Number Three (Battlestar Galactica)

D'Anna Biers (Number Three) is a fictional character from the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica television series, played by Lucy Lawless.

D'Anna Biers
Number Three
Battlestar Galactica character
Number Three portrayed by Lucy Lawless
First appearance"Final Cut"
Last appearance"Sometimes a Great Notion"
Portrayed byLucy Lawless
In-universe information
SpeciesHumanoid Cylon
GenderFemale
AffiliationCylon Infiltrator

Character biography

Introduction

Three first appeared in the episode "Final Cut" as D'Anna Biers, a reporter for the Fleet News Service. In this episode, she is given full access to Galactica by Commander Adama to film a documentary about the military. During filming, D'Anna comes across the Cylon prisoner Sharon "Athena" Agathon and discovers she is pregnant when Dr. Cottle rushes to save her baby from miscarriage. D'Anna is ordered to remove the evidence by Adama on the grounds it could jeopardize fleet security. The episode concludes with a group of Cylons watching the documentary as well as the removed footage—it is in this scene that D'Anna's identity as a Cylon is first revealed.[1]

On Caprica
"The duality of my role is very fun to play as an actor because she is saying one thing, she looks like a friend, but there is something cold about her. I’ve been reading a book called The Fantastic Bond (actual title: The Fantasy Bond: Structure of Psychological Defenses by Robert W. Firestone, PhD) and it talks about cold mothers who may have physical proximity but no warmth towards their child. There is something about that which is one of the most malignant types of mother love there is. I kind of wanted an element of that in this woman, which is why on some level she is really creepy."

Lucy Lawless on D'Anna.[2]

"She was a zealot, she was an outlaw, she was a betrayer and yet she saw herself as a great patriot in a way."

Lucy Lawless discussing the character of D'Anna.[3]

In the episode "Downloaded", D'Anna debriefs newly resurrected Caprica Six and Sharon "Boomer" Valerii and helps them to integrate back into Cylon society. When the two begin to show sympathy towards the humans, D'Anna reacts with disgust. Ultimately she is killed by Caprica Six to protect Anders, a resistance fighter. After D'Anna has resurrected (offscreen), she claims this to be the first act of Cylon-on-Cylon violence in their history. Caprica averted Three's own unwitting act of Cylon-on-Cylon violence, patricide in fact, as Anders is later revealed to be one of the Final Five, the creators of D'Anna and all other Humanoid Cylons.[4] Three is also unaware of Boomer destroying a Basestar filled with copies of herself, as well as Athena gunning down on two separate occasions a Number Six and a Number Eight who threatened Karl "Helo" Agathon on Caprica.

Search for the truth

In the third season episode "Exodus", D'Anna (it is never explained whether this is the Fleet journalist copy or the "Downloaded" copy but more likely one of these than a new one) is plagued by disturbing dreams. She visits a human oracle who tells her Hera, the hybrid child of Helo and Athena, still lives and Number Three will play a vital role in the child's destiny. Athena, now a commissioned officer of the Colonial Fleet, later infiltrates the Cylons' New Caprica headquarters. D'Anna tells her her child is alive, but a distrustful Athena kneecaps her. After almost all humans have escaped the planet, D'Anna finds Hera accidentally left behind due to the deaths of her adoptive mother and bodyguards, and takes her into the care of the Cylons.

In response to dreams which she believes are messages from God, D'Anna begins a series of suicides in an apparent attempt at enlightenment. She is determined to learn the truth despite suicide being a major taboo in Cylon society. In the period of time before she awakens in a new body, she experiences a vision of five figures bathed in light, whom she believes are the five unknown humanoid Cylon models, the "Final Five".

D'Anna engages in a sexual affair with both Gaius Baltar and Caprica Six, and claims to love both. However, in the episode "The Eye of Jupiter", she ends the relationship with Caprica Six, claiming they have different destinies. Ignoring the consensus decision of the other humanoid Cylons, D'Anna proceeds with Baltar to the temple on the algae planet. Cavil finds her in the temple and orders her at gunpoint not to proceed any further, realizing she has come to find out the identities of the Final Five. However, Baltar shoots him from behind. D'Anna continues and finds herself in a glowing room surrounded by five hooded beings in gleaming white robes. She moves closer and finally sees their faces, realizing who they are. She asks one of them for forgiveness, saying she never knew. She then slumps to the floor and dies, with Baltar pleading for her to tell him if he's one of them ("Rapture").

Boxing and unboxing

As D'Anna resurrects, Cavil is present, displeased with her for disregarding the Cylon taboo against seeking out the Final Five, which he himself programmed to cover up his tracks. He claims the Cylons have reached a consensus that all members of the Number Three model are inherently flawed and suffer from messianic delusions. All copies would therefore be "boxed" — deactivated with their memories placed into cold storage. The boxing is carried out by Cavil.

Later, when the Cylons split over whether or not to seek out the Final Five Cylon models, which they learn are in the Colonial fleet, the Number Twos, Sixes, and Eights (except Boomer) call for the Threes to be unboxed to end the deadlock.

In the episode "Faith", the hybrid says "The missing three will give you the five who have come from the home of the thirteenth". Six and Starbuck realize Three, having previously seen the final five, will be able to recognize the final five from among the presumed humans in the fleet, and as the five are "from the home of the thirteenth" they are from Earth, the home of the thirteenth tribe of humans. Thus they believe resurrecting Three will allow the five to be found and give the fleet a way home to Earth. It turns out much later, in the episode "Sometimes a Great Notion", that "who have come from the home of the thirteenth" is to be taken literally on a different level.

The copy known as D'Anna is revived by Cavil in "The Hub". Cavil hopes she will be able to mediate peace between the warring Cylon factions, but she kills him and is taken away by Helo and a Number Eight. All other copies of Number Three are destroyed during the attack on the Resurrection Hub. Helo takes D'Anna to Roslin, where D'Anna tells the President she will only reveal the identities of the Final Five once she is assured of her own safety.

Standoff and alliance

In "Revelations", D'Anna becomes the de facto leader of the rebel Cylons, and informs Adama and Roslin she will hold members of the Galactica crew hostage until the Cylons in the Colonial fleet — she notes there are only four, not five — rejoin their brethren. D'Anna then accompanies Adama to the Galactica, declaring her demands to the assembled crew (and the Final Four, all of whom are present); Lee Adama, acting as president, assures her he will make no effort to stop the Four from leaving if they so choose; Tory Foster acts immediately, leaving with D'Anna under the guise of delivering Roslin's medication to her. The others hesitate, and D'Anna soon begins executing hostages. After Col. Tigh reveals himself, as well as Tyrol and Anders, D'Anna responds to Lee's threat to execute them by targeting the Colonial Fleet with the basestar's nuclear weapons. Baltar successfully persuades her to stand down, and Lee shortly thereafter reveals to her Starbuck's discovery of a Colonial signal apparently coming from Earth. Though at first hesitant, convinced the humans would never forgive the Cylons and their conflict would never end, she agrees to Lee's proposal they go to Earth together. She is a member of the landing party that discovers the planet to be an irradiated, post-apocalyptic wasteland.

At the conclusion of "Sometimes a Great Notion", Saul Tigh approaches D'Anna to tell her the fleet is about to leave. D'Anna chooses to stay behind on Earth. She tells him: "You know all this is just going to happen again and again... and again. So I'm getting off this merry-go-round." She adds she would rather die on Earth with her ancestors than at Cavil's hands in the cold and dark of space.

D'Anna, the final number three copy, remains behind on the wasteland of the original Earth.

References
  1. "Final Cut". Battlestar Galactica.
  2. "Lucy Lawless: "I never liked the fighting…"". Dreamwatch. 2008-09-26. Archived from the original on 2009-02-14. Retrieved 2009-02-23.
  3. Justin Berger (2008-09-30). "Lucy Lawless GALACTICA.TV interview". Galactica.tv. Retrieved 2009-02-23.
  4. "Downloaded". Battlestar Galactica.
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