As we continue down our massive BSG re-watch, it’s time to move on to the season three episode “Maelstrom.” So why not join us here for the GWC online frak party? There’s room for everyone, though you’ll have to bring your own snacks…
Feel free to jump in at any point with your comments on this week’s episode as the re-watch is by definition spoiler free. We’ll be in and out, but we’ll definitely take a look at your comments before we start next week’s podcast.
Embarrassing admission time: I purposely let myself get sucked in to the dog and pony show last year and totally believed that Starbuck was gone- that anything they did to show that her death meant something would be done without Katee Sackhoff. I did it because she’s my favorite character and they clearly wanted me to. I was depressed forweeks after “Maelstrom” aired and when RDM’s podcast came out I cried like a baby.
Embarassing admission No. 2: I just rewatched for the first time, and I’m sitting here crying. What is it about Kara Thrace that gets me so worked up?? Besides the cute ears and cheekbones, I mean. Good lords of Kobol, I’m pathetic!
This ep is really only important to set up what comes next for the fleet in the as-yet-unreleased season 4, so I have nearly nothing else to say other than: Kara Thrace, if you were a little (just a little) less frakked up I’d be crazy for you. If you were non-fictional I might even ask you to dance and let you beat the crap out of me.
Man, starting out the episode with Kara and Leoben getting hot and heavy all covered in paint has GOT to be messy and tough to clean off later!
Since Leoben gets all his prophesy stuff by sitting and listening to the hybrid and the oracle repeats verbatim Leoben’s words about Kara and her mom’s part in raising her with pain, the fact that these two sources (hybrid and oracle) seem to be tapping into the same prophetic ether lends even more credibility to the religion as fact theory that goes with the BSG verse.
The scenes with Kara and Lee in the wailing hall of dead Galacticans along with the next scene where Kara gives the idol to Adama for his model ship, are very disturbing. In the former scene, she’s preparing for her death by telling Lee where to place her picture on the wall (next to Kat), but especially the latter scene. With Adama, she’s calm, relaxed and creepily smiling, like she knows the end is near and it is somehow soothing for her, her “new beginning” is really referring to her demise.
Last year when I saw this for the first time, I could totally sympathize with Starbuccaneer, I remember screaming at the TV and crying when I saw Kara’s ship get crushed by the planet’s gravity. It doesn’t even matter what we know about how Season3 ends, watching the reactions of shock, horror and disbelief from both Adamas and of all people Tigh (again amazingly able to emote so much more as Tighclops than pre-New Caprica), I was still teary eyed and screaming at my monitor! Then seeing Adama cry after finally completing his model ship made me cry… only to burst out giggling when he smashed the whole thing, remembering RDM’s story about how expensive that antique ship was and how the prop guys hadn’t replaced it with a cheap replica because Adama SMASH was totally improved during the filming of that scene!
hey all–
i have a theory/thought:
before Kara’s viper “explodes” she tells Lee, “I’ll see you on the other side”…
could that “explosion” have been Kara “breaking through” an energy field in the storm?
hmmmn.
and i’m right there with Starbuccaneer. Kara rocks 110%, and yes i too bought the dog and pony show, and even swore to abandon the show. then i went surfing for some online news, spoilers, anything about Katee Sackhoff and BSG… and that’s how i found GalacticaWatercooler! so Malestrom marks my GWC anniversary…
It’s not a bad theory really. I mean, what IS that white light shining through the cockpit when she says it?
The parts that got me was the look on Kara’s face when she ran away from her mother and when she “came back” to her mother’s deathbed to set things right. Okay, and Lee’s reactions hit me hard, too; it’s that horrible feeling of knowing something terrible is happening and knowing how to prevent it but being powerless to prevent it yourself.
I do have a question, though. Leoben/Oracle tell Kara she learned the wrong lesson from her mother, but it seems like by the end of the episode, Kara has learned whatever it was she was supposed to have gotten from her mother. Am I right in thinking that Kara’s lesson was to let go of her fear of death? Her mother taught her that anger keeps you alive, but because Kara ran out before her mother died, Kara didn’t see how, in an odd way, dying brought out the best in her mother, allowing her to let go of the anger, and that death itself wasn’t horrific. If not fearing death is Kara’s lesson which she needs to understand to complete her destiny, then that begs the question of why did she need to die or “die” in the maelstrom, but I guess that’s still one of the big questions left to answer in Season 4. Is this what other folks got out of it, or are there other readings of Kara’s lesson?
So, death is her gift? (Bonus points for whoever gets that)
I think Starbuck didn’t learn the lesson she was supposed to from her mother because she was so young and her mom was so flawed. Socrata knew she had this important thing to teach her daughter, but she was unable to see outside of herself and her own issues to discern how to teach that lesson in a way Starbuck would understand. She was an angry, bitter person, so no matter what she was teaching, Starbuck learned anger and bitterness. When she was closer to death, she was finally able to see past herself, and Starbuck was old and mature enough to understand a bit, so she was able to finally impart the lesson she’d been trying to the whole time. At least, that’s my take.
I bet there is going to be an interesting scene that deals with the explosion very late in season 4 (not 4.5).
“In every generation, there is a Chosen One. She alone will stand against the vampires, the demons, and the forces of darkness.”
Hmm, Starbuck as the Slayer, that’s a scary thought.
Maybe the hybrid is just a big Buffy fan?
I think you’re asking if the mom’s gift to Kara was her(the mom’s) death? I am I reading that right? Bonus points?
I do think Kara needed the closure of her relationship with her mother in order to be prepared to complete her destiny. In an weird way, this episode reminds me of LOST because so many of LOST characters have been given chances to resolve their own issues on the island.
The relationship between Kara and Leoben here really unsettles me. It’s not her New Caprica Leoben, it’s a new one and she finally lets herself trust him. I love how the each copied skin job is beginning to show its own “self” separate from the main group. We’ve been so used to seeing Leoben in a sinister light and then this one shows up. I think the differences between models who become more individual vs. the ones in the crowd will play a large role in S4.
What will be difficult in S4 however is watching Kara not be believed, as we’ve seen in the trailers.
No, I’m strongly suspecting that that was a Buffy quote.
It’s not Leoben.
Yes, it’s not Leoben. But is it another of the same model, part of her subconcious that took his form, an Angel of God ala HeadSix? That’s the real question. I find it very interesting they took out the “Say it” “I love you” exchange- that would make you think it’s Leoben or that that interaction is what he was speaking about on New Caprica. And, since it’s not Leoben, why did the Oracle call him that? For convenience, 'cause it was easier than NotCreepyNotLeoben?
Also, DawnAZ, that was a Buffy quote. Primal: “Death is your gift.” Buffy: “Death-?” Primal: “-is your gift.” I couldn’t resist- it was just laying there for me. I rarely get enough opportunity to make Jossverse references in daily life, I gotta take 'em when they present themselves. Sorry to confuse you.
ETA: It looks to me like there’s something solid in the very core of the storm when Starbuck’s looking at it. A small squareish shape of dork, solid looking something or other (whereas everthing else is clouds and swirling stuff). Am I just seeing things, or did anyone else see it too?