Her character has the biggest personality flip of any in the series, and yet she remains 100% true to herself throughout. Hard-drinking, attention-seeking, and promiscuous, Ellen Tigh (Kate Vernon) lights up the screen. She’s the Lady Macbeth of the show, who believes that her husband should command more respect, fueling his alcohol abuse in the process. She constantly tears Saul down even as she builds him up.
For all of her selfishness, though, she loves Saul dearly, so much so that on New Caprica she has sexual encounters with a Number One Cylon to try to win Saul’s release from imprisonment. But the cost of this is betraying the Resistance, which that group punishes by death, and she is poisoned by Saul to save her from a more terrible death at their hands.
This being “Galactica,” the twist is that she is one of the Final Five Cylons, and when she is resurrected at the Cylon Resurrection Hub she awakens with her previously repressed memories restored and is almost an entirely new person … to us. But all versions of Ellen are consistent, as when she votes with the other Final Five to abandon the fleet with the rebel Baseship’s Cylons largely to spite Saul, who had a relationship with and impregnated Caprica Six when he believed Ellen was dead. In the end, she’s key to breaking the cycle of conflict with the Cylons. But most of all she’s a hell of a lot of fun.
If you or anyone you know needs help with addiction issues, help is available. Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA’s National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).