Galactica is the one ship equipped to survive the Cylon attack and lead the rag-tag fleet to Earth. And this one ship has a Final Five member as XO and another as viper engineer. It also has a regular Cylon as a viper pilot. The goverment expedition to Galactica has a final five member on the Education Minister's staff, and a regular Cylon as PR agent. One member of the final five is on Caprica, and will be one of the very few survivors of the war out of millions or billions. And another member of the Final Five is unknown, but seems very likely to be either a Galactica Officer or Education Ministry staff. Baltar, under outside (apparently Cylon but who knows) influence is the only adult human to get off Caprica to Galactica at first, Anders and his crew are the only others.

The regular Cylons we can explain. There were many copies scattered around the colonies ready to act as needed, though they could not have put too many copies into the military without it being noticed. The F5 are much harder to explain. It seems highly likely that the escape of Galactica and Roslin's team was a planned event, planned many years in advance. (Especially if Roslin or either Adama turn out to be the #1 Cylon.) There was evidence for some time as well that the Cylons, instead of attacking the RTF, were sheperding it to Kobol. Indeed, Leoben told them they would find Kobol, and it would guide them to Earth. A strange prediction for a Cylon supposedly trying to kill them, not guide them to Kobol.

But Leoben should know nothing of the final five and their plans -- a rule I am starting to doubt. However, most of the 7 Cylons know nothing of the F5, have never seen them and are compelled to not even discuss them. The F5 were not involved in the war, but they were obviously watching and getting ready for it, and placing their agents on Galactica.

Indeed, it's entirely possible that they made sure that Galactica avoided computer networks, making it the one ship that would survive. (The Pegasus' survival may have been unplanned, we will learn more of that later this year.) With Tigh as XO, he certainly had influence on this, and may have been compelled by hidden missions. Tigh was also involved in the Bulldog incident on board the Valkyrie which Adama fears started the war, and thus may also have been involved in the transfer of both of them to Galactica.

The genocide, however, was not a slam dunk. We are told that without Caprica-Six's Trojan Horse software, they would not have done nearly so well. It is presumed a long and nasty battle would have taken place, and avoiding that made Caprica Six a "hero of the Cylon."

So the Final Five knew the war was coming and acted. What was their attitude on the genocide?

• Did they want the Genocide? Did they want a less deadly war?
• Did they simply allow it to happen due to some form of non-interference policy?
• Did they expect the more even war and get surprised by the full genocide, or did they push things to assure only the RTF would survive for the planned trip to Earth?
• Did they want to stop it but found themselves powerless to halt their cousins?

Alas, the fact that C-6 made such a difference implies they probably weren't powerless. While it will be revealed either here or in the Caprica spin-off series what atrocities were done to the metal Cylons during their period of slavery and why they felt the genocide was justified, it is hard for us as humans to imagine every feeling that way. The Final Five didn't participate directly in the genocide, but we have much to learn about what they did do.

Tigh of course fought in the first Cylon war, on the colonial side. And the other Final Five may have done so. Unlike the 7 Cylons, the final 5 age with time. So there could be many copies of them in human society at different ages without arousing the suspicion that having too many identical twins would arouse. So people looking like an older Tyrol, Foster or Anders could well have fought in that war, or participated in the building of the metal Cylons in the first place.