Reins of a Waterfall

"Reins of a Waterfall" An episode of the Caprica Series
Episode No.	Season 1, Episode 3
Writer(s)	Michael Angeli
Story by
Director	Ronald D. Moore
Assistant Director
Special guest(s)
Production No.	103
Nielsen Rating	0.4
US airdate	February 5, 2010
CAN airdate
UK airdate	February 16, 2010
DVD release
Population	{{{population}}} survivors
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Previous		Next
Rebirth	Reins of a Waterfall	Gravedancing
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Daniel Graystone attempts damage control in light of his wife's false revelation that their daughter was one of the suicide bombers of Maglev 23. Meanwhile, Joseph Adama continues his pursuit to see the Tamara avatar again while Willie and Sam Adama continue to bond.

Summary

Teaser

• Scenes from the Caprican media: Amanda Graystone's "revelation" of her daughter's involvement in the Maglev bombing are replayed on the news, Baxter Sarno mentions in his monologue that V-World hackers are re-creating the bombing before making comments about Daniel Graystone, students at the Athena Academy tell reporters that they were unnerved being in the same school and the same classes with Zoe Graystone, and Amanda is caught on camera leaving Caprica General Hospital as protesters chant "Terror Mom."
• At the hospital, Amanda is walking fast toward her car, but she quickly answers a reporter's question about her employment future by saying that she has resigned from the hospital. Encouraged to share her side of the story with the audience, Amanda pauses long enough to tell the report that they are not interested in the truth. A bottle is thrown, and a shard cuts Amanda's forehead. She speeds away.
• At the Athena Academy, students lead by Caston―including Keon Gatwick―stare at Lacy Rand, harasses her, and make thinly veiled threats. Sister Clarice Willow watches from a distance.
• Daniel spars in the boxing ring at the Red Gloves Gym, an old and run-down facility, while talking with Cyrus Xander. Xander recommends hiring Priyah Magnus as a consultant to address the growing public relations problem. Daniel expresses his distaste for PR, but Xander disagrees, pointing out that Daniel is at this gym rather than in Graystone Industries' facilities precisely because he wants to be seen as a man of the people. Daniel is unmoved.
• As Daniel walks to his car, his driver, Kalil, opens a door--and Sam Adama steps out. He accepts the keys from Kalil. Sam seizes Daniel and brings him to an alley, and proceeds to rough him up for being the parent of a terrorist who killed his niece. Joseph Adama joins them. He kneels next to Daniel and demands to see his daughter's avatar again. Daniel reluctantly agrees to search for the avatar. Joseph promises to call on him again.

Act 1

• Willie walks into a Tauron social club near his apartment building, carrying a box of burritos for sale. He approaches a group of men at a card game, who give him a hard time, even when he tells them about his brief time in jail. Sam pulls him aside and asks what he is doing there so early, telling him that he needs to go to school first for attendance before coming to the club. Sam concocts an excuse for him, hands him a beer, and they drink.
• Daniel limps into his home. Serge starts to play the day's news broadcasts for him before it quickly becomes obvious that it will all be dominated by the fallout from Zoe's alleged involvement in the Maglev 23 bombing, and Daniel orders the stories to be deleted. Serge offers Daniel medical treatment, but he prefers to do it himself in the downstairs lab.
• Evelyn greets Joseph at the courthouse entrance, telling him that he has to wait for a judge who for some reason is upset with him, despite all the appropriate paperwork and "special delivery" for the judge being in order. He asks Evelyn to get him coffee. She reluctantly agrees.
• At the Academy, Clarice Willow makes tea for Lacy, telling her that all the monotheists at the school have to be careful, in order to avoid being linked to the bombing. She asks Lacy to open up to her, the way the Zoe did. Obviously uncomfortable, Lacy excuses herself, claiming to have problems with her classwork.
• In the lab, Amanda finds Daniel. They are immediately worried about the injuries of the other. Amanda tries tending to Daniel's wounds first. While this is happening, Zoe-A watches from inside the U-87. Amanda and Daniel lapse into an argument about Zoe's supposed involvement in the bombing. Daniel eventually accepts Amanda's claim about their daughter's guilt, shocking Zoe-A, but he is still amazed that Amanda admitted this on television. She cries, claiming that it "just happened" and that she is sorry for it. Daniel kisses her tenderly. Eventually, Amanda asks him, "How about a good frak?" Despite his wounds, the two of the carefully start to make love, in front of the U-87.

Act 2

• In the Caprica City offices of the Global Defense Department, Agent Youngblood is pleased to read about Amanda's "confession" in the newspaper, but Jordan Duram pessimistically believes that it only served to scare off other members of Zoe Graystone's supposed cell. Director Gara Singh walks into their office and shows them an old videotape that had been mistakenly filed under "Starke" with an "e": Youngblood's interrogation of Ben Stark a year ago about wires and detonators in his possession that Stark explained as materials for his school's rocketry club, for which Stark had been quickly released. Singh warns them about press repercussions and leaves in frustration. Scared, Youngblood asks Duram what to do next. Duram destroys the videotape and asks rhetorically about the damage that would occur if they did not investigate "Terror Mom" because of bureaucratic road blocks. He dials the Caprica Tribune.
• Joseph continues to wait. Finally, Judge Maximus emerges and leads Joseph to a side room. Maximus asks Joseph if he is willing to let his client, Plexico Amarcord, go to a full jury trial. Joseph is confused and assures him that the "delivery" was made--which makes Maximum furious at the insult of blind drops, rather than being given the dignity of their agreed-upon face-to-face meetings. He notes that Joseph has been sloppy lately, and then doubles his price for cooperation.
• The U-87 connects itself to a holoband and Daniel's computer. In front of her own home, Lacy receives an e-sheet message to meet. She dons a holoband, and finds Zoe-A in Daniel's undecorated V-world entryway. Although Zoe can enter V-world, she cannot remain there, since she is housed inside the robot. Lacy informs her about Clarice's interest in Zoe-A. The original Zoe never showed the avatar to Clarice, so Zoe-A believes it is best to continue to keep the secret. They search for a doorway, find one, and open it, allowing light to pour into the room--revealing Tamara-A, on the floor and confused. Lacy assumes that the girls is "pure avatar," a simple simulation created and stored by Daniel. Zoe recognizes that Tamara is not the avatar of a live holoband user, and that she might be more than just a simulation. Lacy and Zoe lead Tamara through the door.

Act 3

• In the Caprica mediasphere: a news report discusses Zoe Graystone and shares security camera footage of her at the MLMT station in the company of Ben Stark; a business report notes the precipitous drop in Graystone Industries stock following Amanda's statement; protests against the Graystones continue; the Caprica Buccaneers may also be a target of public anger as they prepare for a home game; Sarno makes more jokes about the Graystone family.
• Magnus and Xander tell Daniel about Sarno's success at the expense of the Graystones and the scandal's effect on the holoband, but Daniel is unmoved. He specifically notes Sarno's anti-corporate stance and the mixed success of guests on his show in repairing their own PR problems. Magnus persists, advising him that he would have to talk in length about Zoe on the show, that he would have to present her to the audience as "troubled." Daniel grows indignant, angrily insisting that he would not bring his daughter into the media spotlight. He curtly asks both of them to leave the house.
• In the V-Club, Tamara is stunned and lost. Zoe offers to help, but she rejects their offers, insists that she will be able to find her own way home, and wades into the crowd.
• Clarice locks her bedroom door and connects to the holoband. She enters a small, modest corridor, and opens a door to a small compartment. She sits and lights a candle.
• In the quiet of their private V-Club room, Zoe eats and instructs Lacy to seek out Keon Gatwick, who was a friend of Ben Stark and thus knows about the plan to go to Gemenon. It is now Lacy's responsibility to make sure that Zoe-A is delivered to fellow believers there, but since the avatar has bonded with the U-87, Lacy will have to figure a way to transport the entire robot. Lacy is skeptical, but Zoe-A trusts the intentions of her creator. She goes on to remind Lacy about her cowardice, and tells Lacy that she must see this through.

Act 4

• In the small compartment, Clarice talks to Alvo, who appears as a silhouette behind translucent glass and speaks with a heavily distorted voice. Despite being ordered not to make contact, Clarice wants to report progress in acquiring Zoe-A and thus moving a step closer to apotheosis. Alvo notes that her quest for the avatar has caused her to lose control, leading to the bombing and unwanted exposure for the STO.
• Lacy waits for Keon to walk by, then tackles him to the grass and forces him to confess his membership in STO. However, he is confused by Lacy's claim that Clarice is running the STO cell at the Athena Academy. Keon grudgingly promises to look into how he can help Lacy to make Zoe's delivery to Gemenon.
• Daniel leads Joseph downstairs to the estate lab. Although Daniel did not speak to or see Tamara, he assures Joseph that the program was in the computer as of three hours earlier. They both don holobands, and find nothing. Daniel is confused and apologetic about her absence. On his way out, Joseph tells Daniel that he, too, is sorry.

Act 5

• Singh, Duram, and Youngblood watch Cubits and Pieces coverage of the Caprica Tribune's report of bureaucratic red tape holding up searches of the Graystone residence. Duram gives his partner credit for the idea. Singh happily promises them a search warrant by the following morning.
• Daniel absently listens to further television reports about Zoe, protests, the corporation's stock price drop, and predictions of Graystone Industries' default on almost two billion cubits owed to the Twelve Colony Banking Consortium. Daniel calls Xander and orders him to tell Magnus to arrange an appearance on Sarno.
• At the Adama apartment, Sam is cleaning the dinner table for his husband Larry and Willie, who asks them about why they do not have any children. Neither of them hide the fact that it is due to the violent nature of Sam's job. Joseph comes in and talks to Sam privately: he wants Sam to eliminate Amanda.

Notes

• Luciana Carro, who played Viper pilot Captain Louanne "Kat" Katraine in the Re-imagined Series, plays Daniel Graystone's Public Relations officer Priyah Magnus. She joins various other actors from the Re-imagined Series in different Caprica roles, including Michael Eklund (Prosna from the Miniseries and Waylon in "Rebirth"), Christian Tessier (Viper jock Tucker "Duck" Clellan in the Re-imagined Series and Ha'la'tha gangster Francis in this episode), and Nimet Kanji (Candace Myson from "Litmus" and Natalie Stark in "Rebirth").

Analysis

• Sam Adama and his husband Larry have decided not to have children, at least not at this time because of Sam's "occupation." It is not conducive to having children. Ironically, Larry is right considering how Sam is corrupting his nephew William into a life of crime.
• Caprica, and perhaps the other 11 Worlds as well, has a Juvenile Curfew Law. No minor is to be on the street after 10pm. This is the cause that had Ben Stark picked up by the GDD. In modern day Earth in some jurisdictions there are Juvenile Curfew Laws in some localities to maintain the general peace and to combat juvenile crime. Presumably Caprica have them for the same reasons. Civil Liberties organizations in the United States such as the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) are generally against such laws, both on general principles that it violates the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States and in particulars that they are unfairly enforced due to vagueness, lack of exemptions and sometimes are racially discriminatory. It is not known todate if Caprican Civil Liberties advocates oppose such laws. One non US example of curfew laws is Russia passing a law in 2009 allowing localities to pass curfew laws against juveniles. One important difference between Caprica and real life America is that the Global Defense Department (GDD) help enforce these curfew laws. In the US curfew laws are strictly a municipal and county creations. The State and Federal government do not enact or enforce these laws. On Caprica their "national" police force have a hand in enforcing these laws, the equivalent of the FBI or the United States Homeland Security doing so on Earth.
  • It is possible that GDD was only questioning Ben due to the wiring and detonators discovered in his possession, making him a possible security risk (which he was given his affiliation with the Soldiers of the One terrorist organization).
• It is possible that Gara Singh, Director of the GDD, sanctions the destruction of evidence if he believes it could hold the Department in a bad light. He did criticize Agent Youngblood for alleged incompetence about not destroying a misfiled and forgotten interrogation tape of her questioning Ben Stark after he was picked up on Aprilus 9th, YR41 for a curfew violation and found with what could be interpreted as bomb making materials (Stark explained it away as model rocketry components) nearly a year prior to the attack. Singh was concerned that if it came out it could had been portrayed in the press with 20/20 hindsight as GDD incompetence in letting one of the bombers go instead of holding him and perhaps saving many lives. To an outside observer his comment about her not even being competent enough to destroy the tape saving herself and the Department embarrassment could had been taken as sarcasm. However, as soon as Singh left Agent Jordan Durham and Youngblood's presence Durham did exactly that, destroyed the tape. This seem to indicate that Singh is willing to sanction acts like this because Durham did not express any concern about not being able to producing the tape in the future if Singh or any other GDD or government official asked for it nor did Agent Youngblood object. This could be taken as another example of the corruption of the Government on either Caprica in particular or the other 11 Worlds as a whole.
• Baxter Sarno is similar in form and style to real-life talkshow hosts like David Letterman or Jay Leno. However, Priyah's statement that he is a major news source for young people even though he's a comedian is likely a reference to Jon Stewart and The Daily Show, which have also been cited as a common source of news for young people.
• Daniel claimed to Joseph that it would be impossible for him to construct another avatar like Tamara's, "no matter how many bones you break," because the program he would need to work from was (he believed) lost along with the Zoe avatar.

Questions

• The documentation in the Battlestar Galactica episode "Hero" gave William Adama's parents as Joseph and Evelyn Adama and stated that Evelyn was an accountant. Does this mean that Joseph will marry his clerk assistant Evelyn? (Answer)
• What will become of the Tamara avatar? Will she realize she is no longer in real space? (Answer)
• Is there actually a model rocket club at Athena Academy?
• Is Sister Clarice aware of these STO meetings Ben and Keon attended that were not held by her?
• How factionalized are the STO? (Partial answer)
• What is "apotheosis"? Is it a plan for immortality via virtual avatars? (Answer)
• What views of apotheosis are there other than Clarice's?
• What is Alvo's true identity? (Answer)

Noteworthy Dialogue

• Daniel Graystone is sparring in a boxing ring as he discusses with Cyrus (who is outside the ring) the PR disaster his wife Amanda's public confession is causing the business:

Daniel Graystone: Scandals are sunburns, Cyrus; they fade.

Cyrus: Or they give you cancer.

• The Graystone's situation has become grist for the late night comedian's mill:

Baxter Sarno: Big news in the publishing world today. Daniel Graystone is revising his autobiography. A lot of you know it as The Man Who Could See The Future. It is now going to be titled Wow, I Didn't See That Coming.

• In a renewed sense of grief and anger over not being able to contact the avatar of his dead daughter Tamara, he gives Sam a veiled but still chillingly clear order:

Joseph Adama [to Sam]: Daniel Graystone lost his daughter, right? I lost my daughter and my wife. [thoughtful pause] Balance it out.

• As Sister Clarice tries to open Lacy to her, Lacy retreats, claiming problems with her astronomy class work:

Lacy Rand: Got a problem with my stars.

Guest Stars

• Patton Oswalt as Baxter Sarno
• Avan Jogia as Ben Stark
• Kendall Cross as Youngblood
• Peter Wingfield as Gara Singh
• Luciana Carro as Priyah Magnus
• Sina Najafi as William Adama
• Hiro Kanagawa as Cyrus Xander
• Genevieve Buechner as Tamara Adama
• Jim Thomson as Voice of Serge
• Liam Sproule as Keon
• Renu Bakshi as Abasi Lowe
• Dale Wolfe as Steve Bahara
• Paul Perri as Judge Maximus
• Teryl Rothery as Evelyn
• Julius Chapple as Larry
• Katie Keating as Prefect Caston
• Sarah Afful as Angry Woman
• Lynn Colliar as Delice Jackson
• Christian Tessier as Francis
• Lee Tichon as Kalil
• Kristian Haas as Paulie
• Sheldon Yamkovy as Protester
• Dawn Chubai as Reporter
• Elfina Y. Luk as Reporter
• Shane Sweet as Student
• Warren Stroka as Man on Street
• Karen Austin as Ruth (uncredited, deleted scene)