Number Eight (Battlestar Galactica)
Number Eight | |
---|---|
Humanoid Cylon | |
Gender | Female |
Title | Lieutenant Junior Grade |
Colony | Cylon Homeworld, claims to be from Aerelon's colony Troy |
Affiliation | Colonial Fleet/Cylons |
Number Eight is a female humanoid
Notable copies
Cylon models Six and Eight are the most common in the series. Two Number Eight copies are featured as central characters — Boomer and Athena.
Sharon "Boomer" Valerii
Lieutenant Junior Grade Sharon "Boomer" Valerii is a
In "Downloaded", Boomer's preserved consciousness is downloaded into a new body in Cylon-occupied Caprica. She resists being identified with the Cylon cause and tries to persuade the Cylons to reduce hostility against humans. In "The Eye of Jupiter", Boomer attempts to care for Athena's hybrid child Hera on the Cylon base ship, where the child ended up after the New Caprica evacuation. In a conflict with the visiting Athena over whether the humans negotiated in good faith, Boomer is killed by Caprica Six for endangering the child. After resurrecting into a third body, Boomer develops a relationship with John Cavil, a Number One who embraces his machine nature and sees human traits as a weakness. Cavil enlists Boomer's support when the Cylon models become deadlocked in a vote over whether the Raiders should be lobotomized. Boomer turns against Cavil during the Colonial assault on the Cylon colony. After returning Hera to Athena and Helo, who were part of the boarding party, Boomer is executed by Athena for her previous actions.
Sharon "Athena" Agathon
Sharon "Athena" Agathon is originally created to impersonate Boomer and ensure the success of a Cylon experiment to create a Human-Cylon hybrid. She aids Karl "Helo" Agathon on Caprica, intending eventually to kill him. However, she eventually falls genuinely in love with Helo and tries to help him escape, during which he both discovers her true identity and that she is pregnant with his child. Sharon uses her knowledge of the Tomb of Athena on Kobol as leverage to avoid immediate execution aboard Galactica and consistently demonstrates her loyalty by defending the group from Cylon ambushes. Sharon's reunion with the Galactica personnel is tense due to Boomer's history with them, but she makes it clear that she and Boomer are different people.
Upon learning of the pregnancy, President Roslin orders it terminated but rescinds the decision when Sharon's fetal blood is used to cure her terminal cancer. Sharon gives birth to her child prematurely and names her Hera. The Colonial administration decides it is too dangerous to let a hybrid child be raised by a Cylon mother, so they fake the child's death and rehome her with a human mother. Despite the strain this puts on Sharon's loyalty, she continues to help the Galactica.
Sharon and Helo are married in the gap between Season 2 and Season 3, and Sharon is recognized for her service by being sworn in at Boomer's rank of Lieutenant JG. She is sent back to New Caprica as the liaison between the Galactica fleet and the resistance effort and is able to infiltrate the Cylon base and steal the keys for the civilian ships. After the successful rescue mission, Sharon is assigned to join the Galactica's pilot corps with the callsign "Athena" after the goddess of warfare and wisdom. During Colonial negotiations with the Cylons, Athena and Helo learn their daughter is still alive on a Cylon ship. Athena travels to the ship, retrieves her daughter, and honors Boomer's wish to be executed for betraying the Colonial cause.
Analysis
The character has been discussed in the context of
Number Eight's plotline has been compared to those of
Pegues writes that in the human society depicted in the series, race is not a meaningful category, but the show nonetheless explores racial difference via Human-Cylon relations. The character of Athena also defies the Human-Cylon binary; though allied with the humans, she refuses to identify other cylons hidden among them, refusing an "absolute allegiance". Pegues describes her as a liminal subject, and writes that her "irreducibility" made the series an enjoyable one to analyze. The plotline of Athena's child, in particular, is described as examining the fear of miscegenation in white societies: the "biracial" child is an object of anxiety among the humans, and its birth mother is entirely excluded from decisions about it.[2]
Number Eight, and Boomer specifically, also symbolize the
See also
References
- ^ "Resistance". Battlestar Galactica (2004 TV series).
- ^ JSTOR 20343513.
- ^ S2CID 143260462.
External links
- Number Eight at the Battlestar Wiki
- Richards, Sarah (January 15, 2023). "Every Battlestar Galactica Cylon Model Explained". Screen Rant. Retrieved January 11, 2024.
- Bigelow, Nicholas (January 16, 2024). "Battlestar Galactica's 10 Best Cylon Characters, Ranked Worst to Best". Screen Rant. Retrieved February 9, 2024.