Episode Report Card Strega: C- | 4 USERS: B+ YOU GRADE IT KodaChrome
By Strega | Season 2 | Episode 8 | Aired on 09.08.2005
Starbuck clobbers a punching bag in the mood-lit gym as Biers and Bell enter. Starbuck pauses her pummeling long enough to say, "Great. I could use a sparring partner," and gets back to work. Bell eagerly pans up and down Starbuck's sweaty body as Biers explains that Adama suggested that she talk to Starbuck about the new pilots. Starbuck gives the bag a kick as she says, "Captain Adama likes to push my buttons." He does? Oh! This is like that episode of WKRP in Cincinnati where they all act wrong so that Mother Carlson's flunky will sound crazy when he reports back on the staff. Right? That must be it. Biers asks what Starbuck looks for in a new recruit. Starbuck goes through the boilerplate response about coordination and commitment, and pantingly adds, "Most of all, someone crazy enough to follow me into combat."
In Adama's quarters, Biers shows Adama the footage of Tigh shoving her. Adama looks pained and offers an apology for Tigh's behavior. Biers snits, "Seems like a lot of people have been apologizing for him over the years." Really? A lot of people? Not just Adama? See, that also might be interesting to hear about, but we won't. Biers asks why Tigh wasn't charged for what happened on the Gideon. Adama says that in their situation, he's not going to "sacrifice the few people [they] have left on the altar of public outrage." Biers asks, "So four civilians are dead, and Tigh and the shooters take a walk?" Adama says that nobody takes a walk: "They all gotta live with it." Except the dead people, of course. Unless there are zombies.
A Viper heads for the Galactica. Inside the landing deck, we pan over to see the little observation cubicle. Cool. And inside the cubicle is Kelly. Hi, Kelly. Biers is there too. He clears Kat to land, only with more words. In her Viper, Kat is sweaty and muttering to herself. She probably picked that up from Apollo. Kelly tells Kat that she's "dropping below glide slope." The Viper swings widely from side to side, and Kat whines that the controls are messed up. Kelly waves Kat off, and Kat zooms over the Galactica.
Starbuck marches in complaining that Kat's been waved off three times now.
Cut to an octacam interview with Kat. She's clearly unwell, because her hair's all frizzy. Her name turns out to be Louanne Katraine. She talks about working under pressure and blah blah "one mistake, we're a smear in the cockpit."
Back at the landing deck, Starbuck gets on the wireless to try to talk Kat through the landing. A panicky Kat repeats that her controls are messed up. Then she breathes heavily for a while, until Kelly announces that she's coming in too low and tries to wave her off again. Starbuck insists that Kat's going to land, and snaps, "Full throttle, now!" The drumbeats of an impending explosion are cued up.