Well, Friday is a big night for fans of Battlestar Galactica. The season premier is locked and loaded and ready for broadcast. This series has really been a boon for the Sci Fi Channel whose programming prior to BSG was a little too geeky for a larger audience. But after 3 years, it’s clear that this amazing series has done quite a lot to bring contemporary social, political, and religious issues to the fore with a great deal of intelligence. However, the producers and writers have done so in the context of a compelling drama whose characters are conflicted, complicated, and extremely charismatic. It’s a bummer that this is the last season of the show, but in truth, the big narrative of the show is winding down. If the producers decided to go one more season, I think they would run the risk of jumping the shark. So, it’s says a lot about the integrity of the producers that they know when it’s time to go. What blows is that the final season is going to be broken up in two parts — mostly due to the writers strike — and that means the energy and momentum that a weekly tune-in engenders will evaporate when they break.
I’ve been re-watching episodes from the first season (because I think those episodes contains clues to questions that have yet to be answered), and one burning question is this: “Who is the last Cylon?” If you haven’t been following the show, then you have no idea what I’m talking about, so you might as well move on to another blog. For the fans of the show, we know who the four out of the five “final five” Cylons are, but now there’s quite a bit of speculation as to who the last one is.
In the first season, this Cylon (pictured with Starbuck) told President Roslin that Adama was a Cylon
However, in the very next episode, Baltar is tasked with testing every person in the fleet to see if they are Cylons.
He has to draw their blood, and through a time-consuming test, he says, with some degree of accuracy, that the test can determine who is a human and who is a Cylon. Because Roslin believes what that Cylon told her, she orders Baltar to test Adama first — while Adama order Baltar to test Ellen Tigh. Ellen, in that episode, was reunited with Saul Tigh — which made Saul happy, but made him fall farther into his alcoholism. Ellen stays with the series until Saul kills her on New Caprica because she collaborated with the Cylons who occupied New Caprica a year after the colony was up and running. Then, at the end of season 3, it’s revealed that Saul (along Tyrol, Tory, and Anders — who are all pictured below) are Cylons.
So, who could the fifth one be? If we are to believe one of the executive producers (Ronald Moore), he’s not messing with us and the four pictured above are Cylons. Moreover, Moore says that none of the cast members pictured in the group shot of season 4 is the final, or fifth Cylon, of the “final five.”
Okay, ready for my guess? I think it’s Ellen Tigh. Her blood (along with Adama) were the only ones tested in the season one episode mentioned above. Dr. Baltar says that “He’ll never tell” what her test said, so while it could be a red herring, I think it’s plausible she’s a Cylon. Her back story of how she ended up with the fleet after the Cylon on the attack on the colonies was pretty vague, and she was constantly trying to grab power (or be close to it) while on the Galactica or on New Caprica. Her reasons for doing so were always shrouded in dubious claims, so she was a tough character to read. However, looking at what we as viewers are given by the writers and producers of the show, I’m going to stand by my claim that Ellen is one of the final five.
We won’t know until the end of the season (or close to it), so by that time I’ll probably have another guess and this post will just have some nice picture.
Maya
April 3, 2008 at 11:22 amI don’t know if Ellen is a Cylon. I’m not really sure, but I’m not going to guess.
I want to be surprised. 🙂
J
April 3, 2008 at 1:40 pmOh my, I had no idea they said that the final cylon wasn’t in the ‘Last Supper’ picture. Hmmm. I think you’re probably right then, it’s Ellen. Which is cool, because at the BSG party a couple of years ago, I played her, right? Yay me!
Autumn's Mom
April 3, 2008 at 3:11 pmI would love it if you kept us posted with what’s going on..cuz I’m too lazy to watch myself. I was into the first couple of seasons…then it just lost me and I never came back to it. Now I have neither the time or tivo to dive back in 🙂
Py Korry
April 3, 2008 at 3:27 pmThat too bad you lost interest D, the 3rd season was pretty good. But I’ll try and keep the semi-BSG fans up to date with posts every now and then. One espiosde/movie I thought wasn’t good was Razor. I don’t know why but there was just something missing from it.
And J, I forgot you were Ellen at the BSG party. 🙂
Maya: do you really want to be surprised? Your statement surprised me because you often want to know what’s going to happen on a show before it happens.
Doug
April 3, 2008 at 6:35 pmI can’t wait. Ellen is a good guess. Wait a sec… maybe it’s Daggett… what happened to that robot (Cylon?) dog anyway?
Gina
April 4, 2008 at 9:13 amOK, hold on, if Ellen was indeed the 5th Cylon, wouldn’t she have to have been resurrected by now? And, based on everything I have seen before there is ALWAYS someone with the resurrectee. So I’m having a hard time thinking that IF she was, how none of the other Cylons would know she was resurrected, because then she would be on their ship.
Am I making sense here?
Py Korry
April 4, 2008 at 10:31 amYeah, but aren’t the “Final Five” different from the other Cylons? The other models really don’t know that much about them. It was only the Xena:Princess Warrior model who saw the final five, but she was shut down/put into cold storage. I don’t know… I’m just guessing here. 🙂
And Doug, I DO want to know what happened do that robot dog — and Boxy,too.
Lalunas
April 6, 2008 at 9:56 amAfter watching the season premiere. I have this theory of how the series will end. Ready… I think the will take the course to Earth and the paranoia of who is a Cylon becomes too great among the crew members, they will blow themselves up right before they get to Earth because they do not want to endanger the poor Earthlings with the Cylons. But one of then escapes this tragic mass suicide and makes it to Earth and that person is a Cylon. What do you think????