Battlestar Galactica Recap: Maelstrom

Title: “Maelstrom”
Original Airdate: March 4, 2007
GMMR Recapper: Jo

Previously, the Cylon Leoben had a fatal attraction with Kara. So much so that they took turns torturing other whenever possible. She painted three colored circles on her wall on Caprica and the same circles appeared on the Temple.

Kara dreams about her old apartment on Caprica. She throws white paint to try and cover up the circles. She works furiously until Leoben shows up and they start macking. The circles reappear through the white paint and Kara wakes from her nightmare. Hot Dog, who had been watching her eew, asks what’s up.

Helo and Kara wash their faces in the loo. I’ve always loved their friendship. He tells her about Hera’s problems. She tells him about the nightmares. Helo suggests a psychiatrist or an oracle in Dogsville. She sees a ghost of her child self. Kara visits the oracle and reluctantly listens to her recount things that Leoben said that only Kara heard. Then she brings up Kara’s mom. It freaks her out to the point that Kara takes off.

41,400. Anders tries to talk Kara into taking some time off and leaving Galactica with him. I love him even more for not giving up on her. She tells him about a prank she pulled on her mom. And how her mom slammed her hand in the door over it.

Refueling. Kara and Hot Dog fly through the atmosphere of this planet. Kara spots a Raider. She takes off after him. Except no one else can spot the Raider, not even the radar. She chases him through the clouds. She finds pattern of clouds, circles painted with the same three colors. Dark blue center, red ring, yellow ring. She follows the Raider into the storm clouds. He sideswipes her. She flies dangerously close to “will die instantly” level. Apollo pleads with her to pull up and at the last second she does.

Deck. Chief checks her bird but there’s no sign of damage. She feels a little crazy. The pilots watch the film from her mission. There’s no sign of the raider. Adama and son chat about Kara’s crazy. Apollo has to decide whether or not to ground her. Apollo finds her in the Hallowed Hall. She tells him if she goes first to hang her photo next to Kat’s. He tells her to hang his next to Duck and Nora. Kara asks if she’s grounded. He tells her it’s just stress, but she spies some wax on the floor in the shape of the circles.

In the hallway, Adama and Roslin discuss the refuel as Kara blows right past them. She gives Adama a figurine of some morning god for his model ship. On the deck, Kara goes through a list of problems with her Viper to Tyrol but pauses when she sees her child self, bruised and beaten, sitting in the cockpit. She remembers a horrible time in her childhood that involved much screaming.

Apollo joins Kara sitting on the deck. She wants to stop flying because she doesn’t trust herself anymore. Apollo asks if she trust him because he’ll fly her number two. They get googly eyed, so Kara asks about Dee. Apollo and Dee are “the best they’ve ever been.” Kara laments that they are right back where they started. No kidding Starbuck, this scene feels, looks and sounds just like something out of Season 1.

Apollo and Kara fly through the atmosphere. She spots another phantom raider and takes off after him. No one else can find the Raider or Kara for that matter. She ventures down into the cloud circles again. Something smacks her viper hard enough to knock her out cold. Her Viper beeps a warning. But the beep morphs into an alarm clock. Kara awakens in her apartment on Caprica to Leoben. She realizes that she’s out cold. He’s there to lead her to her destiny. He tells her she’s never faced her biggest fear: death. Leoben, the Ghost of Christmas past, takes her to a scene six years previous. Kara shows up to her mother, dressed as an officer. The first officer in her family. Her mom is proud that she’s a natural pilot, but rips her up and down about being 16th in her class. Her mom just takes a special moment and takes the biggest emotional dump on it. Kara spies a doctor’s letter on the table and learns that her mother is dying of cancer. She tries to be empathetic but Bad Mama pushes her away. So Kara leaves, promising never to return. The only more heartbreaking than the scene in action is Current Kara’s reactions to it all.

Ghost of Kara’s past Leoben brings Kara back to the moment her mother died so Kara could be there. She confronts her dying mother and see a book of her childhood accomplishments. She holds her mother’s hand as she takes her last breath. A childhood drawing is of the circles. Kara’s not afraid anymore. Leoben tells her there’s nothing about death to be afraid of. She’s free to become “what you really are”. Gulp.

Kara’s bird is going down fast. Apollo calls to her over the radio. Kara’s got to pull up now or she’ll be crushed. Pull up Kara! Pull up! She tells Apollo that she’s not afraid anymore. Apollo closes in and gets a visual of her. “Lee, I feel the other side….They’re waiting for me.” She closes her eyes. Her Viper BLOWS INTO A BILLION PIECES. Apollo watches the whole thing. He has to tell Galactica that she’s gone.

Adama, fighting back tears, glues the figurine Kara gave him to the ship. He gets it in place and then smashes the boat in a fit of emotional outrage. The tears freely fall for him and me.

What. I don’t know what’s more shocking. The fact that Kara just died or even more heartwrenching is the notion that she could come back as one of the Final Five Cylons. I’m just stunned. She was my favorite character because I relate to her the most. And Katee Sackhoff is brilliant, I don’t want to see her go. But I don’t know if I can handle Starbuck the Cylon.
Jo works a boring job in a small Texas town and reserves the right to spell it “ya’ll”. One day she’ll be a novelist, but until then you can read her sarcastic thoughts about TV at http://brickstorm.blogspot.com

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