open discussion thread for Episode 317 - Maelstrom

[The Admiral]

Post your thought about last night's big Starbuck episode. Warning, This will be a spoiler heavy thread, so make sure you see the show before reading.

[The Admiral]

so, I think last night's show leaves us three possibilities with the fate of Starbuck.

1) She's Dead Jim.
2) Cylon after all
3) She ejected and was captured by the phantom raider.

[Diego]

It doesn't really seem possible that she is dead. First of all, making a big deal about her destiny and then exploding in the middle of nowhere doesn't really make much sense. Second, I'm pretty sure I could see flashing and a noise inside the cockpit and around Kara right before the Viper exploded, and she either teleported (perhaps to the phantom raider) or ejected. Notably, the Viper can only be seen from behind after the lights+sound and before it explodes.

Kara = Cylon is also possible I guess, but the whole destiny thing is less powerful if it's actually planned by the cylons... (the 'and they have a plan' part).

This actually gives the writers a great conflict point for everyone else (because they think she's dead and have to deal with the grief) without really killing her and so allowing her to reach her destiny, which at this point is probably finding/contributing in finding earth. Well done!

[Isdeirinnme]

I say I would have to agree with the supposition that Starbuck's destiny involves her contributing in some significant way to the fleet finding Earth. I don't believe she is necessarily dead but definitely on hiatus. I have to go back earlier to another thread where I mentioned the producers taking a cue from an episode of Galactica 1980 involving the fate of Starbuck and the character's contributions to locating Earth. Since some of the story arcs of the series seem to take a long time to resolve I suspect we haven't seen the last of Starbuck.

[The Admiral]

The podcast for 317 was just posted at http://media.scifi.com/battlestar/downloads/podcast/mp3/317/bsg_ep3...

[Rob Claire]

After listing to the podcast, things do not look good for Starbuck....Ronald Moore used the phase "killed Starbuck" quite a bit...and it sounded like Katee Sackoff was none too please about getting the news from the show's producers.

[David Jacobs]

Starbuck waking up in one of those tanks would suck. Too obvious, too stupid. We are ready had that kind of fake out with Sharon. But I can't see how they can make such a big deal about her destiny and than kill her off, leaving that hanging. Unless she is in a place between life and death and that is where her destiny is to take place

[Initus]

I personally think that Starbuck is, or is "related" in some way to the storyline of the cylons. First of all, she died to find out what lingered in the place between life and death, right? This was the journey that supposedly her mother was getting her ready for. The cylons also know who she is, and her destiny... So maybe she is tied in with the cylon religion. Also, the 3 that took on to Baltar keep on killing herself, so that she could see, in the place between life and death, that faces of the final five. So, this could be the place is where the five five reside (remember there were also blunt hints that the final five were tied into the human religion, especially at the temple of five). (I haven't listen to the podcast, I hope this isn't in there.)

[Vix]

Even with all the hints being dropped about something happening to a major character I never thought that the writers were serious about killing Starbuck.

I started crying when she was telling Lee where she wanted her photo to be placed on the wall and the tears didn't stop for minutes after the show ended.

I really hope that Kara isn't a Cylon. Please oh please. But I do think we're going to see her - maybe midway through season 4.

Here's a link to an interesting theory on Kara's death and what it could mean for the show:
http://gdg.livejournal.com/1050107.html