Episode Report Card Jacob Clifton: A+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Watching Through Windows
By Jacob Clifton | Season 1 | Episode 8 | Aired on 03.19.2010
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.One left for this demiseason. Michael Taylor's always been my favorite writer in this canon, so -- even though everybody's fingerprints are on everybody's episodes -- I had high hopes for this one. And, of course, we do not disappoint. While Daniel spends the entire episode in horrifying escalating war of attrition trying to get Zoë to admit she's a robot now, Joseph burns his way through about a million Sim people, to end up at a bar run by the most Teiresias of all guides, who does a literal song and dance that lasts most of the episode before ending in a Sphinxian riddle which Joe answers in the only way he does anything: Whining at top volume and bothering everybody until they're so fucking sick of him they'll do anything to make him go away... Including giving him the next clue on his Everquest. And some virtual drugs that will no doubt make him even more horrible in weeks to come.
But then after all that awesome -- and all that wonderful amount of people pointing out how obnoxious Joe can get, and Zoë being a fucking trooper no matter how mentally abusive her dad gets in pursuit of the truth -- things get wicked sad. Tomas Vergis shows up telling crazy Amanda all kind of truths about how the MCP was got, and meanwhile Daniel is down pulling his worst shit of all: Telling the U-87 with his daughter inside to kill Caesar the Dog (a character with personal importance for us all)... And her taking aim, in the ultimate bluff, and blowing the puppy away, only to find out that she's shooting blanks.
So now Daniel's sad thinking he spent the whole episode calling a robot his daughter but still not ready to drop the possibility, Amanda's as usual sad as hell and now knowing her husband is a bad guy, and Zoë? Admitting she'd just as easily have turned the gun on Daniel himself. Which, after all this? Guess that ripped-off arm still smarts. This show is a ten-lane road to hell paved with every good intention that exists. So brilliant.
Guess we're calling next week the "season finale," but it should serve. This shit is real, and only getting moreso. Lucky you, being on the ride. Best show on television, ninth week running.
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Want more? The full recap starts right below!Previously on Caprica: Daniel's creative process got enough of a jolt about the U-87's MCP that he finally realized who was in there. Which you might think was a good thing...
In New Cap City everybody's gross. Joseph is becoming a virtual addict in his latest iteration of being obnoxious about Tamara; now Emmanuelle is cooking up some amp and making him wear an even sillier hat than he usually wears. Amp is a drug that you shoot in your eye like your eye has asthma. What it does is make you fast: "Think of it as a hack that bypasses the holoband's safeties, interacting with the visual cortex to heighten a player's senses and reflexes. In here, you're either quick or you're dead. Take your pick." I choose not being here. Is that an option?
So Joe squeezes the thing in his eyeball, giving him a powerful euphoric/speed jump both in the Matrix and IRL. So now I guess officially everyone on this show is a drug addict. But I mean God, Emmanuelle, he's obsessive enough without giving him a bunch of eyeball meth. Or maybe this is all just a conspiracy to get somebody dumb to clean up New Cap City, and by the time he's wasted and burnt out and tooth-free the whole place will be sparkling.
Daniel turns Zoë back on and apologizes for shutting her down after the freakout moment last week. He begs her to talk to him, and she won't, so he's like, "Ah, the old silent treatment. Just what you'd expect when you kidnap your daughter's soul and put her in two tons of hideous steel for the sake of your own sick obsessions." Like she's a typical teenager who's just being difficult, and not the newborn victim of his total grotesque betrayal. He switches tracks.
"I can't imagine what the last few weeks have been like for you. This certainly wasn't what you were expecting, was it? Must have scared the crap out of you. I can understand that. I'm sorry, but you have to understand that this was always just a temporary place, just so we could get you back in our lives. And if you can't handle it, you just let me know, and I will take you out of this and find a way to make you a more human body, whatever you want..."
He's still hedging bets. He's still not sure if it's true. But if it is true, then this is how he has to play it. I don't doubt that he loves and loved his daughter, but never lose sight of the fact that he is being totally gross. Worst case scenario, he's talking to a robot, which is no shame because only the dog can see him doing it. Best case scenario, she's in there and he can make his daughter do way worse stuff than just ripping her own arm off. All of which Zoë knows, all of which is why Lacy's the only person who's really allowed to know what's going on: Because she's waiting, always waiting, for the next way his brilliant mind can find to betray her.