After an accidental explosion in one of the hangar decks kills thirteen pilots, Commander Adama asks Starbuck to start training new ones. That's not something she's eager to do, though: during her last stint as a flight instructor, she passed her fiancee Zak (Adama's son and Lee's brother) despite his lack of skill, and he later died in a Viper crash. She had confessed that to Apollo in the miniseries, but never to his father. (During this episode, we get a number of flashbacks to Kara and Zak's relationship and her first meeting with Adama.) After she overreacts and flunks all of the new trainees on their first day, Lee goes to tell Adama that she's not thinking clearly and ends up accidentally spilling the beans. She's forced to come clean, and Adama angrily orders her to resume the training. Later, Starbuck is out with her trainees when eight Cylon Raiders show up out of the blue; she orders the others back to Galactica and turns to take on the Cylons herself. One of them, Hot Dog, follows, and his ship is disabled; they take out seven Raiders, but Starbuck and the last Raider end up crashing down to the surface of a nearby planet. Starbuck ejects as her Viper breaks up, and we're left with a "To Be Continued."