Caprica 1.03: “Reins of a Waterfall”

Note: The following review contains spoilers for all aired episodes of Caprica, including the most recent, “Reins of a Waterfall.”

Like Battlestar Galactica before it, one of Caprica‘s greatest strengths is proving to be its scope.  What both shows have most in common, besides their shared history, is a keen ability to deal with the worldwide ramifications of any disaster or event, on every level.  When I first saw the early episodes of Galactica, I praised the show for dealing with its science-fiction universe with the same sorts of human concerns as would befall people in the real world had such a catastrophe occurred–Is there enough food? Is there enough water? How are people affected spiritually/religiously/politically?, etc.  And Caprica has an even wider scope than Galactica.  While that show was about the splintered remains of a civilization, most of which were confined to spaceships in a fleet for the majority of the series, Caprica is about a still-thriving civilization (though poisoned at the root), in its own element.

This week’s episode, “Reins of a Waterfall,” continues to follow up on last week’s promise of delving into all strata of this enormous world, through the use of numerous conceits, from the simple fact that there are characters from all levels of society represented here to the brilliantly utilized Caprican TV clips.  Practically nothing gives us a better sense of the zeitgeist of a society than its media and pop culture, as twisted, heartless, and overblown as it may be, and here we see everything from bloodsucking journalists trying to make themselves part of the story to mean-spirited late-night talk show hosts using tragedy as fodder for their witless humor to market reports of Graystone stock plummeting post-Amanda’s startling and ill-advised revelation at the close of the second episode, “Rebirth,” that her daughter was involved in the terrorist act.  Caprica is making a fascinating point about how media and people interact with one another.  Would the protestors be so furious if the news and its sensationalist portrayal of the Graystone family hadn’t riled them into these frenzied feelings?  At the same time, however, would the news present stories of personal loss so crassly if people weren’t so eager to practically revel in tragedy?  The show also intricately demonstrates the corruption of Caprica’s law enforcers and how they are able to manipulate the media to keep the public eye off of their deficiencies.

The major thrust of “Reins of a Waterfall” is the fallout from Amanda Graystone’s eulogy.  With a few short sentences, she has practically destroyed her husband’s company, plunged society into anger, and put herself in danger, at first from a bottle thrown at her head outside her hospital and later at the hands of Sam Adama, but more on that later.  It seems so very human, and sadly so, that as soon as a mother makes a well-intentioned declaration about her daughter (borne from her own feelings of hurt and betrayal, just as palpable as anyone else’s), her husband and she are blamed for not raising her correctly.  Society seems to want to foster an atmosphere where confession is good for the soul, but once it happens, it will often eat the confessor alive.  The great dramatic irony, of course, is that her daughter didn’t cause the explosion (though she clearly had some sort of agenda we aren’t fully aware of yet), and an even greater irony is that, unbeknownst to her and anyone else but Lacy, she is making accusations about her deceased daughter in front of her daughter, who is still very conscious and aware in her Cylon body.

Meanwhile, her husband, Daniel, is feeling the full brunt of society’s hatred.  His stock is plummeting, his company is falling apart, his Pyramid team is losing supporters, and his PR people are suggesting he go on television’s most outspoken late-night host’s show (whose dark satire is played to pitch-perfection by Patton Oswalt) to sell out his daughter.  By decrying her dreadful actions, they think he can garner public sympathy, sympathy which he won’t receive from Joseph Adama, who is starting to go down a very dark road.

While it had at first seemed that he was the gentler of the Adama brothers (and it is probably still true, from a physical perspective, as he has his brother Sam carry out all of the actual violence), learning that Daniel’s daughter helped kill his wife and daughter (or so he thinks) has ignited Joseph’s thirst for revenge, exacerbated by Daniel’s refusal to speak to him or allow him on his premises in the previous episode.  Before, Daniel had the upper hand.  He was the powerful billionaire deigning to speak to Adama and bring him into his life and home.  Now, this new information has put the power in Joseph’s hands.  Daniel no longer intimidates him but is just a liar who ruined his life and destroyed his family.  If Daniel won’t speak to him, he will have his brother rough him up until he gets what he wants from him–access to his daughter, Tamara’s, avatar.  Later, when he discovers that his daughter is gone for good, Joseph orders Sam to even the score by killing Amanda.  Joseph lost a wife and daughter, and now Daniel will, as well.  Of course, the irony is that, just like Amanda and Daniel, Joseph is operating under a mistaken impression, for Tamara’s avatar is as much alive as Zoe’s.

On a side note, Caprica is raising all sorts of serious questions about the truth of the past, as seen through the eyes of the Galactica characters.  We learned various things about Adama’s father on Galactica–Bill considered him a great father; Lee remembered visiting him as a child, seeing his vast library of law books, and being told, “Lee, be a good boy, but not too good”; Romo Lampkin spoke of how he was a brilliant lawyer who knew the law inside out and would defend the worst criminals because he believed it was a way of exorcising one’s demons.  Now one has to question the legend of Joseph Adama. Was Bill idealizing his father?  In Caprica, it seems that Joseph is emotionally neglecting little William at the moment and letting his mother and brother take up the slack.  William is, in fact, skipping school regularly and becoming more and more influenced and entranced by his mobster uncle, something which Joseph seems to be mostly unaware of, or actively ignoring at this point.  As far as Lee’s memories, is “don’t be too good” a hint of Joseph’s moral grayness? As far as Lampkin’s, we now have to wonder whether Joseph’s lawyerly philosophy didn’t spring from noble intentions but from his mob connections, and whether Lampkin knew this or not.  It will be fascinating to track, over the course of the series, whether Joseph eventually evolves into the person from Bill and Lee’s memories, or if they are all the result of remembering someone more fondly than he deserved in life.

Reconstructing an image of someone after his or her death is, indeed, one of the major themes of Caprica, to date.  At the moment, the entire series arguably revolves around trying to figure out the mystery of Zoe Graystone.  No one seems to quite know who she was–not her parents, not her best friend, not even her avatar.  Sister Clarice might know her agenda and secrets better than anyone else, but Zoe seems to have kept even her in the dark to a large extent. Like Twin Peaks, a large portion of Caprica is devoted to figuring out the mystery of a dead teenage girl–not only why she died but who she was as a person.  What makes Caprica‘s situation even more fascinating, however, is that this dead girl still exists, in a way.  The avatar Zoe is an assemblage of Zoe’s personality and most of her memories up to a certain point, but even she doesn’t know what Zoe was planning for her or whether or not Zoe had planned to die on the subway train with Ben.

So, the show has this still-existing presence that reacts as this dead girl would react and thinks as this dead girl would think, but is also not quite this dead girl.  She is, however, fiercely loyal to her and plans on following her desires unquestioningly.  In her mind, if Zoe did it, it must be right–something which Lacy is beginning to question.  But Zoe’s avatar is, in many ways, the perfect daughter and the perfect supplicant.  She is the mirror image of her creator and is devoting herself to carrying out her wishes, without question.  It is another irony of the series that one of the reasons she may be so unwavering in her devotion is the sense of betrayal she feels at the hands of Zoe’s parents, who blame Zoe for the accident, just as everyone else does.  Again, the avatar reacts as if she is Zoe and has been betrayed by her own parents, while at the same time, she thinks of Zoe as a separate entity, making her perhaps one of the most complex characters ever on television.

Caprica also deserves praise for continuing to be so straightforward in its portrayal of Sam’s homosexuality.  This week, we meet his husband, and their relationship is depicted as being as casually loving and everyday as any heterosexual marriage in our world.  Sam is a big, bad gangster and faces no discrimination from his Ha’la’tha brethren due to his sexuality, nor is the masculinity of his character at all compromised.  His nephew hangs out with his husband and him and asks them why they never had kids, as if it is the most normal thing in the world, and that is because it is.  Sam is as tough as a Soprano but also happens to be in love with a man, and there is nothing wrong with that, which is most likely as much a reflection on the Greek milieu of the Galactica universe as it is an indication that not everything is wrong with Caprican society, just as not everything is wrong with our own.  Human civilizations, on the whole, will always tend to be inherently flawed constructions, with varying degrees of strength and weakness.  The attitude towards love is certainly a mark in the Colonies’ favor–footsteps that our world would do well to follow.

During the pilot, I wondered whether Caprica was worth watching at all, and now in the space of two episodes, I already hold it in nearly as high esteem as its parent series, if not just as high.  This is groundbreaking, thought-provoking, epic science-fiction storytelling unlike anything else on television today that may not have the narrative pyrotechnics of Lost but addresses today’s world, concerns, and people in a far more confronting manner.

All Caprica Reviews

Related posts:

1. Caprica 1.08: “Ghost in the Machine”
2. Caprica 1.07: “The Imperfections of Memory”
3. Caprica 1.05: “There Is Another Sky”
4. Caprica 1.06: “Know Thy Enemy”
5. Caprica 1.02: “Rebirth”

Tagged as: Battlestar Galactica, Caprica, TV