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!

What did you think? Leave comments below!

• In a flashback, we see Tomas Vergis discover the break-in at Vergis Corp. that Daniel ordered back in the pilot episode to steal Vergis's chip, finding two of his men dead. Fast forward to a month later, and he crashes Daniel's private function to reveal the fact that he knows Daniel stole the chip and killed 2 of his men.


• Daniel informs his assistant Cyrus Xander that the men he hired to steal the chip were Tauron. Tomas Vergis is also a Tauron, further complicating matters.


• Joseph Adama purchases a holo-band from Emptor Electronics, obviously in an attempt to find Tamara. but he's interrupted by the appearance of Daniel in the real world. Daniel informs Joseph that Vergis knows something, and thinks Joseph set him up. Joseph says if Vergis knew then he would be dead already, since if you steal from the friend of the Guatrau then the Guatrau would have to make amends.


• Daniel is having daydreams of himself killing Vergis's men - repressed memory, or guilt?


• STO bombings are continuing in the city, and Sister Clarice's "family" thinks it's someone named Barnabas. Clarice's husband Nestor tells her that Olaf has created a thumb-drive sized device that can wirelessly steal the data associated with Zoe's avatar (which Clarice believes is part of making the soul immortal), and asks her to get into Zoe's home.


• During Daniel and Vergis's first meeting, Vergis offers to buy the C-Bucs team from Daniel. Vergis reveals that he knows that Daniel promised his board that he would get the chip to work, and for that he needs money. Vergis obviously has an ulterior motive, (which we discover later).


• Philomon continues his creepy flirtation with the robot in Daniel's lab. It seems he can't get a date.


• This episode introduces the awesome James Marsters (Buffy, Angel, Torchwood) as the crazy terrorist Barnabas Greeley. Per Keon's request, he says he'll see Lacy.


• Clarice gets on the holo-band to argue apotheosis with her voice-modified contact. She asks to see the Conclave to explain it to them them. The Conclave, however, is supporting Barnabas. Side thought- Is apotheosis going to be the progenitor of resurrection?


• Daniel has apparently been "programming all kinds of weird stuff into Serge lately." Could this be one of those things?


• Under the ruse of returning Zoe's books, Clarice enters the Graystone residence, gets Amanda drunk, then uses the wireless device to steal data off the Graystone computer in the lab.


• Keon brings Lacy to Barnabas. Lacy asks him to help her transport Zoe's cargo off-planet, but Barnabas refuses. After sending Lacy away, he scolds Keon for bringing her to the warehouse. We also learn that Keon made the bomb that blew up the mag-lev. Barnabas asks Keon to find out what the cargo is.


• Back in the Graystone lab, Virtual Zoe sends Philomon a letter on the dating website he's been using, setting up a V-World meet-up. Philomon later gets on holo-band and meets Zoe (calling herself "Rachel") in a V-bar where they flirt with each other.


• Clarice must have a drug problem. During one of her drinking sessions back at the house, Nestor and Olaf find that the wireless device they gave her is full of data, and remove themselves to go inspect it.


• Joseph has his assistant, Evelyn, investigating the identity of the boy that said Tamara still exists, and Evelyn returns one day having found him. You can tell that she has some admiration for Joseph as she inspects his recent tattoo. Perhaps she will be William's "mother" after all, as the BSG series claimed.


• In Daniel and Virgis's second meeting, Daniel refuses Virgis's offer to buy the Bucs. Daniel has an idea that all of Virgis's exploits on Caprica are an attempt to steal away the government contract. In a very creepy reveal, Virgis tells Daniel that his real goal is to tear up Daniel's dream. Daniel stole from him, and killed two men that were like brothers to him (they were Tauron). Virgis bumps his offer up to 500 million for the Bucs, then says that he will find the next thing Daniel loves, eventually destroy Daniel's company, and take anything he holds dear, until the debt is paid.

Next up - "The Imperfections of Memory" - Amanda fears for her sanity while Daniel and Joseph closes in on their daughters.

Leave your thoughts below!

With that said, let's get to the key points!

• Joseph's mourning is pulling him apart from his son, William. Sam has stepped in to teach him the Tauron way, but the culture William is being taught is eerily similar to our own Italian mafia (mixed with Ancient Greece) - a violent path that may not be in his best interests.


• In V-World, Tamara finds someone named Vesta who supposedly can get her out of V-world, but even Vesta is surprised when she shoots Tamara to disconnect her and Tamara doesn't "de-res." Vesta, thinking Tamara is a "sleeper," offers to free her IF she'll play a game and help settle an old score.


• And here is where we're introduced to a new section of V-World, a First Player Game set in New Cap City, where anything goes. Tamara is led there by Heracles, who explains that they're going to run a heist to steal a big player's money. Heracles tells her that the object of the game is a mystery, as if the object of the game is to find the object of the game - but he and Vesta think it's about getting things that convert into points. No one has finished or won the game yet. When you die in the game you're out for good.


• Tamara distracts Chiron's security with a shoot-out, allowing Heracles to steal Chiron's avatar, which they're going to use to break into Chiron's vault and steal his money.


• Joseph takes William fishing just like old times to try and reconnect with his son, but William is not having it. Taunted by a group of racist teens, William eventually loses it and attacks with newfound Tauron fury. Now we know why Admiral Adama was such a hard-ass!


• Meanwhile, the Graystone board has called an emergency meeting, the plan being to oust Daniel from his position after the revelation he made about holoband on the Baxter Sarno show. That night, Amanda reminds Daniel of his roots and how he started the company, which compels him to crash the board meeting the next day with the Zoe Cylon. He declares that the holo-band is done, and that the Cylons are the wave of the future and will save the company (just don't tell the board that they'll go on to destroy most of the human race!). Daniel has just secured his position in the company.


• Back in V-World, Tamara and Heracles break into Chiron's vault with his avatar. They manage to gain access to the money (was anyone else amused by the sucking of the coins?), but two security guards return when alarms are set off and open fire. Tamara concentrates - and somehow makes the guards, who are pure code and not players, disappear in an instant! She is The One! Sorry - had a Matrix flashback there for a minute.


• At the behest of Sam, Joseph initiates Tauron rites to mark the passing of his wife and daughter so that he and William can move forward with their lives.


• Tamara and Heracles return the money to Vesta, who reveals that she can't help Tamara because she has discovered that Tamara was actually killed in the mag-lev bombing. When Vesta says she has plenty for Tamara to do, an implied threat, Tamara freaks out and shoots everyone in the room. She tells Heracles to remove his holoband and go tell her father that she is alive.


• Once the Tauron ceremony is over, and both Joseph and William appear to have reached some sort of closure with Shannon's and Tamara's deaths, Heracles appears at Joseph's door and tells him that Tamara is still alive in V-World and can't get out. Heracles runs away as Joseph gives chase (he wants Heracles to take him to Tamara), but Heracles manages to get away.

Coming up next, on "Know Thy Enemy": Daniel Graystone faces a rival while Sister Clarice closes in on Zoe's avatar.

That's it for this week! Leave us your thoughts in the comments!

Now - on to the key points!

• Sister Clarice's husbands and wives sleep 4 to a bed? And I thought MY bed got crowded with just my wife!


• So the GDD gets an iffy warrant to search Athena Academy, and Agent Durham uses the moment to do a little media manipulation. Lucky for Sister Clarice, she has an informant (possibly on the inside) that gives her enough prior notice to warn her acolyte students in the school, including Keon and Lacy.


• Sam Adama's assassination of Amanda is delayed due to Daniel's preparation for the Sarno talk show with his assistant and PR rep.


• According to Grandma Adama, you become a man on Tauron when you're 13. She also dispenses classic advice to Will such as, "you get the best things from enemies because they're scared of you." Also - Grandma is scary!


• The GDD delivers on its earlier promise to get a warrant and search the Graystone residence, delaying Sam's attempt to kill Amanda yet again. The warrant only applies to the residence, so the GDD still can't search the lab. Unfortunately for the GDD, they found nothing at the school, and now find nothing incriminating at the residence.


• During her diagnostic test, we discover that Zoe can do The Robot (nach)!


• Grandma Adama gets chicken-bone-jacks for little Will, after kidding Adama that on Tauron kids play jacks with the bones of kids that lose at jacks. She also delivers another awesome quip (while butchering meat!): "The dead don't really die until their death is avenged." Grandma is one tough, scary cookie!


• Daniel appears on Backtalk with Baxtor Sarno to try and spin his company back into a positive light. As predicted, Daniel doesn't keep his composure and things look to be spiraling out of control until Amanda storms the stage. Daniel finally gets his head back and manages to turn the audience in his favor by dropping the bombshell that he created an avatar of Zoe. He also declares that Graystone Industries will no longer charge for licensing of any legal spaces, and any profit made off the bands will go to charity or foundation for young people to find the right experiences and right values. Daniel's assistant is concerned because that's 60% of their net.


• When Grandma Adama sees Amanda on TV, she says the following: "I could kill her with my own hands...sleep well every night." Holy frak this woman's cold!


• Lacy implores Keon for help getting to Gemenon, but Keno says he can only get her a meeting with Barnabas, who can decide whether she will get STO's help or not.


• Sam, posing as Baxter's driver, offers Amanda a ride home after the show is over. After seeing Graystone's performance, Joseph has a change of heart and calls Sam to call off the killing, but Sam does not answer. Later, when Sam appears at Joseph's place, he messes with Jospeh over whether or not he actually killed Amanda, finally revealing that he didn't. Sam tells Joseph that he messed with him to teach him not to yank Sam around.


• Sister Clarice is shown watching Graystone on TV, especially interested the moment when Daniel reveals that he created an avatar of Zoe.

Get ready for the next episode, "There is Another Side": Joseph Adama reaches out to his son, while his daughter finds a new side of the virtual world.

What did you think about this episode? Leave your comments below!

With that, let's get to this week's key points!

• Patton Oswalt is Caprica's version of Jon Stewart! Awesome!


• Amanda has resigned from her position at the hospital, which, given the fact that she told the world her daughter was a terrorist makes perfect sense. I wouldn't be surprised if it was one of those employer-induced resignations.


• Daniel can box. This is of apparently no use against the Ha'la'tha, because Sam Adama mops up the alley with Graystone when the Adamas confront him about finding Tamara in the virtual world. Joseph is turning some dark corners in this episode, the results of which will lead down some interesting avenues in later episodes for sure. Joseph mentions that he knows Tamara is not gone because he'd feel it. Um, he'd feel that an avatar was gone? How exactly?


• Composer Bear McCreary wrote a Tauran rap!


• William (Lil' Bill, I like to call him) continues his thug training with Sam. No wonder Admiral Adama was such a hard-ass! Also, did Sam give William a beer?! Or was that some Tauran root beer?


• Joseph is summoned to court by a judge he's bribing. Joseph's shady deals are going south apparently. Also, we learn that Joseph has dropped the "S" and gone back to his real Tauran name, Adama. His gangster dealings must have emboldened him. As a side note, from the BSG series we know and love, Evelyn is recorded as William Adama's mother. Does this mean Joseph will eventually marry his assistant whom we meet in this episode?


• The fallout from Amanda's announcement continues this week, with Graystone stock plummeting, his Pyramid team losing players, to negative criticism on TV. Daniel is reluctant to engage in any kind of PR move to save face. Amanda convinces Daniel that Zoe was a terrorist, as much as he doesn't want to concede to the fact.


• Unbeknownst to them, the Graystones frak in front of Zoe! Ew!


• This week we get a glimpse of the Global Defense Department (Caprica City Bureau), and the corruption within. Director Gara Singh confronts Agent Durham (whom we've seen) and Agent Youngblood about a videotape showing an interrogation of Ben Stark. Director Singh is upset over the fact that Agent Youngblood failed to cover up their release of Ben Stark a year ago, but Durham defends her mistake since it was a year before the bombing. After the scolding, Durham plans to reveal to the press that the Graystone's house has never been searched due to bureaucratic red tape.


• Zoe figures out how to connect to the holoband and meets Lacy in the virtual room that Daniel created. Lacy reveals to Zoe that Sister Clarice is fishing for the info on Zoe's avatar. Zoe tells Lacy to tell no one, because anonymity is her only weapon at the moment.They search for a door to V-world proper, but before they cross over the discover the avatar of Tamara, Joseph's now-deceased daughter. They lead her into v-world and "freedom." Zoe asks Lacy to find a friend of Ben's in the real world and ask him how they planned to get into the safehouse on Gemenon. Real Zoe previously said she had a purpose on Gemenon, so v-Zoe needs Lacy to take her there in the robot body.


• Daniel begrudgingly relents to speaking to a PR rep for his company - and look, it's Kat from BSG-proper! I knew it! She's a Cylon! Well, not really - RDM has confirmed that the actor is playing a whole new character. None of that Kat attitude is present, however, so she fails to convince Daniel to do PR spin.


• Sister Clarice visits v-world and talks to a disembodied voice that is being disguised - someone named Alvo. She confirms intentions we already suspected, namely that she is closer to finding the Zoe avatar. Alvo must be someone high up in the STO pecking order, because he reprimands her for the chaos that was caused from the bombing. Somehow, v-Zoe is apparently going to help STO serve the Lord through something called "apotheosis" as was prophesied. Alvo reveals that not everyone shares her view of apotheosis.


• Daniel takes Joseph into v-world to find Tamara but, as we know, Tamara is gone. Daniel leaves holoband and confirms that the avatar disappeared.


• Agent Durham's news leak hits the airwaves, giving the GDD warrant to search the Graystone residence.


• After watching negative news story after negative news story about his family and company, Daniel calls his assistant and tells him to book him on Baxtor Sarno. Now we'll see if Sarno is anywhere near as cut-throat as Jon Stewart can be.


• William Adama has dinner with Sam Adama and his partner. Sam reveals that they have no kids because the job he has now is not so good for kids (except for William, apparently). Joseph comes over, and in a shocking episode finale, tells Sam that he lost his wife and daughter, but Graystone only lost his daughter, so Sam should "balance it out"!

FYI, Syfy is skipping a week between the next episode, "Gravedancing," which airs on February 19th.

What did you think of this episode? Discuss below!

So with that, let's get on with the key points from episode 2, Rebirth!

• The opening montage of Zoe memories in digital form - frakkin awesome! The Cylon data stream makes its first appearance in the past!


• Apple's iPad is from an alternate future! I knew it!


• Apparently Zoe has taken a liking to her prototype Centurion body. Graystone has had no success in transferring the consciousness to other models. This is great for members of the viewing audience for if they succeeded the Centurions would rise up and - series over! He asks for the prototype to be taken to his home lab for further study over the weekend.


• Amanda finds out that Zoe had a boyfriend named Ben Stark. She didn't know Zoe had a boyfriend? Oy! This disconnect runs deep!


• Zoe nearly escapes her transport to the Graystone house, but the more sympathetic of the two lab rats manages to remove her chip before she can get free from her shackles in the transport van. Once inside the lab, the jerky lab rat tries to forcefully fix her - and Zoe severs his finger!


• When Amanda goes to Lacy's house to get more information about Zoe, she finds out that Zoe said a new family would be awaiting them on Gemenon. Gemenon is the home planet for The Soldiers of the One, so Zoe was most likely referring to them as the "family." Not knowing this background info, the discovery further distresses Amanda.


• Lacy is invited to Sister Clarice's house - where she discovers that Sister Clarice is engaged in a polygamous marriage - and one of her husbands is nearly young enough to be her son! Is Clarice trying to set up some kind of sexual encounter with her husband Nestor and Lacy? Something unquestionably creepy is implied here, the details of which we will surely find out as the series progresses. Clarice may be using him to get information about Zoe from Lacy. Also, what is this "track record" of Clarice's that her husband and wife bring up? Clarice is later seen going into a "Dive" bar for the first time in an apparent long while and getting high.


• Sam, Joseph's brother, gives William Adama a tour of Little Tauron (unbeknownst to Joseph), teaching him how to be a proper Tauran gangster (including purposely going to jail and paying the fine to get out). During this conversation we learn that Sam is homosexual and Joseph is hetero. William asks if the person that called Sam was the "Guatrau" (Ha'la'tha's leader), but Sam quickly tells him not to use that name. Sam doesn't explain why.


• Daniel denies Joseph entry to the house in an apparent continuation of their fallout from Daniel resurrecting Joseph's daughter in digital form. At his house, he stil can't figure out where Zoe's gone, or how to copy the prototype. Oh, and their dog Caesar must sense Zoe is in the robot.


• When Lacy visits Zoe at the Graystone residence, we learn that Zoe's original program was destroyed when Daniel transferred her to the prototype, so Daniel won't be able to put more copies of Zoe in more robots.


• At the memorial for the victims of the maglev bombing, Amanda hesitates to get up and say anything to the crowd. Natalie Stark, Ben's mother, approaches her to give back Zoe's things she'd left in Ben's room. This solidifies the knowledge that Natalie Stark knew more about Zoe and Ben's relationship than Amanda did. Among Zoe's things Amanda discovers the symbol of the STO, which is the final piece of a puzzle she doesn't want to confront about her daughter.


• Joseph confronts Daniel in a separate part of the venue and asks to see Tamara again, seeing how he's been plagued by her memory this entire time. Daniel tells Joseph that the avatar is gone, along with Zoe's. As Joseph realizes, incredulously, that his daughter's avatar may still be alive in the virtual world somewhere, Daniel hears that his wife has actually gotten onto the podium to give a speech.


• Amanda tells the crowd of mourners that she thinks her daughter may have caused the explosion! We know better, based on our knowledge of events, but Amanda has added up the facts she knows into an incorrect conclusion - and causes a riot at the ceremony!

I don't know about you, but I can't wait for next week! What did you all think? Leave your comments below!

Coming up next: "Reins of a Waterfall"

Before digging into the key points from the DVD / Digital release of the pilot, I just have to say - now that Moore and Co. have teased us with an unrated version of the Caprica universe, I wish the show could have been snatched up by HBO or Showtime. The unfettered look into Caprica's decadence (the no-holds-barred V-Club, the criminal underground a la the Sopranos) hit the tone they were going for dead-on, I believe, because they were uninhibited with having to tone down the images.

Anyway, we're not here to wish for the things that could have been, we're here to discuss some key points!

The V-Club

In the DVD extras, Co-Writer and Executive Producer Remi Aubuchon likens the V-Club to a virtual version of Facebook or Myspace and that, as a parent, the idea scared the crap out of him. No kidding! It is not a stretch to believe that teens, if presented with the possibility of a place where they could do anything they wanted without worry of sanctions, would delve into this sort of debauchery.

Having these virtual play-areas will also present the series with some interesting ways of mixing up the scenery. I don't see them ever going down the Star Trek Holodeck route, but the idea is there to play with.

The Families

The family dichotomy presented here is about 10 times more interesting than what I first conjured in my head (to be honest, I really didn't know what to expect). The fact that the Graystones lost touch with their daughter, who in turn creates a virtual clone of herself in the V-Club, who in turn dies in a "terrorist" suicide bombing, who in turn gets used as the first AI for Daniel Graystone's military robot is a great setup for future drama that will play out nicely in series form.

My favorite B-plot, however, involves Joseph Adama (living as the "Adams" on Caprica) and his criminal underground ties. Even though it looks like early on in the pilot Joseph was trying to distance himself from the Ha'la'fa, Daniel's offer to bring back his daughter in virtual form creates too much of a temptation. As the gangster says to him, he crosses a line that he vowed not to cross. After meeting his virtual daughter and the horror the encounter creates, he regrets his decision and calls what Daniel has done an abomination. But now he's in it deep with the Ha'la'fa, and we all know you can't just walk away from a criminal organization. There will be lasting ramifications for that choice for sure.

Led by two incredibly solid actors (how is it that RDM nets these leads?), it looks like we're in for a treat as we delve further into each character's past, as well as their future.

Religion

Picking up where BSG left off, religion is apparently taking a role front and center in the series. Having both polytheism and monotheism at play against one another will not only give the writers fertile ground for dramatic plotlines between the two sects, but will also allow them to make subtle statements about warring factions in our own world, much like BSG was able to do.

What's unclear, however, is the approach they will take to the revelations made in BSG's finale. Since they established that the Galactica world is shaped by "God" and that his "angels" exist, it's odd to see that the monotheistic religion in Caprica is portrayed rather sinisterly (not that the groups supporting polytheism look any better). It's too early to really conjecture on where they're headed with all this, but given that Caprica is a reflection of our own world where religion so often comes into play, it's not unreasonable for the show to tackle these issues.

Cylon Creation

So the Cylons are successfully created out of grief and longing - a dangerous recipe that overrides possibly a natural inclination for Daniel to question whether he should actually be placing AI, especially one based on his daughter, into a robot. It's a question we're going to be faced in our world soon as well.

Oh, and Cybernetic Lifeform Node, or Cylon for short? Very nice Mr. Moore and Aubuchon. Very nice indeed.
___________

When the credits rolled, I was rather taken aback by the Caprica pilot. Having no idea what to expect (and not really warming to the initial ideas being presented before the pilot aired), I was amazed that Ron Moore had appeared to strike gold again - in a totally different manner. Things could have gone horribly wrong, and yet here was another series set in the same world that managed to be intriguing, emotional, with some manner of suspense and awe thrown in as well - and no space battles to boot!

The only problem now - in typical Syfy fashion, we're going to have to wait until 2010 until the series airs (I'm guessing January, but I could be totally wrong).

Did you watch the pilot? Leave your thoughts below!