Brother Cavil

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Cavil

Race	Humanoid Cylon
Gender	Male
Portrayed by	Dean Stockwell
First appearance	"Lay Down Your Burdens, Part 1"
Affiliation	Cylons

Cavil is a character from the reimagined Battlestar Galactica series.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Cavil is a humanoid Cylon agent, and appears as an eccentric man in his late-sixties; he is the oldest-looking Humanoid Cylon encountered thus far in the series. Unlike the other humanoid Cylons, Cavil has a sarcastic demeanor and a sense of humor. He takes neither religion nor death seriously.

Two versions of Cavil appear at the end of the second season in the episodes "Lay Down Your Burdens, Parts I and II". His first appearance is as a religious counselor provided by the fleet with whom Chief Galen Tyrol meets after he physically attacks deck hand Specialist Cally when she awakens him from a recurring nightmare. Tyrol states he dreams of killing himself, and Cavil suggests that Tyrol subconsciously believes he is a Cylon sleeper agent like his former girlfriend Sharon Valerii.

Cavil assures Tyrol that the Chief is no Cylon, joking "I've never seen you at any of the [Cylon] meetings" (however, it is revealed in the season 3 finale that Chief Tyrol is in fact one of the 'final five' Cylons). Despite posing as a priest, Cavil is critical of the Lords of Kobol, telling Tyrol that praying to them will not help. Cavil states that humans have been given the choice to decide their own destinies and the Lords play no part in their affairs. Cavil later meets with President Laura Roslin and offers prayers to the Lords of Kobol for Roslin's success in her Presidential campaign against Gaius Baltar.

A second version of Cavil appears among the survivors from Caprica after Kara "Starbuck" Thrace leads a rescue mission to the planet. During a Cylon attack, the Cylons suddenly cease fire and withdraw. The Cavil among the group announces that the Cylons have left Caprica and that the group has been spared. Upon their return to the fleet, Chief Tyrol spots the second Cavil disembarking from a Raptor, and alerts the guards that he is a Cylon. The man admits to being a Cylon with a message for their leader. Admiral Adama has the man taken to the brig. Meanwhile, the first Cavil is arrested and emphatically protests his innocence until he sees his twin in the brig. He simply says "Oh, ... okay then..." and calmly enters the cell.

The second Cavil gives a message to Roslin stating that the Cylon attack on the Colonies, as well as pursuit of the fleet, was an error. Cavil further explains that two Cylon heroes, the Number Six model known as Caprica Six and Number Eight (Sharon Valerii - the version that was stationed on Galactica and shot Admiral Adama), have convinced them that the war is futile. He states that though the Cylons are machines, they strive to be the best machines possible and believe they will one day rise above their creators. Their first step had been to replace the humans, and they believed they could do this by hijacking their lives and taking their places. They have determined however, that they have become no better than the creators they despise and offer a reprieve from the genocide, suggesting human and Cylon go their separate ways.

Adama and Roslin furiously reject the idea, stating they simply cannot walk away after the Cylons have destroyed their home worlds. Adama asks the two Cavils whether the new plan comes from their God, and Cavil says that "there is no God", and that God was created by primitive man to explain the unexplained, although he acknowledges his position cannot be proven. Despite the apparent sincerity of the message, and the offer of truce, Roslin orders both Cavils to be spaced, suggesting they will rapidly discover whether or not their God exists. The actual disposal through the airlock is not shown on screen.

At least two Cavil models are present on New Caprica after the Cylon occupation. The New Caprica Cavils display particularly venomous anti-human sentiments, taking great pleasure in taunting human prisoners and shrugging off the human casualties of insurgent suicide bombings. They continue to display the apparent atheism of the previous Cavil models aboard the Galactica.

Cavil was one of three Cylons to board the Galactica to meet with Admiral Adama about The Eye of Jupiter. He was willing to hand Gaius Baltar over to the fleet as part of a deal for the relic, "to sweeten the pot". Upon returning to the Baseship, Cavil feels that annihilation of Galactica is the best option with the standoff, due to the fact that the Cylons are machines and can wait out the human fleet if needed.

A comment made by Sharon "Boomer" Valerii indicates that the Cavil model is against the idea of the Cylons reproducing themselves biologically, which makes sense given their lack of faith in the Cylon god, whose commandments include, "Be fruitful."

With D'Anna's model boxed, it is likely that he has become the "dominant" one among the six remaining models in the Cylon fleet as he seemed to lead the others in deciding to punish her.

[edit] Trivia

Cavil has been known to sarcastically utter lines of dialogue stereotypically associated with science fiction, such as "Take me to your leader" and "We come in peace."