Ok, so we’ve got all five of the "hidden" Cylons now. We also know that they created the skin-jobs, and that they began as a set of 8, not 7. While that last bit opens up a BIG can of worms it still doesn’t explain Starbuck.

I think I’ve hit the answer, something we missed in all the other plot going on this season.

First ask yourself what the difference is, if any, between the "Cylons" of earth and the "Humans" of the colonies. We know they posessed the ability to download when they arrived at earth in the distant past, lost it, and then "rediscovered" it on the eve of apocalypse. I’m guessing that this isn’t the whole answer to what makes them different but it IS key: in every way that is important, the "organic memory transfer" is an "upgrade" to an existing being.

Second, we need to look at Cavil’s (or "John", as Elen calls him) motivations. We know that he followed in humanity’s footsteps, waging war because its what they learned from us (think back to his whole "stealing your society" rant when Chief first exposed him). We also know that he doesn’t just doubt the existence of God, but challenges it directly. We also now know that he resents the form he was given.

So, if a skin-job can be "made" and Cavil has a propensity for following in the footsteps of his predecessors, where does this leave us?

One word: Starbuck.

We know a few things about her that are funky in the extreme, including that she did die above the gas giant. We know that the Simon on the breeding farm took some kind of genetic material from her. We know Leoben suspects something pretty damn grave. We know Starbuck remembers the Eye and the Song "from childhood."

Can a human cross the supposed species barrier? With the right technology, it looks like a yes. That still doesn’t explain Kara though. Cavil, however, had everything he needed to "Ressurect" Starbuck. This proves one or the other: that a Cylon skin-job can be made, or that she has somehow never been human.

Now lets look at what we DONT know, and there are two biggies here. First, how did the Viper wind up on Earth, and second how the Frak did Boomer know where to bring Elen? I think the two are related: Cavil has always know where Earth is. We know Boomer was on a mission: drop Elen where she’d be her pain in the ass self and bring Hera back to the Cylons. It would be stupid to assume that Cavil just pulled some ideas out of his ass and guessed REAL lucky.

This is where the "Harbinger" comment of the hybrid comes in: Starbuck is the instrument that fascilitates the "final" battle, leading the humans to Earth, where Cavil is no doubt planning... SOMETHING *BIG*

I’m not sure Starbuck was EVER human OR Cylon as we know them. If she remembers the Eye and Song from childhood, we accept that she’s either been programmed (if so by who? And why?) or that she has ties to both earth AND the colonies.

Could she be Pythia? Could she be an original, pure and ANCIENT Cylon? Programmed to believe she had a certain childhood, leaving her with a certain something that makes her the instrument of prophecy. Could she also be its author? I can think of no other way (save being one of the five’s "creations", which we know is NOT the case) that would explain her intimacy with the elements of the prophecies and trail markers. Elen speaks of some of the markers the same way you’d expect someone who grew up with that history to speak of them... Starbuck seems on much "closer terms" with them. It seems clear that The "final five" would have probably had to run a back-trail to the colonies the humans journey in reverse, but even then Elen seems to have learned what Starbuck seems to have lived.

Another slight possibility is that maybe there is another Earth-Cylon that not all the others know about. When recalling the apocalypse, Anders talks about playing the guitar for a woman he loved. Tori responds "for all of us". At first I took that to mean he and Tori had a past. But then later it is suggested that Tori and Chief had something going. Who was he playing for? Did he maybe love her enough to sneak her into the ressurection program? If so, how would that "stow-away" have gone from Earth to Caprica? Consider the daddy fixation Starbuck had this week, with hallucinations of a musician father, writing the tune Anders was playing... it wouldn’t be the first time BSG flirted with a certain unmentionable taboo if the relationship between Starbuck and Anders was one of blood and not affection.

Its pretty thin, and I’m going on 48 hours with no sleep (did a marathon BSG viewing with a friend who wanted to refresh and catch up) so I’m not sure I’m 100% coherent. We’ve got a situation with Starbuck where we need to accept the least impossible from a series of impossibilities... with what we know right now, she can be neither cylon nor human. I see only one conlusion, she’s somehow both and somehow more.

The answer will come from either Leoben or Anders, probably both of them together. If they really plug him in as a base-ship hybrid and Leoben does his usual "floating in the stream" bit, I think it isn’t inappropriate to see them as being the lock and key to the Starbuck riddle. The combo of whatever is in both of their heads is the REAL answer here, not what Elen thinks she knows.

Discuss, flame, and Benny... bring your best, we’ve got 3 weeks left : )