Caprica 1x7- The Imperfections of Memory
Mar. 13th, 2010 01:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chaniIs it next Friday yet? Two episodes to go until the mid-season break. It's gonna be a long wait!
Bear McCreary promised a climax before the hiatus...
Before I write down my thoughts, I recommend the excellent review that Noel Murray wrote on the A.V club. His take on the meaning of the title and the main theme, and of the impressionist feel of the episode when it comes to Amanda was spot-on.
Joseph discovering New Cap City made me smile "What's the fun?". He sounded like a dork, and a bit like a kid.
Above all, I loved the parallels betwen the three characters chasing ghosts: Joseph was chasing Tamara in New Cap City, a virtual world made to play a game; Clarice was chasing Zoe's avatar in real devices, knowing that Daniel had downloaded it somewhere; and Amanda was chasing the ghost of her dead brother in her head. As Amanda was smoking with Clarice at the dive she told her about her past and she mentioned the "crazy woman chasing ghost" not realising that it also worked for the person she was talking to, like in a mirror effect.
It makes sense that a recent trauma triggered an old one. Her background is surfacing. Her erratic behaviour, her desperate chase was the main focus of the episode, even though everything was blurry for her. Even the photographs she took were blurry. Daniel who is a man of control and concentration (and playing piano requires a lot of concentration, I know it) would have said that she wasn't focused enough!
Drinking ambrosia, taking pills and smoking opiate increased her drifting away from reality. I guess that Clarice thought it was a good way to free the truth as she considered Amanda a vessel for God's words. Typical way of a fanatic. A vessel, even sacred, is to be used not respected. At the same time, Clarice is a bit lost herself, prone to get plastered, and her final speech about God might screw up her plan. If Amanda has some brain left (isn't she supposed to be a neurological surgeon?) she should be able to figure out that Clarice is one of the STO.
Amanda's memory of the time she was chasing Darius' ghost in the halls of a mental institution (a place that has been introduced on The Caprican blog just like they mentioned New Cap City and vesta before "There Is Another Sky" aired) reminded me of the BSG dreams that Laura Roslin and Sharon Agathon shared about the opera house. There was a nice echo with Joseph running alone in the hall that led to New Cap City, wherein he hoped that he would find his daughter.
Still about connection, when Amanda talked to Clarice on the phone about joing her to the dive and said that she could "be game" it was again an echo to Joseph's quest in the v-game world. Both followed a guide in another "artificial world'. In Joseph's case Heracles got shot, which killed any possible romance with Tamara, so Emmanuelle replaced him in New Cap City. I find it very fascinating that death seems more real, or at least like a permanent end, in the game world than in the real one. If you died in the game you're out, you can't go back. Everything is sort of reversed.
Note that in Hebrew "Emmanuel" means "God is with us". A Greek hero, a half-god, Heracles, has been replaced by a character whose name is Biblically-used as the equivalent of "messiah".
Speaking of etymolgy, Daniel means "God is my judge". Daniel will probably be judged indeed, and Clarice mentioned God's judgement in her drugged-induced conversation with Amanda. Clarice comes from the Latin "clara" that means clear or bright. The character obviously believes she has seen the light and see things clearly (unlike Amanda for whom everything is unclear). Rachel was Jacob's wife in the Bible, mother of Joseph.
Names have always been significant on BSG and so they are on Caprica too.
The Lacy/Keon scene wasn't really necessary but I guess it was the counterpoint of the Zoe-Rachel/Philomon date. Looks like you can't have one without having the other. Flying vipers was an interesting idea of a virtual date...
I also noticed the parallel between the two friendships Zoe/Lacy and Clarice/Amanda. A brunette and a blonde; real friendship and fake one.
And I liked how they built Daniel's epiphany. Firstly with Vergis taunting his nemesis and bragging (oh and the "are we dancing?" totally called to my mind Spuffy. It must be Jane Espenson's touch!) and providing a clue without knowing it––that is that his MCP that Daniel have stolen never worked––, just like Zoe gave an idea to Philomon to solve the problem with the robot that he couldn't help but voice later to look good in front of his boss.
Daniel listened to them and had been processing that stuff in his head, so Ceasar the dog just had to provide the last piece of the puzzle, helping him to figure it out at last. "Zoe" he says very softly. What an ending! For weeks Serge Graystone has been saying on Twitter that "the dog knew" and wanted the U-87 to throw the ball, foreshadowing the ending scene in the lab.
Eric Stoltz didn't have much screen time in this episode but he was perfect as usual. The Daniel/Amanda scene was both tender and playful, in an ambiguous way as Daniel asked if he should be jealous(playing with fire, are they?), a short marital moment before Daniel dived back in his lab, his own solitary kingdom; the Daniel/Tomas and Daniel/Cyrus scene let us see another side of Daniel (I like how he said that he won't let Vergis have his team! The love he has for the C. Bucks reminds me of Bill Adama 's love for his ship!), and the scenes in the lab showed very well how scientist-Daniel's mind works eventually. Data has been added through the episode and he finally comes up with a possible solution. That man does live in his head, not in the real world yet he is charismatic and can be very cool!
I wonder how many times they had to shoot his throwing his jacket onto the Samourai-like armour in his lab after waking up Philomon with loud chords...
I hope we'll get more Daniel/Joseph interactions soon, I missed them together. I'd like to see Eric play the piano more often too...:- )
Bear McCreary promised a climax before the hiatus...
Before I write down my thoughts, I recommend the excellent review that Noel Murray wrote on the A.V club. His take on the meaning of the title and the main theme, and of the impressionist feel of the episode when it comes to Amanda was spot-on.
Joseph discovering New Cap City made me smile "What's the fun?". He sounded like a dork, and a bit like a kid.
Above all, I loved the parallels betwen the three characters chasing ghosts: Joseph was chasing Tamara in New Cap City, a virtual world made to play a game; Clarice was chasing Zoe's avatar in real devices, knowing that Daniel had downloaded it somewhere; and Amanda was chasing the ghost of her dead brother in her head. As Amanda was smoking with Clarice at the dive she told her about her past and she mentioned the "crazy woman chasing ghost" not realising that it also worked for the person she was talking to, like in a mirror effect.
It makes sense that a recent trauma triggered an old one. Her background is surfacing. Her erratic behaviour, her desperate chase was the main focus of the episode, even though everything was blurry for her. Even the photographs she took were blurry. Daniel who is a man of control and concentration (and playing piano requires a lot of concentration, I know it) would have said that she wasn't focused enough!
Drinking ambrosia, taking pills and smoking opiate increased her drifting away from reality. I guess that Clarice thought it was a good way to free the truth as she considered Amanda a vessel for God's words. Typical way of a fanatic. A vessel, even sacred, is to be used not respected. At the same time, Clarice is a bit lost herself, prone to get plastered, and her final speech about God might screw up her plan. If Amanda has some brain left (isn't she supposed to be a neurological surgeon?) she should be able to figure out that Clarice is one of the STO.
Amanda's memory of the time she was chasing Darius' ghost in the halls of a mental institution (a place that has been introduced on The Caprican blog just like they mentioned New Cap City and vesta before "There Is Another Sky" aired) reminded me of the BSG dreams that Laura Roslin and Sharon Agathon shared about the opera house. There was a nice echo with Joseph running alone in the hall that led to New Cap City, wherein he hoped that he would find his daughter.
Still about connection, when Amanda talked to Clarice on the phone about joing her to the dive and said that she could "be game" it was again an echo to Joseph's quest in the v-game world. Both followed a guide in another "artificial world'. In Joseph's case Heracles got shot, which killed any possible romance with Tamara, so Emmanuelle replaced him in New Cap City. I find it very fascinating that death seems more real, or at least like a permanent end, in the game world than in the real one. If you died in the game you're out, you can't go back. Everything is sort of reversed.
Note that in Hebrew "Emmanuel" means "God is with us". A Greek hero, a half-god, Heracles, has been replaced by a character whose name is Biblically-used as the equivalent of "messiah".
Speaking of etymolgy, Daniel means "God is my judge". Daniel will probably be judged indeed, and Clarice mentioned God's judgement in her drugged-induced conversation with Amanda. Clarice comes from the Latin "clara" that means clear or bright. The character obviously believes she has seen the light and see things clearly (unlike Amanda for whom everything is unclear). Rachel was Jacob's wife in the Bible, mother of Joseph.
Names have always been significant on BSG and so they are on Caprica too.
The Lacy/Keon scene wasn't really necessary but I guess it was the counterpoint of the Zoe-Rachel/Philomon date. Looks like you can't have one without having the other. Flying vipers was an interesting idea of a virtual date...
I also noticed the parallel between the two friendships Zoe/Lacy and Clarice/Amanda. A brunette and a blonde; real friendship and fake one.
And I liked how they built Daniel's epiphany. Firstly with Vergis taunting his nemesis and bragging (oh and the "are we dancing?" totally called to my mind Spuffy. It must be Jane Espenson's touch!) and providing a clue without knowing it––that is that his MCP that Daniel have stolen never worked––, just like Zoe gave an idea to Philomon to solve the problem with the robot that he couldn't help but voice later to look good in front of his boss.
Daniel listened to them and had been processing that stuff in his head, so Ceasar the dog just had to provide the last piece of the puzzle, helping him to figure it out at last. "Zoe" he says very softly. What an ending! For weeks Serge Graystone has been saying on Twitter that "the dog knew" and wanted the U-87 to throw the ball, foreshadowing the ending scene in the lab.
Eric Stoltz didn't have much screen time in this episode but he was perfect as usual. The Daniel/Amanda scene was both tender and playful, in an ambiguous way as Daniel asked if he should be jealous(playing with fire, are they?), a short marital moment before Daniel dived back in his lab, his own solitary kingdom; the Daniel/Tomas and Daniel/Cyrus scene let us see another side of Daniel (I like how he said that he won't let Vergis have his team! The love he has for the C. Bucks reminds me of Bill Adama 's love for his ship!), and the scenes in the lab showed very well how scientist-Daniel's mind works eventually. Data has been added through the episode and he finally comes up with a possible solution. That man does live in his head, not in the real world yet he is charismatic and can be very cool!
I wonder how many times they had to shoot his throwing his jacket onto the Samourai-like armour in his lab after waking up Philomon with loud chords...
I hope we'll get more Daniel/Joseph interactions soon, I missed them together. I'd like to see Eric play the piano more often too...:- )
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2010-03-17 05:21 pm (UTC)Excellent review!
no subject
Date: 2010-03-17 09:56 pm (UTC)Daniel/Joseph is THE 'ship.
no subject
Date: 2010-03-18 09:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-03-18 05:24 pm (UTC)http://community.livejournal.com/caprica_fic/
no subject
Date: 2010-03-18 05:41 pm (UTC)I'd love to read something with actually plot (i really watch Caprica for a plot...even when Sam takes off his shirt i'm still focused on a plot;>).
no subject
Date: 2010-03-18 06:33 pm (UTC)I guess that there aren't many Caprica fanfics around actually. It's only the beginning.