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Downloaded

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"Downloaded"
An episode of the Re-imagined Series
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Overview

Cylon society is revealed when a Cylon's consciousness is downloaded into a new body following her death. The conquerors of occupied Caprica hail two "heroes of the Cylon," who both resist their new celebrity.

Summary

On Caprica

  • Episode begins with a flashback to "Nine months ago - Caprica" showing Baltar's house being destroyed in the Miniseries. The copy of Number Six who had a relationship dies...and then we follow from her point of view as her consciousness is downloaded and reborn into another body in a Cylon rebirthing vat. She fell so deeply in love with Gaius Baltar that she starts having hallucinations of Baltar, because the emotional impact of falling in love affected her so much. We then cut to "Ten weeks ago" on Galactica when Cally shoots Galactica-Sharon...and follow from her point of view as she is downloaded (no doubt aided by the Resurrection Ship at the time) and wakes up totally disoriented in a new body in another rebirthing vat. A copy of the same model of Cylon known to humans as D'anna Biers tells her she'll be fine, but upon seeing another Sharon-model, Galactica-Sharon starts screaming uncontrollably.
  • On Caprica in the present day, the Cylons are rebuilding Delphi for their own use, even making gardens. A D'anna-copy sits down to talk with the Number Six copy that seduced Baltar. She has never told anyone that she fell truly in love with Baltar, and to this day hallucinates him as a result, because she thinks the others would destroy her for being defective. The D'anna-copy asks if she will go and see another Cylon who was recently downloaded into a new body, and is still having trouble adapting: Galactica-Sharon, who is also something of a celebrity and war hero for her acts of sabotage and attempted assasintation on Adama. She points out that she even still calls herself "Sharon". She warns that if she cannot be fixed, there is talk of "boxing" her: putting her consciousness in cold storage and never loading it into a new body again.
  • This copy of Number Six is considered a war-hero; she was personally responsible for gaining the information that allowed the near-total sabotage of the Colonial Fleet, and has actually become something of a celebrity to the Cylons. They even refer to her specifically as "Caprica-Six".
  • In a short conversation while walking to Galactica-Sharon's old appartment (which she moved back into), the D'anna-copy quickly lists off the Numbers of several Cylon models: "D'anna Biers" is Number Three, "Aaron Doral" is Number Five, and "Sharon Valerii" is Number Eight.
  • Caprica-Six goes to Galactica-Sharon's appartment, where she proclaims that she doesn't believe in the Cylon God or his "love" and that the only real love she had was with the Galactica crew. She expresses intense guilt at betraying them. Caprica-Six starts to manipulate her by trying to empathize with her, saying that she loved a man too: Gaius Baltar. Startled, Galactica-Sharon says that Baltar is not dead, but is the new Vice President of the Colonies, on board Galactica.
  • Moving their conversation to a cafe on the ground floor of Sharon's appartment, Caprica-Six and Sharon wonder why Number Three never told Caprica-Six that Baltar was alive. Caprica-Six (through conversation with her hallucinated Baltar) realizes that Number Three manipulated her. Sending her to Sharon, and letting her find out that the man she loved was alive, might make her go crazy. Number Three could then use this as an excuse to have them both boxed.
  • Meanwhile, Samuel Anders and two other members of the human resistance are planning to plant a bomb in the garage underneath the cafe, and blow it up. They know the Cylons will all just download into other bodies, but Anders points out that from Caprica-Sharon, they know that Cylons remember dying, and it must be horrifically painful: they're going to show them that nowhere is safe, and they should leave Caprica if they want to stop painfully dying and being reborn over and over again.
  • Number Three shows up at the cafe, and asks how things are doing. Having realized her plan, Caprica-Six lies and says emphatically that Galactica-Sharon will move out of her appartment and start adapting back to Cylon life. Galactica-Sharon takes the hint and goes along with the lie. Disappointed, Number Three offers to help her move out right now, and they leave the cafe and start going up the stairs to Sharon's appartment.
  • The resistance members set up the bomb and all but Anders leave, but just before he can get out a Cylon Centurion starts snooping around, and he can't get back to the exit. It sees the bomb and Anders shoots it then ducks behind a car as the bomb goes off.
  • All three Cylons survived the blast, because the stairwell protected them on the higher floor. Caprica-Six is buried under some rubble, and Number Three insists that she is dead and they should leave her (subtly trying to kill her so Three can have her boxed). However, Caprica-Six then moves and asks for help and they uncover her. Her knee is dislocated, and Three again suggests that it would be easier, if Six wants, to just kill her so she'll be reborn. Realizing Three is trying to have her boxed, she insists on not doing that.
  • They see someone else moving around under some rubble, and Number Three clears it off only to find that it is Anders. She takes his gun away and prepares to kill him, but Galactica-Sharon protests. Caprica-Six agrees, but to avoid suspicion from Number Three, claims pragmatically that they shouldn't kill him to he can be interrogated. Sharon sees that he has Starbuck's dogtags, and Number Three explains that she was on the planet a few weeks ago. Sharon realizes he's someone important to her.
  • Number Three cruelly toys with Anders, putting his gun on the ground and daring him to take it. Sharon tells her to stop, and Number Three retorts that Sharon is a broken machine that thinks she's human, but she's not. Sharon says that at least she has a conscience, and Number Three says she's a murderer. Caprica-Six realizes that's exactly what the Cylons have been doing: murder and the genocide of the human race cannot be the path of their loving God.
  • Caprica-Six realizes why Number Three wanted her and Galactica-Sharon boxed: they are celebrities in a culture based on unity. Three realized that based on their love of two human beings, they have different perspective on the War, and due to their celebrity status as Cylon heros they could actually cause a change in the way many other Cylons think about their conflict with the humans, upsetting the status quo which Number Three upholds.
  • Number Three says they've been corrupted by their experiences, and are a waste. Caprica-Six explains to Sharon that that is why Three wanted to get rid of them: because both of them now know the murder, vengeance, and genocide are sins in the eyes of God, and Sharon realizes that letting them tell the other Cylons this would make them all consider that the slaughter of mankind was a mistake.
  • The rubble of the building shifts as Cylons outside are trying to clear their way to the survivors inside, and Anders makes a run for it and grabs his gun, shooting at Number Three before Galactica-Sharon knocks the gun out of his hands...which then lands near Number Three, who takes the gun. She stands up and just as Number Three is about to execute Anders, Caprica-Six hits her over the head with a large rock of stone from the rubble, then bashes it into her head again, killing her.
  • Caprica-Six tells Anders to leave, and gives him back Starbuck's dogtags. Galactica-Sharon gives him back his gun as he leaves. Six realizes that with all of the Cylons dead in the cafe, it should be at least 36 hours before Number Three gets resurrected and tells the others what happened.
  • Caprica-Six tells Galactica-Sharon that this is enough time to start changing things, start a new beginning for the Cylons: A way to live in God's love, without hate or lies. Together, these two Heroes of the Cylons can show them the way. Sharon says that she is with her, and they are dug out of the ruins of the building.

On Galactica

  • Caprica-Sharon has gone into labor; she passed out and her placenta detatched, and Dr. Cottle delivers the baby by C-section. It is premature and it's lungs aren't fully developed as a result, so it has to be put in an oxygen-incubator. As Caprica-Sharon predicted, it is a girl. Helo and Caprica-Sharon adore it together, and name her "Hera".
  • Meanwhile, President Roslin, Baltar, Admiral Adama, and Col. Tigh debate what to do with it. Baltar points out that it is half-human. Adama realizes the Cylons want it, and that the Cylons still hiding in the Fleet will try to make a move for it if they know about it.
  • President Roslin has decided to hide Hera to protect her, so she has Cottle convice Helo and Caprica-Sharon that their baby has died (using a fake). Caprica-Sharon goes into hysterics and nearly chokes Cottle before breaking down, sobbing.
  • In fact, Roslin has given her to a woman named Maya, who lost her baby in the Cylon attack. Maya adopts Hera, thinking she is a normal human child from a Pegasus officer.
  • Helo, helped by Chief Tyrol, spreads the "ashes" of Hera (actually faked) out the back of a Raptor into open space.
  • Number Six is devastated that Baltar "let" this happen and could not protect "their baby", though he says he did all he could. Number Six says that God's will was that Hera survive, that God's will was that "she would lead the next generation of God's children". In a rage, she says that Gaius has commited a sin, and his entire race will suffer God's vengeance.

Questions

  • What will D'anna do when she is re-embodied?
  • Who is Number One?
  • Based on reports of Lucy Lawless being asked if she wanted to "be God" and her current command behavior, could Number Three be based on a Count Iblis type character?
    • No. Number Three is a just a physical Cylon which will claim to be a God, Count Iblis was actually a God (God-like being).
    • Ron D. Moore has also stated in interviews that he does not intend to bring a Count Iblis character onto the Re-Imagined Series.
  • What model numbers are "Simon" and "Leoben Conoy" ?
  • Based on information mentioned in the Analysis, could the Cylons be patterning a gerontocratic form of leadship structure?
  • Given that Baltar's home was destroyed and Caprica-Six "died" in a nuclear explosion, how did Baltar survive?
    • In the Miniseries novelization, this is expanded upon; his house wasn't entirely destroyed (that is, not reduced to pebbles) and when Caprica-Six blocked the blast with her body it sheilded him enough; he was thrown through the house against a wall and a little hurt but did not die.
  • This episode raises new questions about the nature of Baltar-Six. Is she (merely) a projection from Baltar's subconscious mind or has she somehow been implanted into his psyche by the Cylons? It has already been established by the brainscan performed by Dr. Cottle that there is no cybernetic implant in Baltar's brain, at least none that is detectable by human technology. Also, in Ron Moore's podcast he seems to indicate that she is no more than a hallucination, produced by Baltar's subconsciousness. Her actions, however, do seem to be aimed at advancing a Cylon agenda.

Analysis

  • Apparently the documentary broadcast from the Fleet in "Final Cut" was not made widely available, since if Caprica-Six had seen it, she would have already known about Baltar's survival.
  • In the scene where Galactica-Sharon is downloaded into her new body, when another Sharon smiles and says "we love you Sharon", this mirrors how another Sharon said the same thing to her on the basestar in "Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part II", at which point she also freaked out.
  • There does not appear to be any pattern to the numbering scheme of the 12 Cylon models: Three (D'anna), Five (Doral), Six (Shelley Godfrey/Gina), Eight (Sharon), i.e. not all females are an even number, males an odd number.
    • However, these models do seem to get progressively younger the higher (perhaps, "most recent") their Number is: Three is eldest and has the number closest to one, while Eight is youngest and has the highest number out of these four.
  • Cylon society on Caprica appears to consist of mostly mimicking human behavior - clothing, apartments, cafe's, parks for relaxation, etc. In essence, the Cylons are merely trying to be what they have just exterminated - humans.
    • They have established previously that they consider humans to be more "real" and closer to God than they are ("this form brings us closer to God..."); they think that humans are more "real" and that if they wish to be real, they should adopt some aspects of what humanity is, but this doesn't necessarily stop them from being quite different from humanity.
  • As Caprica-Six and Galactica-Sharon pointed out, the Cylons' claim that they are superior to humans because humans still kill because of greed and jealousy, etc. is hypocritical. They point out the logical disconect of conducting genocide and murder in the name of an all-loving God. Further, Number Three's plan to "box" Caprica-Six and Galactica-Sharon, which would in effect be murdering them, also makes her a murderer like the humans she claims to be better than.
  • At various points in the series, Baltar's internal Number Six has been seen manipulating physical objects: a test-tube in "Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down", a chair in "Home, Part II", etc., which has led to the question of whether this is a continuity error, or if she is more real than she claims to be. In this episode, we seem to get an answer to this: Caprica-Six's hallucinatory Baltar makes a drink while in Galactica-Boomer's appartment and hands it to her...only for the camera to shift angles, the hallucination-Baltar to be gone, and to show that Caprica-Six is actually grasping at air. Thus it can be inferred that this is just a stylistic choice by the production team: whenever Number Six appears to be manipulating a physical object on Galactica, Baltar is hallucinating that she is doing this, and the camera is showing things that aren't "really" happening, from Baltar's perspective.
  • The Cylons did not expect their initial attack to be anywhere near as successful as it was. This would explain the apparently large number of Cylon military vessels showing up everywhere as the Cylons expected to fight a more protracted war against a larger surviving human military force.
  • Hera's being hidden away soon after her birth in order to protect her fits her messiah-status, as other messiah figures have often also been hidden after their birth in similar fashion, such as Jesus, Moses, Harry Potter, Superman, Luke Skywalker, etc.
    • This is also a common theme with tragic characters such as Oedipus Rex.

Notes

  • Anders refers to humanoid Cylons as "Skin Jobs" in this episode, another referrence to Blade Runner by the Re-Imagined Series. The Cylon Centurions are being referred to as "Bullet Heads".
  • The vision of Number Six that Baltar sees all the time is not the same person as the woman he was sleeping with on Caprica who used him to lower Colonial defenses: Caprica-Six's consciousness was downloaded into a new body. Chip-Six might be a duplicate, or something else.
  • Lee Adama is visible in a photograph in Sharon Valerii (Galactica copy)'s apartment in Delphi. However, Adama and Valerii had never served together prior to the events of the miniseries. This is probably a continuity error.
  • Apollo and Starbuck do not appear in this episode. This is the first episode that Apollo has never appeared in, and the third episode of the season in which Starbuck has not appeared (after "Fragged" and "Black Market").
    • As of this episode, the only characters that have appeared in every episode of the Re-Imagined Series are President Laura Roslin, Admiral William Adama, and Colonel Saul Tigh. Michael Hogan (Col. Tigh) is actually not one of the seven "regular" cast members, but he has still been in every episode to date.
  • Ricky Worthy (Cylon "Simon") and Callum Keith Rennie (Cylon "Leoben Conoy") do not actually appear in this episode. In several brief shots, body doubles dressed as their characters are seen from behind or in the distance, but these actors did not return for the episode.
  • We learn a lot of Cylon names in this episode: out of the 12 humanoid models of Cylon, besides the already-known "Number Six", the one who posed as human reporter "D'anna Biers" is model Number Three, the one who posed as PR representative "Aaron Doral" is model Number Five, and the one who infiltrated Galactica posing as the pilot "Sharon 'Boomer' Valerii" is model Number Eight.
  • A longstanding question has been answered: What do the Cylons call each other amongst themselves? They actually don't use the names of any human personas they might have infiltrated the Colonies with. "Number Six" is actually called "Number Six" in dialog for the first time in this episode (in the Miniseries, we were left with the cryptic "There are twelve models, I am number six"). It is revealed that Cylons just call and think of themselves as "Number Three" or "Three", etc. It was speculated that individual copies might be destinguished by using a serial number or other ID, but apparently Cylon society is based so much on the idea of unity and lack of individuality that they simply do not have designations for individual units. When Number Three refers to Galactica-Sharon, she just refers to her as "an Eight", etc. "Caprica-Six" is a makeshift nickname that was made up for the individual "celebrity" Number Six (probably because the Cylons had never developed a formal convention for naming individual units). Caprica-Six is sometimes called "Caprica" for short.
  • This gets a little confusing, because even though all of the Number Six copies on Caprica look and dress identically, copies that Caprica-Six walks by still recognize who she is.
  • "Caprica-Six" appears to be a take on the ad hoc naming convention developed by fans for telling the different Cylon copies appart: review sites and messageboards over time started destinguishing the copy of Boomer on Galactica and the copy of Boomer on Caprica as "Galactica-Sharon" and "Caprica-Sharon" for convenience. This loosley developed system then spread to other Cylons as they appeared ("Pegasus-Six", "Caprica-Doral", "Caprica-D'anna", etc.), though it isn't based on any official material (BattlestarWiki eventually adopted these terms of convenience as well). When Number Three remarks to "Caprica-Six" that her nickname is a little funny, because she's only one of hundreds of copies of "Number Six" on Caprica, this might be a small joke by the writers at the expense of fans.
  • Sharon showed difficulty in performing chin ups, but later showed no problem in moving pieces of concrete weighing at least 100 pounds.
    • She could have just been angry, and not actually appearing strained because it was physically hard.
    • One of the consistent features of both Galactica-Sharon and Caprica-Sharon has been the conflict between her "natural" Cylon Number Eight personality and her human Sharon personality. While probably intended that the two personalities should remain separate, with the Number Eight personality primary, it never worked out that way. In "Water", for example, Sharon reasserts herself before Number Eight can finish planting the charges. At this point, both Galactica-Sharon/Eight and Caprica-Sharon/Eight have their personalities all jumbled up, with the Sharon personality exerting the stronger influence but retaining knowledge of being a Cylon and being Number Eight. Anyway: the Sharon "code" would have to include imposed limitations on what she believes her own strength and physical abilities to be, or she'd be found out much, much more easily. Inconsistencies in her apparent physical abilities can therefore be explained along with inconsistencies of her mixed but not really integrated personalities.
  • Number Three appears to have some command functions based on her actions and behavior. These apparently include determining final disposition of other Cylon personalities.
  • Lucy Lawless once again uses her native New Zealand accent for D'anna Biers, even though at the end of "Final Cut" it was implied that her character normally doesn't.
  • Galactica-Sharon's old appartment number on Caprica was "502"
  • Much of the dialog in the episode recap is entirely new, and dubbed in to better summarize the segment.
  • According to RDM's podcast, there was an entire subplot in this episode in which Lucy Lawless's character "D'anna Biers" would interview President Roslin about rumors that the pregnant Cylon prisoner's baby had been born. Then "Galactica-Three" would try to kidnap the baby off of Galactica in collusion with Gina (Pegasus-Six). The subplot was cut for time (they wanted to spend more time focusing on events on Caprica), and also because they felt it made the episode very confusing; cutting between many different Cylon copies both on Caprica and Galactica. These scenes apparently were filmed, then cut, because promotional photos for this episode show pictures of D'anna Biers on Galactica (with her new hairstyle), so it will probably appear in deleted scenes released in the next DVD set.
  • Sharon has a pair of hand carved, wood elephants in her apartment. Caprica-Six asks her if they are from "Ithaca", which on Earth is an island off the coast of Greece and is the home of Odysseus in Homer's Odyssey.

Noteworthy Dialogue

  • Caprica-Sharon has gone into premature labor with her Hybrid baby:
Cottle: I find it absolutely amazing you people went to all the trouble to appear human, and didn't upgrade the plumbing.
  • "Caprica-Six" and a D'anna-copy walk past a crowd of other Cylons of various models, and they all keep turning their heads to look at Caprica-Six:
Caprica-Six: I still can't get used to this.
D'anna-copy: Well youre a Hero of the Cylon now. You're our first celebrity!
Caprica-Six: Oh, I'm just another Six
D'anna-copy: You're too modest. I'm just another Three...and they're Fives (motions at a Doral-model)..and Eights (motions at a Sharon-model). But you, everyone calls you "Caprica-Six"...like you're the only Six on the planet!
  • Anders and some resistance members are planning to bomb a cafe filled with humanoid Cylons:
Jean: Security is minimal: two Centurions patrol out front, third bullet-head walks the perimeter. Bullet-head walking perimeter makes random changes to his patrol, be tough to get past him.
Anders: All right, so we go under him. The storm drain leads directly to the garage underneath the cafe. There'll be dozens of Skin Jobs inside.
  • President Roslin, Baltar, Admiral Adama and Col. Tigh discuss what to do with the Hybrid baby:
Roslin: If the baby does survive, the question is: what do we do with it?
Baltar:: Do? What are you suggesting? That we throw it out of an airlock?
Roslin: I don't make suggestions Mr. Baltar, if I want to toss a baby out of an airlock I'd say so.

Official Statements

  • David Eick's video blog shows the crew preparation for filming a Cylon rebirthing scene, most likely for this episode.

Statistics

Guest Stars


Writing & Direction

Production Notes

  • Series 2 (2005 / 2006)
  • Production Number: 2.18
  • Airdate Order: 18 (of 20)

First Run Air Dates & Releases

  • UK Airdate: Date
  • US Airdate: 24 February 2006
  • DVD Release (UK): Date
  • DVD Release (US): Date
  • Nielsen Rating: X.X million households, XXX share
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