Islanded in a Stream of Stars

Not much was moved forward plot-wise in this episode, but gods dammit was this an emotional one. The whole episode pulsed with death’s presence and set us up for the revelations, sacrifices, and stylish farewell to Galactica, as promised by Adama. I’m not ashamed to say I got choked up more than once, even during the overly melodramatic paint-throwing scene. Eddie Olmos’ face has that effect on me.

Last week, Boomer managed to escape in a Raptor with Hera, displaying the wily Cylon capacity for stashing small children in crates. En route to Brother Cavil and the mysterious Cylon home-base, the Colony, Hera has a much deserved hissy-fit. Boomer threatens her with a grown-up size morphine shot (how else do you handle a bitching kid?) but has a change of heart and gives her space chocolate instead. After a pretty intense projection for Boomer, they reach the Colony and Hera is turned over to Cavil who acts like a straight pedo. He assures Hera that “You’ll have all sorts of new playmates pretty soon,” most likely referring to his raging Cylon boner. Or not. The Colony follows the standard Cylon decorating scheme of bio-mechanical mood lighting and reminded me of the interior of an ant-hill. Gross.

Back on Galactica, Anders is in the back of the club, sippin’ Moet. Not really. He’s in one of those Cylon-Hybrid hot tubs, hooked up to a computer. A Number Eight tells Starbuck that his “neural net” shit the bed and he’s somehow connected himself to the Cylon-Spackle that’s being used to repair Galactica. This is causing hell for the ship’s lights and possibly the FTL drive. Eventualy Tigh and the Cylons figure out he’s the cause of the fritzes and they unplug him, but not before he can restate that Starbuck is the “harbinger of death” and that “All this happened before;” the unofficial tagline for the show.

Another great episode for Starbuck. After finding closure with her father in last week’s episode, she decides to move forward and ask Baltar if he can examine the dog tags she found on her own corpse. He does so and at the funeral for those who died in a hull breach, Baltar belts out a sermon and, in front of everyone, reveals that Starbuck is living proof of life after death. She bicth slaps him, but it’s obvious that Starbuck wasn’t going to tell Adama or the others herself – she asked Baltar to check out the tags because she knew he would make a spectacle about it in front of everyone. Aduh. We then see Starbuck (or should I refer to her as Kara from now on?) with a look of peace on her face, adding her picture to the memorial wall. Very nice touch. She plugs Anders back in and in a robot-creepo manner says, “New command.”

So what the hell is Kara then and what makes her the harbinger of death? How did she “cross over,” as Baltar put it? There is obviously something going on here beyond the basic Cylon resurrection but all I can think of is that she was possibly reproduced from the eggs taken from her on the Cylon reproduction farm way back when. It doesn’t seem to fit though.

Adama is struggling with the slow death of Roslin and the rapid death of Galactica and last night, in an incredibly intense scene, he had a full meltdown. I went back and watched this scene about five times and it devastated me everytime. Eddie Olmos, I love you. After he cools off and cleans up, Adama tells Tigh that he’s decided to stop the repairs, strip what they can use, and leave Galactica “in style.” Earlier, Hera was shown playing with the ship models and she rams the Galactica model into a Cylon base ship. That little girl has some prophetic shit going on and my bet is that how they go out; Adama behind the wheel, hopefully drunk with Tigh, ramming a base ship or, most likely, the Colony.

Next week’s BSG Re-Up will be a few days late since Mishka decided to throw their Grand Opening Party on a Friday night. It also happens to be the night of the 100th episode of Wife Swap. You’re killing me, guys.

- Oh Mars