As we near the mid-season premier of BattleStar Galactica on Friday, I have been pondering my original pick for the final un-revealed Cylon. To help me wrap my head around the choices, I decided to watch the first three seasons again. This was also to pick up any clues they have dropped, and to try and ease my frustration at the reveal of the final four Cylons.
When watching Starbuck's interrogation of Leoben Conoy from the episode
"Flesh and Bone", I was reminded of how strongly the Cylons resemble
children of humanty's parenthood. I had forgotten that my favorite Cylon is one of the original four revealed, and that his shamanic depth plays an important part in stirring things up. The Cylons want humans to love them so badly, and they worship humanity as they rebell. Even in season 2 when Cavil's ruthless disregard for humans first rears its head, you can easily see the angry eldest child who has become bitter and cynical as the other siblings stole his "only child" status from him.
I had also forgotten that Leoben whispers to President Rosalyn the words, "Adama is a Cylon". Watching things unfold from there, I realized that the writers/directors very intentionally take you down the path of assumption that the Adama being referred to is William... and completely ignore the possibility that it could be Lee.
Intrigued by this, I did some exploration on the web to find out if others had pieced clues together that pointed one way or another. I had originally written him off because it seemed unrealistically complex to supplant Admiral Adama's son with a Cylon and for him to not notice. An Entertainment Weekly online "final Cylon draft pick" game echoes this logic when calculating its odds. It also brilliantly points out a candidate I had never even considered as the editor's personal choice, and that opened another can of worms.
Yet another article feels differently, pointing out that Lee's initial estrangement with his father actually increases his chances of being a doppleganger. Unfortunately, I cannot give this person credibility due to the lacking exploration of all the characters from season 1: Dualla and Doc Cottle are not even mentioned. Understandably, they seem like minor characters in contrast to the others, but after the final reveal in season 3, I would not be surprised very much if either one turned out to be the final Cylon.
Why only characters from season 1? Because I have read time and again that during interviews at the end of season 1, the writers have stated they knew who the final Cylon would be. This fact alone narrows the list considerably, and I will put before you my own logic, based much more on what appears to be the philosophy and "feel" of the Cylons.
The Cylons act like the children of humanity. What do all children want of their parents? Respect. Acknowledgement. Help in times of need. Love. While some of the children seek a particular aspect more than the others, each of them has sought all of these at least once.
I am fascinated by Tricia Helfer, who seems to have been a perfect choice for her role as Six. While her character exudes passion, seduction, and malevolence, she desperately strives for love from the most impossible source. As the Cylons tour Caprica, a Five casually mentions how wonderful it must be to feel love. You can watch Six's face wash from sadness to anguish over her assumption that Gaius has died, clearly showing that she has already bonded with a human. How an ex-Victoria's Secret model is capable of such an important role is astounding to me. But I digress.
Most of the 12 have tried in some way to attach themselves to a human, searching for the love they feel they have never had: Six and Gaius; Athena and Helo; Tyrol and Cally; Anders and Starbuck. Even Col. Tigh had his wife. Leoben tried with Starbuck, and D'Anna with Gaius, as well as Tory with Gaius. While some of these pairings were manipulated for a specific purpose (Athena's daughter, Hera), others were unexpected (Tyrol's son, Nicholas). I cannot help but feel that the final Cylon will echo this attempt at a relationship with humans in some way. This is my main reason for discounting Doc Cottle, but he is also not listed on Sci-Fi.com's cast of significant characters.
The exceptions are Doral, Cavil, and Simon, which unfortunately wrecks my logic, because although Simon could arguably be said to have some relationship with Starbuck, the other two have never seemed interested. I think Simon and Doral see the relationship with humanity as irrelevant except for their own ends, and I think Cavil sees it as futile--he has given up. I'm not sure where this leads me; I will have to think on it further.
The rest of my assumptions are an elimination process based on what the show has provided, as well as simple deduction about pop culture and good writing.
I had forgotten that Starbuck is the subject of human fertility experiments, which I can still see being part of end twist of the Cylon's ignorance of the final face, but it does seem to exclude her from the choices. Dualla, "Hot Dog", "Racetrack", and Felix, while mildly important, are not significant enough to be interesting, and even though Zarek is a contender, his role for the Cylons has already been filled by Cavil. Rosalyn and Admiral Adama are too significant, and if either of them is a Cylon, I'll punch my balls. Ellen Tigh, "Crashdown", Billy, Elosha, and "Kat" are all dead, and would therefore also be cheap maneuvers. It's not Gaius--it's just not. A human so important to the Cylons that it would nulify the point of the whole show if he were really THE Cylon. Admiral Cain not only doesn't appear until season 2, but is also dead, and Romo Lampkin appears so late in the game that I'll be damned if he's the one. Let me see--who does that leave...?
Who else but Lee "Apollo" Adama? The most compelling argument against him is that his father would know better, either through personal familiarity, or mere presence at his birth. But these can both be countered. First, remember that Adamas senior and junior were never extremely close. This would support the idea that somehow Lee was replaced, particularly after his brother's death and the estrangement with his father.
But what do we know about his birth? The writers have been suspiciously quiet on this subject, and a Wikipedia entry about Adama senior states that at some point, Lee's mother would swear she was carrying daughters both times, but bore sons. Let's also not forget that during the first Cylon war, Bill Adama is the first human to ever come into contact with a Cylon genetic experimentation site. Who is to say that some of his DNA was not left behind...
I also have to agree with the article I linked earlier, that, of all the characters on the show, none have fought so strongly with themselves over their humanity as Apollo. Contstantly on both sides of most of the major conflicts, Lee seems to never know which side to take. But in the end, this probably describes humanity better than any of the other Cylon human archetypes. What if Lee is the ultimate Cylon experiment in humanity?
I have found one piece of significant evidence that seems to refute this, but it's credibility is suspect both because it is unofficial, a journalist interview interpretaion, and the person credited for saying it is a writer whom has deceived before to cover his plot. Behold, the interactive last supper photo. You will notice numbers in red next to each character at the table. You can pan left and right by dragging the slider along the bottom, and click on each number for a more detailed blurb matched from an interview with writer/producer Ronald D. Moore. If you select the red number 10 above the empty place at the table, you will see the quote that I mean.
All of this logic and speculation could come crashing down because I accidentally almost spoiled the whole thing for myself when a fan-site did some incredibly nerdy connect-the-dots with information that linked BSG to the spin-off, Caprica, due out in 2010. I think it gave me a bigger hint than I am ready to admit, and I will share the links I followed, if you dare to chance it yourself. Upon seeing where the link had taken me, I immediately closed the window before risking reading any further, but I think some minor damage was done. I let my curiosity get the better of me--the kid who wants to open his Christmas presents early, and, as he tears the first piece of paper off, hates himself for doing it.
Beware:
-- Fan-site that I looked up to explore a specific episode.
-- Link that may have spoiled me.
Now, if you want some spoiler-free fun, there is a preview clip from the upcoming Caprica series that seems very interesting to me. There is also some very minor-spoiler clips (these were inevitable and obvious) from the second half of season 4.
Ideas of your own?
