Caprica 1.07 “The Imperfections Of Memories” Recap

Is Amanda losing her mind? Will Joseph find Tamara? Will Daniel buckle under the pressure? What about Clarice and her quest for Zoe’s Holy Grail? And can Lacy give us something to care about tonight? These are some of the questions presented to us to last night on Caprica, and while all of them weren’t necessarily answered they did push character motivations forward a little, which was great.

The Set Up

Amanda dreams that she is running after a man. After she wakes up, she reaches for a book that contains an envelope that is from the Delphi Convalescent Institute. She clutches and lays back down. Meanwhile, Clarice is woken by Olaf, who explains to her that even though they found the avatar program, Zoe’s avatar was no longer in Daniel’s CPU. We, the audience, knows that this is because the avatar is now in the U-87 MCP, which in Clarice’s mind means resurrection is possible. She then decides to become even more buddy buddy with Amanda in order to find the avatar.

A little bit later, Amanda shows up at the MEGLEV Bombing memorial site, where workers are moving the contents to another location. As onlookers pile up, Amanda appears and causes a scene that forces the workers to leave. Clarice shows up as well and helps in the protest. But Amanda spies the guy in her dream in the crowd and proceeds to take pictures of him until Clarice drags her to her car. In the car, Amanda reveals to Clarice that the guy she thinks she saw was her brother Darius, who is dead. Whaaaa???

Zoe 2.0 meets Lacy in the V-Club and tells her about Clarice’s snooping in the lab. She then senses that something is up with the plan with Barnabas that Lacy isn’t telling her. It seems that Zoe is working on Philomon to package the U-87 droid, while she needs Lacy to help deliver it. Lacy swears her allegiance, but I don’t think Zoe buys it.

Tad, aka Gamer from New Cap City, is found by Joseph who demands that Tad takes him to Tamara. Tad doesn’t want to do it and talks about how dead people shouldn’t have avatars, which prompts Joseph to correct Tad in saying that Tamara isn’t dead. Cuckoo, anyone? Tad relents and takes Joseph into the game of New Cap City.

Boys on the Side

Amanda has another vision of chasing her brother through a hospital. We then flash to Amanda looking at the blurred photos that she took. She has nothing to go by.

Later, Amanda witnesses a car accident on the street and sees her brother in the crowd. He runs when she spots him and she takes off behind him. She follows him into a dead end, but there is no Darius. She does find a Caprica City Museum flyer with the painting of a bridge on there. The bridge reminds her of an actual place. Amanda sadly takes the flyer with her. She takes a pill and wraps up the flyer, clearly disturbed.

At the House of Willow, Olaf chastises Clarice for wrapping a bottle of expensive Scorpian wine for Amanda, while she claims that since Amanda sees people that aren’t there, that there might be a connection and that the Graystone women are agents of God. Okay then…

Clarice brings Amanda the wine and Amanda reveals the mystery of her brother. Darius died in a car crash (she saw him at a car crash) and the picture of the bridge is the same place that Darius died at. Amanda says she knows, because she was in the car as well. She mentions that therapy and all that didn’t help, but the drugs did. She starts to feel vulnerable and Clarice promises not to tell, which prompts Amanda to ask is it because they are friends. Clarice, smiling cryptically, doesn’t answer. Wow. What the frak is going on with Amanda?!

Daniel returns home and after discussing his day with Amanda, notices the bottle of wine. Amanda says that it’s from a friend and when Daniel asks if he should be jealous, Amanda says she’s not sure. Huh? After Daniel leaves, Amanda takes a pill and calls Clarice for a girls’ night out. Clarice is at the opium bar. This doesn’t seem like it will end well.

The two women light up and are high as two clouds on a clear summer day. After saying the BSGverse phrase of “This has happened before and it will happen again,” Amanda claims that she is bracing herself for a return to the Delphi Convalescent Institute, because that’s where she stayed for two and half years to cope with reality. When Clarice stares on, Amanda continues saying that she lost her mind chasing after her brother in all types of places and that by not saying how she felt when she had the time, he was taken from her. And that it’s her punishment to be left behind with things unsaid. In other words, this happened before with Darius and it might happen again with Zoe. Clarice then tries to convert Amanda into the monotheistic belief of the one true God, but by the look on her face and Amanda’s question of “Which god do I trust?”, she failed miserably.

Joseph and The Technicolor Nightmare

Tad gives Joseph the story of New Cap City and the rules, especially the dying part. Once they get in, the place is rocked by bombings on the streets.

The city looks like it’s in ruins, people are running all over the place, and bombs are blasting just about everywhere. After having his emotions ridiculed for wanting to fly in the game, Joseph learns more about NCC from Tad. Even though it’s set in the real world, morals don’t exist here, but a Caprican version of Viagra does. I don’t know if that was necessary info, but…

As they continue to walk, a dirigible starts firing at them. The thing eventually shoots Tad and he ‘dies’ in the game and de-rezzes out. In the real world, Tad is beyond pissed and curses Joseph for his ‘death’, telling the disillusioned father that he is on his own now.

Joseph returns back into the game alone, but someone is stalking him and it’s a female. The woman eventually catches up with him and introduces herself as Emmanuelle, his new guide. But for her services there is a price… Joseph worries about getting killed and Emmanuelle tells him simply don’t get killed. They then start their journey into the almost war torn Caprica City.

Lacy and Keon

Lacy whines about not getting Barnabas to help her, which Keon says would be easy if she would become S.T.O. and Barnabas would have no problem helping her then. But I thought Lacy was already… never mind. So Lacy says she will become S.T.O., as if it is easy peasy. She can see the look of worry in her eyes, but she says that she will be fine as long as Keon is beside her.

Zoe’s Plan

Philomon engages in a date with ‘Rachel’ in the V-World. The setting is them flying Vipers, which ‘Rachel’/Zoe 2.o (and I) think is completely dorkish. After Philomon tells ‘Rachel’ to take off auto pilot, the Viper loses control and starts to go down. Boring…

After the ‘crash’, the two sit on the side of a cliff and Zoe goes in for the kill. She starts talking about how V-World is a waste of good technology and that it should be used for good, not for demoralized fantasies. She suggests that they extend life in the V-world instead of faking it. She goes on to say that living systems use generative algorithms and with those they can create actual trees. Philomon responds on how he works with top secret military bots, which Zoe says is sexy before she kisses him.

She then starts sprouting techno-babble about robots and modulatory stuff that prompts Philomon to solve realize something about the U-87 droid. Zoe’s plan of getting Philomon to release the U-87 into the world backfires as he grasps the concept of the problem with the MCP. As he kisses Zoe, he is actually kissing air in the real world and Daniel wakes him up. Philomon gives his theory on the robot, saying that they have been treating the robot as if it was digital, which would allow them to copy it. But if the MCP is analog, then a generative process like a human system is key to making more. Except each machine would have its own personality of sorts. If I got this wrong, PLEASE correct me. Daniel asks if Philomon seen anything to make his theory true, which the young scientist says he hasn’t. Daniel is on to something and by the look on Zoe 2.0’s face, it can’t be good… for her.

The Ball Is In Daniel’s Court

During a pyramid game, Vergis makes an impromptu appearance in Daniel’s skybox, which infuriates the Graystone CEO. After some initial bickering, Vergis releases a bombshell that the MCP Daniel stole from him never worked to begin with so all the talk that Daniel only has one MCP working is a ‘lie’. Wow… Vergis then demands that Daniel sell the team, because his options are limited. Cyrus doesn’t get why Vergis would say that since the MCP is, in fact, working. In other words, Daniel has the upper hand and Vergis just revealed his hand of cards, which contains nothing.

Cyrus, as usual, doesn’t get it. He still thinks that Vergis’s money will help them buy time on the military contract that can be revoked if they don’t meet the scheduled demos. Daniel, on the other hand, feels that he has ammunition now and will go down fighting if need be and the selling of the Caprican City Bucks is out of the question.

After dismissing Philomon home after he revealed the digital vs. analog theory, Daniel ponders over the newfound knowledge, while his dog wants to play catch. Daniel absentmindedly throws the ball and the dog then takes it to the U-87 machine, expecting it to throw the ball. Zoe 2.0 tries to shoo the dog away, but it’s too late. The dog starts to bark and whimper at the machine, which gets Daniel’s attention. When he stares into the machine he only says one thing:

“Zoe?”

Loved it.

The Caprican

– I wonder if Daniel really think Zoe is in the machine or if it’s ‘wishful’ thinking? This would be great to speed up the process on things, because I really thought it would be a season ender before someone realized Zoe 2.0 was in the U-87.

– Lacy’s part tonight was pointless, but OK, I guess.

– “This Has Happened Before And Will Happen Again” reappeared last night and I had to remind myself that it was part of the sacred scrolls, specifically the Cycle of Time scroll, but could it also be like a proverb of some sorts?

– Amanda’s past added extra layers to an already complicated character, which makes her even more intricate and fascinating. For the writers to introduce Darius and the implications of his death to that of Zoe’s and the proverb of history repeating itself makes me think that 1) Amanda might become a Soldier of the One and 2) that the history repeating phenomenon is not just on a cosmic scale, but a microscopic one as well. Amanda is also a repeat victim who managed to come out on top. Maybe when she comes back on top again (because it will happen again), she will be a powerful soldier in the S.T.O., probably more powerful than Sister Clarice.

– Thank God the only Adama we got tonight was Joseph. I found it ironic that he said that Tamara was a smart girl, because she is an Adama. I couldn’t help but laugh at that little joke. Oh, it wasn’t one? My bad. :(

– I think Vergis is gettin way too cocky. He thought he had a trump card in is reveal, but I mean the entire entrance was too much. He will soon turn out to look like a mad man if he keeps this up. But on the flip token, I have the strangest feeling that Cyrus is going to fold and jump ship from Graystone Industries and join Vergis’s company. If Cyrus does that then that would be a major blow to Daniel’s defense, which will make me want his head on a stick afterwards.

– Kinda felt bad for Tad the Gamer, but then again, I don’t. The whole thing I didn’t get about his story was why get wrapped up in a game that resembled reality in almost every aspect if you hate your own reality so much? In other words, it’s the same thing. If you were a badass in the game, why not in real life? I don’t get it and I hope he takes Tamara’s advice and “Be Something” like yesterday.

I don’t have anymore thoughts right now. Kinda sick and out of it so please excuse me if The Caprican section was not up to par. See you next week!

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