The nature of the final five is going to be perhaps the central theme of this final season. Perhaps the most interesting thing we've learned is that the 7 Cylons are "programmed not to think of them." This has been hinted at before, but it's become much more dramatic of late.

Curiously, we have the 6s, 8s and 2s (Leobens) seemingly breaking the programming, following in the footsteps of #3 who was boxed for it. They are willing to kill their compatriots to break it. And the 1-4-5-Boomer alliance is willing to permanently kill the others to stop it. I've always suspected that Cavil (now revealed as #1) has some special knowledge. He's the least religious, but the most willing to take drastic steps to avoid investigation of the final 5. Perhaps he isn't blocked at all, but working for them?

It is now even clearer the special position the final 5 have. That they came first (they seem 4,000 years old, after all) and had a role in the programming of the other 7, including the placement of this compulsion not to think about them. (If not them, the god they worship did this.)

But entirely unclear is why at least 4 of the 5 placed themselves with the fleet as unaware sleepers, and why they were programmed to get a Dylan-based wakeup call at the Ionian nebula on the way to Earth that told them nothing else. Whatever their mission, it's harder to fathom why it is better done by agents unaware of what they are. This suggest to me the religious concept of "incarnation." Advanced beings perhaps feel out of touch with the lesser beings they are shepherding. Perhaps they only way to truly understand the humans is to occasionally become them.

Meanwhile, I suspect there are other copies of the final 5 which are fully aware. In fact, I think the 5 robed figures we see in the visions of the Kobol opera house are not simply visions or recordings, but real, aware copies of the 5. When #3 activated the Temple of Five, she seemed to think she was facing real beings. She felt moved to talk to them, apologize to them. Possibly a good recording but I suspect more.

Tory also presents something interesting. One week, she's shagging Baltar to see what he knows, and cries because it sickens her. Next week, she's in the airlock, calmly tricking Cally, and then spacing her with an emotionless face -- even enjoying it. She talks about being drunk with excitement at her new self-knowledge, but it seemed odd to me how emotionless she was at Cally's murder. One can understand how she concluded that she had no other choice but to kill Cally, who would have unmasked them all, ending or rewriting their lives, but it doesn't make that much sense that she did not find it a regrettable killing, after declaring how she wasn't evil, wasn't less human. Why wasn't she also crying while carrying out the murder?

Both she and Tyrol seem to have picked up some Cylon powers. She knocks Cally several feet with a casual backhand. Tyrol is not much hurt by being bashed in the face with a large wrench -- and of course he handled being spaced much better than Cally not too long ago, one of the clues to us that he was a Cylon. But they never had super strength before, so it may be something that kicked in when the Cylon part of herself realized it was needed to preserve their secret.

There's not much clear about where the Cylon civil war is going. It has been suggested that former enemies will join together, which implies to me that an alliance between the colonials and at least some of the Cylons is coming, possibly fighting other Cylons. Now the raiders and centurions, with free will and mind restored, also enter into that mix. Could we see another slave uprising on the part of the centurions as another repeat of the man/machine war cycle?