Who is the final Cylon?!

Everybody has a theory.  Whether you go for the obvious Starbuck, Baltar, or Roslin choices, or the more esoteric ideas, such as Starbuck’s dad or Boxy, someone out there is bound to be right.  We can’t all be wrong, can we?

So far we have a few clues to work off of based on the narrative of the show.  We know that he or she isn’t “in the fleet” at the beginning of Revelations, according to D’Anna.  This also means that D’Anna must know them somehow. We know that they are “hungering for redemption,” and “suffering,” if we are to believe the prophecy of the hybrid.  Though Ron Moore has given hints to clues in the promotional pictures for Season 4, we can take anything he says with a grain of salt.  He lied about Starbuck being “permanently dead,” after all.  Why believe him now?

We’ve also been given many clues through the shows website, but many of them are so vague, it’s hard to draw a reasonable conclusion from any of them.

So let’s look at our choices.

Main Candidates

Laura Roslin
This is my choice and I’m sticking to it.  She wasn’t in the fleet at the time, as she was on the Basestar.  I’d also say she has a lot to be redeemed for, having tried to rig an election and all.  And wouldn’t dying of cancer constitute suffering?  Perfect!  Other clues have pointed to her as well, such as her prophetic dreams shared with the other Cylons, strange headache right before the fleet-wide blackout, and the strange visions since season one.

Gauis Baltar
Baltar also meets the narrative trifecta, so he’s a likely candidate for that alone.  The head characters have also indicated that something is up with him.  But throughout season three Baltar seemed to hope that he was a Cylon and do we really want him to get his wish?  I don’t.  But I’d be the first to sign up for his cult any day.

Starbuck
The only problem with the Starbuck theory is that she is in the fleet when D’Anna states that the final Cylon isn’t.  Of course D’Anna could be lying for some personal reason, but I personally consider that unlikely.  Either way, something is up with her.  She did return from the dead with a shiny new Viper after all.

Not so likely candidates

Ellen Tigh
Ellen also meets the narrative trifecta, but I view it as a copout to have a dead character be revealed as the final Cylon.  Especially a dead character that is married to one of the final five (this goes for Cally too).  Unless she resurrects on earth somewhere, the plot would pretty much end there.

Felix Gaeta
Yeah, he’s in the fleet.  But he’s suddenly becomed a major player in the show when he was little more than a background character for the first two seasons.  And now he has his own series of webisodes?  Didn’t Tigh, Tyrol, and Anders have a series of webisodes right before they were revealed as Cylons?  Hmmm.

Esoteric ideas

Elosha
Well, she can’t be in the fleet if she’s dead, right?  She may have died early on, but her influence on Roslin was enormous.  And suddenly she returns in Roslin’s visions?  She’s definitely important.

Starbuck’s dad
This was the craziest theory I’ve heard, but after put some thought into it, it makes a bit of sense.  He’s definitely not in the fleet and it’d explain Starbuck’s special abilities as well.  We don’t know much about him other than the fact that he played the piano and was in the military.  This is my favorite theory, as out there as it is.  Though I put my bets on Roslin, this is the theory I want most to be true.  Wouldn’t it be cool?