Jo Jo is removed from the device and looks pretty bad as he's being unblinded. He fires a few bad shots and everybody screams and hits the deck, and it's funny but not, like, sitcom funny. They see that he clipped the target, and Starbuck gives him a thumbs up for even doing that. Duck notes that, his first time, he took out a wall clock, causing Jo Jo to ask, "So what's the all-time record?" Kat doesn't even want to hear it, but dumb old Hotdog immediately speaks up: "Four hits on the X ring." (That's the center target where they used to have Sharon's face back when I thought I knew what constituted the abuse of civil liberties.) This blows Jo Jo's mind, of course it is Starbuck that set this record, and of course she's not incredibly proud because she knows damn well that she's super-awesome, and of course Kat would like to "give a shot, for old times' sake?" They smile at each other and Starbuck graciously gives leave, then drops the act. They still respect each other, though, which is, like, this quiet thing under the surface for most of this episode. It's almost acknowledged, this challenge/response, which I didn't get at all the first time around, because I'm so used to being annoyed by Kat, who is annoying. I love how accepted the myth of Starbuck is here, though -- it's a nice counterpoint to the Scar deal, like, nobody even blinks when yet another Paul Bunyan story about her turns out to be true.

Kat spins and all that, and puts five through the X ring, and Kat cheers herself. Everybody else cheers, Starbuck looks at her, and this scene is more about Kat than about Starbuck, because it's less about Kat hating on Starbuck and being a drag and more about Kat getting verifiable proof that she's a bad-ass and as she sees her hero go down, she herself is going up, and you can barely blame her for being taken in by that. You can blame her for many things, rampant assholism among them, but not this, because it's life telling her: you're the one now. Why love Starbuck when you can be the new Starbuck? Why care about keeping the legend alive when the feet are not only clay, but melting before your very focused eyes? It's kind of heartbreaking, especially since we've known her from the beginning of her career, and been subject to the same blatant pro-Starbuck propaganda Kat has, and (some of us, anyway) have been fooled by it, and are proud of that fact, because it's mostly true. It makes me wonder what Starbuck's relationship with Tigh was like, before she and he and everybody else realized what a sad little whipped old dog he is. I wonder if Kara loved him like this.