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Battlestar Galactica: Dark matter has a smell?


Battlestar Galactica: No Exit – Season 4, Episode 15

6 more episodes to go.

Carole Segal: SCI FI

I’m not a PC, but I play one on TV.

Whoa! The latest episode of Battlestar Galactica has finally answered questions! Sure, a Cylon had to get shot in the head for the big reveal but the information about the final five Cylons and their origin is critical to understanding more about this journey

This has all happened before and it will happen again. The Cylons were created by man. They rebelled. Then they vanished. Forty years later, they came back. They evolved. 50,298 humans survived, hunted by the Cylons. Eleven models are known. One was sacrificed.

(Quoted from the intro text of the show’s opening sequence.)

It happened before… on Deep Space Nine.

Anders needs to have surgery to get the bullet out of his head. Somehow, the bullet has triggered a fountain of information about him and the other four Cylons aboard Galactica. Anders remembered that all 5 of them worked in a research facility on Earth before it was destroyed. They were warned that the end was coming on Earth so they kept a download ship orbiting Earth. Because the Cylons on Earth could procreate, resurrection ships fell out of use and the Five had to re-invent the resurrection process. Ellen Tigh was a major part of making the new resurrection technology happen. After the Earth was destroyed, The Five set off to The Colonies to warn the Thirteen Tribes not to mistreat the Cylons because it would end in disaster. They were too late because when the Five arrived, humans and Cylons were already at war. The Five also discovered that the Centurions were already making flesh bodies but the beings couldn’t survive on their own. The Five made a deal with the Centurions. The deal was if the Cylons stopped the war that The Five would give them resurrection technology. The Five also helped them develop eight Cylon models; Cavil, Leoben, D’Anna, Simon, Aaron, Caprica, Sharon and the newly revealed Daniel. Anders also tells them that the reason they don’t have any memories of being Cylons is because Cavil took them to a room, suffocated them to death and resurrected them in a place where they couldn’t access the collective Cylon memory bank. If that wasn’t enough, Cavil released them into the general human population believing they were human with false human memories.

Cylon fixed by a PC.

John Hodgman made a special appearance as a brain surgeon Dr. Gerard. First thought, PC Guy? Anders is screwed. Second thought, who would you rather have operate on you; Nerdy PC guy or Emo Mac guy? Anders is still screwed.

Dr. Gerard successfully removes the bullet from Anders brain. Anders is expected to fully recover but the nurse discovers that there is no brain activity. Either Anders will remain in a vegetative state or there is a secret resurrection ship somewhere and he will be born anew.


In a flashback, we see Ellen Tigh (Falcon Crest? Seriously?) resurrected after being poisoned by Saul on New Caprica. She remembers everything. Cavil uses this moment to lodge complaints and explain the reason for his elaborate scheme. He explains that humans are an evil bunch and the purpose of the exercise was to get the Five to see humans for the scum that they are. He also says that he wants justice for humans enslaving his Centurion brothers. When Ellen dismisses Cavil’s justice as jealousy, the pettiest of human emotions, he starts discussing design flaws. His anger stems from her designing flesh Cylons models, like humans. Cavils main complaint is that the human form has a limited capacity to experience the whole of the universe. He went on a mad scientist tirade about how it was unfair that he had to experience a supernova through human eyes. He is enraged that he wasn’t designed to see the full EM spectrum. His rant reached comical proportions when he confessed that he wanted to see gamma rays, hear x-rays and smell dark matter. He literally wanted to feel the solar winds of the supernova flowing over him. (Reality check: Not even a Centurion can withstand that.) Ellen says that she didn’t limit Cylons but gave them free will.

Cavil, tired of all of the Ellen goody babble, tells her what he really wants. He wants her to recreate the resurrection technology that was destroyed in a previous battle. Ellen says that she can’t do with out the Five. Cavil says that he will go Sylar on her and cut open her head and get it out.

Galactica needs Botox.

The gash that Tyrol discovered in the hull of the ship is reveals more gashes like it across the ship. After he tells Adama about the state of the ship, the Admiral makes him a Chief again. Adama gives Chief the task of assembling an all human crew to fix the ship. While working, Tyrol discovers micro fractures in the hull. He pitches a Cylon based organic resin that will grow into the fractures, seal them and heal them. Adama is against it until he starts to see cracks in the walls of his quarters.

Who is the 7th Cylon?

The seventh Cylon is Daniel. He was a sensitive artist revered by Ellen. Cavil poisoned the Cylon bath gel that the entire Daniel line grew in. This destroyed his genetic formula and effectively killed the entire line of Daniels.

Sharon switches sides again.

Sharon Valerii was present for most of the rants between Cavil and Ellen. Somehow Sharon forgave Ellen for giving the flesh Cylon flaws. Sharon appears to take Ellen to surgery to get her brain teased by Cavil. What she actually does is escape with Ellen to a Raptor and jump for Galactica.

If you missed this episode, you can find it on scifi.com, iTunes and on hulu.com.

Next week: Mother of all Cylons meets her husband’s baby’s mama.

Battlestar Galactica airs Fridays at 9 p.m. on SciFi.

Theory time!

There are some theories floating about. I don’t think that Cavil destroyed all of the Daniels. Cavil is just crazy enough to have kept one or at least some untainted genetic material for him self; just in case.

How Baltar was able to have Six in his head, Six to have Baltar in her head and Laura having Six and Sharon in her head hasn’t been explained. (Thanks @LW_Will) Maybe it’s because Daniel as a sensitive artist also has telepathy or maybe a genetic echo. Perhaps when Daniel and Six were created, they were created to be mother and son. This could be why she always had dreams of the baby in the opera house. In the visions, she is seen running with a child. Maybe she saved one of the Daniels’ from Cavil’s prehensile paws a la Moses. Maybe the seventh Cylon has somehow been reborn and is either Gaeta or Starbuck…he can even be Caprica Six’s unborn child.

Catrina Corley