Simon O'Neill
a Number Four who chose his family
Simon O'Neill was a Number Four who infiltrated Colonial society as a fleet medic. After the Fall of the Twelve Colonies he chose his family over his model and died rather than carry out a Number One's terror plot.
Simon O'Neill was a Number Four who infiltrated Colonial society ahead of the Fall of the Twelve Colonies. Posing as a fleet medic, he came to value the family he had built over his model, and after the attack he chose death over carrying out a Number One's terror plot aboard the Cybele.
Biography#
In his service, Simon lived on Gemenon, taking on the role of a medic in the Colonial fleet, where he fell in love with Giana and married her. When the attack began, Simon chose to flee with his stepdaughter rather than resurrect, and boarded the Cybele. The two were later reunited with Giana, who had been rescued from Caprica.
Conflict and death#
Simon's commitment to his family became a serious problem to a Number One in the fleet, and he tried to avoid conscription into the Number One's terror cell. Though he offered to kill people in his role as a medic, this was unacceptable to One, who wanted more extreme actions. The fear of harming his family weighed heavily on Simon, and his relationship with Giana deteriorated.
Finally, Simon conceded and agreed to blow up the Cybele, but One was unwilling to protect his family. Instead, Simon fashioned a smaller explosive charge to destroy an airlock, flushing himself into space and killing himself. Out of range, Simon did not resurrect.
Following his death, Colonel Saul Tigh of Galactica led an inquest to determine how a medic would possess the materials and knowledge to manufacture explosives. Presented with a suicide note, the investigation was concluded.
Frequently asked questions
- Who was Simon O'Neill?
- Simon O'Neill was a Number Four who infiltrated Colonial society ahead of the Fall of the Twelve Colonies. He lived on Gemenon as a medic in the Colonial fleet, where he fell in love with and married a woman named Giana.
- What happened to Simon after the Fall?
- When the attack began, Simon chose to flee with his stepdaughter rather than resurrect, boarding the Cybele. The two were later reunited with Giana, who had been rescued from Caprica.
- How did Simon die?
- A Number One in the fleet pressured Simon to join his terror cell and destroy the Cybele. Unwilling to harm his family, Simon instead fashioned a smaller charge to destroy an airlock, flushing himself into space. Out of range, he did not resurrect.
Sources
- WikiSimon O'Neill — Battlestar Wiki entry
Spotted a factual error or a primary source we missed? Email a correction. Every flagged claim gets reviewed.
Related entries
Number Four
Number Four, also known as Simon O'Neil, was a model of humanoid Cylon created by the Final Five after the Cylon War. Often serving as doctors and medics, the Fours sided with the Ones and Fives during the Cylon Civil War.
Number One
Number One was the first humanoid Cylon model built by the Final Five, made in the image of Ellen Tigh's father and named John. Known in disguise as Brother Cavil, he engineered the deaths and memory wipes of his creators and reshaped the Cylon race in his own bitter image.
Saul Tigh
Colonel Saul Tigh was the executive officer of the battlestar Galactica and William Adama's oldest friend, a hard-drinking and embittered soldier who later discovered he was one of the Final Five Cylons yet never stopped thinking of himself as a Colonial officer.
Caprica
Caprica was a planet in the Cyrannus star system and the cultural, economic and military center of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol. Birthplace of the first Cylons, it became the capital of the United Colonies and was devastated in the Cylon assault that ended colonial civilization.
Cybele: the freighter that fled Gemenon
The Cybele was a Colonial freighter that survived the Fall of the Twelve Colonies. Escaping Gemenon with refugees during the Zero Hour, it joined the fleet that gathered near Caprica and carried among its passengers a hidden humanoid Cylon.
Fall of the Twelve Colonies
The Fall of the Twelve Colonies, also called the Second Cylon War, was a single-day Cylon campaign of total annihilation against Colonial space. It wiped out almost the entire human population of over twenty nine billion and left barely fifty thousand survivors in a fleeing refugee fleet.
Mentioned in2 entries
Cybele: the freighter that fled Gemenon
The Cybele was a Colonial freighter that survived the Fall of the Twelve Colonies. Escaping Gemenon with refugees during the Zero Hour, it joined the fleet that gathered near Caprica and carried among its passengers a hidden humanoid Cylon.
Giana O'Neill: the deck hand who survived the Fall
Giana O'Neill was a human refugee who survived the Fall of the Twelve Colonies by winning a lottery seat aboard a Raptor. She enlisted in the Colonial Fleet as a deck hand and was later reunited in the fleet with the husband she had believed lost, unaware that he was a humanoid Cylon.
Get new articles in your inbox
No spam. New lore drops, canon conflicts, and deep dives only when they’re worth reading.
Some links on Lore Fortress are affiliate links. If you buy through them we earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.