Oh, yeah, I teared up on this one. This series, to me, does right by its female cast with episodes like this. Kat, often at odds with Starbuck, wasn't always a well-featured or articulately elaborated character of real depth. She had an addiction to speed (called stims) when piloting her fighter that got her in trouble and when Starbuck lost her way with the booze, Kat was critical of her. And then Kat's past returns to haunt her when a drug supplier she sold for in another life, under her real name (Louanne Katraine was taken from someone dead), wants to pick up where they left off, using her new position as a means to move product. Starbuck sees them, investigates, and confronts Kat, begged off from telling Adama. Meanwhile a radioactive, incredibly bright star cluster must be traveled through briefly in order to jump to a planet with much needed algae as the food storage supply was tainted by accidental contamination. Food rations are deteriorating quickly so the algae, although not exactly tasty, is desperately needed. In order to successfully jump to the planet, the Colonial ships will need to follow raptors individually into the cluster then jump at a certain position within. Problem with the cluster is visibility, and raptor controls can be damaged by the radioactivity inside, with Colonial ships lost easily. Kat loses one, as does Hot Dog, leaving them devastated. Couple this with Starbuck learning of her smuggling past, as criminals were often also smuggled, proposing that Cylons might have been among those she was responsible for, and Kat is confronted with a lot of drama. Great showcase for Luciana Carro, never used as well overall as she might have been as Kat, has an outstanding heroic climax with a very tragic and emotionally gutting send-off. Olmos getting to sit with her, comfortingly letting her know that the past doesn't matter and her reward for sacrificing life in service of those lives rescued within the cluster is a CAG promotion, magnifies the emotional potency of the conclusion.
The subplot of Baltar discovering Lawless' Three Cylon disappearing in afternoons to die over and over in order to experience the passage before downloading again into a new reborn body doesn't interfere too much with the A plot. The hybrid that speaks a coded gibberish Baltar and Three believe has some meaning eventually decode some of it as the eye of Jupiter (eye of cow) and five fingered hand as the five mysterious Cylons not yet unveiled to humans and the current Cylons could very well be details certain to lead them to earth. Baltar wants to know if he's a Cylon, wanting to understand his destiny.
Also featured is Tigh returning to the bridge as Adama's second in command, even receiving an ovation, while Gaeta remains sore at him for the trial that almost got him executed as traitor. Sharing a laugh regarding hunger being so bad folks are eating paper with Adama allows Tigh to get past return awkwardness. 3.5/5
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