Ellen Tigh | |
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Battlestar Galactica character | |
First appearance | "Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down" |
Last appearance | Battlestar Galactica: The Plan |
Portrayed by | Kate Vernon |
Information | |
Species | Humanoid Cylon |
Gender | Female |
Colony | Earth |
Affiliation | Final Five Cylon |
Ellen Tigh is a fictional character from the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica series. She is played by the actress Kate Vernon.
Ellen Tigh is the wife of Colonel Saul Tigh. At the beginning of the series, he believes she has been killed during the Cylon attack of the Colonies while he was on Galactica. In the original miniseries, a picture of her (portrayed by the wife of series producer David Eick rather than Kate Vernon) is seen being burned by Saul, but apart from this, she does not appear until midway through the first season in the episode "Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down". Though they try to reconcile after their reunion, her previous infidelity strained their relationship.
Ellen Tigh claims to have been rescued by an unknown hero and brought onto the last flight off Picon after she was knocked unconscious when Cylons attacked the airport. In the weeks after the exodus of the refugee fleet, she is on board the Rising Star, but until a week before her reunion with her husband, the crew do not remember seeing or administering medical care to her. Thus, William Adama has her blood tested by Gaius Baltar, who tells Adama and Laura Roslin she is human, but in a conversation with Six, he indicates he may have lied. In Battlestar Galactica: The Plan it is revealed exactly what happened: she was in a bar on Picon talking to a mysterious stranger (a Cavil who never identified himself) when the nuclear attacks happened and she huddled with the Cavil. She was severely injured by the blast that destroyed the bar, but survived and Cavil kept her alive as he felt she hadn't learned her "lesson". Cavil and Ellen ended up on a Raptor and she ended up on the Rising Star recovering from her severe injuries. Cavil visited her during the attacks every 33 minutes and talked about the Final Five and how only four were in the Fleet. Ellen slipped in and out of consciousness and apparently didn't hear him or register what he was saying. The Cavil eventually set himself up on Galactica as a clergyman with Ellen being unaware of his identity for a long time.