CAPRICA 1.8 - "Ghosts In The Machine"

WRITER: Michael Taylor
DIRECTOR: Wayne Rose
GUEST CAST: Polly Walker, John Pyper-Ferguson, Leah Gibson & Jesse Haddock

[SPOILERS] "Ghosts In The Machine" was two-thirds good, one-third tiresome. It once again explored the series' raison d'etre of two fathers trying to locate their dead daughters, whose spirits are both trapped in technological prisons. Trouble is, while Daniel's (Eric Stoltz) storyline has been getting better of late, Joseph's (Esai Morales) has been getting worse...

Daniel is now convinced Zoe's (Alessandra Torresani) avatar is inhabiting his Cylon automaton, thus explaining its curious behaviour and responsiveness. Unfortunately, Zoe has no intention of letting on he's correct in that assumption, even when he puts her through a series of tests; laborious assembling and disassembling a weapon, standing motionless inside a circle of flames (knowing Zoe has a childhood fear of fire), and -- in the episode's standout sequence -- demanding she shoot the family dog dead. Each scene was interesting and riveting for its own reasons (the dog incident undoubtedly the big talking point when the dust settled), and the storyline ultimately did a good job of cementing exactly why Zoe doesn't want her father to know she's "survived" death in digital form. That has been one of Caprica's sticking points for me, but I think this episode did a much better job of clarifying why a girl like Zoe would prefer to keep her existence a secret.

I wish I could be similarly upbeat about Joseph's adventures in the virtual world, but "New Cap City" is becoming a drag, not helped by the fact Joseph's so clueless and inept in this digital realm, while the continuous shots of blimps and pointless explosions is already beginning to outstay its welcome. I think my main problem is that I'm not sure how to treat Joseph as a character yet -- one minute it looks like he's the ruthless patriarch of a gangster dynasty trying to go straight yet ordering a hit on Amanda (Paula Malcomson), the next he's a sidekick in a virtual game, being led around by guide Emmanuelle (Leah Gibson) as he's apparently lost his killer instinct (even in a place where "death" isn't even real.) Thankfully, Joseph appeared to grow some cajones in the final moments, slaughtering a nightclub's patrons in an effort to track down his daughter, which at least bodes well for the future.

Overall, this penultimate episode before the mid-season finale was rescued by the excellent Daniel/Zoe sequences, which were fascinating and a brilliant mind game for Stoltz and Toressani to play with. It's funny, I started watching Caprica and feeling that there was more intrigue and vitality to the Adama's, but now I'm more invested in the Graystone's business problems and family issues. There's just more angles to those characters. That said, the recent idea that Amanda's having visions of her dead brother (she visited the spot where his car crashed and saw him drive past in ghostly form), is something I don't feel particularly attached to just yet.

Asides

-- There was another sly reference to where the Cylon race is headed, with Daniel promising Zoe he'll "find a way to make you a more human body." He won't, of course.

-- As a fan of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, it's always nice to see alumnus Ronald D. Moore give one of his fellow DS9 staffers a job -- in this case, Michael Taylor, who wrote one of my favourite ever sci-fi TV episodes "The Visitor". I still say that Battlestar Galactica (and by extension Caprica) is essentially a mix of three old shows: the original BSG (the premise, the lore), Deep Space Nine (the spirituality) and Space: Above & Beyond (the aesthetic, military angle).

-- Judging from those "Tamara-flower" symbols everywhere, I daresay she's become a messianic figure in V-world since we last saw her, or at the very least the leader of a cult.

23 MARCH 2010: SKY1 (HD), 9PM