Final Five

The term "final five" collectively describes five of the twelve humanoid Cylon models whose identity, knowledge, or existence has been deliberately or accidentally lost to the known existing seven Humanoid Cylon models.

Caprica-Six, when asked by Gaius Baltar about the five missing models he has not seen on the baseship he lives on, curtly replies that the others do not talk about the subject (Torn).

The unauthorized quest for the Five

A Number Three copy, which Gaius Baltar calls by her human alias, D'Anna Biers, repeatedly commits suicide to get glimpses of five white-cloaked beings that she believes are images of the final five. She attempts to draw what she has seen, but has difficulty in doing so (Hero).

One sketch shows what looks like two men and three women. One is a man with dark hair and a widow's peak, one is a middle aged woman with shoulder-length hair, one appears to be a woman with long hair, one appears to be a man with short, possibly thinning light hair and one appears to a young woman with very short hair. If this interpretation is accurate, that would make six male Cylon models and six female Cylon models in total (The Passage).

Baltar's ability to see a virtual doppelganger of Caprica-Six (as well as enjoying her company in various pleasant environments) lead him to suggest that he might be using a Cylon technique known as projection. This suspicion, in turn, makes Baltar begin a personal inquiry into his own nature after allying himself with D'Anna-Three.

The two eventually make their way to the algae planet, where a Colonial structure, the fabled Temple of Five, awaits with possible answers ("The Passage", "The Eye of Jupiter"). When the system's dying star goes nova, a ray of light is generated by the mechanisms of the temple. D'Anna steps into the light and suddenly finds herself back in the Opera House and before the same image of the Five, not persistent. Upon seeing their faces she recognizes one of them in particular, saying in surprise "You... forgive me... I had no idea." She is then pulled back to reality and collapses in Baltar's arms, apparently suffering the effects of a brain hemorrhage. She dies before she can tell Baltar what she saw. She tells Baltar, "You were right," but dies before answering about what. She tells the Cavil who greets her in the tank that there are five other Cylons, and he will see them some day.

The identity of the person she recognized remains a mystery (Rapture).

Interpretations

While the Re-imagined Series notes that there are a total of twelve humanoid Cylon models, only seven have been seen thus far. Although the Number Threes believe the images they have seen during resurrection and in the Temple of Five are, indeed, images of the final five, the series adds a contradictory interpretations of what is seen and what is truthful.

Connections between the Colonial gods and Cylon god

The Temple of Five was built over 4,000 years prior to the Fall of the Twelve Colonies, long before the Cylons existed. The Thirteenth Tribe would, logically, have no knowledge of these automatons in the strictest sense. However, the Thirteenth Tribe has significant prophetic insight, as shown in the works of Pythia. According to Colonial scriptures, "Five pillars of the temple were fashioned after the five priests devoted to the one whose name cannot be spoken". This may have been another Lord of Kobol, given that on a deleted scene Elosha noted that the fall of Kobol and its civilization was due in part to a "jealous god".

On New Caprica, D'Anna/Three meets Dodona Selloi, a human oracle, who relays a message from Three's God, despite the oracle's association with the Lords of Kobol.

With this information, there is a strong, but unexplained correlation or connection with the the Cylon God and the Lords of Kobol.

The Eye of Jupiter and Kara Thrace

The Eye of Jupiter storyline introduced an association between Kara Thrace, a human that "doodled" a circular image as a child with no prior derivation (her old apartment on Caprica has a painting of the image from the episode, "Valley of Darkness"), and the mandalas or icons of the eye that decorated a temple built 4,000 years before her birth. No further information is revealed other than the prophesy from Leoben Conoy, who told Thrace of an unexplained "destiny" (Flesh and Bone).

Illusion or Truth

Only the Threes, and no other characters, have seen the visions of what they interpret as the final five Cylons. Like Baltar's virtual Number Six, this may be something other than genuine; the other Cylons themselves box the entire line of Threes after her discovery, but whether this is done to suppress the notion or actual information of the final five or to relieve the other Cylons of an aberrant model is unclear.

As the Temple of Five was apparently built for human usage, the Temple may have only allowed the transitional visions that the Threes see to be more persistent and clear. It may never be revealed what Baltar (or another human) would have seen. While Baltar believed Three and actively participated in her quest, both his virtual Six and a Hybrid noted that he, not D'Anna/Three, was intended to use the Temple's imaging mechanism as the "chosen one". The human association and significance of the five priests, the god they worshiped, and their connections with the Cylons, Kara Thrace and Baltar are not yet explained.

Notes

The podcast for Rapture confirms that the final five Cylons have not been boxed.