Leoben Conoy
Encyclopedia
Leoben Conoy is a fictional character
portrayed by Callum Keith Rennie
appearing in the reimagined Battlestar Galactica
series.
Leoben is a humanoid Cylon agent who portrays himself as possessing philosophical and religious enlightenment. Meanwhile he delights in playing mind game
s by engaging in disorienting and poetic
discourse that entwines truth and lies. The number two series seems to be one of the physically strongest type among the humanoid cylons, demonstrating superhuman feats such as snapping handcuffs and tossing people around like ragdolls.
Leoben expresses what can be judged a pantheistic view of God
as inherent in all beings, telling Starbuck
, "We're all God."
In the fourth season episode "Six of One
", Conoy's model number was revealed as Number Two.
by Commander Adama
hiding in the Ragnar Anchorage supply depot posing as an arms dealer
scrounging for weapons and supplies. Apparently to avoid arrest, Leoben offers to help Adama's supply team gather cannon shells for Galactica' s defensive guns. After an explosive device accidentally detonates, Adama is trapped with Leoben and separated from the rest of the crew. They look for a way out, engaging in philosophical conversation, all the while Leoben claims to be suffering from allergies. As Adama and Leoben converse, Adama notices Leoben Conoy's "allergies" getting worse. This makes Adama suspicious as he feels it may be a reaction Cylons have to radiation
(in this case emitted by the gas giant
the anchorage orbits). Eventually, Leoben confirms Adama's suspicions, admitting his true nature.
Adama and Leoben fight and in the ensuing struggle, Leoben reacts with amazing speed and strength, but Adama manages to kill him by bludgeoning him in the head with a flashlight. Just prior to his demise, Leoben Conoy reveals to Adama that Cylons can be "resurrected" with their persona downloaded into another copy upon death, allowing all of their experiences to be saved and providing effective immortality
. It is implied, however, the radiation field in which the Ragnar Anchorage is located prevents Leoben from downloading to a Cylon facility for proper resurrection.
After Adama is rescued, Leoben Conoy's body is taken back to Galactica
and examined, revealing humanoid Cylon variants are almost identical to humans.
", a copy of Leoben is found in the fleet hiding aboard the Gemenon Traveller and is arrested. After dodging questions and playing mind games he claims he has planted a nuclear bomb
within the fleet. Leoben is subsequently tortured for information by Starbuck
, something he submits to even though he is shown to be capable of breaking free of his restraints and killing her. He demonstrates a growing obsession with Starbuck throughout the episode, and the interrogation becomes a contest between the two of them. President Laura Roslin
intervenes the interrogation and more courteously questions him. He then makes startling predictions about Kobol
and the future of the fleet. After admitting there was no bomb (and frightening Roslin by claiming Adama is a Cylon spy), Roslin has him vented into space
.
", Leoben appears again during the Cylon invasion of New Caprica. He asks Starbuck's husband Samuel Anders
for Starbuck's whereabouts.
In the third season premier "Occupation
", it is revealed Starbuck has been captured by the Cylons, and is forced to live with Leoben for a number of months. During this period she has killed him five times, though he would simply resurrect and return, exercising extreme patience in his task of winning Starbuck's affection.
Leoben claims he created a baby from an egg retrieved from Starbuck's ovary (see "The Farm
") and presents a girl named Kacey. He says Kacey is a half-Cylon hybrid, Starbuck and Leoben being the parents. In "Exodus" (part 2)
, however, it is revealed Kacey is a human child taken from her mother on New Caprica, and the two are reunited (much to Starbuck's shock) when Starbuck and Kacey arrive back on Galactica.
and an important role to play in future events. Despite Starbuck's guilt that she has been nothing but a "screw up" since childhood, Leoben tries to show she is more significant than she believes. In later episodes of the third season, Starbuck has bizarre dreams of Leoben, with some becoming markedly erotic.
In the episode "Maelstrom
", Starbuck begins hallucinating things, such as her younger self, fleeting images of her mother, and finally non-existent Cylon Raiders. Because of this, her fitness for duty comes into question. Thinking she's losing her mind, she seeks help from an oracle
who tells her Leoben is her spiritual guide and her deceased mother, Socrata Thrace, is using him to get a message to her.
During a hallucinatory dogfight
with a Raider, Starbuck's Viper
takes damage and she falls into unconsciousness, ending up in a dream of her mother's apartment. Leoben appears and takes Starbuck to a scene six years prior, where she learns her mother is dying of cancer. However, her mother's heartless and derogatory comments force Starbuck to walk out on her mother for good. Her mother dies alone and Starbuck kept the pain of that decision locked inside her.
Leoben next takes her to the moment of her mother's passing and allows Starbuck another chance to be with her mother at her deathbed. Leoben consoles Starbuck, telling her death is nothing to fear. Starbuck states "You're not Leoben," to which he replies, "Never said I was. I'm here to prepare you to pass through the next door; to discover what hovers in the space between life and death." Starbuck finally accepts (apparent) death and decides to go down with her damaged Viper when it explodes in the atmosphere of a gas giant. Starbuck's reappearance in "Crossroads Part II
," where she tells Lee Adama
it really is her and that she has been to Earth
, may suggest the destiny Leoben had been guiding her to involves much more than her death.
The copy of Leoben that held Starbuck captive on New Caprica returns to offer a truce between the Colonials and the Cylon Rebels. He helps Starbuck finish a painting of part of her vision and eventually convinces her to travel to his severely damaged basestar. Onboard she discovers part of her painted vision of the road to Earth: a trinary star system possessing a gas giant with a rapidly receding and damaged basestar that appeared as a comet. Leoben takes her to see the ships's Hybrid who gives Starbuck a cryptic and disturbing message. The Hybrid suggests unboxing
the D'Anna models to help locate the final five but informs Starbuck she is the harbinger of death leading humanity to its end.
Upon reaching Earth from the coordinates of Starbuck's Viper, Leoben accompanies Starbuck through a desolate landscape, eventually coming upon the ruins of a crashed Viper. The dead pilot of the Viper is revealed to be Starbuck. Starbuck asks him "What am I?" Leoben has no answer for her and appears to be extremely alarmed by this turn of events.
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
portrayed by Callum Keith Rennie
Callum Keith Rennie
Callum Keith Rennie is a British-born Canadian television and film actor. He started his career in Canadian film and television projects, where his portrayal of Stanley Raymond Kowalski in the TV series Due South was his first international success...
appearing in the reimagined Battlestar Galactica
Battlestar Galactica (2004 TV series)
Battlestar Galactica is an American military science fiction television series, and part of the Battlestar Galactica franchise. The show was developed by Ronald D. Moore as a re-imagining of the 1978 Battlestar Galactica television series created by Glen A. Larson...
series.
Leoben is a humanoid Cylon agent who portrays himself as possessing philosophical and religious enlightenment. Meanwhile he delights in playing mind game
Mind game
The term mind games refers to three main categories:* a largely conscious struggle for psychological one-upmanship, often employing passive–aggressive behavior to specifically demoralize or empower the thinking subject, making the aggressor look superior - 'mind games or power games'.* 'the...
s by engaging in disorienting and poetic
Poetic
Poetic may refer to:* Poetry, or a relation thereof.* Too Poetic, a deceased rapper and hip hop producer....
discourse that entwines truth and lies. The number two series seems to be one of the physically strongest type among the humanoid cylons, demonstrating superhuman feats such as snapping handcuffs and tossing people around like ragdolls.
Leoben expresses what can be judged a pantheistic view of God
God
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
as inherent in all beings, telling Starbuck
Kara Thrace
Kara Thrace is a fictional character in the reimagined Battlestar Galactica franchise. Played by Katee Sackhoff, she is a revised version of Lieutenant Starbuck from the 1978 Battlestar Galactica series...
, "We're all God."
In the fourth season episode "Six of One
Six of One (Battlestar Galactica)
"Six of One" is the fourth episode of the fourth season of the reimagined science fiction television series Battlestar Galactica. The episode first aired on SCI FI and Space in the United States and Canada respectively on April 11, 2008, and aired on Sky1 in the United Kingdom on April 15, along...
", Conoy's model number was revealed as Number Two.
Ragnar Anchorage
Leoben Conoy is first encountered in the miniseriesBattlestar Galactica (TV miniseries)
Battlestar Galactica is a three-hour miniseries written and produced by Ronald D. Moore and directed by Michael Rymer. It was the first part of the Battlestar Galactica reimagining based on the 1978 Battlestar Galactica television series, and served as a backdoor pilot for the 2004 television series...
by Commander Adama
William Adama
William "Bill" Adama is a fictional character portrayed by Edward James Olmos in the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica television series...
hiding in the Ragnar Anchorage supply depot posing as an arms dealer
Arms industry
The arms industry is a global industry and business which manufactures and sells weapons and military technology and equipment. It comprises government and commercial industry involved in research, development, production, and service of military material, equipment and facilities...
scrounging for weapons and supplies. Apparently to avoid arrest, Leoben offers to help Adama's supply team gather cannon shells for Galactica
Radiation
In physics, radiation is a process in which energetic particles or energetic waves travel through a medium or space. There are two distinct types of radiation; ionizing and non-ionizing...
(in this case emitted by the gas giant
Gas giant
A gas giant is a large planet that is not primarily composed of rock or other solid matter. There are four gas giants in the Solar System: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune...
the anchorage orbits). Eventually, Leoben confirms Adama's suspicions, admitting his true nature.
Adama and Leoben fight and in the ensuing struggle, Leoben reacts with amazing speed and strength, but Adama manages to kill him by bludgeoning him in the head with a flashlight. Just prior to his demise, Leoben Conoy reveals to Adama that Cylons can be "resurrected" with their persona downloaded into another copy upon death, allowing all of their experiences to be saved and providing effective immortality
Immortality
Immortality is the ability to live forever. It is unknown whether human physical immortality is an achievable condition. Biological forms have inherent limitations which may or may not be able to be overcome through medical interventions or engineering...
. It is implied, however, the radiation field in which the Ragnar Anchorage is located prevents Leoben from downloading to a Cylon facility for proper resurrection.
After Adama is rescued, Leoben Conoy's body is taken back to Galactica
Battlestar Galactica (ship)
The Battlestar Galactica is a space battleship in the original and re-imagined science fiction television series Battlestar Galactica.The Twelve Colonies of Man in the original television series built a number of Battlestars during their thousand-year war with the Cylons, whose battleships are...
and examined, revealing humanoid Cylon variants are almost identical to humans.
Colonial fleet
In the episode "Flesh and BoneFlesh and Bone (Battlestar Galactica)
"Flesh and Bone" is the eighth episode of the reimagined Battlestar Galactica television series.-Plot:President Roslin sees a copy of Leoben Conoy, a duplicate of the Cylon that Commander Adama encountered on Ragnar Anchorage, in a dream. Soon afterwards, a copy of this Cylon is caught aboard the...
", a copy of Leoben is found in the fleet hiding aboard the Gemenon Traveller and is arrested. After dodging questions and playing mind games he claims he has planted a nuclear bomb
Nuclear weapon
A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission or a combination of fission and fusion. Both reactions release vast quantities of energy from relatively small amounts of matter. The first fission bomb test released the same amount...
within the fleet. Leoben is subsequently tortured for information by Starbuck
Kara Thrace
Kara Thrace is a fictional character in the reimagined Battlestar Galactica franchise. Played by Katee Sackhoff, she is a revised version of Lieutenant Starbuck from the 1978 Battlestar Galactica series...
, something he submits to even though he is shown to be capable of breaking free of his restraints and killing her. He demonstrates a growing obsession with Starbuck throughout the episode, and the interrogation becomes a contest between the two of them. President Laura Roslin
Laura Roslin
Her first actions include organizing all FTL-capable ships together and convincing Commander William Adama to abandon a retaliatory attack on the Cylons. President Roslin and Billy Keikeya, her aide/press secretary/chief of staff, establish a working office space aboard her transport, renamed...
intervenes the interrogation and more courteously questions him. He then makes startling predictions about Kobol
Kobol
Kobol is the name of a planet in the fictional Battlestar Galactica universe.Within the context of both Battlestar Galactica stories, Kobol is the birthplace and original home of humanity, from which the civilization departed and formed the Twelve Colonies on other worlds...
and the future of the fleet. After admitting there was no bomb (and frightening Roslin by claiming Adama is a Cylon spy), Roslin has him vented into space
Space exposure
Space exposure is the subjection of a human to the conditions of outer space, without protective clothing and beyond the Earth’s atmosphere in a vacuum.-Explanation and history:...
.
Occupation of New Caprica
In the final episode of 2nd season "Lay Down Your Burdens, Part IILay Down Your Burdens (Battlestar Galactica)
"Lay Down Your Burdens" is the two-part second season finale of the reimagined Battlestar Galactica television series. Part 1 aired originally on the Sci Fi Channel on March 3, 2006; Part 2 aired on March 10, 2006 as a 90-minute special.- Part 1 :...
", Leoben appears again during the Cylon invasion of New Caprica. He asks Starbuck's husband Samuel Anders
Samuel Anders
Samuel T. Anders is a fictional character from the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica television series, played by Michael Trucco...
for Starbuck's whereabouts.
In the third season premier "Occupation
Occupation (Battlestar Galactica)
"Occupation" is the third season premiere and 34th episode of the re-imagined American science fiction drama television series Battlestar Galactica. The episode was written by re-imagined creator Ronald D. Moore, and directed by Sergio Mimica-Gezzan. It first aired on October 6, 2006 on the Sci-Fi...
", it is revealed Starbuck has been captured by the Cylons, and is forced to live with Leoben for a number of months. During this period she has killed him five times, though he would simply resurrect and return, exercising extreme patience in his task of winning Starbuck's affection.
Leoben claims he created a baby from an egg retrieved from Starbuck's ovary (see "The Farm
The Farm (Battlestar Galactica)
"The Farm" is the fifth episode of the second season of the reimagined Battlestar Galactica television series. It aired originally on the Sci Fi Channel on August 12, 2005...
") and presents a girl named Kacey. He says Kacey is a half-Cylon hybrid, Starbuck and Leoben being the parents. In "Exodus" (part 2)
Exodus (Battlestar Galactica)
"Exodus" are the third and fourth episodes of the third season from the science fiction television series, Battlestar Galactica. The episodes originally aired on the Sci Fi Channel on October 16 and 23, 2006....
, however, it is revealed Kacey is a human child taken from her mother on New Caprica, and the two are reunited (much to Starbuck's shock) when Starbuck and Kacey arrive back on Galactica.
Leoben's role in Starbuck's destiny
Ever since Starbuck first encountered Leoben aboard the Gemenon Traveller and during the time she was forced to live with him on New Caprica, Leoben has continually told her she has a special destinyDestiny
Destiny or fate refers to a predetermined course of events. It may be conceived as a predetermined future, whether in general or of an individual...
and an important role to play in future events. Despite Starbuck's guilt that she has been nothing but a "screw up" since childhood, Leoben tries to show she is more significant than she believes. In later episodes of the third season, Starbuck has bizarre dreams of Leoben, with some becoming markedly erotic.
In the episode "Maelstrom
Maelstrom (Battlestar Galactica)
"Maelstrom" is the seventeenth episode of the third season from the science fiction television series, Battlestar Galactica.-Plot:Survivor Count: 41,400...
", Starbuck begins hallucinating things, such as her younger self, fleeting images of her mother, and finally non-existent Cylon Raiders. Because of this, her fitness for duty comes into question. Thinking she's losing her mind, she seeks help from an oracle
Oracle
In Classical Antiquity, an oracle was a person or agency considered to be a source of wise counsel or prophetic predictions or precognition of the future, inspired by the gods. As such it is a form of divination....
who tells her Leoben is her spiritual guide and her deceased mother, Socrata Thrace, is using him to get a message to her.
During a hallucinatory dogfight
Dogfight
A dogfight, or dog fight, is a form of aerial combat between fighter aircraft; in particular, combat of maneuver at short range, where each side is aware of the other's presence. Dogfighting first appeared during World War I, shortly after the invention of the airplane...
with a Raider, Starbuck's Viper
Colonial Viper
The Colonial Viper is the primary fighter spacecraft type used by the human protagonists in the Battlestar Galactica fictional universe. Appearing in both the 1978 original series and the 2003 reimagined series, as well as various derivative works, the single-pilot spacecraft are carried aboard...
takes damage and she falls into unconsciousness, ending up in a dream of her mother's apartment. Leoben appears and takes Starbuck to a scene six years prior, where she learns her mother is dying of cancer. However, her mother's heartless and derogatory comments force Starbuck to walk out on her mother for good. Her mother dies alone and Starbuck kept the pain of that decision locked inside her.
Leoben next takes her to the moment of her mother's passing and allows Starbuck another chance to be with her mother at her deathbed. Leoben consoles Starbuck, telling her death is nothing to fear. Starbuck states "You're not Leoben," to which he replies, "Never said I was. I'm here to prepare you to pass through the next door; to discover what hovers in the space between life and death." Starbuck finally accepts (apparent) death and decides to go down with her damaged Viper when it explodes in the atmosphere of a gas giant. Starbuck's reappearance in "Crossroads Part II
Crossroads (Battlestar Galactica)
"Crossroads" are the nineteenth and twentieth episodes of the third season and season finale from the science fiction television series, Battlestar Galactica...
," where she tells Lee Adama
Lee Adama
Leland Joseph "Lee" Adama is a fictional character in the television series Battlestar Galactica. He is portrayed by actor Jamie Bamber. He is one of the main characters in the series.-Early life:...
it really is her and that she has been to Earth
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
, may suggest the destiny Leoben had been guiding her to involves much more than her death.
The copy of Leoben that held Starbuck captive on New Caprica returns to offer a truce between the Colonials and the Cylon Rebels. He helps Starbuck finish a painting of part of her vision and eventually convinces her to travel to his severely damaged basestar. Onboard she discovers part of her painted vision of the road to Earth: a trinary star system possessing a gas giant with a rapidly receding and damaged basestar that appeared as a comet. Leoben takes her to see the ships's Hybrid who gives Starbuck a cryptic and disturbing message. The Hybrid suggests unboxing
Unboxing
Unboxing is the unpacking of new products, especially hi-tech consumer products. The whole process is captured on video and later uploaded to the Internet. The term has been labeled a new form of "geek porn."...
the D'Anna models to help locate the final five but informs Starbuck she is the harbinger of death leading humanity to its end.
Upon reaching Earth from the coordinates of Starbuck's Viper, Leoben accompanies Starbuck through a desolate landscape, eventually coming upon the ruins of a crashed Viper. The dead pilot of the Viper is revealed to be Starbuck. Starbuck asks him "What am I?" Leoben has no answer for her and appears to be extremely alarmed by this turn of events.
Final Fate
Having sided with the Colonials, along with the Sixes and Eights, against the remaining Cylon forces led by John Cavil, Leoben is instrumental in aiding them throughout their final confrontation. When Starbuck's interpretation of the musical notes in her head leads everyone to a new planet (which is later identified as our Earth), the Leoben series, along with the remnants of the Colonials, the Sixes and Eights, vote to settle the new world and help make a difference in rebuilding civilization before they "pass into God's hands". The Leobens, like his Cylon counterparts and the remnants of humanity, pass into history.External links
- Leoben Conoy at the Battlestar Wiki