Battlestar Fodder

Starbuck Dies - Or Does She? - On "Battlestar"

Hey, remember the time when Starbuck was psychologically tortured by Leoben for months on New Caprica? Or maybe that search for—what's it called? Earth?—or when "Kara Thrace and her Special Destiny" wasn’t just a crappy cover band? Well, something finally jogged the BSG writers’ memory, so the show puts aside its medical mysteries and exploding airlocks to get back to the mythology for a week.

Sunday's episode, "Maelstrom," opens on Starbuck’s recurring dream; she’s in her old apartment on Caprica, furiously brushing white paint over the mandala she’d painted on her wall when Leoben appears. The sight of her Cylon ex-captor’s arrival should terrify Starbuck, but this isn’t a nightmare: The two kiss and writhe on the floor as the white paint starts sizzling and the Eye of Jupiter emerges on the wall again.

Starbuck wakes up in a sweat—with a leering Hot Dog wondering what her deal is—and heads to the washroom. Also up early is Helo; daughter Hera’s having nightmares of her own, similarly “frakked up” from New Caprica. The two friends talk through Starbuck’s issues—specifically, that she had been painting the mandala for years before the Galactica crew found the same image in the “Temple of Five”—and Helo recommends that she talk to a psychiatrist, or at least the civilian oracle on board. But does Kara really need to see a doctor or a psychic? She’s already seeing someone: A hallucination of her younger, bloody self. (So yes, she should probably get some help).

In the Oracle’s tent, a wary Starbuck picks up a small figurine of Aurora, the goddess of the dawn as the Oracle appears and tells her to keep the figure. The reading begins and the Oracle starts quoting Leoben verbatim from the episode "Flesh and Bone:" Kara's got a special destiny, this has all happened before, etc. And Leoben's the only one who can help her—and he’s "coming for her." Kara: Not so thrilled by this.

We cut to orbit; the fleet's in the middle of a refueling operation, and they've picked a gas giant planet that throws off a lot of radiation to disguise their presence. Then it’s into the pilot’s bunks, where Starbuck’s estranged husband Anders—buttoning up his clothes after another booty call—invites her to take some R&R with him. Starbuck offers a noncommittal brush-off and, when a hurt Anders tells her how messed-up she is, instead shares stories of her mom’s parenting style. We learn Mama Thrace wasn’t so much for sparing the rod; she split Kara’s head with a broomstick for an unmade bed, and when Kara played a scary prank as retribution, slammed Kara's fingers in the door until they broke.

Out on a routine patrol with Hot Dog, Starbuck sees a Cylon heavy raider and chases after it, exchanging gunfire along the way. In the hunt, the heavy raider disappears into a huge gas storm—sort of like the red eye of Jupiter. (Coincidence much?) No one else can detect the raider on their DRADIS radar, but Kara pursues it, almost down to the “hard deck” where she won’t be able to escape the planet’s gravitational pull, and with hallucinations of Leoben flashing before her eyes. Luckily, air group commander Lee shows up and talks a feverish Starbuck into breaking away.

Back on a perplexed Galactica, the evidence points to Starbuck chasing a phantom raider: Her fighter isn’t showing signs of combat, and the video footage from her gun camera is equally damning, prompting Adama and Lee to debate grounding Starbuck. We then cut to a pretty bummed-out Starbuck, who's hanging out in the memorial hallway when Lee arrives with news on her flight status. Depressingly, the two discuss where they want their photos to rest when they’re gone; Starbuck next to her protégé Kat, Lee by…Duck and Nora (?) Ok, whatever. But we get the point: The two of them have been running from the Cylons for about three years. They’ve seen their friends die, both have nearly died, have been friends/lovers/estranged, but still—as Kara notes—they’re back to where they started: Lee’s the CAG, Starbuck’s the crazy ace pilot. On the podcast, Ron Moore notes this too: The show hit the reset button after New Caprica; there’s only one Battlestar again, they’re back on the quest for Earth. And for one last time—just like the original series—we have Starbuck and Apollo, friends and the two ace pilots of the fleet. But so much more has happened to bring them to this point.
Anyway, Starbuck's seeing the Eye of Jupiter everywhere at this point—the wax of a dripping candle, for example—but Lee talks her into flying, saying he’ll (always) be her wingman. When a nervous Starbuck balks on the flight deck, manufacturing some problem with her ship’s hydraulic fluid, Lee’s there to encourage her again.

Back flying patrol, Kara *again* sees her (phantom?) raider and chases it into the storm. Somehow, either by the pressure of the planet or the raider actually firing shots, the Viper is shaken and its cockpit cracks. As the ship alarm blares, Kara blacks out...
...and comes to in her apartment on Caprica as the radio alarm sounds. Leoben's there too--we have a big day ahead, he tells her.

In a "Night Before Christmas" moment, the two appear at Kara’s home, invisible and six years in the past. And after three seasons of implications and one episode of truths, we finally see Kara's mom—and she looks mean. The ex-marine corporal is chain-smoking and reading an oncologist's report when Kara arrives; the future Starbuck has just graduated military school and become the first officer in the Thrace family. Should be a happy day, but it quickly turns sour; mom's haranguing—Kara’s “special” and should've graduated first in her class, Kara shouldn't pity her mom's terminal illness--chases her daughter out, never to return.

But Leoben gives her another chance. In this dream world, Kara gets to be with her dying mom in her last moments. Kara tells mom that “something’s about to happen, the thing you’ve been preparing me for”—implying that beatings and high standards count for preparation, I guess—but she’s not sure she’s ready. However, with her last breath, mom assures Starbuck that as her daughter, she can do it. Leoben—or as we learn, maybe not Leoben but a mysterious presence, like the hallucinations of Baltar and Six—tells her that dying can be beautiful. And he’s there to guide Starbuck to the place between life and death.

Flash out of imaginary Caprica and back to Kara's cockpit, storm raging. Starbuck comes to as Lee catches up to Starbuck’s Viper (For a quick moment or two, it appears that he *does* see the phantom raider too). Lee, Adama, Tigh—they’re all calling on Kara to pull her ship out of the pressure. But Starbuck tells Lee to let her go; “I’ll see you on the other side,” she says, “just let me go.” White light fills her cockpit—she sees herself as a young girl, smiling—and as Lee frantically tries to call her back, Starbuck’s Viper catches fire, and like a roman candle, goes boom.

Lee informs the CIC: Starbuck’s gone. No chute, nothing.

We then cut to Adama’s quarters, where the Admiral is working on his sailing ship model. He’s attaching the Aurora figurine—which Starbuck gave to him, right before her final flight—and it slides in perfectly on the bow. But after contemplating the model for a second, Adama then tears the ship apart and begins weeping, overcome by the loss of his surrogate daughter.

On the podcast, Ron Moore says that “Maelstrom” really launches Battlestar into its third act as a TV series; that Kara’s death (which was somewhat of a unexpected decision, when first proposed) plays into where this show is already going. Now, traditionally, the third act is the final act of a TV episode; should we be excited that some storylines are in line for resolution or has BSG's new direction risked losing fans in addition to main characters?

---

Posted by DD on March 6, 2007 9:07 PM
Permalink | Email to a Friend | Add to del.icio.us | Digg This

Got something to say? Post a comment:

Subscribe to this post's comments feed   (What's this?)

Name:

Email Address:

URL:


Remember personal info?

Comments:

More Recent Stories:
• Battlestar Galactica: Key Points from "Daybreak" (Parts 1 - 3)
• Battlestar Galactica: Key Points from "Islanded in a Stream of Stars"
• Battlestar Galactica: Key Points from "Someone to Watch Over Me"
• Battlestar Galactica: Key Points from "Deadlock"
• Battlestar Galactica: Key Points from "No Exit"
• Battlestar Galactica: Key Points from "Blood on the Scales"
• Battlestar Galactica: Key Points from "The Oath"
• Battlestar Galactica: Key Points from "A Disquiet Follows My Soul"
• Battlestar Galactica: Key Points from "Sometimes a Great Notion"
• Battlestar Galactica: Key Points from "The Face of the Enemy" Webisodes