Cylon Empathy

Now, obviously we are supposed to like Boomer. However, I find myself feeling sympathetic, even piteous for Six. Someone on one of the BSG forums said that last night's episode made them hate Six even more, but I like her more and more as the season goes on. Any thoughts on why this is?

Running Commentary on 203

I'm trying something new tonight...

We might see Prez go public this episode.
The funeral scene is good...nervous Crashdown, cool-headed Chief. I think Baltar is the one who will turn on the rest of them. Six and Kobol...why are their souls just going to oblivion? What is it about Kobol?
Love the smoking doctor...it's maybe a little cliche, but gives a little dimension to a completely minor character.
Billy, "Nobody put me there." (In the brig.) Brilliant.
Tigh is clueless. Dee and Lee (Cylons) are in control, know everything that is going on. Funny how Lee manages to keep a fair amount of power when he is on perole.
The President is hopped up on drugs and can't think straight. She is showing real human characterstics here. No way is she a Cylon.
Baltar is showing more signs of turning over to Cylons. Direct vengence of the Cylons...the children of the humans taking it from the parents. This anti-aircraft battery...Lee is leading the search and rescue mission against the battery. We'll see how this one goes.
Love the blank stares Tigh gets when he starts screaming that 90 minutes isn't good enough. Didn't he say that if there were survivors, they would have to wait? Funny that Dee, the communications officer "never was much of one for public speaking."
The governors are governing themselves. "All in favor?" I don't know why, but this strikes me as odd. What's with the pen in the water? Tigh will, "take their demand under advisement." He has no idea what he's doing. Plus, he's back on the drinkies again.
Ellen visits the Prez...she is the strong one, Prez is bumbling all over the place. She is going to get to the bottom of this I feel. Ellen has a way of finding out things. Maybe she'll expose her. The President better be freaking out about now. Beautiful little prayer snip.
Baltar's little foolish error. This is really gonna cost him. The centurions saw Gaius, but just walked away. Oh my...Callie gets more depth. For once, I think that Crashdown is right. It's crazy, but what else can they do? Let their buddies from Galactica get smashed to bits? Way to go Chief on bringing Gaius in line. Told you he'd turn. (And so what if that's the old Baltar character from TOS? It's his character!)
The guard is really good...so much depth on such a minor character.
Stinkin' little Ellen "Cylon" Tigh trying to sabatoge the school teacher's rep. During the attack, someone will turn. Okay...so Six is calling the Lords false gods, the Cylon god the only one. Humans have gone astray, the Cylons are cleansing them by hunting them down and killing resisting humans. Is the turning away on Kobol the reason why the Cylon god has turn his back on Kobol?
Oh boy, Billy got the Kamallah. President wins again.
Wow...so, it was Crashdown in the end. Wasn't he dating Callie? That's messed up. So...is Six saying you have to kill to be a man? He's a man, not a Cylon because he killed, because he crossed over into the evil barbarianism of backstabbing, the horrible human sacrificing that Gaius caught a glimpse of? You will have to be a man soon, meaning kill another human.
Hah! Great effect. I was totally convinced Chief blew up the Cylons for a second.
Ah...and here she goes, revealing it all. Now, if the Cylon god is the only one, how are these Scriptures correct? What is really the truth? I want to believe the Cylons, believe it or not.
Gaius atanding up for Crashdown...this is a little cliche, but I like the way Chief agreed. "Yeah, he was a hero. The end."
Taking a life.."Makes you human." "Is it." "Poetry, art, literature. Murder is my heritage." "Sh...it'll be alright Gaius. I'll be your conscience." Who wouldn't want Six as their conscience?
I think Tigh has a lot more to him than what I thought at first. (Great music here, by the way.) he has assumed command now, it seems. No more respect for the Commander's wishes. And then he takes a swig.

What a great episode....however...nothing on Caprica...a little disappointing, but I didn't notice until now.
In hindsight, Tigh really has no control over the ship. He is feigning power, but once the Commander wakes up....who knows what will happen. Right now the ship is controlled by the rest of the high-ranking officers. He's going to take the full force of the Colonials' dissatisfaction. Ellen's mission is probably to get Tigh more power, thereby screwing over the whole fleet.

And just so you all know, anyone can comment on this site. I'd love to hear what everyone has to say about the episodes and their own theories, but please don't leave any spoilers.

Dee

Now, there has been a little discussion about Gaeta being a Cylon due to his failures in communicating to the fleet the coordinates for the next jump (2.01). Who is the communications officer? Why, one Petty Officer Dualla, not the Tactical Officer Gaeta. During the mini-series, she was also a little Cylon-like in her ideas of reproduction (in layman's terms, she was obsessed with sex.) This seems to be a bit of a trend in the human-form Cylons community. Granted, the humans are also supposed to be breeding like bunny rabbits, but all we really see are the Cylons and the Cylon-elect. Now, this theory is incredibly sketchy, just an idea for now. Let me know what you think...

Comrade

Before I address the tense moment between a charging centurion and a frozen Apollo, let's fast-forward towards the end of the last episode. Two centurions are running down the hall to aft damage control. As soon as they see humans, they start firing like mad with total disregard for the casualties. Back to the beginning of the episode--one centurion is headed straight for Apollo at a dead run. He doesn't fire. Coincidence? Or just comeraderie....

More Comments...

"The child on kobol is not real yet, I think Baltar-Six's vision is showing him Boomer's baby post birth."

I believe this to be false. She said, "It's our child." Gaius responded by asking if it was their child, as in a child between Six and himself. ("So, you're the mother, I'm the father.") She answered with something along the lines of, "Yes, it is the child of you, Dr. Gaius Baltar, and myself, the number Six inside your head. She has not been born, but will be." I think there maybe are two children, but I am not too sure how number Six could be the mother, nor what significance a double-Cylon parented child would have in the story. I think this is one of those things we just have to wait and see on...

In Response to Your Comments...

"So do we count the "new bogey" as one of the twelve models or is it really a "new" model. "

This new bogey will be counted as one of the twelve models. I think this is a set number for all the models we will see in the show. It is, however, possible that the "Twelve" only refer to the human-form Cylons, seeing as it directly corresponds to the number of colonies as well as to that of the Lords of Kobol. ("Why do they call you Apollo? Apollo was a god..." "It's just my callsign.") If this is indeed the case, then we only know 7 of the 12, instead of 11. The twelve Cylon models representing the 12 Lords of Kobol would certainly make sense in relation to the repeating history bit. "This has all happened before and it will all happen again." It is interesting that all the Cylons who know they are Cylons worship one single god, perhaps because they are the new incarnation, so to speak, of the Lords of Kobol leading their people to a new land. This people would be the new Cylon-human hybrids that will be revealed this season with the coming of Gaius and Six's daughter, as well as Helo and Boomer's child. I am prepared to change my hypothesis to be that there are 12 human-form Cylon models. The more I think about it, the more it makes sense. Apollo obviously corresponds to the Lord Apollo, and I'm thinking Six represents Aphrodite (just a hunch...). I'll do a little research on who the other 10 Lords of Kobol are and try to match up the known Cylons. This might actually help in predicting the next few Cylon's identities based on their characters (or even nicknames, such as with Apollo).

"Where did the "12 model" printout come from? I always thought Baltar."

We aren't really sure where the prinout came from. Baltar is the "Cylon expert". Maybe it was from him, or maybe it was from some other Cylon source. I don't think that the source is nearly as important as the content.

"In "Scattered" (201), I felt there were hints toward Gaeta being a Cylon. I think this is false, but he may come under suspicion due to his BIG mistake."

I heard a rumor that Gaeta slipped "something" to Boomer before she shot the Commander in the season 1 finale. I think he was just congratulating her like everyone else. The trigger itself would not have come from Gaeta, but rather from the Commander himself. Interesting timing she had, wasn't it? Almost a revenge for killing her fellow Cylons. Or maybe it was just so we'd have suspense going into season 2. Either way, it was dramatic.

"I think most of Lee's actions could still be human reactions. When he boxes with his "dad" that hints at Cylon. That exchange is worth some discussion."

Good point. Commander says, "You have to lose control, follow your instincts." This could be seen many ways, but for now I'd like to see it as an invitation to be who he really is (which could be really dangerous, but Cylons do have more fun...) I thought it was interesting that in this same sequence the audience was fooled into thinking that the *ahem* interaction between Starbuck and Gaius was in fact between Lee and Starbuck. But wait...Apollo is already over here, boxing with Dad...another copy? Oh, no, it's just that other Cylon, Gaius.

As far as this goes...
"The other characters that reminded me of Lance Armstrong.... just a little, were all cylons. It's not the faces exactly.... it's the shape of their heads. I think that the actors playing cylons were all selected in part to have a specific head profile... like if you turn out the lights you would have difficulty telling them apart. Same with Lee. "

Something makes me think that the Cylons would not be limited to one certain head shape. I think the creation and copying process is a bit more sophisticated than a one-size-fits-all mold. Although this Lance Armstrong thing does raise interesting questions...could the creators of Battlestar be indirectly accusing the real Lance Armstrong of being more than a human? Could they indeed be accusing him of being a well-developed android? Has this been the secret to his sucess all along??

We Have a New Bogey

During tonight's episode, a new machine-style Cylon was introduced. This appears to be a troop transport to take Centurions (and possibly human form Cylons) onto Colonial ships. This is extremely hard to combat, as evident by Apollo's, "Almost had 'im."

The Premiere

Less than 15 minutes from now marks the next season and entourage of storylines in Battlestar Galactica. Watch out for tell-tale signs of Cylon behavior, especially in Lee and Gaius, and most importantly, enjoy!

He "Thought of Something"

Have you noticed that Boomer has intuitions that are strongly connected to her Cylon status? For instance, I just rewatched the scene in "Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part 2" where she lands in the Base Star, and one line caught my attention. Concerning docking in the Base Star, she says, "It will work. I just know it."

In "The Hand of God", Apollo is in an attack force of Vipers. Everyone else around him is getting slaughtered. He is one of two or three Vipers that survives the initial Cylon defenses. What does he do? He "thinks of something". He finds a hole in the Cylon defenses, slips in there, and bombs the whole place to smithereens. Oh, and by the way, Gaius had a similar "lucky guess" when he pointed out the place to bomb. The Cylon expert was right, but how was his hand just lead to that exact spot? He has a really specially dynamic with Six and with his own self-confidence, which I will get into later.

The New Season

One week from now is the premiere of the new season of Battlestar Galactica. With more characters coming on board and old favorites undergoing dramatic changes, we all look forward to an exciting bout of episodes.