Who Is ‘The Last Cylon’ On Battlestar Galactica?

thanatos says:

The Doctor is the last Cylon.
He controls Roslyn’s cancer.
He gave Cally the psychotropics.
He faked Hera’s death.
Presumably, he attended Nicholas’ birth.

Panda says:

Ok, now I’m cross-eyed…

populate Earth (the new Kobol) -> exedus to 12 colonies -> colonies destroyed, fleet searches for “Earth” (which becomes the next Kobol) -> cycle repeats

where does the old Kobol fit in as a marker to Earth? How is the legend of ‘Earth’ as the 13th tribe created in each cycle?

so far in the show, the following items (fromthe top of my head) have been clues to Earth:

Arrow of Apollo
Temple on Kobol
Eye of Jupiter on the algea planet
Supernova in the algea solar system
Starbuck

So who created these and for what purpose? Are they “recycled” during each cycle or newly created each time?

Duh says:

Duh,
Since Baltar was vaporized in the first episode and was running in a field 10 minutes later, I kinda think it’s him.

kingyubba says:

it’s the Doc.

in the season 3 boxing episode, they tell him to stop Adama’s bleeding and he gets pissed and says “Christ!”…. the colonists don’t believe in Christ. aha! Cylon!

rhialto says:

This theory is nonsensical on a number of levels.

First of all Cylons can’t breed among their own, so they can’t become humanity somehow.

Then this theory has no explanation for the the Gods, the Temple of the Five, the Opera House and just about any of the plot or prophecy or semi-supernatural elements that have been intrinsic to the series so far.

The final Cylon is probably either Doc or Zarek. It sure as hell isn’t Baltar as that was the whole point of his journey among the Cylons and his torture scene.

I wouldn’t be surprised if there is a cycle and it has some kind of possible mundane explanation like the one in this theory, but this theory itself is poorly constructed and explains pretty much none of the big questions.

Panda says:

rhialto-

Bruce’s point is that the population is made up of human and Cylon mixes, not entirely of Cylons. That said however, I don’t think the show ever stated the Cylons can’t breed on their own, it is only implied.

The 3 I am certain are excluded from being the final Cylon, all because they have each been hinted at possibly being Cylons way to many times:

Kara
Roslin
Baltar

Dar says:

Great concept. Even if you are wrong I bet the writer will smack their collective foreheads and think “damn, we should have thought of that!”

Panda says:

“They could change it, but they’ve outright said the Cylons can’t breed amongst themselves.”

I know they said once that they haven’t been successful, and maybe they were missing love. It’s inmaterial anyway. the Leobon model and 6 have each tried to experience love in different ways, which could also come into play.

The half-breeds (instead of ‘hybrid’ since that is an actual character on the show) are what is the key, allegedly.

We haven’t brought up Kara’s daughter either. The half-breed clan is already 3 children thick.

Commenting on an earlier post, the four of the final five and possibly the fifth are different somehow, we don’t know yet. What if they were older models from previous generations? I don’t know, just following Bruce’s lead.

Maybe the 5 were models from previous generations, living within the Colonies for thousands of years. Not sure how they wouldn’t be bred out, just thinking. The original 7 were made by the Cylons in this generation (hence the resurrection ships for them only) and would also explain why they don’t know who the other five are.

Again, doesn’t make sense, just trying to keep the discussion going. I love this thread!

radii says:

ROSLIN

They’ve foreshadowed her twice. She heard/felt something in her head once in the brig and again at the end of Season 3 when they came to the nebula – BEFORE Cylon attacks. She’s shown no other indication of being psychic, so she must have some
connection to the Cylons. And the visions! Hello!!!

Ron Moore is crazy if the final Cylon is not in the Last Supper image.

Only Baltar has the heft to be the final Cylon if it is not Roslin.

Why would it be someone like Gaeta or Dualla or Romo?

And Kara – too obvious and uninteresting a choice.

Since Moore liked the terrible ending to the Sopranos I fear the worst – that he will come up with some insufferably pretentious ending.

http://www.galacticavariants.blogspot.com

Joshua says:

I think Jarak nailed it. Reversing the BSG image makes all the difference in the world. I’ve done some reading and while there are some problems, overall its a very attractive theory.

da Vinci’s Last Supper from left to right:
Bartholomew
James the Lesser
Andrew
Judas
Simon Peter
John
Jesus
Thomas
James the Greater
Philip
Matthew
Jude
Simon

All of these people are also saints, but I’m not familiar (at all) with Catholic tradition, but I would bet there would be many more references via the stories around their sainthood or miracles done in their name. So if I don’t reference a particular apostle’s sainthood, there might be more data to mine out there.

Bartholomew/Adm. Adama :: Friend of Philip and almost always mentioned together. Is associated, therefore, with Nathaniel. Jesus said of him, “an Israelite indeed, in whom is no deceit.” Bartholomew is likely to be his family name, as it is theorized that his real given name was also Jesus. Martyred by being flayed alive and crucified head down. This is a problem as he is depicted in art (generally) with a knife (see Tyrol).

James the Lesser/Helo :: Wikipedia concerns itself mainly with who exactly this James is in relationship to the other James’ of the gospels. This James “strongly” clung to Jewish law but was sentenced to death for having violated the Torah. Highly unlikely given the way he died (by crucifixion). It’s also a possibility that this James was the brother of Christ (he was always referred to in connection with his mother Mary, and had a brother Joseph).

Andrew/Sharon :: Brother to Simon Peter (Anders, in this theory). There is a lot of information on Andrew as he’s one of the more popular apostles, being mentioned in the Gospels quite often, probably because of his closeness with Christ. He knew Christ was the Messiah the moment he laid eyes on him. Crucified on an X-shaped cross.

Judas/Tyrol :: I think this works as well as with Bartholomew… The knife. Knife in the back. Betrayal of Christ. Seemed more symbolic to me than Bartholomew being flayed alive. More contemporary to me with the allusion of a knife to the back. There’s not much to be said about Judas that people don’t already know. He betrayed Christ to the Sanhedrin. Hung himself.

Simon Peter/Anders :: Simon Peter is probably the most famous apostle as many (particuarly new) Christians identify with Peter. He was the most faithful or at least had a tremendous child-like faith in Christ. He was the only one identified in the Bible as being armed. He walked on water with Jesus (until he looked down and doubted, then he fell in). He was the first to identify Christ as the living God, and Jesus therefore told him that he would be named Peter, the Rock upon which the Church would be built. He attacked a soldier who came to imprison Jesus (and Jesus healed the soldier). And he was the one who denied Christ three times before the end of the night. Crucified upside-down.

John/Starbuck :: John was brother to James (Apollo) and was the youngest apostle. He is mainly referred to as “the apostle whom Christ loved most”. He would lay his head on Jesus’ chest and sleep. Scholars believe that all the Johns of the New Testament are quite probably different people, while Christians believe they are all one person. If we’re being Christian about it, then this is the apostle who had (and wrote down) the Revelation of the end times. Also it is to be noted that, recently, the image of John has been conflated to be the image of Mary Magdalene (thanks to Dan Brown and The da Vinci Code), who was supposedly the bride of Christ. If he’s the same guy as the John who wrote Revelation, he died on the island of Patmos in exile.

Jesus Christ/Six :: Either way you flip it, Six is in the position of Christ. I’ll leave that one as it is.

Thomas/Baltar :: This is great, I think. Thomas is Thomas the Doubter, or colloquially, Doubting Thomas. He was the most vocal nay-sayer of the group, and may be identified with cynicism or (possibly?) scientific thought. He’s also pretty headstrong in his doubting ways, as when he saw Jesus after the crucifixion, he demanded to see Jesus’ hands to see the holes where the nails would have been as proof that he was looking at the same person; in this story he is also called Thomas the Believer, probably to emphasize his “conversion”. It is also worth mentioning that Thomas’ name was likely Judas as well (see Bartholomew and Jesus). I don’t know how he died, I didn’t see where/how he was martyred.

James the Greater/Apollo :: I really purposefully chose James the Lesser/James the Greater as the terms for Helo and Apollo, respectively because they’re really very similar kind of characters. Military men, straight-laced, clean-cut, good guys. Helo is a perfect “Lesser” because, let’s face it, the series (old and new) tends to revolve around Apollo. Anyway, James and John (Starbuck, in this theory) were brothers and were referred to as the “Sons of Thunder”. More on Wikipedia is actually dedicated to his sainthood than the biblical James, but it looks like he’s the patron Saint of Pilgrimages. Herod had James killed by sword.

Philip/(Twelfth Cylon) :: If this theory is close to right, then this is the guy we’re looking at. And guess what, almost nothing is known about this apostle as well. The most we can say is that Philip is most closely tied to Bartholomew. He introduces a Greek speaking community to Jesus in the Gospel of John. And he was the one who asked Jesus to see the Father, therefore giving Jesus an opportunity to teach about the Father/Son aspect of the Trinity. He’s always listed 5th among the apostles. The Christian Tradition reliably holds that Philip was married, had kids, and one of his daughters was also married. The rest of the tradition confuse this Philip with yet another Philip, so there’s not much more to be known certainly about him. He was martyred likely in Greece by being crucified upside-down alongside Bartholomew. During the crucifixion, he preached nonstop, causing the crowds to free (and thus save) Bartholomew from the cross. Philip insisted that the crowd not release him from his cross, and he died there.

Matthew/Tigh :: Matthew’s my favorite, because if you follow the traditions of the Gospels, he had to be considered the meanest, most evil piece of crap of all of the apostles. Rather a good fit with Tigh. Matthew was a tax collector. In the day of the Gospels, tax collectors were the lowest of the lowest of the people. They were almost always associated with sin, corruptibility, and generally pieces of crap. He’s also Levi in the Gospels, described as a “toll collector”. The only other things I can say about Matthew off the top of my head (and Wikipedia, not respectively) is that the Gospel of Matthew was likely not written by him, and that particular Gospel was focused on Jewish tradition and framing Christ as the Messiah within that tradition.

Jude/Natalie :: Not much is known about the new Cylon character Natalie, but we all know Jude as the namesake of St. Jude’s Hospitals, St. Jude being the patron saint of of desperate cases and lost causes. Jude is another name for Judas; the former is the Greek variant of the latter. Suffered martyrdom in Persia with our next and last apostle.

Simon/Pres. Roslin :: Three words: Simon. The. Zealot. Two more: Complete awesomeness. This Simon is referred to as Simon the Zealot to differentiate between he and Simon Peter, but most importantly, that’s what they called him, probably to his face, in the time of the Gospels. Not much else is known about him, but the name alone, I thought, was worth it.

Pete says:

OscarMalOscar.

Great analysis and observation – I’d not looked at it from that angle before.

We’ve seen several types of logic that try to help guess the final cylon by character commonalities
1. your afore-mentioned “super-human” criteria (see your list above
2. controllers and “one-offs” – Gaeta, Starbuck, Tigh, Lee, Bill, Roslyn, Tori, etc.
3. the “visionaries” – Baltar, Roslyn, Starbuck Gaeda (woke from sleep and rescued Baltar)

The one constraint I like to keep using is that the writer’s stated we’ve known the character since the first season.

Leoben has been pretty honest and so has the #6 angel. Could be for different reasons. He said Adama is a cylon. I don’t believe Bill or Lee are cylons. He could be talking about any Adama: Joseph, Tamara (bill’s sister), Bill, or Lee or even Lee’s mom.

Even though logic doesn’t fully support it, I still like Zach Adama best as the final catalyst to convert the humans over into accepting the cylons as a new race of beings or controlling Bill Adama and the fleet in some persuasive way.

But, I think the safe vote really is Gaeta, as Bruce suggested.

Bill is a stoic character thus far and a central character. If he’s going to change and Starbuck’s death and resurrection and Lee’s fights with his dad aren’t enough to break him, what will change him to make him the “dynamic” character of the story?

Zach is a more powerful catalyst to revelation from a writing perspsective.

BTW – someone said above that the basestar-hybrid from Razor prophesized that Starbuck would lead the humans to their destruction.

That is inaccurate – he said “apocalypse” and “harbinger of death”. That doesn’t mean they will all die – it means they will undergo a revelation and that death will happen in some way.

so how about a list of all the good guesses (assuming we can trust that Moore’s comments that insinuate that the final cylon is not at the last supper):

Doc – controls ship medical records and health of the fleet?
Dualla -

Joshua says:

The Last Supper is actually one of the most popular religious scenes to paint. da Vinci wasn’t the first artist to portray it and he certainly wasn’t the last. I would say that there are literally dozens of interpretations of the scene, only a handful of which are famous, and da Vinci’s, of course, most of all.

The reason why da Vinci’s painting is famous is that prior to his commissioning to do it, most scenes were of the footwashing portion, or just a portrait of a moment while they were all sitting together.

da Vinci chose a precise moment in the story of the Last Supper, the point where Jesus said, “One of you will betray me tonight.” All the apostles in the painting are in shock and speaking to one another under their breath. Peter in fact, is delivering his line of “Is it me, Jesus?”

No one, in any Last Supper painting that I’m aware of, is sitting on the table. I do remember one of the versions (not da Vinci’s) where someone is holding their arm out toward Jesus in an accusatory manner (similar to Natalie). No one is standing that I remember, and none of the versions have anyone contemplating a knife or a goblet.

The composition of the picture is slyly concerned about the balance of the painting. Two glasses of water on each side, two powerful figures on either end, groups of people mirroring other groups of people. Tyrol taking a prominent position in the midst of the right while his complement on the left is missing altogether. It does justice to the idea of a Last Supper, but your eyes will eventually focus on the empty seat and the goblet. Its meant to do that.

But there is one further thing in defense of the theory and one that can blow it out of the water. In defense, most paintings after da Vinci’s version used the ordering of individuals listed above, and all previous and after had key figures in key locations historically, like John always to Jesus’ right.

A theory that could blow it out of the water is that they intentionally chose another scene at the Last Supper to paint, specifically the scene after Jesus tells Judas, “Do what you must, and do it quickly.” Judas would, therefore, not be in the picture at all; he would instead be running off to betray Christ.

codeshark says:

ok. Read thru all these posts and had to comment. If you look at painting starbuck made in the last episode the element in the middle looks strikingly similar to the ship of lights in the original series. She came back with a brand new ship, etc etc. I think count iblii is the final cylon. Hahahaha

Angel says:

I also agree the final Cylon isn’t pictured here. In the actual last supper there are 12 diciples and Jesus, making 13 figures. In this picture there are only 12 people.