Battlestar Galactica: "Revelations"--An Appeal for Peace. |The Science Fiction Channel + Technorium

They've been outed. In the most recent episode of Battlestar Galactica, "Revelations," Tory Foster, Samuel Anders, Colonel Saul Tigh, and Galen Tyrol were finally exposed as being four of the 'Final Five' Cylons. Oh, and the humans and Cylons made peace and found Earth, to boot.

Watch BSG "Revelations." (Courtesy of hulu.com--this will probably be up only temporarily).

Yep, "Revelations" was definitely a busy episode.

The first of the 'Final Five' to reveal themselves was, somewhat unsurprisingly, Tory Foster, who, under the cover story of delivering medicine to the captive President, chose almost immediately to join the Cylons--and turn on humanity.

Out of mistrust, the Cylons have a group of humans, including Roslin, onboard their basestar. The humans are held hostage aboard the basestar and are used for ransom to safely obtain the four Cylons from the humans' battlestar. As the 'Final Five' supposedly know the way to Earth, the humans don't wish to relinquish them. So the humans and Cylons are at an impasse, with D'Anna--now leader of the Cylons--taking the decision to execute hostages to press the humans' hand.

While Tory is fully ready to betray humanity, Saul Tigh remains loyal to humanity and to Adama, willing to forfeit his life on behalf of his friends.

The other four of the 'Final Five' Cylons fall someplace in between their fellows.

To make a long story short, the impasse is resolved peacefully, and together humans and Cylons travel to Earth upon a discovery made by Kara Thrace, the harbinger of death of humanity.

What they find is an Earth destroyed by war.

The episode is superb. And the creators of the show have a clear message: an appeal for peace.

Especially poignant is Lee Adama's take on the prophecy, "All this happened before and will happen again." Rather than an elaborate cycle of humans making machines that emulate and then overthrow them, then the humans flee and start anew, eventually making machines that emulate and the overthrow them, rather than that, Lee takes the message far more simply. It is cycle of attack and retaliatory counterattack, and retaliatory counterattack, and retaliatory counterattack, and retaliatory counterattack, etc. Something to which all peoples can relate. One side attacked another side, but that side does not have to seek vengeance against the former. This may have "happened before," but doesn't have "to happen again."

And the end of the episode beggars the question: at what stage in Earth's history is it? Is the devastated scenery Earth at some point in the future, or did the Thirteenth Tribe of humanity arrive on Earth with advanced technology, but then destroyed their civilization through violence? Is the Thirteenth Tribe extinct, and modern Terran humanity the descendants of the Twelve Colonies and the Cylons? Lots of questions to answer in the remaining episodes, even whether or not they actually found Earth.

Yet whether or not the ruined Earth represented a history or a future, Battlestar Galactica gives the viewers a stark warning in "Revelations." Peace is not that much of a voluntary option. Either humanity finds peace, or humankind will destroy itself.

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