Needless to say: HERE BE SPOILERS!

So, it’s time for another Starbuck episode, last week teased yet another revelation but did the episode come though? The thing is, you have to feel sorry for the poor girl, her hubby is comatose, Lee Adama seems to have vanished out of her life, she’s confused thanks to discovering her own corpse on Earth and has since been wondering what the frak she is. On top of that, she was special when she led the Fleet to Earth and now she’s back to the drudgery of life on Galactica.

Awww.

Yet Starbuck’s role in BSG is not done yet. Far from it and things are about to get even more interesting. The episode starts by focusing on a little drudgery. Day after day, week after week of the same thing: looking for a planet on which the Fleet can settle. Including this episode, there are just four left until the end of the series and given the state of Galactica, crew morale is at an all time low and the Fleet seems to be going nowhere slowly; it’s easy to empathise with Starbuck’s melancholy.

At the same time, Saul is grieving the death of Caprica Six and his unborn son Liam, Anders’ remains comatose despite high degrees of brain activity and the Cylons want Boomer tried for treason. Of course the Chief has never stopped being in love with Boomer. Now if ever BSG had a doomed pair of lovers, it’s the these two. Suddenly Galen Tyrol, who lost his wife, his ‘son’, has a chance at happiness except the now-mortal Cylons want to execute Boomer for her crimes.

Now in the Brig, Boomer shows Tyrol her dream home and the little girl who was supposed to be their daughter, her sanctuary since dying in his arms. Despite totally turning her back on humanity and embracing her Cylon nature (especially given her initial reluctance to even leave her old apartment), there is some spark of Sharon Valeri left in Boomer and that spark wholeheartedly loves Galen Tyrol. Unfortunately the rest of her, it seems, is still loyal to Cavil’s faction and so when Boomer beats up Athena and steals Hera, it’s such a shame. Even more so when Tyrol helps her, even if he doesn’t realise she has smuggled the child in a rations crate, the look on his face when he realises is one of the best moments in this episode.

But back to Starbuck. While drinking in the bar she gets chatting to a mysterious piano player. As he tries to compose, she reminscens about her father (Dreilide Thrace) who taught her to play the piano as a child, specifically a mysterious piece which the musician helps her to recreate, aided by young Hera’s scribblings, which turn out to be musical notes. When the music – or The Music – is finally played and revealed as the psychedelic version of ‘All Along the Watchtower’, it’s an amazingly powerful scene, especially as three of the Final Five are sitting around the corner. Yet when Tigh, Tory and Ellen confront her, the musician has disappeared and you wonder if he was even there or just a figment of Starbuck’s imagination.

So what the frak is Kara Thrace? I can’t help wondering if her dad was a Cylon – there’s one model known for being ‘artistic’ and that was Ellen’s beloved Daniel. She paints, has visions and can seemingly project. Either way, there’s something not right about Starbuck, her destiny is not finished yet and there are still more answers to be revealed. Oh this series gets better and better – and I already preordered the pilot DVD of Caprica from the States. I can’t wait to see how BSG concludes and how it feeds into the new spin off.

Anyway, roll on Friday!

What the FRAK is Kara Thrace?