Battlestar Galactica's 15 Biggest Plot Twists And Reveals

In what is undoubtedly the biggest “Cylon Reveal” of the series, the finale to Season Three includes a thread where four disparate characters across the story keep hearing odd music that leads them to be drawn together in an obscure part of the ship. There, they realize that they are four of the “Final Five” Cylons that the series had spent the season building up questions about.

And so while viewers had expected to see new Cylons at some point, their specific identities were still a shock. Both Colonel Saul Tigh and Chief Galen Tyrol had been with the series from the beginning, and had suffered greatly in the battle against the Cylons. Samuel Anders had been around since season two, had led a resistance movement and married Starbuck. The idea that any of these people could be a traitor, even unknowingly, was devastating. Only Tory Foster, who had not appeared as much as the others, was the kind of character whose true nature was not so hard to believe.

While the series took these Cylons in unique directions that ultimately made it all easier to accept, that did not reduce the shock of the initial reveal.