Miniseries, Part 2

Highlights/Moments of Revelation

• I loved Billy's reaction to Laura's telling him that she had cancer and that it being all she could think about despite what was happening being selfish - "it's not selfish, it's human".
• The scene following in which the FTL capable ships in the fleet jump and leave the sublight ships behind was pretty intense, though in a calm and measured sort of way. The music served to make it somewhat creepy, even.
• The expression on the kid's face when Sharon and Galen were kissing after meeting for the first time since the Cylon attack was priceless!
• We discover that the Cylon models are in (at least synthetic) fact flesh and blood when Adama beats the Cylon who had been living on Ragnar to death and is covered in his blood. This is confirmed by Tigh and Gaius when they tell Adama about the postmortem.

Questions

• Why would Number Six help Gaius by pointing out the Cylon device that had been planted on the Galactica? Because she loves him?
• When is this story set? I had previously assumed that it was set in our future, in a time when humans had left Earth for another solar system. However, I understood it to be implied that it is in fact set in our past since Adama talked about a 13th colony on Earth. If so, it's rather too "long time ago in a galaxy far, far away" for me.
• Why is just about everyone in this show white and have an American accent? Is it simply because it's an American show, or is there a particular reason, like most of the survivors were from a colony that was mostly white because of historical reasons? However, if this show is not set in our future (as I had previously supposed), then the appearance and speech of the characters is merely representative rather than indicative of how they actually look and speak (i.e. they're not really of American descent at all, nor do they speak English), in which case, I'm overthinking.
  
• We still don't have any clue of the Cylons' motives for trying to wipe out the Human race, do we? I don't tend to buy the "they're just evil" story, so I'm looking for more.
  

Quote

"Humanity is not a pretty race. I mean, we're only one step away from beating each other with clubs like savages fighting over scraps of meat. Maybe the Cylons are God's retribution for our many sins."

Could this be a clue?

###

By the way, I don't actually want anyone who knows to answer the questions I posed above in order to avoid being spoiled (they were meant as rhetorical), as long as they are answered as the series goes on. If, for example, it is never mentioned when this story takes place, and you have a theory, then go ahead, as long as it doesn't involve mentioning anything that hasn't already taken place in the story this far.

Did I miss anything? Tell me in the comments!