Sun, 04 Mar 2007 23:40:00
Battlestar Galactica - Maelstrom
TiVo description - “Kara Thrace is on the edge of a nervous breakdown as she battles the emotional fallout from her captivity on New Caprica.” Wow. About 6 months late with this one, aren’t we? This is what happens when you stop telling fairly linear stories and start mixing it up with filler and monsters of the week and whatnot.
Alright, gentlemen, we have a hop to take. The hard-deck on this hop will be 10,000 feet. There will be spoilers below that. Move it!
Flashback is about Leoben - the one that tried to trick Kara and that Laura had thrown out an airlock, then held her on New Caprica all that time. Also a bit about Kara’s paintings and her “special destiny.”
- Open on Kara dreaming about painting the Eye of Jupiter design, then painting it over, then having hot paintsex with Leoben as the eye shines through the paint. Sure. OK.
- Helo and Kara chat in the latrine. She opens up to him about the dreams. He suggests a psychiatrist, and of course toughgirl has to say no. Then he suggests something to which Kara (who is religious, remember) can’t say no - an oracle that interprets dreams. Sure enough, here’s big bad ol’ Starbuck visiting an oracle to find out why she masturbates in her sleep to dreams of her captor and torturer. The Oracle of course seems to know everything - Leoben’s name, her captivity, her name, her destiny, etc.
“The only destiny I have is as a world-class frack-up.” And that, my friends is Kara explained. She’s rebelling against her destiny. She has since she was a child. Her mother was abusive, and at teh same time hammered in into Kara’s head that she was special, that she had a destiny. Kara has control issues because of the abuse. The fact that she actually does have a “supernatural” destiny means that her mother was right. She’s not rebelling against having a destiny per se, she’s rebelling against having a destiny because her mother told her she has one. If Bob the milkman had said it, kara would be OK with it, but since it was Mommy Dearest - well it can’t be true can it? What she’s forgetting is that even a stopped clock is right twice a day.
- The oracle quoted Leoben’s first statements to Starbuck word for word. I think it’s been demonstrated time and again that oracles in this world are real. There is a heavy spirituality that is real in this universe. She predicts Leoben returning for Starbuck soon. Credits.
- 41,400 still with us. And the drum montage makes it seem like we might get some fracking gods-damned action again which would be nice.
- Anders is trying to get Starbuck to come with him and chill out...sorry dude. Kara Thrace doesn’t do chill. Ever. We get more about her mother - “Fear gets you killed, anger keeps you alive.” Her mother was horribly physically abusive...she tells a story about getting even with her mother - When Anders asks if she caught hell for it, Starbuck tells him that her mother grabbed her hand and “slammed my hand in the door jamb.
“Frak me.”
“It was worth it though.” I know exactly what she means. I probably did half the things I did as a child as ways of getting even with an abusive mother, and even when I got caught and took a beating that left me in pain for days, every time a bone creaked or a muscle ached or I caught sight of a purple-yellow bruise, I smiled at the thought that this was all she had - I was smarter and better and one day I would just get up and walk away. I would have a life and she would wallow in misery forever, because women like her don;t seek the help they need.”
Yeah - those extra beating were totally worth it.
- Cut to some actual flying! Hotdog and Starbuck are flying perimeter during the refueling ops. Starbuck sees a Cylon raider - I am betting the raider doesn’t exist. Starbuck ends up in what looks like the eye of a hurricane - and of course the Eye of Jupiter. She’s shooting at what she thinks is a Raider, and she thinks she got hit. If she did I bet it was a chunk of ice. Now she’s going so low she might not be able to escape the gravity well to get back into space...flashes of Leoben, her fighting the stick to pull out, etc.
Dudes, she’s cracking up! Of course this brings me to another chance to levy a complaint - why now? Why hasn’t this been dealt with before now? Because they needed to fill unimportant ratings weeks with filler garbage that’s why. Bastards.
- Back on Galactica and Chief says no impact damage at all. In your hea-ed, in your hea-ea-ed, Cy-y-lon, Cy-y-lon, Cy-y-lon-lon-lon. There’s no sign of a Raider on her gun camera footage.
- Old man and Lee discuss if they should ground her. Lee thinks she’ll break completely if he grounds her. She needs to be grounded. Adama seems to be trying to gently push Lee in that direction.
- Cut to the hall of dead/missing. Kara asks Lee where he wants to go when he bites the big one. She assumes that she will die in combat of course, because that would thwart her destiny and prove her mother wrong. Hell of a way to walk around all day. Lee wants to have his picture next to two good card players. We finally get around to the issue - Lee sides with Kara and says he trusts her eyes over draedis any day. They share one of those brother/sister moments that played so much better than the whole star-crossed lovers crap. Meanwhile she’s hallucinating a candle melting down into the eye.
“Starbuck, whattya hear?
“Nothin’ but the rain.”
“Well then grab your gun and bring in the cat.”
“Wilco, Admiral.”
Remember way, way back to when we first met Starbuck and Adama? She was running down a hallway to “bump” into the Old Man, something they did every morning. He’d ask her the question and she;d respond and it was their thing, remember she was a fuck-up who was assigned to Galactica because it was being decommissioned and Adama had a way with her. So this is important because it demonstrates Adama trying to re-connect on a personal level with Starbuck. He knows she’s in trouble, obviously.
The rest of the conversation is basically catchphrases, although she gives him the figurine she got from the oracle.
- Flight deck - she sees herself in the cockpit of her Viper as a child, then flashes to what seems like scenes of abuse coupled with various forms of the Eye pattern.
- Back to the flight deck - Starbuck is frozen, sitting under her Viper. HELLO? SHE NEEDS TO SEEK HELP OR STOP FLYING! She seems to have decided this for herself, so that’s good. She tries to tell Lee but instead he pushes to get her back up by offering to fly her wing. Oh GODS...then the fluttery romantic music starts and they start talking about Lee & Dee’s marriage being great, how they;re back where they started with Lee as CAG and Starbuck as the hotshot problem.
THIS IS DAWSON’S FUCKING CREEK, AND I COMMAND YOU TO KNOCK IT THE FUCK OFF. This is Joey and Dawson all over again. Jesus CHRIST I am sick of this. See, it wouldn’t be so bad if we hadn’t had all that 90210 shit shoved down our throats this season. Because we did, though, now I have this visceral hatred of even these little, short moments.
- Cut to two Vipers blasting through the atmosphere. Why is Apollo’s Viper so filthy? Starbuck sees the Cylon again. I’m starting to think maybe she is seeing it and we’re being misled. In fact, of course, that’s exactly what is happening here. Starbuck is always right when it comes to combat.
Something blasted through her windscreen and knocked her out. If she’s imaging this it’s awful detailed. :) She “wakes up” on Caprica, in her old painted squat with Leoben there.
“I write my own destiny.” See? Anything to avoid it. He basically tells her that all her bluster and bravado is covering the fact that she’s always afraid and she has been ever since “that day.” FLASHBACK TIME!
- “That day” is when Mom is reading a letter addressed to her, who is Corporal Socrata Thrace. The letter is from the Colonial Forces Veteran’s Hospital and it confirms that mom has a gastric tumor. Leoben is watching with Current-day Kara and says that “All this has happened before and all this will happen again” line. It’s very much “It’s a Wonderful Life.”
Apparently this was six years ago. Mom rags on her for not being number one in her class, for being Kara the Undisciplined. Mom’s a real piece of work. Kara reads the letter and mom says nothing to be done, it’s metastasized. Mom rejects even the most simple act of kindness. Kara tells her that she can look at the door for the rest of whatever time she has left because Kara’s never coming back again.
Can’t say as I blame her, mom’s a fucking psycho bitch from hell. I would have - and have - done the same fracking thing.
- Back to Leoben and Kara in Mom’s place...apparently Mom died alone 5 weeks later. Yeah...these are my tears. See how they flow. /sarcasm. Of course this being Battlestar 90210 Creek, Kara has to confront her guilt and apologize to the monster before she can move on. We see what looks like a dream sequence with Mom on the bed and a file of all the school work Kara did as a child.
We’re really recycling this old chestnut? Who wrote this, Hacky McCliche? “Oh if I could only believe that Kara’s mommy really was secretly proud of her everything would be OK and the sun would come out tomorrow bet yer bottom dollar.” Anyway, it’s all in Kara’s imagination so no, it did not work out all sweet and nice. Kara left her monster of a mother to die alone and that’s exactly what she did. She’s pep-talking herself while she is unconscious in the cockpit of a crashing Viper. So kiss my touchy-feely ass with this hacky writing. I may be projecting here, but I would have much preferred Kara to realize what she needed to do based on her own sense of self, her own knowledge of right and wrong and her own strength, not this fake and let’s face it hackneyed piece of well-trod writing. How many times do we see this exact setup in TV and movies? Can we, just once, have a main character overcome guilt by realizing that it’s not their god-damned fault that the other person was a monster?
Of course that would require recognizing that there is such a thing as evil in the world, and not just “people who are misunderstood.” Why Hollywood writers don’t acknowledge that is a whole other can of worms best left closed for the time being.
- Back to the crashing. She’s awake. She’s going to eject? her hand is slipping down to some handle “Lee, I’m not afraid anymore.” 90 seconds until she gets below the point of no return. 60. Then Lee sees them both? I’m pretty sure the shot we got was from behind Lee and it showed the Cylon and Kara in front of him. So was the Cylon real or not?
She’s going down and begging Lee to let her go. The pressure explodes her Viper. Starbuck - as we know her - is dead.
Starbuck is dead.
Let me re-phrase that - Starbuck. Is. Dead.
Starbuck is a Cylon. There is no way in hell that this show, with failing ratings and a fan base that is getting pretty fed up with the nonsense, would kill off one of the most beloved actors on the show. Fuck Kara Thrace. Katee Sackhoff is like, a frigging goddess to fans of this show. Killing her off is not edgy or cool or daring - it’s stupid. Ergo, she is likely returning as a Cylon.
The other reason? Look at her IMDB page - no upcoming projects. That’s because she’s still employed with Battlestar Galactica.
- Kudos to Edward James Olmos for his confused, sad and angry all at the same time reaction to Lee saying she’s gone. Cut to him back in his quarters and wrecking his model ship in his grief.
- Starbuck is a Cylon. Starbuck is one of the final five.
I mostly enjoyed this one. A little bit chatty, but it was more of a return to the season two action/character development mix that worked so well. Obviously the plot was moved forward in the fact that Kara Thrace is a Cylon. Or maybe just that Starbuck - the best damn viper jock every to grab a stick - will no longer be flying CAP missions and fragging Cylons. Because she is one. Kara Thrace is a Cylon. How? It doesn’t make sense with the entire past history of the show as we know it. It feels a bit like Lost - they’re making up new twists and shit as they go along.
Man, let me tell you - I hope I am wrong. I actually hope that she’s either dead for real or that the Cylons somehow captured her actual human body before the explosion or some crazy shit. If Starbuck is a Cylon I might have to kick Moore and Eick’s asses.
Posted by JimK at 11:40 PM on March 04, 2007
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Categories: Television, Battlestar Galactica
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Comments:
#2 Posted by Harley W Daugherty 
on 03/05 at 08:12 AM -
Katie, did state that her work for this season is done, she will be back.
as a cylon? maybe i doubt it..
My $$ is on Thig being one of the final 5.
Dammit i want action!! not this Soap opera shit.
the FX of the Vipers flying in Atmosphere was Damm nice ...
#3 Posted by Christian on 03/05 at 11:27 AM -
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR GGGGGGGGGGG HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Thats what I think of this fracken episode. WTF I still don’t really get WHY Starbuck died.
I’m not going to give up on this show, as I have read online the last 4 will utterly destroy us. I have hope.
But I will probably just be crushed.
#4 Posted by Mazz on 03/05 at 01:50 PM -
Well, that’s it, then. If Kara is really dead, there’s no reason to watch anymore.
But, the reason she’s still on the payroll? FLASHBACKS.
1) IF she’s a cylon, then: Her mother was one, too, or was raped by a skinjob in the cylon war, so she may be the first hybrid, thus 4’s interest in her.
2) Kara ejected. They showed her hand on the lever for a reason. The heavy raider picked her up, and she’s back in the custody of the cylons. All that talk about destiny? It ain’t ending there.
3) Maybe the Chrystaline Entities, who showed their faces for a bit with 3’s out of processor experiences, have her.
They can’t kill her off. She is integral to the story line, or the story that SHOULD be.
#6 Posted by mgnmfrc1 on 03/05 at 11:23 PM -
Maybe she has some kind of gift like Baltar or whatever his name is, why can he keep seeing Six? Is he a cylon or a hybrid?
#7 Posted by ErikTheRed on 03/06 at 02:08 PM -
This show is really starting to annoy the piss out of me. It’s ok to use flashbacks occasionally to help move the plot along, but the last few weeks have been 100% pure flashbacks & hallucinations. The writing has really gone to shit.
#8 Posted by Buzzion on 03/06 at 02:33 PM -
Why is Apollo’s Viper so filthy?
Isn’t Apollo’s Viper actually the Old Man’s Viper? Could that be why it looks so much dirtier?
#9 Posted by hamster on 03/06 at 05:26 PM -
Heard on the podcast that the ship prop that adama destroyed...wasn’t a prop. the scene wasn’t in the script and was Olmos just ad-libbing.
It was a museam quality piece that the show was renting - and thank goodness was insured. I thought this was a riot.
#10 Posted by Mazz on 03/06 at 08:14 PM -
Starbuck’s viper was the Old Man’s.
Apollo’s is a newer Mark 7 they converted to mechanical controls.
#11 Posted by Kilroy on 03/06 at 09:10 PM -
The problem with the writing is with the raiders. The writers backed themselves into a corner. They made the raiders to powerful with the ability to jump and deliver nuclear weapons.
Unlike the original show the raiders were like jet plans. Their job was to locate then report back. So you had several small battles to stop the raiders from reporting in.
Now the raiders can’t even get close because of the nuclear weapon, and if they locate they can just jump away, thus we have no dog fights. It is either an all out battle or nothing. So they fill the space with filler crap.
How many dog fights have we seen? I keep hearing how great Starbuck is, but we never see it.
The writing is pretty weak, and I am starting to lose interest.
#12 Posted by Digger on 03/08 at 10:03 AM -
Yay! We got JimK’s full recap and discussion of the episode this week! Believe it or not these types of posts show more about your personality than 100 posts of “I stand for prostitution and ummm marijuana and umm I like cats...” ever will.
As for Starbuck, who the hell knows? Still a gushy episode. Man the season started off great with shootouts on Caprica and has just gone downhill ever since.
I WANT MY FUCKING BALTAR DAMMITT!!!
They need another Admiral Cain character (Remember from Pegasus). Those were some of my favorite episodes of the whole series and she is the most memorable character IMHO.
There really is no evil character right now, just the threat of Cylons, some lame skinjobs who don’t really scare me and Baltar locked up and impotent from causing any chaos.
There’s no evil dammit and it just makes things boring.
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Multiple sources say that she will not reappear this season. That could be a misdirection, and it does not rule out next season.
Also, as you noted, the show is spiritual; maybe she’s not a cylon but instead the Jesus of the series.
Either way, I’m glad I took my own advice and quit watching the show, because I would have hated this episode. On the flip side, I’m watching the Canadian broadcast of Heroes that aired early, and OMGWTFBBQ does it rule.