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This page is about Shelly Godfrey, the copy of Cylon Model Number Six who tries to expose Baltar as a traitor. See the Caprica-Six and Gina Inviere articles for information about them. For other copies, see the Number Six article.
"Shelly Godfrey" is the pseudonym adopted by a copy of Number Six that arrives on Galactica in the aftermath of the Fall of the Twelve Colonies, tasked with exposing Gaius Baltar as a traitor, and thus discredit the Cylon detector. She first appears aboard a transport ship in orbit over Canceron at the outset of the attack.
Upon coming aboard Galactica, she is drawn to a meeting held by Brother John Cavil in the chapel he has set up deep within Galactica. Here, Cavil hatches with her a plan to discredit Gaius Baltar and derail his work on the Cylon Detector (TRS: "The Plan"). She fabricates a disc with surveillance footage that seems to indicate that Baltar was responsible for destroying the defense mainframes at the Colonial Ministry of Defense prior to the Fall of the Twelve Colonies and presents it to Commander Adama.
During her time on Galactica, "Godfrey" reveals her underlying nature to be similar to that of her sisters as she attempts to seduce William Adama. She also claims to have had a romantic relationship with the late Dr. Amarak. Her advances make Adama suspicious, and he assigns Marines to trail her discretely. When Baltar angrily confronts her in the public head she professes ignorance of her Cylon nature and maintains the facade of her mission long enough to force him out of her stall and slam the door shut, at which point she breaks down and begins weeping as he rants and raves outside (TRS: "Six Degrees of Separation", "The Plan").
The evidence she presents is initially determined to be authentic, which results in Baltar's arrest. Lieutenant Gaeta later determines that the footage was doctored, much to Baltar's astonishment. Gaeta comments that once the photo was fully resolved, it was almost too easy to find the markers that pointed to photo-manipulation, like Godfrey wanted to be found out (TRS: "Six Degrees of Separation"). Godfrey evades the Marines with the assistance of Cavil and "Tough Six," who takes her place with a similar disguise and successfully evades the Marines. Before Godfrey can be captured, Cavil blows her out an airlock above her protests, telling her to inform the other Cylons of the Fleet's location once she resurrects (TRS: "The Plan").
The humans surmise that Godfrey was part of a Cylon plan to discredit Baltar because of his Cylon detector. This "trial by fire" results in a rise in Baltar's popularity within the fleet and protects him against any further charges of complicity in the downfall of the Twelve Colonies. Baltar asks his Messenger Six, who disappeared during Godfrey's presence on Galactica and reappeared when Godfrey vanished, if this was part of the divine plan all along, but she remains enigmatic (TRS: "Six Degrees of Separation").
Cavil and Tough Six insinuate that Godfrey made her fake evidence too easy to discover because she was attracted to Baltar (TRS: "The Plan").
A file photo of Godfrey exists in President Roslin's office aboard Colonial One as part of a dossier of identified humanoid Cylons. When, where, and how this photo was acquired is not known (TRS: "Epiphanies").
Notes
William Adama handles the last evidence of Shelly Godfrey's existence following her "disappearance" (TRS: "Six Degrees of Separation", "The Plan").Prior to "The Plan," some people speculated that Godfrey was a physical manifestation of Baltar's Messenger Six or possibly even a mass hallucination, given her mysterious disappearance and her apparent goal of covertly helping Baltar in "Six Degrees of Separation." Scenes filmed for "The Plan" later clarify Godfrey as a flesh-and-blood Cylon having been in the Fleet before the attacks and is later employed by Number One to discredit Baltar because of his Cylon detector, absent of any connection to Messenger Six. Her disappearance is due to Tough Six disguising herself as Godfrey long enough for her to get away from the Marines that William Adama tasks to trail her. She disappears from the Fleet completely as Cavil blows her out of one of Galactica's airlocks. Although she is presumably resurrected later in the Cylon fleet, she is not believed seen thereafter, leading to the possibility of her being boxed.
The last name Godfrey is a derivative from Old French, itself derived from the Old High German male proper name Godafrid meaning "the peace of God." It is tangentially related to the rarely-used Old English Godfrith.
Ms. Godfrey's glasses, left behind in CIC and discovered after her disappearance, were made by Venus Eye Design. The style is V-07 in the "raspberry swirl" frame.[1]
