Episode Report Card Jacob Clifton: A | 3 USERS: A+ YOU GRADE IT Admiral Cain, She Dead
By Jacob Clifton | Season 2 | Episode 10 | Aired on 09.22.2005
Cain leaves, apologizing that she takes no pleasure in relieving Adama of command, and he pshaws, and then he stands alone, glaring at nothing, worried about a whole bunch of things at once.
Starbuck and Apollo are checking out the Pegasus Vipers with Racetrack and some of the other ship's pilots. One has a long line of Raider drawings along its hull. They look like Decepticons. "Is this a scorecard?" asks Starbuck, and there's pride in the positive response. "You guys put scorecards? On the side of your ships?" Racetrack chides Starbuck, "Like you don't keep score," but Starbuck makes the distinction that she doesn't actually paint them on her Viper "like [she's] bragging to the whole fracking universe." I think I see what she's saying, but I'm not sure. She's so conservative and military about stuff like that I'd think she'd be impressed, but she does tend to draw little etiquette lines for herself. I, of course, agree with her in principle, but it's a surprising note to the character. Actually, no, I can see it, because she's deeply religious, and the whole Leoben thing got to her on that level. (Note: That's my favorite episode, and the actual reason that I love Starbuck, apart from the great acting. And why I love my airlock jokes. So now you know.) So that's how it makes sense to me. In addition to Starbuck's having a different kind of honor than these guys seem to. The pilot in question, callsign Whiplash, is like, "But there are forty-eight Decepticons!" and Starbuck snarks, "Special. Do you have caps and t-shirts too?" Helo -- who I was really hoping wasn't around for this conversation -- starts laughing in this very upsetting, angry, almost-hysterical way at this kind of lame joke. Poor Helo.
It's entirely tense, and then the other CAG, Taylor, walks up with a stick up his ass twice the size of whatever's got Apollo on edge all the time. He summons Apollo for a pedeconference incredibly rudely, and starts bitching about the Galactica's lack of Decepticons: "Encourages morale, gets competition going. Esprit de corps." (Octagon TVs, yeah, but they do speak French.) Apollo, defusing, admits that that's "one philosophy," which is at least as inflammatory as it is passive-aggressive. Taylor gets in Apollo's face, saying that it's Cain's philosophy, and that means it's Apollo's too. They are now centimeters apart as Apollo reminds him, "The name of my Commander is Adama," following up with a pointed but unnecessary and ultimately damaging "...which should be pretty easy to remember, because it's my name." Taylor calls Apollo a total daddy's boy and moves on with his demands. Lee kind of smiles here, angrily, but also like, "Why'd you have to start out acting like a dick?"