Kara Thrace

This article discusses the Re-imagined Series character with the pilot callsign of "Starbuck." For information on Kara Thrace's counterpart in the Original Series, see Starbuck (TOS).

For Kara Thrace's parents, see Dreilide Thrace and Socrata Thrace.

Kara Thrace
Name	{{{name}}}
Age
Colony	Caprica
Birth place	{{{birthplace}}}
Birth Name	Kara Thrace
Birth Date	{{{birthdate}}}
Callsign	Starbuck
Nickname	{{{nickname}}}
Introduced	Miniseries
Death	Viper destroyed near gas giant, its & her remains crashing on old Earth (Maelstrom/Sometimes a Great Notion); Resurected as an angel (Crossroads, Part II); Vanished in Tanzania on real-world Earth (Daybreak, Part II)
Parents	Socrata Thrace† (mother) Dreilide Thrace† (father)
Siblings
Children
Marital Status	Married to Samuel Anders (formerly engaged to Zak Adama†)
Family Tree	View
Role	Harbinger of Death, Commander of Galactica Air Group; temporary Commander of Pegasus Air Group; top gun Viper pilot on Galactica
Rank	Lieutenant, later Captain
Serial Number	462753
Portrayed by	Katee Sackhoff Erika-Shaye Gair (child)
Kara Thrace is a Cylon
Kara Thrace is a Final Five Cylon
Kara Thrace is a Human/Cylon Hybrid
Kara Thrace is an Original Series Cylon
Related Media
		@ BW Media
Additional Information
[[Image:|200px|Kara Thrace]]

Kara "Starbuck" Thrace is the current Commander, Air Group (CAG) of Galactica. She is a gifted Viper pilot, with an attitude that has at times thwarted her career advancement. However, thanks to William Adama, Thrace's skills in battle have extended beyond the cockpit to greatly aid the Fleet.

Background

A young Kara Thrace in a hallucination (Maelstrom).

• Thrace was so frequently beaten by her mother Socrata, that she came to accept pain as a way of life ("Flesh and Bone", "Maelstrom").
• Her father was a pianist (Valley of Darkness).
• Thrace left home to join the military. During her training, she received complaints about her conduct towards superior officers.
• One of her first postings prior to being a flight instructor was aboard the battlestar Triton. While serving aboard, she exhibited one of the first known instances of offending high-ranking commissioned officers, namely one Commander Myron Ruth who opened court-martial proceedings against her. They were later dropped (The Son Also Rises).
• She was a very talented pyramid player (Resistance), and received a scholarship to the Fleet Academy to play pyramid. During this time, she injured her knee and was no longer able to play pyramid at a professional level. However, she discovered a passion and skill at being a fighter pilot (Podcast:The Hand of God). On graduating from Colonial Flight School, she undertook a period of active duty before returning to flight school as an instructor.
• Thrace fell in love with a young recruit, Zak Adama. Despite his poor performance, she passed him on his final flight examination although he failed three of the required maneuvers (Act of Contrition).
• Thrace's engagement to Zak Adama ended when he was killed during a routine mission shortly after graduating. At the time, Lee Adama ("Apollo"), Zak's elder brother, blamed their father for Zak's death. Feeling guilty, Thrace did little to alter this idea. She did, however, meet William Adama shortly after the accident, and the two struck up such a strong rapport that they stood together at the funeral (Act of Contrition).
• Thrace resigned from flight school as an instructor and transferred as an operational pilot to the battlestar Galactica under the command of William Adama, where she served for some two years prior to the Cylon attack on the Twelve Colonies. Before the Cylon attack, she was second in command of the remaining pilots, subordinate to the CAG, Jackson Spencer.
• At the time of the Cylon attack she has an run-down apartment in Delphi that overlooks a parking lot and a Colonial version of a Humvee which she and Helo use to escape the city and get to the country where she meets her husband-to-be Anders. She rarely used the dilapidated apartment. She was also a very avid painter, and her apartment was cluttered with her paintings and a poem is written on a wall (Valley of Darkness). The apartment was a better state of repair when Thrace was romantically involved with Zak Adama, although her mandala wall painting pre-dates that relationship. (Daybreak, Part I)
• Despite her reckless approach to life, Thrace hides the fact that she is deeply spiritual. She frequently prays (or talks) to the Lords of Kobol, particularly Aphrodite and Artemis in times of need (Miniseries, "Flesh and Bone", "You Can't Go Home Again").

Character History

• Thrace's attitude quickly runs her afoul of Colonel Saul Tigh, Galactica's Executive officer. Their open mutual dislike of one another leads to the point where blows are exchanged, with Thrace ending up in the brig. After the Cylon attack she is released from the brig and returns to duty as Viper pilot.
• Thrace manages to keep two of three nuclear missiles from striking Galactica in their first Cylon sortie, and saves Lee from doom in an innovative maneuver in the Battle of Ragnar Anchorage.
• Her skills in saving Lee brings her grudging respect from Colonel Tigh, but she is unable to accept his offer of the olive branch - an act that will have repercussions for her later (Miniseries).

Starbuck as acting CAG with Boxey as assistant (Bastille Day).

• Thrace participates in a hostage rescue mission aboard the Astral Queen. Following the successful mission, Thrace tries to mend fences between herself and Colonel Tigh with a toast (consisting of water), apologizing in much the same way as Tigh himself had tried after their initial escape from Ragnar Anchorage. But Tigh rejects Thrace's apology, stating that her flaws are professional, while his flaws were personal (Bastille Day).
• Thrace eventually admits her secret about Zak Adama to William Adama himself, an act that brings their close friendship almost to the breaking point (Act of Contrition).
• During a surprise encounter with Cylons during nugget training, Starbuck destroys several Cylon Raiders, but her ship is damaged and tumbles towards a small red moon with an unbreathable atmosphere. With her Viper in a fatal flat-spin, Starbuck is forced to eject from her Viper (You Can't Go Home Again).
• Thrace (nursing a damaged knee) repairs the downed Cylon Raider found on the inhabitable moon and returns to Galactica, giving the Fleet a vital piece of Cylon fighter technology for study and use.
• The recovering Thrace, off flight status, is asked by Commander Adama to plan a special attack on a Cylon tylium refinery. The tactical planning role is not something she relishes, and she frequently shows resentment towards others for her condition (The Hand of God).
• During Thrace's undesired interrogation of a Cylon prisoner, a copy of a known Cylon named Leoben Conoy, she uses some drastic acts to try to extract the information from the humanoid Cylon (Flesh and Bone).

Starbuck retrieves the Arrow of Apollo (Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part II).

• Thrace is assigned to plant a nuclear device on board a basestar in orbit around Kobol. She disobeys orders to retrieve the Arrow of Apollo at the request of President Roslin, since she discovered Commander Adama's speech concerning knowledge of the location of Earth was a lie. She jumps to Caprica (Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part I), landing in Delphi in the captured Cylon Raider, depriving the Fleet of the valuable military asset.
• In the Delphi Museum of the Colonies with the Arrow, she is violently attacked by a copy of Number Six. Despite being heavily outmatched in the fight, Thrace luckily defeats the Cylon.
• At the museum, she reunites with Helo, whom she thought dead, and discovers a second copy of Sharon Valerii, realizing instantly that the woman is a Cylon.
• Valerii, fearing for her child, steals Thrace's Raider. In exasperation, Starbuck only mutters: "Bitch took my ride" (Scattered). Like Helo, Starbuck is left with no way to return to the Fleet unless she could find her Raider or another Cylon spacecraft, as only Cylon navigational computers are powerful enough to plot jumps over such large distances..
• Starbuck berates Helo's love for the Caprica copy of Valerii. Thrace finds the keys of her surplus military utility vehicle in her old jacket in her old apartment. Thrace has a ride again, if only to move more efficiently about Caprica (Valley of Darkness).

Thrace and Anders playing Pyramid on Caprica (Resistance).

• Thrace and Helo meet a resistance movement on Caprica. Thrace and Samuel Anders strike up a rapport as fellow Pyramid players and end up as lovers.
• During planning to steal a Heavy Raider, Thrace is shot in a military action, waking up in a hospital on Caprica. Thrace is told by her doctor, Simon, that Anders died from wounds he suffered in getting Thrace to safety.
• Thrace discovers that Simon is working with a known humanoid Cylon. She overhears that the next day he plans to extract her ovaries for use in the Cylon's attempts to study and create a hybrid Cylon/human embryo. Simon also makes the mistake of calling Thrace by her callsign, Starbuck, which she had never revealed.
• Staggering and in pain, Thrace kills Simon and escapes the hospital, but not before clocking a Six copy with a fire extinguisher and destroying the local farm power supply, mercy-killing Sue-Shaun and several other women in the facility.
• Another Simon copy appears just as the Resistance attacks the facility. The second Simon, now revealed as a humanoid Cylon himself, is immediately killed by the Resistance, but a squad of Cylon Centurions appear and pins the Resistance down. Luckily, Caprica-Valerii swoops in with a stolen Heavy Raider, destroys the Centurions and flies the Resistance and Thrace out of harm's way.
• Thrace promises to Anders that she'll return with a rescue mission for the remaining survivors. Anders returns the Arrow of Apollo to Thrace, which he hid on the resistance grounds for safekeeping (The Farm).
• Thrace, Helo and the pregnant Valerii land on the Astral Queen in the Heavy Raider. Finding the Laura Roslin faction in orbit of Kobol, Thrace is reunited with Lee. He kisses her impulsively, catching Thrace by pleasant surprise, but a tense standoff follows when Lee discovers that another Sharon copy has returned with them. Roslin helps defuse the situation, and Thrace delivers the Arrow of Apollo to the President.
• Temporarily removed from miltary protocol, Lee playfully teases Thrace by stealing a pyramid ball she took from Caprica. Adama senses her depression about Caprica and tells her that he'd be happy to hear about any problems she had. He also let slip that he loved her, which brightened Thrace's mood to the point where she teased him back about his slip.
• With a team led by Laura Roslin, Lee, and, later, joined by the recovered Commander Adama, Thrace enters the Tomb of Athena and successfully uses the Arrow of Apollo to activate a hologram that shows constellations of the Twelve Colonies' ancient symbols.
• Thrace realizes that they are on a recreation of Earth. Together with Lee, they locate the Lagoon Nebula, a celestial body known to Commander Adama and Lee, and gather sufficient information to begin an actual course to Earth (Home, Part II).

File:Starbuck.uniform.jpg

Thrace in dress uniform (Act of Contrition).

• Thrace shows off the impressive stealth abilities of the new Blackbird fighter in her maiden flight (Flight of the Phoenix).
• With the arrival of Pegasus, Admiral Helena Cain summarily assigns Thrace (and Lee) to Pegasus after digesting the reports of Galactica's officers.
• The Pegasus CAG removes Thrace from the Cylon recon mission. Lee secretly tells her to use the Blackbird to take recon photos of the Cylon Unknown (Pegasus).
• Returning from her very successful mission, the Blackbird's lack of a Colonial transponder is mistaken for a Cylon Raider on DRADIS, and Starbuck is nearly confronted and shot at by Vipers from Pegasus and Galactica. After narrowly avoiding certain death by declaring herself a friendly, Thrace transmits her recon photos to Pegasus.
• Admiral Cain is very impressed with Starbuck's performance and promotes her to Captain and Pegasus CAG.
• Thrace is assigned the task of planning the joint attack on the Resurrection Ship, but successfully asks to have Lee on her team, restoring him to flight status.
• After she briefs Cain and Commander Adama on her battle plan, Adama asks Thrace privately to assassinate Cain after the battle is complete. Adama fears that if Cain continues to command, the Fleet would be in mortal jeopardy from Cain's draconian command (Resurrection Ship, Part I).
• Thrace's battle planning, as before on the tylium mine, works to near-perfection, with the Resurrection Ship destroyed and its supporting basestars.
• As a result of the battle events, Thrace is left without backup as she walks to the Pegasus CIC to shoot Cain, obviously afraid and apprehensive. When Commander Adama calls, Thrace slowly moves her hand to her sidearm but, to her relief, Adama does not give the kill order and cryptically instructs her to stand down (Resurrection Ship, Part II).
• Starbuck and Kat are involved in the protection of a mining operation from periodic Raider attacks. One Raider, nicknamed Scar, fuels an intensive rivalry for the pilot's "top gun" honor. Thrace, still depressed over her inability to convince Fleet command to initiate a rescue for Samuel Anders and his resistance, drinks heavily and obsesses over removing Scar from the sky, even at the cost of her life. Fortunately, Starbuck realizes the futility of her actions, and works together with Kat to destroy the remarkably dangerous Raider (Scar).
• A few weeks later, Thrace takes leave on Cloud Nine when she was dragooned into rescuing Lee and several other Galactica crew and residents after terrorists take them hostage in exchange for the incarcerated Sharon Valerii. Thrace gathers intel on the situation, but her cover is blown. In the retreating firefight, Lee is caught in the crossfire. After the situation is resolved, Thrace intended to sit at Lee's bedside, only to discover that Dualla beat her to it (Sacrifice).
• Later, Thrace is assigned to Pegasus as a flight trainer. Though the pilots like her, Commander Barry Garner does not, eventually confining her to quarters for "insubordination." Following the ill-fated rescue and retreat from a Cylon ambush (where Thrace leads the fighters), Thrace informs new Pegasus Commander Lee that she was taking over his old CAG post aboard Galactica (The Captain's Hand).
• Thrace gets her wish: The Caprica rescue is approved, and she leads a large Raptor squadron to the planet. The group soon met up with Anders, who reports that their HQ had been destroyed and Thrace's timing was just perfect. A squad of Centurions ambush and pin down the group moments later (Lay Down Your Burdens, Part I).
• Still pinned down from attack fire, Starbuck and Anders agree to kill each other to avoid capture and internment at a farm. But the attack stops, and a man appears, praising the Gods as he announces that the Cylons not only have ceased fire, but are abandoning the Twelve Colonies. Starbuck isn't really surprised to discover that the man, known as Brother Cavil, was a Cylon upon their return to the Fleet.
• Starbuck and Anders proceed to get drunk, and host a disastrous encounter with Lee. This apparently led to a rift between the two comrades.

Leoben with Kara Thrace (Exodus, Part I).

• The evening of the founding of New Caprica, Thrace slept with Lee and proclaimed her love for him as she was uncertain regarding her feelings toward Anders. The following morning she quickly married Anders in a ceremonry near the river. This caused a rift between Kara and Lee that lasted for over a year.^{[citation needed]}
• Life on New Caprica tempered Thrace, and she often behaved in ways Starbuck never would have, including hugging Colonel Tigh and pampering Anders during his bout with an illness.
• She watches in horror at the sudden arrival of hundreds of Cylon ships in the sky over New Caprica. A few of Galactica's former crew gather near Thrace, looking to her for guidance. Starbuck responds the only way she knows how: "Fight 'em until we can't" (Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II).
• After Baltar's surrender of New Caprica, Conoy keeps Thrace prisoner in an apartment located within the Cylon-built New Caprica Detention Center in an attempt to convince Thrace that she loves him and also convert her to the Cylon monotheistic religion. She repeatedly kills Conoy a total of five times in an attempt to convince him to let her go ("Occupation", "Precipice").
• Conoy introduces Thrace to a small child named Kacey, who appears to be approximately two to three years in age, whom he claims is their biological daughter. He explains that the child was created using one of Thrace's extracted ovaries (The Farm) and his genetic material. Conflicted, Thrace leaves the child unattended, which later results in Kacey falling down the apartment's stairs (Precipice). After the fall, Thrace begins to change her attitude towards the child and begins to offer affection towards Conoy ("Precipice", "Exodus, Part I").
• Upon her return to Galactica after Admiral Adama's daring rescue attempt, Thrace heartbreakingly discovers that Kacey was simply another manipulation on Conoy's part — Kacey is merely a human child whom the Cylons had abducted months ago (Exodus, Part II).
• Bearing the psychological scars of her four month ordeal with Leoben and Kacey, Thrace is recruited by Seelix as a last minute replacement juror in the Circle after Samuel Anders' resignation. Thrace's involvement in the Circle precipitates the breakup of her marriage with Anders. Intially wondering about the legality of the tribunal, she is the fifth vote to find Gaeta guilty of treason and collaboration. Later, when Gaeta is about to be killed in one of Galactica's launch tubes, she demands him to beg for his life. Thrace physically assaults him and goes down the litany of "lies" that Gaeta told her earlier about him helping the insurgency. As she does so, Galen Tyrol, one of the Circle's jurors, overhears this and confirms the story. In a sense of confusion after learning that Gaeta was telling the truth, Thrace leaves the launch tube (Collaborators).
• During a combat exercise between Vipers, Thrace breaks formation and collides with another pilot, forcing an end to the war games and causing Lee to revoke her flight status. Later, at her bunk she is met by Kacey and her mother, whom she dismisses, telling Kacey's mother not to visit her again. In the pilots' rec room, Thrace and Colonel Tigh begin to sow dissent between the survivors of New Caprica and the crew that stayed behind on Galactica, insinuating that those who stayed behind did not suffer like those on New Caprica did, and that the crew of Galactica took too long to organize a rescue. Admiral Adama, upon learning of this from Karl Agathon, confronts Thrace and Tigh on their behavior. He challenges them to shoot him, as their constant complaining is tantamount to pulling the trigger. When neither do, Adama throws Thrace off her chair and demands that both she and Tigh shape up and move on with their lives. Spurred by Adama's words, Thrace cuts her hair and returns to duty. Later, in uniform, she visits Kacey and her mother on the converted hangar deck (Torn).
• Thrace enters an affair with Lee, rekindling their romance on New Caprica (Unfinished Business). Both Anders and Lee's wife, Lieutenant Dualla, are more than vaguely aware of the pair's sexual tension. Lee soon ends the affair and reconciles, but Thrace refuses to give Anders any further attention than a periodic sexual fling.
• Starbuck is involved with the defense of the Temple of Five but is severely injured, leaving her rescuer, Dualla, to return them to Galactica (Rapture). Helo recognizes the strange circular mandala in the Temple, created 4,000 years before, and its resemblance to a symbol that Thrace painted in her apartment. When shown the symbol, the recovering Thrace is darkly reminded of Leoben's prophesy.
• During refueling operations above a gas giant, Starbuck is continually attracted to what she believes is a Cylon contact, which she chases to find a planetary storm that resembles the mandala. She dives into it, almost losing control before coming to her senses and returning.
• Command staff and Thrace question her competency to continue flying, but Lee volunteers encouragement and offers to fly as her wingman on her next CAP.
• Starbuck finds herself attracted by another apparent Cylon contact. As she descended, her Viper is struck by debris and she, while unconscious, experiences a revelation about her mother, Socrata Thrace, and guided through the vision by what looks to be a Leoben copy.
• Starbuck regains consciousness but chooses to continue her descent despite Lee's desperate pleas to ascend. "I'll see you on the other side (...) Just let me go" were her last words as her Viper explodes. A grief-stricken Lee tells CIC that he did not see any ejection (Maelstrom).
• While preparing for a Cylon engagement near the Ionian nebula, Lee detects a bogey on DRADIS. While he searches for the target, Lee finds himself momentarily in a cat-and-mouse chase game with the mysterious target. As Lee attempts to regain sight of the bogey, it positions itself next to his Viper.

Back from the dead

• The pristine Viper Mark II that comes alongside is flown by Starbuck herself. A shocked and confused Lee listens to the apparently-resurrected Kara Thrace, who tells him that she has been to Earth and she has returned to take the Fleet to it (Crossroads, Part II).
• After the battle at the nebula, she returns to Galactica where everyone is astounded to see her alive. While everyone believed her dead for over two months, only several hours have passed for her. She has returned with recon photography of Earth, but no navigational data or knowledge of how she got there. Despite passing a medical examination by Doc Cottle, almost everyone - especially Roslin - thinks she may be a Cylon or part of a Cylon trap, and thus don't believe her. Thrace herself wonders if she could be a Cylon.
• When the Fleet jumps further away from the Ionian Nebula, she experiences headaches and says that she is losing the intuitive feeling of the way to Earth. Desperate to lead the Colonials there, she breaks into Adama's quarters and confronts Roslin at gun point (He That Believeth In Me).
• Thrace is eventually subdued by Marines and imprisoned in the brig. Lee, now retired from the military, visits Thrace in the brig and tells her that he believes her. Thrace is happy that he does and they share a kiss before Lee leaves for Colonial One. Although not sure what to make of her claims, Admiral Adama releases her later, and gives her command of the Demetrius, and a crew including Karl Agathon and Samuel Anders, telling her to try to find Earth (Six of One).
• Thrace irritates her crew by frequent, unexplained course changes and rarely leaving her quarters, where she holes herself up to study star charts. When her husband confronts her about her command style and their marriage, she tells him that she is not the same person he married and tries to throw him out of her cabin. However, when Anders holds her, she tells him that she wants to have sex in order to feel something. Afterwards, she says that she feels distanced from her body and the events around her (The Ties That Bind).
• When a Leoben Conoy copy comes aboard the Demetrius with the offer of an alliance with the Cylons, a power struggle among the crew breaks out when Thrace orders to jump to his baseship (The Road Less Traveled). The fight ends with Gaeta getting shot in the leg by Anders. After standing down, Thrace decides to accompany Conoy with a small team. On his baseship she meets the Cylon Hybrid, who repeats the first Hybrid's prophecy (Razor) and gives her the next task: join the Cylons to unbox Number Three to learn what she knows of the Final Five (Faith).
• After the unboxing, Thrace reacts with shock and disbelief when she learns that her husband is a Cylon. She investigates the Viper she returned in and notices that it receives a strange signal, giving her a direct bearing to Earth. Her discovery stops the imminent execution of Colonel Tigh and leads to a truce with the Cylon rebels. After arriving at Earth, Thrace is part of the first group on the surface, but finds only a destroyed city (Revelations).

Currently...

• Thrace and Leoben explore the devastated Earth trying to find the source of the signal. They find pieces of wreckage belonging to a Colonial Viper - the same Viper that Thrace flew into the gas giant. Finally, they come upon the cockpit of the crashed Viper - with its pilot still inside. Thrace is horrified to discover the dead pilot's identity: It's her. Thrace reveals to Leoben that the Hybrid called her the "Harbinger of Death." Leoben has no explanation for any of this and flees the scene, leaving Thrace alone to wonder who or what she really is. Thrace later retrieves the dog tags and wedding ring from the body. She then cremates the body and returns to Galactica. She does not tell anyone what she has discovered. (Sometimes a Great Notion).
• After Galactica leaves Earth, Thrace is still trying to come to terms with her discoveries on Earth. Unfortunately, Gaeta, who is unhappy about the Fleet's alliance with the Cylons, decides to pick a fight with her. The two exchange harsh words and insults; Gaeta accuses Thrace of collaborating with the Cylons, while Thrace retorts that Gaeta is just bitter because he lost his leg. Gaeta makes a thinly-veiled threat against Thrace, who responds by telling him she isn't afraid to beat up a cripple. Thrace then storms off. (A Disquiet Follows My Soul).
• Thrace is next seen in her barracks with Hot Dog. She teases him about his unexpected fathering of Nicholas Tyrol. Hot Dog is not amused and angrily retorts that Thrace slept with half the Fleet herself and has nothing to show for her efforts. This hits a nerve and Thrace throws a bowl of food at a retreating Hot Dog.
• An alarm goes off and Thrace is ordered by Narcho to evacuate the area. Thrace is suspicious and when she presses Narcho for more information, Narcho snaps that no one even knows what she is any more.
• Thrace turns to see a group of marines and civilians led by Charlie Connor run past her, and she follows them. She sees the group break into a weapons locker and arm themselves. She hears Connor giving his men orders to take the hangar deck.
• Thrace rushes back to her barracks and grabs her weapons. She then tries to warn the CIC, but Gaeta blocks her calls. Realizing that Gaeta is also involved, Thrace takes off for the hangar deck.
• She arrives at the hangar deck just in time to rescue Lee from Connor and his men who are being assisted by Racetrack and Skulls. Thrace kills one of the marines and wounds Skulls, forcing the others to back off. She and Lee then hurry away.

• Thrace and Lee take refuge inside a storage compartment. Lee doesn't think they can defeat the mutiny alone. Thrace responds by kissing him. She then says that this is the first time in weeks that she feels right.
• Thrace and Adama head for the CIC. They find that the mutiny has spread all across the ship. They arrive at Admiral Adama's quarters, where they meet Roslin. After learning of the mutiny, Roslin decides that she must come out and address the Fleet. However, the ship's communications are down, and the only working transmitter on the ship is in Baltar's possession.
• Thrace, Adama, and Roslin make it to Baltar's compartment, where they find Tyrol organizing a defense. Tyrol tells them that Admiral Adama has been arrested and is being escorted to the brig. Tyrol also tells them about a secondary storage airlock they can use to escape the ship. Thrace and Adama head off to rescue the admiral.
• At the brig, they find that Admiral Adama and Colonel Tigh have already escaped custody. They have also taken a rebel marine Nowart prisoner. Thrace tries to kill Nowart, but the admiral stops her. As Nowart flees, Thrace argues that the mutineers are the enemy and that they can't afford to take prisoners.
• Thrace, Tigh and the Adamas arrive at the secondary storage airlock, where they find Tyrol, Roslin and Baltar waiting. A Raptor piloted by an Eight docks. After Roslin and Baltar board the Raptor, Thrace, Lee and Tyrol head off to continue the fight against Gaeta and Zarek's forces. (The Oath)
• Lee and Kara head off to free the captives held in the brig, while Tyrol goes to sabotage the ship's FTL drive. They take out the mutineers guarding the brig and free Tigh, Athena, Helo, Hera, Caprica Six and Anders.
• There is a firefight outside and Anders is shot in the back of the head. He is not killed but is in dire need of medical attention. Thrace yells at the others to go without her and she starts dragging Anders towards the infirmary.
• Kara eventually exhausts herself trying to carry Anders and she collapses. A rebel marine escorting Romo Lampkin appears. Kara tries to shoot the marine but her gun is empty. However, Lampkin suddenly stabs the marine with a pen killing him.
• Kara asks Lampkin to help her carry Anders to the infirmary. Lampkin is initially reluctant but eventually agrees to help. (Blood on the Scales)
• In the immediate aftermath of the mutiny, Thrace learns from Cottle that the bullet is still stuck in Anders' skull. Anders' suppressed memories of his Cylon life back on Earth are also triggered. To Thrace's disappointment, Anders does not have an explanation as to who she really is or how she apparently came back from the dead.
• Cottle manages to remove the bullet, which he gives to Thrace. However, when Kara goes to speak with Anders, she discovers that he has zero brain activity - which the medical personnel are unable to explain. (No Exit).
• Thrace is later part of a joint Cylon-Colonial CAP which escorts a Raptor carrying Ellen Tigh and Boomer onto the Galactica.
• Thrace is later seen in Galactica's bar drinking and toying with the bullet removed from Anders' skull. She and Tyrol have a brief discussion about Boomer, who is being held in the brig. (Deadlock)
• Kara gets a drawing of what seems to be stars from Hera and later visits Joe's Bar where she helps piano player Slick with the music he's composing. There she reveals that she used to play piano as a girl with her father until he left and then stopped and she had a song she used to play that made her happy. She realizes that Hera's drawing is of the notes for that song and she and Slick start playing it together. It turns out to be The Music and Slick disappears and its indicated he was some kind of vision of her father. She later goes to Anders to try to get some answers about what she is and the Music, but is apparently unsuccessful.
• When Admiral Adama comes to see Anders (who is acting as Galactica's Hybrid) to find out the location of the Colony, Kara reveals to him that she has tried to make sense out of the notes by assigning numbers to them, but has had no luck in understanding it. Adama tells her he knows who she is: she's his daughter Later she and Adama spread red tape down the hanger deck to create a line for people to cross one way or the other to show whether or not they volunteer for the rescue mission for Hera. Kara stays on the volunteers side of the line and doesn't move the whole time having made her choice.
• During the battle, she leads a strike force that includes Helo and Athena into The Colony through Raptors. They encounter Boomer who gives them back Hera before being killed by Athena. Kara's team meets up with Lee's and they retreat to Galactica which has its nose inside the Colony as their Raptors have been destroyed as revealed by Boomer.
• Kara helps defend the ship and after an agreement is reached with Cavil, takes damage reports on their forces alongside Lee. After things go badly and the Colony starts to fall into the black hole, Galactica along with it, Kara, the nearest person to the FTL console, is ordered to jump them away. Kara doesn't know the rendezvous coordinates, but Adama tells her it doesn't matter, just get them out of there. Kara, hit with inspiration, inputs the numbers she assigned to The Music's notes as the coordinates and jumps Galactica there. They find out that where she took them is a habitable planet that the fleet turns into its new home and names Earth.
• Kara says goodbye to Sam before he flies the Fleet into the sun, destroying Galactica and the other ships. Kara later says a final goodbye to Admiral Adama and tells Lee she's also leaving and not coming back. She was sent back from the dead to guide the Fleet to its new home and now her journey's complete. Kara then disappears into thin air and is not seen again.

Lord of Kobol, Hear My Prayer

Despite her tough, rebellious exterior, Thrace is deeply spiritual and possesses a great deal of faith in the Lords of Kobol. She usually prays in moments of mourning or desperation, such as when she thinks Lee is dead (Miniseries), when she is trapped on a desolate moon with a broken knee and low oxygen (You Can't Go Home Again), and when she discovers she's in Cylon captivity (The Farm). This spirituality is put to the test as a series of events lead her towards a mysterious destiny.

The Destiny

Main article: The Destiny

From early in her life, Kara Thrace has been guided through her mother's actions for a special role in life, a plot point that begins with a Leoben Conoy copy in the Season 1 episode, "Flesh and Bone". In "Maelstrom", the character dies, but reappears as a possible herald at the end of Season 3.

A Cylon Hybrid, speaking to Major Kendra Shaw moments before their deaths, warns her that Thrace is the herald of the apocalypse and the harbinger of death, that she would lead the human race to its end, and that she is not to be followed (Razor). Similarly, another Hybrid describes her as the harbinger of death, and she would lead them to salvation and destruction (Faith).

Notes

• On the Sci-Fi Channel's preview for season 2.5 (US), Katee Sackhoff is quoted as saying that Starbuck is "the best Viper pilot...EVER."
• Thrace was a region in south-eastern Europe that was heavily influenced by the ancient Greeks and was eventually conquered by Phillip II of Macedonia. Thracians were considered by most to be the most ferocious fighters and were often highly paid mercenaries for Greek kings.
• Thrace may have been named after Thrax, the son of Ares, the god of war, who was said to reside on the Thracian plain in Greek mythology.
• After auditioning for the role of Dualla, Grace Park was asked by director Michael Rymer to audition for the role of Starbuck, and she was actually one of two finalists up for the role (the other obviously being Katee Sackhoff, who got the part). Ultimately Park was cast as Sharon "Boomer" Valerii.
• In a TV Guide photo shoot at the BSG studios, Katee Sackhoff explained that the tattoo that Starbuck bears on her left arm is a wing and a circle and has half of the constellation of Capricorn (a reference to Caprica obviously) and a small symbol of the planet as well. It matches a mirror image of the tattoo on Anders' right arm. When the two of them hold each other with their respective arms crossing, the 2 tattoos come together to form an image of a single ring with 2 wings that is supposed to represent their union. According to Sackhoff, Kara and Anders had the tattoos done around the time of their wedding, a fact later confirmed in dialogue during Season 4.5.
• The license plate on Thrace's truck on Caprica is "FB 42 E3" (Valley of Darkness).

Preceded by: Cole "Stinger" Taylor	Commander, Air Group, Pegasus	Succeeded by: Unknown Ship later destroyed
Preceded by: Lee "Apollo" Adama	Commander, Air Group, Galactica	Succeeded by: Louanne "Kat" Katraine
Preceded by: Karl "Helo" Agathon	Commander, Air Group, Galactica	Succeeded by: None Ship destroyed