Is Starbuck Really Dead?

Last night on Battlestar Galactica, Starbuck made her peace with the world, with her mother, and with herself, and literally flew off into the great unknown. It was rather anti-climactic, but I gather that was the point. I was half expecting her to wake up in a Cylon resurrection tank at the very end of the episode, but that would have been too easy. As I've said time and time again, Battlestar Galactica may be one of the most challenging television programs ever made. As viewers, we're left on the hook as to the ultimate fate of a character we care about. She could wake up as a Cylon next week, or even next season- or we may literally never see her again.

Personally, I think she has to be back, on some level- if not as a Cylon, then as some sort of religious icon. All the discussion about her destiny and her greatness- from human and Cylon alike- has to have some meaning, as do the pictures she's painted since she was a child. Unless of course, none of it means anything. Maybe the ultimate point is that there's no such thing as fate, and we're all trapped in a fracked up obsession for meaning in our lives that Starbuck finally escaped from. Or maybe it's about something else entirely. Who the frack knows.