Samuel Anders

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Samuel Anders

Race	Humanoid Cylon
Gender	Male
Portrayed by	Michael Trucco
First appearance	"Resistance"
Callsign	N/A
Rank	Ensign (Formerly team captain of the Caprica Buccaneers)
Colony	Caprica
Affiliation	Colonial Fleet

Samuel T. Anders is a character from the reimagined Battlestar Galactica series.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Samuel Anders, a former star Pyramid player for the Caprica Buccaneers, was the leader of a group of survivors on Caprica who escaped the initial Cylon attack on the Twelve Colonies. His group was encountered by Kara "Starbuck" Thrace, and Karl "Helo" Agathon in the wilderness just outside the ruins of Delphi. His group was spared from the nuclear attack on the cities because they were out in the wilderness at a high elevation performing athletic training. Since the attack, the group rounded up supplies and weapons and formed a resistance militia which began conducting raids and sabotage on the Cylon forces occupying Delphi.

Soon after meeting Anders, Starbuck falls in love with him and promises him that she will return to Caprica and rescue his group. She secures this promise by giving Anders her fleet dogtags. However, upon returning to the fleet, President Roslin and Commander Adama deny Starbuck's request to lead a search-and-rescue team back to Caprica, stating the situation was too dangerous. Meanwhile, Anders's team struggled to survive and continued their attacks on the Cylons.

In the episode "Downloaded", during a sabotage mission, Anders is caught in the rubble of a parking structure where he encounters the Cylon humanoids Number Six, a resurrected copy of Boomer (aka Number Eight) and a copy of the Cylon reporter D'Anna Biers (aka Number Three). Three attempts to kill Anders, but Six and Eight - having decided to sympathize with the human cause, turn against Three and allow Anders to escape.

In the episodes "Lay Down Your Burdens, Part I and II", Starbuck is finally green-lighted to lead a group of Raptors to Caprica and gather the survivors. Once found, Anders's team comes under attack by Cylon Centurions who discover their encampment and drive them out. Starbuck's search team is forced to engage the Cylons, but quickly realize they are outnumbered. The team is driven further into the wilderness where they hole up in a ravine. After an unsettling 18-hour standoff, the team discovers that the Cylons have completely withdrawn from the area. A mysterious survivor among the group, (later discovered to be a copy of the Cylon Brother Cavil), announces the Cylons have left the planet.

Once at the fleet, Anders and Starbuck begin a relationship which causes torn feelings for Lee "Apollo" Adama. During the year that passes after settling on New Caprica, Starbuck and Anders marry and the two live in a tent in the ramshackle "New Caprica City" under the neglectful authority of President Gaius Baltar. Anders becomes seriously ill with pneumonia at one point and is on the brink of death, but makes a full recovery. After the Cylons invaded New Caprica and Starbuck was taken into custody by the Cylon Leoben Conoy, Anders became one of the leaders of New Caprica Resistance.

Following the escape from New Caprica, Anders became one of the six members of The Circle, a Star Chamber-like group commissioned by the newly sworn-in President Tom Zarek to try, judge, and execute Cylon collaborators. After thirteen such executions, Anders quit The Circle and was immediately replaced by his wife Starbuck as a new member. Anders and Starbuck had a fight arising from this which exposed numerous deep rifts that had emerged in their marriage and the two separated.

Midway through the series third-season, Anders and Starbuck try to reconcile their marriage, but Starbuck's growing love for Apollo made things difficult.

In episode "Maelstrom", the last time he sees Starbuck alive, he asked her to go with him to another ship for some much needed rest and relaxation to which she replied that she would think about it. He leaves the room and the two never really resolve their soured relationship. After Starbuck's death Anders starts to drink heavily. In mourning, he finds himself in an inebriated state atop one of the Colonial Vipers in the hangar. Apollo tries to coerce him down, but Anders slips and falls, injuring his leg.

In the episode "Crossroads, Part I", Anders is seen wearing the uniform of a Colonial Fleet Ensign, implying that he has signed up for flight training since the death of Starbuck. He also displays a rather budding relationship with Diana Seelix, a newly recruited "nugget".

As the trial of Gaius Baltar commenses, Anders is one of only four people so far, (Tory Foster, Galen Tyrol and Colonel Tigh being the other three), who begins to hear strange music coming from a radio in Joe's Bar. In the cliffhanger Season 3 finale, "Crossroads, Part II", he, along with Galen Tyrol, Saul Tigh, and Tory Foster become aware of the fact that they are Cylons^[1] based on hallucinatory music that only they can hear, and a "switch" that goes off within them (as Chief Tyrol mentions). Anders and Foster have been having a physical relationship. As the Cylon fleet attacked, Tigh defiantly declared "Whatever else I am, I'm an officer in the Colonial Fleet and if I die today, that's the man I'll be." Following this speech, Anders reported for duty with Tyrol to prepare for battle against the Cylon fleet.