You don't know my name

While we still have over a month to wait for the show, Sci-Fi channel is releasing clues and has made a site with a daily clue to tease the viewers. We will not see Caprica soon, as hoped so this may be what we get.

The first clue is interesting: "You have heard my voice countless times, yet you do not know my name."

This points to two of the more interesting candidates: The virtual being and a metal Cylon. Well, we actually haven't heard the voices of the metal cylons much in this series, but the older characters did, long ago. We don't know who the "you" in this phrase is -- it could be the audience, or a character like Baltar or Adama.

We don't know the Virtual being's name. Baltar sees it as a Six or a Baltar, Starbuck sees it as a Leoben. Six sees it as a Baltar. But it never does say its name. We all assume it's one of the 7 but it clearly isn't.

Other clues include a clip of Apollo making a joke about somebody being the final Cylon, but the name is silenced out. And audio of Kara making some discovery. The First Hybrid's line (discussed much here) and a photo of a Cylon fetus. Is the Cylon fetus the one in Six, perhaps where the virtual being will be incarnated? Or was it Hera? Tough to have either be a character. It may be a scene of long ago.

There's also been a lot of talk in the past few months from insiders. Aaron Douglas has said several long spoilers that are so explicit I believe them to be plants. Several executives and actors have told us the ending will be very satisfying, very well constructed. The fifth Cylon will not be an unknown or rarely seen day player. The clues seem to cancel out almost all the favourites. Let's hope they deliver.

Comments

I bet he said something along he lines of "well actually it's me". Which might not mean anything at all unless it was triggered by a desire to let out his secret in a non-threatening way or sets up a plotline were someone thinks he told the truth and tries to assassinate/contact/? him.

In any case I'm a little dubious about his final five prospects. On this show you're a cylon for life and him being a cylon would open a horrible can of worms given that Adama is his father. As a side note I don't believe Adama is getting airlocked because he is, or is suspected of being, a cylon. I think it has to do with either attempting to solidify the rough human-cylon alliance or because he led them to a dying earth.

The site name itself is a clue "You will know the truth"

John 8,31-32
(The Children of Abraham)
To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples.
Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

The "You have heard my voice countless times, yet you do not know my name" clue remaind me another passage of the Bible.

John 14,8-9
(Jesus the Way to the Father)
Philip said, "Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us."
Jesus answered: "Don't you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'?

St. John the Beloved Apostle, the disciple that Jesus loved most, the one which sit to the Jesus's right in the Last Supper: Gaius Baltar.

If we go with the Bible thing, I find the following line much more interesting: "Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.", as it seems to point to the Virtual Being i.e. the Cylon God.
Baltar, Six, Starbuck, Laura Roslin... they've all seen the Virtual Being - the Father, Cylon God (?).

Oh, and the latest clue on SciFi is the Last Supper photo... but without Laura Roslin.
Ron Moore said the fifth Cylon was someone who was not in the picture, but I don't believe the clue would be so transparent. (I am still leaning toward the theory the fifth and final Cylon is the Virtual Being.) So does anybody have any theories as to what it means that Roslin has been removed from the photo?

I think that the Virtual Being is the Cylon God. In the Last Supper, Head Six represents this Virtual Being (now in the exact center of the pic).

I haven't worked out my own theory on the Final Cylon identity, but going ahead with the Bible/Last Supper "path" I'm starting to think that the Final Cylon could be a person that strongly resemble St. Peter (the missing figure in the pic).
St. Peter was known for his impulsiveness and "rebellious" character, and he was the only one among Jesus's disciples that resorted even to violence in order to save Jesus from his fate.
The only character that seems to me to meet these traits is Tom Zarek.

Another way to see the whole series of clues is RDM being "autoreferential".
- If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free
This could be a way to push us to trust RDM when he says that no one in the Last Supper is the Final Cylon.

- "You ferreted that out pretty slyly. I didn’t really want to give that away" (RDM interviwe on the Last Supper)
In the 4th clue we see president Lee Adama attending to a press conference and answering questions about the Final Cylon identity. After the conference Lee seems to be worried about something he has let out, just like RDM.

By this angle, the sudden disappearance of Laura Roslin could be a huge but masterfully concealed arrow pointing at her as the Final Cylon.

Well, there certainly is an association. Head-six declares she is "an angel sent by god" to help Baltar. That leaves it open as to whether this is to be taken strictly (ie. the Cylon god is somebody different) or as a way of saying the virtual being is the Cylon god.

We don't have a lot of clues about the Cylon god. We know that D'Anna talks about "The one who programmed us" to Cavil after seeing the final 5. Head-Six talks about it all the time. The Oracle tells D'Anna she has a message from the Cylon god. And something seems to have cured that sick boy.

Any theory must explain what D'Anna saw in the chamber. It's pretty likely that it is the missing 5th to whom she said, "Forgive me, I had no idea" though on the outside it could be Anders. What she saw in the chamber not only triggered the apology, but also made her feel the 5th is not in the fleet.

This could mean she saw:

  • Somebody now on the base ship (Baltar, Roslin, Adama, etc.) -- but they are in the photo
  • Somebody she now knows is dead
  • The virtual being, looking like one of those people (notably Baltar)
  • Something looking like her image of God
  • A Hybrid
  • A Metal Cylon

She's not acting like she saw a metal Cylon though, or a Hybrid.

As for the Last Supper photo, I do find it annoying he confirmed that. If you want to get strict, nobody is in that photo because it's built in photoshop, as you can see by the way they keep moving people.

I still think it would be far too obvious, bearing in mind that most fans know about RDM's supposed "slip of the tongue".

Hello Brad,

I haven’t thought about this for a while, but here’s another kick at the can. Sorry to be so windy.

Regards,
Ladybird

Clue #1: You have heard my voice…

The Virtual characters represent the gods (old and new). The clue tells me that virual characters are real players. But who are they? I believe that there are more gods than just the cylon god. We’ve been tipped about this before and Dedona Seloi refers to the gods and the cylon god as separate entities. I agree that all the virtual characters represent the cylon god in different guises and that it is the cylon god pulling the strings and driving the agenda. When Leoben meets up with Kara after the cylon war, he says she is different “filled with the blazing light of god”. We know the Book of Pythia refers to an entity called “Blaze” from which they are trying to escape and which is raining down destruction.

The clue itself can be interpreted as meaning “the god who’s name cannot be known”.

What V6 has said about herself is that she is an angel of god and she also refers to god as male. She may or may not be literally the virtual mask of the cylon god. V6 may be his agent instead. But the V6 character also seems to be speaking as god at times. I’m thinking of the scenes where V6 gives Baltar information on the cylon detector and the cylon asteroid tillium operation. There are also times when V6 asks Baltar what he’s thinking, so she appears not to be a mind reader. And in the peculiar episode with Shelley Godfrey, V6 is seen picking up and reading documents in Baltar’s lab. Not to mention Shelley Godfrey physical manifestation itself and the reading glasses left behind to prove her existence. Further V6 was often talking to Baltar about having a child with him, but not in the literal sense. Which tells me that the V6 Angel version is a female personna. Kara may also be the character referenced by the First Hybrid as “gathered on the wings of an angel”.

These virtual characters have to reside somewhere and it seems likely to me that this would be an AI/Download center (putting aside the anomaly of Shelley Godfrey). We now know this technology exists or existed along with the resurrections ships. I’m not convinced that all of the resurrection technology has been destroyed as one cylon faction believes. Kara had to be resurrected in some manner and provided with a new viper with coded signal. I am guessing the Cavils still exist and have a part to be played out, since the YouTube clue with unknown voice appears to be his voice. He is also the cylon responsible for making sure the S7 don’t question the existence of the F5. The YouTube clue say’s he doesn’t want to be human which provides a motivation for his part in the cylon civil-war.

I have always thought of the Opera House as the download center or virtual world inhabited by digital copies/virtual characters, a kind of master copy of the cylons. This world is presented in visions and images as the Opera House . The Opera House on Kobol was considered the abode of the Lords of Kobol and the center of government. How else would virtual entities construct or “project” their world. There is also the Music switch connection with the F4. I believe this is where the gods reside and that the Temple of Five contains a downloaded copy of the gods. I don’t think D’Anna was actually permitted to see all the virtual characters since she was not the “chosen one” but was able to see Baltar and this explains her reaction to Baltar. She thinks the Temple of Five will reveal the final 5 but I think it’s a misinterpretation of the Temple. The F4 were servants of the gods or Lords of Kobol and erected the temple of 5 for their keeping (after the destruction of the Opera House on Kobol ?) and as a signpost for humanity for the future return to earth. I believe that Baltar is the corporeal version of the cylon god and that this information was meant to be revealed to him in the temple. He is a “son” to his virtual father. I think that D’Anna only recognized Baltar and this is why she says there are only 4 in the fleet. I don’t believe she actually knew who they were but flushed them out by bluffing. But even so, I don’t think they are the “old” gods but their servants.

So I am maintaining that the F4 were not represented in the Opera House and that there are 4 other gods besides the cylon god. I also speculate that there can be a physical version of the gods in tandem with a virtual version.

Clue # 7: Last Supper Picture

The biggest bone of contention going. We are told that the final cylon is one of the main players but all the main players are in the picture and none of them are the final cylon. And now Laura Roslin is missing from the picture immediately placing suspician on her. In the last version of the picture, we found out that the pictures presages events to come, so I’m interpreting it as Laura is going the bite the dust first. But I also think the picture as a clue is very clever and also says that the people in the picture are in fact all still suspect, except for the characters that are or will be removed. I think the question to ask is who are the old gods? The “old gods” may very well be in the fleet. That fact that Tory is not in the picture at all, tells me that we can rule out Tigh, Anders and Tyrol. By removing Laura from the picture, that could suggest that she can be ruled out. I think we can also rule out Natalie and Athena as versions of the S7. Laura always seemed to me to be more easily classified as an Oracle. I interpret Caprica 6 as the virtual character by her dress and not Caprica 6. Only Baltar can see V6, so I think she is also in a way, not in the picture.

I think the characters to be revealed are the cylon god and the 4 old gods and the final cylon. I don’t know if the cylon god and the final cylon are the same character.

Who is left in the picture: Lee, Baltar, Kara, Helo, Bill. Although, in terms of who may be one of the old gods, I would be inclined to place Laura in the mix rather than Helo.

I won’t speculate on the point plots still shown in the picture. Particularly, Tyrol with the knife.

As for the other clues, they seem to indicate something more along the line of future events, but since we don’t have a context, could they also just simply be saying these are your suspects?

Clue Number 2: The First Hybrid’s Prophecy

The most curious line to me at this point is: “they will join the promised-land, not an end, but a beginning”. How can you “join” the promised-land? What exactly is the promised-land?

We know the meaning of everything else, except for the identity of the fifth.

Clue #3: Kara and Leoben

This references a scene that you can see on YouTube of Kara and Leoben walking through the woods. Kara has found something and Leoben is prompting her to discover the “meaning” of what she has discovered. Possibly knowledge she has within herself that has not been awakened to perhaps? Leoben and V-Leoben’s role has always been to facilitate Kara’s personal discovery of her destiny or purpose. The audience knows that she is different, another copy, but Kara doesn’t know that and can‘t reconcile within herself what others have told her about the missing time. Kara is clearly a cylon of some type, although we are told she is not the 5th and is fundamentally different from the S7 as are the F4.

Interesting to me that the visual depiction of the clue is a red voice frequency signal. We know the importance of imbedded signals and music switches. I also find it curious that Kara’s frantic paintings on the sewage ship depicted something she would see in the future as in the mandala. So far only the hybrids and to some extent Oracles have this capability. As well as V6 who is central to the Opera House scenes with the next of the new generation. Leoben seems to be tied in as well although he is not “swimming in the river” in the manner of the ship hybrids.

Here’s a curiosity. If you look at scenes of FTL jumps on the DVD’s in slow motion, there appears to be an image of the of the vortex at the Eye of Jupiter. And I wonder if this is related technology. In other words is the Vortex actually a construct that uses the power of a planet to facilitate FTL in the same way that the Temple of Five uses a Super-nova to activate the temple. And also curiously, at the moment when Kara returns in her shiny new viper, all power is lost in the fleet very briefly. Something like the power losses experienced in the cylon first strike. When Baltar first queries V6 about the power losses, he speculates that the cylons have infected the ships computers with a virus and V6 says “something like that”.

Clue 4: Apollo’s Joke

The last question is literally “who is the final cylon”. Very funny! Thanks a lot. So does Apollo know the answer, come to know the answer or not. Should we look at Apollo on the DVD’s to find some clues perhaps?

How about fill in the blank yourself. I’ll go with the X-Files: “The Truth is Out There”. Has somebody on the internet already figured it out and posted it?

Clue #5: Unborn Child

Well if the fleet doesn’t have access to resurrection technology anymore (or do they?), then I don’t know what this means. Do the offspring of S7/human or S7/F5 have normal human bodies other than blood type O. Or does the red spine indicate a constructed cylon body as in the S7 and grown on a clone ship before they are ready to go to the resurrection ships. Do cylon bodies even age? We are told that Tigh wears his age well, so we assume that they age. But Aaron Douglas tells us that the F4 are original from Earth literally thousands of years old. I can believe that the digital copies of their minds are thousands of years old, but not their bodies even though they seem to be able to withstands stresses outside the normal parameters. We are also told that the S7 were created within the last 20 - 40 years old. Although the DNA that was used to construct the S7 must be older than 200 years since they are not immune to the plague that they contract while everyone else is immune. Is the clue pointing to Caprica’s unborn child.

Cavil and Tigh seem to be the oldest physically and the rest of the S7/F4 seem to be in the same age range.

That’s all I’ve got.

Clue #6: Baltar’s Destiny

V6 reveals the “Blaze’s” final gambit on poor old Baltar. Everyone must worship the Jealous God or else!

Well, a lot of stuff here, but...

  • D'Anna makes direct eye contact with the 4 in the hanger. She knows them. And knows that Apollo has her when he lists their names.
  • I agree that the old gods may play some role, but we have been given very little to guess what it is. V6's lines about Kobol suggest there is enmity between the old gods and Cylon god.
  • F5 technology or download centers are completely unseen to us. They are completely disjoint from S7 facilities, I think. The only F5 tech we've seen is the Temple of Five, which is now destroyed, as planned. (Did the Cylon god set off the nova or just know the timing so exactly?)
  • Yes, I think this is just Roslin's long predicted death.
  • Damn him, Moore confirmed that nobody in the picture is the final Cylon, and not in a way that would let you interpret it as now not including Roslin because she's removed from the pic
  • I've heard many rumours of the finding of Kara's body on Earth. Could be, but does not make a lot of sense to me. They teleport her body from the storm, and then kill it and duplicate it? Duplicating it makes more sense without teleport.

Sorry about that Brad. All this brain damage backing up over the last several months and no way to purge. I keep telling myself "it will all be over soon".

All this stuff about Kara's destiny makes me wonder if she was ever fully human or something unusual from the beginning (not a cylon). If this is so then the supposed body on earth is not necessarily the body from the maelstrom (as you say; duplicate without teleport). If a teleport is involved than it could be that she died before the teleport - even if her body was ripped apart/burned/whatever happens to bodies when vipers explode, the teleporters would probably be sophisticated enough to grow her from a DNA sample. I would much prefer explanation one if only because it cuts down on near magical technology. Maybe she's a virtual being.

Someone has pointed out that she could have been cloned from her ovary (removed in "The Farm").

Cloning would produce a baby with a similar body to Kara, and none of her memories. To be an identical adult copy with the same mind requires something akin to the Cylon download.

*Slaps forehead*

Force grown with exact replication of environmental conditions plus memory implant?

Okay I'll throw out cloning.

The next clue is up. Baltar is rabbiting about rationalism, faith, and evolution to Private Pile.

What is Doctor Cottle's first name? Dunno. YOU DO NOT KNOW HIS NAME.

  • He's with the fleet. The fifth is not in the fleet
  • He's a popular choice -- we're told many times now the fifth will be surprising (as it should be ) and nobody is guessing it

Okay, Brad. So, who aren't we guessing? That should narrow it down to about 32,0000.

My top two contenders are Virtual Being, and Ellen Tigh, unless we're way off on the elimination clues.

I can see how people would suggest the Virtual Being, and it may help explain the strong reaction from 3 at the temple. People seem to see someone they have a strong connection to who reflects their own subconcious ambitions back to them. I'm more inclined to write that off as fanwank. Similar has emerged with Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles and Doctor Who. This stuff looks more like hope than reality.

Ellen Tigh is a good one. Her appearance within the fleet, the appearance and disappearance of a 6 (Goddard?) and the discounted presentation of Starbuck's reappearance have a similar look and feel to them.

How much can we lean on the Final Cylon being a character that definately appeared in the mini-series, is a regular, and who is not on the Basestar or in the fleet? That should narrow things down quite a lot. If we throw out the hard exclusions, the ones that people have been guessing, and characters who are named, I'm pressed to think of anyone.

Just throwing this out there, but there are technically two Karas. And only one of them is in the Last Supper photo. I keep thinking that Starbuck could be an Athena avatar, but (1) there's already an Athena and that would be confusing, (2) the writers have repeatedly connected Kara to Aurora.

Still, there are two Karas -- the one who died and the one who returned. Which one is in the Last Supper photo?

Hey, that's a good one. I'm in the camp that thinks the speculation over who is or isn't in the Last Supper photo because Ron may or may not have been refering to the real character, or a proxy is going too far. What you suggest is doable and send speculators who've read too much Machiavelli into a feeding frenzy. Sometimes, a spoon is just a spoon.

If people want to take it to an extreme we're never the same person twice. Little bits of us are dying and being replaced all the time. So, the mind that thinks it's here and inhabits a body is just a carbon copy within a carbon copy. But, that doesn't stop this copy worrying about it now. Bleh. Wouldn't bother. It's a waste of time.

Yeah, it seems kind of obvious to me, especially now that they're saying she finds her own body. Of the 12 models Moore has been clear that the Fab Four are fundamentally different than the Significant Seven, so it stands to reason that the Fifth could be entirely different from all of them. I have in the past heavily leaned toward Dualla being the Fifth, but she's not a completely perfect fit.

Clever girl. Good strapline. Aw, gawd. I'm in love.

You've raised some interesting points and what you're saying is very plausible. I'm hoping Kara isn't the Final Cylon butthe discovery of the crashed Viper might be signal from the audience's perspective that nails it. Baltar is a tortured wreck and might be the king of red herrings, so I'm sympathetic to Dualla being the fifth. She's got an interesting look in her eyes and is a real person on a character level. I dig that in chicks but that's just indulging the romantic in me. But, you're right. There's issues there, and there's likely to be another narrative track Ron will resolve.

Brad picked up on looking beyond the logic and technology, and viewing BSG as a drama very early. It's something Ron's handled very well, in between unplanned suprises like the spiritual element and painting himself into a corner, and the suspicion that the ending is going to be the Mother of all Retcons. I think, that's what's helping me view this a lot easier. Looking beyond the logic of V6 in New York and sentimentalities over characters like Dualla, sometimes, you just have to roll with the experience. That can be scary for men and women on a deep level but embracing the challenge of the drama is what life is about sometimes.

Ron says music is key and the dude has long hair. Says a lot, I reckon.

The final cylon is not a "guest star", so it won't be John Q Cylonius the janitor on the Celestial Queen (I'm pretty sure "guest star" doesn't exclude technical guest stars like Tom Zarek or Dualla, who are more part-time regulars).

They've also admitted that they were considering making this person a Cylon at the end of season 1. That would mean the character either had to appear in season 1 or the mini (Boxey!), OR at least been known about (Kara's mom, Zak Adama, Admiral Cain).

I really don't think it'll be Ellen unless they want to get Tigh completely off the hook (and that doesn't seem the Galactica way).

Helo.

Again assuming RDM isn't lying. Helo is Hera's father. Hera's mother is a cylon. Hera is half Cylon. Ipso facto Helo is not a Cylon.

Pretty sure it was already revealed that she finds her own dead body.

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