Editing Battlestar Galactica: The Final Five 3

{{separate continuity|universe=RDM|cont=Dynamite Comics}}

{{Comic Data
| image=FinalFive3.jpg
| title=Battlestar Galactica: The Final Five 3
| series=Dynamite
| issueno=3
| episode=
| writer= [[Seamus Kevin Fahey]]<br />[[David Reed]]
| penciller=
| inker=[[Nigel Raynor]]
| colorist= 
| letterer=
| editor=
| cover=[[Mel Rubi]]
| published=June 3rd, 2009
| collects=
| collected=
| reprints=
| reprinted=
| isbn=
| prev=[[Battlestar Galactica: The Final Five 2]]
| next=[[Battlestar Galactica: The Final Five 4]]
}}

==Summary==
*On [[Earth (RDM)|Earth]], 2,000 years before the Fall of the Twelve Colonies, a group of policemen are in a shoot-out with [[Earth Cylon Centurion|mechanical robot]]s. One of the police remarks in fear that the mechanicals have a bomb. The robots hold them hostage.
*On the lawn outside the Tigh estate, Samuel Anders is playing [[The Music]]. Inside, [[Saul Tigh]] meets with his dying father, Michael Tigh. Michael says that he already knows what Saul is going to say, that Saul doesn't want to be distracted from his life full of booze and women by responsibility, and that, like [[Pythia|his mother]], he can't commit to anything. 
*Saul calls him a self-righteous bastard, and tells him that he's here to be more than that, that he'll take Michael's place as leader of the [[Thirteenth Tribe (RDM)|Thirteenth Tribe]], but on his own terms. He's going to set up elections, because the tribe doesn't need another ruler-for-life. Michael agrees, but tells Saul that [[Ellen Tigh|Ellen Cavil]] is wrong for him, and he cannot marry her. Unbeknownst to his father, Saul already has a wedding ring on his person.
*Inside the Cavil Cybernetics building, John Cavil calls his daughter Ellen into his office, and dismisses his assistants [[Tory Foster]] and Lucius. Ellen points out the aberrant behavior of his robot construction-workers downtown, but John expresses confidence that the "malfunctioning units" will be dealt with. 
* Ellen asks why he called her there, sarcastically wondering if he's pining for grandchildren. John says that biological reproduction was a terrible mistake that resulted in too many voices and opinions. He knows from Foster that Ellen's lab, which he has been funding for the last decade, has made a breakthrough in [[Resurrection (RDM)|resurrection technology]], and they just need a live trial to test it. Walking out of her father's office, Ellen fingers the wedding ring she is wearing.
* Walking past security guards and robot laborers outside the building, Ellen calls [[Galen Tyrol]] and tells him to go ahead with live trials. Tyrol informs her that he's already on the streets looking for volunteers, and approaches a homeless man, Anders, lying on a makeshift bed in an alley with his guitar lying nearby. Tyrol offers Anders a nicer place to sleep.
* In bed, Ellen and Saul discuss their secret marriage and his new position as leader of the tribe. He intends to step down after the machine labor-riots are dealt with. Ellen says that they can't sneak around forever, and that she thinks John suspects the truth. Their fathers have been enemies for one hundred years. Michael, despite being one of those who invented it on [[Kobol (RDM)|Kobol]], outlawed Resurrection technology, which John is advocating a revival of.
* Ellen says that perhaps Resurrection should be legal. Her research has already extended their race's lifespan by a decade, and, unlike their parents, she, Saul, and the rest of the younger generation were never humans, always humanoid machines. Last week, she made a breakthrough in neuron transfer, which makes Resurrection possible. It was the highlight of her scientific career, but she felt she couldn't share it with Saul because of his disapproval of Resurrection.
* In the Resurrection lab, Anders, who is strapped to a wall, asks Tyrol if he's sure this is safe. Tyrol assures him that he'll wake up feeling brand new, and then knocks him out with an injection of [[morpha]]. Foster shoots Anders in the chest. Tyrol questions her methods, and she tells him that Cavil wants them to proceed quickly. Tyrol informs her that violence isn't a turn-on for him, and they observe as Anders successfully resurrects in a [[resurrection tank]] in the same room.
* In Central Command, an aide informs Saul that his father has died of a stroke. On the NewsNet, John Cavil speaks of how tragic it is that Michael can't be brought back. Saul gives the order to send in troops to deal with the hostage crisis. As the troops engage them, one of the mechanicals sets off the bomb, destroying several buildings and vehicles in the area.
* Saul meets with John, who tells him that he's made a terrible mistake. Tory is present. John claims he could have resolved things peacefully if given a chance, but now the machines have threatened more attacks. John talks about Saul's mother, Pythia, whom Saul can't remember. Pythia led the tribe to Earth and rewrote their genome to make biological procreation possible. The catch is that Resurrection would erase that change, so Michael had the technology outlawed and burned on a pyre. John claims that after Pythia fell ill, she begged Michael to bring Resurrection back to save her, but he refused on ideological grounds. John claims that seeing Pythia die screaming is what makes him so desperate for resurrection. Saul tells him to go to Hell.
* Saul broods about his father's death, and [[Virtual beings|Head Six]] agrees that he could have saved him, and those people killed by the machines. He asks her, angrily, why she's saying this, when she was always going on about what a great sin Resurrection was. She tells him that she's changed tactics, because he let Ellen reinvent it under his nose, and because instead of convincing people that life is irreplaceable, he's only shown that he's no replacement for his father. The Earth is doomed, and her only option is to save Saul, so she guided Ellen and Tyrol in their work. 
* Just then, a mechanical opens fire on him from a nearby building, the bullet piercing the window near Saul's head. Saul is rushed out into a car while security forces deal with the shooter. Saul notices Tory leaving the building, and realizes that John is responsible for the mechanicals' actions. 
* In the resurrection lab, John tells Ellen to launch the equipment to the [[Resurrection Hub]] in orbit. Saul calls him and tells him that Tory was arrested at the scene of the attempt on his life, and has confessed to Cavil's involvement. She did not know what the robot was ordered to do until it was too late. Saul figures that Cavil's goal in the mechanical "riots" was to stir up fear and chaos so that people would be more inclined to want Resurrection. John admits this was his original goal, but after seeing how stubborn Saul was, he wanted to get rid of him before the rest of the "apes." He plans to unleash his machines to thin the population, while he and those he has chosen will survive by resurrecting. Saul tells him to call them off, and he'll call off the soldiers he's sent to destroy the Resurrection lab, but Cavil says it's too late.
* Hearing all this, Ellen turns on her father and shoots him. Dying, he protests that he was going to save her, but she says she couldn't let him kill all those people. He tells her it's already too late, and then dies. Saul calls Ellen to tell her that the attack is happening now, and asks her to meet him at their "usual place." Ellen says she'll be there, and launches the equipment that will resurrect herself, Saul, Tyrol, Tory, and Anders. She then records a voice message, explaining to anyone that finds it that her recreation of Resurrection technology led to the destruction of the Thirteenth Tribe, but she did it to preserve the wonderful, fleeting moments that define existence.
* Anders on the street with his guitar, Tory under arrest in the police station, and Tyrol at the produce market watch as the sky goes nuclear.
* Saul finds Ellen under wreckage, and she tells him that, "It's okay, Saul. Everything is in place. We'll be reborn. Together."

==Notes==
* John Cavil's quip to his daughter Ellen Tigh about not wanting a horde of grandchildren is ironic, as when Ellen builds the eight [[humanoid Cylon]] models, that's exactly what he will have.
* Galen Tyrol's quip to Tory Foster that "that sort of thing" isn't a turn-on for him is presumably a reference to their romantic relationship. It is the only such reference in the issue. 
* Some elements of the issue conflict with established canon. It was established onscreen that Resurrection was reinvented by all the Five together, and each had exclusive knowledge of some aspect of it. In the issue, only Ellen Tigh and Galen Tyrol are Resurrection scientists. Tory Foster is John Cavil's assistant, Sam Anders is a test subject, and Saul Tigh is uninvolved with the project. However, Anders did single out Tyrol and Ellen's work for praise.
* There is no reference to the woman whom Sam Anders originally played the song for, or to him or Tory Foster seeing [[virtual beings]], though these things can be assumed to be happening offscreen or in the past.
* Anders being homeless in his original life is particularly ironic in light of him being a celebrity in the Twelve Colonies.
* The issue is 25 pages in length.

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