…it occurs to me there’s one candidate we haven’t considered:
The title character.
What if the Battlestar Galactica survived the attack because it was meant to? Because the ship itself is a Cylon?
PAD
UPDATED AT 11:20 PM FRIDAY–Let’s use this thread to discuss the season ender. So warning to all that spoilers will no doubt be herein.
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Hmmm. I like that idea but I think that a lot of the viewers would be upset in that they believe the unknown cylon is going to be a major character.
Hmmm. I like that idea but I think that a lot of the viewers would be upset in that they believe the unknown cylon is going to be a major character.
You have just COLLAPSED MY BRAIN.
That is some major “thinking outside of the box” right there, man. And I can imagine that idea working…
Hey, that’s a really clever idea–but the earlier episodes of the show made it clear that the 12 “models” were human in appearance.
My guess: Bob Dylan.
I don’t even follow the show but I know enough to realize that is a BRILLIANT hypothesis. It’s so amazing to see how easily you prove yourself as a SF storyteller just through little throw-away things like that. You might even be right about that. Now I’ll have to watch just to see if you’re right.
Jesus, PAD. That is really kind of brilliant. That’s on par with “It’s a cookbook!”
Certainly not the worst idea I’ve ever heard. But it worries me that we’d see a sudden surge of Galactica/Pegasus slash. *shudder*
The trouble with off-the-wall suggestions for Number 12 like the Galactica or the Viper Starbuck came back in that they would’ve had to manage to squeeze into those person-sized robes in the Opera House visions.
They need to find and kill some guy who’s been taking one hëll of a long bath.
It would explain why the music to activate them was in the walls.
PAD
That is some major “thinking outside of the box” right there, man.
Based on what my wife told me earlier about the episode, since they didn’t just say “Oh, it’s Person X”, it looks like it’s going to take this kind of thinking if they have indeed revealed who the Cylon is.
Either that, or you’re going to have a lot of pìššëd fanboys because, at face value, it sounds like BG fans got the Lost treatment: “Big reveal coming… wait for it… wait for it… oh, were we supposed to reveal something?” 🙂
BTW, speaking as someone with a decent amount of Geiger counter experience, the clicks were at “probably wouldn’t want to live there, but a few hours or even days at a time should be fine” levels. Noticeably higher than real world background radiation, but not at an “OH FRAK ME!” roar.
Although I think this episode establishes that the music might well have been an artifact of whatever signal was coming from Starbuck’s Viper — which caused her to check, and then stop Lee from airlocking the three; that was the same signal being heard by the secret four before Tigh turned himself in.
1 I too thought, “What if it’s the viper?” but Deanna specifically said that the fifth cylon wasn’t in the fleet. The only way she could’ve known that was because the final of the five was on her basestar already! So, who were the ‘named’ characters on the basestar when that claim was made? Baltar (and she stood down her attack when he told her too), Roslyn, and I think Helo…
I’m guessing that D’anna’s statement that only four of the five are with the fleet means that the fifth is someone we’ve seen die. It seems to me the most prominent characters to have died are Billy, Ellen Tigh and Callie, though D’anna wouldn’t necessarily be aware of Callie’s death.
The only way she could’ve known that was because the final of the five was on her basestar already!
There’s that possibility too. I hadn’t thought of that.
I really hope it’s not Baltar.
If the final cylon is not in the fleet, I think it would be a cheat to introduce a new character at the eleventh hour. I personally can’t see that as an option. This being my line of reasoning, that means that the final one is someone who is dead or thought to have died. This opens it up to everyone from Kendra Shaw, Billy and Admiral Cain, straight throught to President Adar.
You Maniacs! You blew it up! Ah, dámņ you! God dámņ you all to hëll!
I don’t like the idea of Galactica being the 12th though. Only because it reminds me of the horrendous Star Trek Voyager ship that had some bio things going on in it. I always thought that the 2 babies, one by Boomer and the other by the Chief were going to be Adam and Eve as everyone but the 2 will be destroyed and they will start the human race on ancient Earth as WE know it. The 12th Cylon could be an alien race that can cloak and uncloak. So it could be a character not yet seen or introduced. Possibly a DeLance cameo. Too corny?
“Hey, that’s a really clever idea–but the earlier episodes of the show made it clear that the 12 “models” were human in appearance.”
Personally, I’d tend to agree except that something Whedon said keeps surfacing. To paraphrase, the integrity of the universe has to be maintained, unless the idea is really, really cool.
Now, I have one of my feelings that it COULD be Zak Adama.
Only because it reminds me of the horrendous Star Trek Voyager ship that had some bio things going on in it.
Such concepts were introduced in the premiere episode of Voyager: the bio-neural gel packs were part of the ship’s design and mentioned right off the bat.
Just weird enough to get my attention, but I think not.
As to the ending of “Revelations”, I smelled something in the works. Finding Earth and getting there simply wasn’t going to solve all the problems that got the story rolling in the first place. Not by itself.
Okay thinking outside of the box here is my theory:
Humanity is from Earth. If this has all happened before and will happen again, then the original colony is actually Kobal. We know from the first season the 12 colonies were 3000 years old. If the cycle repeats itself on a regular basis then Kobal was probably colonized for 2 to 3000 years. The would set the departure from earth… Wait for it… At the time of fabled Atlantis! It would also make sense of the continous Greek references.
Earth as Galactica found it: The destruction was too new. I’d say that destruction could only be decades ago. If it was 3000 years ago or earlier the buildings would be a forest and there would be no real sign of our existence. Also radiation levels would be back to normal background levels. So what does that mean that we destroyed ourselves in recent history… Or …
We know the final 5 have been to earth at some point in the past. With the recent destruction of Earth being portrayed I’d first assume the final 5 were the ones who destroyed it and got ‘boxed’ for their sins. But that wouldn’t hold it together if you think about it. If the other 7 cylons had no problem obliterating the colonies then they wouldn’t have much problem with obliterating the 13th colony…
How about the 5 rebelled and started a civil war 30 or so years ago in protest of the destruction of earth. And for that they got boxed, mostly. I also have a feeling the toasters were on their side and this led to the behavioral inhibitors. The other 7 to keep the appearance of unity decided to wipe their memories (which would explain why they said their records aren’t complete even though that makes no sense because they are machines) and not discuss the 5. I have a feeling the Cavile model knows more than he is telling though.
The big question no one seems to be asking is how the 4 came to be unboxed or loose in the colonies. I think the 5th has been active all along and probably has all of his/her memories. This would also explain why the 5th didn’t come when the signal woke up the other 4. If it has it’s memories it wouldn’t need to wake up. Also someone would have had to unbox 1 copy of the other 4 over the years. That would also mean the 5th would have to be of suitable age. That leaves 2 characters in my opinion, maybe 3.
Adama, yes Adama. If the script leaks for Caprica are correct then two of the Cylons were originally the personalities of his sister and mother. Maybe at some point in the original war Adama did die and his sister or mother resurrected him with their new human technology and returned him to the colonies to live out a normal life at some point. I’d love this revelation, but wouldn’t bet on it. It falls apart with who resurrected the single models of the 4 which would require knowledge of cylons which Adama hasn’t betrayed.
Doc Cottle, based on age, it works. Being a doctor he may have had the ability and opportunity to clone and unbox the other 4 over time.
Or we may be back to Zarek being the 5th again…
Finally this whole line of speculation may be all wet and the head 6 and head baltar are exactly what they seems to be a god like third party pulling all the strings behind the scenes.
As long as Barry Van Ðÿkë and Kent McCord don’t show up on flying motorcycles, it’ll all work out okay.
Jake the Dog is the Final Cylon. Three didn’t know he’d gotten off New Caprica, and since he’s with Romo Lampkin, she didn’t see him around…
Over at Television Without Pity, I did throw out the idea that it was Kara’s Viper, because it seemed to know the way to Earth, and it summoned the other three (and it wasn’t until she was on her way to the Ionian Nebula that the Four were brought together…).
More seriously, per Ron Moore, the Final Cylon will be someone who we have already met (or at least heard of), it will be surprising (I don’t think he realized some of the speculation to come, though!), and it’s someone who didn’t appear in the Season Four promotional picture that was based on the famed Last Supper painting.
I wonder if it’ll be Elosha…
I think the humans are artificial creations, initially made by “earth” humans. Therefore they are “cylons” who think they are human and who have created the series’ cylons, invoking the “what does it mean to be human?” question.
Maybe the Lord of Kobal were older school robots/AIs and they took the artificially created strand of humanity off to the Caprica system after Earth got toasted. It has happened b4 = destruction of Earth =war between creators and created = destruction of Caprican colonies. So maybe the final five are encoded with Lord of Kobol data/memories? Could Earth be gome to a “resurrection ship/base” that enables the F5 to “return” then die & come back to the colonies?
The LoK have seeded planets with temples/beacons as well as encoded clues to Earth’s location in scriptures. Why? B/c they knew that “humanity,” creators or created, had a good chance at blowing themselves up again and after 3000 years, Earth might be a sustainable home again.
Well, that’s all I got!
It’s Bill Adama
It’s not the Galactica. D’anna saw five people standing in front of her in the temple. We didn’t see the faces, but we definitely saw her looking at five human figures.
I think the fact that D’anna asked for only 4 people was very significant. A couple possible explanations for that come to mind.
1) One of the five was already on the Basestar. That would be Laura Roslin, Adama, Baltar, or Helo. Helo seems unlikely because then his kid wouldn’t be half human. The kid would still be special because it’s a Cylon baby, but not special in the way they’ve been saying all along. That seems unnecessarily complicated to me.
2) Perhaps in-between the scenes we saw D’anna got some information from the hostages. She doesn’t know who has been activated because all she saw were faces and she saw those before the activation, so she wouldn’t say four instead of five because of the activation. I can’t imagine them telling her anything about Gaeta, Dualla, Doc Cottle, or most of the other characters that would make her want to leave them on Galactica. The only person I can imagine her leaving on Galactica for strategic reasons is Lee Adama. I think there’s a slim possibility that she heard from Adama that Lee was President and decided not to try to push him to come over yet.
So that’s my list of likely suspects, which isn’t much different than the old list of most likely suspects. Laura Roslin, Adama, Baltar, or possibly Lee Adama. I think the people on the Basestar are the most straightforward suspects. My money is on Baltar. As soon as he finds out he’s a Cylon, he’ll betray all the Cylons.
I thought it was the viper, too. D’anna is only going by what she saw in her dream. If the viper was there, she probably didn’t notice it.
The “All will be revealed” phrase that they’ve been promoting bugs me. For me to think that everything was actually revealed, they’d have to tell me a lot of stuff before the series finishes.
1) What is the Cylon God? At least tell me if the belief was part of their original programming or something they came up with on their own.
2) Why does the numbering of the original seven go 1,2,3,4,5,6,8? If the final five are grouped together, I’d expect them to be numbered together. Sure, I can think of reasons, like Saul Tigh’s being around 30 years meaning that he was rushed into production before they made the 8s. But I still want an actual answer, minor as this question may be.
3) How did the 6 get in Baltar’s head and how did the Baltar get in the original 6’s head after she was resurrected? I was thinking he was just delusional until she started having a ghost too.
4) How is everyone getting their visions? Laura and Starbuck both got visions and they can’t both be the final Cylon, so it’s not just programming. Athena/Sharon had the same vision as Laura and she didn’t know how, so it’s not something the Cylons understand. So how is it happening? If they just say, “God,” that’s not what I consider to be “all will be revealed.”
5) Why does this history repeat itself?
6) Who made and programmed the human models? Given the subservience of the toasters, it doesn’t seem plausible that they built the skin jobs.
I really doubt they’re going to answer all of these. So I’m feeling like I’m going to be a little disappointed because they said they’d answer everything.
That’s my latest theory as well.
Are you people BLIND? How can you NOT know that the final cylon is, without any doubt:
Renee O’Connor.
I figured THAT out months ago.
I still think its Helo.
He was already on the base ship.
I believe everyone is mistaken on his and Athena’s baby being the miracle baby and its actually the Chief’s baby that is special.
The ship as a Cylon?? That would explain why the music seemed to be coming out of the walls and why the Galactica survived the initial attack by the Cylons. It seems so much by chance that all these human cylons were able to make it to the Galactica over the years.
Destroyed recently for the Colonials and Allied Cylons’ purposes, apparently, if the Geiger counter reading noises are an indicator of the true situation. Given everything in terms of timeframe that we know from the Temple of the Five to Kobol to the Twelve Colonies, Earth would seem to have survived well past our present day – if the “future of humanity” theory wins out.
Ðámņ. You beat me to it.
I’m tempted to put down real money that one of the cast, playing around, actually spat out that line on set.
6) Who made and programmed the human models? Given the subservience of the toasters, it doesn’t seem plausible that they built the skin jobs.
There had to be some higher intelligence than the Cylon centurians because someone/thing had to direct them during the original Cylon war.
I wanna know which ones are Skrulls.
Truly one of the greater performances by Eddie Olmos and Michael “Tough As Nails” Hogan…
“What are you waiting for, Apollo? Open the frakking door!”
Loved it. Loved it Loved it
Personally my candidate for the final cylon is pretty simple… Hera. I think we’ve been looking at her straight in the face continuously, and it makes sense.
Travis
Hera wasn’t born yet when we first learned that there are 12 human model Cylons.
Also, that really wouldn’t be much of a reveal. We already know that she’s special. She’s so special that her blood temporarily cured Roslin’s cancer. If they said Hera was the final Cylon, it would pretty much be no reveal at all.
But, supposedly everything is in plan for the great design, which is ran by some “greater power.” Who knows things from a long way off.
When everyone is looking for a fifth cylon, there’s one staring them in the face. Why else would she be so important to be in dreams?
T
This is just me and all I am saying… the 5th cylon is wait for it… okay you have waited long enough… R. Daneel Olivaw yes the whole battlestar universe really the conclusion of the Asimov robot series. I mean I am just saying if we are tossing out obscure possibilities
So was it just me, or did the ruins appear to be NYC?
Dave
So was it just me, or did the ruins appear to be NYC?
No, that last shot looked like the Brooklyn Bridge to me
Xena may have seen five humanoids in her vision, but whose to say one of them, when robes are doffed, might be robotic? Think Danger in Whedon’s X-MEN run.
I’m surprised that anyone figured out that much detail from those ruins. I would’ve thought that a lot of landmarks would’ve been ploughed under and replaced a couple of times over given the timespan suspected here.
I’m not sure how the Galactica could have fit under that white robe. RDM suggested that the obvious candidates (the Adamas, Roslin, Baltar, Helo, Starbuck) were not the cylons.
Oddly, most of those characters were on the damaged Basestar when D’Anna said there are only four in the fleet. It could be reasoned that such a statement means the fifth cylon was on the basestar at the time.
I’d hate for it to be so, but Adama might be the fifth. It’s a natural writer’s impulse to make him the final Cylon, but it feels cheap. The preview for the final episodes had Tigh telling someone they were a Cylon. Wouldn’t he be the appropriate one to inform Adama?
I’m still not sure what the final five are. Isn’t Tigh older than the Cylon rebellion? Maybe they didn’t start out as Cylons, but were infected somehow. My theory? Each of the final five are actually infected by those evil Trill-like characters from the TNG episode Conspiracy.
Check the necks.
My money’s been on Billy being a cylon since the day he died.
Saul Tigh’s existence can only be confirmed for thirty years – that’d be ten years after the end of the First Cylon War. He remembers fighting in the War – but then again, Galen Tyrol remembers being born on Geminon, the son of a priest and an oracle. The Eight that liased with Helo on board the broken baseship remembered Athena’s shoulder-massage technique. Clearly, Cylon memory is a tricky thing.
How about Tom Zarek? The character played by Richard Hatch, the original Apollo.
He is the type of person that’s crazy enough to justify blowing up New Caprica in order to “unite” the Cylon/Human Race.
This is based more on a hunch than anything else, but I think it’s Gaeta. He’s not in the Last Supper promo pic and he was instrumental in helping the resistance on New Caprica (which I realize doesn’t prove anything if he hasn’t been switched on yet).
And I agree with the Whedon quote about the integrity of the universe. I think it’d be too much of a shock – feel too much like getting the rug pulled out from underneath us – if it’s the Battlestar, the bird or Bill Adama.