This Friday on “Caprica” ep 13: “False Labor”

Today’s Tauron lesson – when presented with an opportunity to kill your opponent, just do it. Actually, that goes for a lot of situations on TV, but nobody ever seems to learn – well except Sam here, I guess.

You have to love Tauron logic: Sam, you interfered with Atreus’s gunrunning, which you had no right to do. He was perfectly justified in killing your friend Demos. But, what the heck, kill him anyway. The whole reason Sam is running guns to Tauron is not for money, but because Tauron rebels are fighting a rebellion against the government, just as their ancestors did. But the Guatrau tells him hey, the rulers are Taurons too, remember. That’s like saying, hey don’t help the Jewish underground rebel against Hitler. After all, in the end they’re both Germans, right? Like I said, that’s Tauron logic for you. Even Joseph displays mixed signals. He tells Daniel at one point “I’m not your enemy.” But when Daniel mentions the importance of having someone to love, Joe tells him “I did. Until your daughter blew her up.” Sounds like an enemy to me. I did like the line when they tried to smuggle the guns out in a coffin, and Atreus tells them the death "looks gun-related.”

At least, we saw Will again this week, although it was little more than “Hi, dad.” Joseph’s mother is playing matchmaker with Evelyn. Come by tonight and check on him; He’ll be all alone. Joseph seems oblivious to her at one point, jealous that Daniel has someone to love. But by the end of the episode, oh boy, does he notice her. She was hard to miss in that stunning outfit.

We also see Daniel apparently pitching his “Grieve no more” product, now officially titled "Grace". He looks like someone pitching laundry detergent. Thankfully, it turns out this was just a CGI version of him, as he wouldn’t answer his phone calls or e-mails, so they just went along without him so to speak. He won’t stand for such a version of himself, so he is told by the Guatrau to make an actual commercial then or they will air this one.

Meanwhile, he’s trying to perfect his Grace product by making the perfect Amanda. Trouble is she’s not quite right – first, she doesn’t have real emotion, just reciting things she’s read without feeling them. Later, she’s too eager to forgive and swallow his half-truth explanations. Some men may want a Stepford wife, but not Daniel. (I thought I had caught a major gaffe when Daniel told Amanda he stole Vergis’s chip to try and get Zoe back – which was pure BS. But he later tells the Amanda avatar that he was just giving her half-truths, which he was.) This week contained the infamous preview scene where Amanda asks “What do you want?” and Daniel yells, “I want you to be real!” after which we see Amanda res out. That’s what made me think earlier that Amanda was really dead and existing only as an avatar.

Finally, there’s the real Amanda – superspy! Mar-Beth revolts against her presence and demands that she leave, because Amanda was a nurse, and Mar-Beth wants no part of any medical treatment for her friend’s pregnancy. Thus they mix a little Seventh-Day Adventist philosophy into this hodgepodge of religions that is the STO. Amanda responds by playing up to Mar-Beth’s feelings. She tells her how good it is that everyone there is like a family to the soon-to-be-born child. She relates her early failures with Zoe, who was an “accident” and later victimized by Amanda’s postpartum depression. Mar-Beth is impressed by her honesty and gives her a second chance. Later, Amanda admits to Durham “I lied,” although I suspect it’s more like she gave her some half-truths. What portion of it was actually true we may never know. Best line of the night was spoken to Clarice: “Funny how God’s will always seems to serve your needs.”

Oh, and the other big event is Sam finding a use for the Cylon, to polish off his enemy along with his associates and a few girls who had the misfortune of being around when the bullets started flying. I must say, for a machine that supposedly wasn’t working right without the Zoe chip, then was fitted with just a Vergis chip that he claimed never worked right, those things work pretty darn well now. Except for the collateral damage, that is.

Okay, not a hugely dramatic episode and not a lot of movement plotwise but still interesting overall. I’ll give it 7 stunning outfits with matching pearls.

And when I die, and when I'm gone
there'll be one child born in this world to carry on
to carry on.

Man, that composite scene was awesome, the way Clarice's birthing prayer about every ending being the beginning of something else provided a common thread throughout all the storylines.

Still a little disturbing to have Mar-Beth's scream in labor carry over into Evelyn's orgasm. Biologically appropriate, though, I guess.

Somehow, it makes perfect sense for Daniel to work out his attempted reverse-engineer of Zoe's sentient avatar program by making an Amanda avatar. Someone he knows intimately and can pick up on any defects in how she responds to him pushing her buttons.

Still quite an emotional ringer to run himself through just to troubleshoot a new software. Imagine how hard it would be if he actually had empathy for sentient avatars. If considering them "real" were more than words to him it might prove to be too egregious a task.

Even a mean, warlike granny can be a sweet little old lady in some ways. She senses Ev's interest in Joseph. She approves of Ev for Joseph. She finds a nice way to facilitate it.

For a ruthless mob killer, you gotta love Sam's personal touch when on the job. Which can be a good thing for him. Since he found cylons useful as hit-units, and the ha-la-tha now control the cylon factory, he could be in danger of getting replaced by a machine.

Speaking of Sam's vocation, looks like tension brewing between him and the Guatrau over the Tauron civil war situation. That's gotta be going somewhere.

Nice ep. Moved the story along and entered just enough new territory to leave me wanting to see what happens. 8 holobands shattered against the wall in frustration and then repaired by hand. (He runs the company that makes those and he can't just sync up his content to a new one?)

___________

I'd've gotten away with it, too, if it weren't for you meddling kids.

The show was cancelled immediately following this episode, as I recall.

You know, I actually liked iAmanda better. Her matrix was unstable, but at least she was not as emotionally unstable as the real thing. iAmanda is far from a wife someone could love and be loved by, but I just don't like the real amanda, sorry. Oh, well, truth be told they are making the Amanda character interesting for a change (finally) with her spy shenanigan, but still I wouldn't like her as a wife.

Indeed, I think Amanda and Agent Duram make a better couple than Amanda and Daniel. Perhaps, after the show is over, Jordan and Amanda could open their own detective agency, and if it's successful it could last the whole 58 years the planet has left... No more than that, of course. Anyway, the part Amanda lied to Mar-Beth about her postpartum depression was intriguing, because she seemed sincere, the story made sense, but apparently it was a lie. So, I wonder what Amanda's pregnancy and Zoe's birth were really like.

Anyway, whatever Amanda is selling, Mar-Beth isn't really buying it. The problem in that house is that there are too many women, and if on wife per family is complication enough, imagine several! Ha, ha. Just kidding, the more the merrier, of course.

It's chilling to think humans are teaching Cylons so well how to kill other humans. Later they'll ask themselves where those toasters got these ideas. Talk about killing a fly with a cannon, or whatever idiom you English speakers use. A lot of firepower for a personal vendetta, though I have to admit Sam did what he had to do, and, as Brimfin pointed outm, you don't let an enemy live. It worked, I grant you, but at what price? Sam has no idea of the consequences. And the Guatrau, in his whole innocence" says that a weapon is as smart as the hand that wields it, or something. Speaking of smart, that was ultimately stupid whenever a Cylon is involved.

So we learn that the Guatrau is not a Tauron-born, so this is why he "doesn't get it." This definitely CANNOT end well, with the moods being stirred so violently among Tauron fundamentalists, especially with a revolution going on. Also, we've learned what Ha'la'tha means, something to do with the soil all around us... In that case, it makes sense that the Ha'la'tha should be faithful to the Tauron soil, in spite of the government commanding it.

Evelyn's moment conquering Joseph's affection was touching and beautiful, and once again I agree with our friend: that was a great outfit with matching pearls. It seems Joseph is slowly pulling himself together. First he recognized his Tauron roots, changing his name in the process. Now, once he has abandoned his obsession with Tamara, it seems he's building his personal life again. I just wish they hadn't put Willie's story with the mob in the back burner for such a long time, because that was simply forgotten.

Wow, what a horrible Graystone commercial for Grace. And a fine acting job by Eric Stoltz, because the avatar, which was not even properly "rendered," presented sort of wooden acting skills. Daniel still tried to save face saying that he wasn't against the concept itself, but it cost him dearly to pretend he still had some say in his company. But it's his fault ultimately because it was he who looked for the ha'la'that and he who proposed the selling of this product, which, let's face it, many will call an abomination. And judging by Avatar Amanda, they don't even have a viable product. And what's the deal with this third shift? That seems, well, shifty... (Ha, ha, you like it?)

No iZoe, iTamara or Lacy this time. Oh, well, when you have a big cast you either do it like some episodes of Game of Thrones, hope around the place with a three minute-scene with each and every character, or dedicate an episode or two to one group of characters. The problem with Caprica, however is that the writers tend to seem to simply forget things they began, as dtmuller so aptly reminds us.

And I completely agree with our friend "bob-number sequence" as the birth/love making montage in the end was very well done, especially enhanced by the musical score.

Some memorable quotes (I'm paraphrasing because I'm too lazy to check):

Guatrau: "There's no substitute for the real thing." (Daniel's face was priceless.)

Atreus: "If you mess with our gun business, the soil is gonna get crowded." (He was an incompetent gangster, but his self-fulfilling profecy was a nice touch, and an ironic one.)

Cylon: "Mission accomplished. By your command." (Chilling... Just chilling.)

Amanda: "So say we all." (It wouldn't be the BSG universe without someone saying that every once in a while.)

All in all a very interesting episode. I give it 8 agreeable Avatar Amandas.

I followed you guys all the way from the "Day Break" board. I like the premise you guys are using. Im going to skip this series as I'm just starting Dark Skies and finishing up Alias. Just going to wait it out and see were you go next.
Will my vote count when you put the poll up?

several people have complained about how all the characters on Caprica are bad people. on the one hand, I don't have a problem with that; it's a common dramatic conceit that we follow people doing bad things; we simple adjust our moral compass a bit and keep going. on the other hand, I rather enjoyd that scene between Daniel and Joseph. It re-humanized them a bit, showing that despite their "bad" actions, they both still would like to be good men, they're just a little lost.

in a way, that's sort of the overall point of this show--encapsulated in Daniel's line about how he still won't smoke inside because it's the little rules that are hardest to break--we are all capable of doing bad things but that doesn't necessarily make us bad people... AND, sometimes we ARE bad people but we can still do good things

some people are not as comfortable with moral relativism like I guess I am

-author of the groundhog day project (groundhogdayproject.com)-

This Friday on “Caprica” ep 13: “False Labor”
Yea this one was a little better I learned not to ever point a gun at Sam. Bet the knuckle head wished he would have had a round in the gun instead of trying to scare him. It didn’t take long for Sam to figure out how the use the cylon for its true purpose as a terror weapon. I guess Daniel has worked out the bugs seemed like a pretty formidable weapon. No Lacy and iZoe this weekend but we did get a lot of iAmanda as Daniel try to work out the programming details. So Daniel takes your online presence and somehow converts this information into your personality that’s a bit of a stretch for me. But in today’s world maybe there is enough information collected by facebook, google, and NSA to somehow use it to construct a personality. Amanda deep into the devils den to assist the detective on trying to expose Sister Willow I wonder how deep the conspiracy runs. I feel like we have only scratched the surface.

Give this one a six.

Agent Stone update I spoke with him Friday evening he is at home resting comfortably. I feel like it’s going to be a while before he’s up to full speed again. I threaten to stop by if he doesn’t feel better soon and watch supercar episodes until his health improves. For those of you with my email address and would like to know more details please feel free to email me.