What if Cleon I, the original, is actually a hostage? If you consider it, the safest place to be to "rule" would be the Tom Hagen position. You'll notice Vito, Sonny and Michael all got caught right up in front, in the worst messes in the Godfather. But when Tom Hagen had to take over the Corleone Family in Part 2, he had no expectations of anything, no one really took him that seriously. He had power but really quite little risk in some ways. He grew up with Michael, and Michael knew he was not a fighter, not someone who would betray him, so he was effectively a non threat. A half brother but not out in front. What if Demerzel was the one spiking the clones to be more and more progressively defective and taking silent joy in seeing them suffer and be "euthanized" as they get too old. What if the cloning is actually developed enough to give them literal immortality, but the flaws are placed there on purpose. It's a lifetime of "revenge" So I rewatched the pilot episodes, but not revisited the one where she broke Brother Dawn's neck, nor when she watched one of the Brother Dusk's get cremated alive. She's the one that hunted down the "terrorists" who blew up the Star Bridge. What if the answer is very simple here and she's the one truly behind those attacks? What if she is the main reason for the 30 thousand years of prophesized doom for the Empire? Because she is the only true absolute "constant" in those projected 30 thousand years. What if it takes 1000 years for Seldin and some version of Day/Dusk/Dawn to realize all this and kill her? No one is in a better position to orchestrate the insidious betrayal of the Clones. Maybe that was the point of the sex scene with Brother Day, to show her progressive pathway to being some version of "sentient" in this universe. The gross assumption is that she is "loyal" beyond all reason. But why? Because she's programmed that way? This is just like Goodfellas, when he says it's always the person closest to you, the person you trusted, the person you knew all your life, that's the one who is given the order to put you down in the end. What if the way to kill Demerzel is to free Cleon I? That he's still actually functional, and like Seldin, was conscious the entire time in that "tomb" Just like the female gardner Azura, the same fate she was given. And then Cleon I's first imperative is to kill off the existing Brothers Dawn/Day/Dusk to cement his own power again. Think about that dilemma. You don't free Cleon I, and Demerzel will eventually get you. She will live forever, she has time to hunt you forever. If you do free him, you are unleashing some unknown terror that might be worse than Demerzel. That's a pretty interesting kind of conflict. Not saying that's the case. But it would make me want to rewatch S1 with far more curiosity that way. Just some thoughts.
