Number Eight

Number Eight was a model of Humanoid Cylon created by the Final Five with the assistance of the original Number One. Millions of individual Eights were produced, and they typically went by the name Sharon. 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.

Nature and traits#

Unlike most other Cylon models, the Eights typically displayed a great deal of concern and affection toward others. They tended to be the most naive of the lines and were often emotionally immature. Though capable of convincing manipulation and deception, they were also vulnerable to forming emotional attachments. The Eights were known above all for a propensity for fickleness, frequently changing loyalties to suit their own needs and desires. The conspicuous exception was Sharon "Athena" Agathon, whose loyalty to Commander William Adama, to Karl Agathon, and to her daughter Hera remained unwavering and uncompromising.

Boomer and the awakening#

The best-known Eight, Sharon "Boomer" Valerii, served as a member of the Galactica crew, either deliberately or otherwise forgetting that she was a Cylon 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 and there learned her own identity as a Cylon.

Copies through the war#

Individual Eights recurred throughout the conflict with the human survivors. One copy joined a group of Twos, Fives, and Sixes at Ragnar Anchorage after Galactica and the fleet departed, declaring that the humans would be hunted down. Another, in a white coat at the spaceport at Delphi, was killed by Athena before she could shoot Agathon. 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.

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.

In a notable late episode, 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.

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.