I just finished watching Season 1 of Battlestar Galactica. Frackin’ awesome. However, I do have one lingering problem that I can’t figure out.
When Baltar tested Boomer’s blood and found out that she was a Cylon, why the hell didn’t he report it? I understand why he didn’t tell her right then and there, but why did he continue to cover it up? I just doesn’t make sense. He had to know that her position in the military was going to pose a serious threat to everyone, yet he never told. Is this explained in Season 2, or is it never addressed?
Feel free to give away spoilers for Season 2 if you need to in order to explain this one fly in my ointment. The show is great, but this has been bugging me.
Baltar is working towards his own ends, never those of the group. Knowing Boomer is a Cylon is a kind of ace in the hole for him, just like he used the tour guide as a scapegoat in the miniseries. If something goes wrong he can just blame Boomer and then, who is going to believe a Cylon?
Suffice to say, they don’t forget about it in season two. Just what show do you think you’re watching?
I can give spoilers if you want (in tags of course), but please please don’t ruin it for yourself. We’re just starting to get the new eps here in Canada and its all I can do to keep from reading the threads. But seeing every episode fresh makes it totally worth it.
That seems really stupid of him. I mean, honestly, doesn’t he realize what a threat she poses to the Galactica? The Cylons always know where they are and what military plans they have because they can monitor what Boomer is thinking. Right? The finale of Season 1, where Adama gets shot… that could ruin everyone’s chances of survival. She’s in an extremely dangerous position for the survival of the human race. Is he that foolish and selfish? Maybe. Being a genius doesn’t grant wisdom, I guess.
I think Six would smack his face into the bathroom mirror again if he ratted on Boomer. He is serving his own ends, but he is directed to do so and controlled to some extent by Six.
I don’t think so. She turned off a fleet of raiders so that the Galactica Vipers could destroy them. Surely they would have seen that coming when she stuck the coax or Multi-Mode Fiber up the vien in her arm.
Short answer: He’s completely pussywhipped by Number Six. He’ll do whatever she tells him to just to keep the (cyber)nookie coming, and lacks the sense of self or the sense of responsibility toward his fellow humans that would let him do his own thinking.
Keep watching, though, his character does develop. Dr. Baltar is much more complex than Count Baltar on the old series, who was a simple collaborator deluded into thinking the Cylons would let him rule over all humanity as their viceroy after their final victory.
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I think Six would smack his face into the bathroom mirror again if he ratted on Boomer. He is serving his own ends, but he is directed to do so and controlled to some extent by Six.
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Does Six control him? Has she directed him to keep Boomer’s secret? I don’t recall her doing so. He kind of encouraged Boomer to commit suicide, and couldn’t know that she would fail at it.
I don’t think Boomer’s successes against the Cylons are proof that she’s not continuously connected to them. When she flew into the Cylon star over Kobol, the army of Sharons could easily have overcome her and avoided being blown up by the nuke, but they allowed it to happen. They needed to keep her in place so she could assassinate Adama (I know he doesn’t die, but they intended him to).
That’s assuming Six-in-Baltar’s-Head actually exists. I don’t. I think he’s crazy, and has created an alterego to deal with his guilt over unintentionally selling out humanity. I’ve only seen half of Season Two, but I haven’t yet seen anything to make me think otherwise.
From what Six was telling him, Boomer most likely would have killed him if he reported Boomer as a Cylon. She made a comment about "what do you think she will do…’ something or other, basically meaning her programming would come out and she would kill Baltar.
If I really had a Cylon detector, no frakin way would I out people. How long before one of the Cylons hidden in the fleet comes out and pops you to protect their identity?
Sure, if he told her right then and there. Once he left, I fully expected him to go to Adama about her, but he never did. That seemed weird to me, that he’d just let her wander around, going on important missions, confiding her worries to him and everything, and he did nothing. It seemed to defy his self-preservation instinct, considering how much damage she could do to BSG and humanity in general.
Then what’s the point of having a frackin’ Cylon detector, if you’re not going to detect Cylons and report them to the proper authorities? It’s too late now for him to put the cat back in the box, isn’t it?
Two points to having one. First, it makes you very important if the higher ups think you are the only one who can detect Cyclons. They need you. Second, it lets you remove people who stand in your way or you feel are a threat. Corporal whats-his-face sniffing around too much? He’s a Cylons, throw him out the airlock!
He did talk Boomer into the suicide attempt because he knew she was a Cylon even if he didn’t report her.