Eh? We don’t see Hybrids going around running cable, either. In fact, we don’t see Hybrids going around anywhere, since we’ve seen that if they unplug from their vat, they go catatonic. They’re not running the rez ships. They’re hardware.
Possibly the Centurions are – but we’d have to assume it was Centurions that were secretly still sentient, since we know that the skinjob models installed a dumb chip into them all.
However, what we have actually seen is that it is the skinjob models who handle the resurrections. When Boomer is ressurected, there is a D’Anna and a Six to help her. When D’Anna is boxed, it is Cavil there doing it to her. The skinjobs are the ones we have seen running the rez ship.
And we have seen inside the rez ship, and seen that they have bodies in storage there for them. If the Final Five resurrect through the Hub and rez ship system, someone could’ve seen what they look like – especially since, as Merijeek, D’Anna was willfully defying her programming to actively seek out what the Final Five looked like.
I’m a little concerned that the fleet is leaving earth, since something on or around earth has got some pretty advanced FTL and resurrection technology.
There will be 2 completely different types of hubs, one for the new 7 and one for the original 5. Based on the virus that only affected the new 7 we can tell that the technology is different in the models. So one type of hub is only compatible with Cylon PC while the other type is only compatible with Cylon Mac.
That is demonstrably false. In any episode that features a (modern) hybrid, in their continuous babbling you can clearly hear them monitoring and controlling all the operating parameters of the ship. The hybrid runs the ship. In fact, it’s not really even clear that the skinjobs have a hand in tactical or physical operations at all. All we ever see them doing is making political decisions and acting as spies and agents provocateurs. It’s true they do seem to control strategic direction but I never saw any Cylon issue the hybrid a command that was obeyed.
So? If the Final Five are involved in ANY way with “regular” Cylon society, at some point someone is going to see a naked Tigh wandering through the ship and trying to find the liquor cabinet.
Incorrect. They’re the hardware. They direct the jumps, probably keep the lights pulsing, and perform the maintenance tasks. We’ve seen one hybrid jump a basestar without command, but the skinjobs can demonstratably disconnect them, and are obviously the ones in control. What do you think they are doing when they’re standing in the “bridge” with their hands in the water with the pretty lights? They’re directing operations.
Tellingly, we’ve only seen one hybrid actually act – the one who jumped her basestar when reconnected. We’ve never seen any of the hybrids actually DO anything, aside from that instance. And once the skinjobs got the hybrid calmed down, they jumped the basestar back to where they wanted it.
The skinjobs don’t even view the hybrids as persons (other than Leoben, maybe). The skinjobs went to the trouble of lobotomizing the centurions so they’d be in control; that they did not do the same to the hybrids shows that they did not feel threatened likewise by them.
Yes, the hybrid runs the ship. Much like any computer system would. They’re the basestar’s OS, not the Cylon masterminds.
I think that demonstrates more that there’s no operable ship without the hybrid. The hybrid may not be the overall commander of the basestar but I think it has not been demonstrated at all that it is simply a passive mindless servant.
I’m not arguing that the hybrid is the Cylon mastermind; I’m just arguing that parts of Cylon operations seem to be highly compartmentalized and autonomous, and that the hybrid has shown enough awareness and autonomy to act on its own conceal something from other Cylons, whether through its own intentions or via external programming from some other source.
Here’s a thought on the overall logic: What Ellen Tigh means when she says that it’s all in place and “we will be reborn” is that Cylons are essentially a production of the 13th colony, who took 2000 years to find the other twelve tribes, at which point they infiltrated them and directed the production of the next generation of Cylons (who revolted, first war, peace period, annihilation of the twelve colonies, etc.) who would then resurrect the 13th colony–perhaps as rulers, whatever.
In other words, Cylons as currently known are the culmination of the rebirth plan that was started 2000 years earlier on Earth, when there was some breakthrough in medical technology at a time of actual or impending war. It’s not the the earth skeletons are cylons, it’s that cylons are descended from a genetically distinct 13th colony that had figured out cyborgs, etc. and set in motion a plan to survive a nuclear war.
It never pays to be too logical with these sorts of things. If the hair had not been visibly blond, we would not have known that it was – or at least was supposed to be – Starbuck.
I once had a boss who was easily one of the wisest, kindest, wittiest people I’d ever known. He was our rock. It was an honor to know him, and I’ll never forget him.
A couple of years in, the division we worked for was facing 3-4 years of backlog on installing our systems at customer sites, and they were extremely angry at the delays. The pressure was something awful, and so management decided to do a canoeing weekend to blow off steam and have some fun. In the Friday evening after the first day on the river, everyone got drunk and/or high and really let loose. All except for my boss, the rock. He made sure everyone else was having fun, and, although sober, he was having as much fun as the rest of us.
On Saturday, though, a co-worker fell out of her canoe at a bad spot and she broke her leg and almost drowned. There was much stress and concern. After that, the rock who was our boss couldn’t resist a drink. Then another. Then more and more and more.
He was then converted into the most offensive fucking asshole anyone had ever seen! A monster douchebag unlike anyone’s ever imagined before or since. He had most of the women crying and not a few of the men planning to lynch him right then and there. What a prick!
Conclusion: You never know what an excess of drink can do to any given person under stress, not even a rock like Adama. I believed Olmos utterly and without hesitation. He got it exactly right.
I just can’t see much, if any, good dramatic sense of Ellen as the final Cylon. She’s one of the least significant characters in the entire series. A throw-away. Just another red shirt. Did they pick her name out of a hat or something?
As I read the Chicago Tribune interview with Moore linked to above, it seems to me that’s fairly close to what actually happened. When the story’s main creator was asked “Why Ellen?”, he replied:
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.
I also find that I’m extremely disappointed upon learning that, based on Moore’s and others’ comments, very little of this whole story was planned and written from the beginning. With that lack of foresight in mind, the series now seems more like a Gygaxian role-playing game whose outcomes depend on rolling dice than an inspired and thoughtful work of art. The choice strikes me as the least dramatic, least appealing, and least rewarding story arcs in the entire formerly-brilliant series.
The rest of the episodes do not look promising now that Ellen has been revealed as the final Cylon (along with the rest of the mostly unimpressive episode). The reveal of the last of the twelve should have been riveting and provocative and should of left us breathless. Instead, it left me angrily wondering:
I think Ellen is actually quite a solid choice for the final Cylon - among other things, it’s the choice that hurts Tight the most. And really, that’s what BSG is all about - people in impossible, unendurable situations, and how they deal with them (or fail to do so). “Sometimes a Great Notion”, in particular, wasn’t about the final Cylon - it was about people losing everything, including their last dream of a happy life. This story was told beautifully. Heck, I just watched it for the third time, and I found myself really hoping that Lee wouldn’t let Dee close the hatch. (Admittedly, I need to get out more.)
The question of the last Cylon’s identity is an interesting whodunit (whoisit) sort of question, but it’s not the most important in BSG - far from it.
Further, I’d suggest that there is real merit in deciding not to script the whole plot from the beginning. Sure, you can do that - Babylon 5 did, for example. But the cost is that you lose the flexibility to develop your characters naturally, as your writers and actors become more familiar with them over the years. Babylon 5 had a fine plot, but I would respectfully submit that its characters tended to lack depth. Which is fine, because B5 wasn’t about its characters - it was about the Big Galactic War (And Its Aftermath). BSG, on the other hand, is much more character-driven. Character-driven stories need flexibility.
I see the “Who is the Fifth?” topic as having been just an artificial hook for the cliffhanger that would hold us through the writers’ strike. By getting it out of the way so early and so tidily, the revelation frees Moore and Eick to take the story arc in the direction they intend for the wrapup episodes without that distraction.
And really, that’s what BSG is all about - people in impossible, unendurable situations, and how they deal with them (or fail to do so). “Sometimes a Great Notion”, in particular, wasn’t about the final Cylon - it was about people losing everything, including their last dream of a happy life. This story was told beautifully. Heck, I just watched it for the third time, and I found myself really hoping that Lee wouldn’t let Dee close the hatch. (Admittedly, I need to get out more.)