Amen, Brother.
So say we all… 
So, Dude, is anyone watching besides you and me?
Not for another hour or so…no. 
I watched!
I teared up at the end there. That was rather powerful, I thought.
They should have had a brief clip of each dead pilot that Starbuck named, just to remind US of all the redshi- uh, supporting characters that have died.
Ok, I’ll throw myself to the Cylons and say it was a horrible episode. The CONSTANT flashbacks, the xxx hours earlier, etc. Yeesh. Enough with the flashbacks and pining over lost loves. So Apollo has flashbacks of a lost love and goes to shit the previous episode, now Starbuck does about the same. Couldn’t they both go to shit in the same episode and be done with it?
With two battlestars, can’t we have some storylines involving the humans fighting back or something similar to the first season with battles? Seems this season revolves around how much humans suck. “We’re not machines!! Well, ok, we sell our kids for money and booze it up but we ain’t toasters!!”.
Sorry, love the show and have seen them all but the last couple of episodes have really been stretching my commitment to it.
Very touching end scenes. I also was moved by the scene where Kat went to the corridors with all the photos of Caprica victims/missing. They showed that in another ep, didn’t they?
And Helo had the best line of the show, even tho it was spoiled in the previews: “Now you have something to live for…not just die for”
Amen, brother!
Yeah, okay, that fellated. Sue me.
Hey, youse guys (or as "where are you at? Kat would say, ya’ll) complaineed about Apollo’s Long Lost Love shoving up from nowhere. Starbuck’s LLL is from a previous episode and you still whine. Boy. 
I’m sure we will.
I agree the flashbacks were annoying but it is an unfortunate tool when they want to focus on one story line and draw it out as much as possible. The show is fracking amazing and even with the flashbacks I was enthralled and waiting to see the show develop.
My big complaint is the show’s sudden tendency to introduce single episode baddies and wrap it up in one episode instead of giving us more character development. The black market boss from last week, Scar from this week, I mean these both could be drawn out (not simultaneously I suppose, or perhaps so) for multiple episodes to arc out the story and character development.
The show still manages to own my soul though.
Does Sci Fi have East and West feeds? I thought I had it all with C-Band…
I had no problem with the LLL just popping up from nowhere. The problem I have here is the same storyline being used for two of the main characters in back to back episodes. Both were upset about someone they left behind and started to go downhill over it.
The Cylons didn’t need to corrupt the defense systems of the colonies to win, they could have simply warped in while everyone was having their flashbacks and nuked them.
Now that’s what I’m talkin’ about. Dogfights, logistics, the O-Club, pilots talking shit and toasters getting frakked. Awesome special effects and I loved that Scar didn’t want to go down. I might be geeking out but this one reminded me alot of the old Wing Commander games…fly a mission, hang out in a bar, repeat. Good times.
Stuff I liked: All of the above, plus the other pilots getting some screen time and finally getting to see fleet mining op in action.
Bad stuff: The drinking seemed unnecessary, the flashbacks were excessive, Starbuck didn’t seem to carry “her” episode quite as well as Apollo did.
Opinion: Cat needs to get airlocked, Leoben-style. Whoa, hellooo annoying nugget. I liked that Starbuck stole her thunder at the end.
Question: Why is Apollo not flying? Is he now CO of Pegasus?
I give it a 9 out of 10. It wasn’t everything that the best episode of BSG can be, but it was everything a solid episode should be.
Cat’s the Ana-Lucia of Galactica for me. Except she’s, you know, a stim junkie. She’s still a insubordinate bitch.
Where would space operas be without WW2 movies to copy from? The officer getting drunk over the realization that he couldn’t remember the faces of the pilots he’d sent to die was straight out of “Twelve O’Clock High”. But I did think this ep had a better resolution of that problem. Props also to their use of true 3D, 0G maneuvering.
All those jump cuts and flashbacks were something a USC Film School student might do while still learning the trade. They detracted seriously from the story line, 2 eps straight, and let’s hope they’re gone now.
Apollo wasn’t in it apparently because the show was about Starbuck.
There’s an insurgency going on in the civilian fleet, IIRC. Apparently we’ll actually see it next week.
Cat loves Starbuck–she’s so pissed at her because Starbuck is acting human (and not like Cat’s image of her as her hero) and disappointing Cat and letting the other pilots down.
So Cat responds the way she has learned by studying by her mentor (Starbuck)–she is aggressive and insubordinate and in-her-face.
I thought it was funny. Fighter pilots aren’t much good without balls, and Cat showed she had a pair when she called Starbuck out for being a drunk in front of the squadron.
I thought that the photo Cat put in the “missing and dead” gallery was one of her–she didn’t think she was coming back. Her arrogance is partially an act to cover up for her lack of self-confidence.
The question is, did Starbuck learn anything? Will she change her ways? She was unable to defeat the Cylon one-on-one, and had to be bailed out by her main rival. Yet, when she returns to the ship, her father-figure Adama is BEAMING at her. Her squadron succeeded, so Starbuck succeeded. THAT is command. She beat Scar, not with her skills as a pilot, but with her tactical skills and by using the tools at her disposal. Cat may have pulled the trigger, but it was Starbuck’s kill. We’ve seen this side of Starbuck before when she was planning big ops, but not in her role as a Squadron Commander.
Let’s see if she learned anyting…
Since when are fighter pilots allowed to get stinking drunk? You’d think that would be against regulations or something.
I hated the flashback in the cockpit when Starbuck is thinking about the guy back on Caprica. It was supposed to take place in an instant – it’s not like you have time for extended reverie in a dogfight. But we could see a long series of explosions reflected in Starbuck’s face which means that she was spending five or ten seconds daydreaming. I’m pretty sure that you don’t become the top pilot in the fleet by mooning around during battles.
Hung over and nostalgic should equal a dead Starbuck.
I didn’t mind the flashbacks in this episode. I don’t think they’d even be an issue if they weren’t so poorly used in previous episodes.
I was kind of ready for both Starbuck and Kat to buy it at first. I know Kat’s insubordination was supposed to mirror Starbuck’s, but it seemed more whiney and desparate to me. Maybe that’s what they’re going for or maybe it’s the actress, but she was grating on my last nerve.
I did feel kind of sorry for Starbuck towards the end. Here she sets Kat up for the kill by practically leading the raider directly into Kat’s weapons and doesn’t even get credit for the assist (not from Kat at least).
I didn’t like:
“96 hours ago” - NOOOOOOOO! Ron, that’s three flashback shows in a row, and this one had flashbacks within the flashback - STOP!
They went a bit overboard with Kat’s hostility.
As others have said, recycling the same story arc for another character in back-to-back episodes. Though I agree at least Anders, ya know, existed before this ep.
Starbuck didn’t seem to realize that this was a success for her after all. It’s not like Kat could’ve nailed him alone.
I did like:
Chiggy von Richthofen - sure, SAAB did it, but they were forthrightly stealing the story from history, and hell, it’s a good story.
Despite my complaint above, it does seem Starbuck is starting to mature and realize she doesn’t have to be a suicidal yahoo.
I actually liked Starbuck getting a taste of her own medicine. What did Kat do that was much different from what Kara “Your plan sucks!” Thrace has done?
No Baltar! (Not that I hate him, just a break was nice.)
Changing toaster strategy once death means death.
Boomer’s conversation with Starbuck.
And let us not forget, hot, hot snogging between Starbuck and Apollo.
On the whole, I liked it. I don’t think it needed the flashback framing, but that probably wouldn’t bother me quite so much out of the context of the previous episodes.
The photo was Beano’s girlfriend. They took it from his personal effects when Scar killed him. Presumably she was killed or left behind.