Before I begin discussing the show in depth, I’d like to point out a little about the ads for the show. The ads depict Zoe biting into an apple. As we all know, the Cylons are devout monotheists. And in the Christian tradition, the apple represents sin and Eve bites into the apple, bringing sin upon mankind. After sinning, she offers the apple to Adam. From this ad, viewers can infer that Zoe brings the first sin – but to Cylons or humans?  Humans have clearly sinned before this point in time, but as a Cylon she is the first to, presumably, shed blood and eventually bring the torrential downpour of nuclear weapons that attempt to bring the end to the human race.

The pilot introduces us to the Graystones and the Adamses. The Adams (not Addams… dun nun nun na) have Tauron heritage, a fact that haunts Joseph Adams.  He doesn’t want to deal with the mafia-like structure of the family and wants to be a clean, respectable lawyer [insert lawyer jokes here].  Daniel Graystone is a successful scientist and robot expert, and his wife is a doctor. Unbeknownst to them, their daughter is a member of a monotheistic cult, Soldiers of the One, and has almost a separate life in a virtual world. She has also made a virtual copy of herself who she believes will change everything, though her view is limited to the battleground between monotheism and polytheism.

Zoe inadvertently becomes part of a terrorist bombing of a MAGLEV train when her boyfriend, Ben Stark, blows up the train taking them to Geminon. Daniel Graystone discovers by following Zoe’s friend Lacy that her avatar is still alive.  Using Adams’ connection to the Tauron mafia and bribing him with the possibility of seeing his daughter who was also died on the train, Graystone acquires the MCP, a crucial part necessary give his military robots a personality and make them successful.

Graystone steals Zoe’s avatar and downloads it into the robot but it stumbles and collaspes. Graystone believes the data was lost and wonders again what will happen. Adams changes his name back to the Tauron name Adama after his faith in his family is revived. He realizes he has only his son and wants him to know what it means to be Tauron not Caprican.

While recovering from the shock of her lost friends, Lacy learns that Sr. Clarice Willow leads a group of monotheists at the Athena Academy, making the cult a bigger phenomenon than Caprican news sources have let on. Federal agents pursue both Lacy and Zoe’s mother, Amanda, to gain information at Zoe who they hypothesize may be linked with the bombing.

Daniel Graystone comes off as slightly abusive and certainly a cheater. Zoe seems to be a misguided youth; her fervent belief in monotheism is based more in rebellion against her parents than spiritual calling. Lacy will be used because of her closeness to Zoe by the other monotheists. She does not seem firm in her commitment to the belief because she fled the train, but she seems to be willing to let others, like Sr. Clarice Willow, head of Athena Academy, guide her.

“Pilot” reveals that the Cylons are not only the children of humanity because Graystone built the robots, but his child also became the mind of the first one. I give “Pilot” 3.5/5 classic cylon heads. The episode reveals a little about both families and sets up the rest of the series, but it doesn’t have a lot of pop. Ben blowing up the train didn’t come as a surprise, and I mistrusted Graystone to begin with. The episode was slow at some parts and seemed more informative than anything else.