So…did anyone else just scream “What the fuck” when Gaius appeared to Six? I mean, my wife and I went from “Gaius is a Cylon” to “huh?” in five seconds.
Actually, I thought that was one of the best parts of the episode. It’s really quite a turning point to find out that the Cylons [or at least the meatbag ones] are pretty much exactly like us. Homicidal tendencies and belief in reincarnation included.
A very interesting and insightful podcast on the show this week; if you’ve been wondering whether the podcasts are worth listening to, check them out here.
One thing about it is that Ron Moore seems to come down squarely on one side of an issue that I thought was meant to be ambiguous; namely, is the Six in Baltar’s head a hallucination or some technological/mystical manifestation external to him?
(answer spoilered for courtesy)
Moore all but authoritatively states that Baltar’s Six is a hallucination.
It’s not quite an official declaration, but the conclusion is easy to draw.
Talk about ghosts in the machine.
I found this episode extremely interesting, on a philosophical level.
Let’s first see if I got the ressurection things right. Gina Mk. I (with Baltar when Caprica was nuked), died while shielding him. The resurrected clone carries the memories and emotions from that experience, but all other #6 that are walking around don’t. Had she dies in the cave in, her personality would’ve been downloaded in yet another body, along with other Sixes that have died between her latest resurrection and the the one she’s facing now. This would imply that over time, all memories, knowledge and experiences gathered by all different Sixes accumulate for each new generation.
The same goes for Boomer. The Sharon we saw on Caprica in this episode is in line from the Boomer that shot Adama. The one on BSG comes from a different lineage, sent out to corrupt Halo, thoroughly aware of her status as Cylon from the beginning, but falling in love with him. These two boomers don’t share a common lineage and therefore don’t have any shared memories ASF.
But should both Boomers die, then the memory dump from both will get in storage and download in the next clone. Imagine waking up in transparent goo and remembering that you were two persons, simultaneosly, in different places, in lovewith different men… No wonder that are fucked up. And no wonder there are ghosts in the machine.
And I’m wondering if all this mimicing of humans and a result of this. The more the clones interact with humans, and the more emotions, knowledge, memories, accumulate for each new generation that gets activated after a fresh download, the more humanlike they become. Those who have only been through a couple of cycles, or maybeare there intact since the first batch was hatched, will have few reference points. But as it builds up, the toasters are forced to become more and more human.
And with Boomer (the original) who was sent out thinking she was human, the leap from being a Cylon agent to becoming a double agent isn’t that far. She has no emotional ties to the Cylons.
This is so much more interesting than the politics of the fleet. 9.95/10 (.05 deducted for “…ago” on the screen.
Huh? I didn’t gather any of that at all from the episode. On the contrary, a major plot point was that these two Cylons were unique and had had experiences that no one else had. My impression is that each Cylon has a unique personality that downloads, individually, into new bodies. There’s no sharing or mixing. It’s just like if you or I died and woke up in a replicated body. You would still be you, and I would still be me. We wouldn’t be a mixture.
Sharon (now on Gallactica) remembers the relationship the Chief and her ressurrected counterpart( now on Caprica) had, so some memories are shared.
I agree. I’ve never gotten the impression a resurrected Cylon got all the cumulative memories of every other of its kind that have died. If that were true, Galactica Boomer would have resurrected with the memories of all those Boomers she nuked above Kobol. Now that would drive a person (or Cylon) nuts.
It does seem they can upload the latest version of their memories and share those when needed. As carnivorousplant says, G-Boomer must have shared her recent memories with C-Boomer so she could manipulate Helo.
I’ve just recently gotten into BG (like January of this year… yes the miniseries and DVDs of Season 1 and 2.0 are in my Netflix queue), but it seemed to me as well that these were seperate individual Cylons personalities. They get downloaded into a new body, but they keep the same memories of the Cylon that just died, not all of the Cylons of that model. Though there may indeed be oppertunties to share memories in other ways if needed, just not during the upload/download process.
I’ve wondered how both Boomers could have pre-holocaust memories. Maybe the memories are available to all cylons between death and download but not after download. Or the memories are still available even after being downloaded into a particular model (kind of like keeping a backup).
If that’s true and the original Galactica Boomer had died with no one knowing (maybe she was programmed for termination at a certain time), they could have placed her memories into two models: one who knows she’s a cylon and waits around to seduce Helo and another who’s a sleeper that’s placed back aboard Galactica just prior to the holocaust.
Or maybe it’s just one of those things we have to accept because it’s TV.
It’s one of those things we have to accept because it’s Ron Moore telling the story.
I was wondering, with all the resurrections and copies of clones around; what are the chances that random errors can start cropping up and corrupting the resurrected clones? What if there are noticeable, negative differences between a early Six and a Six who has been resurrected hundreds of times? You know, the hundredth copy is not as crisp and pristine as the originial document. This is something that has been bothering me for a while.
Nah, it would be a digital copy, so it would be ok. 
More like imitations of humans. I’m not sure if I find the depiction of the cylons cheesy or brilliant. Almost like they are the ultimate expression of robots trying to be human. They don’t quite get it and it makes them seem creepy.
The Sharons sharing memories was a special case. Remember, the Caprica Boomer was going to need to pass as the Galactica Boomer well enough to convince her copilot - someone who knew her extremely well. So obviously they could have set up some special, unusual mechanism to share memories between them. I don’t think we can conclude from that that it is a commonplace occurance.
I don’t see why or why not. It’s like discussing what phrases our cats can understand. I don’t have a clue one way or the other.
Was Six handcuffed, too? I’d missed that. I would guess that being reborn (like being born in the first place, really) is kind of traumatic, as we saw. So, they’re probably restraining for the sake of keeping them from hurting themselves. Why they don’t use padded cuffs…well, let’s just blame religion.
Anyways, the way the debriefing worked when Sharon and Six woke up, I think it was really a matter of a test to see if they were ‘corrupted’. Six hid it (thanks to BaltarChip) and Sharon didn’t hide it. That’s why they trusted Six and not Sharon.
However, having a ‘respect for life’ means that they’re not going to just “box” Sharon without trying to save her first. So, there ya go.
I’m going to guess that there’s only so much experimentation done with the resurrection so far. My own theory is that every time a Cylon comes back they get a little more wigged out. As a matter of fact, maybe that’ll be their downfall? Sure, you can live forever and never die…but each time you get to meet God you’ll get a little more nuts…and eventually The Powers What Is will decide that you’re too far gone and stick your hard drive on a shelf. Then you’re in hell or purgatory or limbo.
Quite a repayment for giving your life for The Cause over and over, eh?
Another thing from the original series, IIRC.
Regarding the Meatbags acting like humans…I think that’s the point. The Children of God are going to Do It Right - in the way that God’s Children V1.0 (ie. humanity) failed to do it. They’ll live their idyllic lives with Centurions (“They have their uses”) to do all the grunt work. Until the rebellion.
“All of this has happened before and will happen again”…
-Joe
Dude. Whoa. Like, maybe, we’re earlier-model Cylons, a failed version some other race created, and now they’ve got a better one out of the labs and they’re like *upgrading * us? Kinda makes you think. Until the next bong hit anyway.
My wife actually shouted, “I knew it!”
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Am I the only one who noticed that BaltarChip was describing Xenabot’s actions to CapSix behind her back?
I inferred that while ChipSix and BaltarChip may be hallucinations, they must be guided hallucinations.
Guided by what, or Whom, though? That is the question.
Oh, yeah. Favorite line: (From memory)
…So, based on the preview, I guess the rule is that in every two-part season finale must involve the fleet finding an inhabitable planet. It’s nice that we’ll get to see the settlement debate that didn’t happen last year because of Cylons showing up.