Every Cylon Model in Order, by Number: One to Eight and the Final Five

There are twelve humanoid Cylon models in the reimagined Battlestar Galactica, which ran from the 2003 miniseries to the 2009 finale. Eight of them are numbered, built in their millions and sharing one face per model. The other five are single people, the Final Five, who made the rest and then forgot they had. This page goes through every one: who they were, the copies worth knowing, what they wanted and where each story ended up.

Two other kinds of Cylon sit around the edges of this list. The Centurions were the mechanical soldiers whose rebellion began the Cylon War, and the Final Five gave them the humanoid models as the price of ending it. The Hybrids were part machine, part body, wired into each basestar to fly it, and spoke in strings of half poetry. Neither is a numbered model, and both outlasted most of the humanoid lines (Battlestar Galactica, "No Exit"; Battlestar Galactica, "Faith").

The Significant Seven#

The Five built eight models after the Cylon War. When the Sevens were destroyed, seven lines remained, and those seven ran the war against the Colonies. Each model shared one personality, uploaded its memories through resurrection when a body died and voted as a bloc in Cylon politics. Their differences drove the whole back half of the show.

Number One: John Cavil#

Number One was the first humanoid Cylon the Five ever made, and every copy took the name John Cavil. He hated it. Cavil resented being stuck in a human body, wanted to see gamma rays and smell dark matter, and blamed his makers for limiting him. So he killed them, wiped their memories when they resurrected and dropped them among the Colonials to watch them suffer as humans. He also kept their existence from the other models through a taboo against even thinking about them (Battlestar Galactica, "No Exit").

The key copies posed as priests. Caprica Cavil joined the human resistance on Caprica, while Galactica Cavil reached the refugee fleet and counselled the crew. The two met face to face when the resistance arrived at the fleet, which was how both were exposed (Battlestar Galactica, "Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II"). Behind the scenes the Galactica copy led a hidden cell working to destroy the fleet from within (Battlestar Galactica: The Plan).

What Cavil wanted was a Cylon race without human traits. He boxed the Threes for chasing the Five, pushed through the lobotomy of the Raiders, and when the Twos, Sixes and Eights rebelled he turned the vote into the Cylon Civil War (Battlestar Galactica, "Rapture"; Battlestar Galactica, "Six of One"; Battlestar Galactica, "The Ties That Bind"). His last plan was to take Hera Agathon to the Colony and study her. When Galactica attacked and a deal to trade Hera for rebuilt resurrection fell apart, Cavil put a gun in his mouth and fired (Battlestar Galactica, "Daybreak, Part II").

Number Two: Leoben Conoy#

Number Two was the mystic of the line. Every Two was called Leoben Conoy, and they believed in a cycle of time and in God speaking through the Hybrids. The first Leoben the fleet met was captured, interrogated by Kara Thrace and told her she had a special destiny before he was put out of an airlock (Battlestar Galactica, "Flesh and Bone").

That idea became an obsession. On New Caprica a Leoben kept Kara locked in a fake apartment, and she killed him again and again until she finally stabbed him and escaped during the rescue (Battlestar Galactica, "Occupation"; Battlestar Galactica, "Exodus, Part II").

Leoben wanted Kara to find her purpose and lead the Cylons home. In the civil war the Twos sided with the rebels, and a Leoben came to Kara to offer an alliance against Cavil (Battlestar Galactica, "The Road Less Traveled"). He fled from her after she found her own burned body on the dead Earth (Battlestar Galactica, "Sometimes a Great Notion"). The Twos were cut to the survivors of one rebel basestar, which joined the human fleet, and with resurrection gone the model died out after the war.

Number Three: D'Anna Biers#

Number Three was curious, and that was her undoing. The copy best known as D'Anna Biers posed as a Fleet News Service reporter shooting a documentary aboard Galactica, and was shown to be a Cylon only once her footage reached Caprica (Battlestar Galactica, "Final Cut"). Another Three was with Caprica Six and Boomer when the pair argued the attack on the Colonies had been a mistake (Battlestar Galactica, "Downloaded").

D'Anna wanted to see the faces of the Final Five. She chased them to the Temple of Five on the algae planet, where she saw the five faces and died. Cavil had the whole line boxed for it (Battlestar Galactica, "Rapture").

The rebels later freed her from the Resurrection Hub before destroying it, which made her the last Three alive (Battlestar Galactica, "The Hub"). She used what she knew to force Galactica into the open about the Five (Battlestar Galactica, "Revelations"). Once she saw that Earth was a nuclear ruin she chose to stay there and die, the end of her model (Battlestar Galactica, "Sometimes a Great Notion").

Number Four: Simon#

Number Four, always called Simon, was a doctor. On occupied Caprica the Fours ran a Farm at a hospital, holding Kara and operating on her ovaries as part of the Cylons' push to breed with humans (Battlestar Galactica, "The Farm").

The best known single copy is Simon O'Neill. He married a human woman and loved her family. Ordered by Cavil to help with a mass killing that would have taken them too, he went out an airlock while out of resurrection range so his memories would never reach the other Fours (Battlestar Galactica: The Plan).

As a model the Fours wanted what Cavil wanted, and sided with the Ones and Fives in the civil war (Battlestar Galactica, "Six of One"). A Simon was the doctor examining Hera at the Colony when Galactica came for her, and Boomer snapped his neck to take the child. Resurrection was already gone, and the Colony's fall ended any hope of rebuilding it (Battlestar Galactica, "Daybreak, Part II").

Number Five: Aaron Doral#

Number Five went by Aaron Doral and looked like an ordinary man in a suit, which made him a good spy. One Doral worked in public relations for Galactica's decommissioning and was left behind at Ragnar Anchorage once the crew suspected him (Battlestar Galactica miniseries). Another reached the fleet and blew himself up aboard Galactica with a suicide vest (Battlestar Galactica, "Litmus").

The Fives were hardliners. They backed boxing the Threes and lobotomising the Raiders, and stayed in Cavil's camp through the civil war (Battlestar Galactica, "Six of One"). A Doral was still fighting beside Cavil in the attack on Galactica's CIC at the Colony, where he was killed (Battlestar Galactica, "Daybreak, Part II").

Number Six#

Number Six was the face of the Cylons, tall and usually blonde, and the only numbered model whose copies picked their own names. She had more key copies than any other model.

• Caprica Six seduced Gaius Baltar on Caprica and used his access to defence systems to help the Cylons destroy the Colonies (Battlestar Galactica miniseries). After her own resurrection she turned against the slaughter (Battlestar Galactica, "Downloaded").
• Head Six was the version only Baltar could see, guiding and taunting him for the whole series (Battlestar Galactica miniseries; Battlestar Galactica, "Daybreak, Part II").
• Shelly Godfrey turned up in the fleet with faked evidence framing Baltar, then vanished (Battlestar Galactica, "Six Degrees of Separation").
• Gina Inviere was held and abused aboard Pegasus, killed Helena Cain once freed, and later set off a nuke aboard Cloud 9, which led the Cylons to New Caprica (Battlestar Galactica, "Pegasus"; Battlestar Galactica, "Resurrection Ship, Part II"; Battlestar Galactica, "Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II").
• Natalie Faust led the rebel side in the civil war. She freed the Centurions from their inhibitors and later took her people into alliance with Galactica, until Sharon Agathon shot her (Battlestar Galactica, "Six of One"; Battlestar Galactica, "Guess What's Coming to Dinner?").

What the Sixes wanted changed over time. They started out as the most faithful Cylons, believing God had judged humanity. After the occupation of New Caprica went bad, they wanted peace and a place alongside humans. Caprica Six lived aboard Galactica as a prisoner, fell for Saul Tigh and lost their unborn child (Battlestar Galactica, "Deadlock"). She ended the series on the new Earth beside Baltar, and her head counterpart walked a modern city with his 150,000 years later (Battlestar Galactica, "Daybreak, Part II").

Number Seven: Daniel#

Number Seven was the model nobody knew about until the last season. Ellen Tigh named him Daniel. He was gentle and artistic, and Ellen favoured him, which Cavil couldn't stand. Before the Fall, Cavil poisoned the amniotic fluid used to grow the Sevens and corrupted their genetic code. The line was gone (Battlestar Galactica, "No Exit").

Daniel never appears on screen. He wanted nothing the show could show, because he never got the chance. His story ended before the miniseries began.

Number Eight: Sharon#

Number Eight, always Sharon, had two copies who carried more of the show than most humans. Both were pilots who shared a face and little else.

Sharon "Boomer" Valerii was a sleeper agent aboard Galactica who didn't know she was a Cylon. She dated Galen Tyrol and shot William Adama twice in the chest once her programming kicked in (Battlestar Galactica, "Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part II"). Cally shot her dead aboard Galactica, and she woke up on Caprica (Battlestar Galactica, "Resistance"; Battlestar Galactica, "Downloaded"). Boomer cast the deciding vote for Cavil over the Raiders, later helped Ellen escape the Colony, then kidnapped Hera for him (Battlestar Galactica, "Six of One"; Battlestar Galactica, "No Exit"; Battlestar Galactica, "Someone to Watch Over Me"). At the Colony she handed Hera back and Athena shot her dead (Battlestar Galactica, "Daybreak, Part II").

Sharon "Athena" Agathon started on Caprica with Karl "Helo" Agathon, fell in love with him and came over to Galactica, where she earned Adama's trust (Battlestar Galactica, "Home, Part II"). She gave birth to Hera, the first human and Cylon child, and was told the baby died (Battlestar Galactica, "Downloaded"). Later she killed herself on purpose to resurrect aboard a basestar and bring Hera home (Battlestar Galactica, "Rapture"). Athena wanted a family and got one. She lived out her life on the new Earth with Helo and Hera, whose bloodline runs into modern humanity (Battlestar Galactica, "Daybreak, Part II").

The Final Five#

The Five were scientists from the Thirteenth Tribe's Earth, two thousand years before the series. They rebuilt resurrection, foresaw the war that ended their world, and woke in new bodies on a ship in orbit when it came. Travelling at sublight speed, they reached the Twelve Colonies during the Cylon War, struck their deal with the Centurions and built the eight numbered models. Cavil repaid them by killing them and hiding them among humans with false memories (Battlestar Galactica, "Sometimes a Great Notion"; Battlestar Galactica, "No Exit"). Four woke to the truth when they heard the same music playing aboard Galactica (Battlestar Galactica, "Crossroads, Part II").

Saul Tigh#

Saul Tigh was Galactica's executive officer, a drinker and Adama's oldest friend. On New Caprica he lost an eye in Cylon detention and led the resistance with suicide bombers, then poisoned his own wife for collaborating (Battlestar Galactica, "Occupation"; Battlestar Galactica, "Exodus, Part II").

Hearing the music, he realised he was a Cylon and decided he was still Saul Tigh, an officer of the fleet (Battlestar Galactica, "Crossroads, Part II"). He revealed himself to the whole fleet to stop D'Anna's standoff (Battlestar Galactica, "Revelations"), and his memory of Earth gave away the fifth Cylon (Battlestar Galactica, "Sometimes a Great Notion"). Tigh wanted to keep fighting for the people he served. He ended the series alive, settled on the new Earth with Ellen (Battlestar Galactica, "Daybreak, Part II").

Ellen Tigh#

Ellen Tigh arrived in the fleet as Saul's flirty, troublesome wife (Battlestar Galactica, "Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down"). She traded information to the Cylons on New Caprica to free Saul, and he poisoned her for it (Battlestar Galactica, "Exodus, Part II").

Death wasn't the end. Ellen was the fifth Cylon, and she woke in a resurrection tank with Cavil waiting (Battlestar Galactica, "Sometimes a Great Notion"; Battlestar Galactica, "No Exit"). In Cavil's hands she told him what he had done to the Five and to Daniel, and Boomer helped her escape (Battlestar Galactica, "No Exit"). Ellen wanted her children to learn compassion. She reached the fleet, lived through the Battle of the Colony and settled with Saul (Battlestar Galactica, "Deadlock"; Battlestar Galactica, "Daybreak, Part II").

Galen Tyrol#

Galen Tyrol, the Chief, ran Galactica's hangar deck. He loved Boomer, then married Cally, and only learnt he was a Cylon from the music (Battlestar Galactica, "Crossroads, Part II"). Cally found out, tried to take their son out of an airlock, and died there (Battlestar Galactica, "The Ties That Bind").

Boomer used a shared Cylon projection with Tyrol to get close to Hera (Battlestar Galactica, "Someone to Watch Over Me"). During the attempt to rebuild resurrection at the Colony, the link between the Five showed him that Tory had killed Cally. He broke the link and strangled Tory. Tyrol wanted to be left alone after that. He went to live by himself on the new Earth (Battlestar Galactica, "Daybreak, Part II").

Samuel Anders#

Samuel Anders was a Pyramid star who led the Caprica resistance and met Kara there (Battlestar Galactica, "Resistance"). He married her, flew Vipers for the fleet, and heard the music like the others (Battlestar Galactica, "Crossroads, Part II").

A bullet he took during the mutiny led by Felix Gaeta lodged in his brain and shook loose his old memories of Earth and the Five (Battlestar Galactica, "Blood on the Scales"; Battlestar Galactica, "No Exit"). He never recovered. Placed in a Hybrid's tank and wired into Galactica, he took control of the ship (Battlestar Galactica, "Islanded in a Stream of Stars"). His final act was to fly the emptied fleet into the sun (Battlestar Galactica, "Daybreak, Part II").

Tory Foster#

Tory Foster was Laura Roslin's political aide, and she heard the music with the others (Battlestar Galactica, "Crossroads, Part II"). She took to being a Cylon faster than the rest. When Cally tried to airlock herself and her son, Tory saved the baby and pushed Cally out (Battlestar Galactica, "The Ties That Bind").

Tory wanted the Cylon side of herself to win out. It didn't save her. The memory link at the Colony gave her secret away, and Tyrol killed her for it (Battlestar Galactica, "Daybreak, Part II").