Season 3, Episode 17

Battlestar Galactica: Maelstrom

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Well, this was a pretty depressing episode.

You can’t get much darker than staring death in the face. There’s something in the human spirit that keeps going, even under crappy circumstances. But this episode had a lot of dark, moody stuff: child abuse, a mother with cancer, and Cylons talking about destiny, the result of which is Starbuck essentially committing suicide. Life sucks, then you die.

Starbuck has had a rough time. We learn she was an abused kid, she hates her chain-smoking mom (Marlboros!), she hurts herself and everyone around her, and her only reason for living is being an exemplar Viper pilot. She’s also been drawing this primary-colored circle since childhood, which resembles a mystical, ancient graphic found in the algae planet temple. Plus, the Cylon Leoben shows up in her mind (Baltar - Six style), telling her about “destiny.”

Anyhow, Starbuck and Apollo are flying around some cloudy planet when she sees a Cylon ship to pursue. The ship flies into a storm system that looks like her colored ringed circle. The first time, everyone back on Galactica tells Starbuck the Cylon ship was imaginary. But she goes out again. The second time, her Viper explodes, right in front of Apollo in hot pursuit. She’s dead.

Now that I’m writing all this down, it’s a bit too convenient. It reminds me of Kat’s death, where the plot seemed contrived to make her exit a noble one. Plus, why would they allow Starbuck to go out a second time when she was obviously cracking up?

However, there was still a lot to like. I did admire the directional choices. Everyone staring at monitors on the Galactica bridge, in particular Adama and Tigh, stunned with disbelief was awesome. The last moment where Adama’s steely facade cracks and he tears apart his model ship was heart wrenching. Was this the first time we’ve seen him cry?

So what the heck is going to happen next? I’m predicting the next few episodes leading into the season finale will venture into some strange spiritual territory. We’ll have Cylons filling in the space between death and life. There are the remaining five Cylons to be revealed, or at least hinted at. We have Starbuck’s “destiny” which I don’t think was completely played out in this episode. I’m thinking she’ll be back - not as Starbuck but as a vision in someone’s brain (Six-style) or as a Cylon. Maybe we get some hints as to why Cylons show up in Baltar’s head and Starbuck’s, too. I’m hoping for some mind-bending stuff.

Note: A bit of funny trivia from Eye of Polyphemus:

“nifty bit of info from Ron Moore’s pod cast … The final scene in which he smashes it with his bare hands out of anger over the death of Starbuck was an improvisation… The problem is, while Edward James Olmos believed he was smashing a cheap prop, he was destroying a very valuable museum piece which the production team has to pay a large sum of money to replace. Oops.”

Additional Reading: WIRED, Paris Lemon

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