Grace Park :: Character Guides

Sharon "Boomer" Valerii was a raptor pilot on the Galactica; she was also carrying on an illicit (and against military rules) affair with the CPO, Galen Tyrol. After the initial attack on the colonies, a fleet of vipers was sent to engage the enemy ships, with Boomer's (and her ECO's Helo) raptor as the scout - unfortunately, after the vipers were hit a Cylon missile damaged their ship, and they were forced to land on Caprica.

While repairing the ship, Boomer and Helo were set upon by numerous survivors of the nuclear attack - including Gaius Baltar. After deciding that all the children, plus five other survivors who were chosen at random, would fly back with them to Galactica, Helo recognised Baltar and gave up his seat on the raptor so that Baltar, one of the "most brilliant minds" of the Colonies, could return to the fleet. Boomer then flew back to the fleet with the surviving colonists.

Unbeknownst to Sharon (or anyone else on the Galactica), though, she was a sleeper agent - a sleeper agent who was also a Cylon. She began to suspect something was up when she awoke, disorientated, soaking wet and with an explosive charge in her uniform carrycase - she then discovered a further five charges were missing, and her suspicions deepened when the charges were found to be responsible for an explosion in the main water tank of Galactica, and the fleet.

Despite frequent warnings from Colonel Tigh to break things off, Sharon and Tyrol kept their relationship going - which is why Tyrol helped her to cover up her actions. One such action - leaving a security door open - led to a Number Five model (the Dorals) blowing up a corridor on Galactica, and an ensuing witchhunt by the Master At Arms that led to one of Tyrol's own men being discharged from military service.

Eventually, as her suspicions worsened, Boomer became the first to undergo Baltar's supposed-Cylon detection machine. The machine, it turned out, worked - as it pointed out to Baltar that Boomer was a Cylon. But he told her otherwise, allaying her fears. Unfortunately, this was not enough - eventually she shot herself in the face. But it turned out to only be a surface wound, and she was put back on active duty - but her first mission back from the infirmary led her to a Cylon baseship (where she was to pilot a nuke), where she discovered many more "Sharon"s - the Number Eight model.

With her worst fears realised, Sharon freaked and quickly piloted the Raptor out of the baseship. But it turned out to be a fatal mistake - when she got back to Galactica, upon being congratulated by Adama for the success of the mission, she shot him point-blank. Adama was in critical condition for quite a while, as Boomer was taken prisoner and interrogated for information. With Boomer's identity as a Cylon revealed, her affair with Tyrol even came under question, as he was suspected of being a Cylon too. One interrogation, led by Baltar, had Boomer revealing that there were (are?) still eight Cylon agents among the fleet - although to this day we do not know if she was telling the truth.

Boomer's time on board Galactica came to a shocking end, when Cally shot her dead while she was being transferred. Of course, being a Cylon, she downloaded - back to Caprica. Initially she rejected her identity as a Cylon, choosing to live in her old apartment and not to associate with the many Cylons now populating Caprica City. One of the Threes (the D'Annas) positioned Caprica Six into trying to talk Boomer round - but it turned out to be a ploy, as Three knew that Boomer would tell Caprica that Baltar was alive. The two figured out that Three was playing them, and that they would both end up "boxed" - their memories put into cold storage, due to their "celebrity status" among the Cylons. After Anders' resistance blew up a building they were in, they confronted Three with the truth, which she did not deny - they then killed her, and pledged to lead the Cylons down a new path, of co-existence with the humans that the two of them had come to know and love.

It was Caprica and Boomer that initially led the occupation of New Caprica, however the Threes and the Cavils began to enforce stricter policies and random killings as a way to control the human populations - Boomer and Caprica saw their ideals slowly slip away as the colony turned into one large concentration camp. Eventually, they gave up, abandoning New Caprica when the Fleet turned up to rescue the colonists.

Upon returning to the baseships, Boomer was charged with taking care of Hera - Sharon and Karl Agathon's baby that Three had "rescued" from New Caprica. Thinking this would be another shot at "redemption", Boomer took on the role quickly - but found that for all her physical similarites to Hera's mother, she couldn't fake the bond that Sharon Agathon would've had with Hera. The child eventually turned sick, and it wasn't until Sharon (now with the call-sign "Athena") downloaded onto the ship upon learning of the child's existence that Boomer realised she could never be the Sharon she once was - all she was to the humans was a Cylon. This Sharon, the one who was married to the former XO, the one who was a mother, had taken her place - and Boomer declared her decision that she was done with humanity.