What is the point of Number Six killing a baby on Caprica?

Question

In the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica, the Cylon Number Six models are depicted as sympathetic characters toward the end of the series (they rebel against the Cavils, they join the humans, they advocate the humane treatment of humans and oppose the lobotomization of the Cylon raiders, and finally, one turns out to be an angel while another lives happily ever after on New Earth).

I can understand that nuking an entire world is part of her job as a soldier, but why did she snap a baby's neck? He and his mother would have been killed in the first strike anyway so why cause the additional grief? The season one depiction of her as an evil psycho does not tally with the way she's portrayed in the last season.

Answer 1

Please note: this answer has been revised with recent information that seems to be indisputably canonical given the sources.

Tricia Helfer, the actor who played six, answered this same question on a Reddit AMA. She says:

It was a mercy killing. Six was fascinated with seeing the innocence of the baby (holding one for the first time) and knew that the bombs were going to go off soon, so chose to end the baby's life quickly and painlessly rather than having it suffer during the bombing.

In the podcasts, Ronald D. Moore explains that early on, there was uncertainty about how much of the Cylon culture would be revealed. He considered having the Cylons being just a relentless, faceless, threat, much as they were depicted in the episode 33. So, initially, there was much more of a ruthlessness built into the Cylons as a culture.

However, as the story evolved, it went in the direction we saw, which was that the Cylons were rapidly evolving a culture that has more in common with human culture, including disagreements among Cylons about the ethics of wiping out humans, and whether or not humans were merely vermin or equals.

Additionally, Ronald D. Moore has also said:

Well, not to give anything away here, but the scene demonstrates both the cold-blooded nature of the Cylons and their more human aspect at the same time. Watch Tricia's performance carefully in this scene and I think you'll see that from her point of view, she's conducting a mercy killing -- as frightening as that may be to you or I.

---

So comments below make sense, here is the text of the original answer that has been superceded by the actor's and director's explanations:

I believe that the reason that particular Six model snapped the baby's neck was because the humanoid Cylons were a relatively new step in evolution for the Cylons at that point. And she was certainly very new to being in a human society.

She was, in a sense, somewhat sociopathic, not having worked out human emotions, appropriate behaviour, and so on. My interpretation of the motive of snapping the neck is that she was seeing what it would be like to do so, but it could be argued that it was for other reasons, equally lacking in empathy.

As the series goes on, though, she learns more about humans, about society, and about herself, and so she develops a more nuanced and sympathetic understanding of ethics and of living among both humans and Cylons.

Answer 2

I would almost certainly consider this an act of kindness. Six - knowing what was to come - and the undoubted suffering that would be imparted upon an infant, chose to kill the child quickly and painlessly.

To me it is a foreshadowing of the compassion Six shows at various points throughout the series.

Answer 3

Showrunner Ronald D. Moore spoke to this question in a 2003 webchat.

Q: Several people are asking about the Number-Six-Baby-Killing scene. How does it service the plot[?]

RonDMoore: Well, not to give anything away here, but the scene demonstrates both the cold-blooded nature of the Cylons and their more human aspect at the same time. Watch Tricia's performance carefully in this scene and I think you'll see that from her point of view, she's conducting a mercy killing -- as frightening as that may be to you or I.

You can see the chat reported here along with an unedited version of the chat here

Answer 4

Curious re fragility of humans or compassion to ensure the baby did not suffer. I did not perceive her look as smug but as remorse or sorrow.

Answer 5

Recent AMA with the actress on Reddit.

Q. Why did Six kill that baby? :(

Tricia Helfer: It was a mercy killing. Six was fascinated with seeing the innocence of the baby (holding one for the first time) and knew that the bombs were going to go off soon, so chose to end the baby's life quickly and painlessly rather than having it suffer during the bombing.

Answer 6

This little scene has always puzzled me.

I have nothing to back up my theories, but this is how that scene has always read to me.

It's always seemed to me that, knowing the nuclear holocaust was coming, she snapped the baby's neck in what was essentially a mercy-killing.

She made a statement to the baby to the effect of "Don't worry, you won't have to cry for long." And then when they cut to her walking away through the crowd, she seemed to have a pained, almost sad look on her face, and in her eyes.

I kind of took this sort of as the early seed of the ethical side of her that she developed later on in the series.

{ I did actually tweet Tricia Helfer at one point to get her "inside" take on this scene, but I did not get a response. }

Answer 7

"It's amazing their necks can support that much weight" We see in the series, clearly flaws written into her character are consistent elements of compassion and curiosity, even though she's on a mission. And of course she like all 12 models wants to procreate as well.

After this scene I was hooked on the show and thought it was one of her better performances. Judging from her reaction she is surprised the infants neck breaks so easily even though she was not making a real test, just curious about humans, not understanding their fragility. And like any guilty child who after being trusted, broke something not knowing their own strength, doesn't want anyone to find out, she makes a getaway into the crowd hurriedly.

Answer 8

I have only now (in 2016) started watching BSG, as it's streaming on Hulu. The baby had been crying and she tells the baby that it won't be crying for long. She clearly killed it to spare its future suffering, since mankind was about to be horribly wiped out. I absolutely freaked out at this scene, though.

Answer 9

I guess I'm a little late to the party. My immediate assumption was that she didn't mean to kill the baby. The mother had rescinded her access, but was then distracted. Six took this opportunity to investigate the following:

She had remarked about the baby's neck being strong enough to support his head even though she had held him correctly. I wonder if we were seeing some cognitive dissonance -- she didn't know intellectually that the neck must be supported, yet she instinctively supported it when she held him. She looked genuinely happy when holding the baby, but troubled immediately after.

Perhaps when she realized that her words and actions didn't hang together, she grew confused and took the opportunity to see for herself if the neck was strong like she thought.

Being artificial, we could expect her to automatically give more weight to data in her head than to inexplicable behavior. Twisting the baby's head hard enough to break his neck could be explained by a rejection of apparently instinctive maternal behavior and a flash of fear/panic over the implications of that behavior. She looked sorrowful, almost heartbroken when she was walking away.

Further, I think part of that sorrow was from her newfound understanding that she can feel compassion for the humans who are about to die and the realization that the war that is about to start will be much more painful for her than she expected.

Just a thought.

Answer 10

There is no mystery here. Cylons do not understand death at this point. They do not understand procreation, children, or parenthood. Still, when confronted with this exemplar of human development, Six is both intrigued and confused.

From her perspective, humanity will be gone in a matter of hours; and yet, something akin to human morality troubles her as she walks away. The mistake is to assume Cylons are human. The Cylon mistake was to assume they were immune from humanity.