BIG TIME SPOILERS IN THIS POST!!!
So only read ahead if you’ve seen this week’s episode of BSG already …
Okay, so when Starbuck told Apollo where to put her picture on the death wall, I thought, “Hm.” Now, I’d heard rumors that Starbuck might die this season. In fact, as recently as the BSG panel at the NY ComicCon a couple weeks ago, somebody from the audience tried to ask about this rumor, and was instantly booed by the crowd — hard core fans don’t like spoilers, yo!
When Starbuck gave Adama the figurine of the goddess Aurora, I thought, “Well that will make for a very touching scene later in the show if she does in fact die — Adama gazing at the figurine, thinking of her.” Still, I wasn’t convinced. It was too obvious. The writers of this show just aren’t that heavy-handed. And besides, what about the mandala? How does that fit in?
Then, when Starbuck sat with Apollo and asked how things were with Dualla, and seemed to have come to terms with their failed romantic relationship, I started to get a little twitchy. “Boy,” I thought, “they’re really laying this on kind of heavy. Too heavy. It must be a red herring. Those tricky writers!”
Then I saw Apollo and Starbuck flying wing to wing, looking across the open sky at each other. Just like in the old days, in the old show, when Starbuck used to be a man. “Uh oh,” I thought, “that was just a nod to the hardcore fans. I wonder if they really …”
Then Starbuck came to terms with her dead abusive mother. And still, I didn’t believe it. Because there was all this talk of DESTINY. It can’t be her destiny to just die, can it? I mean, it can be, of course — it’s everybody’s destiny. But this is Starbuck. If she dies, it has to be in a blaze of glory … and there’s only ten minutes left in the show … and there hasn’t been any kind of setup for a big noble death.
And then it happened. Boom. Dead. And again, I thought, “Hm.”
Bottom line: I’m not buying that she’s dead. This isn’t denial. Because I liked the character, but if she’s dead, she’s dead, I’m fine with that. It just seems like the writers spent too much time talking about that mandala and DESTINY for it to be that simple. So I’m not entirely sure what happened when that ship blew up, but it’s something more complicated than just, “Starbuck is dead.” For me, the only question is whether we’ll found out what really happened in this season or next season.
My prevailing theory is that Starbuck — not Hera — was the first Cylon-Human hybrid. That her mom was a POW in the first Cylon War and got impregnated by a Cylon somehow. Maybe a human Cylon from the future. Because Helo was making comparisons between her mental state and Hera’s. And if this is the case, then what happens when a hybrid dies? Is there some kind of reincarnation system in place similar (or even better than) the one the Cylons use? Just a thought.
What do you think? Is she really dead? And do you care? Chime in!