Number Eight

Number Eight was a model of Humanoid Cylon created by the Final Five, who built the eight numbered models after Number One. Many copies of the Eight existed, and they typically went by the name Sharon when dealing with humans. The model gave rise to two of the most consequential Cylons in the history of the conflict with humanity: the sleeper agent Sharon "Boomer" Valerii and the defector known as Athena, who joined the human survivors. (Battlestar Galactica (miniseries); Battlestar Galactica, "Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part II", "Home, Part I", "No Exit")

Nature and traits#

Unlike most other Cylon models, the Eights typically displayed a great deal of concern and affection toward others, and they were the youngest model in appearance. Though capable of convincing manipulation and deception, they were also vulnerable to forming emotional attachments. Set beside the other Cylon models, they showed a habit of changing loyalties to suit their own needs: Boomer swung from the humans to Cavil and back, and Athena herself condemned the rebel Eights for wanting to cut and run when things got ugly. The conspicuous exception was Sharon "Athena" Agathon, whose loyalty to Commander William Adama, to Karl Agathon, and to her daughter Hera never bent. (Battlestar Galactica, "Faith", "Someone to Watch Over Me", "Daybreak, Part II")

Boomer and the awakening#

The best-known Eight, Sharon "Boomer" Valerii, served as a Raptor pilot on Galactica, unaware, because of implanted false memories, that she was a Cylon sleeper agent until a mission forced the truth upon her. Sent to destroy a basestar above Kobol, Boomer encountered multiple naked copies of herself aboard the ship, who told her they loved her and would see her again. She destroyed the basestar, and soon afterwards shot Commander Adama. (Battlestar Galactica (miniseries); Battlestar Galactica, "Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part II")

Copies through the war#

Individual Eights recurred throughout the conflict with the human survivors. One, in a grey coat at the spaceport at Delphi on Caprica, drew a gun on Karl Agathon and was shot by the Sharon travelling with him, revealing to Helo that his companion was a Cylon. Eights served as nurses and midwives, aiding the resurrections of Caprica Six and of Boomer, and many copies went about daily life on Cylon-occupied Caprica. (Battlestar Galactica, "Colonial Day", "Downloaded")

During the occupation of New Caprica, an Eight sat beside Boomer at a meeting aboard Colonial One where the suicide bombings were discussed. Aboard a basestar stricken by disease, multiple Eights died, and one captured copy, though calling Sharon a traitor, still showed the typical Eight concern for her and warned her to keep away from the contagion. On a rebel basestar, Eights approached Athena to ask that she lead a rebellion against the Sixes, a request she met with disgust at their characteristic fickleness. (Battlestar Galactica, "Precipice", "A Measure of Salvation", "Faith")

In the webisodes The Face of the Enemy, two Eights traveled aboard a Raptor with four humans, including Felix Gaeta. One bore a cynical air, the other an innocent one; the innocent Eight had earlier collaborated with Gaeta and conducted an affair with him on New Caprica. When their Raptor became lost in space, the innocent Eight murdered the cynical one and three humans to conserve air for herself and Gaeta, then revealed that most of the people Gaeta had listed for her to save had instead been killed by the Cylons for their importance. She intended to spare him out of love, but Gaeta killed her in revenge. (Battlestar Galactica: The Face of the Enemy)

Later, several Eights helped to repair Galactica. One was knocked unconscious and substituted for Boomer in the brig, while another, mortally injured during a hull breach, asked for Saul Tigh and thanked him for the chance to meet her father before she died, in reference to his place among the Final Five. Yet another worked at the bedside of Samuel Anders, suggesting that he be connected to Galactica's power systems and the Cylon data stream in an effort to revive his mind; though it failed, that action set in motion his eventual transformation into Galactica's hybrid and proved instrumental in the rescue of Hera. (Battlestar Galactica, "Someone to Watch Over Me", "Islanded in a Stream of Stars", "Daybreak, Part I", "Daybreak, Part II")