Software Development

Let's name some of the characters.

Lee Apollo Adama
William Adama
Kara Starbuck Thrace
Anastasia Dualla
Felix Gaeta
Samuel Anders
Chief Galen Tyrol
Colonel Saul Tigh
Laura Roslin
Gaius Baltar
Karl Helo Agathon
Tory Foster
Cally (dead, killed by Tory Foster)
Alex Crashdown Quartararo (dead, shot by Baltar)
Tom Zarek
Ellen Tigh (dead, poisoned by Colonel Tigh)
Admiral Cain (dead, killed by Gina Six)
'Doc' Cottle
Priestess Elosha (dead, killed by Cylon mine)
Louanne 'Kat' Katraine (dead, dies of radiation at the algae planet)
Racetrack
Hot Dog
Diana Seelix ("Hardball")
Kendra Shaw (dead, setting of nuke aboard Cylon base ship)
Jean Barolay (dead, killed by Six when Starbuck goes to see the Hybrid with Leoben)
Boxey (unknown location, is son of officer who was killed at Armistice station)
Romo Lampkin
Dodona Selloi (oracle that tells D'Anna that Hera is alive)
Hera Agathon
McManus (radio host)
Nicholas Tyrol
Billy Keikeya (Roslin's assistant early on, dead)
Hoshi
Hybrid
First Hybrid
Centurion
Raider
Number One (Cavil)
Number Two (Leoben)
Number Three (D'Anna)
Number Four (Simon)
Number Five (Doral)
Number Six
Number Eight
Sharon Agathon
Boomer


Who is the final Cylon?

We'll dispense with the actual 7 Cylon models, although individual characters could still be in contention like Sharon, Boomer and Natalie if there are twin models.

Number One OUT!
Number Two OUT!
Number Three OUT!
Number Four OUT!
Number Five OUT!
Number Six OUT!
Number Eight OUT!

We are also told by Moore that the hybrids are more like Model 0. So we'll count these out.

First Hybrid OUT!
Hybrid OUT!

We also leave out the four known final five Cylons.

Samuel Anders OUT!
Chief Galen Tyrol OUT!
Colonel Saul Tigh OUT!
Tory Foster OUT!

Next, we know that D'Anna says there are FOUR Cylons in the fleet. So we can look at the videos and see who is on the Battlestar Galactica and in the fleet when D'Anna comes back to the Galactica. First, Adama comes back so we'll count him out because D'Anna would not give up any of the final five.

William Adama OUT!
Lee Adama OUT!
Starbuck OUT!
Anastasia Dualla OUT!
Felix Gaeta OUT!
Zarek OUT!
McManus OUT!
Romo OUT!
Racetrack OUT!
Skulls OUT! (Not sure who he is, but he's not F5).
Cottle OUT!
Athena OUT!
Hera Agathon OUT!
Nicholas Tyrol OUT!
Hoshi OUT!


On baseship or Cylon ship
Baltar
Roslin
Helo
Seelix ("Hardball")
Hotdog
D'Anna
Boomer


It should be said that Anders thinks it's Gaeta because HE SINGS!!!

Who does that leave?

Laura Roslin
Gaius Baltar
Karl Helo Agathon
Cally (dead, killed by Tory Foster)
Alex Crashdown Quartararo (dead, shot by Baltar)
Ellen Tigh (dead, poisoned by Colonel Tigh)
Admiral Cain (dead, killed by Gina Six)
Priestess Elosha (dead, killed by Cylon mine)
Louanne 'Kat' Katraine (dead, dies of radiation at the algae planet)
Hot Dog
Diana Seelix ("Hardball")
Kendra Shaw (dead, setting of nuke aboard Cylon base ship)
Jean Barolay (dead, killed by Six when Starbuck goes to see the Hybrid with Leoben)
Boxey (unknown location, is son of officer who was killed at Armistice station)
Dodona Selloi (oracle that tells D'Anna that Hera is alive)
Billy Keikeya (Roslin's assistant early on, dead)
Centurion
Raider
Boomer
Natalie

Most of these are dead. Let's just see who is still alive. It might be possible that the final five may resurrect, but I'm guessing all Cylons would know about it by now.

Laura Roslin
Gaius Baltar
Karl Helo Agathon
Hot Dog
Diana Seelix ("Hardball")
Boxey (unknown location, is son of officer who was killed at Armistice station)
Dodona Selloi (oracle that tells D'Anna that Hera is alive)
Centurion
Raider
Boomer
Natalie

I think the last Cylon is one of these. Natalie and Boomer are unlikely though not impossible. Natalie died, but before the hub was destroyed. The way they could be the final Cylon is if one of them looks like one of the existing models but is actually different. I find this highly unlikely, but it's still a possibility.

Another clue as to how we could detect who is NOT a Cylon is the fact that they will not harm their own. At least since activation. Anders would not harm the Raiders and vice versa. Tigh stopped the attack on the base ship. There are no raiders left, so it had to have been because of Anders. Anders shot Gaeta, so that's another reason I don't think it's him. But Anders is torn over it, especially once he heard Gaeta sing. Also, Tory flushed Cally out the airlock. So that leaves Cally out for sure too. And Chief actually hit Cally, though this was before he was triggered. Tigh poisoned Ellen, so Ellen is out for sure too.

I think the main point about Anders freezing when encountering the Raiders is that the final five are not any of the viper pilots. So I’m going to lean toward removing all viper pilots later on.

None of this helps us though unless the Raiders are the final Cylon. I don't see how Raiders can wear a robe in the visions. I hope it's not one of those metaphorical things. That would suck.

One time, the Chief wanted to kill Baltar by chocking him, but didn't go through with it. Is it Baltar?

Well, we have the visions of the Opera House. Who do we see there? We see Sharon Agathon, Hera, Roslin, Baltar and Six. The final five are INSIDE the Opera House. This is not definitive, but it's as good a theory as any. So we'll take those people out that are OUTSIDE. This also fits in with what Moore said that no main characters would be the final Cylon.

Roslin OUT!
Baltar OUT!

We're left with:

Karl Helo Agathon
Hot Dog
Diana Seelix ("Hardball")
Boxey (unknown location, is son of officer who was killed at Armistice station)
Dodona Selloi (oracle that tells D'Anna that Hera is alive)
Centurion
Raider
Boomer
Natalie

Seelix is actually a good choice because Moore said the final Cylon has been around at least since the end of season 1. That's exactly when Seelix came into the picture.

Don't know much about Hot Dog.

Helo is a very good choice because he actually cries when the hub is destroyed. He paused before they left the hub and sees all the inactive humanoid Cylons. And he once killed the infected Cylons before they were in range of the resurrection ship, thus saving the entire Cylon race.

Boxey is unlikely. Only a few episodes and most viewers have no clue who he is. Reviving him as the last Cylon would be "HUH?" It'd be stupid.

Dodona Selloi did tell D'Anna that Hera is alive. Very strange. But I don't think we've seen much of her either.

The last four choices are Cylons already.

The centurion being the last Cylon would be cool because it would return the series back to who this is all about. It's always been about those centurions. If the centurions didn't exist, the humans would have won the second war. Heck, there would have been no second war at all without the centurions.

Raiders are actually a good choice for the final Cylon. They do not harm other final five Cylons and would be consistent with what we know of the final five. My biggest problem with this is that they don't fit inside the Opera House. There is yet another possibility though. That the centurions and raiders are the same model and they've been taken from their humanoid bodies and placed into the centurions and raiders. That would mean that there could exist a humanoid copy somewhere. Heck, all five final Cylons could be based from this same model.

Boomer is a valid choice simply because Tigh said he woke up just like Boomer. And Hera Agathon could tell the difference between Boomer and Sharon Agathon. Could the baby tell the difference between Sharon and the other Eights though? That, I'd like to know. Two Cylon models that look identical? Twin Cylon models? Could happen? Could explain why there's only a Model 8 and not a 7.

Natalie is dead, but would have resurrected on the hub unless the remainder of her line has been boxed too. Did she escape? What troubles me is that this Natalie looks quite different than the one in the final supper picture.

I'm going to remove Boomer and Natalie because they are already Cylons. Having them come out as twin models would be boring. There's nothing there that would change the story. It certainly wouldn't be shocking. I'm taking out Boxey and Dodona because they simply would have ZERO impact. Let's also remove the Centurions and the Raiders. We'll assume that all Cylons are humanoid models. Maybe one model got used for the raiders and centurions, but there has to be a humanoid copy around.

This narrows it to:

Karl Helo Agathon
Hot Dog
Diana Seelix ("Hardball")

People talk about the final supper picture. That would exclude Helo if you go with what Moore has said. But I think that is misdirection. Anyways, let's go with what Moore has said for now.

Hot Dog
Diana Seelix ("Hardball")

We'd almost be guaranteed it's Seelix.

Only one problem. Hot Dog and Seelix fought against Cavil's lobotomized raiders when destroying the hub. If they were the final five, I think they would have still been frozen when confronting raiders. And who's the one that did not fight? Helo.

So how could it be Helo if we take the final supper picture into consideration?

We know that there’s a final five Cylon missing from that picture. It's Tory. So is there TWO final five Cylons missing? NO! Moore said that the final Cylon was missing, not the last two final Cylons. Tory is who Moore was talking about. And if you look at what he said, it makes sense.

So I'm putting my money on Helo. I hate that character. I hope they airlock him. And that virus mission really was a betrayal of the human race. Betrayal has always been at the root of what it is to be Cylon, especially with the switching on and breaking the peace treaty.

Think about it though. It would mean that Hera Agathon is 100% Cylon. It would also explain why Chief loved Boomer, but even went so far as to beat up Cally. No one pays attention to Nick. Why not? Should he not be just as important? This would explain it.

If Helo is the final five Cylon, then what does that make Hera? It makes her the thirteenth. And Tigh and Six's baby would be the fourteenth.

Why is this important?

Hybrid: The missing Three will give you the Five who come from the home of the Thirteenth.

This could change the meaning of the home of the thirteenth. If the thirteenth is Hera, then her home is Galactica. So the hybrid is saying that the five come from Galactica. IOW, the hybrid never said they come from Earth.

I think what this series is going to do is that the Cylons will create the next generation of humans. Hera and Six's child. Maybe even have some hybrid's in there like Nick.

But in the end, all humans of the old generation die except maybe Baltar. That's Moore's style. I wouldn't even put it past him to present the Cylon God who had this planned from the beginning. That each time through the cycle of time, humanity gets closer to perfection. Why do I think Moore would do something like this? Because he did it with Deep Space 9. That was one of the most horrible endings in sci-fi history. Nay, of ALL of television history except for maybe the Sopranos ending. And guess what? Moore loves the Sopranos ending.

The Sopranos ending was not original or even clever. It was a copout. It was basically cancelling your own show at the last minute, but a VOLUNTARY cancelling. It's a betrayal of viewer trust, exactly the trait that makes the Cylons so hated. Something like buying a book with the last chapter ripped out. If viewers wanted 100% imagination, we wouldn't be watching TV or reading books. We'd be writing our own stories.

I once thought that the Sopranos ending was the Schrödinger’s cat ending. Where the ending is in both states at once. Where Tony is both dead and alive at the same time and it’s up to the viewer to decide. While this is ridiculously devoid of courage, it's still an inaccurate description of the Sopranos ending. It isn't brave because the writers chose to give up. How many writers have been challenged on how to finish up a series? It's easy to just leave it up to the imagination of the viewers. That's the easy way out. But the viewers want insight. They already have their own imagination. They want to compare with someone else's. They want to see what the writers think. What ending they're willing to invest in. They want to see what you come up with so that they can reassess their own thoughts. No one will need to go back as it is now. With no conclusion, the entire series is devoid of meaning or significance. But that was true after the first couple seasons.

No, the truth about the Sopranos ending is that it was the Planet of the Apes ending, except without the Apes. Why was it the Planet of the Apes ending? Because it was the nonsensical ending. It was the implausible ending. Would it have made sense to have Tony live? Sure. Would it have made sense to have Tony die? Absolutely. So the writers went purely for the shock factor. Bring forth the Planet of the Apes ending. But the Planet of the Apes at least had a basis for that ending. The entire story was about turning our preconceptions upside down. Not so with the Sopranos. So the black screen at the end really didn't make any sense other than to tell the world that the writers were lazy.

What does that have to do with BSG? Everything. We have someone like Moore that has had absolutely no problem destroying DS9 and loved the Sopranos ending. The supernatural ending was atrocious, but Moore thought it appropriate. BSG is riddled with notions of Gods and higher powers and plans. Will there be yet another higher power that saves the day at the cost of certain individuals? Most likely. Maybe the Cylon leader or something like that. The First Hybrid did say his children consider him a god.

I liked BSG the first couple seasons, but season 3 and 4 remind me too much of DS9 (with an extra flair for the soap opera genre). Two sides. Good vs. evil. In the end, they must work together to survive. At the very end, it's still not enough. So the higher power must come into play and save the day.

I really hope that's not what is going on, but BSG has followed the DS9 script thus far, only with more details. It's almost as if Moore wanted to tell this story all along in DS9, but never really had the chance. This time around, he can include many more details. Many more questions about humanity. Take Kara Thrace. People are wondering if she's human, Cylon, or something else. I think Moore wants us to ask what is it to be human? What are those qualities? What is the real difference between Cylon and human?

From The Hub:

Three (D'Anna): And with a whimper, every Cylon in the universe begins to die.

Eight: Yes, that's right. And it's a good thing, D'Anna. Because now there's no difference. We can all start trusting each other.

The purpose of sci-fi is indeed to find out more about humanity. But it's also about what the writers think the future will be like. Or what universes their imaginations can come up with because we can often put those ideas to real use. It's also about puzzles. The Cylon puzzle may have overshadowed Moore's real objective. Essentially, what makes humanity deserving of existence?

Humans love to solve things. We like to build things. And yes, we also get joy out of destroying things. All these things have rewards. I fear that BSG may not offer much in the way of rewards when all is said and done.

I'll give Moore this though. The Colonials did find Earth and Moore chose how he wanted to present it. Early on, he said that the Colonials would never reach Earth. Could he change his mind? Is this really Earth? Who knows? It seems like it. At least for now, a choice has been made as to what Earth is like and that's a good thing. But as of yet, there is still no reward. The Colonials don't win anything.

Until the Colonials actually win something significant, there is no reward. And I fear that Moore will once again break the viewers' trust. That maybe some colonials survive, but that the main characters that we've invested time into will be taken away. Perhaps Moore likes the irony that the viewers will suffer just like those on the Galactica upon seeing the characters they've connected with be taken away.

All in all, having taken the time to write all this, the BSG saga has captured my attention. And that's why it's all the more important that Moore not betray our trust. I'll leave with this.

A friend once told me (well before BSG) that you shouldn't be angry at people who tell you up front that they don't like you and will work against you. At least you know their true nature. The really evil ones are the people that earn your trust over the course of a very long time and then suddenly turn on you. Those are the ones you have to watch out for.

Moore, don't be the second one. Don't be a Cylon.