Starbuck and Bo-Katan

I will happily fight anyone who says that Katee Sackoff isn’t phenomenal. Because she is. Her Bo-Katan in The Mandalorian is a joy. Katee Sackoff does such a good job at playing strong, complicated, powerful women. And it’s hard to watch her as Bo-Katan and not think of Starbuck. (Yes, Reader, this part of the post is basically a Katee Sackoff appreciation post.) So as I went on a run today, listening to Jane Eyre, while yesterdays episode of The Mandalorian simmered along in the background of my brain, and I started thinking of Starbuck, and the bit with the Cylon Raider.

Now, there are a LOT of moments in BSG (Reader, that’s Battlestar Galactica. If you have not seen this show, you need to remedy this. Stop reading this post. Go watch all of BSG RIGHT NOW.) (To clarify, I mean the recent one. Not the 70s one. But you can watch that, too, if you want.) that I love. And I mean LOVE with a fervor that some people might reserve for great works of art. But one of the moments that I love the most, and that I’ve been thinking about all day today, is when . . .Okay. Reader. SERIOUSLY. If you haven’t seen BSG, just stop reading because spoilers are about to happen. I just want to be clear about that.

Okay. So, I’ve spent all day thinking about when Starbuck and the Cylon Raider have crashed into the planet (or asteroid or whatever). And she’s out of air. And her ship is trashed. And so she gets out and fights her way into the goddamn Cyclon Raider (it’s a ship, but it’s also organic, a creature, that’s part machine, part organs. I’m explaining this to you, Reader, because I know you didn’t listen to my warning before), and then she figures out how to fly it. Like a neurosurgeon figuring out which parts of the brain control what. She pokes and prods until she gets the Raider in the air, into space, and then find and approaches the Fleet.

But what does the Fleet see? An enemy ship. Just one. But still the enemy. Should they shoot it down? Starbuck did all that work, figured all that out, and now she’s going to be blown out of the sky by her own people? No, Reader, of course not. Because she flies past the Fleet to show that underneath, on the exterior of the Raider, in the Raider’s own blood, she has written “Starbuck” to let them know it’s her, that she survived, that she has come home.

The thing I love about this scene is that it’s not just about struggle, it’s about persistence. And more than that, really. It’s not just about not giving up, but about determination. Persistence is holding on, not giving up is holding on, but determination is intentional. It’s being an active agent in continuing, it’s continuing with planning, and while there is a season for persistence, there is also a season for determination.

Reader, I believe we are entering that season. We have held on. We have made it through. It’s time to start painting our names on the bottom of our Cylon Raiders, and figuring out how to fly them. It’s time to determine HOW we will continue and persist. How far we intend to fly.

It may also be time for a Battlestar Galactica re-watch.

So say we all.