Tonight's episode of Battlestar Galactica, "Scar", was "so frakkin' good", it is indeed the "toughest, smartest thing on television" (per Rolling Stone).
Scar is a Cylon raider that is considered by the fleet Viper pilots to be the most dangerous of all Cylon raiders. This episode focuses on the attempt by Starbuck (Katee Sackhoff), to kill Scar. Starbuck is remembering her lover in the underground back on Caprica. She believes him to be dead, leaving her nothing to live for. She is drinking heavily and is arriving late for briefings and sending out other officers on patrol in her place when she is too hungover to go herself.
A wonderful touch in the drinking scenes between the Viper pilots is a special tall lidded beer stein, which has Galactica Top Gun lettered on the side, from which Starbuck drinks her beer. She is challenged by Kat (Luciana Carro), who tells her she will soon be drinking from the stein, and Starbuck will be filling it for her.
The episode cuts back and forth between time stamped scenes on Galactica before the battle to kill Scar, and scenes of the battle itself. In one of many powerful scenes, Starbuck and Apollo (Jamie Bamber) are drinking together, alone, after the death of a pilot. They are trying to remember the face of the dead pilot, but can't, then try to remember the names of all the dead pilots. Starbuck says they are unlikely to experience the bright future of finding Earth and living there, as they go out daily to protect the fleet. Apollo says bright futures are rare, and Starbuck tells him they should live for the moment, then says "why don't we?" When Apollo answers "why don't we what", she kisses him.
During the frantic foreplay, Starbuck keeps flashing back to her lover on Caprica and surprises Apollo with her demanding behavior. They never make it to bed, but end up in an argument, with Starbuck kissing him again, grabbing a bottle, and leaving angrily.
The battle between Starbuck, Scar, and Kat had me bounding up out of my chair. This scene is riveting, as Starbuck seems to be in a trance as she is remembering events on Caprica again while Scar is approaching her rapidly on a collision course. She finally recalls telling her lover she would return to him and pulls out of her trance and lets Kat make the kill.
Back on Galactica, the Viper pilots are celebrating Kat's kill with the usual drinking party, with Admiral Adama (Edward James Olmos) and Colonel Tigh (Michael Hogan) in attendance. Kat reminds Starbuck that she should fill the beer stein for her, which Starbuck does,telling her she earned it. Then Starbuck begins naming all the pilots who have died in a remarkably moving, eloquent scene that had me in tears. When she finished, she couldn't say anything to end it, so Apollo toasted "all of them". Admiral Adama then said "so say we all", which was repeated by everyone, including me.
Kate Sackhoff is outstanding in this episode,as is Luciana Carro as Kat. Jamie Bamber also turns in a fine performance, but this episode belongs to the two women.
There are many fine components to the episode besides the performances of the actresses. The camaraderie between the pilots is finely portrayed, as is their fear of confronting Scar and the chance of being killed.
Scar himself (I can't refer to him as an it) is brilliantly done. He seems so very malevolent, with the red light moving around his visor-like window like a vicious red eye. He moves out of his hiding places behind space rocks like a powerfully graceful shark. In a scene between Sharon (Grace Park) and Starbuck, Sharon tells her that Scar and the other Cylon fighters are indeed alive and when they die, their consciousnesses are placed into new bodies, like the other Cylon models. Scar is such a stunningly menacing prescence, I was rather sorry to see him destroyed.
This episode is one of the best of Galactica, probably the very best I have seen. It would be hard to choose between this and Resurrection Ship. What a problem, to have such riches to choose from.
Rolling Stone is right in calling Galactica the toughest, smartest thing on television. So say all of us!!
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