The Return of Battlestar Galactica (aka "Not another Da Vinci Code..."

There are those, myself included, who enjoy the occasional drift into hyperbole, to say things like, "The most significant show ever on television ...", or "as philosophically complex as any Socratic dialogue, or "as morally dense as a Beckett play and more vibrant than a Falco concert." Yet all of these still seem inadequate to describe just how overwrought with social necessity and how tragically Shakespearean BATTLESTAR GALACTICA seems to me just days away from the premiere of its fourth and, gods preserve us, final season.

To be fair, I did warn you about the hyperbole ... but it just seems warranted for a show this darn good. And can it even be called hyperbole when it's this close to the truth? To warm us up for the new (and dare I mention again) final season, SciFi.com has served up a water cooler talker of an image of some key members of the cast posed like Da Vinci's "Last Supper" - sort of ... but more on that later ...

Ever since that book/movie about above mentioned artist and the word "Code", I just can't take Da Vinci seriously. It's not his fault. The man was a genius. But now I just associate him with that movie. (Damn you, Hanks!). But still ... this image is intriguing. Take a look ... go ahead ... I'll wait for you on the other side ...

And the original ...

(reproduced without any permission from Scifi.com - ps. please don't make me take it down...)

It kind of looks like that Da Vinci painting so ruthlessly whored out by Dan Brown, Richie Cunningham, and Tom Hanks, doesn't it? But not quite, right? Try flipping the image and compare ...

Ah ... now we're getting somewhere. But wait ... shouldn't there be thirteen people in both pictures? Oh, and aren't there thirteen colonies in Battlestar Galactica lore, with the thirteenth being the mysterious tribe that fled to Earth generations ago? And aren't there the Five Cylons whose mystery has plagued the show from its very first days? Four of whom were revealed in shocking fashion in the Season Three finale? Ronald Moore, one of the producers of the show, has gone so far as to say that the final Cylon does not appear in the Last Supper teaser image, and, oh Daddy, what a telling statement that is ... Take a gander at the next Madden-esque inspired image ...

With the image flipped, it would appear that the place Philip holds in Da Vinci's painting is left empty but for a well placed chalice. which in and of itself is a rather significant Christian symbol. Is this mysterious Fifth Cylon something of a Holy Grail? A Saviour, perhaps? But with most of the major cast featured in the photo, we're left with an assortment of second tier characters, all of whom have been hotly debated on the message boards. So instead, I'll offer this up - what if the Fifth Cylon of legend and prophecy hasn't been around for very long? Much ado was made of the younger Cylons attempts at creating a human-Cylon hybrid. Helo, a human male, and Sharon, a Cylon female, did indeed conceive a hybrid daughter. But now that we know Tyrol is one of the Final Five, we also know that a second hybrid exists - the son Tyrol had with the human Callie. Could we have the makings of a post-modern Adam and Eve? And don't bother me with chronological details - not with a show whose mantra is, "All of this has happened before, and it will happen again." Oh, and should I mention that, according to Wikipedia, Philip is mentioned FIFTH in each of the gospels. By the gods, someone stop me before Ron Howard buys the option ...

Speaking of Tyrol ... poor Chief Tyrol ... it seems he has taken the place of Judas at the table. Or has he? By off-setting the characters slightly, it's a little ambiguous. After all, in Da Vinci's painting, it's Peter, not Judas, who bears the knife. And yet look at the position of the knife in Tyrol's hand - it looks more like the way Judas so eagerly clutches his bag of silver, rather than the contorted position of Peter's hand away from Jesus. In fact, Tyrol's knife makes a bee line for Six, the Jesus of the picture. So, if Tyrol does play the role of traitor, just who exactly will he betray - the humans or Cylons ... or both?

I'm sure there are many more mysteries to be unraveled from this image. But what if I'm reading too much into this? What if I've fallen victim to another elaborate Da Vinci hoax? What if Ronald Moore and company intend nothing more than a good laugh at our expense with this picture? Ah, but what fun would that be? Dazzle me with your theories ... Wikipedia the heck out of the Apostles and see if we can make any more of a mess out of this ... I dare you.

Comments

I've thought about that, J. They always keep Zack in the background, occasionally touching on his story. On the one hand, the death Zack is like the death of Gwen Stacey to Spiderman - it's a powerful piece of personal history that continues to haunt and effect the actions of both big and little Adama and Starbuck. On the other hand ... that would be a crazy frakin' twist.

[J]

Could the final cylon be Zack?