You Can't Go Home Again

Mark here... Laurel and I are sitting down for some fried calamari, courtesy of Chuck Hughes' recipe, aioli from Mark Bittman and Nigella Lawson's Capery Salad.  This episode is called "You Can't Go Home" again and picks up right where last episode left off.  Starbuck is stranded on a Mars-like planet with a limited supply of oxygen (having crash landed in combat with a Cylon raider last episode).  It sounds like a really basic episode but it plays out with lots of drama.  Starbuck comes across the downed Cylon raider, which turns out to be a biological-mechanical hybrid, and she must find its oxygen supply and make it fly again.



Meanwhile, back on Galactica, the Adamas are expending every resource to find her.  The Galactica crew is slowly becoming discouraged at the prospects of finding Starbuck and worried about the Adamas willingness to risk the fleet to do so.  It is ultimately President Roslin who comes onboard to tell the boys to shake it off.  While she is ultimately relieved when Starbuck shows up, she shows her resolve to make tough decisions even when the boys aren't willing too.

Laurel here...I can't tell you how relieved I was while watching this episode.  Finally Starbuck seems to fit the role that she was meant to, being a tough woman who is skilled at her job but who doesn't need to act like a man in order to get the point across.  She saves herself from the barren planet she has crashed on by reappropriating a Cylon fighter plane (which as it turns out she had shot down in the first place) with total resourcefulness and limited bravado.  I have been so insulted by her character in the past episodes because they have all implied that she needs to act like "a man" in order to be tough and resourceful, but in this episode she displayed that by just being a PERSON who is tough and good at her job she has saved her own day.

This episode was also interesting because of a role reversal between president Roslin and Commander Adama.  President Roslin had to be the one who was practical and considered the practical military implications of expending a ton of resources to save one pilot versus both of the Adamas putting their military training aside and indulging their emotional feelings about Starbuck and expending a bunch of fleet resources to save her.

Mark here... I totally agree and it was good to see a little bit of why Roslin is a good President, and why Adama shouldn't be the leader.  Adama is a good military leader, but like Roslin said in the mini-series, there needs to be a civilian government.  In this case it's the civilian government that really shows leadership.

Laurel here..I think it is also worth noting that when Roslin comes to talk to the Adamas about how they are being unreasonable by risking the whole fleet to save this one person, instead of giving a direct order for them to give up the search, she appeals to their better sense of reason by suggesting to them that they are being irrational, then leaving it up to them.  Showing true leadership (perhaps in a more feminine style than the military is used to) by convincing them that she is right versus ordering them to do what she wants.