Battlestar Galactica 4x17

SPOILERS

A good episode, but Ron Moore is running out of time.

Confrontation with Cavil coming.
We're still behind the schedule I anticipated - I thought it would be

4x17 - battle with Cavil
4x18 - more battle with Cavil

Boomer revealed as possibly very bad lady. Cavil we already knew was a very bad robot.

Kara Thrace - chain with ring and dog tag...
where was she for two months?

Dreams of Her Father - Dreilide Thrace - was he Model 7 Daniel? Or was he one of the Others, the Puppet Masters... whomever is sending visions of angels. Ancients? Gods? Beings of Light? 14th Tribe?

My personal opinion continues that he was NOT Daniel.

Hera & Roslin connected
Hera & Starbuck connected
Hera & the First Five connected

See a common element?

Hera knows the song that called the Four... it wasn't completely clear if this was Kara's childhood song but was certainly implied.

In the (paraphrased) words of Ellen: someone is manipulating them all.

Also: Zak Adama is a Cylon.

UPDATE: I forgot to mention one good theme, the theme of loss... remember we're all going to lose Galactica soon. The ship slowly coming apart at the seams, Kara's loss of Sam and her father, the Cylons and Humans lost home, the loss of Hera... one of the things when you come to the end of a series is to try to recognize that loss, the end of our collective experience.

UPDATE #2: We had heard a long time ago about Cylon "projection", when Baltar was on the Baseship and was saying something about it being rather dull, one of them told him something like the Cylons just projected and imagined themselves walking through a forest. This was the first time we saw a Cylon project to another Cylon though. It was also clear that it didn't require physical contact - Tyrol and Boomer were separated by glass. That ability is reminiscent in kind, if not in extent, to the visions that Baltar has of Six and (possibly) the vision that Kara Thrace was having of her father. Is there a Ghost in the Machine? Are they seeing remote projections?

UPDATE 2009-02-28: I should mention that in the webisodes when the 8 was checking the Raptor's computers, she also referred to this as projection - and one can assume the baseship computer interface technology is similar.

foreshadowing

Kara Thrace: Ok, what the hell's going on? I'm off the ship for a few hours and...
Sam Anders: A few hours? Kara you were gone for over two months.

And the critical scene:



Lee Adama: Dad, what if Zak had come back to us in that viper? ... If my brother had climbed out of that cockpit... would it matter if he were a Cylon? If he always had been? When all's said and done, would that change how we really feel about him?
Bill Adama: (silence)

Battlestar Galactica - 4x01

Battlestar Galactica 4x16 - little good came of it

SPOILERS

Not much out of this badly written and rather wildly acted episode.

Baltar's angel likes big guns. Rather muscular monotheism, that.

Saul was... born... much like Zak... who gets a mention at the end of the episode.
Thanks Saul!

Sam Anders, one can speculate, had downloaded into Liam, and uploaded back into his own brain when Liam passed. Rather unexpected.

Cylon-Cylon babies apparently have a lovemeter and god help you if it is pointing at unloved.

Ellen, very calm and composed on the base ship, kinda freaky harridan back on Galactica.

And we got hammered over the head with blended this and blended that.
All shall be blended! Hera blend is the future!

Only four left. Hopefully they will be better than this one.

Kara Thrace, who are you, who who?

SPOILERS

SAM ANDERS in 4x15: "[we resurrected] on a ship that we placed in orbit around the planet [Earth]"... "organic memory transfer came from Kobol, along with the 13th tribe"

(Note he didn't say it was a Cylon-specific technology.)

Starbuck scenarios

1. (my preferred theory) Humans can be resurrected. There is a resurrection facility operating that resurrects anyone who dies on or near Earth. Kara died and was resurrected there, where someone (Zak?) wiped her memory and sent her on her way.
1a. As #1 except it's "humans who've had intimate contact with a Colonies-Cylon" (Zak)
1b. As #1 except it's "humans who've had intimate contact with a Kobol-Earth-Cylon" (Sam)
1b. As #1 except it's "humans who carry an ancient gene that enables resurrection"

2. Half Cylons can be resurrected. Kara is half-Cylon. Father - Cavil? Saul? Daniel??

3. Ship of Lights deus ex machina

robots with visions of angels

SPOILERS (as always)

I thought I should mention a very important part of Sam's revelations from 4x15, which passed so quickly that I actually missed this on my first viewing.

GALEN TYROL: "So, we knew the end was coming"

SAM ANDERS: "We'd been warned, yeah"

(later that day)

SAM ANDERS: "Back on Earth, the warning signs that we got, it looked different to each one of us - I saw a woman, Tori you saw a man... funny, no one, no one else could see them... Galen, you thought [unclear - possibly "you had a ship in your dream"] ... Saul stay with the fleet, it's all starting to happen, it's the miracle, right here, it's a gift from the angels"

This adds an entire new element, and points to a potential plot closure.
Baltar, we know, has been having visions of a Six from the very beginning.
Caprica Six, on at least one occasion, had visions of a Baltar.
And Kara had the dream/vision of visiting her mother, guided by a Leoben... who told her he wasn't Leoben.
AND Saul kept seeing Six as Ellen.

Men see women, women see men. Who do they see? Angels?

A few possibilities:
1. The gods (Zeus and the pantheon), from Kobol, are real.
2. The One True God
3. (Either 1 or 2 or someone else turns out to be) the creators of the "humans" on Kobol (i.e. all this has happened before...)
4. Some very advanced/enlighted people who survived the war on Kobol.
5. The Ship of Lights people (this would be pretty far out there)

Whomever they are, they have been sending visions for at least 2000 years, and it's possible they are the ones who resurrected Kara (although I think a more straightforward theory is more likely for Kara's resurrection).

As described in the Battlestar Wiki (from the original series):

The Beings of Light are a mysterious race that travel using the Ship of Lights. Called angels by the primitive people on Kobol, these creatures helped them develop the civilization that would become the Twelve Colonies (War of the Gods).

I've speculated on this before:

In case you're finding all the Galactica mysticism weird, be aware it's not new - I suggest you locate the only watchable episode of Galactica 1980,

"The Return of Starbuck"

As it happens, it was just on Space yesterday as well.
In it, Starbuck crashes alone on a desolate planet, and wonders whether he may have died and is in the afterlife. He finds a crashed Cylon ship and, bored with a lack of companionship, rebuilds a Cylon ("Cy") and befriends him (after he convinces the Cylon not to kill him). Eventually, the Cylon feels that Starbuck is bored with him, so the Cylon goes to find a wo-man for Starbuck. Rather surprisingly, he returns with a pregnant one. Cy says something like "I'm sorry if you don't like this one, there wasn't much selection". When Starbuck asks the woman where she comes from and how she got on the planet, she replies, "from another dimension, in the usual way". As a bonus, she informs Starbuck that she is carrying their "spiritual child". She also informs him that they must build a ship, because the Cylons are coming, and will bring Judgment Day with their arrival.

The child ends up being the incredibly annoying Galactica 1980 Dr. Zee, which is why I refer to New Galactica's hybrid baby Hera also as Dr. Zee.

from my posting "bg 3.04" - Sunday, October 22, 2006

And

The canonical set of classic Galactica glowy god-being episodes is

Galactica 1978 - 15 & 16 - War of the Gods

Galactica 1980 - 1x10 - The Return of Starbuck (the final episode of the old series)

Interesting geek sidebar: Buck Rogers also had glowy time lord guardians of forever people and a box full of Time.

BSG 4x1 - Sunday, April 06, 2008
(I can't believe they've been making us wait since last April to wrap this up.)

I've discussed the specific scenario of the visions coming from the gods before, S3 or S4:

S1. Most likely: In the nuclear explosion that killed Caprica Six as she was holding Baltar, her upload got mixed in and crossed over with his brainwaves
S2. Baltar vision Six is an implant or some other technology used by the Kobol-Earth Cylons to guide Baltar, as part of their Plan (putting him roughly in the same class as Kara and Galen)
S3. Angel sent by God / Demon sent by Forces of Evil
S4. I think fairly unlikely: Angel / vision sent by Glowing Ship Gods (see original Battlestar)

(If it does end up being some Ship of Light literal deus ex machina I will be disappointed.)

the Cylords of Kobol - December 23, 2008

And all of this ultimately comes back to the questions I posted in who is the puppet master? (April 28, 2008)

It's clear that on one level, Cavil is the puppet master.
But whose puppet is he? Is he doing the work of the devil, or of angels?
One of the scenarios I suggested

Lords of Kobol / glowing god ship people

We also still have the Hybrid's prophecy to consider, most of it has come to pass except

A dying leader will know the truth of the Opera House.

Galactica 4x06 - Tuesday, June 03, 2008

(Unless "the Opera House is a pile of rubble" is the truth, but that's certainly not what was implied by the visions that Roslyn was having.)

Battlestar Galactica 4x15 - in which much is revealed

MASSIVE EPIC SPOILERS

And much that was foreseen is true.

It goes something like this:
1. Human vs. Cylon war on Kobol
2. Kobol-Cylon vs. roboto Earth-Cylon war on Earth
3. "All this has happened before, all this will happen again"
4. Kobol-Earth Final Five Cylons are First Five, try to create a new race of humanoid Cylons that won't repeat their mistakes, based on a set of design decisions:
- rather than allowing full reproduction and diversity (as we saw on Earth), there are instead just 7 models, which embody different aspects of the human personality. This limited, balanced set of models will presumably be less likely to turn on one another, since they won't attack either their own models or their six fellow-models
- instead of violent gods of war and the rest of the pantheon, they give them a single, unifying religion of one god of love
- they program them to be unable to reproduce unless they feel true love

(from remembering the mysteries - February 8, 2009)

Other than the belief in God coming from the Centurions themselves, and an extra model, this is basically correct. Some details of reproduction are not clear.

(Also we now have a name for the Colonies-Cylons, generically "Centurions".)

We're slightly off schedule, but nevertheless, as predicted

4x15 - more about Resurrection and maybe we meet Earth Cylons (who are behind everything)

(from Battlestar Galactica 4x13 - January 30, 2009)

* Does Cavil know more about the Final Five and the history of the new Cylons than he's letting on? He is model #1, after all.

(from Battlestar Galactica 4x11 - January 17, 2009)
Speculation... correct.

Very, very early on in the show I had speculated whether it was all a bit "rats in a maze" - the Cylons allowing the fleet to progress, for their own reasons... this appears to also be basically true. It's all Cavil's elaborate revenge on his creators.

I think the remainders of the human race are just rats in a maze for the Cylons.

(from star of battle 2.8 - September 11, 2005)

So just to recap some of the Mysteries:

* What is the nature of the final five, what do they know? What have they been doing? Why are they important?

The final five worked together in a research facility to rediscover "organic resurrection technology" - a lost technology from Kobol. Saul and Ellen were together, Galen and whatshername (Tori?) were together, and then there was Sam. When Earth was destroyed, they resurrected in a ship near the Earth.

where is the Cylon infrastructure?

Presumably at the Secret Colony.

Is the Secret Colony also the Place of Resurrection? It's not clear.
Did the Five leave backup models of themselves, who are the puppet masters behind the behind the scenes? Or is the Place of Resurrection their old ship, still operating somewhere? Wherever it is, it's where Kara was resurrected, gently brain-wiped, and sent on her way.

Next up in the Place of Resurrection:
* Sam Anders

Possibly on the Resurrection lineup:
* Dualla (Dee)
* Zarek
* Gaeta

1 what the 5 have been doing for the last 2000 years

2 who "uplifted" the 12 Colonies Cylons to have humanoid bodies and a belief in One God (unless they uplifted themselves)
2a there is clearly SOME connection to the 5, what with Deanna's vision and the fighters recognizing Sam Anders - did the Five do the uplift? Are there Others?

3 what is the extent and nature of the remaining resurrection technology

(from Battlestar Galactica 4x11 - January 17, 2009)

1. on a very slow boat to the 12 Colonies, with a stop at the Temple of Hope to jigger it to reveal the 5.

Gosh, who could have predicted that. Oh wait, me. (I just had them going in the wrong direction.)

The more perfect union theory is something like: the first five Cylons have a plan to rebuild an integrated, peaceful society from the ashes of the split societies, unifying man and machine. They possibly went ahead to Earth, just in the last 50 years or so, stopping at the Temple of Jupiter along the way to rejigger it to reveal the Final Five, taking advantage of the existing mythology.

(from who is the puppet master - April 28, 2008)

2. & 2a. The Five did indeed do the uplift. Status of any Others (and Model 7) still unknown.
3. Possibly the original resurrection ship remains, possibly there are additional sekrit resurrection ships, and there's some technology at the Secret Colony.

New mystery: What's the deal with Model 7?

You know the answer.
There would be no reason to introduce an extra model this late in the game, except that...

ZAK ADAMA IS A CYLON

In case you're keeping track of models, that makes it

Known Cylon models
# 1 Number One (aka Brother Cavil) - "John"
# 2 Number Two (aka Leoben Conoy)
# 3 Number Three (aka D'Anna Biers)
# 4 Number Four (aka Simon)
# 5 Number Five (aka Aaron Doral)
# 6 Number Six (aka Caprica-Six/Head Six/Shelley Godfrey/Gina Inviere/Natalie)

# 8 Number Eight (aka Lt. Sharon "Boomer" Valerii/Lt. Sharon "Athena" Agathon)

Unknown Cylons
# 7 "Daniel" - ZAK ADAMA

That Model 7 gap was always there (see original list at who is the puppet master? - April 28, 2008) but its importance was not clear - I assumed it was one of the Earth Cylons who would be model 7.

Earth Cylons (no model numbers)
- Ellen
- Galen
- whatshername
- Sam
- Saul

Zak Adama awaits. In the meantime, you can read his Twitter.

PS John Hodgman? What the frak? I guess the Cylons run Windows. That explains a lot.

remembering the mysteries

Ron Moore has been busy distracting us from the core mysteries of the show, so let's remember them:

* What is the nature of the final five, what do they know? What have they been doing? Why are they important?
* What is the secret of the Opera House and Hera? How are Baltar and Six involved with the Opera House?
* How did Kara's ship explode in some sort of vortex in the middle of space, end up far away on Earth, and how did she return alive in a new ship?

The past couple episodes have been a deliberate focus away from these issues, to an extent that stretches credulity

- the final five is a big deal, and then all of a sudden everyone's all "oh, yeah, we know who they all are, probably they'll get thrown out an airlock, whatever".
- Athena kills a Six who merely bends down to talk to Hera, but is then fine with a different Six holding Hera as they're running around the ship in mortal danger
- One Will Be Revealed... and then it's Ellen and... no one cares? (Some of my fellow theorisers remain convinced it's NOT Ellen.)

So in the remaining six episodes, one would hope some of these issues get resolved.
I assume it is going to involve a whole lot of resurrection, a visit from Zak Adama, and Much Ado about various combinations of humans and Cylons having babies.

It goes something like this:
1. Human vs. Cylon war on Kobol
2. Kobol-Cylon vs. roboto Earth-Cylon war on Earth
3. "All this has happened before, all this will happen again"
4. Kobol-Earth Final Five Cylons are First Five, try to create a new race of humanoid Cylons that won't repeat their mistakes, based on a set of design decisions:
- rather than allowing full reproduction and diversity (as we saw on Earth), there are instead just 7 models, which embody different aspects of the human personality. This limited, balanced set of models will presumably be less likely to turn on one another, since they won't attack either their own models or their six fellow-models
- instead of violent gods of war and the rest of the pantheon, they give them a single, unifying religion of one god of love
- they program them to be unable to reproduce unless they feel true love

Unfortunately for the Kobol-Earth First/Final Five Plan

5. "All this has happened before, all this will happen again" so the 7 attack the colonies anyway
6. And then the Colonies Cylons break into civil warring factions anyway
7. So all that remains as the hope of stopping the cycle is to find a final peace between the Cylon factions, and reunify the three broken strands of human, Kobol-Cylon and Colonies-Cylon... and the children shall lead them.
8. This is important because resurrection can apply to anyone, so without peace, the future would instead just hold an endless battle of the resurrected.

Battlestar Galactica 4x14

SPOILERS

Not much going on, very dramatic, but mostly just more positioning.
To my surprise, neither the Admiral or the XO on the Resurrection Train, instead Zarek, Gaeta, and possibly Sam Anders have gone for a ride.

Was that imaginary Six that Baltar was talking to?

Notice Yet Another excuse (FTL chamber damage) for not going far from Earth (and the Place of Resurrection).

It was cool to see the FTL drive.
Zarek's interesting solution to democracy surprised me a bit too.

I'm not convinced about how often half of the fleet can start shooting the other half (and killing at least 50, by the population count) and then all make up and be chums.

Zak Adama is coming soon.
He told me in his Twitter.