[Severed Hand of Skywalker]

So next week we get a re-run but the following episode looks kinda crappy anyway. Plus that guy from the first X-men is in it.

[Visnaut]

Originally Posted by Severed Hand of Skywalker 

So next week we get a re-run but the following episode looks kinda crappy anyway.

I thought the same thing about yesterday's episode when I saw the preview, but it turned out to be a pretty good one, in my book.

Next episode looks like more filler, but hopefully it'll be as well executed as its predecessor.

[goMac]

Originally Posted by Severed Hand of Skywalker 

Anyway, I don't think he is a Cylon but there still is something very special about him.

I don't think there is anything special about him. For some reason the Six in his head wants him to feel special, but I don't think he actually is. We already know Baltar has a pre-disposition for wanting to believe he is special, but I don't think he actually is.

[Severed Hand of Skywalker]

Originally Posted by goMac 

I don't think there is anything special about him. For some reason the Six in his head wants him to feel special, but I don't think he actually is. We already know Baltar has a pre-disposition for wanting to believe he is special, but I don't think he actually is.

You're right but that still makes him special as she thinks he is important enough to make things go in the plan she wants.

[goMac]

Originally Posted by Severed Hand of Skywalker 

You're right but that still makes him special as she thinks he is important enough to make things go in the plan she wants.

I disagree. I think he's just a pawn. Whoever is behind the Six in his head wanted a target that could easily be manipulated and was in a position of power. Baltar can easily be manipulated because he believes he is special, all you have to do is feed that believe and he'll willingly be your pawn.

[RAILhead]

We have to wonder how closely the current Balter falls in sync with the original Baltar. If they end up playing the "new" Baltar like the original, he *is* important.

[goMac]

Originally Posted by RAILhead 

We have to wonder how closely the current Balter falls in sync with the original Baltar. If they end up playing the "new" Baltar like the original, he *is* important.

The original Baltar wasn't really important either. Again, he was just a pawn changing sides. There was nothing inherently important about him. He just did whatever was necessary to stay alive.

[reader50]

• The Gaeta whispering incident, followed by violence. From the podcast, this was part of a plotline they later abandoned - it didn't fit well with later episodes. Basically, Baltar was accusing Gaeta of complicity in something during the occupation for which he was innocent. The producers went back and cleaned that plotline out of the story, the whispering was the last remnant. It can now be ignored as some random insult or lie from Baltar. Gaeta already had reason to kill Baltar; he'd been about to at the end of the occupation. This episode establishes that Gaeta was already thinking to pick up on that, the whisper just pushed it to the front again.

• Is Baltar a Cylon? The rebirth scenes have to be entirely imaginary. With a real Download, they get cached in a Resurrection facility until rebirth slots are available. Sometimes for more than a day, if things are busy. The transfer-to-new-body part happens well after the upload, which is itself instantaneous or very close to it, in order to beat bullets-to-the-head or explosives. Also, a hypothetical new Baltar body wouldn't have the beard grown. Finally, the Final Five can't have spare bodies on hand in regular Resurrection facilities, or the visible Cylons would determine their identities by checking inventory. The Final Five body patterns may well be on file, but they'd have to clone a body from protected memory or something. I can't see that they'd have spares on tap.

My answer is that Baltar is not a Cylon, because Number Six stated definitively that he isn't. I've come back around to the opinion that Number Six is objectively real, she just isn't connected to Caprica Six. Number Six may be one of the Final Five or some other party, keeping Baltar company via an unknown projection process. In Torn, she provided data about Cylon Projection before the Cylons did, indicating she had independent information. It ties in with a few warnings she's given in the past, where Baltar didn't seem to have enough information to draw conclusions on his own.

• Where is Baltar-in-Caprica's-head? We've seen almost nothing from Caprica's viewpoint since Downloaded. And that is the only viewpoint we'd see him from. I've certainly been missing him, I'd like to know if his info is as independent as Number Six's is. Clues to if the head companions are objectively real. Hopefully, Caprica-in-a-cell will provide something from her viewpoint in future episodes.

• What happens if you do CPR on a Cylon after they upload? (goMac) If the upload process is indeed based on Jumping a minute brain portion, then that portion may just be a data archive. The previous body might be resuscitated with the person as-is. Or the upload sequence might trigger an internal wipe sequence to prevent that. Or the portion that is jumped might be more than an archive. We don't know enough about the Resurrection sequence to guess; all Downloads so far have either worked perfectly or not at all.

• About the glow-spine during sex. We saw it with Baltar/Caprica before the attack. We saw it with Helo/Sharon after the attack. We never saw a sex scene with Boomer/Tyrol, or with any known Cylon and any other party. So we don't know if it happens every time, or only on a successful conception. We can't tell that for sure because Caprica's body at the time was destroyed in the attack, so we never found out if she'd been knocked up. Interesting note, we later saw Baltar with Starbuck. His spine didn't glow, and her back was to the mattress.

• We need a slimmer version of this ep's title to quote. No way am I going to post the full title as a later reference.

[Eug]

I was hoping they'd get rid of imagination-six after the first season... and she's still here.

I am sick of her, esp. since we now have so many other sixes.

[Millennium]

Originally Posted by reader50 

• The Gaeta whispering incident, followed by violence. From the podcast, this was part of a plotline they later abandoned - it didn't fit well with later episodes.

Interesting. Why did they keep it in this episode then, I wonder?

• Is Baltar a Cylon? The rebirth scenes have to be entirely imaginary. With a real Download, they get cached in a Resurrection facility until rebirth slots are available. Sometimes for more than a day, if things are busy. The transfer-to-new-body part happens well after the upload, which is itself instantaneous or very close to it, in order to beat bullets-to-the-head or explosives. Also, a hypothetical new Baltar body wouldn't have the beard grown. Finally, the Final Five can't have spare bodies on hand in regular Resurrection facilities, or the visible Cylons would determine their identities by checking inventory. The Final Five body patterns may well be on file, but they'd have to clone a body from protected memory or something. I can't see that they'd have spares on tap.

Baltar is clearly not one of the known seven. According to Six, he's not one of the Final Five either (though how is she in a position to know this about the Final Five?)

This leaves only two possibilities: either he isn't a Cylon at all, or he's some kind of unique 'thirteenth Cylon.' The idea of a unique Cylon seems highly unlikely, to say the least, which means it's a safe bet that he's human.

• Where is Baltar-in-Caprica's-head? We've seen almost nothing from Caprica's viewpoint since Downloaded. And that is the only viewpoint we'd see him from. I've certainly been missing him, I'd like to know if his info is as independent as Number Six's is. Clues to if the head companions are objectively real. Hopefully, Caprica-in-a-cell will provide something from her viewpoint in future episodes.

I miss Internal-Baltar. He's quite possibly my favorite character in the series.

• What happens if you do CPR on a Cylon after they upload?

My guess is that a Cylon body whose mind has already been uploaded is basically braindead: you might be able to start up basic life functions again, but you couldn't restore consciousness.

The Cylons have no reason to perform CPR on their own kind, not when they'll just download anyway. In that case, they have no need for a body capable of being revived once the important functions have stopped. Indeed, it would be a liability: if a dead body can't be revived then it can't be interrogated.

We don't know enough about the Resurrection sequence to guess; all Downloads so far have either worked perfectly or not at all.

"Perfectly" may not be the best term: while memory and personality transfers seem to have all gone well (too well, perhaps, in Boomer's case), Cavil seems to have trouble with downloading: it makes him sick, and the more he downloads the worse it gets. Leoben doesn't seem to have any trouble downloading, though. It could be argued that D'Anna's signal was degrading the more she downloaded, and this is how she was able to see more and more of the Final Five, but she wouldn't interpret this as 'trouble.'

• About the glow-spine during sex. We saw it with Baltar/Caprica before the attack. We saw it with Helo/Sharon after the attack. We never saw a sex scene with Boomer/Tyrol, or with any known Cylon and any other party.

Actually we did see one (Ellen/Cavil), but Cavil was on the bottom, and I think he might have actually had some clothes on. No spine, but no opportunity to see his spine anyway.

So we don't know if it happens every time, or only on a successful conception. We can't tell that for sure because Caprica's body at the time was destroyed in the attack, so we never found out if she'd been knocked up.

Ooh; now that is an interesting theory. It would make the attacks on the Colonies rather ironic; just before they happened, a hybrid was concieved, but no one will ever know because that Six copy was destroyed in the explosion. Fascinating.

• We need a slimmer version of this ep's title to quote. No way am I going to post the full title as a later reference.

"Cheers", perhaps?

[andi*pandi]

Originally Posted by Millennium 

Actually we did see one (Ellen/Cavil), but Cavil was on the bottom, and I think he might have actually had some clothes on. No spine, but no opportunity to see his spine anyway.

thank the lords of kobol we didn't have to see that.

[Severed Hand of Skywalker]

In the podcast they mention that Gaita's secret is that he likes to wear woman's panties when on duty

[reader50]

Originally Posted by Millennium 

Originally Posted by reader50 

• The Gaeta whispering incident, followed by violence. From the podcast, this was part of a plotline they later abandoned - it didn't fit well with later episodes.

Interesting. Why did they keep it in this episode then, I wonder?

I'd guess for continuity. Later eps were already filmed, with Baltar's pen-stab wound. So the scene had to stay, but they muted Baltar's whisper because the contents were no longer relevant.

Originally Posted by Millennium 

Actually we did see one (Ellen/Cavil), but Cavil was on the bottom, and I think he might have actually had some clothes on. No spine, but no opportunity to see his spine anyway.

I'd missed counting that one. Interestingly, we didn't get to see Ellen's spine either. She had a top on, and the camera angles were poor. Still, I think if there had been a glow, it would have been visible. This may eliminate Ellen from the suspect list. Since she seems to have been around Tie longer than two years before the attack, that's another point in her favor.

Originally Posted by Eug 

I was hoping they'd get rid of imagination-six after the first season... and she's still here.

I am sick of her, esp. since we now have so many other sixes.

I've come to like Number Six. Among other things, she isn't guilty, once it was established she was separate from Caprica Six. Number Six hasn't committed any crimes, unless you count harrassing Baltar.

Caprica Six is interesting too, but she has some baggage.

"I helped kill 20 billion people a couple years ago. Now I feel really bad about it."

[Chuckit]

Originally Posted by Severed Hand of Skywalker 

In the podcast they mention that Gaita's secret is that he likes to wear woman's panties when on duty

No wonder he was going to off Baltar.

[Severed Hand of Skywalker]

Originally Posted by Millennium 

Ooh; now that is an interesting theory. It would make the attacks on the Colonies rather ironic; just before they happened, a hybrid was concieved, but no one will ever know because that Six copy was destroyed in the explosion. Fascinating.

In the pilot Six said to Baltar "I love you" and he didn't reply with the same. Later we find out Cylons think love is necessary to get preggers. Athena also seemed to know very quickly that she was carrying a baby so if that was 6's goal she shouldn't have waited till last minute or at the least had an escape plan.

Six also seemed jealous of Athena in season 1 as Helo loved her which she never got from Baltar.

In season 2 the Cylons were fine with killing Athena and the Baby and didn't consider it a high importance. They really only took interest when they changed their plans from kill all humans to something else...

Six also did mention that "officially" her plans were to get the defense codes but "unofficially" she had other motives. To me she is obsessed with love and what "Alive" means so it might have been just to get a human to love her.

[goMac]

You know, we STILL don't know who Caprica 6 met with on Caprica.

[Severed Hand of Skywalker]

Originally Posted by goMac 

You know, we STILL don't know who Caprica 6 met with on Caprica.

I still wonder about that also. Either it could be super important or nothing. She could have just met with one of the regular 7 Cylons.