Lee Adama is the Final Cylon

Alright, I'm calling it. The fifth of the Final Five Cylons in Battlestar Galactica is Lee Adama.

As all zero two of my readers are aware, the primary promotional material for the second half of season 4 of BSG has been this image:



And, to compare, here is a non-original-copy-but-close-enough-and-way-easier-to-see version of the last supper:



Now a lot of effort over the interwebs has gone into comparing these two and analyzing them. However, what most people have missed is the fact that the BSG image is flipped horizontally. To wit:



Before I go on, there are three things I ought to address:

First - while I did identify this flip independently, I was not the first to do so. ShadyWriter's post also contains some analysis of the flip, which is very similar to the analysis I initially did, identifying the "grail" cup as the spot for the missing Cylon, and tying it to Philip. According to both ShadyWriter and wikipedia, Philip is always listed fifth among the disciples. As will be made clear below, I thnk the "grail" is a red herring, and Lee Adama corresponds to Philip, but if you think I'm the bunk, then his post is another good analysis that wouldn't be.

Second - The following analysis is based heavily on comparing characters in Battlestar Galactica to several of the disciples of Jesus. I'm Jewish, and basically only know what wikipedia tells me. Take my analysis with as many grains of salt as you like.

Third - Furthermore, I haven't even gotten past the middle of season 3 in my viewing of BSG yet, and, again, wikipedia. So, yeah, really, many grains of salt.

Ok, moving along:


Listing the similarities, left to right, we have:

• Both Bartholomew and Adama at the left end leaning in
• Immediately to the right are James the Lesser/Helo with their arm around Andrew/Athena
• The hand immediately to the right of Andrew/Athena holds a dagger, to the left of the shoulder of the next person.
• Anders kissing Starbuck puts them in a position very similar to Peter and John.
• John and Starbuck are both leaning at a very similar angle
• Jesus and Head 6 are both looking towards their left/the viewer's right
• A hand is extending out towards the left from the group of 3 at the far right.
• Ronald D. Moore has said that Tigh's positioning shows him turining a "blind eye" to events. Matthew, positioned 3rd from the right like Tigh, is turned away from Jesus, looking to Simon.
• Both Simon and Roslyn are leaning away.

There's also something interesting going on with the knife here. In the Last Supper, the knife is held by Peter, who is leaning in so that his hand and body are to the outside of Judas, while his head is to the inside. There is no similar crossover in the BSG picture. However, the knife vertically aligns pretty precisely with Judas' bag of silver. This vertical alignment is actually rather telling, because the whole picture is very very precisely vertically aligned:


EVERYBODY is almost exactly vertically aligned with one of the disciples. And many of the alignments make sense.

To wit, Baltar is aligned with Thomas, who wikipedia tells me is known for questioning and disbelieving Jesus' proclamations about his death and resurrection, demanding to touch Jesus' wounds before believing him, then proclaiming "My Lord and my God" upon receiving proof. This is not unlike a certain Gaius Baltar, who consistently questioned the proclamations and divinity of Head 6 and the Cylon God for much of the series, and tends to have a thing for tangible proof (not surprising for a scientist).

Also, Cait, who knows more about both Christianity and BSG than I do, assures me that Starbuck and John are also a tremendously good fit.

Once we realize this, we're left with the conclusion that the "grail" is a red herring. In fact, this makes sense - conspicuous by its absence in the original last supper is a grail of any kind. The missing gap isn't to the ouside of Lee, its to his INSIDE!

So the missing disciple isn't Philip, its James the Greater. But who does this align with? Well, like the grail in The Last Supper, there is one person conspicuous by their absence in the BSG picture: Tory Foster.

"But, wait!" - you say - "Tory can't be the last Cylon! She's ALREADY known as one of the final five!"... Well, no, you don't say that, because you read the title of this post and you know where I'm going with this.

Be that as it may, we're still left with an important question: Why are we assuming that the missing person is the final Cylon? Because Roger D. Moore said so? Well, uh, hate to burst your bubble there, kid, but no he didn't:

Someone is indeed absent from the table, admits Moore: "We have not yet revealed the final [unknown] Cylon." Does that mean the people already at the table aren't the final Cylon? Moore laughs. "You ferreted that out pretty slyly. I didn't really want to give that away."

Yeah, that's not really saying "yes" now is it? In fact, its exactly the sort of thing you might say if the answer was "yes," but you didn't want to say something that would lead people to think the answer is "yes." If you don't want to confirm it, then things like "Yes" or "No Comment" are out the window.

So, why Tory for James the Greater? Well, there are a few reasons. For starters, why the heck wouldn't Tory be a part of the picture in the first place? She's one of the final five Cylons - the other three that we know about are all at the table, and the last spot is generally assumed to be for the unknown Cylon. It would be odd to only include four of the five at the table.

If Tory were to be placed in the image, the natural spot would be by Baltar. Both the Starbuck-Anders and Helo-Athena couples are next to each other. In season 4, from what I understand, Tory and Baltar develop a relationship. Based on the placement of the other two established couples with each other, the natural placement for Tory would be by Baltar.

Finally, there's something of a fit between Tory and James the Greater. James was one of the first two disciples to join Jesus. Tory (again, from what I understand), more than any of the other final five, has embraced being a Cylon, and was the only one who immediately went to join the Cylons when D'Anna arrived to offer the Cylons in the colonial fleet sanctuary.

So, if Tory is the missing participant, and corresponds to James the Greater, then the final Cylon is one of the people already at the table. So, why Lee Adama? Because he is vertically aligned with Philip.

As noted above, Philip is always listed fifth among the disciples. Wikipedia further informs that Philip is identified as being from the same town as Andrew (Athena) and Peter (Anders) - both Cylons.

But maybe I'm just wrong about this vertical alignment thing, and the "grail" isn't a red herring - that's actually the seat for the final Cylon. After all, just looking at this in order would seat Philip there.

However, there's one last thing which connects Lee to Philip. According to Wikipedia, Philip is also associated with Bartholomew. In fact, Bartholomew is only ever mentioned in the company of Philip.

And who is Bartholomew in the BSG last supper?

William Adama.

Lee Adama is the final Cylon.