The Ghost in the Machine

[chani]

Great writing and great acting. Terrific Zoe/Daniel bras de fer! "The Ghost in the machine" was again a fabulous episode.

There is nothing better than Caprica on tv these days. Of course it requires more effort than the usual action-packed sci-fi and rushing plot entertainment tv, but it's worth it. I don't know what some people expect, in terms of plot, for a prequel about a civilization  that is about to fall. Years are counted on Caprica, no need to rush and follow a twist-filled plot. The characters, unlike us, don't know what is coming, and they aren't in the run either. It was very different on BSG where everything was about survival and flight. Actions and behaviours were more extreme, the drama was more spectacular, the red line was crossed many time. Our characters are heading towards this primal place BSG characters lived in, but, as grey as they are, they aren't there yet. And it's fascinating.

The pace is perfect and the show deals with important matters. Good drama isn't always about action and events, it's about characters and tension. Sadly, advertisement, video clips and video games have raised generations of hurried viewers who can't recognize, even less enjoy, the good stuff. Sorry for the rant, but I'm fed up with whiny comments about the fact that "nothing happens!" on the show and that characters on BSG were "more real".

Now about the good stuff in this episode, well, there was lots of it...

There's so much to read in the episode!

Firstly there is the title and Zoe's situation in the U-87. She is a ghost in the machine indeed; second layer, the episode explored the philosphical meaning of the phrase, the matter of mind-body dualism and Ryle's theory against Descartes', through Daniel's tests to trick Zoe into revealing herself and Zoe's strategy to turn herself off and let the robot respond "(the cylon treatment" as Daniel put it); third layer, there's Arthur Koestler's book, The Ghost in the Machine, which takes Ryle's phrase as its title. The book's main focus is mankind's movement towards self-destruction, particularly in the nuclear arms arena. It's perfect for Caprica since we know we are going towards the fall, the genocide that the Cylons are going to make by nuking the colonies.

One of the book's central concepts is that as the human brain has grown, it has built upon earlier, more primitive brain structures, and that these are the "ghost in the machine" of the title. Koestler's theory is that at times these structures can overpower higher logical functions, and are responsible for destructive impulses. We can see it through the characters on screen.

I must say that I never liked Zoe much and I liked her even less after this episode, even though I felt sorry for her in the first scenes as Daniel taunted her to get a physical reaction. Alessandra was really good, and Eric's acting was stellar once more.

But I don't buy what Zoe said to Lacy in the ending scene, although it was a typical teenager scene and I like how the show keeps reminding us that the first Cylon is still a teenage girl sharing with her best friend how much her father pissed her off and that she wants to run away before she'd make something she'd regret; and that she could have shot him had the bullets been real. So, in spite of her confession to Lacy, I think that she didn't know that they were blanks. Daniel is merciless in the episode, playing with fire for sure, mentally torturing his daughter to re-establish a lost connection(when this man wants something he has to get it! Hubris anyone?), but he would have never put anyone he loves in "real" danger, Ceasar included, so the blanks fits in his character; but Zoe shot the dog because she refused to give in to her father. She didn't shoot because the robot knew they were blanks, she wanted to win the battle of will, and have the last word no matter the cost. 

 But eventually she's convincing herself that she knew from the beginning that the shooting wasn't real, which was typical of a teenager but, above all, a wonderful echo to Joseph's storyline and what Sam told him: you can kill anyone if you make yourself believe that "it isn't real", that it is just a game.

That little Sam/Joseph scene, my friends was a key scene, an inside-meta for the whole episode.

Speaking of echoes, there was a leitmotiv about fire: Zoe's big fear since she was 5, Daniel playing with it (literally and figuratively...and I can't help thinking that he's been waiting for the U-87 to attack him and punish him for the murders of Vergis' assistants, the game with the U-87 could be his own version of the Russian roulette), Joseph being asked to be Prometheus in the club...

The episode was very very Greek again. I loved the Mysteries club. It was a virtual adaptation of initiation rites that Greeks used to undergo(in Eleusis for instance, near Athens). Tamara represents Persephone in the V-world. That's why I mention the Eleusian Mysteries that probably inspired the cabaret club in New Cap City. 

In Greek mythology Demeter's daughter, Persephone (also referred to as Kore, "maiden"), was gathering flowers with friends, when she was seized by her uncle, Hades, the god of death and the underworld, with the consent of her father Zeus. He took her to his underworld kingdom. Distraught, Demeter searched high and low for her daughter. Because of her distress, and in an effort to coerce Zeus to allow the return of her daughter, she caused a terrible drought in which the people suffered and starved. This would have deprived the gods of sacrifice and worship. As a result, Zeus relented and allowed Persephone to return to her mother.
Tamara draws flowers as a signature which recalls the flowers Persephone was gathering with friends when she was seized. Joseph is  a new Demeter, and he is a Tauron, a "dirt eater" according to racists. The Caprican blogged about the wars that caused Taurons de desperate for food and are the origins of the 'dirt eater" phrase, not so long ago...Sam, Tamara's uncle, who is the bringer of death, could be seen as Hades. Daniel used Sam's skills and connections to get the MCP. On Caprica, according to Persephone's myth I think that both Daniel and Jospeh could be seen as Zeus for they embody fatherhood. In the myth, Persephone ended up spending six month with Hades and six month with Demeter. The Eleusinian Mysteries aren't well known but probably included a celebration of Persephone's return, for it was also the return of plants and of life to the earth. Persephone had gone into then underworld (underground, like seeds in the winter), then returned to the land of the living: her rebirth is symbolic of the rebirth of all plant life during Spring and, by extension, all life on earth. Good timing for this post!!! 

One last thing about Eleusian Mysteries: Men and women were allowed, even slaves, the only requirements for membership were a lack of "blood guilt", meaning having never committed murder, and not being a "barbarian"  that is unable to speak Greek. Joseph was a good candidate when he entered the club the first time! No wonder the host picked him!


And of course the riddle Joseph had to answer recalled riddles that the Sphinx asked to travellers to allow them passage (and of course it calls to the mind Oedipus' trial). the sphinx was a monster like a chimera, with the head of a woman, the body of a lion, the wings of an eagle, and a serpent-headed tail. Here we've got a drag queen named Cerberus as host! I liked it.
 
Who is the mysterious Emmanuelle? She hinted at the fact that she might not look the same in the real world. Is she someone Joseph already knows. Could be Evelyn since she helped him to find Heracles...

The enhancing drug that Joseph took reminded me of the eye drop Daniel used before getting to the set of Sarno's show...and it looked a lot like my inhaler for asthma!
 
I wonder if the stuff was a sort of commentary on the pace of the show, and how things get faster in the V-world. I complained above about the viewers who want more action and who probably enjoy "There Is Another Sky" more than any other episodes, and in a way they are like game players in the V-world. They are addicted to artificially-quickened plot. 

The drug was also another way to recall the theory of "the ghost in the machine" that I mentioned above, about primitive brain structures allowing destructive impulses. Joseph found the killer inside of him, slaughtered the people in the club thanks to it and thanks to Sam's advice. After all, it isn't real, just an illusion. 

So fire was a recurring leitmotiv, and fire is the metaphor of knowledge in both Greek mythology and this episode: Joseph only wants to know where Tamara is; others want to know about the afterlife (Clarice, the people in the Mysteries club); Daniel wants to be sure that his daughter/avatar is in the machine. The fire that destroyed their previous house started from his office, the temple of scientist knowledge!

This reminds me of an interview with Eric Stoltz in which he said about Daniel: "He’s so hungry for knowledge that, like Prometheus, he steals fire from the gods, gives it to man, thinking he’s doing a good thing and is eternally punished for it." Daniel always thinks he is doing a good thing, even in this episode, after he got that Zoe was defiant and he would have to force her into talking to him,  he warned her that it would be hard but it would be for the best of all. 

Will he end up trapped and chained up to a rock with his liver being eaten over and over again? There has been speculations about Daniel becoming the first hybrid, so I guess it would fit in the myth, but to my understanding the first hybrid was the Centurions's failed attempt at making a skinjob so I guessed they started up from a machine not from a human being...

And I don't think that hunger for knowledge is the only thing that drives Daniel. He is also motivated by love. Vergis got it too well.

Anyway Daniel indeed stole the fire, twice: firstly he captured the code of the avatar that Zoe made ––as the summary recalled at the beginning of the episode and as Zoe pointed out again when meeting Lacy––secondly he had the Vergis' MCP stolen, something that Tomas recalled himself when talking to Amanda by the end of the episode.


Looks like Tomas Vergis has decided to destroy Daniel's marriage. He is planting the seeds that will cause problems between the Graystones, especially since they already keep things from each others. From the scene we saw, it's obvious that the Amanda/Tomas affair never happened; they had dropped the idea after deleting the scenes from the pilot. She might still become unfaithful though, this time with Clarice. I love the last shot of Amanda being outside looking at the windows where Daniel, alone inside, watched films of Zoe. Loss, even a common one, can cause a rift between people. 

Poor Amanda, she was already Clarice's tool, now she's Vergis'!

The A.V club 's review gives another take on the episode, focusing more on the father/children side and it's quite interesting an insight.

ETA 1: I've just read a tweet by Serge Graystone saying:

"I think I should've told Daniel that Zoe was in the robot. I don't like where this is going."

It sorta cute of course, but my main concern when I watched the episode earlier today was: why did Serge allow entrance to Tomas Vergis? Didn't Daniel cancel Vergis' access to the house after being threatened by his rival?

ETA 2: Todd VanDerWerff wrote something that I find really insightful:

"Obviously, there have been plenty of stories about how daddy's little girl has all grown up and now he's sad to see her leave home (or get married or what have you), but there's always a creepy undertone to these. Too many of these sorts of stories twist what's a time-honored storytelling theme - parents realizing their children are becoming their own people - and turn it into a weird desire to keep daddy's little girl as daddy's little girl forever, shrink wrapped and never moving past childhood innocence. (...) 

In a way, Daniel's desire to have his daughter back has always been a desire to return her to a person he understood, someone who wouldn't join a terrorist group or create an incredibly advanced avatar of herself and stick it in a virtual world. But even when he confines her to a robotic body, he can't completely pin her down. She's a person of her own, now, and while he'll always understand her better than most, he'll also always be cut off from certain parts of her. Daniel's battle to get Zoe to unwittingly reveal that she's in the Cylon tonight was practically about the story need to show this battle of wills. But metaphorically, it was about parents needing to learn when to let go. (The other storyline commented on this as well, in a lovely image where Joseph confronted the mark his daughter was leaving on the world - literally! - a mark he couldn't quite understand but could appreciate and a mark that was always going to keep him outside of her life.)"

Comments

[aynshrugged.livejournal.com]

Well, Amanda said to Clarice once that Serge was a bit quirky after Daniel added some variations to his programming. Was it when he was with his executive watching the game that he canceled it? I thought he was in another building since he said give that man's photo to security.It may have been the pyramid arena, But I can't be sure.
Excellent review! It's encouraged me to think a little more analytically about the episodes when I watch them now. The Persephone and Prometheus element really heightens the mythos in the BSG saga that makes it so intriguing and interesting.

[frenchani.livejournal.com]

No I was referring to the ending scene of "Know Thy Enemy", it was the third Daniel/Vergis talk after the one at the exhibit and the lunch at his office––I think that Daniel and Vergis were having a drink at the Graystone's house then––when Vergis showed him his tattoes and told him he would tear out his dream and destroy everything he loves. The scene you mentioned happened afterwards in "The Imperfections of Memory" and indeed took place at the arena building.

If I were Daniel I would have told Serge that Vergis was persona non gratajust like he did concerning Lacy or Joseph!

[aynshrugged.livejournal.com]

Oh I see. Yes, that would make the most sense. After all that Vergis had threatened to do it's the only response that would make sense - to bar his entry. But then again, the doctor could have been somewhat absent minded.

[2maggie2.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen the episode yet -- though you make me excited to do so. But I have one thought on Zoe's callousness: this isn't Zoe. It's her avatar. Wouldn't it make sense for something of her humanity to be lost in translation?

[frenchani.livejournal.com]

Oh I hope I didn't spoil you too much!

You're right, she is Zoe and yet she is not. Not only something must have been lost in translation but also her body isn't a human boy. On BSG we have seen that being a skinjob made a lot of difference!

The way she behaved in the dog scene, was very Cylon-like (in contrast to the earlier scenes in the lab and outside). Perhaps Cylon!Zoe did manage to do what she told Lacy after the first test, she made her human side, Zoe's persona, take the back seat and let the machine (not only the U-87 body but also her digital self)in charge.

[frenchani.livejournal.com]

Should read "her body isn't a human body" not a "human boy" of course! It's either my new keyboard playing trick on me or the effect drag club thing. :- )

[mica-chan.livejournal.com]

Serge only granted permition to Vergis after Amanda said so. I imagine any Graystone can allow or cancel access to the house.

Btw, liked a lot your review. I'm a true Caprica fan and this was one of the episodes I liked the most. My heart was aching with Daniel's pain (God, he was screaming loudly all the time, we just need give a look to him to notice) and I still can't understand why Zoe distrust (and kinda hate) her father so much.
Actually...what will she do when she gets to Gemenon? Has she any clue?

[frenchani.livejournal.com]

You're probably right, but after the threat Vergis made I would have expected Daniel to give specific instructions to Serge that Amanda couldn't change.

Anyway thank you for commenting. I felt for Daniel too. Eric Stoltz did a fantastic job showing Daniel's ruthlessness while suggesting the raw pain underneath. Daniel really is an intriguing character.

Zoe is a teenager and has been "brainwashed" by a sect of fanatic monotheists so no wonder she hates her father so much for what he represents, even though deep down, she probably still loves her daddy.

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

I was rooting for Zoe in this. I actually believed her when she told Lacey the robot knew. Granted the robot 'knowing' is not the same as knowing from her own experience - she made a choice to believe the datastream. But I was ultimately rooting for her to shoot the dog during the last test scene even though I hadn't figured out she might be firing blanks at that stage. Daniel's been creeping the hell out of me since he told the U-78 to rip off its arm for the stockholders and this episode just added to that. He says he loves Zoe but both his tests were set up to protect the participants that weren't her. Fire couldn't harm the robot and the bullets were blanks but his words were designed to twist maximum pain out of her avatar.

[frenchani.livejournal.com]

But don't you think that Daniel wouldn't have used blanks if the U-87 (not Zoe's mind) was able to detect the fake? He made the robot, he knows better than anyone what he can do or not. If you rewatch the scene, Zoe isn't calm at all, just before Daniel starts counting, while she's already holding the gun, she is freaking out. And then he starts counting and she is determined.

But it could be just a way to trick the audience...

I may be wrong, but I do think that Zoe was just trying to excuse her behaviour afterwards, a bit like Daniel probably excused his own actions, in advance, when he said to the cylon (but he was actually convincing himself IMO hence what he says about making choices and mistakes), outside the lab, that he knew the robot wasn't really his daughter, that Zoe wasn't really there just what was left of her to him.

I wasn't rooting for anyone, but certainly not for Zoe to kill the dog!

Daniel was wrong, what he did was psychological torture, we were in a very grey area there, but I sort of "understood" him and his twisted logics(using "the cylon treatment" because it was "the cylon treatment" that he received from her). He was aiming at something that he believed to be the best for all(including her), knowing that the means were an issue (hard for his robot daughter as he warned her)but focusing on the target only, just as Sam told Joseph.
How do you abuse you cylon child? Just think that this isn't real, focus on the target.

There is no hero, no good guy always doing the right thing on the show. There is no Helo.

They are all morally challenged, and I find Daniel's contradictions to be the most fascinating. And the way he behaved in the episode pointed out how much one can hurt the people they love the most.

The fact that Zoe refused to look at him and talk to him was just teenage stubborness in my book, it reminded me of the pilot and the way she behaved with her parents. And shooting the innocent dog only to make her point and not to give in made me want to slap her avatar! I would have prefered her to shoot Daniel but it would have mean "giving in".

And the way she complained about Daniel's first test, when chatting in the v-world with Lacy, saying that her father would use her and forgetting conveniently how she's been using Lacy, and Philomon...it doesn't make me want to root for her character at all. Actually it's only when Daniel taunted her outside with cruel words and she was close to cry, that I warmed up and almost sided with her, but I could see Daniel's pain as well in the scene. It was ugly and heartbreaking.

On the other hand, her shooting Ceasar could be a clue that she is becoming a cylon indeed. She is becoming her own persona, not the "original Zoe", not daddy's obedient girl, not the defiant girl who was flying away and died in the Meglev and not Zoe's avatar anymore...which could be interesting, I guess.

Anyway, I prefer the adults on the show and Zoe has never been a character that resonates with me, I would rather be rooting for Lacy who seems more balanced and more interesting despite not being in the complicated situation Zoe is.

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

Zoe is her father's daughter, I think they both have that drive to keep moving on. Like sharks looking for that next big thing. I sympathise with her here because Daniel has the power and the way he uses it and she responds to it suggests that this isn't the first time. She knows him. However, if their positions were reversed the way she treats Lacy and Philomen suggests she wouldn't behave so very differently from him. Although she's young enough that I don't think she'd be able to see slavery as a selling point - did I say that boardroom scene really creeped me out? As for the dog, it's a dog not a person. My father was a vet and we grew up with animals. You learn not to be sentimental about them.

[frenchani.livejournal.com]

Fair enough about Zoe being her father's daughter. You think that Daniel abused her before? I don't know, she rather looked like a spoiled child but I may be wrong.

I think that Daniel partly excused his own behaviour to himself by saying out loud that his daughter isn't really there and the Cylon is just what is left of her for him. The outside scene is very interesting, he talks to the robot but it's like a soliloquy(and for Eric Stoltz it was!)and what he says to her sounds like he partly talks about himself. The scene even foreshadowed his final trick, the bluff about killing the dog, as Daniel mentioned a poker analogy. It was a game(both players being determined like sharks yet in pain at the same time), and again it echoed what Sam told Joseph. And to paraphrase him, I'd say "how do you psychologically torture your child? You think it isn't real, it's a game. You focus on the target".

Yes the boardroom scene was creepy and horrible, but also brilliant and ambiguous and I loved it!

I'm afraid that I'm very sentimental with animals. They are sentient and the animal you love becomes a person to you, you know his/her character, you grow attached to him/her; and I think it's normal to care about your pets more than you'd care about human beings whom you don't know. It's just a matter of love. Zoe is supposed to have loved that dog, to care about Ceasar...

When Daniel talked about putting a new sentient race in slavery, it was morally wrong from our point of view (ancient Greeks wouldn't have flinched), but it was a general talk about robots that didn't exist yet (like the Scoobies talking about exterminating vampires in season 4 and yet Willow didn't want to let Spike commit suicide because they knew him). I doubt he would sell the U-87 now, nor would he use it as a personal slave.

Daniel and Zoe know each other, but they also have misconceptions about each other. Daniel still believes that his daughter was the one who set the bomb, the one responsible for a mass murder and her own death; Zoe keeps imagining the worst from her father (like creating Tamara's avatar for sexual purpose and then deserting her), partly because he is her father and she is a defiant teenager, partly because she was STO and he embodies what the STO kids hate.

It is an interesting take on family relationships.

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

And to paraphrase him, I'd say "how do you psychologically torture your child? You think it isn't real, it's a game. You focus on the target".
But why would you want to psychologically torture your child? It's a different and more loaded question than why you might want to kill a stranger.

You think that Daniel abused her before?
Not physically but she seemed genuinely afraid of him. Maybe in the way he knew too well why she hated him smoking. There's also what Amanda said last week about Zoe loving the old house - the one that burned down around her. A near death experience at a formative age (and they never said what saved her - it sounded as though it wasn't her parents). Daniel's ambition took her away from all that, like he said it wasn't a suitable environment for his work. Zoe did come across as a poor little rich girl in the early episodes but her backstory is fleshing that out in interesting ways. Speaking of flshing I also think it's interesting that for the Avatar Zoe all these memories were just memories but Daniel is causing her to physically experience them. It's a fascinating relationship even though I don't find any of the Graystones personally likeable or relatable.

I'm afraid that I'm very sentimental with animals.
But you eat them don't you? Please ignore this if you don't but many pet owners do, which requires being able to draw a mental line between some animals and others. I don't know, because it's something that humans find so easy to do, while Zoe the robot may be evolving away from who she used to think were her people, I don't think drawing that particular line is a sign of inhumanity.

When Daniel talked about putting a new sentient race in slavery, it was morally wrong from our point of view (ancient Greeks wouldn't have flinched), but it was a general talk about robots that didn't exist yet (like the Scoobies talking about exterminating vampires in season 4 and yet Willow didn't want to let Spike commit suicide because they knew him). I doubt he would sell the U-87 now, nor would he use it as a personal slave.
The thing that struck me as creepy wasn't the idea of slavery per se but the idea that having such power over another sentient being would be the major selling point. Not that robots would be useful for what they could do but the fact of being able to make them do it. Daniel made the point right at the beginning of his pitch that the U-87 was like a person. Usually in slavery metaphors the idea is that the robots are depersonalised by their users but here the idea was to explictly sell them as 'people.' I think Daniel would be tempted to keep the U-87 *because* he knows its secret.

[frenchani.livejournal.com]

But why would you want to psychologically torture your child?

Good question indeed. I think that Daniel is convinced(or try to convince himself)that what is does he does for everybody's sake. Psychological torture isn't his goal, just a questionable mean that he consider necessary at the moment after she refused to talk to him(he begged her first). He told her so, saying it would be hard but for the best. It's a major flaw in his character, he is convinced that what he does is good for the others. And it's eating him up afterwards. But it's very ambiguous, I agree.

I wish I were brave enough to be a vegetarian but I am not. However I can't eat meat that looks like an animal in my plate or cook meat that is still animal-shaped, that's my mental line. I choose not to think about where the meat comes from. I know, it's convenient!

Anyway I think we always draw mental line between the ones we know and care about, and the strangers no matter what they are, animals or human beings. Zoe the robot might be becoming someone else than Zoe the girl indeed.

Not that robots would be useful for what they could do but the fact of being able to make them do it. Daniel made the point right at the beginning of his pitch that the U-87 was like a person. Usually in slavery metaphors the idea is that the robots are depersonalised by their users but here the idea was to explictly sell them as 'people.'

Yes that was the creepiest part. Daniel even pointed it out again at the end of his speech "Looked painful!". It was the final draw, the Cylons would sell well because the people would connect to them! It isn't "old-school" slavery, the show borrowed from Antiquity but mostly talks about our current capitalist civilization; it's marketing-enhanced slavery, and marketing is based on affect and narcissism! And I think that it's exactly what convinced the board to give it a go. Daniel knew it was a "good" argument and he would keep his company thanks to it. Of course it was also an obvious wink at Blade Runner again, at the motto of Tyrell's Corporation.

I love that show. So much food for thoughts! :- )

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

Absolutely.

[petzipellepingo.livejournal.com]

You might find this (http://popwatch.ew.com/2010/03/20/caprica-recap-the-gods-might-die-but-the-dogs-remain/) interesting.

[frenchani.livejournal.com]

Thanks!