Caprica: The Things We Lock Away

I finally caught up on this long neglected episode of television. I had this on my DVR for a week or so, because sometimes life gets busy. I completely intended to watch it as I truly did love this show when I heard the news that Caprica was cancelled by Syfy. I was disheartened and put off watching this episode even further into the future. The future turned into more than a couple of months, but here I am finally getting around to this series once again.

While this particular episode was no masterpiece it did serve as a reminder that this was a series cut down too soon. There are some amazingly complex and interesting concepts in Caprica. The scene where Zoe is confronted by family members of those who died in the Maglev bombing was powerful and thought provoking. “This won’t bring him back” she said to her soon to be attacker, “Yeah, but it might feel good”. The young man who stabbed her in the stomach didn’t even know if what he was doing was right. But he did it anyway because there are no perceived consequences for actions in New Cap City.

From a philosophical point of view I would argue that that man had nightmares about what he did to Zoe. In fact, all of the people who viciously attacked her in the arena should have had nightmares about what they did to her. When does a game cease to be a game? When you feel as though it is real. New Cap City is a real place, you just don’t take a car, plane, or train to get there. You power up the holoband and you have been transported to a real destination. If you die there you are done, you’ve gone on to another life, an afterlife.

A lot was made in this episode about the humanity of Zoe. Zoe is human. In fact, she is so human that she gets her very own head-character. Since she has not made a “meaningful” connection with another human being, her head-character comes in the form of herself. While I like the concept I cannot help but feel as though it is a little stale considering we now know what these projections are, if you saw the series finale of Battlestar Galactica (if you haven’t, what’s wrong with you).

The King is dead, long live the King! If Daniel wanted to keep the blood off his hands he should have never attempted a military coup. Virgis turned out to be a few cards short of a deck, because Daniel’s plan was not a terrible one. How much power could this mob family possibly have? Of course, I would like to give the writers credit for giving Virgis the courage to carry out his misguided convictions. He came there with a plan and would not be deterred from it, unlike Tamara.

Tamara was convinced in short order that she needed to befriend Zoe. If she truly believed that Zoe was responsible for the Maglev disaster she should have needed considerably more time to get over it. Especially considering the fact that she died in the tragedy.

Clarice and Amanda are still not interesting and now Lacey isn’t interesting either. That is all I have to say about that story line for now.