The Working File

With the last half-season of Battlestar Galactica coming soon, everyone is making their predictions about major plot points.  I do not know the identity of the final Cylon, or the the ultimate ending of the series.  I am going to make a prediction that there has to be, and will be, a third “miracle” involving Gaius Baltar.

The First Miracle

The first miracle associated with Baltar did not seem so important at the time. It seemed like luck.   In the first season episode “Hand of God,” Baltar is advising Col. Tigh and Starbuck as to how to target a tylium mine on an asteroid held by the Cylons.  A nuclear warhead would blow up the base, but render the valuable tylium ore inert and unusable as a fule source.  Partially refined tylium is highly unstable, and a conventional warhead that hit the tanks that held the tylium in this stage would destroy the base while leaving most of the tylium useful for the humans.  Baltar knows enough to help the military this far, but knows nothing about tylium mining, so he cannot identify the proper staging tanks.

Bluffing the Tylium Discussion

In the middle of the conversation he withdraws to a conversation with Head Six, who advises him to place his faith in the Cylon god to guide his decision.  He worries that a Cylon god would not help him blow up a Cylon base, but she assures him that “God does not take sides,” and as he has little choice, he takes a guess and relies on such faith., although that faith is pretty weak: “You didn’t speak to me. God didn’t speak to me.  I was totally lying. I just picked that spot at random.”

Of course it works, leading to the following exchange between Baltar and Head Six:

• Have you read the Pythian prophecy, Gaius?
• Not since sixth grade. I can’t say ancient history was my favorite subject.
• You should have paid closer attention. “All of this has happened before. All of this will happen again.”
• Everyone knows that verse. What are you getting at?
• Remember this one? “Led by serpents numbering two and ten.”
• The Vipers! They’re the serpents.
• There’s a later verse, Gaius. You should read it. “‘Though the outcome favored the few, it led to a confrontation at the home of the gods”
• Are you telling that God guided my finger to that target for some… arcane scriptural purpose?
• You are part of God’s plan, Gaius.
• So God wanted me to destroy the Cylon base.
• You did did well. You gave yourself over to him.
• Yes, I suppose I did. Yes, there’s really no other logical explanation for I was…
• Am.
• I am an instrument of God.

I Am An Instrument of God

At the time, I considered this nothing more than a typical self-important delusion of Baltar, but then there was a second miracle at the start of the fourth season.

The Second Miracle

In “He That Believeth In Me,” Baltar is first introduced to his harem/cult of followers.  They see him as a religious figure, and he at first resists.  Having a weak will, however, he starts to go with the flow.  When he is introduced to the young son of one of his female followers, a sick child near death, he offers this apparently sincere prayer: “How can you take him and let me live? After all I’ve done, really, if you want someone to suffer, take me. We both know I deserve it.”

Baltar's Prayer

Shortly thereafter, Baltar and another follower are attacked in a rest room away from their lair.  While his assailant holds a blade to his throat, Baltar again sees Head Six, who asks: “You asked God to take your life instead of the boy’s. Did you mean it?” He replies, ” Yes. Do it. Take my life. Please.”  He says this aloud so the attacker — who of course cannot see Head Six — hears it.

Take my life. Please.

Suddenly Baltar’s friend overpowers the man holding her and she rescues Baltar.  But the amazing thing is that when they return to the lair, they are informed that the sick boy has miraculously healed.

Why There Has To Be A Third Miracle

Fiction and drama involve paying off things the writers have previously set up.  A single “miracle” is a coincidence.  It’s luck, and can be dismissed.  A second one indicates that the incidents might mean something.

Moreover, Baltar’s attitude developed as well. The first time he sought divine interbvention had no faith, no expectations, and was rewarded all the same.  The second time, he probably did not have complete faith in what he was doing and asking, but he took it much more seriously.  I expect that the third time he will make his request fully expecting results.

There has to be a third time, so we can find out whether there is any meaning behind these events.  Now it is possible that the payoff will be no miracle, but at the very least, there will have to be an incident in these upcoming final episodes in which Baltar, prompted by Head Six, asks his god to intervene in a current event.

Finally, I am less confident of the rest of this analysis as I am that there has to be a third miracle event, but I also believe that the incident will also be the incident in which we learn much more about who or what Head Six is or represents, and that it will also provide at least a partial reveal of the infamous Cylon plan we have been promised since the opening credits in the very first episodes.

In the end, I think we will learn that the “plan” is not a specific plan formulated by the Cylons.  I think it is pretty clear by now that they have not been acting according to any organized plan.  Rather, I expect that we will discover that the Cylon’s plan is their faith in the divine plan of their creator god, as hinted at by the Six known as Natalie in episode two of season four, “Six of One,” when she says “The Raiders are sentient, just as we are. There was a plan, a divine plan in our design. You’re butchering them.”  I think the plan of “They have a plan” will be the Cylon understanding that the divine plan involves some ordered relationship among humans and Cylons, and that they are trying to create that order.  That’s it.

There was a plan, a divine plan in our design.

Finally, one more prediction based on the one line in the first exchange quoted above, when Head Six quotes the prophecy that states, ‘Though the outcome favored the few, it led to a confrontation at the home of the gods.”

We’ve seen most prophecies come true in this series, and this one hasn’t happened yet.  I think the confrontation will be at Earth, perhaps in the very first episode of this final half-season.  We will learn that humanity developed first on Earth, that it was there that  humans first began worshipping the multiple gods of Greek and Roman religion, so earth will have been the home of the gods.

Let’s hope the final half-season is as interesting as well hope it will be.
UPDATE March 19, 2009:
In a podcast for one of the later episodes. Moore discussed a miracle I forgot: in “33,” Head Six warns Baltar that someone can reveal how he helped the Cylons get access to the Colonial defense systems. Baltar prays for the problem to go away, and it does when it turns out that the person is on the Olympic Carrier, and for unrelated reasons, the Colonials order that ship destroyed.
So there have been 3 miracles, making me feel a little less disappointed that there has not been another as I predicted (although as of the time of this update there is one episode left). I still think the nature of these miracles, whether they have a cause or are just coincidences, needs to be addressed.