With just two weeks to go until season 4 of “Battlestar Galactic” starts, this picture is being circulated all over the internet (hat tip):
The story is that there’s all sorts of spoiler hints in the image as to what we’re going to learn in the last season. Theories as to what’s going on in the image? The missing Cylon is supposedly hinted at. And there’s two number 6s, which I think means we’re going to find out that 6, being the first Cylon model after the first 5, may have more going on than we think.
The person missing correlates to Judas in the original painting, but the most obvious example of a Judas in the show is Baltar, who’s at the table.
61 Responses to “BSG anticipation thread”
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Look where the chalice is.
Where’s Tory? She’s the fourth of the four Cylons that were revealed at the end of season 3.
Maybe she’s the Judas?
This image ran in Entertainment Weekly a loooong time ago. Apparently, one of the big clues is who Starbuck is looking at; it’s kind of hard to tell.
Beste, it’s clearly the Judas spot, but who is it?
I’ve said from the pilot miniseries that Prez Roslin is a cylon. I stand by that prediction.
For simplicity’s sake, I’m eliminating anyone with a living parent, evidence of a childhood, or physical disabilities that are biological in origin. So Lee Adam is out (father alive), Roslin is out (cancer), and Starbuck has too many references to her childhood for it to be a fantasy implanted in her brain. I know the show hasn’t been 100% consistent, but I figure if you’re a Cylon, you should at least be healthy and have no living family.
eh, the cancer got cured by cylon blood and I think there is obviously room for faults/disability. The (what are they called? hybrids?) were something of an error or mistake. there was obviously early problems with the models.
Also, I think it might be possible for a hybrid (such as sharon’s baby) to exist who would have had a childhood and parents (even if parents were adoptive, they might not have known.)
I think maybe Tori is absent because she was the judas character and turned Roslin in. She knew her best and perhaps it relates to the baby kidnapping. She starts to allege herself with the cylons/sharon and tells her about the location of the baby. Then she gets killed?
Oh, I don’t know. I’m just making shit up.
oh, duh. They got the baby back, didn’t they?
That is the problem with these loooong hiatuses. I can’t remember what the hell happened anymore.
where is Lee?
there can be a “Judas” who is not a cylon.
although i would think it WAS a cylon. but where is Lee? he is as important as everyone else there…
nevermind. spinning… waited too long… HURRY THE HELL UP! this series is amazing…
I hate not having cable because I will have to stay off the internet until i can download from itunes (or maybe they’ll have the episodes up for free? that would be awesome). I’m so excited!
Wow, that shot is brilliant.
However, Baltar is seated in the spot occupied by John in Leonardo’s painting.
You can see the hints that Ron Moore gave with the picture in Entertainment Weekly here: http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20169703,00.html
For the record, Aaron Douglas (Tyrol) has said the ‘hidden meaning’ in the picture is a load of bullshit. I’m inclined to believe him. But it sure is fun to speculate anyway.
As for the final Cylon, I’m not sure having a documented childhood is necessarily a dealbreaker. Remember, Tigh has a documented youth, if not a childhood. Admiral Adama certainly knew him when he was younger, anyway, and so did Ellen. So we do know that the final five, at least, can age.
Doc Cottle??? Callie??
Denelian
Lee is between Tigh and Baltar. He is in civilian gear so I didn’t recognize him at first, either.
I remember Ron Moore talking about this and saying that the knife in Cheif’s hand may have something to do with either his baby or Athena’s. Since I know the end is neigh, I’m excited as all hell because hopefully there won’t be filler episodes like Hero and probably the most hated of them all, Black Market.
Are you going to do episode recaps here Amanda? Most of the time I forgo them anywhere else because I’m on the west coast they’re usually already too long to read, let alone comment on.
And now I’ll have a reason to stay home on a Friday night and not seem like a loser;)
Man, I love me some Gauis Baltar, but I seriously have the most pararnoid theory that I only half believe: Baltar is a cylon, in fact he is either a recreation of the inventor of the cylons or No. 1.
Is it on torrent yet? heee …
I haven’t seen Razor yet so I’m not quite up to date. Could the non-platinum 6 actually be a different model? Perhaps one of the 5. I know that Moore said the final one wasn’t at the table. Maybe he was being coy and she’s in the picture but not at the table…
I’m so happy there will be more cheif in the next season. But can they ditch Helo. What I whiny little twerp.
My prediction for the 1st episode: An Adama/Roslyn sex tape gets leaked throughout the fleet… oh wait that’s probably just my fantasy.
I could have sworn the left-hand Six was not Six, but Three, D’Anna Biers.
I have a very good idea as to the Chief’s knife, but I don’t want to spoil it. http://io9.com/360009/find-out-who-dies-and-who-returns-in-battlestar-season-4
I agree with idiosynchronic. That’s D’Anna (Number 3) on the left side pointing, not Number 6.
Yeah, i don’t think 6 is the “first” model after the five. Because D’Anna was 3. I think that’s Tricia Helfer next to Roslin, though.
And i think Tory is missing because she’s treated as a minor character, as is Dualla. If she’s the Judas, that would be awesome. But otherwise, the absence of Gaeta, Dualla, and Tory is probably just a reference to their lack of importance. Which i don’t agree with, because i like seeing women of color and possible!gay!characters, but them’s the breaks.
@10: Lee is in the picture. He’s the guy in the suit facing away from the middle.
22: That’s definitely a 6. If you go to raine’s ew link, you can see that she’s labelled as such.
Incidentally, I think itunes will not be carrying BSG, thanks to a dispute between Apple and SciFi. The old episodes have been removed, and Razor was not available via iTunes. The new material may be available via hulu, or if not I may have to bit the bullet and actually get cable.
Chief with a knife…Abraham and Isaac?
Dah. I got nothing. I’m glad it’s coming back, though it kinda jumped the shark for me with the “one year later” nonsense.
I liked the near real-time escapee show and it’s amazing how far this show has morphed from that while still remaining good.
I’m not seeing any dupes: isn’t that the lucy lawless character on the end, pointing?
somebody post the show on the net already… somebody must have a leak by now.. come on, life is at stake, reputation is being made.
We want to see it first before anybody else on the planet! (who cares if it might be jsut another TV show.)
we want the right to roll our eyes and say “saw that. t’was ok.” when everybody else is still wondering what it is.
now get cracking and find that file!
(I am so in trouble…heh)
Eric, if you consult the EW interactive version of the picture, it identifies the woman as another Six. I love Lucy Lawless as much as the next fanboy, but the producers should have made different physical casting decisions between Tricia (Six) and Lawless. Or at least forced SOMEONE to color their hair.
Anyway, the link has information about why another not-Six has appaered.
It’s a Six. According to Ron Moore, it’s a new Six that we haven’t seen before.
Idio, I sort of see your point, but I thought the directors did a wonderful job of using the physical similarities between the actresses to great effect in blocking and framing shots. It was very meaningful to me—their scenes when they’re in a menage a trois with Baltar were amazing, since they are so imposing. Here they are, doing this very human thing, but they never looked more like robots.
A new 6 that doesn’t look anything like the old 6? Wouldn’t that mean that she isn’t a 6? She still looks a lot like a 3 to me, even if they are all locked up in freezers.
Well, it’s the same actress, so she’ll look like a 6 on the show. Click the picture, and it blows up to full size, and you can see it’s the same actress, just dressed far more conservatively than 6s usually do, and with brown hair.
Also, the middle 6 is the one who is most likely a fantasy in Baltar’s head. The pointing 6 has a physical existence.
Just reiterating, but the pointing woman on the left is a 6, one that looks much like the blowing-up-Cloud-9 darker-haired 6. Super Blondie “Head 6″ is basically the Male Gaze embodied.
Oh, I’ve already clicked it. It just doesn’t seem that clear to me. Maybe my eyes just suck.
Anyway, I think one of the big things we can get from the picture is the positioning of a 6 in the Christ role. Typically, this would associate her with self-sacrifice and being a Savior. From this, I’d predict that Caprica-6 (since she’s one of the few Cylons who have differentiated themselves from the rest of their line) will be sacrificing herself in Season 4, possibly to save the humans. And while Jesus was resurrected, I tend to think that C6 will be doing her sacrifice out of the range of a resurrection ship, as that would make it more meaningfully final.
I’d also point out that in the da Vinci original, Peter is the one holding a knife, but he’s on the left side of the painting. And Kara is reclined in a position similar to John’s, though she’s also on the wrong side. It isn’t a perfect match, but this could possibly indicate that Lee is the Judas. Though I tend to agree with you that he isn’t a Cylon, so perhaps his betrayal takes another form.
Correction: Not Lee. Anders.
I hate to break some theories but in the latest issues of TV Guide (with Britney Spears on the cover) Ron Moore swears the last Cylon is NOT the following: Starbuck, Roslin, Admiral or Lee Adama or Baltar. So it’s someone else.
He also says that no one can really figure out who it is without knowing exactly where [the writers] are going with the final season.
Interesting. I just hope I’m not disappointed. There was a preview with cast interviews and Katie Sackhoff said she’d heard a rumor about who it was and if it were confirmed she was going to be pissed. Here it is if anyone is interested.
I couldn’t read all the comments so far first w/o being moved to say this, so forgive me if someone already said this–
But why make a big Kremlinological deal about “who the Judas is” without first factoring in who clearly is standing in for “Christ” here–namely Caprica Six!
So a “Judas” would, by analogy, be someone who has more or less stood on the Cylon side–an analogy emphasized by the fact that the Cylons are the ones suddenly erupting on the scene with a passionate, monotheistic religion whereas the Colonials are more or less conservative followers of an established, pagan tradition that has pretty well blended itself into the fabric of mainstream (pre-holocaust, anyway) human society, and has faded into near-invisibility among large sectors of that society.
Actually the Cylons much more closely resemble the early Muslims just after the death of Mohammed in many respects than early Christians.
Anyway, I only see one Six, unless the brunette next to Roslin, who is pointing, and whom I do not recognize at all, is another Six.
By sheer fortune I was recently able to see the last seven or eight episodes of Season 3, but have never been able to see any of the ones before. So forgive me also if I am overlooking something emphasized in the earlier eps.
I think I am as interested in finding out what the time line is as I am in figuring out who the final cylon is.
I am guessing that the show takes place in the far future but it could be just as fascinating, if not more, if it were the far past or near present. Actually the near present option might be a little cheesy and make the whole storyline super unbelievable for me. I dunno. What does everyone else think?
I tend to go with the far future timeline. For the BSG crew to be arriving at Earth in the past would mean that both the Terrans who preceded them and the BSG wave of colonists had made a unanimous decision to completely cast off all technology and basically start over from scratch. I can’t really see any situation existing where the people would become that technophobic. Granted, it could be argued that the rise of the Cylons could make some people afraid of technology (for example, Adama at the start of the series), but I don’t think even that would be enough to convince them to uniformly cast off all technology. So, I’d say that they’ll be arriving to an Earth either close to our present time or some time in the far future. And since I agree with you that arriving to a near-present Earth would be hella-cheesy, I’m gonna go with the far future.
In the first or second season there was a ‘Athena’ fought a 6 on Caprica with black hair and eyes.
The positions of the central characters are reversed from Leonardo’s Supper. The missing character would correspond to Thomas, James, or Phillip. Maybe the 12th Cylon is Zarek?
Um, why is everyone agreed that just because the group brought together by music on Galactica in the last ep of Seas 3 included people who jumped to the conclusion that they were Cylons, that that must therefore be the correct conclusion?
They were hearing music no one else heard–but that music was in fact a Terran tune. It was associated, as far as I could tell, with the return of Starbuck. Which may or may not have been something facilitated by all the Cylons or a faction of them, but I think otherwise.
Ron Moore has said they’re all Cylons. He also said the version of Watchtower on the show is a parallel composition made on the Twelve Colonies.
My choices for the 12th Cylon, roughly in order: Zarek, Roslin, Starbuck.
Curveball choice: Battlestar Galactica itself - the ship. Perhaps there was a Hybrid installed in a hidden location during a refit after the first Cylon war.
If it’s reversed (as makes sense) then Baltar is Doubting Thomas. Thomas is also traditionally a twin, maybe a shout-out to the inner Baltar that the other Six sees, just like the inner Six that Baltar sees.
That would also make Tigh Matthew, who was once Levi, originally a tax collector, a persecutor of the people. Few hated toasters more than Tigh.
Using another tradition I always thought of Tigh and Ellen as Hephaestus and Venus.
The flames Rosslyn is tending remind me of the oracle.
i KNEW that was some kind of fire in front of her but couldn’t quite figure it out. Definitely a good call on that JoAnne.
I’d plump for a post-singularity Earth, myself - the “Gods” of the Colonies being posthumans.
We know who’s been reading Olympos lately, don’t we, Phoenician.
The 70s version was bad enough, now this remake woke the dead. Hope you have fun with it and it provides entertainment. I tried it, found it lacking, and went to other things.
I’m leaning towards Roslyn. Someone did an interesting post a while back making a good case that Shelley Godfrey was really a mental projection of Laura Roslin. Godfrey wore a suit and glasses that were similar to Roslin’s. There is other evidence, which I won’t get into here. But at the very least, it may turn out there is more to Roslin than we have seen thus far.
Glad you feel superior, Mold. It’s a shame it’s an illusion.
I’ve come to the conclusion that’s it’s Zarek for a bunch of reasons.
I agree with the reversal theory because Chief has the knife, which Peter holds in the painting. I think Baltar is Phillip, (who like Baltar, seems to be actively engaged with Jesus). That would make Apollo James the Greater, the first of the Twelve to be martyred.
togolosh, if you’re lucky Sci-Fi might actually start putting the episodes up free to watch after they’ve aired. A lot of channels have gone to that method for their more popular shows, with varying degrees of success.
Baltar is leaning away from 6, so that means he’s pregnant! (eleventy1!) *blows raspberries at Dan Brown*
This is what Aaron Douglas (the Chief) said about picture:
“If it comes out that there is hidden meaning I will come back and admit I am wrong. But I seriously don’t think it is anything more than something to fuck with you all…Why do I think there is no hidden meaning in this picture?
We have shot 13 eps and in no way has anything any fan has come up with based on looking at the picture appeared in any script. Have fun with the pic but remember….. this is Ron. Truly a great writer, great man, great friend….. but he will toy with you whenever he gets the chance…..”
It’s in one of the links above.
There are some pretty well-established “rumors” about a lot of what goes on this season. Let’s just say things don’t look bright for the Tyrol family. Anyway.
People who haven’t been watching this show truly don’t know what they’re missing. It amazes me that the Sopranos limped along all those years on total fucking autopilot, racking up Emmys all the way — while BSG still resides in relative obscurity. Of course, I’m convinced that much of the Sopranos popularity, especially in later years, was a function of the cool factor it enjoyed just because it was on HBO. You had to be a paying member of The Cool Kids Club to even see it.
But then again, if BSG were on HBO, think of all the time we’d have to waste discussing the show with every the meat-headed frat boy who think he knows who the final Cylon is.
Not superior, just indifferent. And, to prove my point, I have read Perry Rhodan…and liked it. It is called a ‘different opinion’. Not every person want KoolAid, of any sort.
Great hair, Mold.
Or, alternatively, “Bless your heart.”
Don’t be mad/rude/impolite..just go watch your show and enjoy it. I won’t, but that should have no bearing on your pleasure. I wish you find joy, happiness and delight in your entertainment choice.
I have seen the future:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=i-ZyF8_HHe8