[Warning: contains spoilers for the Battlestar Galactica episode Daybreak, Part 1] When forced to choose between who should live and who should die, how should one take into account the ages and potentials of the people involved?
In “Daybreak” we see what transpires at the Cylon Colony now that Hera has returned. Cavil is unimpressed with her ability to draw dots that could be music, and as she has refused to eat for the past few days, Simon suggests that she be fed intravenously. Boomer points out that Hera wants her mother, but Cavil makes no apologies about only seeing her as “a half-human, half-machine object of curiosity that holds the key to our continued existence somewhere in her genetic code.” While certainly Cavil could have been more tactful and caring for Hera’s own wellbeing, even if he had been the fact would have remained that in her lay the survival of the Cylon species. Subjecting her to all sorts of experiments, even if they meant Cavil had to dissect her, could have been justified in the service of the greater good. However, even sacrificing Hera for the survival of thousands of Cylons seems abhorrent. Why is it that it seems so abhorrent to sacrifice a child like Hera for study and the advancement of knowledge, and would it seem somewhat less so if she was not an innocent child?
The age of individuals is an important consideration when allocating vaccines in the event of a pandemic, or choosing how health care resources should be prioritized. Older people may be the most frail and vulnerable, and for that reason one might see fit to provide them with vaccines. However, there is less potential for life years saved if resources are devoted to those already only a few years away from death. More life can be preserved if the young are saved, though it is more likely that the common admonishment to save the children first arises out of some sort of instinct than a calculated analysis of the situation. What is the real reason that we tend to value the lives of children more, and would there still be a difference if everyone had resurrection/life extension, so that rather than a child having more potential than an adult, everyone would have unlimited potential?
Given Boomer’s growing attachment for Hera, it seems possible that she will turn on Cavil and redeem herself to a degree in the eyes of the humans by freeing Hera. However, if she were to do so, she would also be condemning thousands of Cylons to their mortality and death.
One of the more powerful scenes of the episode was when Chief Tyrol, dealing with his guilt in the brig for helping Boomer escape with Hera, was visited by Helo. Tyrol tells Helo that none of the Cylons can be trusted, and that they are all the same whether they are called Athena, Boomer, or Sharon. To Tyrol, he made his mistakes because he is “a 2000-year old idiot who cannot learn the simplest lesson, machines are not people, they’re just machines.” Of course, Tyrol is a machine himself and responsible for creating the other Cylons.
Amidst a series of flashbacks we see Anders as a professional pyramid player. Anders tells an interviewer that he does not “really care about the stats, or the cup, or the trophy, or anything like that. In fact, even the games aren’t that important to me, not really. What matters to me is the perfect throw, making the perfect catch, the perfect step and block, it’s perfection is what it’s about. It’s about those moments when you can feel the perfection of creation, the beauty of physics, the wonder of mathematics, you know, the elation of action and reaction, and that is the kind of perfection that I want to be connected to.” It is a shame that Anders was not able to implement this focus on perfection in the Cylons the Final Five created, for perhaps then Tyrol would not speak of the certainty of betrayal. Rather than making the blanket statement that machines cannot be trusted, Tyrol might have done better to say that machines all designed the same way have the same faults, and if he had experimented more initially he might have found ways to eliminate those faults.
Returning to the present time line we see Adama and Starbuck looking over the hybridized Anders, and Starbuck admitting she does not know what she is after finding her own dead body, but Adama does not care and says that he knows who she is, his (metaphorical) daughter. Meanwhile, as Baltar’s religious followers continue to gain strength in numbers, Baltar petitions Lee to have his people represented in the government. Lee sees Baltar as selfish though, and Baltar actually agrees with Lee’s assessment. Thus, Baltar’s followers are denied a voice in the government, where even the Cylons are now represented.
Will Baltar find a way to redeem himself? What actions will Boomer take and what will transpire with Hera? There are so many other questions left to be answered, it is difficult to see how they will all fit into the two-hour series finale.
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