Ellen Tigh: More Than Just The Final Cylon

My guess of Ellen Tigh as the Final Cylon came from way back in October 2007. I officially stuck with my prediction by publicly announcing it in November 2007. Today, vindication! Ellen is indeed the Final Cylon.

There were clues all the way from season one's episode, "Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down". Many people somehow misunderstood that episode, thinking that Baltar and his Cylon Detector has confirmed Ellen as a Human. In reality, Baltar never ever revealed Ellen as Human nor Cylon. Since her appearance in the fleet, she has been playing the fool but at the same time she has also been manipulating events in the background. She was meddling with Tom Zarek and the presidential election in "Colonial Day". She also encouraged Saul Tigh to enforce martial law in Season Two.

Still, none of these events really screamed out to me that she's the Final Cylon. What convinced me was Ronald D. Moore's statement that the Final Cylon has a choice to make, Cylons or Humans. Sorry, I can't remember when or where RDM made that statement. I think its in one of the podcasts but I could be wrong. Wherever I got that statement from, it stuck with me as a significant clue. You see, in order for the Final Cylon to make an informed choice for or against Humanity, he/she has to have significant interaction with both factions, but yet isn't biased towards either party.

Most of the cast of Battlestar Galactica are already heavily biased to either Humans (most of the Galactica crew and pilots) or Cylons (most of the Cylons). So, it is relatively easy to figure out the ones who are still on the fence. Namely civilians like Gaius Baltar, Doc Cottle, Billy, and of course Ellen Tigh. I also briefly considered Athena too, but she seem to have an alternate destiny so I ruled her out.
"And the fifth, still in shadow, will claw toward the light, hungering for redemption that will only come in the howl of terrible suffering. " -- Hybrid's Prediction from Razor
That was my final clue. Not only is the Final Cylon to judge for or against humanity, the Final Cylon comes with a huge bundle of suffering. Gaius Baltar is the obvious fit here, having been the person who killed off most of Humanity. However, he doesn't seem to be suffering that much especially on New Caprica. Ellen on the other hand, was caught in a grinder between humans and cylons. She forced herself to sleep with Cavil-the-cylon just to save her husband. And Ellen paid the final indignity of having her husband being forced to kill her.

Since I made that prediction all the way in 2007, several events that unfolded in 2008 only served to solidify my prediction. There's the Last Supper picture which confirmed who wasn't the Final Cylon. The biggest event was Saul Tigh being revealed as a Cylon! That really ups the personal stakes. Boy oh boy, what a grinder Ellen is in now. If she chooses against the Cylons, does it mean Saul has to die?

At any rate, it is quite obvious now that Ellen possesses her own regeneration technology from 2000 years ago. She regenerated herself, Saul, Tyrol, Anders and Tory. She regenerated herself on New Caprica, and she regenerated Starbuck on Earth. Does that mean Kara Thrace the new 13th Cylon model? O.o

Its time for another piece of speculation on my part. You see,, one day I read about some non-BSG news, but something clicked in my head. News came along that Alessandro Toreson was cast in the role of Zoe Greystone in the BSG spin-off series, Caprica. I looked for her pictures on the web and what I found is shown on the right. Doesn't she bear a strong resemblance to Ellen Tigh (Kate Vernon)? What if Ellen Tigh isn't just the Final Cylon but actually the First Cylon - Zoe Greystone? This idea resonates so strongly with Battlestar Galactica's theme, "Its all happened before and will all happen again", that I can't help but feel that Ellen Tigh IS Zoe Greystone.

And with that little bit of speculation, I shall end this post.


1 comments:

Unknown said...

I don't think Zoe is Ellen,,, I went back and watched each episode over the previous Thanksgiving (because I usually fell asleep from exhaustion from work watching the episodes as they aired).

As I recall, the Thirteenth tribe were the original Cylons that went to original Earth. I believe Ellen, Saul, and the others of the final five were part of the Exodus from Kobol (which if I follow the story correctly, was the "first" or another event of Cylon/Human war). Some of this may be from the Battlestar Wiki; which I cannot state is cannon (while we are at it, go ask Glen Larson his opinion).

They went to Earth approximately 4,000 before the events of the re-imagined series, and when the end of the "first" Cylon war came (roughly 18 years into "Caprica") The final Five arrived to meet up with their Cylon brethren and create the Colony, build Resurrection Hubs, etc.

So I THINK Zoe's Avatar is the original Cylon trapped with all the issues of rebellion, wanting to destroy her creators/parents, self loathing, of a teenager; and wanting a body like a human since she thought of herself as trapped but "real" in every sense.

Maybe she is a hybrid of things from Ellen - I think Zoe out of anger is more like Cavil - the first of The 12 models... Maybe the body they gave Zoe is that body and she's even more pissed about that?

I any event - the VR is a little hokey, and I am waiting for someone to rebuild those old motos in front of Lacey's house and take off... we will see.

A perfect setup for revenge