Boxing

This article is concerned with the Cylon process of boxing. Boxing, a sport and martial art, took place in the episode "Unfinished Business".

To box a Cylon means to indefinitely download a particular humanoid Cylon's consciousness from their body into cold storage (apparently a form of computer data dump).

To a Cylon, boxing is apparently a state of unconsciousness, and is practically a form of permanent death. Boxing is done with a Humanoid Cylon whose memories appear "corrupted" by extended or intense human contact. It is also done to sleeper agents who become psychologically maladjusted if their fictional persona tries to reject their Cylon nature.

The recovered Number Six known as Caprica-Six (who died protecting Gaius Baltar when his house is destroyed in the Miniseries) and a Number Eight once known as Sharon "Boomer" Valerii are threatened with boxing by a copy of Number Three shortly after their return. Their "Hero of the Cylon" status and extended human associations threaten the Cylon status quo because the two began to become individuals with differing personalities from their models (Downloaded).

After the incident at the Temple of Five, in which the same copy of Number Three who threatened to box Caprica-Six and Boomer went against the will of other Cylons, the decision is made to box not just her but her entire model line. The process of boxing apparently entails killing off the particular Cylon who is going to be boxed and allowing them to resurrect. Similar to Cylon resurrection, another Cylon sits by their rebirthing tank and informs them that the decision has been made to box them. A device on the side of the tank, literally a small metal box, is then removed and the Cylon in the tank deactivates, their consciousness having been downloaded into the box, and their body is stored away in the Resurrection Ship (Rapture).

As revealed in the podcast for Rapture, the boxing of the Threes is the first model-wide boxing in Cylon history, which means there are 11 remaining active Cylon models.