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Caprica review: ‘The Imperfections of Memory’
Air date: 3/12/2010
Written by Matthew B. Roberts
Directed by Wayne Rose
Note: This review contains significant spoilers.
An episode like “The Imperfections of Memory” makes me question the ratings sustainability of Caprica on a network that calls itself “Syfy.” This is an episode that values character and atmosphere way above plot and resolution. I don’t necessarily have a problem with that. But pitched to a crowd that likely expects a little more sizzle and viscera in their sci-fi (especially from the creators of BSG), there’s a tendency with an episode like this to wonder how patient the audience will be.
I say this as someone who enjoys but cannot yet fully recommend Caprica as a series. There’s real potential for this series to be intriguing and substantive. Even exciting and sci-fi-ish, as “There Is Another Sky” demonstrated. But there’s also the potential for the show to get lost in its own haze of half-baked backstory, just as Amanda and Clarice find themselves lost in the drug-induced haze at the end of “Imperfections.” This is an episode whose storytelling proceeds at a deliberate pace, as if resigned to being the bridge between more definitive plot turns.
I’m not sure I needed big chunks of the A-story, in which Amanda has hallucinations about her long-dead brother. Considering that Amanda already has enough grief and guilt to deal with in the aftermath of Zoe’s death, was it really necessary to go into the backstory of the guilt and regret surrounding her dead brother? As far as I can tell (and I could be wrong about this), the storyline mainly exists in order to hint that Amanda’s hallucinations are more than simply the imaginings of an emotionally troubled former crazy person, but rather something more profound and spiritual. BSG fans will be taking note, no doubt: Is Amanda one of many who have a special ability that might someday become Cylon “projection”? (Of course, I could be barking up the wrong tree here and this could mean nothing, which could be a problem for those who don’t bring their BSG baggage with them to this series; this hallucination angle would not be nearly as interesting.)
There’s some interesting dynamics here with Clarice befriending Amanda, whose use of drugs and booze seems to be quickly heading toward possible “problem” waters. There’s a laid-back atmosphere to the drug-smoking bar that works, and the Prophecy of Apotheosis is again invoked in the name of eternal life. (It’s also interesting to ponder how much Clarice is using or recruiting Amanda, and how much she needs her as a sounding board.) This is heavy on character and atmosphere, and light — probably too much so — on story advancement. (And, again, couldn’t this have been achieved without hallucinations of dead siblings? I mean, who cares?)
Joseph’s entrance into New Cap City with the help of the kid who met Tamara is similarly atmospheric and indicative of stringing us along. There’s not much here we learn that we didn’t already learn in “Another Sky,” and while I appreciate the return to New Cap City, it feels like this story is spinning its wheels more than anything, especially with the introduction of a mysterious woman named Emmanuelle (Leah Gibson) who claims to know where Tamara is and will take Joseph there for a price.
My guess is that the writers already know how this will all play out, but are biding their time because they have an episode to fill. My prediction is that Emmanuelle will end up being superfluous and arbitrary, but I should probably reserve judgment. I suppose this is one of the dangers of full serialization. The best serials (BSG and Lost, to name genre examples) usually make the individual installments compelling in addition to the overall arc.
I found the scenes between Zoe and Philomon to be more engaging for their innocent teen infatuation as well as their philosophical content about the use of VR. For someone who is so interested in the applications of VR, Zoe has very little interest in the notion of fantasy. While most kids her age want to experience V-World for its forbidden pleasures or violence or ability to transcend the laws of physics, Zoe is more interested in VR as a place that can duplicate the real world without cheating at life. Like Clarice, she is interested in technology as a way to preserve memory and extend life.
Meanwhile, Daniel continues to be stalked by Vergis, who always approaches him with a smile and a let’s-be-friends facade that makes his presence all the more ominous. The big nugget of info here is when Vergis tells Daniel that his MCP never worked, so whatever Daniel did to get it to work was a stroke of genius. It takes some mulling for Daniel to put two and two together (and I’m surprised it took this long), but he finally realizes that the reason the MCP works with the U-87 is because of the X factor: Zoe’s avatar program having somehow survived the transfer process — bringing an analog spark of intelligence to a digital chip.
Like I mentioned in the “Know Thy Enemy” review, Caprica is a series that could very well be more about building its universe and soaking in its atmosphere than about exciting revelations and plot points. Fair enough. But I still feel like “Imperfections” was a less compelling, more middling effort. That being said, I can’t say I disliked this storyline or the episode. It just didn’t feel all that crucial.
The paradox of “Imperfections of Memory” is that when you step back and recount all the characters and their relationships and their motives, it seems a lot more eventful in retrospect than it was to experience. BSG was always the opposite in that regard; it felt like more happened than actually did.
Bullets R Us:
• “I work with top-secret military robots.” “That’s really hot.”
• Lacy decides to join the STO because she wants to fulfill her promise to Zoe in getting the robot to Gemenon. This seems awfully shortsighted of her, but perhaps that’s the point.
• I know I complain about it every week, but it again applies here: The STO, despite all of its tentacles, is too much of a vague piece of business operating on the fringes of the story rather than something that feels vital to the show. And the GDD is nowhere to be seen.
• I enjoyed this chain of events: Zoe tells Philomon her thoughts about an analog process aiding a digital world, which gives Philomon the idea about an analog process in the MCP preventing it from being duplicated, which in turn leads Daniel to suspect Zoe survived being transferred into the U-87. So basically, Zoe outed herself.
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14 comments on this post
Katharine
[Comment referred to following episode. Spoilers removed.]
enniofan
^ Katharine, you are referring to the next episode in series, called “Ghosts in the Machine.”
Have to agree wholeheartedly with the review. Aside from Zoe outing herself to Philo, this was a righteously boring episode. And the Joseph Adama was repetitive to the Nth degree.
my big question of the episode is who is paying the girl to guide Joseph, in light of Heracles getting virtually offed?
Nolan
Hm, strange, I thought this episode was just a little bit better than the last one, personally.
At leas in this episode it seemed like they at least added more to the various stories, rather than the previous one, whihc seemed only to exist to introduce Vergis. Unless I’m forgetting something.
Oh yeah, No mention of the first ever appearance, (Chronologically) of Vipers? And through a qhick shot of the Viper mk1’s cockpit, I’ve learned that DRADIS was not invented for the war, at least not the big war.
Grant
“That being said, I can’t say I disliked this storyline or the episode. It just didn’t feel all that crucial”.
I think this quote basically sums up Caprica as a whole for me thus far. I have really enjoyed everything Caprica has to offer in terms of the characters, the amazing setting, the visual effects, and the attention to detail regarding Caprica’s history and culture, but for me, the main thing that is missing in this series is the sense of urgency that we got in every episode of BSG.
In BSG, someone’s/everyone’s life was on the line in most of the episodes, so the A-plot of the episode became the “edge-of-your-seat” story that engaged the audience week after week. Here, (especially in this episode) we have a much more subdued A-plot, that seems more like a chess game rather than a viper dog-fight, when all we want is a dog-fight!
But I have a sneaking suspicion that the writers are using this first half of the season to simply set up the world of Caprica and its characters…only to have the character’s lives fall apart in the second half.
Josh
Unfortunately I have to agree. This series is wonderfully made but it has been slow and plodding so far. This episode is a case in point. Only at the end did we get the big development as Daniel figured it out. I was quite annoyed that I had waited the whole episode for that moment only to be told I have to wait another week.
Matt L
I personally like the pace the show goes at, but it’s pretty obvious from ratings that I’m in a minority there. I really don’t think being associated with the fast-paced BSG helps the show very much. And I agree that the Caprica writers need to work much harder at making each individual episode a self-contained unit.
The next episode after this one is much better though (probably my fav in the series).
Just a thought about the visions Amanda is having–I actually see her brother as being a head character. It makes sense to me that the one god, even this early, would have been tweaking things towards the inevitable conclusion. What he’s moving Amanda towards I still can’t say, but that’s my personal theory…
Jason
Wow, I’m surprised by this review. I thought this one was far better than Know Thy Enemy. I’d have gone 3 1/2 on this one, 2 1/2 on the previous week’s.
alex99a
I wonder, is Caprica (the planet) one single political entity, one big country? A piece of mail is addressed sush-and-such person, such-and-such street, then “Delphi, Caprica”. A car license plate, where we would have the state name, had “Caprica”. Looks about as odd as us saying “Chicago, Earth”.
Jammer
I think of each of the 12 colonies/planets as different countries, with the collective 12 worlds being “the world.” You would think that on Caprica itself there would be more states/territories/governments, etc. But considering that we haven’t even left Caprica CITY (save the flashback to Tauron City), I’m not sure the configuration of the 12 Colonies even matters, beyond things like the Taurons and their role as immigrants. Perhaps at some point it will (if the show goes on for long enough), but my guess is that the scope will remain somewhat limited. As it should.
Damien
I agree that this ep was rather lackluster and felt like filler for the most part. In fact, this is easily the worst of the season so far, as I’ve loved every other episode, especially the next one, which is a standout.
I don’t really understand why the ratings are so low in the US. But then again, I can’t understand why BSG was so loved either (I used to love BSG too – season 1, but then it got too self-indulgent and aimless and I dropped it somewhere around end of season 2).
philaDLJ
Shooting a pyramid ball into a hole juxtaposed with a “Vinagro” ad? Pretty subtle.
In fact, every time they show Pyramid actually being played, including in BSG, it reminds me of Calvinball…made up as they go. Though I guess some people who aren’t fans of football or baseball look at those sports with similar bemusement.
lvsxy808
I don’t think Amanda’s hallucinations are an example of “Cylon projection.” I think they were just a way of showing that Amanda was already a troubled person long before this. Thus retroactively explaining the various freakouts she’s had so far in the show.
Rather, I think that the source of “Cylon Projection” is actually ZoeBot’s ability to connect wirelessly to the VR world.
J
I could have edited this episode down to about 5 minutes of content and gotten the same thing out of it. One could easily fast forward through Amanda and Clarice sharing stories while doing their best impressions of William Shattner and lose nothing. Every episode of this series gets more painful to watch.
Jurek
I thinkthe poetsr hints quite well at the sci fi aspect of things. She is the AI, the being of the Cylons. The apple is what gives the rest away. You think they chose to only show something red on the poetsr for nothing? Not only is there allusion to Eve and the sin and downfall of man (I’m kind of tired of Christianity worming its way into sci fi stuff), but an allusion to the Cylon Centurions, with their roving red eye.