"THIS IS NOT ME, IT'S JUST MY BODY VEHICLE."
REVIEW: Good news, everyone! Zoe wasn't really looking for romance with creepazoid Philo! She just wants to manipulate him into getting her robot body out of the lab! I don't know if it'll work, as the episode ends on quite a different possibility. I'm going to say it, the boys are kind of dense here. Philo decides to take "Rachel" on a crazy gamer date where she almost immediately crashes the flight simulation Viper she finds herself in (through this we do learn her program is made to learn skills normally and organically), so he's got absolutely no game. He also doesn't suspect Rachel is Zoe despite the fact that his date spouts some next generation computereze. Has he never been regaled with Graystone's tales of his daughter's genius? She's trying to push him into taking the robot outside where it might "experience life", but the real lesson is that the program driving it is "uncopiable", i.e. "analog", a clue he gives Graystone. And only NOW Graystone pieces it together, despite having put Zoe in there. He may think it failed, but I feel like he's never considered the possibility that the Zoe program at least AFFECTED the chip. And even here, the DOG has to give Zoe away before he makes the connection. Not a great showing, brainiacs. (I do see here an echo of the latter-day Cylons, imperfect copies of one another, the same but different.)
"Getting closer" to someone is truly the theme of the episode. We also have Lacy drawing closer to Keon, and whether she's using her feminine wiles like Zoe is or it's real, she's also willing to join the STO and participate in terror attacks to get Zoe off-world. Joseph gets Heracles killed in New Cap City and thus loses his guide, but a mysterious girl called Emmanuelle proposes to bring to Tamara, for a price. And if there's a relationship that's the focus of the episode, it's Amanda's and Clarice's.
We learn Amanda spent time in a sanitarium after being in a car accident that took her brother's life. She kept hallucinating him, and now, in this moment of stress, it's been happening again. This is the BSG universe, so such visions may or may not be portentous, or have a spiritual component. Clarice got what she came for last episode (so apparently Zoe's avatar-making program DID still exist, stop lying to us, Caprica), but those visions interest her. She's a woman of the cloth, after all, and given her large marriage group, she's undoubtedly bisexual. There might be an attraction there (Amanda's teasing Daniel to make him jealous may be more serious than it seems). The relationship is mostly based on getting drunk and high and exposing one's secrets, and it doesn't take too long before Amanda's crisis of faith inspires Clarice to talk about "God". In the broadcast episode, it's ambiguous as to whether this gives her away as a Monotheist (there's a Zoe connection after all); the deleted scenes have her covering. Could Amanda, in fact, be converted?
CAPRICANADA: The V-World beach was filmed at Whytecliff Park, next to Horseshoe Bay. New Cap City here (as well the Heracles' alley) is the Canadian Motion Picture Park Backlot in Vancouver, originally built for the filming of Watchmen. Joseph's meeting with Emmanuelle is at the Riverview Hospital's East Lawn Building. Lacy and Keon talk at the Coal Harbour Community Centre playground. Clarice and Amanda meet around Jervis Street, but the memorial wall is at Downtown Plaza.
ALL THIS HAS HAPPENED BEFORE AND IT WILL HAPPEN AGAIN: This line is referenced by Amanda as "an old saying". The visions of her brother echo the various "angels" seen by BSG characters, and the chase something like the Opera House sequences. Galactica also had a memorial wall. The Delphi Convalescent Institute, where Amanda spent 2½ years, appears to be the same location as the "former mental hospital" where Starbuck and other women are experimented on, AKA the Farm. Zoe and Philo fly "Vipers" in a simulation, they do not appear to be the space-worthy kind.
VERSIONS: There are almost 15 minutes of deleted material from this episode... Adama prepares to go find Heracles. A long talk between them in the tunnel. Later, they talk in the real world about Adama not being ready for the game. Clarice and Amanda discussing the ambrosia before drinking it, and Clarice being informed that Amanda is on meds. More of their conversation at the Dive, including Clarice identifying her "one god" as Zeus. People arriving at the Buccaneers game, and Duram using his (deleted scenes-only) recognition tech and finding someone who might be STO; the operation catching the guy but leaving his kid unattended, but his identity is confirmed and the agent recommends ignoring some personal liberties to get information. And Lacy confirming the STO cell is the one bombing the holo-cafés and agreeing to do something like that for a ride to Gemenon.
REWATCHABILITY: Medium - There's a pleasant theme going, I do question the wisdom of most of the characters at this point though.
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