Caprica Fodder

Caprica: Key Points for "End of Line"

While Caprica has not yet managed to reach BSG levels of awesomeness for me, I still enjoy it for its heady scifi leanings, much the same as a good scifi novel (as opposed to space opera, which BSG was). The mid-season finale, I feel, is finally getting us to those emotional peaks to which BSG lifted us, and I feel that when Caprica returns in the Fall (thanks a lot Syfy!) it's going to hit the ground running.

That said, let's get to the key points!

I love the way they're doing the recaps for Caprica, and in this episode especially it is probably a good idea to record them:

• Daniel: We're racing to the military deadline. If I miss it, I may lose my company.


• Amanda: Vergis told me something awful about Daniel. I don't know if it's true.


• Joseph: My daughter is alive in V-world, but I need a guide to find her.


• Sister Clarice: I'm being challenged for the leadership of the STO by Barnabas.


• Lacy: I have to get Zoe's robot to Gemenon. She says it's critical but I don't know why.


• Zoe: I exist inside a robot. Only my best friend Lacy knows. My part of the plan is getting the robot out of Daniel's lab.


• In the opening sequence, we see that Zoe robot has escaped from the lab and is driving a Graystone van with Caprican military ships in hot pursuit. This scene is peppered throughout the episode for dramatic effect, while flashbacks show how she got to this point.


• Flashing back in time 20 hours, Caprican news channels are reporting on the decline of Graystone stock, speculating that Daniel may need to sell the Bucs.


• In the lab, Philo's creepy obsession with the robot continues. When his lab rat partner lights up a cigarette Zoe flinches, a reaction that Philo notices but dismisses as a glitch.


• Daniel meets with Xander and, with mounting pressure from the Graystone board over the military contract, orders Xander to go ahead with the sell of the Bucs team to Vergis to buy some time (and money) to get the robots made.


• At the STO shipyard Barnabas is waiting for a delayed arms shipment to arrive, but when Clarice arrives on scene she informs him that she told his contacts that he no longer has STO sanction. Sister Clarice pistol whips Barnabas and tells him to toe the line or someone is going to get hurt.


• Amanda is reading press reports online, with headlines such as "High Tech Theft Leaves Workers Slain," and "Did Graystone Steal His Chip? Say It Ain't So, Danny! - Vergis Corp Sources Imply Robbery may be linked to Graystone's New Robotics Contract." We see that she's still drinking and taking pills, and notices a bridge that is being featured on the news as a place where people have committed suicide. The memory flashes she is experiencing now include moments of her own failed suicide in the past. She calls Clarice for company, but as we know Clarice has her own issues to deal with and says she can't meet.


• At a meeting of Barnabas' cell at the shipyard, Barnabas shows Lacy a crate she can use for shipping, but she has to prove herself first by replacing Clarice's car key fob.


• In Joseph's high rise, Sam finds Joseph lying on the couch immersed in V-World. Sam says he needs rehab, but Joseph's assistant Evelyn says he just needs some Tauron comfort food.


• In V-World, Zoe is still wooing Philo to her own means (to get out of the lab).


• At Athena Academy, Lacy waits for Clarice to leave her office and then trades out the key-chain for the one Barnabas gave her.


• Colonel Sasha Patel visits Daniel in his lab. She reveals that she knows about him stealing Vergis' chip. She says that Defense may have turned a blind eye, but in procurement they knew what they were getting into. She moves his deadline up, giving him only a week to produce the contracted robots.


• In V-World, Emmanuelle summons Tamara back to her own apartment with an image of Tamara's signature flower in a window. She pleads with Tamara to help with her father's addiction to finding her (including Amp).


• Back at the Graystone lab, Philo gives Daniel his plan for replicating the chip which will take weeks, but since Daniel doesn't have the time anymore, he orders Philo to burn the chip clean so they can produce the robots.


• In V-world, Zoe informs Lacy of the plan to escape. Lacy, however, says they won't have the crate for a week. Zoe gets pissed at Lacy for frakking things up, since the chip is going to be wiped soon. She pleads with Lacy to help her.


• At dinner that evening (where Amanda was expecting to go out, but instead Daniel plans on cooking for her), Amanda recalls when she first when crazy and that Daniel was the rock she relied upon. She then tells him that Vergis showed up at their house and said that Daniel killed two of his men and stole his chip. Daniel says "It's complicated," causing her to walk out of the house.


• In New Cap City, Joseph shows up at Tamara's apartment at someone's request. He Amps up, and Tamara steps out of the shadows. She points a gun at him, shoots herself, and then shoots him, causing him to be perma-removed from the game forever. Adama comes to in the real world, and we see Evelyn remove her goggles, revealing that she was Emmanuelle all along. Joseph apparently believes that Tamara's gone for good.


• In the lab, Philo gets ready to wipe the chip. Desperate, Zoe speaks out of the robot, startling Philo. She pleads for his help to get her out of the lab. Philo acts like he's planning to help her but actually sets off the alarms. Zoe pulls him away from the computer, but doesn't realize the strength of her throw and by all appearances kills him. She then escapes the building on her own (why she didn't just do this to begin with I'll never understand).


• Daniel and Xander discuss the breakout, and that the military is setting up a roadblock to intercept the robot. Xander says that top brass are saying that this incident proves they've lost control of the project, and that they're not sure they are getting the project back.


• Cut to Vergis walking arm-in-arm with Colonel Sasha Patel, who has just dined with Vergis apparently to make an agreement for robots that work and a share in civilian applications. Colonel Patel says Vergis gets the company and the contract.


• Amanda walks to the bridge featured in the opening of the episode (to the voice of Alessandro Juliani, or Felix Gaeta from BSG, singing opera over the scene!) and flashes of her past play in her mind's eye. She eventually walks to the top of the bridge and prepares to jump.


• At the shipyard, Barnabas is tracking Sister Clarice as she makes her way to the airport for her trip to Gemenon. He reveals to Lacy that the keychain has a bomb in it that they plan to detonate. He also reveals that Keon designed the bomb, and that they had been using her all along.


• Zoe approaches the military road block at high speed. Meanwhile, Clarice gets stuck in a traffic jam, and tells Nestor that she hopes STO gives her sanction to kill Barnabas.


• After a brief loss in signal, Keon prepares to send the cell signal that will trigger the bomb in Clarice's car. Lacy begs him to stop, and Barnabas uses the opportunity to get Lacy to send the signal instead. He tells her to do it or he's not sending her shipment to Gemenon, and ups the ante by pulling a gun and threatening to kill her and Keon both if she doesn't do it.


• In traffic, Clarice sees Amanda jump from the bridge. At the military roadblock, Zoe decides to crash through it and plunges headlong.


• Under distress, Lacy pushes the button that will send the detonation sequence to Clarice's car. Clarice, however, has gotten out to see Amanda jump, and witnesses her car explode (with Nestor in it?).


• Zoe plows through the roadblock at top speed, sending her tumbling through the air (and causing an explosion that blows her up?).


• The episode ends with Daniel receiving a phone call, presumably about Amanda's death.


• Is Amanda really dead?


• Did the U-87 robot blow up in the explosion?


• Was Clarice's husband Nestor in the car when it exploded?


• Will Joseph ever find out that Evelyn duped him and that Tamara is still alive?


• Will Daniel lose his company?

We won't find out until the Fall, for that is when Syfy is supposedly bringing the second half of the season back to the air!

What did you think of the mid-season finale? Leave us your comments below!