Starbuck Fix: Just What is Kara Thrace?

Cylon? Clone? Resurrected human? A ghost? A demon? Just what is Kara "Starbuck" Thrace since returning from the clutches of death last season?

Tonight's episode of Battlestar Galactica ("Someone to Watch Over Me") looks like it will finally answer that elusive question as Kara seeks some answers about her, er, condition and gains some shocking revelations about her true nature.

While I have no knowledge of the upcoming plot twists ahead on Battlestar Galactica, the promo for tonight's episode (which can be found below) had me pondering some theories of my own, building on that of my recent theory about Kara's parentage and what I know from the two-hour pilot for prequel series Caprica.

I posited a few weeks back that Kara is actually the offspring of a human mother and the Cylon Model Seven, named Daniel. Which is why she is so vital to the Cylon race... and why Simon went so far as to remove her ovaries back on Caprica (remember that dangling plot thread?). And that using the resurrection technology that was recreated by Ellen Tigh, Kara's memories were downloaded when her Viper exploded in the nebula.

As we've seen, Starbuck did die on Earth. She and Leoben encountered her body in the wreckage of her Viper on the surface of the blue planet. So what is Kara then? As I previously stated, I think that she is a resurrected Kara and that the puppet master pulling her strings had created a body for her using the DNA samples extracted from her genetic material in Simon's possession. As for why? I think it was the work of a rogue Model Seven who managed to escape Cavil's destruction of his entire line... and I believe that he is Kara's father and reached out to save his daughter, after appearing to her in a vision in the guise of "Leoben." (More information about this theory can be found in this post.)

On tonight's episode of Battlestar Galactica, Kara is set to meet a piano player at Joe's Bar who offers her some knowledge about her past and what she really is. The notion of the piano player was introduced in last week's episode ("Deadlock") when Kara wondered when Joe's Bar had gotten a piano player. My theory: they never did.

I believe that Kara is visualizing this piano player though he doesn't actually exist in the reality perceived by everyone else around her; the barman's pointedly odd reaction to Kara's question would seem to support this as well. And we know that the Cylons can hear music--like "All Along the Watchtower"--that no one else can. So how is Kara perceiving things that aren't there? Using the same technology that the Cylons have to visualize other realities. As seen on the Cylon base ship in Season Three, the humanoid models can separate their perceptions: while we might see the stark white corridors of the techno-organic ship, they can see themselves surrounded by the trees of an ancient forest.

It's the same technology created by Daniel Greystone, the inventor of the Centurions, whose work is the basis for the BSG prequel series Caprica. Greystone previously invented a holoband, which grants the wearer to immerse themselves in a fully interactive virtual reality, a technology that I believe was essential in crafting the Centurions and the humanoid Cylon models. It's also this gift for perception, I believe, that grants Kara the ability to have that vision in "Maelstrom" and meet with the piano player in tonight's "Someone to Watch Over Me."

So who is the person she's interacting with, who disguised himself as Leoben and now potentially as a pianist? I believe it's the mythical Daniel whom Kara will be speaking with tonight and who will take her on a path of personal awareness. The shot of Kara as a child sitting at a piano would seek to support this as well. Plus, we know from Ellen Tigh's description of Daniel that he is an artist: he painted and so does Kara. If Kara played the piano as a child, so too could Daniel have known how to play.

Kara therefore is, like Hera, an important symbol of the future of the both Cylon and human races, a blend of both genetic reproduction and technological resurrection. While some have pondered whether she is a Trojan Horse, designed to undo humanity and serve as a "harbinger of death" (as the the hybrid foresaw), I think Kara is instead a sign of how both of their races can survive: by blending with one another and taking the strengths and weaknesses of both their natures.



What do you think? Is Kara the offspring of Daniel? Does that make her the first Cylon-human offspring? Or is she something else altogether? Discuss.

Tonight on Battlestar Galactica ("Someone to Watch Over Me"), Kara befriends a piano player who helps her come to a shocking realization about her destiny and Galen and Boomer attempt to reignite their relationship while the Cylons attempt to try her for treason.