to hear, Adama just accepted the idea. He could have done this just to humor his unhinged friend, but he also could have done it because he was hearing the music too.

And then there's this: Once Lucy Lawless gets "unboxed," she promises to reveal the Final Five to Laura Roslin and then as soon as Adama shows up on the Cylon basestar where they're at, Lucy suddenly announces–for no apparent reason–that only four of the Final Five are with the fleet. Why? Because the fifth has just joined them on the basestar.

Also, when Lucy Lawless first got her vision of the Final Five, she recognized the central one of them and said, "I'm sorry. I had no idea." The other four–Tigh, Tori, Tyrol, and Sam–are less likely to be characters that she would say this to. But she'd be quite likely to recognize the Admiral of the Fleet and apologize to him if she was suddenly aware that the fleet was being led by one of the Final Five.

When Tigh finally tells Adama that he (Tigh) is a Cylon, Adama TOTALLY LOOSES IT. He gets violent, raging drunk, becomes self-destructive, and can't pull it together AT ALL. He ends up as a collapsed, sobbing heap on his cabin floor, and his son–puppydog Lee–has to conduct the next stage of life-and-death negotiations with the Cylons.

His reaction is far disproportionate to what would be believable of a man as strong as Adama learning that his XO was a Cylon. Even though the two had known each other for 40 years, Adama had been living in a paranoid, "Anyone can be a Cylon" environment for years, and the reaction he had just struck me as over-the-top for the revelation that a friend and comrade turned out to be Cylon (especially a friendly Cylon).

But it struck me as entirely proportionate to the reaction that he should have if Tigh's revelation forced Adama to confront the fact that he, too, is a Cylon. Maybe when he heard the music in the nebula, Adama got a glimpse into his true nature but, like Boomer, was able to deny it for a long time. Then, when Tigh says (loose paraphrase), "That music I heard back in the nebula made me realize I'm a Cylon," suddenly Adama's worst fears concerning himself are confirmed and he looses it. This is the moment he truly had to accept what he was.

And it's at this point his attitude changes, and he's willing to go to Earth with the Cylons and to try to make peace with them.

There are more possible clues I could point to (his seeming ability to "project" the image of his dead wife, his hearing visions/voices when on the Cylon ship 40 years ago at the end of the first Cylon war, etc.), and I may record some more as they occur to me, but let me leave you with two off-screen clues:

1) Although the details are not yet known, the general premise of the prequel series Caprica is known, and Adama's family was right there at the beginning of human-appearing Cylons. In fact, SPOILER SWIPE: One of Adama's siblings had a Cylon based off of her after she died tragically young. Maybe the same thing happened to Adama himself.

2) After the series finishes they're doing another TV-movie, like Razor. This one is called "The Plan," and it involves the original plan that the Cylons had for the destruction of the colonies and what they meant to happen next. Various actors have been hired to reprise their roles as Cylons, both from the Significant Seven and the Final Five, for this movie.

But you know who's directing it? Edward James Olmos (Adama).

So the best candidate for the final Cylon is directing the Cylon-centric movie. Why would they do that?

Here's a bit of science fiction history: When they were making Star Trek III, the Search for Spock, they needed a way for Leonard Nimoy to be involved with the project (they didn't figure they could keep that secret) while maintaining a kind of semi-plausible deniability regarding his role in the project (they didn't just want to say, "He's playing Spock, meaning that Spock comes back from the dead in this movie"). So what did they do? They let him direct.

We might be looking at somethin
g here, with Olmos getting to direct as partial cover for the fact he's also playing a key Cylon role in the Cylon-centric film.

That's all as may be, but either way, Adama is my bet for the final Cylon.

We'll see if I'm right.

P.S. One more thing . . . that promotional photo-thingie the producers had done for Entertainment Weekly. Although some cast members have disputed it, Ron Moore says that the photo contains what can be read as clues to the fourth season (e.g., Lee wearing civilian clothes, indicating he's not returning to flight status, Tyrol contemplating the knife, reflecting his self-destructive turn this season, etc.). Here's the photo (click to enlarge or GO HERE to view in interactive detail):

Bsg 

The picture is consciously modeled off of Leonardo DaVinci's The Last Supper, which records the moment the Jesus declared "One of you will betray me," and the disciples react in shock.

We have a similarly dramatic moment in this picture, and the relevant revelation would seem to be either "Head Six exists" or "You are the Final Cylon," with it being misdirection that the Natalie Six is pointing toward (but not at) Head Six. (Ron Moore would never simply give away the big revelation in a promotional photo; expect misdirection.)

But follow the path that Natalie's finger is pointing past the shocked-looking Head Six. Who is she really fingering? Adama. who doesn't want to acknowledge what is going on. Lee's looking like he doesn't want to acknowledge it, either. Baltar may be looking at Head Six for confirmation of the announcement. Tigh's (potentially) watching Adama (or Lee) for a reaction, and Roslin is looking at Adama coolly (icily?). Helo is looking at Natalie intensely, taking in what she's saying, and Sharon is looking at Natalie while tentatively pointing as Adama, as if to ask "You mean it's him?"

There's nothing here that can't be read another way, which is Moore's intention, but it looks to me that the real dramatic focus of the picture is Adama, not Head Six, and that the revelation being made concerns him.

Author: Jimmy Akin

Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live."

39 thoughts on “And the Final Cylon Is . . .”

  1. Helli Jimmy,
    I’ve come to think this is a strong possibility – especially with the trailer for the final half-season showing a tantalizing snippet of a blindfolded Adama standing in the launchtube. This would certainly pack dramatic “oomph.” Some of the possible rationales and clues are ones you point out.
    OTOH…
    Moore went on record as saying that the final Cylon would not be anyone appearing in that “Last Supper” photo. So was he headfaking us? Perhaps.
    One other quibble: Lawless’s “apology” could very credibly have been directed to Tigh, who suffered more than anyone else during the occupation.
    But maybe it is Adama. Or Roslin. It sure seems unlikely to be a too-obvious candidate like Baltar or Kara.

  2. The real last Cylon is in fact series creator / producer Ron Moore, whose evil plan has been to goad viewers into wasting precious moments of their lives watching this overly drawn out, cheesy space-soap opera. The last episode ends with Moore leaving the fans with an unsatisfying ending, taking all the vast riches earned by the series and absconding with them to Venezuela where he will assume the alias of one “Señor Pibb”, and live out the rest of his days in an alcohol-induced siesta, having scantily-clad servant girls feed him peeled grapes and fan him with ridiculously over-sized palm fronds, and only waking from his inebriated stupor to hop on the internet and laugh at the disappointed reactions of fans toward the series’ horrible end.
    Honestly, though, I really will have to give Moore credit if he does end up making Adama the last Cylon. That would be some pretty high calibre trolling right there. Not the best trolling ever, but still really good. It would be nearly audacious enough to get me almost liking the show (actually having the Earth being a barren, uninhabited wasteland was a good step in this direction: now, if the series ends with the entire human cast dying, I’ll probably end up giving it a second chance).
    Also, it’s good to see you posting more regularly again, Mr. Akin. In a way you really do put the “Jimmy Akin” in “jimmyakin.org”. Without you it would be just “.org” (or “sdgandtimj.info” at the very most). Glad to have you back.
    (And I was just kidding about giving the show a second chance, too. Moore’s dark powers hold no sway over me.)

  3. There is one more piece of support for your theory — Adama is sitting in the place of Judas in the picture.

  4. I may never know. In a wierd twist, last year my cable company made SciFi (and 6 or 7 other channels) a digital only channel requiering a (free) converter box. (Nothing to do with the up-comiing government mandated switch to digital signals, so they say).
    So I think that the final Cylon is….
    …Cablevision!

  5. Some random answers to Jimmy’s questions:
    Q. What happened to Earth?
    A. In the future, it will be used for a movie set involving apes and Charleston Heston (doesn’t the last scene look like the Planet of the Apes?)
    Q.What are the Virtual “Head” beings (e.g., Head Six, Head Baltar) that only some people see?
    A. The Wizards of ODZ?
    Q. Can Human and Cylon live together?
    A. Yes, but not at the same time and on the same planet.
    Q. Who lives and who dies?
    A. Everyone.
    Q. And, of course, who is the final Cylon?
    A. Where are the chickens, hmmm 🙂
    The Chicken.

  6. The argument put forth makes sense, and I will not be surprised if it is true. However…
    Even though I always assumed the statement that the final cylon was not at the last supper, there is something to indicate that that may be correct. The logical place for the final cylon to be is in the Judas spot which (contrary to a previous poster) is empty. Peter, James and Judas are in the spot occupied in the photo by Baltar and Lee. (Adama is actually in the spot of Simon of the Zealot Party.)
    Truthfully, I am not all that sure that the end will be all that interesting. My best guess is that the final cylon is revealed 1-30-09, the last episode that is within sweeps. Does anybody really care what happened to earth?
    My best guess is that John Locke is the final cylon, which would then make the fate of the earth more interesting.

  7. I think it’s Adama, too. 2 not-entirely logical reasons:
    1) What was the deal with that guy, Bulldog, coming back from cylon captivity? Adama sent him on his mission, and ultimately ordered his ship destroyed to prevent it from falling into cylon hands. The cylons’ resons for releasing him have never been explained AFAIK. Was it just a filler episode, or something deeper there?
    2) Adama discovered a cylon biological experiment center during the first war. Perfect opportunity for him to be captured, copied, and released, with all his old memories intact and new programming installed. The armistice was signed just after he got out. Coincidence???

  8. I’ve been thinking it was Adama for at least half a season now, and I appreciate you putting it all together, Jimmy. Here’s to hoping we’re right!

  9. I have only watched one episode of Battlestar Galactica (the last one before season 4.5), but I have read some of the summaries from Wikipedia and it is really obvious to me that Jimmy is correct. In fact, I think I can go further (foolish and naive that I am, with the boldness of ignorance), in that I can see the outlines of The Plan. It became obvious as I was walking and eating a sandwich after I had read Jimmy’s speculations, when I realized what it really meant for Adama to be a cyclon.
    What’s in a name?
    Consider:
    What is the elder Adama? He is, is he not, Adam-A. He is the “new” Adam of the cylon line (and the last). Just as death came from the first Adam (cylon), so the plan is for life to come from the second.
    Sound familiar?
    Here is my best re-construction, in general (since I have only watched one episode) of what might be driving this story. I might be wrong (probably am) in details, but those more knowledgeable can clean-up my theory.
    Let me tell you a story:
    It begins a long time ago, in, shall we say, a paradise called Kobol. Really, this is K-obol, which is K + eden. Notice, obol, if the vowels are two less (go back 2 vowels from o = e) and consonances two more( b + 2 = d, l + 2 = n) = eden. I don’t know what the K stands for, although K + 2 = M, which might stand for man. Another possibility is that the K indicates that this Eden is not the true Eden, but a second one. The original Eden, Earth, had become uninhabitable, for a very long time.
    Now, at some point a group of very advanced humans (shall we say, God-like), originally from Earth, decided to create androids in their own image. Literally, they decided to create a man (‘adam) in their own image, only he was flawed and fell. In the process, he destroyed most of Kobol and the second-generation, less advanced humans who developed naturally on Kobol.
    After being kicked out of paradise, the twelve tribes wandered, eventually being attacked by the cylons who formed their own twelve tribes (twenty-four tribes, hmmm…). In essence, one type of adam was attacking another, or the first-generation of Adam was being attacked by the cyborg “sons” of Adam. Call them, Adam-primes.
    Now the original advanced race of humans from earth, knowing that earth would become inhabitable again, soon, decided on a daring plan to re-unite both the original Adamic line and the Adamic-prime line on the original Eden. First, however, they had to find a way to unite human and cylon. There had to be a second Adam-cylon, who would, in effect, undo the damage of the first Adam-cylon. They called this special creation, Adam-A. They knew that he would be equally respected by both the humans and the cylons. They also knew that he would have to die to re-unite them. He will die at the end of the series and just like Nimoy, direct the movie while “dead”.
    They set them on a mysterious quest for the thirteen colony of “gentile” humans, who reside on earth. Unbeknownst to anyone, it is the planet of origin and the thirteenth colony is the actual first colony, because 13 is congruent 1 mod 12, so after the 12 colonies are removed, there is only one left.
    They find Earth, now habitable, but bearing the scars of the thing that caused them to evacuate the planet. The humans and cylons are caused to arrive together, because, unbeknownst to them, some of the original “Gods” are on-board, directing their progress, making sure that “those who need to hear the music” do so when they need to.
    First, the humans and cylons, now on earth, will search for what destroyed earth. They will discover the original Adam-prime or whatever destroyed Earth and Adama will give his life to defeat it, thus uniting the humans and cylons.
    This will be revealed in The Plan and at the end, Adama will rise, again, to become the leader of the united human and cylon society.
    I realize there are other things, like the sign of the Zodiac and Greek gods on Kobol that seem to weaken this theory, but consider: the Greek gods were not true Gods, any more than the advanced humans on Kobol are true Gods, but they have a sense of humor and indirectly revealed their nature by assuming their names, which the humans and cylons will discover once they start looking for their origins on Earth.
    So, does this really quick idea make any sense? It all starts with speculating on what Adama might really be, if, indeed, he is a cylon.
    This takes into account and fits in with Jimmy’s deductions, as well: hearing the music is a call from “God”. Just as God called the twelve, through Jesus, the “Gods” are doing the same. It is a form of either baptism or call. Adama will discover his cyloness by a form of baptism. He also has a John the Baptist: the Lucy Lawless character.
    I sort of hope that I am reading too much into this. I hope this is not the outline Moore is working from.
    The Chicken

  10. I’ve thought for at least a couple seasons that Roslin was the cylon. There have been a lot of hints there, too.
    But then, someone has to be the Cylon god, unless that is n fact, God. Though Baltar’s theology sounds like it would come from the World Council of Churches or Hans Kung rather than traditional theism.
    Of course I still think that the answer might be that -everyone- is a cylon. That humanity died out long ago, and that “the cycle always repeats”. The cylons don’t know who they are, create AIs who rebel, who make a more ‘human’- like model, which desires to be more like humans including procreation, and the whole cycle plays out over and over again.
    In the clip, they show the foot locations of three individuals, one of whom is the fifth cylon. In the Last Supper image, both trios on either end of the table could have that arrangement – and they are mirror images of each other.
    Your point about Sharon is quite good, but then in the ‘blog’ clip where they pretend to be there without permission, somebody tries to make out that it is Adama, which might tend to rule him out, unless of course, that is the idea. . . 🙂
    I’m also not persuaded’s s that they’ve actually found Earth. They kept saying it’s sun was a double-star. Nope, that isn’t Earth. Maybe they found Alpha Kent B c, an early colony from Earth, or something like that. 10 episodes -after- finding Earth? That seems unlikely, so maybe they haven’t really found Earth, after all. Not just yet.
    The Adam-a theory doesn’t work so well for me because all of that came from the original series. Of course, the creators of the new series might have followed a similar line of thought.

  11. BTW, which is reinforced by the fact that they can’t tell a ‘human’ from a cylon under a microscope or in a DNA sequencer.

  12. Jimmy, promise me you won’t unveil who’s playing the new Doctor, replacing David Tennant, until after SciFi starts airing Season 5 episodes later this year. Promise?? Thanks!

  13. This was a fascinating post (and thank you for reminding me of some of the clues). I agree it has to be someone big for the reveal to have any meaning, but I do think Gaeta and Dualla could work (and I think there are some intriguing clues that point that way).
    But yes, from a storytelling point of view, it seems it should be Baltar, Adama, and Roslin. I’ve never wanted it to be one of them, however. Baltar, for the reasons you list, but also because it would give him the ultimate pass on all he has done — it would make his role in the nuclear attacks and his collaboration with the Cylons on New Caprica ok, because he was one of them. And I think it is crucial for his character that Baltar be utterly human, even if (especially if) he represents the very worst of us.
    Similarly, I did not want Adama or Roslin to be the Cylon, again because their humanity seems so important, especially as they represent the good of humans (even though they are very flawed themselves). Reading over your arguments in favor Adama, I can see how he works as a Cylon, and I think I could be ok with that. And it strengthens my belief that Roslin should not be a Cylon. I adore Roslin, not only because she is the best female character on television, but because she serves as a counterpart to Baltar — the two of them represent humanity completely, its best and worst, strength and weakness. And, of course, as you say, it would completely undercut her cancer storyline. As much as I don’t want Roslin to die, she really has to from a storytelling point of view; it would be too much of a cheat otherwise.
    Yay! It’s January finally!

  14. I was wondering if you were going to post that Last Supper Picture. You did, but then failed to mention that Moore twice (I believe) said that the last cylon is NOT in that picture.

  15. Also, I think your interpretation is also slightly off. Natalie is in fact pointing at Helo and Sharon, which I believe was confirmed in the final episodes, when Sharon had her visions of Natalie taking Hera, and then finally shoots her down.

  16. But since the series is about ‘what does it mean to be human?’ the most human character being the last cylon makes much sense. Adama himself has said that sometimes he wonders if the cylons are more human than ‘we’ are.
    That or ‘we are -all- cylons’.
    It isn’t that we missed that supposedly the last cylon isn’t in the picture, but that we don’t necessarily believe that that is necessarily a true statement rather than a misdirection.

  17. I may never know. In a wierd twist, last year my cable company made SciFi (and 6 or 7 other channels) a digital only channel requiering a (free) converter box. (Nothing to do with the up-comiing government mandated switch to digital signals, so they say).
    Just watch it on Hulu – all the new episodes will appear there.

  18. Actually, what Ron Moore said, IIRC, was that the final Cylon is not *necessarily* in the picture. More misdirection on his part.

  19. Battlestar Galactica starts again this Friday???
    It’s been so long… I can’t even remember most of the major plot points. There isn’t enough time to rewatch the episodes Sci Fi has up. This sucks!

  20. I just heard a possible clue while watching the “10 things you need to know about Battlestar Galactica” (on Hulu). Ron Moore says that “Baltar is the most human of all the characters” and then the other producer (I can’t remember his name) laughs. I interpreted the laugh to mean “isn’t it funny that Baltar is the most human when really he’s not.”
    We’ll see…

  21. Hey Jimmy,
    I agree, you touched on this, but I was remembering that Adama had been captured and then escaped making it back to the fleet. Maybe the “real” Adama never actually survived.

  22. I still think the final mindfrak will turn out to be that they are *ALL* Cylons, and the whole thing has just been one giant simulation testing the *outcome* of a *planned* Cylon attack on the Colonies. It will turn out that nothing in the entire show ever “really” happened; every single moment on screen has been a virtual memory and we’ve been watching a giant computer model.
    Well, no, I don’t. But that would make as much sense as anything else. BSG is pretty good TV, but I stopped thinking of it as actual science fiction a while ago.

  23. SPOILERS:
    We now know that Ellen is a Cylon, as Jimmy speculated back in May.
    Now the question becomes, is she one of the Final Five — or is she a Six, as speculated by Jimmy at above link?
    What about Starbuck, who discovered HER OWN CORPSE in this latest episode????

  24. Pardon my cylonese but: Ellen Tigh! What the frak?
    Maybe she is a Six.
    Sounds like they have plenty of story left.

  25. ***** EVEN MORE MORNING AFTER SPOILER SPECULATION ******
    Jimmy,
    You are correct. Adama is a Cylon; The Madam President’s assistant is not.
    Let me say on the outset I hope I am wrong. I would like the “fifth Cylon” storyline to move on and not drag out to the very end.
    Here is the evidence:
    – in last night’s episode when the other 3 Cylons on Earth had memories of being there previously, the President’s assistant (played by Rekha Sharma) did not. She merely confirmed (or merely wished to confirm) one of the other memories.
    – during the recap at the beginning of last night’s episode, she confessed being a Cylon the Baltar, who was in no position to confirm or refute that point.
    – in the previous episode, when the Lucy Lawless character was holding hostages on one ship and Adama’s son was threatening to blow the 3 Cylons out the airlock, the President’s assistant was not among the three, so the Lucy Lawless character would not have had a chance to point out that Adama’s son was threatening the life of an ordinary human.
    – I caught snippets of the top 10 things you need to know about Battlestar Galactica leading up to the new episode. The creators point out the irony of Colonel Tigh finding out he was a Cylon after he killed his wife for consorting with Cylons. I believe they intend to do the same thing from a different angle with the President’s assistant: she killed a woman for threatening to expose them as Cylons.
    – as you already point out in your post, when Lucy Lawless first got her vision of the Final Five, she recognized the central one of them and said, “I’m sorry. I had no idea.”. None of the final five qualify.
    – I cannot explain why the President’s assistant thought she heard the music and joined the other 3 Cylons a few episodes ago. Also, I cannot explain why the Lucy Lawless character did not simply reveal to Colonel Tigh who the final Cyclon was/is in that final scene on the beach.
    I hope I am wrong and welcome comment that I have overlooked evidence to the contrary. The mystery has gone on long enough and there are only nine original episodes left. Time to move on.

  26. I said up above: “Moore went on record as saying that the final Cylon would not be anyone appearing in that “Last Supper” photo. So was he headfaking us?”
    Seems he wasn’t. Ellen Tigh wasn’t in that photo.
    Funny how this episode answered a lot of questions and terminated some story arcs (like Dee’s, alas – that was a genuine shocker) and we feel like we have even more questions now. Like Edward’s: I have even less idea of what or who Starbuc is now. So how did her Viper (and body) get to Earth? Is it her Viper? Who or what is this Starbuck now? And who or what made that possible?
    Congratulations to Jimmy for the accuate speculation on Ellen earlier this year – his logic makes a lot of sense now.

  27. I was convinced, going in, that Gaeta was the best choice for the final Cylon but that they’d have it be Adama for most of the reasons Jimmy listed. Then, when Dee killed herself I started thinking ‘when she saw the locket on Earth, it was a picture of her and she realized she was the final Cylon,’. Then when I started watching Gaeta’s reaction to the whole thing I started thinking ‘He’s the final Cylon and he killed Dee and we saw it the way we did because that was the version he told everyone ’cause he was the only one there and later we’ll find out that she couldn’t have done it ’cause she’s left-handed or somesuch and we’ll see how it really unfolded’. Then Saul says Ellen’s the final Cylon and now I just want some Ibuprofen. They’ve thrown us so many intentional curve balls that whatever they decide to do there will have been plenty of clues planted along the way.

  28. “The real last Cylon is in fact series creator / producer Ron Moore, whose evil plan has been to goad viewers into wasting precious moments of their lives watching this overly drawn out, cheesy space-soap opera.”
    FAIL.
    I never watched a moment of this show and have no regrets.

  29. Well, we now know who it is. However on the how do Cylons and humans live together thing? Here’s my take. I may be all wet.
    Remember that they still have not got a fully reliable test for who is human and who is a skinjob Cylon. I think that as humanity’s technology increases, robots evelove into Cylons, who kill the humans. The Cylons become more technologically advanced and make themselves more like humans. They are more advanced so they end up wiping out the Cylons (machines, not skinjobs). Over time, the “skinjobs” become complacent and forget that they are not human. They then create Cylons, who wipe out the humans….and on and on.
    Humans are Cylons. Cylons are humans.

  30. Well, we now know who it is. However on the how do Cylons and humans live together thing? Here’s my take. I may be all wet.
    Remember that they still have not got a fully reliable test for who is human and who is a skinjob Cylon. I think that as humanity’s technology increases, robots evelove into Cylons, who kill the humans. The Cylons become more technologically advanced and make themselves more like humans. They are more advanced so they end up wiping out the Cylons (machines, not skinjobs). Over time, the “skinjobs” become complacent and forget that they are not human. They then create Cylons, who wipe out the humans….and on and on.
    Humans are Cylons. Cylons are humans.

  31. DSG:
    The Cylon that Lucy Lawless apologized to was Saul Tigh. I assume she was apologizing for plucking out his eye.

  32. I thought D’Anna was apologizing to Callie, since she put her through hell on New Caprica, as well as putting her name on the “hit list” they forced Baltar to sign.
    Ellen Tigh is definitely a Six, so she can’t be one of the final five.
    Then again, Adama still sounds like a good pick, but I do have one concern about that. Didn’t Baltar run his Cylon-detector on both the Admiral and the President back in Season One? If he knows that either of them is a Cylon, why wouldn’t he ever have used that information to his advantage?
    My money is still on Callie coming back to beat the crap out of her killer. That’s why their child is not “the chosen one” (even though Tyrol is a known Cylon). Tyrol & Callie’s child is pure Cylon, whereas Hera is still the only true hybrid.

  33. Y’know, it’s really mean of BSG towards its Catholic fans that the final episodes are sponsored by KFC, seeing as how the last few are airing on Fridays in Lent. :-/

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