John (RDM)
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For other persons with John as a first name, see: John (disambiguation).
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| [show/hide spoilers] Spoilers hidden in infobox by default. | |||||
| Birth Name | John | ||||
| Only Appearance | The Plan | ||||
| Death | Killed by John Cavil, 0 ACH (2000BYR) | ||||
| Portrayed by | Alex Ferris | ||||
John is a child who resides on battlestar Galactica after the destruction of the Twelve Colonies, having been abandoned by his parents.
He takes up residence in Brother Cavil's chapel and tries to bond with him. Cavil has little patience for the boy and repeatedly ejects him from the sanctuary, though the boy continues to return. At last Cavil cedes to the boy's tenacity and grudgingly welcomes him into the chapel. He feeds him and speaks with him at length, sharing his musings on issues and eventually asks him his name. The boy says his name is John, and that he considers the two of them to be friends. Cavil then promptly murders the boy with the knife he was using to cut an apple and coldly shoves his corpse away (TRS: "The Plan").
Analysis
John the child serves as a parable to John Cavil the Cylon and his evolution both over the course of "The Plan" and the series itself. Their situations are quite similar: both have still-living parents who, for varying reasons, are no longer associated with their children, and both interpret that as their parents no longer wanting them. Furthermore, John's tenacious attempts to ingratiate himself to Cavil mirror Cavil's twisted attempts to win the love of his "parents." Both attempts are misguided and ultimately cost them both their lives.
Notes
- The character is not named in the closing credits, but is referred to simply as "Boy".
- John and his clothing are deliberately patterned after Dean Stockwell's Peter Frye, a child war orphan whose hair mysteriously turns green, from the 1948 film The Boy with Green Hair. While his hair is not green, director Edward James Olmos wanted it that way, but was overruled by the studio and Jane Espenson:
People would have just been in shock, like ‘What the hell is that about? And in essence, it would have been a statement that would have reverberated throughout the entire planet for centuries to come. And would have augmented something that needs to be understood, but in turn, the studio and the writer were afraid of it, they just thought “That’s crazy.” They didn’t want it, they thought it was a stupid thing to do. It would be all about, “What? Why did the boy have green hair?” And it would be about the boy with the green hair. It should be about that. It should be that deep and in the context. So may be they’ll let me paint CGI green hair and put it on him. From the time he raises his head to the time he dies, he has green hair, and nobody says anything about it. And the audience just has to deal with it. Let them deal with it.
References
- ↑ Charlie Jane Anders (October 26, 2009). Olmos Talks BSG's Unanswered Questions, And What You Won't See In "The Plan" (backup available on Archive.org) (in English). Gizmodo. Retrieved on May 25, 2026.