Battlestar Galactica Plot Twist Is The Worst Reveal In Sci-Fi History

I was excited when Season 3 of Battlestar Galactica’s introduced the concept of the Final Five, whispered here and there by the Cylons, as a type of Shadow Council watching from behind the scenes, waiting to make themselves known. After all, “they had a plan,” which, as we found out later, was a lie, Ronald D. Moore admitted there was no plan, there was no grand design, and the reveal of the Final Five made that very clear.

The Five were revealed to be Saul Tigh, Galen Tyrol, Samuel Anders, Tory Foster, and the last of them, Ellen Sigh. For anyone who had been watching from the beginning, it contradicted lots of evidence and, in the case of Tigh, amounted to character assassination.

One of Saul Tigh’s defining characteristics is his hatred of Cylons, and his willingness to go to extreme measures for the sake of humanity. He’s the first to advocate for destroying Cylons, as witnessed by his zeal to execute Boomer when her Cylon identity is revealed, and he even murdered his wife, Ellen, for conspiring with the Cylons on New Caprica. In one of Battlestar Galactica’s darkest moments, Tigh is one of the council that executes those that assisted the Cylons by sending them out of an airlock.

Even Tigh’s actor, Michael Hogan, thought Tigh would be the least likely character to turn out to be a Cylon. I’m sure the writers thought this would add a layer of pathos and self-hatred to Tigh, but after realizing he was a Cylon, he remains stubbornly pro-human. Turning his wife Ellen into one of the Final Five helped explain her willingness to assist the Cylon occupation force, but it robbed the moment where Tigh tearfully kills her of all of its power.

Violence against the Final Five throughout Battlestar Galactica makes no sense in retrospect; for example, the Cylon Centurions actively try to kill the Final Five at numerous points, Tigh has his eye ripped out by a Number Five, and Anders is attacked by a Number Three. All of that, and even more, is handwaved with the explanation that the other Cylons are unaware of who the Final Five are (with the exception of Number One). It would have been one thing for subtle hints to be seeded throughout the series, but instead, all of the justifications are being made well after the fact.

The reveal of the Final Five is considered by Battlestar Galactica fans to be one of the moments where the series “jumped the shark,” and even the writers can’t keep their facts straight. For example, if Tigh is a Cylon, why is he shown to age? Galen Tyrol has a kid, which means his son would be a hybrid, but Hera was already around by then, and a second Cylon-Human child would make her significantly less special. Those are just two of the plot holes the show makes very weak attempts to justify, from Tigh saying he’s a different type of skin-job to Tyrol not being the real father, and none of the reasoning is satisfying.

What makes the reveal even worse, beyond making one of the best moments pointless and entire arcs meaningless, is that for the rest of Battlestar Galactica’s run, the Final Five do nothing. Starbuck is more important to the final fate of humanity, and all that the mythical member of the 13th Tribe does is…stand back and let events unfold. There was never a plan; there was never a grand design behind the Final Five; they were created between Seasons 2 and 3 simply to be an intriguing mystery to hook viewers.

Battlestar Galactica is a fantastic series, and it still deserves a reboot, but this reveal remains, nearly 20 years later, one of the most disappointing reveals in the history of sci-fi.