Thanks very much!

LKAR is the dynamic between the four major characters, Lee/Kara/Adama/Roslin. The sort of "family unit" of the show.

Sorry, it's a very well known term on Skiffy, HD5 and the other BSG-centric boards. I sometimes forget other people stay away from the craziness (SKIFFY!!!)

It is firmly felt by many, myself included, that LKAR is the foundation of the show. With the exception of Baltar, who sort of works as the anti-LKAR, everything comes back around to these four people.

with Kara back

I wouldn't consider this set in stone either -- until we get confirmation that her ship shows up on everyone's dradis (not just Lee's), it's equally likely that she's a vision rather than a reincarnation.

Some people on other sites are thinking she's a vision or HeadKara. I'm holding out hope, however, that RDM realizes how incredibly lame that would be. What an anti-climax. So all through the hiatus we're like "Kara's back! OMG, how?! Yayyyyy!!" then in January we find out "oh, Lee's seeing things."

Dumb. Come on Ron, don't be that way.

If the fleet is without power (which is tripping me out, by the way, how did that happen I wonder? Cylons? Kara? Something else?) then it's possible she won't be showing up on any other dradis, if a power outage means blackout for the dradis screens. I'm also wondering if the cylons who have shown up are the seven, or a fleet of the five. Hmmm...

Jessica, the girl on TWOP who revealed these spoilers said Kara and Lee spoke briefly. Maybe she just meant that which Kara said to Lee, but I had the impression he at least got a word or two in. Can you clear that up for me?

The thing about Kara being really not dead is that they've played that out already. That was part of a cliffhanger this year - will Callie, Laura, Zarek and everyone else be shot? No, they don't really die. And Kara came back from almost dying from crashing a couple of times I think. Lee almost died but was saved. Then there was the cancer with Laura.

I think killing Starbuck was a stupid and thoughtless move. Pretend killing her seems worse. Oh but now she's been to Earth and knows how to get there! Yay! Too bad you had to die to get there.

Well, the thing is, it wasn't "will she really die?" or "will she be saved at the last minute?"

We saw her viper go boom, so pretty much it looks like she is D-E-A-D.

I think the big, huge shocker is that she will be resurrected from the dead... but not be a cylon.

That's new, that's different, that's never happened on this show before.

I think they're going to bring back the Ship of Lights plot from TOS. Might make some revisions to it, but I really feel like this will be the way they go.

Jessica, the girl on TWOP who revealed these spoilers said Kara and Lee spoke briefly. Maybe she just meant that which Kara said to Lee, but I had the impression he at least got a word or two in. Can you clear that up for me?

I think he may have said "Hi" or "Is it really you?" or something similar - whatever his exact words were, they weren't interesting enough to stick in my head. (And I don't have the screeners anymore to check, unfortunately - they were on loan and had to go back to their real owner.)

Jessica You said that the fleet loses power. I remember in Maelstrom when Kara was in the hallway talking with Adama/Roslin that it lost power for a few seconds and Kara was the only one in light. Did you get the impression that maybe those two events were related or am I just reading to much into it. It seemed so strange to me at the time in Maelstrom I figured there had to be a reason for it

I think he may have said "Hi" or "Is it really you?" or something similar - whatever his exact words were, they weren't interesting enough to stick in my head. (And I don't have the screeners anymore to check, unfortunately - they were on loan and had to go back to their real owner.)

Thanks! I figured it wouldn't be much, since Mandi said it was only like the last two minutes of the episode. Heh, it's funny if he just said like "Hi."

You said Kara said "Don't worry Lee, it's really me." Was that a direct quote or were you paraphrasing? If she really said that, it makes me more inclined to believe it really is her and not a ghost/vision. That's a cheap trick and very cruel (on both Kara's part to Lee and Ron's part to the fans) if she's not really there in the flesh.

Jessica You said that the fleet loses power. I remember in Maelstrom when Kara was in the hallway talking with Adama/Roslin that it lost power for a few seconds and Kara was the only one in light. Did you get the impression that maybe those two events were related or am I just reading to much into it. It seemed so strange to me at the time in Maelstrom I figured there had to be a reason for it

That's actually a very good catch.

As far as the light going out on Kara as soon as Adama called "Starbuck" as she passed, I took that to be symbolic of the death of Starbuck. The whole episode was about Kara trying to reconcile her two personas, the brash, larger-than-life fighter jock with the vulnerable woman, and come to grips with all of her issues. We all know that she uses her Starbuck facade to mask a lot of pain, and for the first time on this show, Lee said that outloud in Maelstrom ("Her tough viper jock persona is all she's got left" or something to that effect).

In several interviews, Katee, David EIck AND Ron Moore have all made comments about "Starbuck, as we know her, is dead" and "Define Starbuck" when asked if Starbuck would be on the show again. They seem to be hinting at the death of Starbuck, but not Kara. It is my belief that whatever Kara has gone through, this destiny that she has embraced... it's changed her. I think she'll come back lighter, more relaxed, not weighed down by these demons that have been haunting her since childhood. Essentially, Starbuck will die and we'll be left with Kara. Definitely not a bad thing (though hopefully her cockiness and brashness won't be completely gone, cause I love those qualities about her. You can be cocky without simply using it as a shield). Jessica and Mandi both described Kara in the final scene as "happy/more relaxed than we've ever seen her".

Anyway, I had been privy to these interview comments and wanking that "Starbuck" might die but Kara would still be with us for quite a while, so when he said "Starbuck" and the lights around her immediately went out, that just hit me as very telling.

I do, however, love your thoughts that it could be coming into play with the power going out. How did that happen? The cylons suddenly have the ability to stroll in and knock out power for the entire fleet?

I'm wondering how this cylon standoff plays out. I'm sure it won't be another hostage situation like NC, cause been there, done that. Obviously they won't just open fire and nuke the whole fleet.

I really am feeling that it'll be a fleet of the five, not the seven, and they'll want to work with the humans, or be there to help them. I'm not entirely convinced the five are as sinister in nature as the seven are. As someone here already mentioned, the fact that four of them were leaders of the resistance on NC suggests a conflict between the two sets.

It has been suggested (I think maybe even by Ron, but I'm not positive) that Cavil might actually be the only Seven who knows the identity of the Final Five (before D'anna, of course). If that's true, I think that's a pretty big development, considering that means he knew that they were leading (continued...)

( continues...) the resistance on NC, used Tigh's wife to get to them, and brutally tortured Tigh. As far as we know, no other prisoner on NC was tortured so harshly, at least not physically, as Tigh. Perhaps Cavil took pleasure in ripping out his eye knowing that "if he knew what he was he could download and get a new body, but he doesn't, and even if he did, he'd probably be too stubborn to accept it".

Or maybe just that he relieved his guilt by knowing that Tigh's body is not a permenant vessel so he wasn't handicapping him for life, necessarily.

People on Skiffy are going crazy about Tigh being a cylon because "he's too old" and "he has a long history with Adama", but Ron did say that the final five would make us "redefine what it means to be a cylon" so I think Tigh being one is perfect. It really does make us rethink what it means. I think the five are cylons from before the first cylon war, from when "all this happened before".

I remember in Maelstrom when Kara was in the hallway talking with Adama/Roslin that it lost power for a few seconds and Kara was the only one in light. Did you get the impression that maybe those two events were related or am I just reading to much into it.

It hadn't occurred to me, but I guess they could me! If Kara's return was what triggered the second power failure, which is totally plausible.

You said Kara said "Don't worry Lee, it's really me." Was that a direct quote or were you paraphrasing?

It's as direct a quote as my memory will allow. [eta: She definitely says "It's really me" and also "Don't worry" and "It's okay" or maybe "It's going to be okay." But maybe not in the exact order I've reported.]

I think the five are cylons from before the first cylon war, from when "all this happened before".

Well, they're definitely at least that old, with Tigh in the mix. I think they have something to do with Earth, and the thirteenth colony. I don't think the activation-by-classic-rock-from-Earth thing can be a coincidence. Of all the eps in this season, this one is the least likely, IMO, to suffer from lazy writing.