Number Eight

From Battlestar Wiki, the free, open content Battlestar Galactica encyclopedia and episode guide
"8" redirects here. For the Malaysian television station, see 8TV.
Number Eight
Number Eight

Human Name

Sharon
Age {{{age}}}
Colony {{{colony}}}
Birth place {{{birthplace}}}
Birth Name {{{birthname}}}
Birth Date {{{birthdate}}}
Callsign {{{callsign}}}
Nickname {{{nickname}}}
Introduced Miniseries
Death {{{death}}}
Parents {{{parents}}}
Siblings {{{siblings}}}
Children {{{children}}}
Marital Status {{{marital status}}}
Family Tree View
Role {{{role}}}
Rank {{{rank}}}
Serial Number {{{serial}}}
Portrayed by Grace Park
Number Eight is a Cylon
Number Eight is a Final Five Cylon
Number Eight is a Human/Cylon Hybrid
Number Eight is an Original Series Cylon
Related Media
@ BW Media
Additional Information
[[Image:|200px|Number Eight]]

"Number Eight" is one of the twelve humanoid Cylon models. She is the youngest in appearance of the eleven known models and generally associated with the name "Sharon" when interacting with humans. Eights are known for being more empathic and compassionate than the other Cylons. They also have been placed in the most pivotal missions involving Cylon-human interactions. Eights have been the Cylons with the most extensive human contact, resulting in at least three interspecies relationships (but see Galen Tyrol) and a Cylon-human hybrid child. Humans have particularly been exposed to two specific copies, Sharon "Boomer" Valerii, a "sleeper" agent who served on board Galactica, and Sharon "Athena" Agathon, a Cylon defector now appointed as a Colonial Officer.

Sharon "Boomer" Valerii[edit]

Main article: Sharon Valerii

Sharon "Boomer" Valerii is a copy initially planted as a "sleeper" agent in the Colonial Fleet. Implanted with false memories, she is unaware of her Cylon nature and serves for two years as Lieutenant Valerii on Galactica, where she is assigned as a Raptor pilot and also engaged in a secret relationship with Chief Tyrol. After the Cylon attack, her underlying programming repeatedly emerges which leads her to unconscious acts of sabotage. Growing confusion about her true self results in a deep depression and a failed suicide attempt. After Valerii returns from a successful mission to destroy a Cylon basestar, she shoots Commander Adama in the chest, wounding him critically. She is incarcerated in the brig and soon afterwards killed by Specialist Cally.

Athena (left), Boomer (right).

Her consciousness is downloaded and she is reborn in another body. Subsequently, she experiences severe problems integrating into Cylon society and long considers herself more human than Cylon. She eventually works together with Caprica-Six in an attempt to change Cylon popular opinion about humans and she emerges as one of the Cylon leaders jointly responsible for the end of the occupation of the Twelve Colonies and later the Cylon occupation on New Caprica. Following the failure on New Caprica, Valerii abandons her hopes for coexistence with humans and she denounces her past on Galactica.

Sharon "Athena" Agathon[edit]

Main article: Sharon Agathon

Sharon "Athena" Agathon is a copy first encountered by Karl "Helo" Agathon, when he is stranded on Caprica. She is initially assigned to seduce him by impersonating Lieutenant Sharon Valerii (with whom she appears to share some, if not all pre-attack memories), as part of a Cylon cross-breeding experiment, but later turns against her people and helps him escape the planet; pregnant with his child during that time. Helo, first shocked by her true nature, ultimately accepts her as the mother of his child and declares his love for her.

Once on Galactica, she is imprisoned and long seen as nothing but a "toaster". She frequently provides intelligence, but is severely mistreated by an interrogator from Pegasus who beats and sexually assaults her. Over time, she earns Admiral Adama's trust by helping the Colonial Fleet escape peril several times, and she is eventually appointed as a Colonial Officer and marries Karl Agathon. Agathon gives birth on Galactica, but her daughter, Hera, is subsequently hidden from her, because President Roslin considers the baby a threat to the Fleet. Agathon believes Hera to be dead for more than a year, but after learning the truth about her child during a confrontation with Valerii, she is able to regain her daughter from the Cylons with the help of Caprica-Six.

Other Copies[edit]

A Number Eight copy at the Delphi spaceport.
  • Shortly after the Cylon Attack ends, an Eight in a pale blue tunic is one of four 'rebirth nurses' who greet Caprica-Six following her rebirth (this takes place at the same time as the events of the middle or end of the Miniseries, but is seen in the much later episode Downloaded).
  • At the end of the Miniseries, an Eight wearing a Colonial flight suit appears to be leading a group of humanoid Cylons who recover the PR Executive Copy of Number Five from Ragnar Anchorage.
  • An Eight is witnessed wearing a gray coat at the spaceport at Delphi. However, she is immediately shot by Sharon Agathon after noticing and attempting to shoot Helo (Colonial Day).
  • Multiple copies of the Eight model are present on the basestar over Kobol. It is possible that they are dispatched to the Raptor in order to activate some latent portion of Sharon Valerii's underlying Cylon programming (Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part II).
  • An Eight is among a group of rebirth nurses, possibly the same one that midwifed Caprica-Six, who welcome the reborn Sharon Valerii. Valerii becomes hysterical after seeing and hearing this copy.
  • A copy of Number Eight is seen at the end of "Final Cut", also wearing a grey coat like other Eights on Caprica, remarking in surprise that Sharon Agathon is still alive (and saying, "I told you" to the Number Five copy sitting next to her).
Eights onboard a Cylon basestar.
  • Numerous copies of Eight are seen on Cylon occupied Caprica throughout the episode "Downloaded".
  • Several Eights are part of a group of humanoid Cylons blown up on New Caprica by a bomb planted by Samuel Anders and Galen Tyrol as they approach a group of Centurions exiting from a Heavy Raider which has just landed.
  • Another Eight sits next to Valerii on Colonial One during the Cylon Occupation Authority's discussion of the suicide bombing of New Caprica City's power station and the subsequent proposal that harsher measures be adopted. She does not speak during the meeting.
  • An Eight, later referred to in script (not dialogue) as "Sweet Eight", seduces presidential aide Felix Gaeta on New Caprica. She offers to check on and, when possible, rescue those prisoners whom he cares about. Secretly aware that Gaeta is working with the human resistance, Sweet Eight saves a few token humans from Gaeta's lists and orders the remainder killed as being valuable to her human enemies.[1] Much later, on Raptor 718, "Sweet Eight" kills everyone else on the raptor other than Gaeta in order to save oxygen, when Gaeta discovers this and she reveals her actions during the Cyclon occupation of New Caprica, he recalled the time when Baltar threatened to reveal "what his Eight did" and fatally stabs her. (The Face of the Enemy)
  • An Eight can be seen practicing a Cylon version of Tai Chi in the episode "Torn" while nude.
  • Another Eight is among the infected Cylons captured by Galactica as part of the Colonials' plot to infect the Cylon race with the virus from the Lion's Head beacon. She and the others are executed by Karl Agathon before the plan can be put into action (A Measure of Salvation). Because no Resurrection Ship was in range, her death is final.
  • The Number Eights in the episode "Six of One", with the exception of Sharon Valerii, are supporters of the Number Six Natalie. They are excited at the prospect of discovering the Final Five and vote with the Twos and Sixes against the lobotomization of the Cylon Raiders.
  • The Eights in Natalie's group decide that they need to mutiny and turn to Athena to lead the rebellion. She refuses and tells them they need to pick a side and stick with it. One is mortally wounded by a Centurion (which is then killed by Starbuck) while attempting to disconnect the Hybrid. She apologizes to Athena asking for forgiveness admitting that Athena was right. Athena doesn't grant it, but Samuel Anders holds her hand and comforts her as she dies (Faith).
  • Another copy works with Karl Agathon during the attack on the Cylon Resurrection Hub. When she gives him a massage like his wife does, he asks her about it and she say that she was curious about Sharon Agathon, so she downloaded her memories from the last time Agathon resurrected (Rapture). This makes her Sharon Agathon to some extent, complete with an emotional attachment to Karl Agathon. She is aware that it is an awkward situation for Karl, but is still annoyed when he rebuffs her. Shortly after, she helps him by giving a speech to the reluctant Viper pilots that motivate them to trust the Cylons. During the battle she and Karl take a Raptor to the Hub to retrieve the unboxed Number Three. Afterwards, she is furious when she learns that the humans double-crossed them and have no intention of handing over the Three (The Hub).
  • An Eight referred to as "pilot Eight" in the script, is aboard Raptor 718 when it becomes separated from the Fleet. While attempting to repair a loose connection using Brooks's pliers, she is fatally electrocuted, after which it is discovered that the insulation had been stripped from the pliers. "Sweet Eight" is later revealed to have stripped the insulation, intending to kill the deckhand in order to save oxygen (The Face of the Enemy).

Notes[edit]

  • Ron D. Moore stated in an interview for TheFandom.com, "There is no original human Sharon. The idea is not that there was likely an original human model that they were copied from. The idea was that these models of Cylon were sort of developed out of their own study of us. The Cylons on some level looked at humanity and said 'You know what? There's really only 12 of you.' If these are the 12, and sort of if you look at them they each represent different archetypes of what humanity is."
  • The two notable Eights, Sharon Valerii and Sharon Agathon, met for the first time in the Season Three midseason finale "The Eye of Jupiter". Before that, they were often in the same episode but never shared a scene.
  • Valerii is the male plural form of the Roman name of the family Valeria. Valerius is the singular form.
  • Neither Eight with extended time with the Colonials refers to her lover by his first name on screen during the first two seasons. During that time, Sharon Valerii calls Chief Tyrol by "Chief" instead of "Galen", while Sharon Agathon uses Karl Agathon's callsign, Helo. Ronald D. Moore explained in his blog that no one had ever really called Tyrol "Galen" before, and hearing Valerii say it during her death scene would have distracted from the emotional impact of her death. Moore compared it to the Seinfeld episode when Kramer's first name is revealed to be "Cosmo"; i.e. the viewers would be unused to Tyrol's previously unknown first name. As for Agathon, everybody usually just calls him "Helo". Sharon Valerii referred to Chief Tyrol by "Galen" for the first time while speaking to Cally in the Cylon Detention Center on New Caprica, long after their romantic relationship had ended. Whereas Sharon Agathon calls Helo by his first name, Karl, in "The Woman King".
  1. Depicted in flashbacks in The Face of the Enemy webisodes.