In the fifteenth episode of the second season of Battlestar Galactica, Starbuck becomes increasingly anxious and distraught over the stress of her job and the thought that Anders has probably died on Caprica. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Battlestar Galactica.
I know that Ronald Moore and the others who work on this show couldn’t have known about the backlash to “Black Market,” but “Scar” feels like an immediate correction to the “tortured hero” story they messed up. And GOOD FUCKING GOD, THIS WAS SPECTACULAR. Though I do admit to feeling a bit strange for saying that I enjoy an episode so much when that episode features an emotional breakdown of my favorite character. It’s not that I felt utter ecstasy from watching “Scar,” but it was a satisfying, gripping, and intense story that focused on Starbuck’s ability to cope and to have her ego challenged.
The writers do a great job of balancing these two aspects of her personality throughout the story and, in the process, expand Kat’s character as well. Is it totally natural to feel a gut-wrenching, seething distaste for Kat? Because yes, Starbuck doesfuck up and make terrible decisions in this episode, but I was really irked by the way in which Kat decided to inform her of this. I get the feeling that there are some deleted scenes that could give us a bit more context, but it’s clear that Kat has become a talented Viper pilot during the second season. All this time, Starbuck has really only had Lee to “compete” with, and they’re not very good competitors at all. (Unless you consider them as competing for the title of, “Poor Decisions Made With Sex in Mind.” ZING.) In Kat, we see how Starbuck deals with someone who might be more talented than her.
The writers continue in the theme of never giving us what we expect. Opening in media res (and yes, I now know that “Black Market” never was supposed to), we’re shown Kat and Starbuck together and none of the real tension to come is given to us outright. When Kat made the challenge over the beer stein, I took it more as if it was a friendly jab, but I now know how UTTERLY WRONG I WAS ABOUT THIS. So I instead expected this episode to deal with them bonding. For real! Oh god, sometimes it must be the most amusing thing to watch my thoughts unfold.
What I could not have anticipated given my state of mind was that Starbuck was reaching her own emotional nadir over Anders, her desire to be on top, and the destructive nature of her persona. I don’t want to seem too invasive about it, but from my own experience, what Starbuck is going through looks like depression. I know that I buried myself in the bottle in high school when I didn’t want to face a whole slew of issues, and there was a part of me that didn’t want to watch this episode. It was like a frightening look in the mirror, a glimpse at my own past. But even beyond any emotional resonance, I hated seeing Starbuck this way. I hated that she felt so hopeless, denied the chance to return to Anders, and now she’s constantly being one-upped and corrected by Kat. (SERIOUSLY, KAT, SHUT UP.)
I have come to the conclusion, however, that these things exist because Katee Sackhoff signed a contract that required her to be the best actress of all time. I can’t fathom anyone being able to pull off so many harrowing scenes so flawlessly, but Sackhoff steals the show whenever she is on the screen, able to bring things out of other actors, actresses, and characters that no one else can. She turns to Sharon for advice on how to go after the elusive Scar, a Cylon Raider who’s been picking off Vipers around a mining operation. And Sackhoff plays it with the subtlety and complexity of the situation. She’s asking a Cylon about her own Raiders. Oh, and it’s one of her friends. Oh, and she has memories of this humanoid Cylon long before anyone suspected her of being a Cylon. They forged legitimate memories together, ones that had absolutely nothing to do with the war that they’re in. I enjoy that Starbuck acknowledges this, despite how painful this entire thing is for her.
But what is she supposed to do? Sharon provides her with the information she needs–that the Raiders are being sneaky on purpose, since they cannot regenerate without the Resurrection Ship. Yet as Sharon reaches out for her (and I’m sure she’s aching for any sort of positive physical touch, which BREAKS MY GODDAMN HEART), the Marines remind her that this isn’t allowed.
Oh my god, Sharon, PLEASE BE OKAY.
None of this gets any easier for Starbuck, either. I appreciate that the writers have her make actual mistakes, graying the moral canvas and making this episode a lot harder to stomach. Of course we want Starbuck to kill Scar and reign victorious and get the guy in the end, but it’s simply not that easy for her. Her continued depression and dejection, combined with her alcohol use, begins to negatively affect her job. Two pilots die because of actions that she took. I’m not entirely ready to blame Starbuck as Kat does; I think they both would have died regardless. (Well, maybe not BB, since it was Starbuck’s advice was what influenced his decision to take on Scar, yet I also can’t ignore that the odds were incredibly slim that BB would run into the one scenario that made Starbuck’s advice obsolete. SO MUCH MORAL COMPLEXITY. ) But I know that Starbuck is slipping, and that makes this so much harder to watch.
But really now, awkward anger sex between Lee and Starbuck that is both incredibly hot and makes me squirm in pain. God, I fucking love this show. This is how you take ridiculous shit and make it believable. Nothing about this feels forced. It’s something both of these characters would do, and if anyone would get Starbuck to admit (out loud) that her feelings for Anders are destroying her, it would be Lee. No one else. I don’t think it’s super obvious, but I feel like Lee treats her like a real friend here, and you can see how much he cares for her. Even though I kind of wanted them to have sex. I WON’T LIE. But given what he just went through in “Black Market,” it is in-character for him to reject her rapid sexual advances. STILL. ONE DAY. ONE DAY.
Throughout “Scar,” we are given the future images of Kat, Starbuck, and Scar. As the episode reaches real time, I come to realize what a fantastic, unspoken parallel Starbuck’s story has to Lee’s in “Resurrection Ship, Part II.” As she finally tricks Scar and begins to fly head on into him, playing an absurd game of chicken, she zones out, her thoughts wandering to Anders. She never says it, but I think that in that very moment, she, like Lee, wanted to die. She is overwhelmed by the prospect of never seeing Anders, of losing her grip, of facing an enemy that can essentially regenerate and who can manipulate humans so well, and when she faces Scar, the suicide run suddenly makes sense to her. If just for the briefest moment, it is entirely sensical.
Thankfully, she breaks from this and in a moment of humility, she allows Kat to take down Scar. This is arguably a rather huge development for Starbuck because it gives her a chance to let something go. That doesn’t mean she does it without a little bit of fighting, and we see that when Kat irritatingly makes a scene of the beer stein. (No, look, I know I’m a broken record, and I know that Kat is partially right about all of this, BUT SHE IS SO FUCKING IRRITATING TO ME AND I REFUSE TO LET THIS GO. I’ve been known to hold grudges for years and I will irrationally hate her for decades if I have to.) Despite this, she turns the celebration of Kat’s victory into a somber memorial for those lost, and I kind of love that she upstages Kat and is able to be serious for a moment.
But the final scene of “Scar” made me miss Helo and Starbuck being together; they work so well with one another, and he’s a good filter for her thoughts. He’s able to point out that she’s alive, she has a reason to continue going, and that it’s inherently better that she try to have hope that Anders is alive and well then to resolve herself to cynicism.
And I kind of think that’s a pretty awesome message.
I tend not to really participate in shipping much, and if I do choose to support a pairing it's almost always because they are canon-approved. Or adorable. That being said, no matter how antagonistic a relationship they have, Kat/Kara (Katara? omg AVATAR EVERYWHERE) is pretty much my crack-ship OTP. THERE I SAID IT
This episode almost made me ship it, I actually have in my notes "Okay Kara and Kat either need to fight or frak, just get it over with"
Speaking of AVATAR EVERYWHERE, I just realized that the girl who plays Ann on Arrested Development is the voice of Katara. AWESOME.
I love this episode. A lot. I love that we're seeing Kara be a bit more emotionally vulnerable. I think that she's always been incredibly reckless, and I love that her connection to Anders is grounding her a bit more. The goal of getting back to Capcrica and rescuing him and the rest of the resistance fighters is giving her a purpose and a motivation to live. But at the same time the fact that she's being prevented from doing so is making her angry and causing her to act out.
I also loved getting to see Helo and Kara interact again. They have a real genuine friendship, and since he was on Caprica with her, he's basically the only one who can really know what is bothering her. He saw her and Anders together,and he gets it. He sees through all of Kara's smokescreens. More Helo and Kara friendship scenes please!
I'm really enjoying scenes between Helo and Starbuck. I like their friendship and the fact that they can just talk to each other. They look close, and it's nice to see Helo getting comfortable on Galactica as well as seeing Starbuck talking to a friend who's not an Adama. So far, this is just a nice, uncomplicated relationship between Helo and Starbuck, and I think they both need that.
As for Kat, while I do think she's irritating, I have no real reason to hate her in this episode. She's brash and arrogant and in your face, but she has something to prove, so I get it. And she's not entirely wrong when she confronts Starbuck about the dead pilots. I figure Kat is operating on fear of failure, and she knows failure generally means death. I do think that prior scenes with Kat addressing how she got to this point would have been nice, though. It's hard with an ensemble show, I get that, but I do wish we got less sudden developments with secondary characters. (Maybe cut out all the fucking love triangle stuff?)
I do wish we got less sudden developments with secondary characters. (Maybe cut out all the fucking love triangle stuff?)
A thousand times THIS!
Burn it with fire!
And salt the earth!
"cut out all the fucking love triangle stuff"
Soo late, but I'm still thirding this.
I've never really understood all of the hate aimed at Kat. I've always enjoyed her character. She is definitely a younger version of Starbuck. In her we get to see who Starbuck was a few years ago, or even back in the miniseries, and how that compares to who she is today. The confrontation between Kat and Starbuck is reminiscent of the confrontations between Starbuck and Tigh, only now Starbuck is on the other side of things. Maybe Kat didn't need to be quite so blunt about it, but as Kat becomes Starbuck, Starbuck becomes Tigh. Starbuck is more mature and more jaded than she was when the series started, and she's falling apart because of it. I really think these three characters are interesting when taken together, and I hope that Starbuck doesn't just turn into a carbon copy of Tigh.
It's nice, though, to see that Starbuck can't stay on top forever. If you burn that hot, you burn out fast, and she's burning out. This probably doesn't bode well for Kat, who's poised to be Starbuck 2.0, with the same ego and self-destructive tendencies.
And then there's Starbuck and Apollo. Both so broken. So obviously right for each other. And so completely incapable of making it work. They just make my heart hurt so much.
I like your Kat-Starbuck-Tigh comparison, and I agree that Kat's essentially a younger and less experienced Starbuck. She's in your face and we haven't really seen her perform enough to say her arrogance is warranted, but I figure Starbuck was pretty similar to her even before she earned the right to be that arrogant. So I can't hate on Kat for something I enjoy in Starbuck.
I think that's why it was important for Kat to beat Starbuck in this episode. It validates her arrogance, the way Starbuck's was validated by Adama at the beginning of the series.
Also, can I just say how much I love that this particular arc and conflict is being played out by two women? I feel like, traditionally, it would be a male storyline. But no, Starbuck is the best, male or female, and it's another woman who comes along and one-ups her. So much love for BSG
It's funny, because I completely agree with you about the parallels between Kat and Starbuck and even while I was watching this episode I was telling myself I had no reason to hate Kat and not Starbuck. And yet. I just can't stand Kat. And I know it's only because I looooove Starbuck so much and I hate when anyone is mean to her. And the only reason I love Starbuck is because we have had so much more time to get to know her while Kat has stayed in the background. But, like Mark, she just irritated the fuck out of me during this episode. Even when she was making good points or acting like a young Starbuck.
That was a lot of sentence fragments.
I agree with everything you just said. I realize that my hatred of Kat is completely irrational but I just love Starbuck so much that I want to take down anyone who is nasty to her. Since don't really know much about Kat and only really see one side to her it's easier for me to pass her attitude off as irritating while Starbuck's attitude I find charming, almost? I JUST WANT TO BE STARBUCK'S FRIEND T_T
I love the Kat-Starbuck-Tigh comparison, too. I'm imagining Tigh yucking it up at the idea of Starbuck having her own pain in the ass.
I completely agree with the Kat, Starbuck, Tigh comparison. The similarities between the two relationships were my main thoughts during the episode as well. I don't think Starbuck will become like Tigh because like Helo said at the end, she has something to live for so I hope her hope that Anders and co are alive is enough to stop her.
Kat's attempting to remember the name of Reilly's girlfriend really hit me. How many like her, whose loved ones survived the fall of the colonies but died later, are there? The forgotten dead.
I love that while this is primarily a Starbuck episode we also get to see a lot of the supporting characters, specifically the nuggets from Act of Contrition who have all become total badasses in the time since then. Seeing them tease the newest recruits is really amusing.
Sharon's point about "death becomes a learning experience" is royally creepy but does make some degree of sense (also, Grace Park looks super pretty in that scene).
As for the death becoming a learning experience, I think we do use that to some extent. A lot of training happens in simulated environments and video game environments. You can die over and over and figure out what went wrong (Just think of how many times you killed Mario or Link before beating a game). Of course, we're still human, and we still only get the one real death, but that point is definitely true and relevant to our world. In some ways, we're more like the cylons than the colonials
(also, Grace Park looks super pretty in that scene)
SO PRETTY.
Kat trying to remember Reily's girlfriend's name struck me, too, and I loved the connection between that and Kara and Lee's conversation about how they're forgetting the names and faces of the dead pilots.
I love that she is faking it, and she actually remembers most of the names, and the anguish it causes her when she reaches a point when she can't remember anymore. She has watched so many people die that the only way that she can cope is to pretend like she doesn't care and doesn't remember, but she chooses that moment to drop the pretense and honor the fallen. It's ridiculously powerful to me.
This is a very 'meh' episode for me, but I think at least I'm pretty much alone in that. Most people seem to like it? I think it's just personal preference. Though I like Starbuck, I don't like the episodes that focus almost entirely on one person. I prefer multiple plotlines so if one doesn't interest me, I still get something out of the episode. Plus, the escapades of the pilots, while never exactly boring aren't my favourite part of the show to begin with, so a whole episode on it left me kind of cold.
Some nice character development with Starbuck (and yes, this did kinda make me hate Kat) but ultimately you could take this episode out of the show, and I don't think you'd really lose anything. I didn't feel like the overall plot was really advanced and that irked me.
Like I said, I don't think it was bad (like Black Market boo hiss), but personally, not one of my favourites.
I agree, in that I wish we had seen more of the "supporting characters" in this ep. One of the things I love about BSG is the true ensemble cast, and sometimes in one episode you have the pilots AND the leaders AND Baltar all getting their own storylines, which intersect with each other in interesting ways. I miss those episodes.
Interesting thought (though this was never confirmed outright): if Raiders reincarnate, Scar may or may not be the one Starbuck lobotomized last season. Which would certainly explain why it seems to hate Viper pilots more than your average Raider. 🙂
Hey, that pretty cool! I never thought of that!
Headcanon!
In complete agreement with the comment above, I now present a picture I've been waiting for the perfect opportunity to post in the comments:
<img src="http://i1106.photobucket.com/albums/h362/MsPrufrock/Gifs/NewHeadCannon.png" border="0" alt="Photobucket">
(drawn by gingerhaze, who has one of my favorite arty tumblrs ever.)
I love that picture! I will never NOT think of it now when thinking about head canon.
I can't wait until Mark reads Lord of the Rings and I can post gingerhaze's epic LOTR fanart 😀
I love Gingerhaze! I follow her on Tumblr and she just does the most brilliant stuff!
As a Lee/Kara shipper, this episode both fills me with glee and breaks my heart. Glee, with the hot!angry makeout scene, breaks my heart because Kara is in so much pain and she has no clue how to fix it (sadly, sexx0rs with Lee is not the way).
<img src="http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d173/ppyajunebug/slapkiss.gif"/>
I SO WANTED IT TO BE THE WAY.
ARMSSSS
YET ANOTHER GIF ENTRY IN THE "FANS OF THE ARMS OF THE GALACTICA CREW" PHOTO ALBUM
BAMCEPSSSS!!!!!!!
Hello! Nice to see another shipper here (they were the first couple I ever really shipped, and everyone I encountered after them just seemed so insipid in comparison). And of course, I had to ship a couple on a show that basically delights in torturing them, such is life.
PS: If you're through with the show and ever feel like hanging out with fellow pilots shippers, come on over to no-takebacks.livejournal.com. It's a nice place to squee/commiserate.
Hooboy, this episode is so much better than the last. Mostly because I love Helo and Starbuck bonding time. They're so cute in the gym! And he's also the only one on Galactica that knows how much Anders meant to her, so I'm glad that she has someone to talk to. I think it's hard for everyone who wasn't on Caprica to understand what the Starbuck, Helo, and Sharon went through, though they each had their own struggles. I also loved Starbuck and Sharon's scene, because you can tell how much it pains them both that Sharon is a Cylon. It's really hard watching them talk about her Boomer days, but I did smile at the end of the scene because of
<img src="http://29.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lqzl48Fz7P1qkfq9yo1_500.gif">
Is Helo allowed in there? Can he touch her? Probably not. It sounds so lonely.
And man, do I disagree with you about Kat. She's basically just mini-Starbuck, and yeah, she's being disrespectful and challenging a character I love, but it's not like Starbuck isn't leaving herself open to criticism. She and her drinking aren't solely or evenly mostly to blame for the deaths of the other pilots, but it is affecting her work. And more importantly, Kat's just trying to make her mark by going after the best person in the fleet. It's totally realistic and understandable. Honestly, her nitpicking struck me as a little Hermionesque, so I can't hate, haha. I think a lot of their fighting is due to their similarities; they can see their flaws reflected in each other, be it substance abuse or insubordination. I think it's interesting to see how behavior like Starbuck's appears when it's coming from someone who isn't the hero; apparently it pisses you off, but I like it. And I love that the two best, most intense pilots in the fleet are women.
I also loved that Starbuck turned the celebration into a serious reflection. It's why she's running things, after all.
I agree with all of this. And Arrested Development! Perfect connection.
GIVE POP-POP YOUR HAIR!
I also love the Kat-Kara competition. Those two women have more balls than the rest of the fleet put together
I remember when this season was airing and the bboard wanted Helo to get a frakking conjugal visit already.
Is it totally natural to feel a gut-wrenching, seething distaste for Kat?
I believe so. You are certainly not alone.
The idea of you burying yourself in the bottle is a really weird one to me, Mark. In my head, you came out of the womb with straightedge tattoos.
Re-watching thoughts:
Another in medias res beginning. Yay? I wouldn't mind so much if I hadn't just watched Black Market. Plus, it's kind of confusing with all the jumping back and forth between the "past" and "present" storylines.
I really don't like that red-headed pilot guy. He's the one that refused to shake Helo's hand way back when. I hope Scar eats you, guy.
The idea of a raider with a personality is a bit weird to me. I mean, I get how it works: if raiders are like animals, an animal can certainly have a personality and be good at its job. But it's still weird. It seems like it comes out of nowhere. I would rather have seen them discover this than jump in weeks later, when they already have a name for it and stories about it.
Aw, Anders flashbacks. <3. I ships them.
I continue to not like the way these flashbacks are done, though. The last few episodes–Epiphanies, Black Market, and now Scar–have these flashbacks that just consist of the same images repeated over and over again. At least the ones in Epiphanies had a plot (sort of) and dialogue (eventually), but the ones in Black Market were literally the same damn shots of Lee and Blonde Woman repeated several times with ~ANGST MUSIC~ over them.
Compared to the awesome flashbacks when we find out about Zak, these are boring, is what I am saying. It's basically just like "OOOH, this person is having MEMORIES" without actually fleshing out those memories or telling us anything new.
"How many pilots have we lost? I mean, have YOU lost." I love how Sharon is like "I'm just waiting for everyone else to catch up to the fact that I HAVE SWITCHED SIDES. In the meanwhile, I'll just be here in the brig, gestating."
IS Scar supposed to be the same Raider that Starbuck rode home, reincarnated? I never got whether or not that was supposed to be the case. (Wiki doesn't know either.)
Kat uses the term "FNG" to refer to BB, which apparently stands for Fucking (or I guess in this case Frakking) New Guy. Subtitles and Urban Dictionary, how you educate me.
HOTT MAKEOUTS! I don't even care, I ship them too.
"I don't want to know!" Oh, he's probably just thinking of his pregnant girlfriend that we NEVER KNEW ABOUT. Oh wait… that never comes up when Starbuck's around. *eyeroll*
"There is nothing here!" Lies. ALL LIES
HOTT SLAPPING MAKEOUTS. O…kay! I'LL TAKE IT.
Dammit Starbuck. I WANTED HOTT SEXINGS.
(Actually I kind of like this plot, because it seems realistic. You and someone else like each other, but things keep getting in the way, and by the time you do decide to go for it, OTHER things are in the way. Before, it was Starbuck's own sense of not deserving to have nice things, because of what happened to Zak. Now it's Anders.)
Yeah, Kat, blaming Starbuck directly for EVERY DEATH OF A PILOT is the best way to go, obviously. *eyeroll*
Everyone is like DAMMIT STARBUCK, STOP RUINING THE MOOD BY TALKING ABOUT DEAD PEOPLE. Except Adama, who is like "damn right."
YES STARBUCK! GO FIND OUT IF ANDERS IS ALIVE. YOUR FANS DEMAND MOAR MAKEOUTS.
I really like Starbuck and Helo as friends. <3.
Although Helo's statement (that she has something to live for now) raises the question of what will happen if/when she DOES find out if Anders is dead or alive. If he's dead, she'll no longer have anything to live for. If he's alive… it could go either way, I suppose.
If he's dead, she'll no longer have anything to live for.
She could eliminate every farm on Caprica, but oh, looks like she only cares about Caprica for Sam nowaday. (Am very grumpy on this point.)
Yeah, that's something I didn't notice at all my first time through, but now it does bug me.
"In the meanwhile, I'll just be here in the brig, gestating."
I may have to start using that line in real life, just to weird people out.
No, you go on ahead! I'll just be here in the brig, gestating!
My personal take on the episode, and why I like the in media res when I didn't in others, is that we're in Starbuck's head during the battle. What we're seeing is what's going through her head as she's out flying. The jumbled up nature of time in the episode really adds to that.
I'll also say that the flashback styles are different because the purposes are different. The one's in Epiphanies and of Zak are giving us new information. These are pretty much to remind the audience who Anders is.
–"There is nothing here" Lies. ALL LIES–
–Everyone is like DAMMIT STARBUCK, STOP RUINING THE MOOD BY TALKING ABOUT DEAD PEOPLE. Except Adama, who is like "damn right."–
I agree so much with your whole comment, but especially those bits.
I somehow managed to completely forget this review was going up tonight. Oops?
Kat is to Starbuck in Scar as Starbuck is to Tigh in the miniseries and s1? Or at least that’s how I felt during this episode with the way Kat was calling Starbuck out on her drinking and her mistakes. She even compared their drinking. I just think in this situation it’s much easier to sympathise with Starbuck and dislike Kat because we know Starbuck and understand what’s going on with her right now and why she’s slipping up but Kat doesn’t and as such a brash, confident person she has no problem pointing out Starbuck’s mistakes.
Oh hey, it’s the return of one of my favourite spin offs, Starbuck and Helo as BFFs.
<img src="http://i56.tinypic.com/4uyyc0.gif" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic">
No clue why this was sent to moderation.
Hooray for the Starbuck and Helo show!
Starbuck and Helo! I love them so freaking much (both separately and together)!
The Starbuck & Helo thing is great because they really, genuinely ARE friends, and it's quite possibly the least dysfunctional relationship she has with ANYONE. Automatic awesome, right there. 🙂
That is my favorite scene EVER between the two of them. Helo's little tap tap tap in the end is so cute.
Oh hey, it’s the return of one of my favourite spin offs, Starbuck and Helo as BFFs.
Can Doc Cottle come along as their gruff but lovable mentor?
Oh yeah, how could I forget about the Starbuck and Helo show?!? It;s so refreshing in the midst of all the angst and drama and UST and dysfunctional relationships, and I love a genuinely platonic male-female friendship more than just about anything!
I would watch the SHIT out of the Starbuck and Helo are BFF's show. When does it air?
An episode focusing solely on Kara? Be still my heart because I freaking love her. Katee Sackoff is a goddess; that woman can act her way out of a paper bag and I would gladly watch.
“There is no us, all right? I just wanted a good lay. There is nothing here. Do you get that? Nothing.” So much angst and yet I love it.
Kat is so freaking annoying, I kept drumming my fingers on my keyboard every time she came onscreen. Yeah, she's basically mini-Starbuck but without any of Kara's redeaming qualities (that we know of; we obviously haven't seen that much of her).
And, as everyone's said, Helo and Kara's friendsip is great and I love that the episode ends like that.
I don't know why, but I was surprised to see that the raiders resurrected. (Or "regenerated", it's hard not to have Who on the brain when I watch other Sci-Fi too.) I know that they're alive, but I see them as robots. This makes me wonder how Scar got the scar, was it flaw in the model? Did he get it on a mission, think it was cool, and decide to keep it?
Kat was so damn annoying in this episode. She was less abrasive when she was she was detoxing. Maybe her own substance issues are why she was being such a pain to Starbuck about her drinking. I assume that Kat looked up to Starbuck before this episode, and people don't like it when they find out that their heroes are just as flawed as they are.
I share your hatred of Kat, Mark, but I did want to say something about their storyline in this episode.
While I really love friendships between women on TV (because they're so often not shown at all, or if they are, they center around talking about how omgcute some guy is), I also enjoy drama between women as well. Which, again, is so often as a result of fighting over a guy or something, which is aggravating and I hate that. What I enjoy is the kind of drama between women that's shown here. This is an issue between the two of them that has absolutely nothing to do with sex, romance, looks, or anything other than personality and job proficiency. This is so rarely shown on TV, where most fighting between women is because of romances or petty things. BLESS THIS SHOW FOR MAKING THE KAT/STARBUCK DRAMA OVER WHO CAN KILL THE MOST CYLONS WHILE PILOTING BADASS SHIPS AND GENERALLY BEING STRONG, COMPETENT WOMEN. <3_<3
Yes! Bechdel test PASS!
THIS. YES.
YES. So much love for this aspect of it.
UGH, I really disliked Kat too. The only other character on this show that I want to punch in the face as much as Kat is Ellen Tigh. I think I liked this episode but I was so irritated with Kat the whole time I'm not sure, lol. Probably just because I love Kara so much, lol. I also have to say that Kara handled Kat a lot better than I would have (you can see I'm always going on about punching people in the face, so if I was as badass as Kara, I'd spend a lot of time in trouble lol).
Besides being irritated, however, I liked a lot of other things about the episode, specifically this bit of info about the Cylon raiders regenerating too. I hadn't really thought about it, but Sharon's explanation made perfect sense.
During the teaser I also thought that Starbuck and Kat were just teasing each other in a “friendly rivals” way, and that they would be having light-hearted bondy times in the episode. Further in, I also thought they were building up to Kat getting killed. I should probably stop constantly making predictions, but it's so much fun to be surprised by just how wrong I am!
Even though I hated how confrontational and arrogant Kat was throughout, she kinda had a point. Starbuck is undeniably slipping. She’s been through so much, and is under ridiculous amounts of pressure, and her thoughts about Anders certainly aren’t helping. But Kat has no way of knowing about all that, so as far as she knows, Starbuck is drinking and being irresponsible and generally being a terrible leader. I just wish she didn't go about it in such an irritating way.
Something that wasn’t clear to me, even after watching certain scenes over again: when Sharon was explaining to Kara about how the Raiders can regenerate, Kara was flashing back to the raider she found and altered (and that Sharon later stole) and she appeared to have a revelation. Was that implying that “Scar” was actually Kara’s raider, and that it was “coming after her” as revenge for her essentially mutilating it? Did anyone else see it that way? Or did I completely miss the point?
Yes, These Old LiveJournal Posts Keep on Coming
The previews made this episode look even worse than last week's, but I definitely liked it more. I mean, did you see the flippy ships?! They were flippy!! Plus, no random space hookers. And at least we've seen the Romantic Interest from the Paaaaaaast before.
I did have a kneejerk to yet another "X hours ago," but at least it wasn't 48! And I ended up really liking the framing device. That's the kind of nonlinear storytelling I can get behind. This is the way you do it: throw us into the action, and keep us there as you enrich what's really going on by showing us how they got there.
Is anyone else really disconcerted by the huge jumps in time these days? I mean, the first season-and-a-half crawled along, and now we're skipping weeks in between episodes. I guess it kind of works in this instance because you at least get a sense of what you've been missing, which is a lot of complaining between Kat and Starbuck, and a lot of pilots dying, and a lot of Baltar masturbating. Come on, that's just a given.
Why did it take twenty goddamn episodes for them to follow up on the fact that the Raiders have more of a consciousness than they expected? And the fact that they reincarnate? Right, because they probably just decided this last Monday. I mean, Raiders with personality is a cool concept, and they should have been playing it with way more. And Scar shouldn't be some random nemesis introduced in one episode that's been terrorizing them for four weeks we didn't see.
Speaking of weeks, I was thinking about the fact that they use the same units of time we do and call them by the same names. What's the etymology of "minute" and "hour" and "day"? Is this evidence that they're the future, not the past?
Great scene between Boomer and Starbuck. Except I have no idea why Boomer knows anything about Scar and what he feels. Perhaps they were BFF back in the day.
I wonder if Aaron Douglas sometimes looks at his scenes and thinks, "So…I'm in the hangar…because I'm the Chief…but I don't actually do anything pertinent to my character…um, do I really have to show up for this?" I mean, they didn't bother to get Nicki Clyne, and Cally would have conceivably been there too.
Why the fuck is Anders popping up in Starbuck's head now? She hasn't mentioned him in ages. How can he be her something to live for now? I actually don't even mind the fact that she's obsessed with him because, hey, sometimes these things happen. But this randomly triggered angst is bizarre, and it's really enough to have her sparring with Kat. Who's really moving up in the world, tertiary-characterwise. It's kind of sad that she was actually not so much in the wrong with her criticisms of Starbuck. Buck up, Starbuck! Okay, that was bad and I know it.
Riley's girlfriend is pretty. She looks like a cross between Anna Paquin and Amber Tamblyn.
I know I complained about the hyperedited flashbacks last week, but they were far more effective this week. I liked them. Again, because we actually knew what the fuck they were. Really nice crosscutting of visual associations (throwing the bottle to throwing the pyramid ball, doing body shots off her stomach to Anders kissing her stomach, etc.).
The drinking scene (well, the last one) was weird at the end. Starbuck lists all the pilots who've died (and dude, when your callsign's Fireball, you're just asking for trouble…although Crashdown didn't end up actually crashing down), and then she stops, like she's trying to get one last name out, and I think she's trying to say, "Zak," but he was pre-apocalypse and doesn't count, I suppose.
Apollo thinks, "Well, I should help her out." So he helpfully adds, "To all of them." Um…what? That's your glorious addition? How many brain cells did it take to come up with that?
And then there's a silence, and Adama thinks, "Holy shit, this is a perfect time for my catchphrase!" So he awkwardly adds in a, "So say we all!" And everyone so says them all. It was weird, guys.
That final Helo/Starbuck scene is adorable. I didn't get why they were being all chummy because it feels like we've hardly seen them interact…ever, but then I realized that he's pretty much the only person who gets her deal with Anders. Also, apparently they used to be friends and all.
All in all, it felt much more like BSG, even if it wasn't a stellar episode. Still decent, though.
Also, in that one scene, Starbuck and Kat were totally going to make out.
And then there's a silence, and Adama thinks, "Holy shit, this is a perfect time for my catchphrase!" So he awkwardly adds in a, "So say we all!" And everyone so says them all. It was weird, guys.
Your reviews just get more entertaining as time goes on.
In "Final Cut," Dee says something to D'Anna about something being "24 hours a day," and the Wiki points out that in a double-binary star system with twelve planets, there's NO WAY all of them had a 24 hour day. If they even divide days into hours the same way we do. (The hours might come from the zodiac, actually, so maybe it makes sense in that one respect. Two hours = earth's rotation through one zodiac sign. They seem to like naming things after the signs, so… LOOK, I DON'T KNOW.)
I suppose it's possible that Kobol had one, so they kept that expression, but that seems far-fetched. I think it's more likely that Caprica had a 24-hour day and Caprica calls the shots. Plus, the military would have to have some standard way of measuring time.
and a lot of Baltar masturbating. Come on, that's just a given.
You speak truth.
Actually, IIRC Helo/Starbuck were chummy in the mini, weren't he and Boomer the ones who made sure she didn't punch out Tigh again? V. little to go on, but at least it's something.
“Scar” feels like an immediate correction to the “tortured hero” story they messed up.
Because Starbuck is the REAL sexy tragic badass hero of the show. And Lee is the pretty, pure-hearted princess. The show goes off the rails on occasions when the writers forget this, and try to put them in each other's roles.
…I'm sort of joking, but not entirely. I think Lee's at his best when he's being an idealist and grappling with political issues and taking principled stands (which sometimes coincides with him being put in danger and needing Starbuck to rescue him), and at his most annoying when he's being angstful and angry and making poor sexual/romantic choices. And while I love Starbuck pretty much all the time, I love the show best when it gives her big dramatic heroic or antihero-ish storylines.
This is one of my favorite BSG episodes ever. I'm not entirely sure why, but I love Kara, and I love seeing more of the pilots, and I really love the idea of Scar. The thing that strikes me is that before Scar they haven't really had the opportunity to tell if Raiders had personalities, because they were indistinguishable from one another. But one raider gets a big distinguishing mark and suddenly they realize he learns and plans and is different from other Raiders. And that just adds more confusion to the question of "What is human?" If a machine like a Raider can feel and have emotions, what does that mean for scenes like the one where they shut off all the raiders' power and blow them all to bits?
I don't find Kat annoying, although I don't like her character much. I do like her storyline and the relationship with Kara. I think my view of her is heavily colored by the full run of the show, though.