Review: Caprica 1.10 "Unvanquished"

Caprica is a show that shares its parent show's ridiculously complex topics for stories. Fortunately, both shows also work well when they zero in on a particular topic and examine it from a variety of viewpoints.

This week's episode of Caprica, the triumphant return of the show to television, is mostly about the sanctity of human life. Daniel, grieving now for the loss (though not necessarily death) of his wife and his company, is ready to jump into bed with the Tauron gangs -- though not for the life of his mother -- in order to set things right again. Clarice, meanwhile, presents an intriguing use of the V-World to her superiors in the religion (one with a power structure not so unlike the Catholic Church): a virtual heaven, where souls could live on after they had died.

The show's title has a nice ring to it: "Unvanquished". Clarice is unvanquished in her goal to assert monotheistic thought across all the colonies, an ambition she can finally realize now that the only man in her way is dead via Brutus (or Diego -- and I'm pretty damn sure the scene was set up to parallel that scene from the play on purpose). Daniel is unvanquished in his quest to uncover the secret behind eternal life, though he is slowed by the fact that Vergas is putting out chassis of the U-87 that can walk and shoot (which is, of course, good enough for the military). And Zoe is, well, just plain unvanquished -- the U-87 with her consciousness inside was boxed mercifully by Cyrus (going against orders from Vergas to melt down the parts for scrap metal), and her virtual self is a Dead Walker like Tamara -- not a coincidence since Zoe is looking for her.

It's tough to come back from a long break and jump right back into a world as richly detailed as Caprica, but this show remains a love-child of Battlestar Galactica, and that means you can't keep the strongest elements from shining through when necessary. The acting was top-notch (particularly the under-stated emotions in Zoe and Daniel) and some of these shots were just plain gorgeous -- how else would a drunken, grieving man wake up but with the feeling that the whole world is upside down? I will never get enough of this show and what it adds to the television landscape.

(Expect a Reflections piece on this one later on this week. There was a LOT of symbolism and imagery at work here, too much to cover in a single review.)