Episode Report Card Jacob: A- | 0 USERS: N/A YOU GRADE IT Blackbird Singing In The Dead Of Night
By Jacob | Season 2 | Episode 9 | Aired on September 15, 2005
Back in CIC, Adama orders the Marines to take "this thing" back to her cell, so I guess we've made no interpersonal headway there. But I guess strategically he had about a thousand scenarios running, between the restart and the Raider drift, including Sharon's killing him some more, taking over the entire ship herself, keeping the system offline long enough for them all to die, and so on. But the thing is, he at least knew her official plan, which is more than we got.
In the hangar, Tyrol is having trouble reaching a connection up inside the new fighter. Cally helps him, and even though he's nicer to her than he has been since she came out of the brig, she's still not sure if they're cool. "Ship's got more than one engine. Get to it," he says gruffly, and she smiles, because everything's okay. I'm not as happy about this as you might be, because she totally shot Sharon, but I just thought about what it would be like if Chief were pissed at me, and I'd totally freak out.
Starbuck's getting all manic because they're so close to finishing the fighter, but they're out of metal for the hull. Helo comes walking in with a bright idea.
We cut to some time later, and the thing is finished and it's very pretty. It looks very industrial, kind of stealth fighter-y, all line and angle and strange black skin. I think Helo used to work for Nissan. Lee and Kara congratulate Helo on the idea of using "carbon composite," and Lee notes that this will make it hard to see on dradis, which is of course French for "Space Radar."
Starbuck's in the launch bay checking her instruments. Dualla clears the "Blackbird" for launch, and at the risk of a second X-Men reference in one episode: Ha! Totally! As we go through the usual checks and clearances and jargon, Starbuck curses at the Blackbird quietly, begging it not to kill her. Finally, she launches, and it's very Voltron, very zoomy and Freudian, and Dualla calls it over comm: "Blackbird is away." It's kind of thrilling.
Starbuck's having trouble controlling the Blackbird, but since Starbuck is God's Frigging Gift to Aeronautics, nobody will believe that, so Apollo yells at her for showing off and they bicker. She finally stabilizes and thanks the Lords, then flares and disappears with a Whoo! Unable to locate Starbuck, Apollo gets concerned. His voice gets up into registers we haven't heard since the mini-series, when his voice was six octaves higher than it usually is these days. Tyrol, in particular, is worried, because if the Blackbird won't sing, that means his life is just as over as it was when he figured out about Helo and Boomer. Dualla reports that there's still no dradis contact, and Apollo shrieks some more. Dualla and Gaeta are very worried, and then Tyrol is very worried as Apollo asks quietly, "Kara, are you okay?" That part kind of got to me.