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I wonder if Lee will gain back the trust of his family after donning the flight suit and making an unauthorized flight to engage the Cylons. He has alienated both his wife and his father by taking part as a defense counsel in Baltar’s trial. This has yet to be seen, as well as Galactica’s reaction to seeing the return of Starbuck.

The way Starbuck is reintroduced was nicely done – the clue is given by the way an unidentified ship flies around Lee’s viper and then Starbuck is revealed. This flying style of Starbuck’s was established in earlier episodes, making the surprise very enjoyable. Are we to believe her claims of finding Earth? Let’s hope she’s right.

The Final Five
If Saul Tigh is a Cylon, then how far does the production of the humanoid copies go? The Cylons in this version of Battlestar Galactica were created by humans as labor saving device and then rebelled. The pilot episode suggested the Cylons originally looked just like the centurions from the 1970′s series. Since the timeline for the Cylon War is placed forty years prior to the destruction of the Colonies, initial production takes place at least 60 years earlier. Could the corporation that created the Cylons have been experimenting with biomimetic technology early on? The creation of a human clone or replicant may have been illegal in the Colonies at the time, so this corporation gets rid of infant Saul and he’s raised by human parents on Arelon.

Since Saul Tigh is a veteran of the Cylon War, he could have been one of the first humanoid models created to infiltrate the Colonies. There’s no definite timeline given as to when the Cylons first started using organic technology, but the seven revealed models (such as Caprica Six, D’Anna, Sharon, Leoben) may be more recent, and they began to infiltrate human society at least two years before the Colonies’ destruction. Since the Cylons kept a forty year silence after the war, there’s no knowing exactly when they made the jump to mechanical to organic.

Galen Tyrol begins to suspect he’s a Cylon sleeper agent after Sharon Valerii is revealed to be one. Cavil, the priest who is later revealed to be a Cylon, counsels him and gives assurance that Tyrol isn’t one. Cavil may have been one of the earlier models, designed to infiltrate society by posing as a clergyman, so he may have had knowledge of Tyrol being a Cylon and didn’t want it revealed until the time is right. Cavil is instrumental in boxing D’Anna, who has the vision of the Final Five, and the other Three models, so he may be trying to suppress knowledge of this for the time being. Getting back to Tyrol, when he is on the Algae planet, he is instinctively drawn to the Temple of the Five. He believes it may be part of being the son of a priest and an oracle, which is plausible. His reverence for the temple prevents him from blowing it up, aiding and abetting D’Anna and Cavil disarming the bombs from within. He may have been acting on programming, but his origins as a Cylon have yet to be revealed.

Tory and Samuel Anders – how do these people fit in as Cylons? Tory has been mostly a minor political figure for most of the Colonies’ run from the Cylons, and Anders was a famous athlete prior to fighting the Cylons on Caprica. Perhaps Tory’s role was to infiltrate the government at any level, while Anders was to gain a certain level of public trust. Cylon on Cylon attraction has been manifest in the past few episodes as Tory found herself drawn to Samuel Anders. Maybe Tyrol was drawn to Sharon Valerii in the same way early on.

These Final Four seem determined to go on with their lives, identities, and duties as human beings. When Saul and Tory both declare their availability to be by their leader’s sides, they exchange an eerie, knowing glance. Since these Final Four have been invested in their humanity and in fighting the Cylons, it is uncertain what their role will be in human-Cylon relations. And who is the Final Fifth Cylon? Could it be Roslin, Starbuck, or even a resurrected Ellen Tigh? Now, I have to wait an entire year to find this out, along with any explanation that Ronald D. Moore can pull out of his ass.

Baltar gets acquitted through an arduous process in this episode. Lampkin does his job as an attorney and Lee Adama saves Baltar with his idealism. When Lee is forced to reveal the biases inherent among the judges, he fails to answer the question directly, but he focuses on the forgiveness that is available to everyone but Baltar. Mutinies, killings, and even collaborations are forgiven, but that Baltar’s surrender to the Cylons may have been necessary is not. This is the most compelling part of the case that gets him acquitted. While this brings an end to Courtroom Galactica, I wondered how come Caprica Six never testifies against him. The prosecution fails to use her as a witness, considering how her testimony can damn him. She may have withdrawn due to Lampkin’s manipulations, but the prosecutor failed greatly in not pursuing her as a witness. Also, where is Zarek? It’s nice to know that Colonials are not above perjury, as Gaeta provides most of the details in Baltar approving an execution but the most crucial ones – that he signed it at gunpoint by a Five who provided the list, not a Three.

Poor Baltar – he’s an outcast amongst humans and he might not even be able to find refuge amongst the Cylons again. Lampkin and Adama both abandon him once the case is over. The Final Four of Five have been revealed and so far he’s not among them. However, he has his groupies to help him out, and he might emerge as the Jesus figure to go along with the hair.

So four of the Final Five are revealed. Does hearing bad music that no one else can here is a prerequisite for being a Cylon? Saul Tigh, Sam Anders, Tory, and Tyrol all hear very bad music throughout this episode (though Saul hears it last week). Since Saul Tigh suffered the most at the hands of the Cylons during the occupation of New Caprica, it’s most likely that D’Anna apologizes to him when she received that vision. But, there is room for Laura Roslin or Starbuck to be one of the final five. Roslin shares a vision with Sharon Agathon regarding the infant Hera and they both wonder if Caprica Six is an active participant in this vision because they see her take Hera. With all the teasing and the hype, these four are hardly angelic in form or being. Saul isn’t what I would imagine as divine. The question then is how did these people spend years among the Colonies growing up amongs humans. All of them have verifiable lives before the two years before the Cylon war, and Saul Tigh is almost enough to have been witness to the Cylon’s earliest production. If the company that created Cylons engaged in biotechnology early on, they may have researched creating humanoids.

Such a suspenseful ending with the Cylons being revealed and Starbuck showing up, claiming she knows the way to Earth. A lot of cliffhanger, and Battlestar Galactica won’t show up for another year. Talk about major withdrawal symptoms.