It Has All Happened Before, and It Will All Happen Again – Until the Fall
Episode Commentary: End of Line
“It has all happened before, and it will all happen again.”
Appropriate and poignant words for any Frakhead, especially since any true fan of Ronald D. Moore’s brilliant franchise knows the utter pain and misery of a long hiatus from the world of “Battlestar Galactica.”
Except in this case it’s finally “Caprica.”
The mid-season finale finally came upon us. As expected, it is a truly remarkable episode with enormous changes and shocks galore, featuring a highly unexpected (and to be perfectly honest, undeserved) character death and certain predicted, though long-awaited developments.
Joseph Adama (Esai Morales) finally finds Tamara (Genevieve Buechner) in New Cap City: Not entirely surprising. To be perfectly honest, it’s about time. The actual execution of this drawn out and highly emotional arc, however, leaves much to be desired.
It’s quick, callous and ultimately somewhat contrived. At the very least, it deserves some epic dialogue.
Other parts of the episode were infinitely better, however.
Daniel Graystone (Eric Stoltz), facing pressure from his company, must make 100,000 working copies of the U-87 within one month. In order to achieve this nigh-impossible task, he must erase the data on the original v-chip – and with it, avatar Zoe (Alessandra Torresani).
He concedes, and in doing so, gives a rather berating speech in front of Philomon (Alex Arsenault), indicating that the robot is not a pet or a person, but rather a machine and must be treated as such.
Unsurprisingly, Zoe plans to escape, for which she needs Lacy’s (Magda Apanowics) help, who’s become rather knee-deep in the S.T.O. (Soldiers of the One) in an effort to help her virtual friend.
Ah, the S.T.O.
It’s absolutely fantastic to see James Marsters back on the small screen as the dastardly and devious Barnabus. He retains that dangerously alluring machismo honed through years of portraying the dashingly sexy Spike on “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” but brings something new to the character, as well, including his natural American accent.
Barnabus is decidedly calculating, though never fails to confront conflict head-on, either – all fists and fangs and – wrong show. But Barnabus is a tough opponent – more than a match for the underhanded Sister Clarice Willow (Polly Walker).
Sister Clarice, on the other hand, continues to chase the trust of Amanda Graystone (Paula Malcomson), who continues to slide past the brink of insanity. This is ultimately one of the strongest points of the show thus far since Malcomson is a superior actress; to be fair, however, they all are. Although Toressani showed some weakness in the pilot she’s more than improved throughout the course of the season and effectively wields subtlety along with explosive dramatic tension.
As the long hiatus between half-seasons stretches and the fans become increasingly restless, the hope for three things tops the list: web-isodes; more Sam Adama (Sasha Roiz), who bears a stunningly strong resemblance to BSG’s Starbuck (Katee Sackhoff) what with the tattoos and carefree mayhem and all, coupled with pockets of deep and oftentimes unexpected wisdom (perhaps one of the reasons grown-up Willie Adama took Kara under his wing had something to do with being reminded of a certain favorite uncle); as well as a quick and effective answer to the current plot threads.
So say we all.
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