Battlestar Galactica: Maelstrom
Posted Mar 4th 2007 11:58PM by Keith McDuffee
(S03E17) There are shows that I watch where I can't stand when they rely too much on flashbacks to keep the story moving. Battlestar did this a bit too much in the previous two seasons, though they seem to be getting much smarter about it. This episode was one small example of that.
Now I'll say a bit of something that's spoilery if you haven't caught this episode. I'm a bit disappointed when the goings on outside the show - like casting and contracts - leads to strong hints to the fate of certain members of the cast. Then again, maybe only we nutcase fans of this show knew this information, while others are blissfully ignorant and surprised. Damn you!Seriously, why am I so disappointed when I've written Spoilers Anonymous posts for this show? Sorry, I digress.
It's been obvious since long ago that Starbuck was an unstable character. From her actions on deck and barroom brawls, to her toying with Apollo and seemingly enjoying Leoben's company, it was almost unnecessary to throw us yet another reason for her to become totally unhinged -- her dying mother she left behind. And let's not forget the entire situation at hand, with humanity hangling on by a thread and drifting through space basically on derelicts.
Young Kara, at first look, bore a close resemblance to Kacey, the girl Leoben used to fool Starbuck into thinking she was a mother. That could have been the point though, as Leoben obviously knew everything about her.
I'm actually not really sure what we're supposed to have walked away with in this episode. Like I said, Starbuck was screwed up, but suicidal-like? Really all that would make sense is that Starbuck turns out to be a Cylon, though I believe Ron Moore has said she's not one.
One logical step from this event seems to be the aftermath, as we've already seen in Adama's reaction. Though most likely I'm looking too much on the surface of things, and really the moral of this part of the story is that some or all of these people have predestined fates, some more aware of their own than others.
A few questions I'm left with: Why was Starbuck ready with her eject seat? Would that have saved her? We're not seriously supposed to consider she did pull it, are we? And what did Leoben mean by "all of this has happened before ... and will happen again?"
I'm not 1005 convinced it's time to say goodbye to Starbuck just yet, but it seems pretty likely. Well, at least they've put an end to Starpollo for the time being.
1 comment:
If Kara Thrace's "amazing destiny" was to burn out, it should have developed over a longer story arc. We haven't seen much of her of late, and then it's just, "okay, bye, that was underwhelming." The process could have been more agonizing for us as an audience, and for those around her watching her come apart.
Also, these flashbacks... I'm not buying them. I feel like I don't need every event in somebody's past to be shown to me, they don't need these pivotal moments to be exposed. Life is a continuum, not a couple of dramatic vignettes.
As for Kara, I agree with the OP here -- life is pretty dang messed up RIGHT NOW -- the apocalypse, her deteriorating relationships with the people she loves, the whole kidnapping on Caprica AND New Caprica, the Casey thing, and the paintings... she had enough on her plate to drive her over the edge without some ol' specific mom issue coming back up.
I felt like suddenly the writers couldn't figure out how to make Starbuck work (or perhaps, the producers couldn't figure out how to make Katee continue to work, to be more accurate) and just said, "uh, let's just take care of this."
I really had hoped they wouldn't "solve" the love triangles by killing anybody off -- it's too neat, and not in keeping with the realism of the rest of the show, but it looks like that's what they've done here.
Finally, killing a main character ups the ante, the stakes go through the roof, but, this just seems unwise. We didn't even get any big plot points out of it. I know LOTS of people who said early on "if they kill Kara, I'm not watching." This might have doomed the show to even lower ratings and less downloads.
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