Starbuck’s return. Is it really her? What’s up with the brand new viper? She thinks she has been gone for 6 hours; everyone else says she has been gone for 2 months. The question is if this is a Cylon trick or has she really been to earth. Either one seems conceivable. I guess there is another option – she is a Cylon but this is not part of their plan. What is more interesting to watch is the reaction of the rest of the crew when she reappears. Some think she is a Cylon. Some believe her. Some don’t know what to think. Roslin immediately believes that it’s a Cylon trick, from the moment Apollo identifies her. Then in her questioning of Kara, she is fixated on proving that Kara is lying. Roslin, who has had visions, has sent Kara to fetch a golden arrow to find Earth, now seems unable to accept anything out of the ordinary. She seems to have become a very distrusting person over the course of events. And very quick and ruthless in her dealings with the Cylons. But, what makes this strange is her interactions with 6. She doesn’t trust Starbuck or know if she is really a Cylon, so she goes to talk with 6 (whom she knows to be a Cylon) and asks her questions. Talking to someone you know you can’t trust to see if you can trust someone else – that seems a bit strange, doesn’t it? She feels some connection, because they have “shared something”.

What it comes down to is how do you know who can be trusted? We go through life with trust as a foundation for nearly all we do. But, how do you live, how do you go about daily tasks, if you are unsure if you can trust the people around you? Watch the way people are torn apart, the way relationships are destroyed because of the uncertainty of who can be trusted. We are reminded in this of the necessity to be people who can be trusted. To be a community where our yes means yes and our no means no.

The other question that the show pushes is that of identity – who am I? This has come to the fore with the revelation of 4 of the final 5 (Tigh, Tory, Anders and Tyrol). They discover that they are someone or something that they did not know they were and have to learn how to live with that. They have learned that who they have thought themselves to be was merely a fabrication. How would you live your life differently if you one day discovered that you are someone other than what you have believed yourself to be the rest of your life, that you had some other purpose (which you are still unsure of.) Tigh suggests that they just need to continue being themselves, that this revelation that he is in fact a Cylon does not change who he is, that he will continue to do his job, and that’s what he tells them all to do.

What if you one day discovered that your life had been a lie, that you were someone other than what you thought you were . Kara and Anders have the following conversation

Sam, “If you’re a Cylon, they you’ve been one from the beginning.”

Kara: “Like Boomer, spend my entire life thinking I’m one thing.”

Sam: “Yeah, and then you wake up one day and you discover you’re another. Still doesn’t change who you really are.”

Who you really are. Isn’t that one of the most significant questions we can ask. For a follower of Jesus, that is our primary identity. But, that is not how we begin our lives. Until the time we decide to acknowledge that Jesus is Lord, we live one life. Then, our lives are changed, we are a new creation. The challenge seems to be that for many who follow Christ, their lives do not change. They wake up one day and discover that they are something else, but they continue to live the old life. (see Romans 6:2 for example) It’s not a perfect analogy, I know that. But, I was watching these people struggling and saw reflections in them of many who call themselves Christians. What life are they going to lead?

There are many more questions to be answered. But, like the teasers say, “all will be revealed.” Are these 4 of the final 5 with or against the other Cylons? How will Tigh and the others live with this new identity? What is the plan that the Cylons have? How will their infighting affect things? What will we learn about the one true god that 6 speaks of? Will we enjoy the rest of the season? At least to that last one, I think I might have an answer. So say we all!

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The idea of a destiny is sometimes tossed about in Christian circles. I think of things like the Purpose Driven Life and spin-offs. Not that the PDL necessarily teaches that there you have a particular destiny, but it easily becomes warped or misunderstood that way. God has a purpose for my life. I need to find it and then follow it. Sometimes that purpose is understood to mean a specific task, a special part of God’s plan. I don’t see that suggested a whole lot in the Bible. We may have unique opportunities but I am not sure that the Bible suggests that each person has a unique destiny to fulfill.

What raised more interesting questions for me was not the story itself, but the story behind the story. Why was Kara/Starbuck killed off (if she really was)?

In his podcast, Moore says “I was drawn to the audacity of it [killing off Starbuck].” I respect the willingness to kill off a main character. It’s hard because often it is a particular character that makes a show good. On the other hand, in a show like this it provides realism and also a sense of tension. If I am watching a show in which the main characters never die, my only worry is how are they going to get out of this trap rather than will they get out of this trap? I like that uncertainty in knowing that everyone is mortal. But, something about Moore’s comment strikes me as wrong. It almost seemed as if he were doing it simply for the shock value, which does not strike me as compelling reason. Not unlike what is sometimes done in churches, where we do something simply to try and shock or awe people. We have to ask ourselves, does it serve our mission?

I spent a little time perusing the SciFi forum after the show to see what the reaction was of other fans. There were a number who reacted with comments like “He ruined my show.” This all begs the question, whose show is it? On the one hand, it is really the product of Moore and his team. On the other hand, it is produced for an audience to see. I will have to wait and see how it plays out. Starbuck was a central character and it seems like her absence will alter the feel of the show (which has already been different during season 3 anyhow).

Another comment on the forums was that her death did not seem to be dramatic enough, or not fitting for a great hero. Not all deaths are dramatic or heroic. For example, Patton died in a car accident after the war. Hardly a great death for a brilliant military leader like Patton. Others have simply grown old and died in their beds. For some reason we have developed a mythos in which the hero, if s/he dies must make some great sacrifice or have a particularly dramatic death. Maybe it’s because we want death to mean something. Of course all it means is that we are sinners. The good news is that there was one death in history that had special meaning and significance, made even more significant by the fact that he did not stay dead but rose from the dead and sits at the right hand of God the Father. I am thankful for what that death means to me.

So say we all!

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It’s interesting that they chose to use more psychological means of information extraction than the Cylons who used pure physical torture. On the other hand, Adama and Roslin seem willing to quickly use this experimental drug to get the information they want with no thought of the ethics. I wonder if that was an intentional move by the writers to make you think about it; rather than having the characters have a moral debate, there is none which makes you ask, “shouldn’t somebody be asking the question?”

What struck me most though was the whole question of Baltar’s guilt or innocence. Is it guilt if you are unknowingly involved in something? I had this discussion recently with some other pastors where we talked about Wesley’s definition of sin as a willful transgression of a known law. Baltar certainly seemed unaware of his involvement in allowing the Cylon attack to occur; he appears to have simply been used. But, the question then becomes how he acted after he realized what had happened. He worked hard to cover up what he had done, primarily probably for self-preservation. But, as Gaeta notes in an earlier episode Baltar will do whatever it takes for Baltar to survive.

Baltar does come to the point where he admits “mistakes were made” but he never says I made a mistake. A great picture of the way we sometimes dance around confession of our own sins (leaving aside the question of what sin, if any, he committed). Mistakes were made. I was tricked. I was used. Do I do the same thing when I go before God, seeing myself as a victim rather than a perpetrator? To add to that, do I have to feel like I am drowning before I will even admit that much?

The good news is that I can go to God with my faults and sins and confess them and that he won’t send me out an airlock. Instead I can stand before him, forgiven and free. So say we all!

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