Who dat Cylon?

As we get ready for the season 4 premiere of Battlestar Galactica tonight (OMG OMG OMG), I thought it would be fun to theorize who the remaining Cylon could be. I’m not going to recap the plot of the show and what a Cylon is, because if you don’t know yet, I’m giving up on you. But for those new to this series or the casual viewer who might need a refresher: there are twelve models of Cylons that are indistinguishable from Humans. In the beginning, we knew what seven of them looked like. At the end of last season (in what is arguably the best hour of television… ever), we were shown four more — people who didn’t even know they were Cylons and had been serving aboard Galactica all along.

That leaves one yet to be discovered… the final Cylon… and odds are it’ll be someone we’ve seen before… otherwise, what’s the point?

Rumor has it we’ll know who it is within the first 10 episodes (and we better, because Sci-Fi is saving the last 10 episodes for 2009).

So here it is, my list of who’s left and who it might be. Feel free to discuss amongst yourselves afterwards over Gagh and Blood Wine (sorry, wrong show).

Billy Keikeya - Eh, he’s dead. The actor said he didn’t really want to continue on the show, so they wrote him out. I think he’s gone for good.

Karl ‘Helo’ Agathon - Nobody really ever considers him as a possibility, myself included. Not sure why. I think it’s because it would spoil the fun of the first human/cylon hybrid.

President Adar - We haven’t seen much of him, or even heard him referred to much. He was the President when the Cylons attacked and was killed during the whole tragedy. Maybe it was pre-orchestrated from the beginning, and he made sure it happened? Doubtful, because the Final Five seem to have little to do with the others and don’t seem to be in on “the plan.”

Gaius Baltar - No… we’ve already ruled him out, and making him #12 would just be dumb. It was an interesting prospect in Season Three, especially seeing him “wake up” in one of those resurrection baths, but it’s far more interesting if he’s human. He’s the reason the Cylons were able to destroy humanity, and what makes it so painful is that he’s human himself. Having him be a Cylon takes away a level of betrayal. I’m really curious, though, why he and Six seem to share visions when they’re not even around each other. I think it’s more than just “in their heads,” there has to be some link yet to be explored.

Admiral Adama - Having the authority figure turn into an enemy is just a bad move. I love Adama. But who knows? Perhaps the Final Five aren’t enemies, we don’t know anything about them except that they are “fundamentally different” than the other seven models. Besides, that would make Lee at least half-Cylon, and would take away from the credibility of Helo and Sharon’s child.

Admiral Cain - This would be sweet. She’s dead, she got shot in the face (by another Cylon, no less), so we could have an awesome resurrection scene. This would mean her destructive behavior could have been a latent program. After all, had she been left in charge, the rest of humanity would have wiped itself out thanks to her “leadership.”

Kendra Shaw - Who? Exactly.

Lee Adama - This would be a strange choice, and would make Adama either a Cylon collaborator or a victim of Cylon brainwashing. Or, perhaps Admiral Adama is a hallucination shared by all. Nope, that’s too far fetched. Lee is safe.

Larry David - This revelation would be pretty good. Prettaayyy, prettayy, pretaayyyyyy good.

Kara ‘Starbuck’ Thrace - Strong possibility, but a bit of a let down. Then again, she is the “Harbinger of Death,” who is seemingly destined to “lead humanity to the apocalypse.” She’s been drawing inspiration from somewhere regarding the Eye of Jupiter, and then there is that small fact that she came back from the dead at the end of last season. They might go the route of not making it a big revelation at all, but rather a mystery that is kind of unraveled over the course of the first ten episodes… in other words, all the evidence stacks up and then someone says, “So, Kara is the last Cylon, after all.” No big deal. Nevertheless, I don’t think it’s her. I think she has been to Earth, though I don’t know how (perhaps the storm that crushed her Viper was a wormhole) and I think her Viper was rebuilt (hence why it’s so pristine when she reappears) by the people of Earth, whoever or whatever they are.

Romo Lampkin - Baltar’s lawyer from last season, in case you forgot the name. He was creepy good, and the Ionan Nebula Incident (the Season Three cliffhanger) happened ten minutes after he walked off the ship. He might just be masquerading as a lawyer, and was on Galactica just to sabotage something (power outage?). His destiny might have yet to be revealed, and it might be something much bigger. But as it stands now, having “Baltar’s lawyer” be #12 seems kind of silly.

Laura Roslin - This seems to be a pretty strong choice around the ‘internet community,’ thanks to her hallucinations and her shared vision between Sharon and Caprica Six toward the end of Season Three (kind of like wireless communication?) But I really don’t think it’s her. My guess is that those are side effects of having Cylon blood in her veins, the same Cylon blood that cured her cancer. Injecting humans with Cylon blood might have consequences that haven’t been explained yet, but I doubt it would turn someone into Cylon #12.

Felix Gaeta - Strong choice, simply because no one really suspects. As much of a minor character as he may be, he’s been instrumental in the overall story. If it wasn’t for him, Galactica wouldn’t have been able to rescue the people on New Caprica.

Anastasia ‘Dee’ Dualla - Another strong choice, also because few people are looking at her. It would make about as much sense as any of the final four.

God - This might be a line they won’t cross due to sacrilege, but whatevs. The Cylons believe in one God, and that God might be the one who created all things, including the Cylons, who are in His image. God is a heavy theme in the Battlestar world, and, just like the real thing, this revelation might be something beyond our level of comprehension (and a convenient escape for the writers). “All this has happened before, and will happen again,” said the Hybrid. Could he mean that the original humans (us, from Earth, right now, as in YOU, reading this), created the original Cylons, who are the ancestors of the 12 Colonies and have stuck around (the final five, or, in this case the first five) in hiding over the years. Forgetting their origins, the 12 Colonies build their own Cylons, who now appear like they might be the beginning of a new race at the end of the current series. Well, it all had to start somewhere… and that one person might be who is referred to as ‘God,’ someone who has been around since Day 1 of human civilization and who will be waiting on Earth when they arrive. He might have even been the origin of the mysterious ‘Watchtower’ song.

If it is someone we know, I hope it’s revealed kind of suddenly and haphazardly… for example, during an away mission to a Cylon base, we see the camera move around and happen to get a quick glimpse of a few more copies of Admiral Cain that have yet to be activated.

My own personal choices are Dualla, Gaeta, or “God,” whoever or whatever He/it/She ends up being.

What do you think? Did I miss someone?

I feel like I want to elaborate on the last one and what it might mean. Another post coming soon.