10 Most Notorious Battlestar Galactica Urban Legends
3. The Final Five Are Cylons, Right?
The "Final Five" are a collection of Cylon humanoids whose existence has been forgotten even by most of the Cylon race. The final season of Battlestar Galactica features the question of what a Cylon really is as one of its key themes. Stemming from this disconcerting (and as it turns out, unpredictable) investigation is one peculiar theory that the Final Five are not Cylons at all.
The final five are later identified as descendants of an ancient tribe of robot humanoids created by humans thousands of years ago. They seem to be either creations of the Lords of Kobol in their image, or immortal skinjob resurrections of the Lords themselves. Either way, the Final Five needing to be created and recognised by other Cylons in order to be Cylons is not actually true.
If this sounds complicated, it's because it is. Moore tried to clarify things by saying "the conceptual framework in which these guys are Cylons, it all sort of works once we laid down their individual back stories…but they are different fundamentally." Whether this actually helps to clear up any confusion is debatable, but it certainly puts the rumour of the Final Five not being Cylons to bed.