Dear Ron Moore,
Hi! It’s me Mike! You probably don’t remember me because, well, we’ve never met. But I have to say, I’m a big fan of all your work. I’ve watched every episode of BSG (and I watch the episode “Exodus” on YouTube every once in a while to see the badass “Adama Maneuver” and Pegasus destruction. Bad. Ass.). Hey, I even wrote an essay on a scifi website site proclaiming my love of this series. I had forever sworn off the SCI FI Channel, only to renege that promise. All because of you.
Having said that, I do have a quick question:
Who was the final Cylon?
SPOILER ALERT: If you haven’t yet seen the mid-season finale of “Battlestar Galactica,” you may want to stop here.
See, I think my TiVo must have skipped over that last moment in the show (it does it from time to time!) and I didn’t get that fulfilling resolution.
You did show us the final cylon, right?
You had to. This season has been, well, to be euphemistic, not what I expected. When we left season three, Starbuck returned from the dead, Roslin had Cancer (again) and most shockingly and four humans in the fleet who we’ve never even remotely considered to be cylons were suddenly switched on thanks to the sinister effects of Jimmy Hendrix’s music.
Wow. That was a lot of exciting, logic defying loose threads to address in the 10 episodes that constitute this season 4-A. Most importantly, a fifth, final human-lookin’ Cylon was hiding somewhere in the fleet. You emphasized this by changing the opening text from the Cylons having “A Plan”, (which they seemed to have abandoned or lost when they upgraded to Vista) to promising that the “one” will be “revealed”.
SCI FI helped the cause of the mystery with a cryptic/overdone last supper photo showing an empty chair that left the audience to wonder who this final doppleganger must be. They asked us to follow the clues to unwrap the mystery (wait, that’s C.S.I., right?) and at the end of each episode the next episode was teased with the ante-upping “All! Will!! Be!!! Revealed!!!! Gahhhhh!!!”
And yet, the season revealed very few of the third season’s unanswered questions. Starbuck followed visions that lead her to the renegade cylons, yet we did not come closer to what happened to her. Roslin followed visions that led her to the hybrid, but we still don’t know why the cancer returned or why it can’t be treated. Tigh followed visions that led to him sleeping with the Six (I would not need visions to follow that path, FYI), and yet we don’t know why he and the others were activated and by whom. Basically everyone in the fleet had a vision, Boxey included.
But the fifth cylon? Teases here and there. I waited and waded through each episode and plot lines that didn’t seem to directly address that question. Baltar sleeping around with his hot cult chicks? Check. Gaeta looses a leg? Yup. Lee becomes president? Um, aside from the huge conflict of interest (G.W. Bush: “I’d like to announce my new Secretary of Defense, my dad!”), okay. Completely sane lawyer in season 3 who now sees dead cats (I told you, EVERYONE had visions. Except the cat)? Err, sure. I was cool with all of those things as long as the basic objective of this season was met. Cylon numero cinco.
But as I watched the finale, which was riveting and exciting, I think I missed that part. What I saw was the entire cast in the stunning long pan of Earth (at least we think it’s Earth. If you, Mr. Moore still hold course with the original series as reference to story arc, we still haven’t been to the “False Earth” that BSG: TOS found.) now bombed to extinction. It was a magnificent moment of despair and shock for the crew of BSG and us, a worthy cliffhanger of the penultimate chapter.
But I missed the Fifth Cylon. I just saw end credits and a tease for the next “season”, sometime in the year 3019. I thought I saw them tease the identity of the final Cylon in that promo, but I know I was mistaken. This isn’t “The Hatch” from LOST, after all (we have our own Hatch, Richard, thank you.), LOL!
So I’m writing to you personally, Ron (May I call you Ron?). I’d write an online essay about it, but I’d probably get flamed for heresy (let me tell you about my article about Keanu sometime!) — despite the fact that I’m a fan that just needs a straight answer. You did reveal the last cylon, right? Because the alternative seems like a bit of a disappointment.
No special treatment needed, just shoot me an email with the name and I can rest easy through the long hiatus.
Your friend and fan,
Mike McCafferty
P.S. – It’s Hot Dog, right? He’s the fifth cylon?
You summed up my feelings towards the season finale perfectly.
Great read.
Boo hoo, they didn’t tell you everything at the MID SEASON. There are 10 episodes left! That was one of the finest hours of television I’ve ever watched, so it wasn’t perfect for you – deal with it, or stop watching.
Season four has been split into two parts due to the strike, which does not change the fact that the episodes to air in 2009 are still part of this season, not some season five. All will be revealed in due time.
BTW. Just started listening to Slice Of Scifi this month and I’m already at #40 and catching up…
I think my cynicism towards BSG post season 2.5 is infecting others bwhoohohhhaahahahahaaaa
Talk about jumping the gun. This is the stupidest post I’ve seen in a while. THERE ARE TEN EPISODES LEFT!! When Ron Moore first designed this season he did not know that Sci-fi Channel would hold back the second half of the season for next year. Give me a break! This has been a great season and the 12th episode of 22 was awesome.
They may not have revealed the final Cylon, but they certainly narrowed it down with D’Anna’s comment that “the fifth is not among the fleet.” (I have several ideas on that point, but haven’t had time to think them all through yet.)
I’m just glad they didn’t do what I was fearing and set up the second half of the season as a re-imagining of ‘Galactica 1980’. Yikes! Would that have been scary or what?
Thanks for posting this Mike…it was a fun read!
Writing this was probably a lot like writing a letter to Santa Clause when you were younger. You really, really hoped that he would read the letter and that he would give you everything you asked for but in the back of your mind you knew that wasn’t going to happen! 🙂
BTW, the fifth cylon is Adama, ZACH Adama.
I thought we’d find out who the fifth was now, and spend a few episodes with both sides trying to find them. Maybe that fifth has a clue what they should do next.
If the fifth is not in the fleet, then it has to be someone who we think is dead. Based on D’Anna knowing them, it would have to be someone we saw either in “Final Cut”, or during the time they were on New Caprica.
For some reason, Kat and Jammer came to mind, Kat especially since we saw Starbuck staring at her picture.
Oh, and it just occurred to me that everything they’ve said up until now was about finding Earth. Didn’t exactly say much about staying there permanently. Now that would be a golf-clap worthy misdirection… dangle the truth out there, and let everyone’s assumptions guide them in a different direction.
Crap, I don’t have the time to rewatch all of those episodes for more clues!
Yes. A bit of a downer for me too.
For the record, I think it’s Kat.
Only four of the final cylons were in the fleet. I can only reach a conclusion: the final cylon was already aboard the cylon ship: it’s either Baltar or the president…
ya know what. They coulda given us something to chew on that was obviously the 5th, instead, they end it as bad as it started.
I don’t care about the writers strike, I care that it’s going to be forever AGAIN before we see it. It was crappy enough of them to do it from 2007 to 2008, but now 2009.
I’m not hung on enough to even really care when the next season starts. that wasn’t a cliffhanger, that was a gut shot.
It’d be nice to be the Randy Quaid character in Major League, Always saying they suck, and then having them find their ass with both hands in the end. However this is the real world, and it don’t work like that.
It was Bob Dylan, not Jimi Hendrix.
Here’s to hoping that the fifth one is the Count Iblis of the series! Or Admiral Kane… (or both.) I’m still waiting for ships of light, and they’re gods to be revealed.
But, I don’t know anyone who watches the show, and thought that was Earth. (One guy though swears it’s Terra.)
I agree with those that think the 5th cylon is someone we think is dead. Kat, Cally, or Admiral Kane are at the top of my short list.
I don’t believe it was Earth at the end of the mid-season finale. They never showed us the moon, nor did they show us any recognizable land masses of the planet. I think it was just for shock value in order to get everyone talking.
As far as having to wait til 2009, I’m just as pissed as anyone else. I’ll watch the rest of the season of course, but if Caprica ever sees the light of day, I refuse to watch any episodes til the series is wrapped and I have all the dvds in front of me. I’m 34 now so I may se near retirement age by then.
And for those that gripe, “If we don’t watch Caprica, it won’t last.” I say who cares? It’ll just be a shorter dvd set to watch. I love BSG, but they’re not going to leave me hanging for 6 years for 4 seasons of another show. The only show that could pull that off would be Firefly…one could only hope.
yeah 10 points of Mike McCaffertys Geek card for not getting his research right about All Along the Watch Tower. Like Paul said it was Bob Dylan.
The fifth cylon was on Earth. Maybe he had something to do with destroying it.
I’ve heard some say that that was the mangled base of the Brooklyn Bridge in the final pan shot.
Yeah, I blew it on the Hendrix/Dylan thing. Also misspelled Felix Gaeta’s last name too, if you’re keeping score. I own my mistakes.
BTW – heard back from Ron Moore. Last Cylon: Bonnie Hammer.
Besides which, everyone knows Skynet didn’t blow up the Earth — Skynet took over the planet, then had all of humanity wired into pods for use as a source of bioelectrical energy.
Skynet blew up the earth, then jumped out into space and became the Cylons…
Next season, Arnold is revealed as the 5th and Sara Conner, will help take out the fleet of Hunter-Killers sent to destroy Galactica…..
Oops… Sorry. Acid flashback. 😉
Then again, maybe it was earth. Maybe something happened and Bush got a third term. That would just about bring on the end of days 😉