This is the fourth consecutive episode that uses flashbacks and/or jumps in timeline:
Resurrection Ship, Part Two (Episode 2.12) opens with Lee's "vision" as he floats in space. The episode then drops back to its true starting point 48 hours before.
Epiphanies (Episode 2.13) has several flashbacks to President Roslin on Caprica six months previously.
Black Market (Episode 2.14) opens with a flashback set 48 hours before. It then includes several more undated Lee flashbacks set both n the fleet and on Caprica.
This episode opens in the present and then spends the first three acts going through a series of flashbacks to bring the audience back to the present as seen in the teaser. Kara also has a short flashback to Anders for good measure.
This episode starts out with four less survivors than last episode. Three of the deaths are seen in the episode: Fisk, Phelan and Phelan's garrote-carrying henchman. The fourth death is unknown, although it could be that of the dead pilot Reilly.
One of the dead pilots, Reilly, kept a photograph of his girlfriend who had been killed in the Cylon attacks, apparently on Picon.
The reputation of Scar is reminiscent of The Red Baron, who was a German ace fighter pilot during World War I.
Apparently, alcohol is not something that is short supply in the fleet since the pilots' have quite a large supply of their own. This might not be a positive thing since the situation is rife for creating a great number of alcoholics as survivors in the fleet try to drown the pain and misery of their situation.
During the sequence in the pilots' lounge where Kat challenges Starbuck to who will kill Scar, Starbuck drinks from a big mug labeled as 'Galactica Top Gun'.
In the flashback to the pilots' briefing that Kat conducts on Beano's battle footage, the mistake that she says Beano made about fixating on his target is the exact same one that she ends up making herself in her zeal to be the one to kill Scar.
President Roslin makes a good observation in that this episode is the first to demonstrate a new strategy from the Cylons. Whereas before the destruction of their Resurrection Ship, they launched large head-on attacks with high attrition, the tactics around the mining operation are much more cautious. Now the Cylons are on a level playing field with the humans as far as mortality, so now they will probably look for strategic advantages rather than just numerical advantages.
Raiders are reborn just like the humanoid Cylons.
Sharon describes the Raiders much the same way Tyrol's Sharon imagined the captured Raider to be: a trained animal with basic consciousness and a survival instinct.
Sharon points out the logic of even having Raiders reborn: all their combat experiences are not lost and even their death is a learning experience.
Sharon also points out that the repeated deaths are still a painful and thus embittering experience, so it's possible that Cylons could build up a personal grudge with humans who had killed them.
Sharon indicates that the pilots might have faced Scar before. Though fans have alluded to the idea that Scar could be the same Raider that Starbuck defeated by the moon that she crashed on, it is not implicitly confirmed in the episode.
The episode does open with scenes from when Starbuck crashed after her duel with the Raider, but that might e there more so to remind the audience that the Raiders are partly organic, which leads into Sharon's revelation.
The only hint in this episode that that Raider and Scar could be the same is that Scar's scar is in the same area as Kara's kill-shot on that Raider. Even so, Scar could just be one of the numerous Raiders that the fleet has faced and the pilots, including Starbuck, have killed, perhaps several times.
Since the episode does feature Starbuck's angst, the idea that Scar is her nemesis makes the conflict more personal.
Sharon appears to slip back into reverie by saying "we lost" when referring to the pilots. However, this is misleading since she was never a member of the crew, unlike the Sharon that Kara remembers. It works though, because it does send Kara back to when Boomer arrived on Galactica.
Sharon and Kara share a "moment," which is abruptly ended when the guards' respond to Sharon reaching for Kara. This immediately reminds Sharon that she is considered a threat.
Helo's comment about Starbuck being a young hotshot out to make her mark until she met Anders seems somewhat contrived. She has long been a hotshot, but hasn't been young for some time and long ago made her mark with little to prove since her save of Lee at Ragnar Anchorage in the miniseries. Helo's analogy seems to be more of a contrivance to drive the storyline that the writers' have constructed for the episode.
Lee starts to name pilots killed:
Flat Top - Killed following his 1,000 th landing in a hangar deck accident involving munitions [Episode 1.04 - "Act of Contrition"]
Chuckles - Killed during Lee's mission against the Cylon mining base [Episode 1.10 - "The Hand of God"]
Lee plays out the sensitive guy routine in his failed tryst with Kara. He wants her and has a chance to have her, but apparently doesn't want just a fling. Although, his behavior is not unexpected since he wanted to believe he had some sort of relationship with Shevon.
This marks the second consecutive episode where Lee's romantic life doesn't go well.
Kat is on-track with her comments that Starbuck has turned into a drunk, but she's simply the only one willing to voice the obvious in this episode.
Meanwhile, Starbuck's comeback that Kat is only on her case because Kat is afraid of being killed and no one remembering her name carries much more insight that Kat's badgering about her drunkenness throughout the episode. In case we're not sure whose comments cut deeper, Starbuck refrains from throwing her fists around, but Kat does so with Starbuck's first comment. In the very next scene, Kat is seen placing the picture of Reilly's girlfriend in the memorial hall.
The scene between Starbuck and Kat also serves to put Starbuck back "on top." Yes, she's turned into a drunk, but she is totally out of control, while Kat is again shown to be unstable as she had been when she was overdoing the stims. Kat appears to be Starbuck's rival to the rest of the crew, but the audience can still be assured that Starbuck still has the edge.
In the celebration scene, Starbuck names a number of dead pilots, most if not all have either been seen or mentioned in this and previous episodes: B.B., Jo Jo, Reilly, Beano, Dipper, Flattop, Chuckles, Jolly, Crashdown, Shepherd, Dash, Flyboy, Stepchild, Puppet and Fireball.
Aside from the fact that Helo seems to be Starbuck's close friend, it is interesting that he is the one that points out that Starbuck has something to live for, as well as die for. In spite of being taken by the Cylons and a copy of Sharon , he has an unborn child to live for.
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