Schrödinger's Starbuck

In a mystery worthy of Mulder and Scully (or at least that guy from Terminator 2) Cox cable in Tucson has relegated Sci Fi to their “variety tier” on digital cable. When I was in Phoenix, I took its being a part of “normal” cable for granted; then when I got here I found out it was exiled along with oddities like Encore WAM! and the Fox Reality Channel, while far less appealing (to me, anyway) channels such as Hallmark, Oxygen and Versus were part of the basic package. Joni Mitchell was right. You really don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone.

So I’m currently living with my sister and brother-in-law right now, and am trying not to jeopardize this temporary, freeloading status with initiating sweeping changes to their way of life. They only have basic cable, and don’t seem interested in upgrading. I (try to) deal.

The timing couldn’t be worse, though, with the third season of “Battlestar Galactica” heading into the home stretch. I’ve been downloading the episodes I miss on iTunes the next day, which works just fine, but means I don’t have that instant satisfaction of experiencing it with the rest of the world. That hasn’t been too much of a problem with a couple of relatively uneventful episodes the last few weeks, but that’s no longer the case.

For weeks, it’s been speculated – in sources like this – that something bad would happen to Starbuck on the March 4 episode (“executive producers David Eick and Ron Moore say that a ‘profound’ event involving Starbuck does occur a pivotal Season 3 episode called ‘Maelstrom’ that is scheduled to air March 4,” says the Chicago Tribune). That article ran in early January, I actually had forgotten about it.

Until last night.

A buddy instant messaged me right after the episode aired here, not knowing that I wasn’t able to see it. “How about that,” he asked. I told him that I hadn’t watched it yet, but the damaged had already been done. Now I know something significant happened, 99.9% involving Starbuck. Is she dead? Is she a Cylon? Is she pregnant with Lee Adama’s love child?

I woke up early this morning to see if it was on iTunes yet. It wasn’t. Am I really going to be able to avoid online spoilers until I can watch?

So, much like Schrödinger’s cat, Kara Thrace remains, at least for me, in some sort of mysterious netherworld between alive and dead. So much for death with dignity.