TVSquad

(S04E01) Starbuck is dead. At least the Starbuck as we knew her before the events of 'Maelstrom'.

Now don't go thinking I've revealed some sort of spoiler pre-jump here. What I said is merely an observation of how Starbuck appears in this episode and how others perceive her now. It's also from something Katee Sackhoff was told by Ron Moore (as she mentioned in an interview). And can you really blame all parties involved for behaving quite a bit differently now, since then?

Some of you may have been lucky/sharp enough to notice that SciFi was airing the episode on its website earlier today, noon ET. Unfortunately I didn't know this until about fifteen minutes into the showing (it was live), so I wouldn't have had time to post about it until you would have missed some key moments. You did miss out on a crapload of Ironman commercials, though (not that that's such a bad thing).

In fact, once such key moment is captured in the screenshot I chose for this post -- Ander's reddening, Cylon eye. If there was any doubt at all about Anders (and the other three from last season's finale) being Cylons, this put that to rest right quick. I do wonder, though, if this is the first time Anders had such an experience during combat. Did he have this seemingly subconscious control over other Cylons before that "switch" turned on last season? How about the others? This scene and the battle around it was a spectacular way to kick off the season.

Another way to kick off the season with a "wow" was Tigh's daydream in the CIC, putting a few more holes into Bill's already-scarred chest. I'm sure this is going to be something we'll see a lot more of as the season progresses -- the visions of doubt from the newly-revealed four, the nightmares, the denial and, possibly, full acceptance of what they are. You could get a sense of the pain Tyrol felt when sending out the fighters to battle, and even moreso with them all in their secret meeting together.

Fans of scenes with Baltar were in heaven this week. Baltar's shrine. The sick child, Derek. His great "take me please" speech to God. Head Six asking Baltar if he meant what he said about sacrificing himself, then Derek getting better when he honestly meant it. Just those few short scenes leave so many unanswered questions. Did Head Six have any affect on Derek, or was it all just part of Baltar's doing, whether divine or otherwise? Coincidence? I'm sure we're going to see a lot more people follow Baltar as a Christ-like figure in the coming episodes, though he won't be looking so Christly without that gnarly beard.

Six tells Roslin that "the five are close" and that she can "feel them." If you believe what she says, then that fifth Cylon is indeed on the ship and not "out there." But a few important points: a) that fifth Cylon never got lured to the same spot the other four did in the finale, and b) it doesn't mean the fifth Cylon isn't self-aware or hiding in the bowels of the ship.

As I said in my early look post, Starbuck's ship's condition was of some importance, not to mention how cool it was that there was actually Cylon guts all over its nose. The ship has the same call letters as her old ship, so what's going on? Even if she was teleported out of that explosion, ship and all, it went through a lot of hell beforehand. Who or what caused it to become so pristine without Starbuck's knowledge?

Speaking of Starbuck, I was somewhat surprised that we got a decent scene of her going over all possibilities of who or what she is so early; I would have expected it to happen sometime later. Is she a clone? Did Cylons alter her mind? Did she eliminate all the possibilities we can come up with ourselves? If so, is the answer in one of them or is it something we just can't yet fathom? I think some of our astute readers are correct in thinking she is the oracle, not Roslin. Well, at least she is now, with the painful headaches she's getting as they drift further away from Earth ... or, at least, so she says.

The idea of Lee taking a government position is ... Yawn. Sorry, what was I talking about? Is that really where we want to see Lee go? I admit that the court scenes last season were great, but I don't want more intergalactic Law & Order. We'll see enough of that with Caprica, if what I'm reading is any indication. Lee, get back in your Viper and stop being a wuss.

There was one interesting exchange there between Lee and Bill, where Lee asks Bill what his reaction would be if Zac climbed out of that Viper instead of Starbuck. That right there is what lead me to ask around about Zac possibly being the final Cylon -- that and a reader's comment, that is. Probably just a piece of red herring right there. Like sushi.

I'd give a population report here, but it's not clear to me if the population count at the beginning of the episode was taken before or after the battle with the Cylons.

We were told not to discuss the final fifteen minutes of the episode as part of a NDA before seeing this early. What I don't get is why that was anymore revealing than most of the episode. I certainly wasn't thinking "OMG!" at any reveals there, other than possibly what happened with Baltar and, of course, my favorite quote below.

Quote of the episode:

Starbuck: "You're a better person than I am, Anders, because if I found out you were a Cylon I would put a bullet right between your eyes."