Back before New Caprica and Season Three, when Pegasus was still flying, Apollo had a CAG named Kendra Shaw. Admiral Cain"s favorite, a first-hand witness to the excesses of the Pegasus, and pretty much the Cain-flavored version of Starbuck, Shaw was: present for the attack on the Colonies, for Cain"s summary execution of her friend and XO, directly responsible for the massacre on the Scylla, and implicated in the consequences for her discovery that Cain"s lover, Gina, is a Cylon operative. By the time she catches up to the main timeline and becomes Apollo"s XO, she"s also a heroin addict and serious malcontent. You can"t really blame her. I started asking for hard drugs about twenty minutes in.
Apollo sends Shaw and Starbuck out to an old Cylon base, which has captured a team of civilian scientists. Turns out Admiral Adama has just forgotten to mention in the last three years that during the first Cylon War, he was privy to the beginning of the experiments that would result later in the creation of the Hybrids that run the Cylon Basestars, and saw the human misery that went into it up close. Despite Lee"s best efforts to get Kara killed, Shaw"s crazy tactics and propensity for shooting folks in the head means she"s the last man left behind. Then things get weird and totally awesome. Shaw learns that Starbuck"s actual destiny is to be: the harbinger of the Apocalypse. If Kara Thrace leads humanity to Earth, it will spell the end of humanity. Then, Shaw kills both herself and God.
Only slightly worse and harder to think about than the preceding paragraphs are two facts: Season Four won"t start until April, and it might never ever conclude, depending on the writers" strike. So have fun with this one, if you can!