Nina's Known Universe

It also just happens to have lungs full of air that she can breathe...and apparently was up on jacks allowing her to duct tape her name under the wing of the downed Raider. {small eye roll here for the sake of making a scene work sans plausible explanation}.

Let's just ignore the fact that 1.] She had to put the name on the wings before going inside and removing her flight suit that she later used to plug the hole in the Raiders head. 2.] Someone wanting to be rescued would have put the tape on the top of the wings - to be seen by a search party looking for her body - so they would know she was inside the Raider. 3.] She had no way to be sure it would fly in the first place - not to mention her flight suit would have been sucked out that hole into space the minute she left the atmosphere. {But you didn't hear it from me.}

Besides, if I can cry for joy when Dr Who tows the Earth at light speed across the Universe back to our solar system, yet no one feels more than a slight earthquake...I can certainly accept that Starbuck can hold her breath and withstand the atmosphere long enough to tape her whole long ass callsign - not just Kara - across the wing.

When she first awoke on this moon, Starbuck's chute gets caught by the wind and begins dragging her quickly toward a rocky ridge. She managed to cut herself free before it pulled her off the edge, unfortunately she cracked her knee on a big rock in the process. But thanks to being a key player in this show, she sucks it up and begins to trek for higher ground.

{This is the same injury she can barely walk on in a later episode - thank the Gods for Survival Instincts and Adrenaline - and creative license.}. Did you notice when she first found the Raider, the blood spatter on the raiders nose bore a strong resemblance to the spilled paint from the start of Act of Contrition, the scene with Kara and Lee trying to paint Flat Tops helmet?

She also discovers that the Raider was biological in nature, complete with its own brain...and woo hoo...nice full lungs. She asked it "Are you Alive?" Just as the Armistice Six had asked the Armistice Officer during the Miniseries. Starbuck gets inside and pulls the brain out, stating that she brought her own - then goes about learning to fly the dead bird manually from the inside.

I miss the logic in thinking a biomechanical semi setient ship would work at all with out the brain. But I supposed that her manually pushing the 'tendons' and flexing its 'muscles' would be the same as electrocuting or moving a dead body. {Having recently watch Rattatoullie, I now see how this was possible. LOL}

Still not sure you can fly a dead bird though. My husband will never forget the image of Starbuck suck starting the Raider. {She was actually sucking on an air tube...but that is what he will tell his friends that don't watch the show. ;) }

The search for her was not going well. Col Tigh was growing more and more concerned that the cylons would show any minute...Cmdr Adama seems a bit too confident that the Cylons wont be along just yet and to have the vipers go below the clouds, use the Mark I Eyeball...I took that to mean looking out the window. He claims his confidence is just an educated guess based on how he would conduct a search for their fleet if he were the Cylons.

He assumes that if the Cylons knew where the Fleet was, they would have jumped in already. Cmdr Adama figures that the Cylon patrol was likely 1 of several and that it could be at least days before the Cylons count them as missing.

Roslin calls The CIC from Colonial One to offer her concern and support in finding Starbuck. She states that the other ships Captains were ready to assist, increasing the odds of finding Kara. Adama gets snippy "Frak the Odds!!", then apologizes and thanks the President, he can use all the help she can grant him. She was obviously taken aback by his attitude.

Head 6 is back again. She begins to chat up Baltar about wasting time looking for 1 pilot, as he sits directly across from Roslin at her desk. Playing on his fears of dying, she goads him into confronting Roslin about wasting resources. No one ever seems to notice him talking to himself or holding hands with no one.

The interesting thing is that Head 6 was correct, and from what I can recall, she has never gotten Baltar to instigate anything that was, in the end, bad for Humanity - except for the settling on New Caprica at the end of Season 2.

However, it should be noted that had Gina not acquired the nuke, the Cylons would have never found them there. Gina was told that Baltar sent it but I just dont see him doing that, he didnt want the Cylons to show up - and ruin his good time.

Honestly - I think that Head 6 had been orchestrating events to ensure that they were all present for the Nova on the Algae Planet. And in order for that to happen - The Fleet had to stop for a year...the Cylons had to find them and find out about Earth...and then A leads to B leads to C leads back to A...

Remember that the Nova happened in a specific point in time predestined by the makeup of the star itself, not because of their presence there. Had they not settled New Caprica - they would have missed the Nova by a year. Makes one wonder how the story could have played out with a different path followed?

Roslin at least seems to understand the value of the Viper Pilots to the Entire Fleet in the grand scheme of survival. One primary theme of this and the last episode was the fact that not only are trained pilots in short supply, they are very hard to replace. With no viper pilots, they would be sitting ducks for a Cylon attack. The Raiders and Basestars would take out the Galactica before all the civies had time to jump. The Airwing is vital.

Not only to to engage the enemy away from the fleet, but also to patrol the area to prevent being taken by surprise. Could we assume that if the need arose, both Cmdr Adama and Col Tigh would return to the cockpit?

Back on Caprica Sharon/Athena and Helo have made a nice little home in the fallout shelter. She lays barely covered on the hammock, stretching awake like a cat making sure the blanket pulls away from her legs. She makes comments about being the last 2 people in the world when Helo is unable to get anyone on the radio, then flirtaciously suggests they just stay there and forget moving on.

{Batt eyes, rub legs together, shy smile...innuendo...Cylon program: Human Sexuality 101}

Helo dismisses her comment then heads upstairs to make breakfast. In a less than subtle bit of TV irony, as a patrol of Centurions passes by...his location is given away by none other than the Toaster!!

A fire fight ensues, the Centurions are surprisingly bad shots {cough cough staged cough cough} but do manage to make a big mess of the kitchen. Sharon comes up stairs, Helo yells for her to run. Helo then dives behind a counter and is knocked out. Later he wakes to find the place dark and Sharon is gone. He goes out in the street - its night again - and calls for Sharon. But...{shocker} she is no where to be found.

In the CIC Col Tigh is trying to convince the Cmdr to give up the goat, accept that Starbuck is dead, out of air. Cmdr Adama gets angry and begins to shout. He is adamant that they don't leave Kara behind. Not her and no one else, not again.

Lee suggests they pull the CAP then he gets physical with Col Tigh who insists she is already dead. Cmdr Adama breaks it up, reminds them all that they have work to do then gives Lee the go ahead to re direct the CAP along with moving Fleet in closer to the moon. "Whatever it takes to find our girl".

When word of this reach Roslin, she immediately calls Lee. Ok, I understand that she feels more at ease with Lee and so she calls him before confronting the Cmdr, but realistically, she shouldn't have been calling anyone but Cmdr Adama. Lee tries to make her understand why the CAP was re deployed to assist in the search. Roslin is clearly frustrated and does her best to offer her sympathy to Lee.

Meanwhile, Adama chastises Gaeta for thinking the search was over just because the O2 clock has gone down to zero. Adama wants to believe she has reserve oxygen. Saul begins to argue with Adama over his judgment.

In a similar scene over on the Pegasus during the Razor movie, Admiral Cain put a bullet between her XO's eyes for arguing with her about her judgment. Her XO, by the way, was close enough to Cain personally to have invited her to spend time with his family at the start of the episode. Further pointing to the shear brutality and coldness of her action. Col Tigh was fortunate to simply be relieved of duty.

Starbuck is not, in fact, out of air. Thanks to finding 'Spot' had not exhaled his last breath out in space when she shot a hole in his head. So even though the Adamas were not being logical, they at least were correct in believing that Lucky Kara the Angel of Destiny, would find a magic Raider complete with central air.

Roslin, who calls Adama to give her condolences since she is aware the clock is out for Karas air tank, gets reminded by Adama that this is a military decision and he will search for Starbuck as long as feels there is a chance to find her.

Roslin appears to have grown big brass pair of paperweights over the last 15 days. She makes an unscheduled visit to Galactica to chew some ass. Tigh gives her the heads up about Zak and the Adama bond to Kara. Col. Tigh is very loyal to the rules - not just Adama - and he knows its gone beyond a military need. He says it will take 3 wks to explain. She says he has 3 mins. {I just love 3s...and 9s...and any multiple theirin. FYI. ;) }

Roslin gives a very moving and logical speech, managing to force Adama and Lee to see just how selfish they are being by first giving in to their way and then rubbing their noses in their own honor. She employs personal responsibility and guilt, the...if this were anyone else we would have left days ago. Then she tosses in numbers. 43 percent of fuel reserves. Thats bad. The human race doesn't stand a chance. "Clear your heads!"

The Cmdr doesn't even have to say anything to Lee, Lee contacts the watch and the Cmdr orders the search ended.

Not to worry though because Kara has a Special Destiny so of course she bonds with 'Spot' {my pet name for the hijacked, and possessed Raider} actually getting him off the ground. {I say possessed because she is flying a dead body.} As she laughs maniacally "Take Me Home!" "You smell bad but you are one hell of a flying machine".

I have to wonder about the artillery of a Raider. Where do they load the bullets? Or does he shoot pellets? LOL {Bunny Pellets}

Outside CIC, Lee asks if they went overboard because of Zak. Adama tells Lee that Kara was family - you do what you have to - sometimes you break the rules - and if it were Lee - they would never leave. A touching moment. Lee chokes back tears. Followed with Adama reinstating Col Tigh back to duty. Roslin chooses to stay behind for the jump.

With seconds to spare before the final jump, a dradis alert sounds the arrival of a lone Raider. Lee heads out to intercept with Hotdog on his wing...another twist of fate disables Hotdogs viper. A good thing since he most likely would have obliterated Kara before noticing the odd flight pattern. Having established in the last episode that he shoots first and listens to orders last.

Why didnt she just pull a Batman and show her belly right away? Creative license to build suspense I suppose.

She manages to outfly Lee {fake gasp of surprise} giving the Galactica time to get her weapons to bear. Lee gets in a lucky shot before Kara manages to take up position as his wingman.

He then looks up to see the raider flying in upside down formation with his viper directly over his head - just after he reports it back to Galactica, the Raider flips over and has 'star' and 'buck' taped under the wings.

Despite Cmdr Adama's orders for security, Lee is certain its her as its flying with some 'serious attitude'.

After the Raider is docked and Kara extracted, Tyrol says to the Raider 'now your ass belongs to me'. Now that we know Tyrol is a cylon, that comment takes on a whole, farmer-sheep, kinda feel.

Then Lee says to Kara 'when you take a souvenir, you don't screw around...and you smell like a latrine" Apparently the inside of raider is similar in scent to the inside of a Ton-Ton. She replies, "wanna give me a bath?"

In the end, Adama visits Kara in the sick bay to discuss her knee and to let her know she was back in his good graces for not dying. Doc Cottle said it was too early to tell but knowing her she would be all better sooner than later. She notes that she doesn't have any Ambrosia but the Doc fixed her up with some really nice stuff.

The Cmdr then asked her if she needed anything - she says a stogie would be nice - he had a feeling - it was his last one.