Caprica – End of Line

Graystone stock has dropped 29%. The scene is set 20 hours before something (but what? :) ). Philo has pity on the robot. He also notices that Cylon Zoe flinches when the other lab tech lights cigarette. In a tough, but not unexpected decision, Daniel sells the Caprica Bucs because they need the funds to produce 100,000 robots by next month.

At the STO meeting, Clarice told STO contacts that Barnabus no longer has STO sanction. Therefore, he can’t get any more arms. Clarice wants everyone to lie low for a little while to throw suspicion off them, but Barnabus (James Marsters)  wants to build a power base for violent attacks.  Clarice and her people jump him with their guns, but Barnabus’ men are armed too. Clarice tells Barnabus he can’t claim to be “chosen” by god because god chooses people after they die. Clarice and her people leave with the air very unclear.

::flashforward:: A van has been commandeered by Cylon prototype.

In a possible reference to current American politics, a story about Daniel stealing the chip is titled “Say it ain’t so.” Amanda is clearly still disturbed by the possibility that Daniel is a thief and is having flashbacks of her brother. In the background, we here a story about the history of bridge he died on, but it’s unclear whether she is watching or listening to a program or simply remembering. Amanda calls Clarice confides that she can’t talk to Daniel. They both have secrets from each other. Clarice really thinks Amanda should talk to him, but for her own motives involving Zoe’s avatar, not for Amanda’s mental health.

Lacy is trying to join STO so that she can secure the box for Zoe. The members of STO pray in an infinity circle made of candles. After the prayer session,  Barnabus offers a box with a green tag that’s exempt from inspections and will clear customs. However, this box comes with a deal. Barnabus demands that she does a “small, but important task.” Barnabus says that he wants to track Clarice; Lacy has to place a tracking device on her keys. After Lacy agrees, he says, “Welcome to MY cell.”

Joseph Adama has become addicted to the holoband. His secretary and Sam are taking care of him. The secretary clearly cares for Joseph because she tells Sam that they can’t just rip off the holoband because Joseph needs nourishing Tauron food and to be cared for.

V-world Zoe is still having a relationship with Philo. He doesn’t know she’s Zoe Graystone and likes her because she’s smart. She is still trying to convince him to take the robot out for a walk, but he still resists the idea. Then, it turns into a make-out session. The scene was oddly set in a bed on a lake.  At school, Lacy is staking out Sr. Clarice’s office. Once she leaves, Lacy rushes in and replaces her remote car key with the tracking device.

A military woman from the Procurement Department of the Department of Defense visits Graystone’s lab. He shows her all the tests that the prototype has passed, but she’s not satisfied because there is still only one Cylon. Daniel says that there will be 100,000 robots as promised, and she accuses him of having to reverse engineer stolen technology. Then, she says that they will be moving the deadline up to get results. In a forceful tone, she states that if he can’t do it by the next week, he can’t at all.

::flashforward:: Vipers in pursuit of the stolen van.

Philo wants to create a psyche profile, so that they can can take out the anamoles and copy the chip to create more robots, but says that this process will take months. Daniel decides to irridiate it, burn the chip clean to make a copy. Philo tries to resist, but is forced to out of fear of losing his job. In, V-world, Lacy says that they can’t load the Cylon in box for another week. Zoe gets angry because she’s gonna be destroyed and says Lacy is betraying her like she betrayed the real Zoe. But, before they can resolve anything, she gets pulled back into the robot.

Meanwhile! It’s Eros Day and daniel is cooking for Amanda. When Amanda walks in the kitchen, Daniel starts lamenting his hard choices. Amanda tells Daniel that he made her sane because she could always count on him. Then,she reveals that Vergis came by and told her that Daniel stole the chip.  Daniel responds,  ”It’s complicated.” Dissatisfied, Amanda leaves.

Joseph is a total addict. He’s now using an inhaler instead of drops to administer the sense-enhancing drugs in V-world. When he returns to his house in the virtual world, he finds Tamara. She tells him she doens’t want him following her because he’s killing himself and wasting his life. To put him out of his misery, she shoots herself then shoots Joeseph. Then screams, “I love you dad!” We finally find out that his mysterious v-world friend is also his secretary. She removes her holoband and goes to comfort him.

Zoe admits to Philo that she’s the robot and rachel and he’s the only one that cares about her. She corners him and says that her father trapped her in there after she died. He yells for help and freaks out. After panicking some more, he says that he’ll help her because he really doesn’t care what she looked like.However, when he goes to the computer, he starts to erase the program. Cylon Zoe freaks out and kills him by throwing him against a post. Not only is he dead, but he can’t tell anyone what the Cylon told him.

Zoeis having flashbacks as she drives the car away. On the scene of Philo’s death at the lab, Xander says robot percieved what he was doing as a threat so it defended itself. Daniel disagrees, but says they need to recover the robot to find out. Then, Xander says the project is lost because they lost control of the cylon. Across town, the military woman from procurement (who visited Daniel’s lab) tells Tomas he can have the company, the chip, and the Cylon project.

Amanda is looking at her scars on her wrists and walking in the dark. She sees the bridge that she’s been thinking about. Meanwhile, Cylone Zoe is having multiple flashbacks about her identity. She sees her dad saying, “It’s not a pet and definitely not a person” and Lacy saying “It’s Zoe.”

Lacy goes to Barnabus’ headquarters and says that she needs the box. She realizes she’s been part of Barnabus’ plan to kill Sr. Clarice. He is going blow her up with a bomb in her trunk so that they’ll think she was a terrorist. Barnabus declares that as far as Lacy’s concerned he is STO leadership, although Clarice was on her way to Gemenon to exile him from the group. Barnabus also reveals that Keone designed the bomb and is part of the plot.

Amanda stands by the edge of the bridge, taking off her ring and her high heels.

Over the Vipers’ radio, it’s announced that use of force authorized to disable vehicle, but not to harm the prototype.

Lacy tells Keone that he doesn’t have to do this. Barnabus takes the phone from him and gives it to lacy.He threatens shipment then quickly upgrades the threat to her life and then her life and Keone’s life. As they lose the feed of Clarice;s car, she sees Amanda on the bridge. Then Amanda is remembering her dead brother and Daniel’s innability to confide in her. In a fit of despair, she jumps. Lacy is in crisis at Barnabus’ headquarters. However, Clarice is out of the car when it blows up because Amanda was jumping.

Meanwhile, the guards run out of the way as Cylon Zoe speeds toward them in the van. Zoe keeps going, having multiple flashbacks, drives into the trucks and flips over, resulting in a firey crash.

At the Graystone home, Daniel answers the phone, “This is Graystone…”

This episode went in a million different directions at once. Lacy is about to sacrafice her life to save Cylon Zoe who is becoming more robot and less “human,” as she attempts to shut herself down (as she said in last week’s episode) and as her lack of control with Philo shows. Daniel is a somewhat ambivalent character. I think he’s being an asshole. He seemed to be ignoring his wife’s needs and I’m still upset about him psycologically torturing Zoe, but then again he said he had to “make hard decisions,” so perhaps he really does care for his robot daughter. Tamara did exactly what she should’ve done and left me wondering where her role will go from here. I thought perhaps she might also become a Cylon or play some part in developing the chip technology, but so far her influence has been limited to V-world. Amanda went fucking nuts. I was not surprised at all by her suicide. Daniel’s singular line at the end also made me have pity on him because he MAY have lost his Cylon and his daughter in that firey crash, leaving him dealing with two deaths. I also suspect Tomas’ reveal to Amanda was no accident. Perhaps he knew about her instability? Since the military is now also against Daniel, I’m wondering if he will be working on his lone Cylon from the fringes of society and work his way back in when Vergis’ project fails (just a hypothesis).

Speaking of people who went Ape shit, Barnabus is the craziest. I mean insane. Dude wants to run his own cell of vigilante STO and I’m still not sure who’s gonna win the battle. Monothesists are still looked down on in Battlestar Galactica, so I suspect Barnabus has a bigger part to play still. With the death of Amanda, Clarice may be up a creek. All routes to Zoe have closed, except for perhaps Lacy who may have pity on her now that she’s seen Barnabus try to kill her. I’m really hoping Lacy doesn’t become a terrorist. However, I suspect Barnabus and the rogue STO’s aren’t the only ones after Clarice. Her husband seemed to be in on the bombing and her line at the beginning “god choses people when they die” may be prophetic.

Overall, I am psyched for the next half of the season. I think we may continue to see Amanda in flashbacks, particularly if Zoe survived (which I’m sure she did in some form. I think Vergis may scrap her and STO recover her – this is another idea slightly different from what I mentioned earlier). We didn’t see any of Willie in this episode, but now that Joseph is locked out of V-world, we may see them butt heads some more. Willie is more Tauron than Joseph and is bound to do something rash soon.

Overall, I give this episode a 4/5 classic Cylon heads because while it was a little predictable it was a lot of exciting, but also very dramatic (which can be somewhat draining in terms of quality depending on your perspective).