In the episode, Viper pilots Starbuck and Kat form a rivalry over which of them will destroy Scar, a feared Cylon Raider.

Their mutual animosity has been identified as an inversion of typical gender roles, especially in comparison with the male pilot Apollo.

Later, Kat interrupts Starbuck during a briefing, breaks her record in a test of shooting a side arm accurately while dizzy, and chastises her after her advice gets a rookie pilot killed by Scar.

Back in the mess, Starbuck yields her stein to Kat and toasts a succession of pilots who have perished since the war began.

Moore notes that, despite Starbuck's reputation as a superior fighter pilot, "Scar" demonstrates a number of her character flaws and poor choices.

Moore contrasts Apollo's calm in "Scar" with Starbuck and Kat's mutual animosity and suggests that this amounts to a reversal of gender roles.

[1] Clifton contends that Helo, as a pilot of Raptors rather than Vipers, does not fully understand Starbuck's loss, but he makes up for it by being instinctively supportive.

Clifton notes further that Starbuck's status as an adult survivor of child abuse complicates her feelings on these issues.

[2] Kat and some other pilots try to remember the name of a fallen comrade's girlfriend who died in the attack on the Colonies, but Starbuck considers it pointless.

[6][7] One key plot point they discussed at length was a motive for Galactica staying in one place while Scar shoots down its fighters one at a time.

Slate summarized the ensuing discussion:[8] One writer suggests that they're fixing the engines (a true standby of science fiction, one that served Star Trek for decades).

Moore eventually decides that the fleet must have manufacturing facilities, but needs raw material, some magic metal for building Vipers found only where the ship is stuck.

'A scene of auctioning off a recently killed rookie pilot's belongings was written and filmed, but it was cut from the episode.

[1] In a rare break from the series's cinéma vérité style, director Michael Nankin slows down time as Starbuck remembers Anders in the moments before she swerves from Scar.

The episode closes with Stanley Myers's classical guitar piece "Cavatina", the theme from the 1978 film The Deer Hunter.

"[11] Amanda Keith of the Los Angeles Newspaper Group noted that Katee Sackhoff's portrayal of Starbuck had evolved from a "larger-than life character" to one that is "one hundred different kinds of frakked up".

[12] Keith called it "a remarkable transformation, and another sign that the [Battlestar Galactica] actors really was [sic] robbed of Emmy glory.

[13] Right before the series finale, as part of a retrospective look at the series, Alan Sepinwall of The Star-Ledger included "Scar" on his list of favorite episodes, calling it a "great self-contained show, and one of the best showcases Katee Sackhoff ever got, as we spend an entire hour just living with the Viper pilots and getting a better sense of the emotional toll of war without end for the toughest warrior of them all.

[17] Eric Goldman of IGN ranked Starbuck's showdown with Scar at #19 on his list of the series's top "storylines and moments", calling it a "visually strong battle sequence".