Cylons Are People Too
So much happened in last night's episode. It feels like all of the storylines are once again taking off. There was a lot to keep track of, but I'll try my best to remember it all.
Starbuck and Helo get lost in the Humvee, start getting shot at by none other than a tie-in to the original series. Now, I am too young to have seen TOS with all the Galactica purists, but the one episode I saw was when Starbuck or Apollo gets framed for killing someone after a match of pyramid. Now they meet a team, and Starbuck has a great scene of a little one-on-one. This shows that she is still the same Starbuck--still powerful, pushing past injuries. She is also still a woman, shown by that little smirk at the end.
The military officers going behind Tigh's back to get the President free was totally believable. It seems like they are good, honest people, and when the C.O. is cracking under the pressure and drinking on duty, making all kinds of bad calls (I will get to the vunerability of Tigh in a moment), then they do what is right, but are so incredibly careful not to get caught. From my second-hand experiences witht he modern-day military, this is vaguely what happens. Towards the end of the episode, Tigh shows his mental weakness to the physically weak Commander Adama. As a great leader and friend, Adama says, "we'll pick up the pieces together." Basically, command isn't easy, everyone is bound to screw up.
The Tryol and G-Boomer dynamic copied Helo and C-Boomer almost exactly. It starts out, "I hate you, you're a machine, you have no feelings, I feel loveand you don't." At the end of this episode (which was beautifully played out), Tyrol realizes that they aren't so different from one another. The visual of this, which is probably the best elements of the show so far, was that stream of blood running down the face to meet the pool on the deck. I did a little prodding around on the forums before writing this up, and most people (who, admittedly usually have nothing good to say about TNS, but their opinions are interesting) are saying that the blood was just a silly dramatic effect to rub in the whole "innocent prisoner" thing, drawing parallels to the Abu Ghraib scandal. Instead, I would say that the blood running down the face shows that Cylons are people, too. They bleed the same blood, feel the same kind of feelings, and want the same kinds of things. Sometimes they just go and try to assasinate someone or explode in the middle of a ship. We have already seen that C-Boomer can love Helo, but incase you missed that one, the Cylon programming can even be overcome by love. Baltar is killing the Chief, and under the pressure, G-Boomer is able to spurt out "Eight! There are eight!" There are eight Cylon agents in the fleet. It is a little unclear whether this includes the likes of Six, Leobon, and Doral, who have made appearances from time-to-time. I don't think it does, since Baltar was asking how many were in the fleet at that moment. He also specified agents, meaning human-form. there are eight in the fleet right now, which means that the other knowns make the number of agents equal 11. That means we have one unknown Cylon not in the fleet, and three or four unknowns in the fleet (I'm still not too sure about Dualla.)
Drip.
Starbuck and Helo get lost in the Humvee, start getting shot at by none other than a tie-in to the original series. Now, I am too young to have seen TOS with all the Galactica purists, but the one episode I saw was when Starbuck or Apollo gets framed for killing someone after a match of pyramid. Now they meet a team, and Starbuck has a great scene of a little one-on-one. This shows that she is still the same Starbuck--still powerful, pushing past injuries. She is also still a woman, shown by that little smirk at the end.
The military officers going behind Tigh's back to get the President free was totally believable. It seems like they are good, honest people, and when the C.O. is cracking under the pressure and drinking on duty, making all kinds of bad calls (I will get to the vunerability of Tigh in a moment), then they do what is right, but are so incredibly careful not to get caught. From my second-hand experiences witht he modern-day military, this is vaguely what happens. Towards the end of the episode, Tigh shows his mental weakness to the physically weak Commander Adama. As a great leader and friend, Adama says, "we'll pick up the pieces together." Basically, command isn't easy, everyone is bound to screw up.
The Tryol and G-Boomer dynamic copied Helo and C-Boomer almost exactly. It starts out, "I hate you, you're a machine, you have no feelings, I feel loveand you don't." At the end of this episode (which was beautifully played out), Tyrol realizes that they aren't so different from one another. The visual of this, which is probably the best elements of the show so far, was that stream of blood running down the face to meet the pool on the deck. I did a little prodding around on the forums before writing this up, and most people (who, admittedly usually have nothing good to say about TNS, but their opinions are interesting) are saying that the blood was just a silly dramatic effect to rub in the whole "innocent prisoner" thing, drawing parallels to the Abu Ghraib scandal. Instead, I would say that the blood running down the face shows that Cylons are people, too. They bleed the same blood, feel the same kind of feelings, and want the same kinds of things. Sometimes they just go and try to assasinate someone or explode in the middle of a ship. We have already seen that C-Boomer can love Helo, but incase you missed that one, the Cylon programming can even be overcome by love. Baltar is killing the Chief, and under the pressure, G-Boomer is able to spurt out "Eight! There are eight!" There are eight Cylon agents in the fleet. It is a little unclear whether this includes the likes of Six, Leobon, and Doral, who have made appearances from time-to-time. I don't think it does, since Baltar was asking how many were in the fleet at that moment. He also specified agents, meaning human-form. there are eight in the fleet right now, which means that the other knowns make the number of agents equal 11. That means we have one unknown Cylon not in the fleet, and three or four unknowns in the fleet (I'm still not too sure about Dualla.)
Drip.
posted by (and Ernie) at 9:25 AM
14 Comments:
The drop of blood came from Tyrol, didn't it?
I think it's fairly clear that whatever the case, he's probably not a Cylon.
Also, the number G-B yelled out may not hve anything to do with the actual number. It's been demonstrated that she's still completely "human" in attitudes and so on (with the exception of administering a couple of gut-shots to Adama), so she just made up a number to get Baltar to give the antidote. The expression on Baltar's face when he confirms the number show that he's nutty and willing to accept any number. Cylons also lie, if you want to go down that street.
The first drop of blood came from Tyrol, the one at the end came from G-Boomer.
I think that it would be a lot more powerful of a plot element to have the number be correct. Something along the lines of "love conquers all", even Cylon programming restrictions. If not, it just makes for a savage scene in which Baltar plays with poison.
Baltar being nutty is a strong motif in BSG.
But why would you have a whole dramatic scene dedicated to Baltar hopping around with poison and antidote, and then towards the end have him talk to Tyrol about the value of love, even with a Cylon? Certainly not just to have Baltar be able to tell Six that he loves her.
I concur with Lee breaking ranks again as being in character..... cylon character that is. Let's say he has a directive, a cylon directive he's unaware of, that says "don't let the prophecy get off course", rather than just "create occasional chaos" which I think I suggested before. I suspect the cylons want the prophecy to be fulfilled to a point... though I recognize that's inconsistent with the battle over the arrow in the Caprica museum from last season. That directive would be consistant with his actions.... maybe the cylons just wanted to hold up the arrow until Boomer's starchild is born. Just as Battlestar Boomer was unaware of her programming even after she committed the act, though she had dark thoughts... Lee is acting on his "dark thoughts" without realizing their source. Not that what he is doing is wrong, just the product of his programming.
Speaking of Boomer... I think everyone... including cylon rob (he's right though).... needs to go back to review the most excellent x-files episode Unusual Suspects from season 5 which goes back to depict the original meeting of the three Lone Gunman characters... and the pre-conspiracy-aware Muldar. They happen upon Susanne Modeski and start to help her. When the FCC guy, Byers, asks her what her name is in the cafeteria, she looks down at the table and says "Holly", he says "Just like the sugar" .... pointing to a package of Holly Sugar, but not getting the ruse.
In the jail cell.... Gaius is yelling.... " how many cylons in the fleet! Tell me now or chief dies! Only you can save him!" She keeps screaming she doesn't know. Gaius starts a countdown.... "10! Nine! It's your last chance! How many cylons!" Boomer gives one last desperate look, and yells "eight!".
She lied. The first number to come into her head was the next number in Gaius's sequence.... eight. She didn't know the answer any more than Lee would know. She had to save Chief's life. She dies knowing she is a cylon, only by her inexplicable (to her) actions, but feeling human until the end, and maybe believing that love was the only thing that really mattered.
We'll find out.... I suspect Six (I am not a prisoner! I am a Free Man! oh sorry) will softly reveal at some point.... "she didn't know.... how could she". The show does a good job of putting just a little more yelling in between Gaius' "nine" and Boomer's "eight"... her picking the next number in sequence is noticeable but not glaring.
The blood at the end also make's Six's point. I love the odd sounding complaint... she really get's peeved at the term toaster... but it can be hard to take it seriously... she's a machine. But they both bleed the same, and toaster is just an epitaph after all. Were they called toaster's in the original series? Well.... if not.... the term might have come from Alien Resurrection. After Winona Ryder is revealed to be an android, one of the other characters refers to her as a "toaster oven". hmmmmm.
That's pretty weak evidence for the case that Boomer was lying. Stronger evidence might be that, say, she can tell the Doctor would accept any number and gave a random one.
Also, the fact that Number Six didn't say she was lying may also be telling. If she had said the correct number, Number Six would have been on that like Tigh on alcohol.
Oh come on. IT'S EIGHT. IT'S EIGHT. All of the drama and the countdown are great. Remember the Baltar may know deep down how many there are too, because he is certainly one of the eight.
I don't know if I lean toward eight being the number of current Cylons in the fleet or the number counting Leoben, Doral, and Six. I prefer the Centurian, Raider, and Base Star being models. So that leaves Baltar, Boomer, Ellen, Dee?, and, of course Lee. I think we may know all but one. It depends on if Ron is keeping all of the secrets in plain sight like I think he is.
Baltar? A cylon? That makes sense. Obviously the whole point of a cylon/human baby isn't lost if both of the parents are cylons.
The current Baltar that was not blown away in the Nuke blast and has two people in his head is a Cylon. I kindof think that the baby is a child of the pre-war Baltar. This puts me in the same camp as Olmos who said anyone could be a Cylon. i.e. That some of these Cylons are copies of real humans. My strongest argument for this is obviously "Lee Adama is a Cylon"!!!
Baltar did have sex with Kara. Assuming that Baltar is a Cylon and Six is a roommate in his head, then any baby resulting from that affair could be considered Baltar and Six's child in addition to being a human-cylon love child. That works out well, no?
Now if Baltar was his first name, then Gaius would be a cylon... or some alien at least Baltar is obviously a space alien first name. Or it's a name when the alien species only use one name. It can also be a planet name... like Baltar 7. But Gaius isn't a planet.... therefore the only conclusion left is: he's human!
Besides his head is all wrong. And he doesn't purse his lips.
I think that the Baltar-Kara baby is possible, but not as likely as the mini-series rendevous between Baltar and solid Six. Six said all her memories and so forth are downloaded into a new body...so why not some genetic material? Baltar asked, "This is our baby--you're the mother and I'm the father." Six replied with a nod and a, "Yes." It's possible that somehow there was a spiritual something or another betweenst Baltar, Kara, and Starbuck, but something makes me doubt it...
I just love all the paranoia. I personally wager that every single human in the fleet is a Cylon and is just trying to keep the secret from the others. The evidence is all there. Each of them has escaped under coincedental circumstances from all the nuclear explosions, and all of the remaining ones have managed not to get killed by Cylons so far, which means the Cylons are leaving them alive because of camaraderie. Therefore, all humans in the fleet are actually Cylons.
Two things:
First, I agree that the matching shots of dripping blood, first from Tyrol, then from G-Boomer, were meant to convey basically that Cylons are peple too.
Second, and this is my real reason for writing, it seems increasingly obvious to me that Specialist Cally is a Cylon. The realization started with the Jack Ruby incident. If G-Boomer was off to be studied like a lab rat, it makes sense for Cylon-Cally to prevent the cylon secrets from being discovered. While chewing that over, I remembered Cally's reluctance to participate in Crashdown's attack on the Cylons. "I can't, I Can't" is all she could say. Why not attack the Cylons? Because she is one.
Contrary to the title of this fantastic blog, I don't believe Lee is a cylon. We know who his father is. Baltar probably is a cylon for reason previously discussed on this site. However in the end, I think the big joke is that Ellen, the most obvious Cylon, is really just an annoying human.
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