..and all of this will happen again

Coletta Factor: BSG-CURRENT

We started with Earth, a huge disappointment for all. No home was to be found there, just some old Cylon bones, a long-dead doppelganger of Kara Thrace, and the stirring of a few trace memories for Tory, Anders, Tyrol, and Tigh. Actually, one of those memories was pretty huge, for us, anyway. The 5th cylon was revealed to be none other than Ellen Tigh, whom Saul had poisoned on that rock New Caprica, her punishment for passing intelligence on the resistance to the Cylon occupiers. The rich irony of a Human resistance led by Cylons unaware of their true nature does not go unnoticed by this writer, and now we find out that there is a reason Saul lost his eye, but was not killed, a reason Anders and his band of Pyramid players were not slaughtered on that burned-out rock Caprica. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

After Earth, a great unease settled over the fleet. The people lost faith in the Old Man and the Schoolteacher, who had rolled the hard 6 over and over to lead the people to an abandoned shell of a nuked-out world, who had allied themselves with a splinter faction of the very enemy who had destroyed their homes and pursued them across the skies relentlessly. Felix Gaeta, a company man if there ever was, joined forces with Tom Zarek, the "freedom fighter" who always seemed to be on the wrong side, to stage a coup d'etat. They took over quite bloodlessly, and may have had a legitimate case to make to the fleet, but Zarek slaughtered the Quorum of 12, the representatives of the people, when they began to show some discomfort with the new power structure. This one act was the nail in the coffin for Felix and Zarek. Of course the Old Man, with some help from Lee and Kara, regained control of Galactica. Gaius Baltar, in a Christ-like act, ministered to the would-be revolutionary: "I know who you are, Felix. I know who you are." Cut to Felix and Zarek in front of a firing squad. Here endeth the lesson.

Now we find that Ellen resurrected 18 months ago and has been held captive by Brother Cavil, who was the 1st of the "skin jobs" created by the 5 after they fled the holocaust on Earth. Sam Anders, who took a bullet in the brain during the coup attempt, remembers everything. It's not all clear at the moment, but as near as I can figure it, the backstory goes something like this: The first Humans lived on Kobol, as 12 tribes. They created the Cylons, who may or may not have been "skin jobs." There was a war, and the Cylons took off for Earth, possibly following clues left by yet an earlier generation of Humans or Cylons. (Remember, all of this has happened before and all of this will happen again. We've yet to really see the full implications of the cyclical nature of the story.) The Humans on Kobol founded the 12 colonies we saw destroyed at the beginning, but not before they found and destroyed the Cylon colony Earth. The Final 5 saw it coming, and made plans to escape. They knew that Humanity had been creating artificial life again, and wanted to warn them of the disastrous consequences. By the time they reached the colonies, the Humans were already at war with the Centurions. The 5 convinced the Centurions to abandon their war. In exchange, they would help the Centurions to create humanoid Cylons, as the Centurions had been trying to do. Well, it worked. It worked so well that even the Cylon ships became at least partly organic after a while. They created 8 "skin jobs," a surprising number, because that means there is another, yet to be revealed. Kara fears it is herself. At least one of the skin jobs resented their creators. Cavil, whom we learned was given the name John, hated the 5 for giving him such a limited body. "I DON'T WANT TO BE HUMAN! I want to see gamma rays! I want to hear X-rays! And I want to--I want to smell dark matter! Do you see the absurdity of what I am? I can't even express these things properly because I have to--I have to conceptualize complex ideas in this stupid limiting spoken language! " John hated his creators so much that he implanted them with false memories, sent them to live among Humans, then ordered the slaughter of all of Humanity. The 5 survived, and when the 1st exodus began, he took great delight in inflicting bodily pain on them.

Now that all 5 are revealed, and the Cylons' resurrection abilities have been destroyed, John wants nothing more than to extract from his creators the secret of eternal life, then to snuff out their lives, and all of Humanity with them. Where do we go from here? All of this has happened before, and all of it will happen again. Will we see another holocaust? Will the Cylon homeworld be destroyed? The Old Man seems to have given up his lifelong enmity for his lifelong enemies, but will he be forced to act when the threat becomes imminent? The Schoolteacher will not wait for the smoking gun that may come in the form of a mushroom cloud. Is Kara the 8th model? If not, why not, and what is she? Where is the line between Human and Cylon? If it is indistiguishable from Human life, must we not treat it as Human life?

Postscript: More Baltar, please! I know he is an integral part of this puzzle, but he seems to have been sidetracked. Also, a request for my colleague Dr. Pliskin: tell me a bit about the Christ-like aspect of Gaius, please. That one's right up your alley.