Margaret Edmondson

Margaret Edmondson (callsign "Racetrack") is a fictional character in the television series Battlestar Galactica, portrayed by actress Leah Cairns.

Margaret Edmondson
Battlestar Galactica character
Leah Cairns as Lieutenant Margaret "Racetrack" Edmondson in "Flight of the Phoenix"
First appearance"Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part 2"
Last appearance"Daybreak, Part 2"
Portrayed byLeah Cairns
In-universe information
AliasRacetrack, Marge
TitleLieutenant
AffiliationColonial Fleet

Racetrack is a lieutenant assigned to the Battlestar Galactica, piloting Raptors and "backseating" as an Electronic Countermeasures Officer (ECO). She first appears in "Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part Two" as Sharon "Boomer" Valerii's ECO, becoming the first human to see the inside of a Cylon Basestar.[1] On their return, she is a witness first to Boomer's attempted assassination of Adama and then of Cally's successful assassination of Boomer. In between these events, she is instrumental in Lee Adama's plan to jailbreak Laura Roslin.[2] During this phase of the show, Racetrack is particularly and visibly more traumatized and wounded even than the rest of the crew.[3][4]

Racetrack is a witness to the arrival of Adm. Helena Cain and the Battlestar Pegasus before we see her volunteering for a risky SAR to Caprica. On the first jump, a computer error sends her Raptor to the wrong coordinates; preparing to return to Galactica, Racetrack discovers a planet that the fleet could colonize. Presidential candidate Gaius Baltar makes colonization of this planet an issue in the election, and after his victory, settlement of the planet, now named New Caprica, begins.[5] Many crew members (but not, notably, Racetrack) muster-out and settle. When the Cylons locate and occupy the planet a year later, Racetrack is part of Galactica's remaining skeleton crew, and leads the Raptor mission to draw the Cylon forces away from New Caprica while Galactica covers the civilians' escape.[6]

With the Pegasus destroyed in the escape from New Caprica, the combined air wing embarked on the Galactica has an excess of qualified pilots. Desperate to keep up her flying hours, Racetrack volunteers to serve as Sharon "Athena" Agathon's ECO,[7] eventually reclaiming a Raptor of her own. During this period, she has repeated close-calls with death both from equipment malfunctions and assassination attempts on people in that she is tasked to transport.[8][9] At the end of season three, she seems to have won some personal respite, until one, last split-second escape in "Crossroads, Part One."[10] In "Crossroads, Part Two," there is a harsh, brittle edge to her, and by "Escape Velocity" and "The Hub"—in which she becomes the first human to have eyes on the eponymous facility—catatonia seems to be setting in.

When Felix Gaeta instigates a mutiny against Adama, Racetrack and her co-pilot Hamish "Skulls" McCall side with the mutineers,[11] and are detained.[12] But when Adama calls for volunteers for a dangerous recon mission to locate the Cylon's home base, "The Colony," Racetrack volunteers. She succeeds, becoming the first human to see it, and allowing Adama to plan an assault on the facility, but is killed in action during that assault, immediately after arming her weapons.[13] Soon thereafter, at a critical moment of events, an asteroid bumps into the Raptor, and Racetrack's hand slips onto the launch button, firing the Raptor's nukes; thus, Racetrack's last action is to save the humans and allied Cylons and to destroy the Colony.

In "The Woman King," Charlie Connor—a resistance fighter on New Caprica turned barman in the pilots' lounge–refers to Racetrack as "Marge." He and Edmondson appear to have a fractious relationship.

Footnotes
  1. "Kobol's Last Gleaming". Battlestar Galactica (2004 TV series).
  2. "Resistance". Battlestar Galactica (2004 TV series).
  3. "Flight". Battlestar Galactica (2004 TV series).
  4. "Final Cut". Battlestar Galactica (2004 TV series).
  5. "Lay Down Your Burdens". Battlestar Galactica (2004 TV series).
  6. "Exodus". Battlestar Galactica (2004 TV series).
  7. "Torn". Battlestar Galactica (2004 TV series).
  8. "DirtyHands". Battlestar Galactica (2004 TV series).
  9. "SonAlsoRises". Battlestar Galactica (2004 TV series).
  10. "Crossroads". Battlestar Galactica (2004 TV series).
  11. "The Oath". Battlestar Galactica (2004 TV series).
  12. "Blood on the Scales". Battlestar Galactica (2004 TV series).
  13. "Daybreak". Battlestar Galactica (2004 TV series).
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