Episode 4.17
While I can't really make up my mind how I feel about all the mysteries being revealed in a big string of exposition from Sam, I really love all the explanations. They are nothing like I imagined they might be. And the whole timing issue of the Cylon war on the colonies coinciding with the Cylon holocaust on earth despite being thousands of years apart is scientifically plausible!
For a minute there when they said there was an eight model, I thought that was going to be incredibly lame. "Ellen is the 12th Cylon, not Starbuck! No wait, gotcha! There's a 13th, and it is Starbuck!" But then it dawned on me -- the D'Anna's are the Eights. We've known all along there were Eight besides the fives, just never thought about the fact that there was no Seven. Or at least I didn't, lol.
But oh...the whole Daniel thing...I'm going to assume that by genetic corruption, that's where Starbuck came from. She was Daniel. Which is a little, um, weird. But it amuses me in light of the fact that in the original series Starbuck was a guy, lol.
I love that Boomer is going back to Galactica -- and aw, she and Tyrol are (probably) going to get back together!
I think it's really interesting that Sharon/Athena is the only Cylon who has actually ended up hooking up with and staying with a human. All the rest (assuming Starbuck is the Seven) have ended up with other Cylons (and will be reproducing with each other, since apparently the Final Five are fertile). So Hera continues to remain the symbol of human-Cylon unity. (Though what on earth do the Opera House Vision and Gaius have to do with Hera? And does anyone else continue to be slightly jarred by Caprica and Tigh being so lovey-dovey? Not that I dislike it, I just keep being surprised.) And now that's being paralleled in the image of Cylon organic technology integrating with the body of Galactica to heal the ship.
I wonder: could Galactica itself be the "dying leader"?
Please don't die, Sam!!