Battlestar Galactica (2003)/Number Eight

Cylon Model Number Eight
Battlestar Galactica (2003)
Actor	Grace Park
First Appearance	Miniseries
Last Appearance	4x20 - Daybreak, Part 2
Series Billing	Billed
Episode Count	-

Basic Information

Cylon Number Eight has appeared in two distinct "persons". She first appeared as an undercover Cylon operative going by the name of Sharon "Boomer" Valerii, a lieutenant (junior grade) in the Colonial fleet, is first encountered aboard the Battlestar Galactica before the fall of the Colonies. She serves as a Raptor transport pilot, where her duties included riding herd over her ECO (initially Helo, later Crashdown and Racetrack), taking scans, and transmitting combat data to Viper squadrons.

Lieutenant Valerii was revealed to be a Cylon infiltrator at the end of the miniseries, when a second Boomer appeared at the Cylon meeting at Ragnar Anchorage.

The second distinct Eight introduced also went by the name of Sharon Valerii, impersonating her duplicate in order to gain the trust of Valerii's former ECO Karl "Helo" Agathon, who was trapped on Caprica. The intention of the Cylons was to have Valerii and Helo begin a relationship with the ultimate goal of conceiving a child. Their goal succeeded, but the Eight ended up returning to Galactica with Helo and the two continued their relationship after the birth of the hybrid child.

Character History

Sharon "Boomer" Valerii

This Boomer is the first encountered, and is observed playing cards and socializing with her fellow pilots and crew. She is also observed taking part in an intimate relationship with Chief Tyrol, which is ended when one of their clandestine meetings ends up leaving an unsealed hatchway for a mysterious Cylon infiltrator (Boomer) to plant bombs in the Galactica's water tanks. This relationship was cut off by Chief Tyrol on the orders of Colonel Tigh.

She, at least, unlike her counterpart, appears to be completely unaware of her Cylon nature, presumably the result of the activation of some sort of "sleeper" personality that overlays the Cylon until it becomes necessary for missions to be carried out, at which point the Cylon personality surfaces, carries out the mission, and goes back under, at one point leaving poor Sharon literally sitting there with a bomb in her possession, and at another point shooting Commander William Adama and then going back under, leaving Sharon confused, scared, and being dragged off by Marines.

After her first blackout, Sharon begins to worry about whether she might be a Cylon, leading her to request that Baltar beta-test his new Cylon detector on her. He does, and it comes up positive, but he worries that if he tells her that the Cylon personality will come out and possibly kill him, so he claims that she's pure human and never tells anyone the truth. Rising suspicions lead Boomer to try to eat her own gun, although she apparently cannot go through with it, possibly jerking the gun aside at the last second, and cutting up her cheek.

Boomer is arrested for her shooting of Commander William Adama| and placed in one of Galactica's holding cells, where she is joined later by Chief Tyrol after his return from Kobol. Tyrol, because of his relationship with Boomer, is suspected of at the very least being complicitous in her Cylon mission and at worst of actually being a Cylon himself. Baltar takes this opportunity to nearly kill Tyrol in an effort to get information on how many Cylon infiltrators are in the fleet, possibly succeeding. While being transferred to the medical bay to be used as what Tyrol describes as a "lab-rat", Galactica-Boomer is shot and killed by an emotionally disturbed Crewman Specialist Cally. Her last words are "I love you, Chief".

Sharon "Athena" Agathon

Caprica-Boomer makes contact with Helo after Helo is captured by a Six. She shoots his Cylon captors and helps him escape, although her Raptor is conveniently crawling with Cylons, requiring them to escape back to a nearby city and look for another escape route. This Boomer, whether because of some simulated emotion or whatever, develops a relationship with Helo, and the two grow close as they supposedly avoid Cylon detection.

In reality, this Boomer does not have a sleeper personality, at least not active, and is regularly reporting back to a Six and a Doral on her progress. They run across a convenient shelter, which Helo shows no interest in staying at. Apparently their goal is to have Boomer and Helo set up housekeeping somewhere, and Helo's not buying it. As a result, the next plan is to have Boomer captured by the Cylons, and if Helo rescues her he stays alive and if he heads off for the nearby airfield on his own he will be killed. He rescues Boomer, and the two of them consummate their relationship physically, according to the Cylons' plan. The next order from the Cylons is to have Helo move to a hideout in the woods that the Cylons are putting together and kill him if he resists.

This is apparently where this Boomer snaps, because she runs away from Doral and Six, tells Helo they have to go, and takes him back to the City, disregarding her orders. Unfortunately for her, there are Boomer units all over the Cylon-occupied airfield, and Helo catches a glimpse of at least one Boomer. Her cover blown, Helo shoots Boomer in the shoulder and drags her along with him back into the city, where they eventually meet up with Starbuck. Caprica-Boomer steals Starbuck's captured Cylon Raider after Starbuck tries to shoot her, only to return later with a Cylon Heavy Raider for the purpose of assisting Caprica's local resistance movement and their attempt to rescue Starbuck from a Cylon-occupied hospital.

She spent quite a bit of time residing in a holding cell on Galactica, which had been originally constructed to hold Galactica-Boomer. She eventually gave birth to a human-Cylon hybrid child. Laura Roslin had the child's death faked because she didn't trust the Cylon. Despite this, Eight continued to help the fleet in its run from the Cylons and eventually, after the fleet settled New Caprica, developed a rapport with Admiral Adama and was given a commission as a lieutenant in the Colonial Fleet. She also married Karl Agathon, taking the name Sharon Agathon. Sharon Agathon led the initial phase of the rescue operation to New Caprica and retrieved the launch keys for the grounded Colonial ships from a Cylon installation.

She eventually decided not to continue using the other Eight's callsign, and was subsequently nicknamed Athena by the other pilots aboard Galactica.

Memorable Moments

• Galactica-Boomer shot Commander William Adama in the middle of the CIC in an assassination attempt in episode #1.13 "Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part II".
• Galactica-Boomer was shot and killed by Crewman Specialist Cally in episode #2.4 "Resistance".
• Caprica-Boomer decided to switch sides against the other Cylons and truly help Helo escape from Caprica in episode #1.9 "Flesh and Bone".
• Caprica-Boomer had sex with Helo, conceiving her child, in episode #1.7 "Six Degrees of Separation".

Trivia

• Boomer's Colonial military serial number is T-990429.
• Boomer's rank is actually Lieutenant Junior Grade, not full Lieutenant.
• Boomer's home colony (Troy) was destroyed and her parents supposedly killed, making for a convenient cover story.
• Boomer's parents were Abraham and Catherine Valerii.
• Of the twelve models of infiltrator Cylon, Boomer is Number Eight.
• Sharon Agathon's callsign "Athena" is a reference to the Battlestar Galactica original series, where Commander Adama's daughter was named Athena.