Tory Foster

Tory Foster was a scientist of the original Earth and one of the Final Five Cylons, one of five people critical to the recreation of Resurrection technology long lost by the Thirteenth Tribe. Having survived that world's nuclear holocaust, she came to live among Cylons and humans alike, serving in her human life as a senior aide to President Laura Roslin. After awakening to her true nature she embraced her Cylon self more fully than the others of the Five, a path that drew her to murder and, in time, to her own violent end. (Battlestar Galactica, "The Captain's Hand"; Battlestar Galactica, "Crossroads, Part II"; Battlestar Galactica, "No Exit"; Battlestar Galactica, "Daybreak, Part II")

Life on the original Earth#

Foster lived on the original Earth, a world colonised by the Thirteenth Tribe of Kobol, a synthetic biological race who had left their human creators behind. Little is recorded of her life there beyond her engagement to Galen Tyrol. That Earth's people had built machines of their own, which in time rose against them. Warned by messengers no one else could see, she worked with four others, Tyrol, Samuel T. Anders, and Saul and Ellen Tigh, to redevelop the long-defunct Resurrection technology as their only means of surviving the coming machine revolt. (Battlestar Galactica, "Sometimes a Great Notion"; Battlestar Galactica, "No Exit")

The five succeeded, and downloaded into cloned bodies aboard a ship in orbit when the nuclear holocaust came. Resolving to find the Twelve Tribes and warn them against the same path, they crossed the distance at relativistic speeds, living through some two thousand years in a short span of subjective time. (Battlestar Galactica, "No Exit")

Among the Cylons#

The five tracked humanity to the Cyrannus star system, where the Cylon War was already under way. They brokered a ceasefire, promising to share their technology in exchange for peace. Resurrection itself already existed, but not synthetic organic bodies, and over the following decade the five worked to create eight Humanoid Cylon models for mass production. During this work they became adversaries of the Number One, John Cavil, who saw humanoid form as a limitation. Cavil killed Foster and the other four, controlled their resurrection so that their memories were suppressed, and planted them among the humans of the Twelve Colonies believing themselves human. (Battlestar Galactica, "No Exit")

Aide to the President#

When Foster entered human society is unknown, but she passed as a Caprican and served as a precinct captain for the Federalist Party in Delphi, gaining expertise as a political analyst. She survived the Fall of the Twelve Colonies when her car absorbed the shockwave of the bombardment, and was rescued by a Raptor. (Battlestar Galactica, "The Captain's Hand"; Battlestar Galactica: The Plan)

After the death of Billy Keikeya, Foster became one of Roslin's chief aides, taking charge of her election campaign. She counselled the President through the question of whether to ban abortion to repopulate the human race, and when the discovery of New Caprica swung public support toward the Baltar-Zarek ticket, she conspired with Colonel Saul Tigh and Anastasia Dualla to rig the election in Roslin's favour. Lieutenant Felix Gaeta found the forged ballots, and Gaius Baltar was sworn in instead. (Battlestar Galactica, "Sacrifice"; Battlestar Galactica, "The Captain's Hand"; Battlestar Galactica, "Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II")

During the Cylon occupation of New Caprica, Foster joined the resistance, again serving Roslin, compiling lists of collaborators and helping organise the evacuation. Roslin made her responsible for getting Maya and the child Hera off the planet. She failed: Maya was killed in the evacuation and Hera fell into Cylon hands. After the escape she resumed her duties as a presidential aide. (Battlestar Galactica, "Occupation"; Battlestar Galactica, "Exodus, Part I"; Battlestar Galactica, "Exodus, Part II")

Awakening and embrace#

In the period before the trial of Baltar, Foster's condition deteriorated and she began to hear music. With Anders, Tigh and Tyrol she came to realise she was a Cylon, and reported to the CIC to aid Roslin even as the Cylon fleet attacked. She and Anders had by then begun a physical relationship. (Battlestar Galactica, "Crossroads, Part I"; Battlestar Galactica, "Crossroads, Part II")

Foster continued in the clandestine meetings of the Final Four. At Tigh's suggestion that Baltar might be a source of information, she sought to win his confidence, and though she objected to it she had sex with him, weeping. When he told her he believed Cylons could feel, she was moved, and afterward spent increasing time with him, attending his monotheist rallies. Of the Final Five she embraced her Cylon nature most fully. When she discovered that Cally Tyrol had overheard one of their meetings, she followed her to a launch tube, talked her out of taking her own life and her son's, secured the infant, and then ejected Cally into space, showing no guilt. She came to declare herself "perfect", a stance that disturbed Tigh and Tyrol. (Battlestar Galactica, "Six of One"; Battlestar Galactica, "The Ties That Bind"; Battlestar Galactica, "Escape Velocity")

After the Number Three was unboxed and brought to Galactica knowing the identities of the Final Five, Foster held true to her Cylon affinity. Under the pretence of bringing Roslin her medication, she flew to the basestar, declared her nature to Roslin and Baltar, and in the ensuing standoff aided the Three by informing her of Lee Adama's weaknesses. (Battlestar Galactica, "Revelations")

When the fleet reached the ruined original Earth, Foster recalled details of her past life there, remembering that Anders had been a musician and that she and Tyrol had been lovers. After Anders was shot in the head during Gaeta's mutiny, he recited the Five's shared history, revealing, to Foster's and Tyrol's mutual shock, that they had lived together and been engaged to marry. (Battlestar Galactica, "Sometimes a Great Notion"; Battlestar Galactica, "No Exit")

Death#

With Anders comatose, Foster urged the other members of the Five and Caprica Six to abandon the fleet for the basestar and strike out on their own. The matter came to a vote that ended in deadlock until Ellen Tigh, newly returned, cast the deciding vote to leave; Caprica Six's miscarriage, leaving Hera as the only hope of Cylon continuity, changed their minds and the Five resolved to stay. (Battlestar Galactica, "No Exit"; Battlestar Galactica, "Deadlock")

Foster reluctantly volunteered for the mission to rescue Hera from the Colony, helping Ellen maintain the link between Anders and Galactica during the battle. When the Five agreed to share Resurrection technology with the Cylons in a pooling of memories, Foster, fearing the truth of Cally's murder would be revealed, asked the others to pledge mutual forgiveness whatever they learned. Tigh agreed and the process began, but when Tyrol saw her memory of killing Cally he broke the download in a rage, strangled Foster and snapped her neck. Cavil's Cylons took the broken download as a betrayal and resumed hostilities. (Battlestar Galactica, "Daybreak, Part I"; Battlestar Galactica, "Daybreak, Part II")