The thing that has kept running through my brain since Friday night is this: What the frak is Starbuck?
It would seem she’s not a Cylon. We know the final Cylon is Ellen Tigh. Don’t we? (Questions – was Ellen resurrected somewhere before the resurrection hub was destroyed? Is there another resurrection hub somewhere for the Earth Cylons? Did Brother Cavil know she and/or Saul were Cylons?)
But we know that there’s a dead Starbuck on Earth. She did crash-land there and die. Her dogtags, her wedding band, her ship. All were there. And we know that she’s the harbinger of death. But what does that even mean????
Leoben seemed to think she was the final Cylon until they saw her dogtags. Then he seemed so uncertain about everything. I found that a bit puzzling, because the dogtags would initially have seemed to confirm it to him. Until she mentioned what the hybrid had told her.
Then, Leoben couldn’t get far enough away from her. But the Leobens have always known something about Starbuck and her destiny. They just didn’t know what they knew.
The only thing I can think of is something that makes no sense chronologically, but I’ve believed from the moment I saw the Razor telemovie.
Remember the scene where Husker’s in the creepy Cylon building with all the human parts in tanks, just before he finds out an armistice has been signed?
Some people are trapped in a room and he can’t quite get the door open. One of those trapped in there is a young girl with blonde hair.
I’ve been convinced ever since that she was Starbuck.
Now, the Cylon Wars were 40 years ago, and Kara Thrace isn’t 40.
But what if she’s some sort of hybrid who ages differently? Obviously, the Cylons were creating hybrids there. Perhaps she’s the missing link, of a sort. I’m not sure which link, even, because we don’t know how the Earth Cylons fit into all this yet.
But we know that Hera and Nicholas (Tyrol’s son) are hybrids. But they’re different kinds of hybrids, as Tyrol is an Earth Cylon and Sharon’s a New Cylon. What does that even mean? I don’t know.
The theme of the show is and has always been, “All this has happened before and all of it will happen again.” The Cylons and humans obviously intermingled (intermarried?) on Kobol. The Earth Cylons had some sort of Civil War that culminated in the destruction of the planet and the race – which might happen again with the Cavil v. Six war among the New Cylons.
Did Starbuck die on Earth before or after they made the jump there? Why was her distress call not even activated until four of the final five were uncovered?
Who, or what, is Starbuck? Is she alive? Is she dead? Is she a hybrid? Is she a hallucination? Will the final episode end with her taking a shower, telling Zack Adama she had the weirdest dream last night?
OK, I’m obviously joking with the last one there, but I’m really intrigued, and curious to find out the rest of this story.
Nine more weeks to go.
5 Comments
Good post. Leoben backing away scared of Kara was the clincher, since all this time he’s been so obsessed with her! Everything points to her being a Cylon, but she’s not. I think she is the harbinger of death for the Cylons specifically, somehow… Good call about Razor and the blonde girl. I’ve wondered if that was connected to her somehow. Or maybe it was the human that Six is based on.
Yeah, the Starbuck thing is a mindfrak. Perhaps time travel is somehow involved here? That Adama line: “SIT DOWN CYLON” was intense. Great premiere.
My guess that Starbuck is a clone/hybrid is more based on the earlier sequence where she is kidnapped on Caprica.
(I truly enjoy this series but I find Starbuck terribly annoying. I think it’s foolish to pin so much of a great series to an actor with such little charisma and ability. She’s fine as an action hero – maybe – and that’s about it.
And, no, it’s not because she’s a woman. It’s because she doesn’t have any charisma. Dirk Benedict has more charisma in one of his toenails.)
Anyway, my wife insists that Ellen is not the final Cylon. I think they couldn’t have been clearer about it.
The bigger question than the true age of Starbuck is how the final five were re-activated some 2 or 3 thousand years later.
Well, an interview in the Chicago Tribune should disabuse your wife of that notion:
http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/entertainment_tv/2009/01/final-fifth-cylon-ellen-tigh-battlestar-galactica-dualla-dee-.html
I am more confused now than ever. Knowing that Ellen is the final cylon hasn’t cleared up anything? We don’t know if she’s dead or alive. And I can’t wrap my head around the Starbuck mystery at all.