"Red Flags" Battlestar Galactica: Ghosts #4 (Dynamite) Writer: Brandon Jerwa Pencils: Jonathan Lau Colors: Romulo Fajardo, Jr. Letters: Simon Bowland Cover: Dennis Calero 2009

The Orion crew makes a last ditch stand to survive the Cylon holocaust.

Notes from the BSG chronology

This issue takes place mostly during days 3-4 of the Cylon attack on the Twelve Colonies. The epilogue of the story takes place 194 days after the Cylon attack on the Twelve Colonies.

Didja Know?

Battlestar Galactica: Ghosts is a 4-issue mini-series published by Dynamite Entertainment.

The issues of this mini-series were not individually titled. I have chosen to title this issue "Red Flags" in reference to the hidden dangers the Orion crew faces as survivors of the holocaust.

Characters appearing or mentioned in this story

Captain Arvin Tyler

Sola Tyler

Ronnie Dyson

Peter Gilmour

Brukka

Captain Chen

Karras

Merrin

Ian Rao

Kiplinn Rao

Arco Tyler

Issac Shanto

Ismel Shanto

Teresa Manning (a Number Three model Cylon)

Major Falk

Lt. Myer Castall

Lt. Jorianne Landry

Lt. Dozil Pennit (a Number Two model Cylon)

Number One

Number Two

Number Three

Number Four

Number Five

Number Six

Hybrid

Sharon (a Number Eight model Cylon)

Didja Notice?

The cover of this issue seems to be a symbolic representation of our own Biblical Adam and Eve story, set in a context of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol. Arvin and Sola are standing in for Adam and Eve (notice the fig leaf over Sola's vulva, said to have been worn by Adam and Eve to cover their nudity after they ate the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil). The Cylon centurion is up in a dead tree offering them the Earth in its palm, as if it was the serpent offering the fruit.

On page 12, Number Three reports to the others that the version of her on board the Orion (Teresa) is gathering quite a bit of information and insight into human and Cylon nature. How does she know? This seems to imply some kind of wireless transmission capabilities in the humanoid Cylon bodies that we have not seen before. Or is Teresa somehow secretly communicating with her others using some tech aboard the ship? Later, in "Dualities", the Number Eight models do seem to have a certain degree of wireless communication abilities with other Cylons.

Also on page 12, Number Four fills in the rest of his group that a number of human survivors of the Colonies have gathered aboard a piecemeal fleet of civilian ships led by the battlestar Galactica and the Cylon majority has made the decision to pursue the fleet as the priority. This references events occurring in "Enemies Among Us".

On the last page of the mini-series, it seems that Ismel's wife at the former Children of Erebus hideout location is actually a Number Eight model Cylon called Sharon Shanto. 

Unanswered Questions

What world is it that the remaining combined crewmembers of the Orion have made their small colony on?

What will happen to the colony? With the presence of a Number Eight model humanoid Cylon revealed there at the end, will she revert to her Cylon programming and betray them? Or will she, like her counterpart Athena in the human fleet, embrace her human side?