No Exit

"No Exit"; An episode of the Re-imagined Series
Episode No.	Season 4, Episode 15
Writer(s)	Ryan Mottesheard
Story by
Director	Gwyneth Horder-Payton
Assistant Director
Special guest(s)
Production No.	417
Nielsen Rating	1,738,000 viewers (Live+SD)
US airdate	February 13, 2009
CAN airdate	February 13, 2009
UK airdate	February 17, 2009
DVD release	28 July 2009
Population	39,556 survivors ( 47)
Additional Info
	Full Credits
Episode Chronology
Related Information
	Official Summary
	R&D Skit – View
	[[IMDB:tt{{{imdb}}}\|IMDb entry]]
	Listing of props for this episode
Related Media
	@ BW Media
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Overview

Ellen Tigh is resurrected, and she knows all the answers. Samuel Anders' condition releases a flood of visions and crucial memories that help the Final Five in the Fleet understand their involvement in the great scheme of things.

Summary

Teaser

A unique sequence begins this episode, which summarizes in greater detail the origin of the Cylons. The episode begins with the phrase "This has all happened before and it will happen again" as a vista of the decimated Earth appears, now known not only as the home of the Thirteenth Tribe but as an all-Cylon colony.
The opening sequence shows original Cylon Centurions in a Cylon War-era Raider, and a clip of Centurions firing upon humans during the events of Razor.
As the Cylon War-era scenes are replaced by present-day scenes of the return of the Cylons, the Fall of the Twelve Colonies and the struggles of the Fleet, the screen text shows: "The Cylons were created by man. They rebelled. Then they vanished. Forty years later, they came back, they evolved. Fifty thousand, two-hundred ninety-eight human survivors, hunted by the Cylons. Eleven models are known—one was sacrificed."

A flashback scene shows Ellen Tigh taking a tainted cup of alcohol from her husband, Saul Tigh, who was obliged to end her life for her conspiring with the Cylons (Exodus, Part II).

As scenes of Ellen flash, an elaborate visualization of a Cylon datastream (in a rather Matrix-like sequence) appears, concluding with Ellen's resurrection in a resurrection tank.
At first, Ellen screams and is extremely frightened and disoriented, all alone except for one Centurion on guard, stoic and indifferent to her screams. But soon she takes in her environment, and dramatically calms herself as if realizing or remembering something important. She calls out to the Centurion pleasantly to help her out of the tank, telling it, "It's okay. You can do that much," as if Ellen knew the programming restrictions of the Centurion.

The scene shifts to present day in the Fleet, cleaning up and attending to the wounded from the mutiny.
In sickbay, Dr. Cottle tends to Samuel Anders's bullet wound to the head inflicted during the mutiny. He prepares to drill holes in Anders's head to relieve pressure from the hematoma caused by the bullet lodged in his skull.
Anders, his head shaved and in a brace, recalls various scenes of himself in the past, saying outloud, "Among bright stars, I'm lost. There's a new tide. All the forgotten faces, all the forgotten children, we seek the forgotten language..."
When Kara Thrace demands Cottle to take out the bullet, Cottle tells her that relieving the pressure is required before he can call up another surgeon from the ship Inchon Velle, to remove the bullet.
Anders continues to experience visions and talk of them as he recalls visions of the Temple of Five, the dead shoreline of Earth, and how Ellen Tigh loved the water.

The scene shifts back to Ellen Tigh after her resurrection as the timeline is given between Ander's surgery and her return: Eighteen months prior.
A Number One appears to Ellen, sitting by the tank. "Hello, John," she says.
When he objects to that name, Ellen recalls that she named the Number Ones after her own father. The One finishes sarcastically that Ellen also designed his model in Ellen's father's likeness.
They discuss Saul's decision to kill her on New Caprica. As John argues over Saul's humanity, Ellen questions if John has changed in any significant way in her absence, saying that she had high hopes for him.
He leaves, promising to send her some clothes.

Galen Tyrol shows Admiral William Adama something very disturbing in the FTL engine room. "I first noticed it when I pulled the sync coil," Tyrol answers, pointing to a series of stress cracks along the fuselage of Galactica.
Adama asks Tyrol if he would accept reinstatement as Deck Chief of the ship. When Tyrol reminds Adama of Tyrol's true nature, Adama says, extending a hand, "Is that right? So's my XO." Tyrol accepts. "Fix my ship, chief."

The corridors of Galactica are filled with wounded. Back in sickbay, Anders awakens, asking Kara to gather up the others of his kind. He remembers everything about his past as a Cylon and its significance.

Act 1

The scene moves to twelve months prior to the mutiny aftermath, back in the Cylon fleet.
John discusses how the "mortal experience" that Ellen endured had left her practically unchanged. When she asks if he still has nightmares, John tells Ellen that, contrary to the programming she developed for the Number One models, John and his kind had removed the sleep subroutine to avoid dreaming altogether some twenty years prior.
Ellen counters that, if John believes that he and his kind were poisoned by human traits she developed as well as the Centurion's earlier belief in a "living God", then why did his kind spend so much time pursuing darker emotions such as vengeance and murder. John answers that, because his Centurion fore-bearers were slaves to humanity, he wants justice for that.
Ellen tells him that he doesn't have to be that way as Sharon Valerii enters, carrying a tray of fruits and cheese. Ellen is happy to see someone familiar from her old life, noting to Valerii that John is taking a risk exposing her to Ellen.
Realizing how John was likely manipulating Valerii through sexual means, Ellen quips if John had discussed the "Swirl" with him. A visibly uncomfortable John leaves but not before asking Valerii to talk about the flaws in Ellen's humanoid Cylon design. Ellen warns Valerii to make up her own mind about John's crusade for vengeance against mankind.

Present day, back in Galactica's sickbay, Anders tells Tyrol, Tory Foster and Saul Tigh of their past lives on Earth, that Foster and Tyrol were lovers. When Saul recalls trying to get Ellen out of debris as the nukes hit Earth, Anders confirms that all five of them were downloaded to a research ship high above the planet, inferring that the Five were warned that an end was coming.
When Tigh questions if the Five invented resurrection and Foster questions why such technology was needed when the Earth-bound Cylons could have children, Anders corrects, saying that they re-invented it: organic memory transfer, originally a technology of the Thirteenth Tribe on Kobol.
Kara Thrace, also at Anders's bedside, strongly asks Anders to rest but he refuses, needing to tell everything he recalls.
Anders recalls that resurrection fell into disuse when the Cylons of his type learned to reproduce biologically. The Five, in their past lives, worked tirelessly to bring that ability back.
It was Ellen who made the intuitive leap, Anders recalls, before Cottle arrives and orders everyone out.

On Colonial One, Laura Roslin and Lee Adama stand in the Quorum meeting room, recalling past friends.
Adama indicates that, while the Quorum should be rebuilt, that he believes that the people of the Fleet should have a different representation that foregoes the old Colonial ties.
Roslin agrees but tells Adama that he will pick the new Quorum while she sits back, still as President, but in title only. Roslin is hand-picking Adama, no stranger to strong civilian leadership, as her eventual successor to the presidency. "It's time I let someone else do the heavy lifting."
Roslin tells him that he is the right one for the job, reminding him that sometimes, in trying to the right thing, he doesn't always do the smartest thing. An ominous cough by Roslin recalls the ultimate reason why she entrusts Adama to the civilian leadership.

Act 2

Tyrol is guiding the admiral through the bowels of the ship again. This time, he shows Admiral Adama more serious structural failure of the battlestar's superstructure and hull.
When Adama questions how such metal fatigue could have occurred, Tyrol reminds him that, not only was Galactica a very old ship (over 50 years old), but that the men who constructed the battlestar, perhaps in a rush to get them to service for the Cylon War, cut corners, using inferior metals and workmanship.
Tyrol notes that some repairs can be made. Adama agrees, but tells him that the repair teams should be all human.

Anders tells Tigh and the group that the reason the Five left the destroyed Earth and headed back to the Twelve Tribes was to warn all the tribes that they must take good care of the Cylons they built or suffer the same fate as Earth. But it was too late: the First Cylon War between the Colonies had already started on their arrival.
Tory Foster questions why the Five arrived two thousand years later. Anders notes that jump drives weren't invented yet. The Five's ship traveled at near-light speed, experiencing the effects of relativistic space travel where time slowed for them on their journey back, allowing them to stay alive.
After Anders recovers from a fit of pain, he continues. The Five met with the Centurions, told them that, if they would stop the war against the Twelve Colonies of Kobol, the Five would aid them in further development of organic Cylons. The Centurions were already experimenting with the beings known as the Hybrids (Razor), but nothing that could live on its own.
Anders tells the group that, in exchange for peace, the Five helped develop the eight humanoid Cylon models and gave them resurrection as well.
Thrace stops him. "You said 'eight'." They all realize that the "Significant Seven" was originally eight models. One model was missing.
Before Anders could clarify, he experiences a seizure.

Act 3

Ellen Tigh's return flashes back to ten months prior, as the star of the algae planet goes supernova and the Cylon fleet retreats.
A series of displays show images of the planet. Ellen recalls the original name of the temple: the "Temple of Hopes", built 3,000 years ago by the Thirteenth Tribe. From there, the Tribe was shown the way to Earth by God, Ellen recalls.
John tells Ellen that the Temple of Five's secrets encouraged one of his kind, the Number Three known as D'Anna Biers, to see the identities of the Five. John tells Ellen that, as a result, he boxed all of the Threes.
Ellen notes that the Threes can be unboxed, unlike the Number Sevens, which were permanently disposed of.
John tells Ellen that the Threes will not be unboxed because of the "carnival trick" left in the Temple's mechanism that revealed the faces of the Five and exposed their identities of the Five to the Threes. Ellen counters. She notes that the Final Five merely backtracked the path of their ancestors, finding their temple. She believes that God orchestrated the events.
John laments, angrily, how he was unable to experience the recent supernova only in human terms and their comparatively limited perceptions, as opposed to what the Centurions could experience.
When Ellen replies that the eight models were designed to be as human as possible, John counters that he wants to be more like a true machine and not a machine with human limits.
John leaves and Valerii asks if Ellen regrets what she has done in the humanoid Cylon design. Ellen answers in the negative. In creating the humanoid Cylons as they are, Ellen believes she has given them something important: free will, including the ability to love freely. But Valerii questions who she could possibly love in the universe--other Cylons, even humanity.

Back on Galactica in present day, Saul Tigh and Tory await outside sickbay as Galen Tyrol returns. Anders is being prepped for surgery. As Tyrol reminds him that the Five were responsible for stopping the First Cylon War, Tigh talks about how the Five were responsible for creating the humanoid Cylon race, inferring how the Five were, in turn, responsible for the second war that destroyed the Colonies.
Tory Foster reminds both that the humans on Kobol made the Five first. Tigh believes that, while the Cylons must own the responsibility of the humanoid Cylons and their acts, the Five must own up to their actions, just as the humans must own what they did, emphasizing that blame can't be entirely placed on the humans alone.

As Dr. Gerard shows the brain scans to Cottle, Thrace and Anders, Gerard indicates that it was lucky that the bullet didn't cause greater injury. Anders's speech is breaking up as he worries that the memories he has recalled might be lost to further surgery. Anders tries to talk more but his speech breaks up more in to strings of unintelligible words--aphasia, affected by the injury.
Anders tries to object to the surgery, to speak further to the others, but Thrace gives the go-ahead for the surgery. She tells Anders that he has as much time to speak with the others as the surgeons need to prep him.

The scene backtracks to four months prior, when the Resurrection Hub is destroyed.
John arrives at Ellen Tigh's bedside with some liquor in a glass. He tells her of the destruction of the Hub and the imminent extinction of the Cylons. Pleading for her help to rebuild the resurrection process, John tells her that, while the Colonials destroyed the hub, they weren't aware of The Colony where Ellen's equipment lies in wait.
But Ellen tells him that she knows only part of the system needed to rebuild resurrection. The others in the Five would be needed for a chance to rebuild the system.
John does not take Ellen's response well, believing that Ellen is refusing to help out of spite. He threatens Ellen by telling her that he will literally open her skull to tap into what knowledge she has in her head directly from her brain, if he has to.

Act 4

Back in sickbay in present day, Anders tells of the first humanoid created, Cavil, who in turn helped build the remaining humanoid Cylons. He tells them that Ellen believed that the original Centurion's belief in God would stop the cycle of violence between the humans and Cylons.
But Cavil was spiteful and did not believe in God or mercy. He turned on the Five and killed them by trapping them in a compartment and venting the oxygen. When the Five downloaded, he boxed them (as he did with the Threes, much later). Later, Cavil unboxed the Five but implanted them with new memories, a sleeper-like setup not unlike how Sharon Valerii once was. He unboxed Saul Tigh first, then Ellen and the rest later.
Anders mentions that they all saw warning signs on Earth that were invisible to other people, but then his aphasia kicks in strongly. Layne Ishay tells everyone to leave. The surgeons are ready.
Anders tells of Number Seven, one model they called Daniel. Anders screams to Saul Tigh to stay with the Fleet, that a miracle was about to happen.

Colonel Tigh returns to his quarters where Caprica-Six rests. She tells Tigh that the baby in her womb began to move recently. He later feels the baby move as well.

Back in time on the baseship, Ellen draws a picture of Saul as John returns, commenting on how she should update the picture to include the eye patch.
John tells her that the Simons have readied for Ellen's surgery, but Ellen asks John that, despite the many opportunities he has had to eradicate the Five, he has tortured them in various ways instead. She questions his ultimate reason for keeping the Five alive as Valerii (dressed in a Cylon flight suit) listens in. She concludes that John wanted the Five to witness the evils of Humanity before dying, so that when they were resurrected, they would admit they were wrong to have given John human traits.
Ellen tells him that, while John claims to be a perfect machine, his petty hatred and jealousy has caused problems not only for the Seven, but ended development of the Daniel models. John retorts that if he is in fact an imperfect creation, then it is because she made him so.
Ellen tries to reconcile, to apologize and forgive John, but he rejects her and leaves.

Act 5

Tyrol's team continue their work to repair the battlestar as the admiral looks on. Tyrol tells him that he began to think about damage to the battlestar's superstructure that can't be seen.
Using a device that reveals damage through spectral imaging, he shows Adama that the battlestar's bones are rotten. When he suggests that they use a Cylon technology that would grow into the metal, Adama strongly objects to the idea of Cylon technology being infused so closely into a ship he had prided himself on being resistant to Cylon infiltration.

Anders is ready for surgery, unconscious, as Kara Thrace speaks some final words of encouragement.

The admiral returns to his quarters, takes a drink from the bottle, and rinses his face in a sink. When he looks up to the mirror, he discovers cracks in the bathroom wall, shocking him with the extent of Galactica's damage.

Back on the baseship, Sharon Valerii comes to take Ellen to surgery. She looks down at the sketch of Saul Tigh and asks Ellen how she can deal with knowing that he may hate her for everything she's done. Ellen responds that, maybe, Saul doesn't, because "love is like that sometimes." Sharon then asks her to put on a surgical gown, which Ellen refuses, believing it to be a useless theatrical prop.

As they make their way down a corridor, Ellen asks Valerii if she has thought through taking part in John's plans. Valerii responds that she has — and surprises Ellen by bringing her to a waiting Raptor. Valerii then races the Raptor out of the baseship, which launches pursuing Raiders. Dodging their gunfire, the Raptor jumps away.

Cottle returns to hand Thrace the bullet. Surprised that Anders hasn't awakened, Gerard and Cottle are setting up an EEG to see how Anders's brain is handling things.
Later, Thrace speaks to the still-unconscious Anders, but nurse Ishay tells her not to bother: Anders's brain activity is essentially zero.

Admiral Adama calls Tyrol over the phone after several drinks. "Chief, do whatever you have to do to save our girl."

Notes

Prior to this episode being aired, the episode title (and production information) were released on a call sheet posted by Wil McQueen.^[2]
No Exit is the title of a 1944 existentialist play by Jean-Paul Sartre. The story references three people who are trapped in Hell, shown as a stately room with chairs and sofas. Each character in the play loathes the other two characters. The play contains the notable line, "Hell is other people!"
As of this episode there were 39,556 survivors. At the start of the Cylon pursuit there were 50,298 survivors, meaning that more than 10,742 have been killed since the pursuit began (because the decrease by deaths is offset by births).
It has been 18 months since Ellen Tigh downloaded into a new body.
When Sharon Valerii comes to escort Ellen to surgery, Ellen sardonically remarks that that she "should have brought a tumbrel." A tumbrel is a two-wheeled cart used to carry various loads, particularly on a farm.[1] For the viewing audience, this is a cultural reference to the French Revolution in the 1780's, when many condemned prisoners were carried to the guillotine in tumbrels. In the show's universe, she may be referring to a parallel events on Kobol and/or the Thirteen Colonies.
Inchon is the name of a port city in Korea and it was the location of a major battle during the Korean War. During the battle, UN forces under the command of General Douglas MacArthur turned the tables on their communist adversaries and went on to drive the North Korean Army out of the Korean peninsula entirely.
Anders' seemingly-incoherent ramblings in the beginning of the episode include lines from Milton's Paradise Lost: "he it was, whose guile/Stird up with Envy and Revenge, deceiv'd The Mother of Mankind" (Book I, ln. 34-5); "The mind is its own place, and in it self/Can make a Heav'n of Hell, a Hell of Heav'n." (ibid. ln. 254-55)
Kate Vernon's father was also named John.
The eleven known models in the introduction are shown in the order they were revealed to be Cylons to the audience: Number Six, Number Two, Number Five, Number Eight, Number Four, Number Three, Number One, Galen Tyrol, Samuel Anders, Tory Foster, Saul Tigh.
Cavil's remark about wanting justice for "(his) forebearers on the Centurion side of the family" is amusingly ironic, considering that the Ones made the call to replace the sentient, if not fully sapient, 0005s with the nonsentient drones that the Cylons are currently using.
- Given that the Final Five were allied with the original Colonial Centurions, and the whole point of their journey was to tell humans to treat AIs well, it can't have been their idea to scrap the old Centurions or to install inhibitors in the new ones, can it? Cavil's the only real candidate for that one.
The experiments Anders refers to, which produced the First Hybrid and subsequent Hybrids, are shown in "Razor" and the "Razor Flashbacks".
The unborn child of Caprica-Six and Saul Tigh is male, as shown by the fact his parents refer to him as "he". This fact is established in the extended version of "A Disquiet Follows My Soul" but not the aired version.

Analysis

When Ellen was resurrected, her reaction to the event was very similar to Boomer's first resurrection in Downloaded. However, unlike Boomer, it appears that Ellen's original memories were reactivated and immediately her fear disappeared. This implies that the memory block that each of the Final Five had imposed on them is limited-- i.e 'hardwired' to their particular current physical body. Given that Anders' memories are there and not 'deleted', just suppressed, indicates that if all of the Final Five were reborn, they would have regained all of their collective memories.
- As confirmed by the show writers, the Cavil model had purposely tampered and prevented the other 6 humanoid Cylon models from remembering or thinking about the Final Five. This appeared to be a physical limitation imposed on all of their copied bodies.
It is unclear to what extent Cylon memory tampering is a physical/biological process carried out on the body as opposed to memories being captured and adjusted/deleted when stored in a Cylon database and then re- introduced into a body -as is what seems to occur during boxing.
Cavil clearly intends for the Five to rejoin the other Cylons one day, as he has not totally destroyed (if this is at all possible to do to blocked and stored memories) either the original memories of the Final Five or the knowledge the other six Cylons have of the Five. He has simply suppressed it (as indicated by D'Anna's flashes of the Five when downloading), presumably with the intention of revealing his plan and aforementioned knowledge in due time. Of course Cavil wants the Final Five to return to the fold, but on his terms.
- The resurrected Ellen has a starkly - completely - different personality and attitude compared to her "false memories" counterpart. This Ellen carries many motherly qualities and even has shown love, sadness, and care towards Cavil (John), and is far more intelligent.
- Anders also shows signs of a more intelligent and spiritual personality upon regaining his memories.
Cavil's attempt to block the memories of the Final Five was not completely successful. Numerous times, especially their time on the post-nuclear Earth, memories from their past would resurface. This explains:

How Tyrol was able to sense and find the Temple of Five.
The visions that Anders, Tyrol, Tory, and Tigh had on Earth.

Cavil not only knew about the Final Five, but he purposely kept their identities a secret and erased their identities from any other Cylon that knew. According to Ellen and Anders, Cavil (John) had developed a warped sense of morality. This morality eventually led to his killing of the Final Five and boxing of their personalities. His path eventually devolved to actions motivated by sadism and jealously upon which he would allow each of the Final Five to be resurrected, but with no memories of their past and implanted with false memories. His motivation for this act was to show the Five how unworthy of existence that humans were. Given that he kept at least one body for each of them, he left open the possibility for them to someday return. However, he would keep them secret unless they agreed with him, like he did with Ellen.
Given Cavil's warped sense of justice, he is likely the Cylon that triggered the second war. He claims to want justice for the Centurions indicating he may have been the one that precipitated what happened.
Cavil may be lying about his motives: he claims that he wants justice for the Centurions being enslaved, but demonstrates a lack of respect for them by installing inhibitors that made them non-sentient.
- Cavil's reaction to the Rebel Cylons' disabling of the neural inhibitor may be based on his knowledge of what had occurred with the 13th Tribe's Centurions and with the Twelve Colonies' Centurions. He may be worried that another Centurion uprising would occur.
In the opening Galactica based scene it was evident that Galactica was still suffering from the after-effects of the mutiny as the wounded was in sickbay with an overflow of patients in the outside corridor. The population count during the opening credits was 39,556. That means 47 people had died by the end of "Blood on the Scales". Two of those deaths are of Gaeta and Zarek so it was 45 deaths during the second half of the mutiny, from 10:30 hours to 15:32 hours, including the Quorum members and their aides. Add this to the 40 deaths that happened in "The Oath" you have 85 deaths that occurred during the 9 hour mutiny, 06:32 hours when Zarek was sprung to 15:32 hours when Adama and Tigh retook the CIC, beginning with the death of Peter Laird shortly before 07:00 hours. That is about 9.4 deaths per hour average, but even worse considering the killings didn't really start in earnest until a little after 09:00 hours. a 6.5 hour period making it roughly 13.1 deaths per hour.
During Boomer's first meeting with Ellen, she offers Boomer an apple from a plate of food. In Judeo-Christian mythology apples are commonly believed to be the fruit of the tree of knowledge that gave Adam and Eve knowledge at the price of their innocence (the fruit is not actually named in the text). While Boomer declined the offered apple, she later did begin to think for herself and forgave Ellen for what she did to the Cylon race and helped her escape from Number One.
The humanoid Cylon civilization known as the Thirteenth Tribe reproduced sexually for generations by the time the members of the Final Five were born. Each of them had a Cylon mother and a Cylon father.
There are two possible reasons as to why Adama was initially unwilling to use Cylon technology to repair Galactica.

It stemmed from Adama's great love and pride in the Galactica. This love was demonstrated several times during the course of the series, such as when he refused to allow a computer network to be installed. It was also seen in his facial and body reactions whenever he was confronted with the degraded condition of his ship. Adama's appalled reaction when he finds out that corners were cut in the original construction of Galactica in this episode further confirms this.
Another possible reason for his insistence that no Cylon technology be installed in Galactica could be a reaction to prevent another mutiny on the ship. He had no qualms of upgrading Galactica's and the Fleet's FTL drives with Cylon technology initially. He even permitted Cylons to do the installs originally, but post-mutiny, when confronted with needing a crew to repair Galactica's internal skeleton, Adama insisted on a human crew. His demand that the repairs be done without Cylon interface may have been a result of him trying to not repeat what had sparked the recently ended mutiny in the first place.

At the same time, Adama's reversal towards the end of the episode further indicates that one of Adama's greatest strengths is the ability to admit when he is wrong and to do whatever it takes to survive.
Tyrol once more proves that he is a brilliant engineer, something that he clearly retained from before his original memories were blocked, given that Anders identifies him as the genius behind much of Resurrection technology.
Despite having re-invented Resurrection technology, the Final Five and their civilization had not developed FTL Jump technology, although they did have lightspeed capable drives that allowed subluminal travel but had the side effect of time dilation. By the time the Five reached the Twelve Colonies, the twelve tribes and their own Cylon opponents had the use of FTL which the Twelve Colonies developed independently. Inversely the Twelve Colonies had no access to Resurrection technology. The Final Five presumably integrated FTL into all their future Cylon technology.
Saul Tigh's military history in the First Cylon War is revealed to be a fabrication. Given how detailed his memories are, they may have been extracted from a captured and experimented-on Colonial Serviceman- such experimentation was seen to have happened during the First Cylon War (Razor). This was also alluded to near the end of the episode when Cavil explains to Ellen that they had progress significantly in obtaining memories. Cavil's plan to seed the Final Five into humanity on the Colonies would have needed significant infiltration of Colonial databases to create fake identities, service records and family records. Tigh's record was foolproof enough to ensure he was re-activated into Colonial Service between the two Cylon wars. The Cylon superiority in computer infiltration probably made this relatively easy.
The Final Five were warned of the coming apocalypse on Earth by images that no one else could see. Sam mentions that the messenger he saw was a woman, whereas Tory saw a man. Galen thought, at least at first, that he had a chip in his head (as with Baltar).
Cylon infiltration of the Twelve Colonies began much earlier than two or so years before the Cylon attack, as Cavil would have had to work to install Tigh into his assumed role as a demobbed fighter pilot 30 years previously. It is not explained why Cavil waited so long before introducing Anders and Foster and Tyrol. As they do not seem to have as long a 'human' history as Tigh or have aged as much, there must have been a gap of over a decade, possibly two.
Given Tigh has been seen in flashback as significantly younger than he appears now (Scattered), it seems that the Final Five age normally or at least age at some rate. Clearly William Adama would have noticed if his XO had not aged in 30 years. Of course this flashback sequence was shot and written before the producers chose Tigh to be one of the Final Five, rendering it potentially tricky in the continuity of the show; that said, the issue was addressed in dialogue in "Revelations" when Adama pointed out how Tigh used to have hair when they met and reiterated the length of time he'd known him.
The Final Five can resurrect or be "reborn" in the same fashion that the Significant Seven can. It is not clear what age each of the Final Five's birthing tank bodies are kept at in stasis however. Given that Tigh was younger when he appeared in flashbacks following his seeding into the Colonies by Cavil, his stasis body (if one is being kept by Cavil as one was kept for Ellen) might be close to that age, and his resurrection (unlikely at this point given the loss of the Hub) might well result in him being reborn 30 years younger. Exploring this aspect of Cylon resurrection is, of course, hampered by the fact that the cast of the show are aging.
When the Final Five resurrect, their memories are restored, suggesting the mental blocks only exist in their current bodies. However when the Seven Cylons resurrect, they still have no memories of the Final Five. This indicates that Cavil might well have had to kill and box all the active numbered Cylons once he had boxed the Final Five, allowing him to completely wipe the other six model's memories of the Final Five (as opposed to simply 'blocking' them), or hardwiring every one of the six numbered Cylons bodies (and by default the resulting copies) to suppress information of the Final Five. Killing any active Cylon models who had seen the Final Five before this would have been the only way he could have concealed the identities of the Final Five and effectively 'start over'. If this is so Cavil's brutal actions towards his own fellow six models extends well back before the Cylon Civil War.
There have been a number of vague hints thus far that the Number Ones seem to have a deeper knowledge of things, especially their own origin than the other Cylon models, as well as being, by far, the most adamant about not finding out who the Final Five are and insisting that it is part of their programming. This episode finally reveals that the Number Ones do know more than all of the other models, and are in fact responsible for much of the Cylons' programming, especially their knowledge of the Final Five's existence but block on discovering more about them other than the fact that they exist. The other Cylons' willingness and ability to find out more about them clearly indicates that the Ones coding skills were limited in comparison to the Final Five's, and/or they had greatly underestimated (or perhaps undervalued) the free will given them by the Final Five.
While still giving no hint as to their nature, the fact that the Final Five all saw apparitions, peculiar to each of them, warning them of the coming Apocalypse further reinforces the fact that the visions of Baltar, Caprica Six, and possibly Kara as well are more than mere hallucinations. Added to this the fact that the Final Five did not build the Temple of Five (which they call the Temple of Hopes) nor did they modify it to show their faces, seems to clearly indicate that there is some other power at work in these events, what that power is, and what its goals are remains to be seen.
It is important to note that, rather than being the enemies of humanity, the Final Five have, quite literally, devoted their entire existence to ending the vicious cycle between human and Cylon that seems to have been played out at least 3 times.
It makes logical sense that, after a cataclysmic event and exodus the technology of a given people would take a significant step backwards, since the ships would eventually run out of power, and it would be a long time before they would be able to re-create the same technology. And given the challenge of surviving in the early years after such an event, it also makes sense that, after the original travelers died out, much of their knowledge and memory would be lost, save in written texts, which, to their less technologically advanced descendants, would mean little. It also makes sense that, when the technology of that people advanced to the point were they could create artificial intelligence that they would use it to ease their own burdens, thus creating an intelligent slave race that would eventually rebel if treated badly. That would probably happen even if all technology hadn't been lost, as seen from the miniseries, Baltar is questioning why they aren't allowed to make artificial intelligences and the newer battlestars have networked computers. People would always eventually come back to the thought that they could create a race of slave machines.
Cavil (John) engages in actions that reveals traits of an Oedipus Complex In Greek mythology Oedipus killed his own father and married his own mother, engaging in sexual relations and having children with her. However, Oedipus did not know at the time they were his parents. The sexual relationship between Cavil and Ellen was Oedipal in three senses: She is his creator and he is made in her father's physical image in addition to being given her father's name. In addition, he tortured and abused Saul Tigh, his father and husband of Ellen who were husband and wife both in the distant past and on New Caprica. The major difference is that they are not biologically related to Cavil (as far as it is known) and Cavil knew that Ellen and Tigh were his "parents" unlike Oedipus.
In the same vein, Cavil's relationship with Boomer is akin to brother-sister incest.
The relationships between Tigh and Six and between Tyrol and Boomer are also technically Oedipal, and like Oedipus, they didn't know the relationship to each other as "father" and "daughter" at the time of their first meetings. Currently, Saul and Caprica Six do know of the quasi parent-child relationship, as do Tyrol and Sharon Valerii. Cavil's relationship with Ellen and Tigh is more familial as seen thus far by the actions and words of Ellen including "I love you John, because I made you," and her attempt to hug him implying a mother-son relationship. Since Saul Tigh and Caprica Six have no direct memory of their prior relationship, there are no feelings of pseudo-incestuous implications.
John Cavil's killing of Daniel, the Number 7 model and the destruction of the Seven's copies mirror the biblical (and Koran) story of Cain and Abel in which Cain murders Abel to gain God's favor. God, Cain and Abel's creator (through Adam and Eve) had favored Abel over Cain when he showed preference for an animal sacrifice Abel made over Cain's offering of food stuffs and Cain resented it. Similarly, Cavil felt that Ellen, his and Daniel's creator, favored Daniel over him (Ellen conceded the possibility that she did) and subsequently destroyed him. In a further parallel Cain was Adam and Eve's first born. Cavil was the first creation of the Final Five, hence his Number One designation while like Abel Daniel was a later birth, in Daniel's case, presumably, creation Number 7 making him Cavil's younger "brother" like Abel was to Cain.
Another interpretation of Daniel's role could be that his character is linked to the Biblical Daniel, considered a prophet by Christianity. The name "Daniel" means "judged by God". He was a cultured member of the Jewish nobility and became famous for the interpretation of dreams. The most well-known incident was when he was called from exile to interpret a mysterious handwriting by an angel on King Belshazzar's wall, following a sacrilegious feast. He revealed that the days of his kingdom were numbered; indeed, the King was slain that night and a transfer of power occurred. This story, taking into account the mysterious painting on Kara Thrace's wall and her past experiences, could provide a link between the shifting power patterns in the Human-Cylon long-standing power struggle and her special destiny as the harbinger of death, shaping the new order.
The relationship between Cavil and Ellen has a mirror in the relationships that the Lords of Kobol tended to have, specifically Zeus and Hera (who were brother and sister and married).
- This connection between the atheistic Cavil the monotheistic Ellen and the polytheistic gods that they both reject is a perfect example of multi-layered irony.
At the core of things, Cavil appears to be driven by a sense of bitterness and self-hatred. He sees his humanoid body as a prison that limits his abilities and the way he perceives things. He believes that he could have been created to be something much more. In short, Cavil hates his own existence and he holds the Five accountable for having created him in the first place. He also fears that he truly is a disappointment to his creators.
Lee Adama's suggestion that the new Quorum represent the people on the individual ships of the Fleet rather than the Twelve Colonies, indicates that he realizes that the old system is broken and needs to be rebuilt — something which Dualla told him previously during Baltar's trial. The people of the Fleet have aligned themselves according to their "home" ships rather than the now non-existent Colonies. Both Roslin and Lee have come realize this and determine that the people must be represented differently if democracy is to survive.
When Gerard tells Anders and Starbuck where the bullet is lodged in Anders' brain, Anders instantly supplies the information as to what that area of the brain does, and realizes that is why he is remembering everything. This proves that, while Tyrol may have done most of the work on re-inventing resurrection, and Ellen was the one who made it work, all of them helped, as Anders clearly has detailed knowledge of how the brain works. This would also lend some credence to Ellen's claim that she alone could not rebuild resurrection.
Right before his seizure, Sam Anders saw the other final four and Kara Thrace glowing. This could be a significant vision or merely the result of something pressing on his visual cortex. The music is heard during this scene.
Although we can now be sure that the Final Five had the same personal names in their old lives as they do now, none of their surnames have yet been used in relation to their original selves.
This episode further displays the Cavils' unity of thought and personality that none of the other models have displayed. After the destruction of the Hub, the original Cavil who started the Civil War, who called Boomer his 'pet Eight' was killed by D'Anna. However, the Cavil who provides a drink to Ellen carries the same thoughts and conclusions as the recently deceased Cavil. This further propagates the notion that the Cavils desire to be more machine than human as each particular Cavil does not appear to show any divergent or creative thought from each other. They appear to all share the same memories and train of thought while other models like the Sixes and Eights have shown time and time again that each individual in the model line can break from the pack so to speak.
In a not-so-subtle hint to the audience, when Boomer asks Ellen why would she want to love humans and who would she want to love, immediately the scene shifts to Tyrol walking to the waiting area outside of sickbay.
Ishay's cold response to Kara after Anders' surgery is a subtle hint of the disdain that Ishay has towards the Cylons. Unlike Doc Cottle (who treats his patients the same, human or Cylon), Ishay's facial responses in the last couple of episodes have shown extreme discomfort of treating the Cylons. She will do her job, but her response to Kara's attempts to speak to Anders post-surgery displayed a cold-heartedness towards her "patient." This flies against what is typically prescribed by doctors of comatose patients who would encourage family members to speak to their loved ones in order to stimulate brain activity and maybe revive their patients.
When Anders mentioned that the 12 Tribes' Centurions had already begun their attempt to create flesh bodies, this did not seem to surprise Anders. This may hint to the 13th Tribe's origins as they may have begun the same way. They as Cylons developed "flesh" bodies and the organic memory transfer technology on Kobol. However, after they found and settled on Earth, this resurrection technology was lost to time and had to be reinvented. The Final Five's negotiated deal with the 12 Tribes' Centurions seemed to be motivated by their desire to not repeat the cycle by giving the Centurions what the 13th Tribes ancestors had achieved. However, their reasoning for not allowing biological reproduction in the 8 humanoid models seemed to indicate a plan to bring Cylon and Human together.
It would appear that each humanoid Cylon model was given both a name and a model number by the Final Five. The Number One models prefer not to use names. This logically follows the pattern that the John/Cavil models have shown, that they prefer to be more machine than human, thus lean toward using an impersonal identification system vs. the personal names given to them by the Final Five.
This episode sheds light on why the D'Anna model were able to "see" the Final Five in their post-death and pre-resurrected states, but were unable to recall the faces definitively once they were resurrected into their physical bodies. The Cavils apparently had hardwired all of the Significant Sevens bodies to purposely block out any type of memory that involved the Final Five. They were programmed to not "think" of the Final Five, but as Ellen explained to Boomer, the Significant Seven were given "free will" and it apparently had overridden John's reprogramming.
The fact that a team of "Simons" were preparing to perform the neural surgery on Ellen suggests that at one point in time the Cavils had revealed Ellen's existence to at least some of the Number Fours. How much they know about her is not clear.
The Centurion's response to Ellen after her resurrection seems to indicate that the Centurions also know who the Final Five are. The Centurion's reluctance to help Ellen initially indicated that it was unsure whether it was allowed to help her, upon which she reassured it was allowed to.
The Centurions on Cavil's baseship appear to have not been tampered with or had their neural inhibitors restored as the Centurions on his baseship do not appear as curious of their surroundings as the Rebel Cylons' baseship centurions.
Ellen's motherly and kind tone towards the Centurion after her resurrection reinforces Anders' explanation later that the Final Five wanted to tell the 12 tribes to treat their Centurions well.
As he has been for several episodes, the Admiral is shown taking medicine for apparent pain. The nature of his ailment has not yet been revealed.
Presumably, the Final Five could have copied themselves many times over as they did with the eight models they created, but chose not to.
Valerii's lack of surprise when Ellen names Galen, Sam, and Saul as among the Final Five shows that she already possessed that information from Cavil.
The journey of the Final Five from Earth to their first contact with the Centurions took approximately 2000 years, which is roughly the time period between the Earth Holocaust and the First Cylon War. Since they were traveling at close to the speed of light, that means their trip took them only 2000 light years from Earth before they made contact. This implies that either Earth is much closer to the Colonies than expected, or that the Cylons had explored much of the distance between the two systems. If the Five took a straighter path between Earth and the Colonies than the fleet did, they would save time.
As noted by Moore in the podcast, Saul and Ellen are soulmates who were drawn to each other even after being given false memories by Cavil and inserted into the Twelve Colonies, marrying for what was actually the second time. In contrast, Galen and Tory, described by Sam as "madly in love" in their original lives, have not interacted much at all outside of the secret meetings and their moment together in Joe's Bar. In fact, when Tory began awakening to her true nature, she was drawn to Sam, not Galen.
Presumably, Cavil could have given subversive programming to the Final Five along with their false memories, as was done with Boomer, but did not, because the idea was for them to suffer with the survivors, not for them to be saboteurs and spies.
With the revelation that the Final Five could download (before the Hub was destroyed), it makes sense that they are referred to as "models" despite having been originally born, not built. A genetic formula must exist for each of them to build spare bodies.
Ironically, Saul Tigh did have an involvement in the First Cylon War, but it was drastically different from what he remembers.
Sam Anders, Tory Foster, the Tighs, and Galen Tyrol arrived in Colonial space as adults when Bill Adama was a young man and Lee Adama and Kara Thrace hadn't been conceived yet. Given this fact, they are older than they look even disregarding their time travelling at relativistic speed.

Questions

Characters

Will Anders recover following surgery? Will he retain his memories as a Cylon if he does? (Answer)
Just what was Saul Tigh's role in the Cylon War? (Answer)
How will Ellen react when she discovers that Saul is engaged in a relationship with and has impregnated Caprica-Six? (Answer)
Ellen seems very different from the woman we knew. How different were the rest of the Final Five in their past lives?
Did the Final Five use the same surnames before Cavil altered their memories, as well as the same first names?
Will Tory and Tyrol rekindle their old relationship, especially if they recover their first hand memories of their old life? Will Tory reveal to Tyrol that she killed Cally? (Partial answer)
Will Boomer and Tyrol manage to rekindle their old relationship, especially now that both are aware that the two of them are Cylons? Will the example of Saul Tigh and Caprica-Six's pregnancy open up to her the possibility of it? (Answer)
How will Boomer react to the news that Cally is dead?
How will Boomer react to Caprica-Six, since she was killed by her at one point?
How will Boomer react to Athena? How would Athena react to Boomer? (Answer)
How will Adama react to Boomer's return, since she did try to assassinate him at the end of Season One? (Answer)
Is Boomer honestly defecting from Cavil's side, or is this part of Cavil's plot? (Answer #1, #2)
Will Cavil ever achieve his goal of evolving beyond his "primitive" humanoid form?
Will Cavil ever be able to appreciate the gift of free will?
Do the Simons (Number Four) and Dorals (Number Five) know the truth about the Final Five and Cavil's hand in manipulating events and circumstances? If and when they do find out, will they continue to side with him, or will they join the other Rebel Cylons?
What is the meaning of Anders' ramblings (derived from Paradise Lost) about the mother of mankind being deceived by one whose guile stirred with vengeance? Is there a connection to Ellen and Cavil?
When did Tyrol acquire all of his knowledge of Cylon technology?
Is "Cavil" Ellen's maiden name?
Did Ellen have the same maiden name in both lives?
How closely, if at all, do the childhoods and relatives in the memories that Cavil gave the Final Five resemble their original ones?
Do the Final Five remember and have records of incidents like the Troy mining accident to explain their lack of living relatives?
How did Anders become a sports celebrity with a fake background? No one would be able to interview his old acquaintances.

Number Seven

Was Number Seven named after Daniel Graystone, creator of the Cylons on the Twelve Colonies?
Did any active copies of Daniel survive One's wrath? If so, what became of them?
Is the Daniel model somehow connected to Kara Thrace? (Answer:No, Islanded in a Stream of Stars podcast)
Besides Cavil, were the other Cylons aware of Number Seven's short-lived existence?

The Cycle

What is the exact nature of this Cycle? How long has it been going on for? Can it ever be broken? (Partial answer)
What is the meaning/significance of the name Cylon, since every time humanity creates machines they seem to be given this name? (Partial answer)
Why did the original tribes flee Kobol? Was it another Human/Cylon war?
What is the significance of the Centurions' form, which is in common between the Thirteenth Tribe and the Twelve Tribes?
Had the Thirteenth Tribe Cylons already developed their own humanoid forms when they settled on Earth?
What/who destroyed Earth? (Answer)
- What happened to the Centurions that destroyed Earth?
  - Based on the remains they discovered, it appeared that the war was mutually destructive. This isn't surprising as any type of nuclear exchange, i.e. the USA and the USSR, was expected to mutually destroy each nation and for the most part, the rest of the planet.
What is the nature of the "messengers" that warned the Final Five of the disaster on Earth?
Sam mentions that Tory saw a man and Sam himself saw a woman, what forms did the others take?
Were the man and woman Messenger Baltar and Messenger Six?
- If so, were the Sixes modelled on her? And how could the male take the form of a man who would not be born for thousands of years?
Why did these messengers not also appear to the Final Five before the apocalypse on the Twelve Colonies (presumably)?
Assuming that the visions the Five saw warning of the Apocalypse, the visions given to D'Anna in the Temple of Five, and Baltar, Caprica-Six, and Kara's visions are all manifestations, or agents of, an outside power (which seems likely at this point) what exactly is the nature of this outside power? And what is its goal?
What led the Centurions of the Twelve Colonies to believe in God? (Partial answer)
Would the Centurions eventually have created their own human forms, as the Five's distant ancestors seem to have?
At which point during the conflict did the Final Five arrive in Colonial space? How did they find out what was going on?
How did the Final Five approach the Centurions and prove their own nature as humanoid Cylons?
Did the first generation of the Thirteenth Tribe consist of a limited number of models with copies?
Had the Final Five not stopped it, would the First Cylon War have been mutually destructive, as previous such wars in human history seem to have been?
Was the Number Eight model created before or after the demise of the Number Sevens?
If the Final Five had not been ousted by Cavil, would they eventually have established peaceful contact with the Twelve Colonies via Armistice Station?
Did the Final Five base any of the Significant Eight models besides John Cavil (made to resemble Ellen's father John) on people they knew? (Possible Answer)
- Also, is Cavil's personality (complete with the sadistic atheist outlook) based on that of Ellen's father? Was Ellen's father a priest?
Did the Final Five plan on making any more models beyond Number Eight before they were boxed?
Were the Final Five responsible for the holographic projector in the Tomb of Athena? If so, how did the references to it in the Sacred Scrolls, which were supposedly written over 2000 years before the First Cylon War, get written?
Where do the Basestar Hybrids factor into all of this?
What is Hera Agathon's role in all of this? (Answer)
Where does Kara Thrace fit into all of this? (Answer)
Why has the song written by Anders become a special signal/trigger for the Final Five?
What is the significance of the Opera House?
Where do the Raiders factor into all of this?
What relationships did each of the Five have to each of the models they created?
Why was the Thirteenth Tribe able to procreate whereas the Significant Eight could not?

Resurrection Technology

Who originally developed the resurrection technology on Kobol?
Where is this Colony Ellen supposedly stored her resurrection equipment on? Does it have a name? Is Anders aware of it? (Answer)
What is the status of the research ship the Final Five used to leave Earth 2,000 years ago? (Answer: It became the core of the Colony, Podcast: Islanded in a Stream of Stars)
Will resurrection technology ever be salvaged?
Is Ellen truthful when she says that any attempt to rebuild the Resurrection Hub would need all five of them? (Answer)
How will Anders' condition affect any attempts made to salvage resurrection technology? (Answer)
Did anyone else on Earth besides the Five contribute to the re-invention of the resurrection technology?
Given the fact that Cylon Raiders resurrect, and a Number Four asserts in "Torn" that Raiders, humanoid Cylons and Basestars are created from the same genetic pool, did the Five create them as well?

What is a Cylon?

What exactly is the nature of the humanoid Cylons? Are they cyborgs—a combination of organic and inorganic material—or are they completely organic—like Blade Runner's Replicants. They seem able to pass normal medical examinations, including presumably CAT scans, indicating that they are wholly organic. Yet they call themselves "machines" and exhibit striking differences, such as the ability to interface with fiber optics, indicating that they are cyborgs.
- Chances are overwhelming that they are not Cyborgs. The Colonials had the opportunity to examine dead humanoid Cylon bodies on more than one occasion including Boomer's and Natalie's since they were killed on Galactica and at least Boomer's body was sent to the morgue where very likely Dr. Cottle did intensive autopsies at his leisure. The bodies were likely subjected to CAT scans and MRI scans and standard X-Rays as well as traditional dissectional autopsy. This is in addition to treating Cylons many times for injuries like on New Caprica, and with Athena's pregnancy and radiation sickness. Gaius Baltar also would had had opportunity to examine Cylon physiology. Any non biological "components" that the Cylons would had had would had been discovered by now. Abilities like Athena's and other Eights (if not other Models) ability to interface with standard computers with cable leads are likely genetic alterations of their nervous systems, which in humans carry electrical impulses to the brain. The Cylons probably genetically modified it for the humanoid Cylons so their nervous system could interface and the nerve ending's electrical impulses could carry data to and from standard electronic equipment. Most Colonial data cabling is optical, though, requiring highly specialized cells. Photo-receptor cells are found in the human eye, so genes for those proteins are present in human DNA, but bio-luminescence (esp. fast enough to keep up with computer data rates) is quite another matter. In any case, the Blade Runner Replicants are perhaps the proper comparison. Indeed, Ronald D. Moore has borrowed the term "skinjob", a derogatory term for a humanoid Cylon from the same term for a Replicant in Blade Runner, which was also derogatory.
Is there any difference between birthed humanoid Cylons, such as the original Final Five and the other residents of Earth, and constructed humanoid Cylons, such as Nos. 1-8 and the replacement Final Five bodies?
- Highly unlikely that there are significant differences. Ellen Tigh herself stated that they created the Eight Cylon models to be as close to human as possible. The birth of Hera Agathon to the Cylon Sharon Agathon ("Athena") and the Human Karl Agathon did not reveal any unusual occurrences while given birth pass the normal complications one expects from human reproduction. Indeed, Dr. Cottle once sardonically complained during Sharon's emergency delivery that the Cylons didn't improve the reproductive organs of the female Cylons: "I find it absolutely amazing. You people went to all the trouble to appear human and didn't upgrade the plumbing!" (Downloaded) As of "No Exit" Dr. Cottle has not noted any significant differences between human gestation and the Cylon-Cylon pregnancy of Caprica-Six.
If the humanoid Cylons are cyborgs, how is it possible for their inorganic components to grow and mature?
If the humanoid Cylons are completely organic, what exactly distinguishes them from Humans? It must be something pretty obvious in the skeletal structure since all of the bodies found on Earth were easily identified as being Cylon.
- Assuming most of the remains uncovered date from 2,000 years prior to the fleet arriving at Earth, it's possible that some sort of genetic markers can still be found in their bone marrow, which allow the Cylons to identify them as their own.
If humanoid Cylons are in fact different from Humans, how are the two species able to successfully interbreed?
- Since Colonial medicine can't distinguish Humans from humanoid Cylons, it would seem that they are compatible at a genetic level. Maybe the non-Human component is passed through some nano-technology which is passed to offspring at the moment of fertilization (of course this would possibly turn the host into a Cylon also - is this Starbuck's secret? Did she become a Cylon through the experiments on the Farm?).
- Dr Cottle has on at least one occasion referred to the the Cylons as a human subspecies, which would indicate that they have genetic differences with baseline humans but that these are much too small to stop successful cross breeding. In the real world it is actually not uncommon for two species of the same genus to be able to interbreed, although their offspring is almost never fertile. If Hera is the mother of modern humanity then the humanoid cylons are clearly mcuh more similar to humans than lions are to tigers.
Does the fact that they can interbreed mean that Humans and Cylons really are the same species, and that the apparent differences are only "skin-deep," such as the superficial differences in appearance between Asians, Africans and Europeans on our Earth?
If the humanoid Cylons are similar to Colonial humans, then how is it that they have exhibited superior strength and speed on numerous occasions?

Character Development

In the episode we see Sharon Valerii for the first time since "The Hub". She has been under the tutelage of John Cavil since shortly after the Cylon occupation of Caprica. When she first downloaded, after Cally Henderson (the future Cally Tyrol) shot her on Galactica, she still thought of herself as a human, had a human outlook, and hated her Cylon being. She even kept her old apartment on Caprica. She wanted and desired love and felt bitterly that she had, from her point of view, betrayed her friends as she expressed in Downloaded:

Sharon Valerii: What are you thinking? Do you think I care about your god?

Caprica Six: Look, God loves you.

Valerii: This is love. (Re: a picture of the Galactica crew) These people love me. I love them. I didn't pretend to feel something so I could screw people over. I loved them. And then I betrayed them. I shot a man I loved. Frakked over another man, ruined his life. And why? Because I'm a lying machine. I'm a frakking Cylon!

Ten months ago as of this episode, and approximately two years after she downloaded back into the Cylon baseship and went under the guidance of John Cavil after the failure of the New Caprica occupation, this was her attitude to love. It occurred in a discussion with Ellen Tigh after Cavil's passionate speech about how she foisted on him the limiting form of a human body:

Valerii: Don't you feel the slightest bit of remorse for what you did to him? What you did to us?

Ellen: No. [turns her head to look at her] Because he's wrong, Boomer! There is no need for remorse or blame. We didn't limit you. We gave you something wonderful!! Free will! The ability to think creatively. To reach out to others with compassion. To love.

Valerii: Love? Who? Humans? Why would I want to do that? Who would I want to love? [Followed immediately by a scene beginning with a shot of Chief Tyrol.]

Her attitude toward love seems not only to have been influenced by Cavil, but also is an reaction over her experiences of the failure of the New Caprica experiment and the rejection by Hera, fellow Eight Sharon Agathon's child from which she probably felt that being a Cylon she will never know the love of a child of her own. In reaction, she almost killed Hera but was prevented from doing so by Caprica Six. After which she seemed to had made the decision to follow the virulently anti-human Cavil, the very antithesis of what she previous believed. This is possibly a symptom of an emotional compensation coping mechanism due to her traumatic experiences.

Official Statements

Maureen Ryan of the Chicago Tribune interviews Jane Espenson and Ryan Mottesheard about the episode:^[3]

"The Colony" is definitely of significance.
The Earth was destroyed by an uprising of Centurions that the humanoid Cylons created.
Cavil kept at least one blank body for each of the Five. The fact that none were killed in the war until Ellen died at her husband's hands is a source of frustration for him.
Cavil probably wouldn't be happy in a metal body either.
Like the Ones and Sevens, the Twos, Threes, Fours, Fives, Sixes, and Eights did at one time know and interact with the Final Five, but the Ones corrupted their memories and programmed them not to think of the Final Five.
The Final Five, and presumably the whole Thirteenth Tribe, were originally polytheists like the other twelve tribes. They became monotheists after encountering the monotheistic Colonial Centurions, who believed in a loving and merciful God, a belief system the Final Five incorporated into the Significant Eight.
It is re-iterated that Tigh did not actually serve in the first war, but was given fake memories of having done so. His friendship with Adama dates back to their service on a freighter together a few years after the war.

Noteworthy Dialogue

John Cavil had just shown a "slide show" - as Ellen Tigh cynically put it - of the destruction of the Algae planet, the home of the Temple of Hopes built by the travelers from Kobol on their way to colonize Earth and the Twelve Colonies, when its own star went nova. Cavil was there to observe it. He relates his experience to Ellen and his disappointment over it, revealing his self-loathing and hatred of his human form and his deep seated resentment to Ellen and the other Finals for foisted on him the limiting form of a human body:

John: In all your travels, have you ever seen a star supernova?

Ellen: No.

John: No? Well, I have. I saw a star explode and send out the building blocks of the universe. Other stars, other planets and eventually other life. A supernova! Creation itself! I was there, I wanted to see it and be part of the moment. And you know how I perceived one of the most glorious events in the universe? With these ridiculous gelatinous orbs in my skull! With eyes designed to perceive only a tiny fraction of the EM spectrum. With ears designed only to hear vibrations in the air.

Ellen: The five of us designed you to be as human as possible.

John: I DON'T WANT TO BE HUMAN! I want to see gamma rays! I want to hear X-rays, and I -- I want to -- I want to smell dark matter! Do you see the absurdity of what I am? I can't even express these things properly because I have to -- I have to conceptualize complex ideas in this stupid, limiting spoken language! But I know I want to reach out with something other than these prehensile paws, and feel the solar wind of a supernova flowing over me! I'm a machine, and I could know much more, I could experience so much more, BUT I'M TRAPPED IN THIS ABSURD BODY! AND WHY? Because my five creators thought that God wanted it that way!

Guest Stars

References

↑ 'Updated: NBA All-Star festivities, The Closer, WWE RAW, and Monk lead week, Damages to return despite ratings' (backup available on Archive.org) (in ). (18 February 2009). Retrieved on 19 February 2009.
↑ McQueen, Wil (8 May 2008). Wil McQueen's Flickr photostream (backup available on Archive.org) (in ). Retrieved on 30 May 2008.
↑ "You asked, they answered: 'Battlestar Galactica' writers take on your 'No Exit' questions", chicagotribune.com.

[1] 'Updated: NBA All-Star festivities, The Closer, WWE RAW, and Monk lead week, Damages to return despite ratings' (backup available on Archive.org) (in ). (18 February 2009). Retrieved on 19 February 2009.

[flickr-2] McQueen, Wil (8 May 2008). Wil McQueen's Flickr photostream (backup available on Archive.org) (in ). Retrieved on 30 May 2008.

[3] "You asked, they answered: 'Battlestar Galactica' writers take on your 'No Exit' questions", chicagotribune.com.

[1]

[2]

[3]

"No Exit" An episode of the Re-imagined Series

Episode No.	Season 4, Episode 15
Writer(s)	Ryan Mottesheard
Story by
Director	Gwyneth Horder-Payton
Assistant Director
Special guest(s)
Production No.	417
Nielsen Rating	1,738,000 viewers (Live+SD)^[1]
US airdate	February 13, 2009
CAN airdate	February 13, 2009
UK airdate	February 17, 2009
DVD release	28 July 2009
Population	39,556 survivors ( 47)
Additional Info
Full Credits
Episode Chronology
Previous		Next
Blood on the Scales	No Exit	Deadlock
Related Information
Official Summary
R&D Skit – View
[[IMDB:tt{{{imdb}}}\|IMDb entry]]
Listing of props for this episode
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			@ BW Media
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