# Battlestar Galactica 4.13 - "Sometimes a Great Notion" (spoilers aplenty) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 16, 2009, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/battlestar-galactica-4-13-sometimes-a-great-notion-spoilers-aplenty/481601 "2009-01-16T15:28:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 9
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2009, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/battlestar-galactica-4-13-sometimes-a-great-notion-spoilers-aplenty/481601/161 "2009-01-19T05:08:11Z")
> [@sturmhauke](#): > > [Psst… it’s the home of the Chicago White Sox.](http://www.ballparks.com/baseball/american/comisk.htm) Which means…what? Lots of folks want to watch? ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2009, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/battlestar-galactica-4-13-sometimes-a-great-notion-spoilers-aplenty/481601/162 "2009-01-19T05:16:22Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Which means…what? Lots of folks want to watch? [Disco Demolition Night](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disco_Demolition_Night) ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2009, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/battlestar-galactica-4-13-sometimes-a-great-notion-spoilers-aplenty/481601/163 "2009-01-19T05:43:31Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > [Disco Demolition Night](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disco_Demolition_Night) Cool. Tell them to bring their DVDs. ---
**Author:** ![Oslo\_Ostragoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a9a28c/32.png) [@Oslo\_Ostragoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oslo_Ostragoth)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2009, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/battlestar-galactica-4-13-sometimes-a-great-notion-spoilers-aplenty/481601/164 "2009-01-19T07:01:41Z")
Obviously, I missed something simple. Why is Ellen Tigh firmly established as the Final Cylon? Please be gentle. ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2009, 9:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/battlestar-galactica-4-13-sometimes-a-great-notion-spoilers-aplenty/481601/165 "2009-01-19T09:15:29Z")
> [@Frazzled](#): > > If there is a resurrection hub for the final five, it will be on Earth since that is where they were originally from. It’s possible Ellen resurrected here and will be back on the show in upcoming episodes. > How Starbuck figures into this I have no idea, but it seems to me that her new body and ship were created on Earth to be returned to the fleet. Something had to take her destroyed ship and body to Earth so her navigational beacon could be activated. That same something enhanced the signal so that only one specific viper could detect it. And that same something is what appears to be orchestrating the current events on the show. I guess we’ll know everthing in 9 weeks. Hrmmm… Ellen, maybe? ---
**Author:** ![Gukumatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/74df32/32.png) [@Gukumatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gukumatz)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2009, 9:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/battlestar-galactica-4-13-sometimes-a-great-notion-spoilers-aplenty/481601/166 "2009-01-19T09:25:35Z")
> [@Oslo\_Ostragoth](#): > > Obviously, I missed something simple. Why is Ellen Tigh firmly established as the Final Cylon? > > Please be gentle. Tigh shouts it out at the end of the episode? And then Eick or Moore went and confirmed it in an interview. ---
**Author:** ![Rusalka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ecd19e/32.png) [@Rusalka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rusalka)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2009, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/battlestar-galactica-4-13-sometimes-a-great-notion-spoilers-aplenty/481601/167 "2009-01-19T11:48:37Z")
Regarding Dee: I could have sworn a blue clothed arm not her own fired the gun. Am I hallucinating? I can’t bring myself to go back and rewatch that part because it was so gruesome. Is the show supposed to take place in our universe or some alternate universe with an Earth in it? I always assumed the latter, because it’s pretty clear we didn’t emigrate here thousands of years ago 🙂 How are Cylons different, physically? Whatever happened to Baltar’s imaginary friend? ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2009, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/battlestar-galactica-4-13-sometimes-a-great-notion-spoilers-aplenty/481601/168 "2009-01-19T12:04:03Z")
> [@Gukumatz](#): > > Tigh shouts it out at the end of the episode? And then Eick or Moore went and confirmed it in an interview. I watched it twice. Did anyone else get the impression that Tigh was actually humored/bemused/happy that she was a Cylon? He didn’t seem shocked or depressed about it. And I was freaking out at the end when i thought Tigh was going to do what it looked like he was going to do! I love that crusty old curmudeon too much 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Windwalker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/5e9695/32.png) [@Windwalker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Windwalker)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2009, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/battlestar-galactica-4-13-sometimes-a-great-notion-spoilers-aplenty/481601/169 "2009-01-19T13:44:27Z")
> [@billfish678](#): > > I watched it twice. > > Did anyone else get the impression that Tigh was actually humored/bemused/happy that she was a Cylon? > > He didn’t seem shocked or depressed about it. > > And I was freaking out at the end when i thought Tigh was going to do what it looked like he was going to do! > > I love that crusty old curmudeon too much 🙂 Well perhaps Tigh was hoping that Ellen being a Cylon meant that she was downloaded when she died, and thus may make a reappearance in Saul’s crusty old life. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2009, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/battlestar-galactica-4-13-sometimes-a-great-notion-spoilers-aplenty/481601/170 "2009-01-19T14:09:52Z")
> [@Rusalka](#): > > Regarding Dee: I could have sworn a blue clothed arm not her own fired the gun. Am I hallucinating? I can’t bring myself to go back and rewatch that part because it was so gruesome. It was not a blue clothed arm. She decisively leans into her locker to grab something, then suddently you see a bare hand and wrist holding the gun to her head. From the director’s commentary it seems certain enough that she took her own life and there’s no more plot mining to be done there. But I agree with you that there’s something odd about that shot. I had to roll it back myself to be sure. The way the hand rotates, it looks like an elbow being extended, not being flexed. What you never see is the gun in Dee’s hand until the last second. I think they wanted to make absolutely sure you didn’t see the gun coming, and they used another hand double to frame the shot just the way they want. As a result it looks ambiguous whether it was an execution or suicide (probably not what they intended, but the confusion sure got me more invested in the scene). > [@](#): > > How are Cylons different, physically? We’re told that they respond differently to radiation, apparently they have fiber-optic ports in their wrists, and their spines glow red when it’s sexytime. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2009, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/battlestar-galactica-4-13-sometimes-a-great-notion-spoilers-aplenty/481601/171 "2009-01-19T14:19:09Z")
> [@Merijeek](#): > > That’s one thing that everyone seems to be missing no matter how many times it gets explained. If there were spare Final Five bodies waiting for a download (at the standard resurrection ships and hub), the identities of the Final Five wouldn’t be a big secret. Any Cylon who felt like it could just stroll down the hall of the Hub or Resurrection Ship and look through some windows. Not to belabor this fanwank, but I just had a new thought on this. Ellen Tigh could definitely have been downloaded (or uploaded, to be more precise) when she died on New Craprica. Uploading is an automated data-only operation, it would seem, and there’s no requirement that a body be available. So she might just be a very large file sitting on the hard drive of a resurrection ship. And definitely an obscure piece of data storage is something that could easily escape the attention of the other Cylons (or not, but we never see for certain how much they know about the inner workings of resurrection). ---
**Author:** ![Rubystreak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Rubystreak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rubystreak)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2009, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/battlestar-galactica-4-13-sometimes-a-great-notion-spoilers-aplenty/481601/172 "2009-01-19T14:52:25Z")
> [@Cosmic Relief](#): > > We’re told that they respond differently to radiation, apparently they have fiber-optic ports in their wrists, and their spines glow red when it’s sexytime. Their dead bodies also give off methane and hydrogen sulfide, apparently. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2009, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/battlestar-galactica-4-13-sometimes-a-great-notion-spoilers-aplenty/481601/173 "2009-01-19T15:01:05Z")
> [@Rubystreak](#): > > Their dead bodies also give off methane and hydrogen sulfide, apparently. That’s a fact, but I think that’s a commonality rather than a difference. ---
**Author:** ![Merijeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Merijeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merijeek)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2009, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/battlestar-galactica-4-13-sometimes-a-great-notion-spoilers-aplenty/481601/174 "2009-01-19T15:16:49Z")
> [@Cosmic Relief](#): > > Not to belabor this fanwank, but I just had a new thought on this. Ellen Tigh could definitely have been downloaded (or uploaded, to be more precise) when she died on New Craprica. Uploading is an automated data-only operation, it would seem, and there’s no requirement that a body be available. So she might just be a very large file sitting on the hard drive of a resurrection ship. And definitely an obscure piece of data storage is something that could easily escape the attention of the other Cylons (or not, but we never see for certain how much they know about the inner workings of resurrection). I could see that. My current operating theory is that this has all happened before and this will all happen again. The Final Five got to the Colonies from Earth, and it took their software 2000 years to get there. They were reborn through some as-yet unrevealed mechanism. We’ll see. -Joe ---
**Author:** ![Lightray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightray/32/391_2.png) [@Lightray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightray)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2009, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/battlestar-galactica-4-13-sometimes-a-great-notion-spoilers-aplenty/481601/175 "2009-01-19T15:21:37Z")
> [@ambushed](#): > > As I read that, Moore’s saying it was pretty much a random choice, and his description of the decision very much strikes me as sloppy, _ad hoc_ rationalization. If she had never been in the story at all, nothing of significance would have changed. Had the final Cylon been Boxey, as some have joked, it would make precisely as much dramatic and logical sense. [Keep reading.](http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/entertainment_tv/2009/01/final-fifth-cylon-ellen-tigh-battlestar-galactica-dualla-dee-.html) He doesn’t say it was a random choice – he says that it was a choice they were leaving open to change should they find a different option they liked better. _That_ seems to be they way they’ve written the entire series – loosely planned, with occasionaly whacky ideas thrown in that may (or may not) work. Apparently, Ellen made a lot of sense to be the final Cylon based on where they wanted to go with things, so she got the nod. It wasn’t random, and it is too early to judge if it makes any dramatic or logical sense whatsoever. ---
**Author:** ![AmericanMaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e480ec/32.png) [@AmericanMaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AmericanMaid)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2009, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/battlestar-galactica-4-13-sometimes-a-great-notion-spoilers-aplenty/481601/176 "2009-01-19T17:07:50Z")
On TWoP someone posited that Ellen Tigh might be an aged Six model. ---
**Author:** ![Windwalker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/5e9695/32.png) [@Windwalker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Windwalker)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2009, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/battlestar-galactica-4-13-sometimes-a-great-notion-spoilers-aplenty/481601/177 "2009-01-19T17:21:23Z")
You know, it’d be awesome if they put Ellen’s mind and memories into, say, a Cavil model. Think of the ensuing hijinks! ---
**Author:** ![Merijeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Merijeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merijeek)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2009, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/battlestar-galactica-4-13-sometimes-a-great-notion-spoilers-aplenty/481601/178 "2009-01-19T17:37:16Z")
> [@Windwalker](#): > > You know, it’d be awesome if they put Ellen’s mind and memories into, say, a Cavil model. Think of the ensuing hijinks! While I love Dean Stockwell, the thought of him running naked through a base star, chasing a Simon model, with a bottle of booze is a little…unsettling. -Joe ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2009, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/battlestar-galactica-4-13-sometimes-a-great-notion-spoilers-aplenty/481601/179 "2009-01-19T17:39:06Z")
> [@Cosmic Relief](#): > > sexytime. Can’t touch this. ---
**Author:** ![Lightray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightray/32/391_2.png) [@Lightray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightray)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2009, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/battlestar-galactica-4-13-sometimes-a-great-notion-spoilers-aplenty/481601/180 "2009-01-19T17:40:53Z")
> [@AmericanMaid](#): > > On TWoP someone posited that Ellen Tigh might be an aged Six model. Yeah, there’s a lot of “speculation” that Ellen is an older version of a Cylon model Six or Starbuck. Apparently in the theory that, hey, they’re all blond, right? However, Saul met Ellen not long after the Cylon War – when she would have been around Six’s or Starbuck’s current age. This is quite a thing not to notice, or comment on – that this blond chick causing you all sorts of problems looks _exactly_ like your fracked-up wife? Furthermore, Bill Adama knew Ellen from back then, too. So _he’d_ have to be that oblivious, too. All the lube in the world won’t stop that fanwank from chafing. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/battlestar-galactica-4-13-sometimes-a-great-notion-spoilers-aplenty/481601.md?page=8) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/battlestar-galactica-4-13-sometimes-a-great-notion-spoilers-aplenty/481601.md?page=10)