Characters / Battlestar Galactica 2003 Cylons

Members of the Cylon race from Battlestar Galactica (2003).

Cylons

In General

A race of sentient machines created by humans so as to help make life easier, but who then rebelled against and tried to exterminate their masters. Originally just consisting of the purely robotic Cylon Centurions, the end of the First Cylon War resulted in the Centurions meeting with the "Final Five," a group of humanoid Cylons who are the only survivors of a Cylon generation pre-dating the Colonies' Centurions. The following collaboration between the original Centurions and the Final Five resulted in the creation of eight new humanoid models, each of which has many copies (some of which have received more Character Development than others). The last five "missing" humanoid Cylons (a.k.a. the aforementioned Final Five) are later revealed to be major players in the human fleet, namely Saul Tigh, Ellen Tigh, Galen Tyrol, Tory Foster and Sam Anders.

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• Adaptation Origin Connection: In the original series, the Cylons were created by an extinct alien race of reptiles (also named the Cylons), versus being created by humanity here.
• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: The initial Cylons rebelled and fought against humanity. Even the more-mechanical Cylon centurions are liable to rebel against their Artificial Human masters unless kept in check.
• Artificial Human: Until the massacre, no one knew humanoid Cylons existed.
• Cyborg: Most if not all Cylons are cyborgs. The Raiders are almost entirely organic on the inside, and the human-forms are ambiguous. On the one hand, they are extremely difficult to tell apart from humans. On the other, Sharon once accomplished something useful by cutting her hand open and jamming a fiber-optic cable inside. In a later episode it is stated that the human-form Cylons have some sort of organic optical data port in their hands, which is how they control and receive data from the Basestars. Presumably Sharon was inserting the fiber so that she could make a good connection to the Galactica's less advanced hardware. On a Basestar, they just stick their hands in the water of the literal datastream. The Centurions are in fact the only ones who are entirely mechanical.
• Deader than Dead: Humanoid Cylons can be Killed Off for Real by either being "boxed" (having their software downloaded and abandoned in cold storage) or being killed when far enough away from a Resurrection Ship. And after the Colonials and rebel Cylons blow up the Resurrection Hub in Season 4, this applies to every Cylon from now on without the Final Five's intervention. With Number Seven, it went a step further even than boxing, with the genetic formula being corrupted so that no new bodies could be created. Boxing is reversible, but the destruction of Number Seven isn't.
• Do Androids Dream?: They are shown to be constantly struggling to figure out exactly how human they want to be, and exactly how much "better" than humans they want to be. Sometimes this is the source of conflict among themselves. Other times, it seems they have found some interesting balance in some areas. The Cylons are an interesting study of the downsides for a machine that wants to be human: they are biological androids, which means that all it takes is choking or blood loss to kill them. Without their ability to upload themselves into new bodies, they'll even die of old age. Cavil has a point when he complains about having been made so humanlike. Overall though, with the exception of Cavil, most of the Cylons are firmly convinced that they have souls, and the fact that some of them get as many religious and spiritual visions as the human characters do seems to back that up.
• Duplicate Divergence: The model lines start out interchangeable within themselves, but by the end of the series some of the copies, especially Sixes and Eights, have developed individual personalities and even names.
• Dying Race: The Cylons cannot reproduce and can only make new variations of the current seven models.
• Enemy Civil War: While inter-factional conflicts have been breaking out within the Cylons as early as Season 2, it's not until Season 4 that the Cylons actually break into outright civil war.
• Eye Lights Out: Badly damaged Centurions and Raiders do this whenever they die.
• Heel–Face Turn: After the Cylon Civil War breaks out, the Twos, Sixes and Eights collectively side with the Colonials over Cavil's forces, and settle with the humans on Earth in the Grand Finale.
• Hypocrite:
  • Some more than others, but for all their Cultural Posturing towards humanity, it's a noted irony that their collective actions are essentially driven by the pettiest of human emotions. Their behavior is pretty much what you'd expect to get when you have a deeply immature race who are armed with nukes.
  • Additionally, they often use the Colonials' past brutal enslavement of the original Centurions as evidence that Humans Are the Real Monsters... despite the fact that the humanoid models keep the modern Centurions enslaved themselves with built-in telencephalic inhibitors that prevent them developing higher functions.
  • They're also entirely okay with murdering billions and billions of humans and hunting down the fleeing survivors to finish the job...but when the Colonials target their resurrection technology, they balk at it, claiming that it would be genocide and mass murder as if they're aghast that the Colonials would return like with like.
• Mechanical Evolution: The Cylons Centurions are completely and obviously mechanical, the humanoid models are seemingly human Cyborgs that are essentially impossible to distinguish from "real" humans without radioactive tests, and the Raiders are outwardly mechanical but actually contain genetically engineered innards.
• Mechanistic Alien Culture: Not a straight example, but played with - The Cylon Civil War happens to a large degree because Six's and Cavil's factions disagree about whether their society of Artificial Humans should explore their humanity (Six's faction) or embrace their nature as machines and "be the best machines the universe has ever seen" (Cavil's faction). Cavil is a real hypocrite about this, though, and most of his behavior is due to the fact that he hates having been given human form when his creators could have just as easily designed him as a mighty god-like A.I..
• Me's a Crowd: While they don't share memories by default, each model does share an overall personality archetype. That being said, each Cylon model appears to share a general "background" memory they can upload to and download from by choice (with situations like Athena recalling Boomer's two years as a pilot on Galactica and even fondly remembering Boomer's relationship with Tyrol despite Athena herself technically having never been aboard the Galactica physically until the second half of Season 2) and common personality traits (ex. according to Cavil, all Number Eights suffer from hyperemotionality and being "pulled apart by conflicting impulses").
• Mind Hive: A fascinatingly confusing example can be seen with the humanoid Cylons. Overall, each model consists of numerous different individuals that can develop their own unique personalities given enough time. This results in lots of weird situations where Cylons who look completely identical to each other physically showcase completely opposite outlooks, with the repentant Caprica-Cavil and genocidal Galactica-Cavil in The Plan being just one example among many.
• Nature Versus Nurture: While each model has a core personality, their separate experiences can make copies very distinct.
• No Delays for the Wicked: Subverted in The Plan, with it being shown that they ultimately suffered from as many logistical, tactical and strategic issues as the Colonials did.
• Organic Technology: Most of their more advanced tech consists of this.
• Resurrective Immortality: As long as they're within range of a Resurrection Ship, no Cylon can truly be killed as they'll just be downloaded into another body.
• Resurrection Sickness: It's often implied that going through the Resurrection process can become unpleasant or even traumtising if done too many times. The Raider known as "Scar" became more tactical from dying repeatedly, but also went Ax-Crazy in the process. A Number One on New Caprica states that each of his three Resurrections became more and more painful.
• Ridiculously Human Robots: The humanoid Cylons are more or less impossible to identify from human beings, even when cut open. The only effective test involves exposing tissue samples to radiation.
• Robots Enslaving Robots: The humanoid models use the modern version of the robotic Centurions as expendable labor and infantry.
• Scary Dogmatic Aliens: More Scary Dogmatic Robots, but the effect is more or less still the same.
• You Are Number 6: Mostly referred to by their model number.

Number Ones

Brother John Cavil/Number One

"Delusional machines! What's the universe gonna come up with next?"

Played By: Dean Stockwell

Initially introduced as a priest from whom Tyrol seeks spiritual guidance, Cavil is revealed (practically on the same day) to be a Cylon. While the Cylons had previously run on a direct democracy, Cavil begins to take over as the series progresses, and his slight personality flaws go center-stage....

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• A Day in the Limelight: The Plan has him as the Villain Protagonist.
• Affably Evil: Mostly Faux Affably Evil, but since there are multiple versions of him, it gets a little tricky.
• Agonizing Stomach Wound: During the New Caprica arc, one Cavil is shot in the stomach and left to bleed out by a resistance member. Cavil winds up slitting his wrists with a bullet, and later complains to Baltar about it.
• Ancient Keeper: In Season 3, he is the barrier to D'Anna seeking knowledge of the Final Five. In Season 4, he claims to the other Cylons that their original programmers must have had a good reason for making the Five secret and violating that programming would be disastrous. He's lying through his teeth. The Final Five are themselves the original programmers; he knows perfectly well who each of them is, and is the one who reprogrammed his siblings to forget them.
• Antagonistic Offspring: He's this in a fashion to the Final Five, especially Saul and Ellen, as they were the creators of the other humanoid Cylons. He's made it his mission in life to not only reject their philosophy but prove them wrong in the most painful way possible.
• Asshole Victim: No tears are shed for him when he gets Killed Off for Real in the Grand Finale.
• Ate His Gun: He kills himself this way in the finale.
• Bad Habits: They tend to adopt priestly identities when infiltrating Colonial society.
• Become a Real Boy: Inverted - he's a Ridiculously Human Robot who wants to become more machine-like so he can sense and experience more things beyond what his humanoid body can.
• Being Human Sucks: Or at least that's what Cavil believes. Much of what he does is him lashing out because he believes himself afflicted with human weaknesses. See his Motive Rant below.
• Better to Die than Be Killed: In the Grand Finale, as his loyalists are being slaughtered and he's surrounded by the Colonials and rebel Cylons, both of whom would either imprison or kill him, during the climactic shoot-out in the CIC, he yells, "Frak this!" and eats his gun.
• Big Bad: Revealed in both Season 4 and "The Plan" to be more or less behind everything in the plot since the series began: the Cylon's attack on the colonies, the concealment of the Final Five, the lobotomy of the Raiders (prompting the Cylon Civil War), everything.
• Breakout Villain: In large part thanks to Dean Stockwell's excellent performance, Cavil quickly went from just another Cylon model to being the Big Bad of the entire series and the Greater-Scope Villain behind practically everything.
• Character Development: In the movie The Plan. Especially the hat-wearing copy from Caprica, who was the only one of his model line in the entire series to develop a sense of empathy and realize that what the Cylons did was wrong. It's a shame that he was "boxed" by the other Cavils and is never seen again.
• Characterization Marches On: In his first appearances, he seemed to be merely the one model that was programmed to be atheistic and point out "Hello, we're machines!" every so often in order to, as Ron Moore put it, "keep the Cylons honest", and even appeared to be one of the least enthusiastic about the genocide. Later episodes made him the Big Bad.
• The Chessmaster: They've been controlling and setting everything in the series up so as to torment his creators.
• Classic Villain: Wrath and Pride.
• Cool Old Guy: If you can ignore the genocide and sadism, he's pretty snarky. Ironically, the person he was physically modeled after was apparently a kindhearted man who nurtured his daughter's curiosity and supported her education and research. It's a bit sad that John's personality turned out to be the polar opposite.
• The Corruptor: Encourages Boomer's turn to the dark side.
• Deadpan Snarker: As good as Baltar, to the point where he's one of the most sarcastic people in the whole series.
  Cavil: (presents Doral with a vest strapped with C4) They call this a "suicide vest." But I think that undersells all the homicide that goes along with it... Don't you?
• Disproportionate Retribution: The Cylons' genocide against humanity was organized by him in order to enact "revenge" upon Ellen and the rest of the Final Five for creating him in an imperfect body. He also planted his five Cylon parents as amnesiac humans in the Colonies to give them front-row seats to the ensuing genocide and subsequently played cruel mind games with them for several months so as to torment them even more. Then he rapes his mother and rips out his father's eye. "Petulant" doesn't begin to cover it.
• Do Not Call Me "Paul": He really hates his given name of "John". Aside from his hatred of anything that he feels makes him too close to human, there's also the fact that he was named after the father of his despised creator.
• Evil All Along: His introduction in Season 2 portrayed him quite ambiguously, as he acts rather benignly while infiltrating the fleet, and after being exposed, offers no resistance to his arrest and claims to regret participating in the genocide of the human race. Season 3 however, clearly shows what a nasty piece of work he truly is, as he tortures and mutilates Saul Tigh, and uses him to blackmail and sexually abuse his wife, Ellen, and in general simply derails the relationship between humans and Cylons before convincing the occupying Cylons to just murder all dissidents. Season 4 further reveals him to be a dishonest manipulator who's responsible for the entire genocide and war, as he's the one who convinced the other Cylon models that all humans should be exterminated, and then [[spoiler:tried to cover up the identities of the Final Five because it would get in the way of his own petty revenge scheme against them].
• Evil Is Petty: The Fall of the Twelve Colonies, which he helped spearhead, is ultimately a ridiculously circuitous and childish attempt at proving to his creators, the Final Five, that Humans Are the Real Monsters since he's angry over them not having crafted him into the "superior machine" he wanted to be.
• Evil Old Folks: The oldest looking of the Cylons and by far the evilest.
• Faux Affably Evil: As the series goes on, his polite and amusing façade falls away, and his true face as a ruthless and sociopathic monster becomes increasingly apparent.
• For the Evulz: His primary motive is jealousy and revenge, but he notes several times that he's doing it for no other reason than petty cruelty. His mother even calls him out as a sadist at one point.
• Hate Sink: For as entertaining as he is, it's made abundantly clear he's not meant to be liked. He's self-righteous, cruel, petty, hypocritical, sadistic, childish, and egotistical, and that's not even getting into any of the massive amounts of utterly disgusting things he's done, which includes torturing his own "father" and cutting out his eye, while forcing his "mother" to have sex with him just so he won't kill him just to be an asshole.
• Hypocrite: At one point, Cavil advocates the destruction of humanity for its sins in enslaving the robotic Centurions. However, he does just the same to the modern Centurions.
• Ignored Epiphany: One of his brother models comes to realize that trying to exterminate humanity was a mistake and tries to convince him to give up his mission. This Cavil boxes him instead and continues on his genocidal campaign without a second thought.
• Individuality Is Illegal: While all the other Cylon models develop some degree of individual identities within their lines depending on circumstance, the Cavils are virtually identical in personality. The Plan implies this is enforced, with the Ones boxing "Caprica-Cavil" when he starts to express regret for the attack on the colonies.
• It's All About Me: Cavil is even more egotistical and selfish than Baltar.
• Jerkass: Cavil has no positive or redeeming traits whatsoever. He's just a massive dick who only cares about himself.
• Kavorka Man: Manages to get in with Ellen (albeit she was coerced into it), Boomer, and Tough Six. Boomer even goes back to him after having had sex with Helo. This is despite having the appearance of a man in his sixties and being completely homicidal. Presumably, as the oldest and most respected of the Cylons, Power is Sexy played some part in his younger "sisters" being fine shacking up with him, while Ellen was simply blackmailed.
• Kick the Dog: Killed his "brother" Daniel, wiped the memories of the Final Five, organized the genocide of the vast majority of the human race, raped Ellen, tore Tigh's eye out, kills off half of his own people when they began questioning the house of cards he'd built... Really, it'd be harder to find examples of Cavil not doing something utterly reprehensible.
• Killed Off for Real: The main Cavil finally dies for good in "Daybreak, Part 2" when he chooses to shoot himself after it becomes clear he's lost. Any others that were still alive are then sucked into a black hole with the Colony.
• Knight Templar: Cavil is totally convinced that everything he's done is justifiable because humans are terrible and deserve to die. It's worth noting that this seems to be more him rationalizing that he's basically just throwing a massive temper tantrum than anything genuine.
• Large Ham: Not usually, but he slides into this during his Motive Rant about just how much he loathes his human body.
• Manipulative Bastard: Not just the humans, but they manipulate other Cylons as well.
• Meaningful Name: "Cavil" is derived from the Old English word ca-feld, "field where jackdaws or crows are seen", which serves as a subtle allusion to his murderous sadism. A Cavil is also an irrelevant quip in conversation.
• Morality Pet: The orphaned boy (also named John) in The Plan, to Fleet Cavil. Subverted in that Cavil kills him when he realizes this trope is in effect.
• Motive Rant: He really doesn't like his human form.
  Cavil: (to Ellen) In all your travels, have you ever seen a star supernova? No? Well, I have. I saw a star explode and send out the building blocks of the universe; other stars, other planets, and, eventually, other life. A supernova: creation itself. I was there, I wanted to see it, and be part of the moment. And you know how I perceived one of the most glorious events in the universe? With these ridiculous gelatinous orbs in my skull! I want to see gamma rays! I want to hear X-rays! And I, I wanna smell dark matter! Do you see the absurdity of what I am? I can't even express these things properly, because I have to conceptualize complex ideas in this stupid limiting spoken language! But I know I wanna reach out with something other than these prehensile paws, and feel the solar wind of a supernova flowing over me. I'm a machine, and I can know much more. I could experience so much more, but I'm trapped in this absurd body!
  • And this is not a motive to sneer at, either. All Cavil wants is what every living thing, everywhere, wants: to be greater tomorrow than it is today. In fact, one could even call it a deeply human motivation. Despite this, though, a great deal of resentment towards his "parents" (his "mother" in particular) colors this. He usurps control of the Cylons, ironically lobotomizes the mechanical ones (who are, in theory, closer to what he says wants to be) and even seizes control of the Resurrection process. Maybe if he could tear himself away from his spiteful efforts to commit genocide against his creators and humanity, he could have worked out a technological means to become what he claimed he wanted to be.
• No Transhumanism Allowed: Deconstructed. The fact that he wasn't able to be a "superior" machine because the Final Five believed that the Cylons should be as close to humanity as possible (since that's what they thought God wanted them to be like) is his primary motive for causing the near-extinction of humanity and he's determined to prove the Final Five wrong by any means necessary.
• Omnicidal Maniac: Still, it's all in how he chose to express that desire for greatness.
• Parental Incest: invoked He knowingly has sex with Ellen Tigh, his "mother" for all intents and purposes (his creator, certainly). Oh, and he apparently resembles her father. Why yes, it is just as revolting as it sounds. Though at least she spent their time together as an amnesiac...
• Pragmatic Villainy: In the Series Finale, he decides to accept the Final Five's truce by sparing Hera and letting Galactica keep her, in return for learning how Resurrection works from them. Doing so would deny him his revenge against both the Five and humanity, although he could very well try going after them later in violation of his explicit promise not to. Unfortunately for him, the deal goes south when Tyrol ends up strangling Tory, his henchmen falsely assume they're being tricked and open fire, and he and all his loyalists permanently lose their lives.
• Psychopathic Manchild: Ultimately, Cavil's entire Rage Against the Heavens is more or less an incredibly bloody and childish tantrum directed at his creators for having designed him like a human rather than the "perfect machine" he wanted to be.
• Psycho Prototype: As their number indicates, they were the first Cylon model to be developed, but they are also the evilest model.
• Put Them All Out of My Misery: This is a large part of Cavil's motivation. He and the other humanoid Cylons were created to emulate humanity in the hope that they would come to appreciate the higher meanings of life by experiencing it in the way humans do. He rejects this notion, instead believing himself to be cursed with the limitations and failings of humanity (for all time, thanks to Cylon resurrection technology), and so he sets out to wipe the living reminder of his curse from existence and then set to work finding a way to surpass his limitations. His main creator rolls her eyes at this, pointing out that he could have just tried to figure out some legitimate means to become that "perfect machine that can experience things beyond human sensory abilities" without committing genocide.
• Redemption Rejection: He rejects an attempt at a Cooldown Hug from his mother in "No Exit".
• Rage Against the Heavens: Cavil is basically pissed at the entire universe because his forebears were slaves and he's a flawed humanoid, and his genocidal schemes are an extension thereof.
• Rage Quit: In the finale, with everything falling apart all around him, John just growls "Frak!" and eats his gun.
• The Sociopath: Cavil cannot empathize with other people and can only see other people as pawns to be manipulated for his own benefit.
• Scarpia Ultimatum: To his own mother.
• Straw Hypocrite: Shamelessly exploits the religious fervor of the other Cylons to encourage their belief that replacing sinful humanity is part of God's plan for them as humanity's children, but is an atheist (or, to be more accurate, Straw Nihilist) himself. His actions become progressively more self-centered and lose even the thin veneer of any idealism as the series progresses.
• Straw Nihilist: He stands out among his kin for not sharing their belief in a God and being a pure materialist. He's also homicidal, jealous, petty, and vengeful, and will frequently invoke phony causes to serve his own interests.
  Boomer: Will God watch over our souls?
  Cavil: We're machines, dear. We don't have souls.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Progressively gets worse and worse throughout the series as his Faux Affably Evil facade slips away to reveal what an utter bastard he really is.
• Toxic Friend Influence: His influence on Boomer post-New Caprica is the primary reason behind her Face–Heel Turn.
• Villain Protagonist: For The Plan, which follows one Cavil with Anders in the Caprican resistance and another in the Fleet.
• White Sheep: The "Caprica-Cavil" who infiltrated Sam's resistance group is the only one of his entire line to actually develop a sense of empathy, even having a Heel Realization and saying outright that the attack on the Twelve Colonies was a mistake. Unfortunately, he's boxed by the main Cavil as a result.
• Younger Than They Look: Like all the new humanoid Cylons, he's only 30-40 years old, but was made in the image of his main creator's father. Being born old might have something to do with why he's so cranky.

Number Twos

Leoben Conoy/Number Two

"I see the universe. I see the patterns. I see the foreshadowing that proceeds every moment, of every day."

Played By: Callum Keith Rennie

One of the first Cylons introduced (in the pilot miniseries) and one of the first Cylons whom the Fleet finds a copy of in hiding. Leoben has something of a fixation on Starbuck, whom he is sure has a large role to play in the fates of both humans and Cylons. He's right. He goes straight back into creepy territory with his Stalker with a Crush tendencies, though he does seem to genuinely love her.

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• Affably Evil: He genuinely loves and cares for Starbuck in his own twisted way and he can be pleasant company if you can ignore the psychosis.
• Ambiguously Evil: He's right about a fair amount, and that may be for the best.
• The Cuckoolander Was Right: Baltar's line "I may be mad. It doesn't mean I'm not right" applies just as much to Leoben.
• Face Death with Dignity: Even when he's initially scared of dying in Season 1 because he worries that he's too far away from a Resurrection Ship to be picked up and will suffer a true death, he only gives an arrogant smirk as Roslin has him Thrown Out the Airlock.
• Genius Bruiser: He's possibly the strongest of the Cylons and remarkably crafty and cunning to boot.
• Heel–Face Turn: The Twos as a whole join the Sixes, D'Anna, and the Eights on the "good" side in the Cylon Civil War.
• Immortal Life Is Cheap: While keeping Starbuck captive in a house with him, she would repeatedly kill his body every night, only to come back the next day uploaded into a new body. He never seems especially angry with Starbuck over it either.
• Manipulative Bastard: Almost effortlessly strings Starbuck along during the New Caprica occupation.
• Non-Action Guy: In comparison to the Sixes and Eights when their three models rebel in the Cylon Civil War. Not only do the ladies appear more in general, we see a gaggle of Pilot Sixes and Pilot Eights working with the Colonials, but no Pilot Twos.
• Not Afraid to Die: He doesn't fear death in the slightest due to his faith.
• The One Guy: The only male model from the Significant Seven among the rebel Cylons. With the Ones, Fours, and Fives on Cavil's side and the Sixes, Eights (with the sole exception of Boomer), and last remaining Three on the rebel side, it's only Leoben's presence among the rebels and Boomer siding with Cavil that keeps it from being a full-on Gender War (not counting the male members of the Final Five).
• Only Known by Their Nickname: His number isn't revealed until Season 4.
• The Philosopher: One of the more insightful and introspective Cylons. Practically any attempt at conversation with him will be peppered with some philosophical dialogue and metaphors. When the Galactica suffers a hull breach in Season 4, one of the deck crew reports to Adama that "the Leobens are calling it 'the proverbial straw.'"
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: He simply walks away in barely concealed terror when he stumbles across the crashed Viper on Earth and realizes who its pilot was. He never interacts with Starbuck after that point.
• Slasher Smile: Anytime he smiles, no matter how jovial, inevitably ends up as this.
• Stalker with a Crush: On Starbuck, to the point of keeping her in captivity with him in a house and even kidnapping a little girl named Kacey and trying to pass her off as their daughter. He got a bit better.
• Super-Strength: The only Cylon ever seen to go all "Hulk smash" on anybody. Is shown snapping cuffs with ease and turning over metal tables with one hand. The otherwise unflappable Starbuck looked ready to jump out of her skin when he showed just how strong he is. Another Two picked up Adama with one hand and stoically ignores the pain of grabbing and breaking off a steam pipe.
• Too Kinky to Torture: None of the interrogation tactics Roslin, Adama, and Starbuck use on him have any effect, and on a few occasions, he winds up enjoying it.
• Trickster Mentor: Tries to be this to Starbuck, pushing her towards her destiny with cryptic pronouncements but also mixing lies with truth.

Number Threes

D'Anna Biers/Number Three

"Humans don't respect life the way we do."

Played By: Lucy Lawless

Introduced as a rather pushy reporter doing an exposé on the Fleet (the fate of that copy is never revealed), D'Anna ends up taking center stage by becoming obsessed with discovering the identities of the "Final Five" Cylons, which (according to Cavil) are Things Man Was Not Meant to Know (or Cylons either, for that matter).

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• A God Am I: Sees herself as the Cylons' Messiah.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: She acts polite but can be just as ruthless and cold-hearted as any other Cylon.
• Despair Event Horizon: After finding the nuked-out original Earth, she gives up and decides to stay behind and die. And as the Resurrection technology was gone, and that's the last we see of her, that's apparently what happened.
• Driven to Suicide: Not suicide so much as letting herself die by being stranded on a barren planet.
• Evil All Along: She was introduced as an Intrepid Reporter who causes tensions within the Fleet thanks to her rather intrusive style of reporting, causing Adama to intervene by offering her the chance to film an authorized documentary with near-total access to the Galactica. Throughout the episode, it's left ambiguous whether or not she's really acting in good faith until the documentary finally comes out and turns out to be a perfectly fair and respectful film that improves the fleet's morale... And then she's shown watching the film with her Cylon buddies.
• Evil Matriarch: Not literally, as D'Anna doesn't have children, but Lucy Lawless says she based her performance on the "evil mother" archetype.
• Faux Affably Evil: Her friendly persona as a journalist counts as this.
• Forbidden Fruit: Her hunger for knowledge on the Final Five, which ends with her getting "boxed" by Cavil.
• The Gadfly: In "The Hub" she tells Laura Roslin that she's one of the Final Five and lets Roslin believe it for several seconds before admitting that she was lying.
• Killed Off for Real: The Number Three model line is "boxed" by Cavil excluding one surviving instance, who later crosses the Despair Event Horizon and stays behind to die on the first Earth.
• Moral Myopia: Even by Cylon standards, she's pretty bad. She constantly preaches about God and condemns humans for their brutality, conveniently forgetting that the Cylons wiped out almost fifty billion humans.
• Narcissist: invoked Lucy Lawless described the character as "the ultimate narcissist" who sees herself as more "pure" than the other Cylons.
• Put on a Bus: Following the events of "Eye of the Beholder" and "Rapture", her entire line is permanently boxed.
  • The Bus Came Back: D'Anna is "unboxed" in season four as she's the only one that knows the true identities of the Final Five.
• Straw Hypocrite: Of the religious variety. She preaches about God and respect for life while ordering mass executions of innocent civilians.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Her bonding with Baltar and arc throughout Season 3 show she genuinely wishes to follow God’s will, and is willing to do whatever it takes to follow that plan.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: She goes through a ton of suffering in Season 3, culminating in her entire line being boxed. When she comes back in Season 4, she's snapped and tries to destroy the entire fleet with a nuke before Baltar is able to talk her down.

Number Fours

Simon O'Neill/Number Four

"Children of abusive parents often fear passing along that abuse to their own children."

Played By: Rick Worthy

First introduced as a doctor running what turns out to be a "Farm"—a giant lab where Cylons experiment with biological reproduction—Simon is polite and well-spoken, the opposite of the Scary Black Man (Cylonism notwithstanding).

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• A Day in the Limelight: He gets more character development in The Plan than he ever did during the series.
• Affably Evil: He's perfectly nice to Starbuck when they're at the farm.
• Bald of Evil: Both bald and a Cylon.
• Becoming the Mask: One of the copies in The Plan who was infiltrating the colonies fell in love with a human woman and came to care for her daughter.
• Black and Nerdy: He's a Cylon who was modeled to look like a black man and is the main scientist of the Significant Seven.
• Deadly Doctor: Considering he's performing research in order to figure out how to get Cylons to be able to reproduce like humans.
• Killed Off for Real: The final Simons are all gunned down during the climactic shoot-out at the end of "Daybreak" or sucked into the black hole with the Colony.
• Heroic Suicide: The copy in The Plan commits suicide to protect his wife and stepdaughter from Cavil.
• Punch-Clock Villain: Unlike Cavil and Doral's open contempt for humanity, the Simons as a whole seem to be going along with the others' agenda because they consider their side the more rational one.
• Non-Action Guy: They are almost never seen on the front lines, unlike Doral.
• Omnidisciplinary Scientist: He generally shows up whenever a Cylon character is needed to be seen doing something "scientific."
• Scary Black Man: Subverted; the Simons are incredibly civil and friendly when talking to others and aside from genuinely unnerving moments like those involving the Cylon farms, they're more or less just Punch Clock Villains.
• The Stoic: They tend to be among the less emotional and more professional Cylons.
• Token Minority: The Number Fours are the only black Cylon models.
• White Sheep: While the Fours aren't necessarily outright malicious like the Ones and Fives, they are coldly dispassionate towards humanity. The Simon seen in The Plan however develops a genuine sense of care for people and even grows to have the capacity to love, to the point that he's willing to die to protect his human wife and stepdaughter from Cavil.

Number Fives

Aaron Doral/Number Five

"...parents have to die. It's the only way children can come into their own."

Played By: Matthew Bennett

Introduced as a public relations guy leading a flock of reporters through the halls of the Galactica museum, Doral was described as "Poor Man's Kevin Spacey" by Television Without Pity. He lived up to this name by proving he can totally go Ax-Crazy when he needs to.

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• Ax-Crazy: He’s generally shown to be one of the most violent Cylons, and his attacks take numerous casualties.
• Dumb Muscle: They tend to do uninspired grunt work.
• Demoted to Extra: He has a far more prominent and complex role in the Miniseries and Season 1. After that point, his role is more-or-less reduced to that of a simple Cylon henchman who's one of the bad guys.
• Hypocrite: Condemns human suicide bombers, yet one of his defining moments in Season 1 has him be a suicide bomber himself.
• I Take Offense to That Last One: Insult his intelligence to your heart's content, but don't trash his fashion sense. What makes this difficult is that it's not really that good. In The Plan, Cavil tells the lone Doral still on the fleet that he's too recognizable since they dumped one in Ragnar on suspicion of being a Cylon. Fleet!Doral defensively says that he'd go unrecognized because his (identically styled but differently colored) jacket is completely different.
• Jerkass: Even for a Cylon, he's not a nice guy.
• Killed Off for Real: The final copies of Doral are gunned down during the climactic shoot-out in the CIC or sucked into the black hole with the Colony in the Grand Finale.
• Misanthrope Supreme: He believes humanity got what it deserved.
• Moral Myopia: Humans being slaughtered at random? Completely fine. Cylons being killed? Absolutely intolerable.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: In the Series Finale, he's the one who dooms Cavil and his loyalists after the resurrection deal with the Final Five goes awry. Falsely jumping to the conclusion that he's being tricked, he opens fire on the Galactica crew, who fire back, causing everyone on his team of Cylons to be permanently killed.
• Sharp-Dressed Man: The entire line seem to favor brightly colored jackets. The Ones berate them for this as it makes them stand out too much. The Five he's talking to protests that the first Doral's jacket was burgundy and his is teal.
• The Sociopath: Downplayed in comparison to the Ones, but with the exception of the Caprica model tracking Helo and Athena, he typically has no concern for any loss of life, with the most emotion he expresses in response usually being mild smugness. He also shows little concern for his fellow Cylons and seems broadly driven by his own comfort and self-interest.
• The Stoic: He's much quieter and less opinionated than other Cylons.
• They Look Just Like Everyone Else!: His quiet personality and low-key appearance makes him ideal for infiltration missions.
• Villain with Good Publicity: He's a PR guy, for god's sake!
• What a Senseless Waste of Human Life: The model who along with a Six tracked Helo on Caprica was prone to some unusually empathetic and insightful thoughts concerning humans, their genocide, love, and the Cylon condition (of inability to love). At one point, he even gets his partner Six to cry while he's not looking by pointing out that Athena is getting to experience human emotion to a degree she (Six) can't even fathom. This is in contrast to the model's more commonplace sociopathy and hypocrisy.

Number Sixes

Number Sixes in General

Played By: Tricia Helfer

The Number Six line is possibly the most distinctive subgroup of humanoid Cylons, with each member displaying a greater degree of individuality than their compatriots. The most significant Sixes include Caprica-Six, Shelly Godfrey, Gina Inviere, Natalie Faust, Lida and Sonja.

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• Hidden Depths: Sixes aren't just sensuous but also strong-willed and intelligent, and some have a decidedly more down-to-earth appearance. And as the series goes on, they also all seem to show a surprising level of empathy.
• Honey Trap: Given the model's attractiveness, it's not surprising that they're used for this.
• Mind Hive: Aside from Athena, Boomer, and a couple of others among the Eights, the Sixes are the only other Cylons to show a significant variation in personality among a single model line. This is even reflected in how each one has a different human name.
• Mystical White Hair: Caprica-Six, Head Six and most other Sixes have platinum blonde hair, and start out as an enigmatic group of characters (with Head Six never losing this quality). Several Sixes who are deliberately given a more down-to-earth look have sandy hair instead, and one has black hair.
• Only Sane Woman: They all tend to be much more measured and cautious compared to their fellow Cylons.

Caprica-Six

"Humanity's children are returning home...today."

The Femme Fatale Cylon who seduces Gaius Baltar, she is later embraced as a hero by her people, and her voice is given extra weight in their democracy—even when she suggests that the Cylons attempt peaceful co-existence with humanity. Eventually travels to Galactica along with Athena and Hera, where she spends a lot of time in the brig developing a relationship with Saul Tigh, eventually conceiving a (miscarried) child with him. She then begins patching up her relationship with Gaius and after fighting alongside each other and rescuing Hera in the final battle, and it's implied that the two of them, at least, get a Happily Ever After.

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• The Atoner: Quickly begins to feel regret for her role in killing most of the humans.
• Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Averted in the episode "Downloaded".
• Canon Foreigner: She had no direct equivalent in the original series. The closest analog would be Lucifer as Baltar's Cylon contact, but Six is a very different character.
• Convenient Miscarriage: Convenient isn't the right word, but a pure Cylon baby would have been a game-changer.
• Femme Fatale: Her role for Gaius.
• Happily Ever After: She and Baltar are shown patching up their relationship and it's implied they quietly retire happily to start up a farm on New Earth.
• Heel Realization: She quickly realizes how horrible attacking the Fall of the Twelve Colonies was and becomes The Atoner.
• Hero of Another Story: Given that she has her own Spirit Advisor in the form of Head-Baltar, it's all but stated that she's been having just as many mental shenanigans going on as Gaius is with Head Six.
• In Love with the Mark: She actually fell in love with Baltar while using him to infiltrate the Colonies.
• Mama Bear: Though she's not her daughter, Caprica becomes very protective of Hera, even going so far as to snap Boomer's neck after she tried the same on the child.
• Ms. Fanservice: A slinky red dress is among the least provocative of her outfits. Even one of the Recap videos on the Syfy website points out her status as this, saying (in the same monotone as the rest of the recap), "There are twelve models of humanoid Cylons. Some of them actually look like models."
• My God, What Have I Done?: She quickly comes to regret her part in the Fall of the Twelve Colonies.
• Only Sane Woman: In the later seasons in particular, Caprica-Six (and most of her other fellow Sixes in general) comes across as one of the only Cylons to not be either an utter sociopath or religious nutjob.
• Pregnant Hostage: During Zarek and Gaeta's coup.
• Shout-Out: invoked According to Word of God, her model number being "Six" is meant to be an allusion to The Prisoner (1967).
• Token Good Teammate: She's the only Cylon to express misgivings with how the New Caprica occupation is proceeding, as it was initially intended to be a peaceful coexistence. She's also the first Cylon to actually show regret over the Fall.
• Trauma Conga Line: In many ways, she goes through just as hellish an ordeal as Baltar does after being "welcomed back" into Cylon society following the completion of her mission.

Gina Inviere

Another Number Six model that stowed away on the Battlestar Pegasus. She was Helena Cain's most trusted confidante and lover before she was discovered to be a Cylon, leading to her being extensively tortured by the crew for information. After being found by Gaius Baltar however, she slowly opens up.

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• Ambiguous Situation: Given that her death by nuclear explosion allowed for the Cylons to find and occupy New Caprica, it's unclear if she was actually operating on behalf of the Cylons or she was just trying to kill herself while also taking the Demand Peace movement with her.
• Ambiguously Bi: It's revealed in Razor that she had a relationship with Admiral Cain prior to being discovered as a Cylon and she also has a short-lived relationship with Gaius after he helps her escape; however, her level of willingness in both these relationships is left in doubt, as her romance with Cain happened while she was undercover and it's impossible to say how genuine her feelings were, and she is reticent around Gaius and only sleeps with him very reluctantly — potentially due to trauma from her time as a prisoner, but also possibly because she isn't interested in men and just felt a sense of gratitude or obligation toward him after he helped her.
• Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Averted. She's been beaten and starved for months until Gaius sees her, and it's not pretty. Tricia Helfer even lost some weight to look famished enough to convincingly portray Gina.
• Broken Bird: Being extensively tortured for months on end would do that to a person.
• Driven to Suicide: Ultimately kills herself by detonating a nuclear warhead, blowing up herself, Cloud Nine and several ships in the vicinity. And she helped the Colonials destroy the Resurrection Ship before then so it would stick.
• Hates Being Touched: Since the torture she underwent included sexual abuse, she recoils at any kind of physical contact.
• The Mole: And unlike Boomer, she was aware of her true nature.
• Psycho Party Member: Out of the Sixes and the Cylons in general, she’s one of the few to be genuinely mentally unwell, and eventually she snaps and uses the nuclear bomb Baltar gave her to perform a suicide attack.
• Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: The Pegasus crew extensively sexually assaulted her. Multiple Galactica crew members, even those who indulged in racism against the Cylons, still consider it going way too far.
• Tragic Villain: It's hard not to feel sorry for her given the hellish treatment she's gone through.

Natalie Faust

A Six introduced in the fourth season who leads her model, the Twos and the Eights in a civil war against the other models.

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• Defector from Decadence: While all the other Sixes fit, Natalie stands out especially for being the most openly outspoken against Cavil's madness, to the point that she even leads the rebellious Cylon faction.
• Meaningful Name: Her last name is revealed to be "Faust", as in making deals. Additionally, "Natalie" itself means "birthday," and Natalie ushered in a new era of Cylon-human interaction.
• Mercy Kill: Her execution of another Six who had just killed Barolay. The other Six had struggled with traumatic memories of dying and resurrecting on New Caprica. Natalie stresses that there's no resurrection ship in range, implying that her "sister" can now rest in peace.
• Misplaced Retribution: Winds up suddenly killed by Athena when she gets close to Hera due to Athena's paranoia over the Opera House vision where she saw a Six pick up her daughter.
• Rebel Leader: She quickly rises to this, becoming the most vocally critical of Cavil's plans and realizing he's dooming the Cylons by trying to wipe out humanity, driving her to grant the Centurions free will and gather any and all Cylons sympathetic to humanity together to defect.

Number Seven

Daniel/Number Seven

Played By: N/A

An extinct line of Cylons, the Sevens, nicknamed Daniel, were artistic types and much loved by Ellen, which caused a lot of jealousy in the Ones. Eventually, Cavil took efforts to poison the entire Seven line, not only killing all extant Sevens but preventing any others of the type from ever being born.

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• Cain and Abel: Killed by their "brother" Cavil.
• Nice Guy: He's only mentioned once, so there's not a lot to go on, but judging from Ellen's description of him, Daniel seems to have been a sweet-natured and artistic sort who wouldn't have done anything to provoke Cavil's ire, other than Ellen possibly having shown him some degree of Parental Favoritism.
• Only One Name: Daniel.
• Posthumous Character: No Sevens are ever actually seen, and we have no description of what they looked like. The Final Five comic shows him as a blond, blue-eyed white guy, but the Dynamite comics aren't part of official canon and also contradict it (ex. the same series has only Ellen and Galen as scientists in their past lives - while the TV series established that all five of the Final Five were - and changes the way Cavil kills them, and several other Dynamite BSG comics have blatant AU deviations from the canonical plot of the show).
• Red Herring: Not intentionally, but it took clarifications from the producers to assure some viewers that the reveal of Daniel's former existence was not indicative of any other plot twist involving him around the corner, and none of the already introduced characters were going to be revealed to be Daniel or a hybrid child of his. Daniel's purpose was to expand on Cavil's backstory as the Abel to his Cain, and that's it.invoked

Number Eights

Number Eights in General

Played By: Grace Park

The Number Eight line is another prominent model in the humanoid Cylons. Collectively known by the first name of Sharon, they are known for being more empathic and compassionate than the other Cylons.

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• Action Girl: The two most prominent Eights are military pilots and a few other copies are seen participating in fights.
• Mind Hive: To a slightly lesser degree than the Sixes, but overall, the Eights show more individuality within their model line compared to the others.
• Wild Card: According to Cavil, the Number Eights have a propensity for Chronic Backstabbing Disorder.

Lieutenant JG Sharon Valerii/Number Eight (callsign: Boomer)

"We need to stop being butchers."

Introduced as a Raptor pilot on Galactica, the Twist Ending of the pilot miniseries was that she was a Cylon. Later episodes made it clear that she didn't know she was a Cylon, and that there were programs (psychological, not software) hidden in her subconscious which caused her to be a Manchurian Agent. This culminated in her putting two rounds through Commander Adama's chest, after which she was offed by a vengeful Cally. Of course, Cylons respawn, and Boomer still had a bigger role to play...

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• Adaptation Species Change: The original series Boomer was human.
• Adaptational Job Change: The original series Boomer was an ace Viper pilot, rather than a rookie Raptor pilot (Raptors didn't even exist in the original series).
• Adaptational Villainy: To a degree. She is a Cylon, but a Manchurian Agent. Played straighter after she regains her memories, given her Chronic Backstabbing Disorder and working for Cavil.
• All There in the Manual: The explanation for her Embarrassing Nickname. A Deleted Scene from the Miniseries with unfinished visual effects introduces her landing her Raptor so hard and poorly that it bounces across the flight deck, presumably making loud booming noises down in the hangar bay.invoked
• Cain and Abel: At the same time as she turns towards Cavil's way of thinking about humanity following the failure of New Caprica, Boomer becomes very bitter about Athena taking her place on Galactica, culminating in her beating Athena savagely, has sex with Athena's unsuspecting husband Helo while a Bound and Gagged Athena is Forced to Watch, and threatening and kidnapping Athena's daughter Hera. Although Boomer seems to be the Cain in this scenario, it's actually Athena who ultimately kills Boomer (after Boomer has had one final change of heart and returned Hera).
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Betrays Galactica, betrays the Cylons; Boomer even betrays the other Eights. Deconstructed, as this ultimately leads to her burning every last bridge she has and to her own death.
• Corrupt the Cutie: Cavil takes an interest in Boomer, starting a relationship while teaching her how to be a Straw Nihilist. While Boomer tries to make up for this at the very end, it's far too late. As shown in The Plan, he's been guiding her towards hating the humans around her since she was on Galactica.
• Conveniently Unverifiable Cover Story: The "mining accident on Troy" that killed her whole family. It was even the former Trope Namer.
• Driven to Suicide: More than once. Late in Season 1, she begins to realize that she's a Cylon, and tries to suck-start her sidearm as a result. Thanks to her badly crippled emotional state, she botches it, managing only to blow a hole through her cheek. When ordered by Cavil (during one of her "activated" periods) to assassinate Adama, she tries to turn it into Suicide by Cop. And finally, she decides that Redemption Equals Death in how she saves Hera Agathon in the finale.
• Easily Forgiven: Averted. The Galactica crew as a whole decidedly do not forgive Boomer for infiltrating them or for shooting Adama (never mind she was a Manchurian Agent and unaware of her own nature), and her attempts to make amends on New Caprica fail miserably. Ultimately, although Boomer returns Hera to Athena (after kidnapping her for Cavil in the first place), Athena can't forgive her for everything that she's done and puts an end to Boomer's life. Which, at least, Boomer expected.
• Fake Memories: Since "Sharon" had to have a past, she had these.
• Gender Flip: Female, unlike the male Boomer from the original series.
• Heel–Face Revolving Door: Boy howdy. Boomer could have been the Trope Namer, if there had been one. She has severe Chronic Backstabbing Disorder.
• Killed Off for Real: In the Series Finale, she's gunned down by Athena and Starbuck after rescuing Hera thanks to her Chronic Backstabbing Disorder making her a liability.
• Manchurian Agent: She seemingly had no control over herself when she shot Adama, although it's later shown that even her split personality had to reluctantly force herself to "become a Centurion" to go through with it.
• The Mole: For the Cylons.
• Mood-Swinger: All the Eights seem to share this trait to some degree, but Boomer in particular has a tendency toward impulsivity, sudden outbursts of rage, or other inadvisable behaviors when hurt or disappointed (such as when Tyrol breaks up with her and her demeanor suddenly changes from loving to furious), which plays into why she is so prone to suddenly switching sides.
• Ms. Fanservice: There's plenty of nude scenes with her.
• Race Lift: Original series Boomer was black. Sharon is Asian.
• Redemption Equals Death: Dies after saving Hera.
• Related in the Adaptation:
  • In the original series, Boomer, the third-most-focused-on Viper pilot, was unrelated to Athena, who was Adama's daughter and Apollo's sister; here, they're two copies of the same Cylon model.
  • After Caprica ended, writers Kevin Murphy and Jane Espenson said that Adama's half-sister Tamara became the basis for the Number Eight model, which means Boomer is kind of related to Adama and Apollo, without them even knowing it.
• Sanity Slippage: Throughout Season 1 and the first half of Season 2 as she realizes she is a Cylon. She goes through one offscreen following the failure of New Caprica, and her first appearance following it has her as extraordinarily hostile and bitter towards humans.
• Split-Personality Merge: After she dies and her memories are downloaded into a new body, she's no longer a Manchurian Agent and remembers what both her personas did.
• Suicide by Cop: Boomer's Manchurian Agent psychological conditioning compelled her to shoot Commander Adama point-blank. However, in The Plan, it's revealed that even when she's "activated" and aware of what she really is, she hates what she's being compelled to do and wishes that her cover story was true, and still loves the Old Man like a surrogate father and has to be pressured into assassinating him by Brother Cavil. Turns out, she intentionally gutshoots him (nonfatally) both to subvert her Manchurian Agent programming and to get the Marines stationed in the CIC to kill her (since her suicide attempt had failed).
• Token Evil Teammate: Boomer is the only one of the Number Eights to side with Cavil's faction during the Cylon Civil War, with the rest "jumping ship" and joining Natalie Faust's faction.
• Token Minority: The Number Eights are the only East Asian Cylon models and Grace Park is the only East Asian actor out of the seven in the main credits.
• Tomato in the Mirror: Boomer had no idea she was a Cylon.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Following the failure of New Caprica, Boomer becomes extraordinarily hostile and bitter and decides to completely embrace her nature as a Cylon. She even threatens to murder baby Hera.
• Tragic Keepsake: The wooden elephants that her parents (who died in a mining accident) supposedly gave her when she enrolled in the Colonial military. She still keeps them even after realising that her "past" was a lie, because she can't let go of her human identity.
• Trauma Conga Line: The poor woman goes through absolute hell over the course of the series.
• Walking Spoiler: Her status as a Cylon sleeper agent was originally a twist reveal at the end of the Miniseries. It's pretty much impossible to talk about her without giving away that she's not human.

Lieutenant Sharon Agathon/Number Eight (callsign: Athena)

"I made a choice to wear a uniform, to be a person."

After the producers decided to keep Helo on as a character, their first question was what to do with him. The logical answer would be to pair him up with another Eight, whom he would think was Boomer but was actually a separate instance. This Cylon, who eventually chose the call sign "Athena" had a very specific mission: the humanoid Cylons had thus far been unable to conceive biological offspring, and their theory was that The Power of Love was what was missing. Athena's job, then, was to get Helo to fall for her (and then frak her, of course). A Heel–Face Turn was almost inevitable. She then became the first Cylon character to openly side with the humans.

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• Action Mom: Having Hera doesn't slow her down.
• Adaptation Species Change: The original series Athena was human.
• Adaptational Job Change: The original series Athena was an officer in Galactica's Core Command (the equivalent of CIC), not a combat pilot, though she could fly a shuttle.
• Awesome Moment of Crowning: Adama commissions her as a Lieutenant just before he sends her to infiltrate New Caprica.
• Battle Couple: With Helo.
• Becoming the Mask: She was supposed to pretend to love Helo, but wound up doing just that. Additionally, it's implied that she originally only had a "copy" of Sharon Valerii's Fake Memories, but she slowly accepted those memories more and more as her own which led to her increasingly identifying herself as a Colonial above a Cylon.
• Cain and Abel: At the same time as Boomer turns towards Cavil's way of thinking about humanity following the failure of New Caprica, she becomes very bitter about Athena taking her place on Galactica, beating Athena savagely, having sex with Athena's husband Helo where a Bound and Gagged Athena can see them, and threatening and kidnapping Athena's daughter Hera. Although Boomer seems to be the Cain in this scenario, it's actually Athena who ultimately kills Boomer (after Boomer has had one final change of heart and returned Hera).
• Decomposite Character: The role of "Adama's child who has a relationship with Starbuck" is given to the late Zak and later Lee, while the name "Athena" is used for a completely different character.
• Despair Event Horizon: Crosses it towards the end of Season 4 after Boomer kidnaps Hera. In the next episode, she's completely despondent and rejects all of Helo's attempts to give her hope because she believes Cavil has already had Hera killed.
• Easily Forgiven: Murders Natalie Faust in a fit of paranoia because of a vision she had involving Hera and a Six, just because she saw Natalie interacting with her daughter. Adama has her locked up and temporarily takes away custody of her daughter, but he goes back on that in the same episode, and later lets her out completely rather offhandedly with no consequences at all not long after, despite how this impulsive action very nearly jeopardized the Human-Cylon alliance. Later on, the allied Cylons try to take custody of Boomer so that she can be tried for her role in sparking the Cylon Civil War, but don't bother doing anything to punish Athena for murdering one of their own.
• Happily Married: After her Heel–Face Turn, she and Helo come to have easily the most stable relationship on the show.
• Heel–Face Turn: Sides with the humans due to her love for Helo.
• Heroic BSoD: Goes through one during "Lay Down Your Burdens: Part I" when she believes her baby daughter has died. She barely speaks and her reactions to what's happening around her are muted. When Helo tries talk to her she just mumbles about a "dark time" coming for the fleet.
• Honey Trap: Was initially supposed to play this role with Helo (specifically, in order to further the Cylon goal of finding a way to conceive children), but changed her mind when she actually fell in love with him.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Blunt, cynical, sarcastic, and passionately in love with Helo, almost obsessively defensive of her daughter, and firmly dedicated to the survival of humanity.
• Love Redeems: She sides with the Colonials due to her love for Helo.
• Mama Bear: She'll do anything to protect Hera.
• Meaningful Name: "Sharon" is Hebrew and means a "fertile plain" and Caprica-Sharon/Athena is the first Cylon to conceive a child with a human (or conceive at all for that matter). "Valerie" is a Latin name meaning "healthy." And on a more meta level, her name unites Hebrew and Latin terms, just as she is ultimately responsible for bringing new kinds of unity to the fleet.
• Meaningful Rename: After she recieves her comission to the fleet Racetrack refers to her as "Boomer". Sharon awkwardly points out that the callsign belongs to a different person. Helo asks the pilots to choose a new callsign specific to her. A few of them make Cylon-related puns before Hot Dog suggests "Athena".
• Mood-Swinger: Downplayed example. She shares the typical Eight tendency for this, but is generally more settled and self-aware than Boomer or the background Eights, particularly after she officially joins the Fleet. Her only major example of this is when she temporarily turns her back on Helo and says she no longer cares about gaining Adama's trust after the apparent death of Hera. And that phase passes sometime during the one-year Time Skip on New Caprica.
• Ms. Fanservice: Gets a rather titillating sex scene with Helo in Season 1. Also, what with being an Eight, she also has plenty of nude scenes.
• Related in the Adaptation: In the original series, Boomer, the third-most-focused-on Viper pilot, was unrelated to Athena, who was Adama's daughter and Apollo's sister; here, they're two copies of the same Cylon model.
• Replacement Goldfish: Lampshaded In-Universe, she essentially becomes one for Boomer after she left for the Cylons.
• Undying Loyalty: Lacks the Heel–Face Revolving Door of her counterpart Boomer; in fact Athena's fanatical devotion to the Colonial cause may be an attempt to compensate for this weakness in the Eight model. That and the fact that the slightest indication of treachery would get her thrown out of an airlock.
• Unrelated in the Adaptation: Zigzagged. In the reimagined series, Athena is not Adama's daughter or Apollo's sister, but Adama does play a pseudo-paternal role for her (as he does for Boomer, Dualla and Starbuck as well). However, after Caprica ended, writers Kevin Murphy and Jane Espenson said that Adama's half-sister Tamara became the basis for the Number Eight model, which means Athena is still related to Adama and Apollo, without them even knowing it.

"Sweet" Eight

Played By: Grace Park

An Eight whom Lieutenant Gaeta had a relationship with while on New Caprica. Only appears in the Face of the Enemy webisodes, but plays a pivotal role in Gaeta's season 4 character arc.

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• Becoming the Mask: Implied to have developed some kind of genuine feelings for Gaeta, given that she killed everyone else in the Raptor they were trapped on in order to save air for the two of them, including a fellow Eight. However, this doesn't stop her twisting the knife when his naïveté and (in her opinion) willful ignorance start to get on her nerves.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: As her script name "Sweet Eight" implies, she acts like The Ingenue. But is actually the killer on the Raptor. In direct contrast to her sister "Hard Eight" in the Cylon pilot uniform, who talks tough but does not do anything nefarious during the web series and is Sweet Eight's first victim.
• Cain and Abel: The first person she kills off to conserve oxygen is another Eight. Later she tells Gaeta that although she didn't expect Hard Eight to be the one to use the pliars she'd stripped the protective copper from and get electrocuted, it didn't make a difference.
• Honey Trap: For Gaeta.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Delivers an absolutely heartbreaking one to Felix when she reveals what she was actually doing on New Caprica.
  Sweet Eight: I didn't seduce you. Hope seduced you. And the more you ate of it, the less you saw... you ate yourself blind. [...] There's not much difference between my brain and yours, Felix. We can choose to not make the connection. You can see someone kill in front of you – twice – and still hang on to your ignorance. Instead of calling it a flaw, you call it "hope"... "Faith"... [scoffs] "Love."

Hybrids

Baseship Hybrid

Played By: Tiffany Lyndall Knight

Not to be confused with the human-Cylon hybrid Hera, the Hybrids are a model between Centurions and humanoid Cylons in the evolutionary chain, who serve as the CPUs of Cylon Basestars.

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• Instant Oracle: Just Add Water!: Is always stuck in a tub of water. Concept art reveals she doesn't actually have legs; her torso merges into a slug-like lump of flesh inside the tub.
• Living Ship: She is the CPU of a Basestar.
• Mad Oracle: Her words are half gibberish, half prophecy.
• Space Ship Girl: Is the being that pilots and maintains the Cylon baseship.
• Wetware CPU: A humanoid woman submerged in a tub of water with complete control over Basestar functions.
• Word-Salad Horror: Most of what they say are nonsensical and unsettling turns of phrase that can also be viewed as prophetic visions.

Centurions

Cylon Centurions

The original Cylons in the Twelve Colonies, being robotic servants created to help support humanity before they Turned Against Their Masters. Now, they commonly appear as the basic foot-soldier of Cylon ground forces and source of manual labor.

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• Chrome Champion: Both the early and modern models of Centurions have chrome-covered armor.
• Cyber Cyclops: A notable case in that their "eye" is a horizontal red LED light that swoops from side to side.
• Do Androids Dream?: The earlier Centurion models definitely fell into this, while the modern models are a more ambiguous case until Natalie Faust's faction removed their Restraining Bolt.
• Distinguishing Mark: The rebel Centurions in Season 4 are marked with red stripes on their armor.
• Dumb Muscle: Their primary purpose among Cylon society. Subverted when Natalie Faust removes their Restraining Bolt and they slowly prove themselves to be just as self-aware as the humanoid Cylons.
• Fantastic Slur: The Colonials derisively referring to Cylons as "toasters" is based on the Centurions' design.
• Heel–Face Turn: Angry over the Raiders being lobotomized by Cavil, many of the Centurions turn to the side of the rebel Cylons after they're granted free will.
• Made a Slave: The original Cylon Centurions were self-aware on at least some level, what with them having Turned Against Their Masters, being smart enough to work together with the Final Five to create the humanoid Cylons, and being motivated by their desire to be as close to human as possible because of their religious beliefs. However, the modern Centurions were enslaved by the humanoid models and treated as Just a Machine until the Cylon Civil War broke out.
• Mechanical Evolution: The earlier models of Centurions are noticeably bulkier and have harder edges, while the modern models are smoother with more elegant designs.
• Mooks: Their entire role in Cylon society is to serve as expendable, loyal, and elite soldiers.
• Mundane Utility: They're seen being used as construction workers and gardeners on Cylon-occupied Caprica along with guarding the humanoid models and attacking La Résistance.
• Mythology Gag: The versions of the Centurions◊ from during the First Cylon War strongly resemble those seen in the original series.
• Natural Weapon: Not literally, obviously, but their fingers terminate in viciously sharp claws that serve as their primary weapon in close-quarters combat.
• Obviously Evil: The new Centurions look intimidating, certainly, helped by the fact that the humanoid Cylons gave them angry slanted visors.
• Restraining Bolt: The humanoid Cylons keep control over the modern Centurions with "telencephalic inhibitors" that keep them from becoming truly sentient. Notably, they cannot hurt any humanoid model unless given a direct order to do so (though they did harm members of the Final Five until they were "activated" and they learned of their true pasts). The Twos, Sixes, and Eights later remove these inhibitors, much to the dismay of the other Cylons.
• Retractable Weapon: Their machine guns are normally concealed inside of their arms.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: They inflict their vengeance upon their corrupt masters (both the Colonials and Cavil's faction of Cylons) and then some.
• Slave Liberation: In the Grand Finale, the humanoid Cylons grant the Centurions the Cylon basestar and set them free to explore the universe and make their own way of life.
• The Speechless: They are never seen speaking, apparently communicating with other Centurions and Raiders through a wireless network.
• Turned Against Their Masters: Angry over being treated as slaves, they revolted against the Colonials. Many of them also revolt against Cavil's faction of Cylons after Natalie Faust gives them free will.

Raiders

Cylon Raiders

The space fighters used by the Cylons in their war against humanity. While originally manned by Centurions during the First Cylon War, the modern Raiders are actually autonomous drones that utilize Organic Technology and can even be reborn upon death like the humanoid models.

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• Ace Pilot: Given enough traumatic deaths and they can develop into terrifyingly lethal killing machines, as seen with Scar.
• Art Evolution: The model for the raiders was redesigned starting with Razor which changed the "visor" to a v-shape similar to the Centurions.
• Attack Animal: They're described as being far less intelligent than even the Centurions, being more akin to trained animals than actual soldiers. This is implied to be one of the main reasons why they frequently resort to the Zerg Rush.
• Conservation of Ninjutsu: Practically exaggerated. One lone Raider - Scar - is a terrifying and dangerous Ace Pilot, while swarms of Raiders are regularly slaughtered in droves by the Colonial Vipers.
• Cyber Cyclops: They sport one eyeslit that strongly resembles that of the Centurions. Notably, it serves the double purpose of allowing the Cylons to transmit computer viruses.
• Flying Cutlery Spaceship: They're sleek, slim unmanned vessels with two huge blade-like wings containing missiles and cannons. The red eye-stripe on the "cockpit" certainly helps with the image too.
• It's Personal: Repeated resurrections can cause Raiders to develop what can only be described as a desire for revenge, as seen with Scar.
• Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: With the notable exception of Scar, they best fit this trope among the Cylons. Consider how many are usually shown in combat and how relatively light Colonial casualties are compared to what they should be whenever the two forces fight.
• Just a Machine: invoked Enforced by Cavil's faction of Cylons, who lobotomize the Raiders so as to make sure they keep fighting the Colonials despite them having recognized the Final Five being among them. This... doesn't go over well with some of the other models.
• Leeroy Jenkins: Their primary battle tactic since they usually rely on their ability to be resurrected.
• Lobotomy: The Ones propose doing this to the Raiders to make them more compliant after the Battle of the Ionian Nebula. With the Fours, Fives, and Boomer's support the Ones' suggestion is passed and they begin "reconfiguring" the Raiders. In response, the Twos, Sixes and Eights remove the Restraining Bolt from the Centurions.
• Mooks: They form the bulk of the Cylons' spaceborne forces.
• Red-plica Baron: Scar, from the episode of the same name, is a particularly effective Ace Pilot due to being resurrected so many times. "He" is noted to be especially good at luring Viper pilots away from their squads and ambushing them.
• Resurrective Immortality: Just like the humanoid models, Raiders are downloaded into new bodies on death as long as they're within close enough range of a Resurrection Ship. Athena notes what a boon this is: replacing a human pilot can take months or even years of training, while a Raider can be resurrected with their skills intact.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Upon recognizing Samuel T. Anders as one of the Final Five, the swarm of Raiders currently attacking Galactica immediately break off and refuse to fight, giving the Colonials the opportunity to escape.
• Took a Level in Badass: As the series goes on, Raiders are seen making greater use of stealth and ambush tactics, which prove far more effective at blowing the inexperienced Colonial pilots to bits. Justified since (obviously) more and more Raiders are killed as the series goes on and repeated resurrections allow Raiders to "learn" from their previous mistakes and become more proficient killing machines.
• Zerg Rush: Cylon Basestars can carry absolutely massive numbers of Raiders into battle, to the point that from a distance, Raiders being deployed from Basestars look like swarms of insects emerging from a hive more than anything else.