Do we seriously need to use spoiler tags in this thread? It's pretty obvious to me that there are spoilers in a thread like this... Could someone add "spoilers" to the thread topic so that it would be a bit more convenient to discuss the new revelations/red herrings?
Okay. So we now know that the inhabitants of Earth were Cylons of some sort, most likely the same as the Final Five (of whom four were revealed last season). We do NOT know if they were the 13th tribe. It is possible that the 13th tribe arrived to Earth... and nuked the crap out of the existing population, ie. final/original-five model cylons, or started a war that ended with grand scale nuclear bombardment 2000 years before the events of the show.
Another option is that the 13th Tribe settled on Earth, and somewhere along the line developed an ability to resurrect via genetic engineering and developement of other technology. 2000 years ago, there was a nuclear war on Earth, but it's causes are very unclear. It is possible that the 13th tribe fell victim to their own technological cylons that were rebelling, or they simply got into an oldfashioned nuclear war with themselves - or a third party like Shivans came and nuked the planet to kingdom come.
During this event, most of the inhabitants died; however at least four of the inhabitants were at some point later resurrected, transported into Colonies and implanted into new lifes with faux memories, same as Boomer-Eight later on. Who did all this, is probably the fifth cylon model, or at more unlikely case Lords of Kobol or other entity.
If what has been suggested by the last episode is actually true, it's rather... interesting. Something is orchestrating this stuff aside from the Colonials, Sinister Seven and Final Four. Perhaps it is the Final Fifth cylon, perhaps it is the 13th tribe, perhaps "Lords of Kobol". The terms and differences between cylons and humans are being deliberately torn down, though.
There's also the chance that the "flashbacks" that the Four of Five experienced might be implanted memories too. Or at the extreme case, we have no way of knowing what may be real at this point, and who classifies as human and who as cylon. The fifth is probably a survivor of the Earth's nuclear destruction 2000 years ago, or possible even it's cause. Who knows.
Personally, I doubt either Starbuck or Ellen are "the" final fifth cylon model. Ellen might be an aged model Six, which would be in conjunction with the fact that Caprica-Six is pregnant and Ellen was, in the "flashback" (another thing I doubt) saying that their child shall be born again or something like that. Starbuck being the fifth cylon would be cheap; I think that whoever is the hidden puppet master resurrected Starbuck in a similar fashion that Tigh, Anders, Tori and Chief were resurrected - so in a sense Starbuck might actually be a 13th Cylon model now that she's once resurrected. She probably still has no genetic or biomechanic modifications that make the actual cylon skinjobs faster and stronger and stuff, but some might classify her as cylon now.
A shame she didn't have the courage to test the body for DNA sample; it might've been a red herring after all, though the Viper's registration and the ID tags and personal jewelry does suggest that she indeed died in the explosion, the debris was transported to Earth and scattered around, and
someone or
something was orchestrating it, resurrected her (probably the reason why she experienced so little time during her disappearance), put her in a new Viper that matched the old one and locked it to track it's "own" beacon transponder thingie so when it got close enough to Earth it would point to right direction. Remembering the Cylon raider seen in the Maelstrom, it is most certain that the unknown entity hidden in shadows is indeed the "Fifth" cylon model.
Do we even
know that the Fifth is in the fleet? He/she/it might not have inserted itself into Colonial fleet of survivors after all, opting to pull the strings from behind the scenes...
Dualla's suicide was... a disappointment and a shock. And probably just as much an unexpected (as suicides tend to be in most cases) nasty surprise to viewers as much as it was to the other characters...
Good episode in my opinion, though I'm not yet sure if it's just the BSG withdrawal symptoms going away after a long long time without new Battlestar episodes. All in all though... we can't really be sure of anything any more. Prepare for some monumental mindfrak I say.
