The Heavens Will Rise

"The Heavens Will Rise" An episode of the Caprica Series
Episode No.	Season 1, Episode 16
Writer(s)	Patrick Massett John Zinman
Story by
Director	Michael Nankin
Assistant Director
Special guest(s)
Production No.	116
Nielsen Rating
US airdate	January 4, 2011
CAN airdate	November 16, 2010
UK airdate
DVD release
Population	{{{population}}} survivors
Additional Info
Episode Chronology
Previous		Next
The Dirteaters	The Heavens Will Rise	Here Be Dragons
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Official Summary
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Listing of props for this episode
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			@ BW Media
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Overview

As Tamara and Zoe continue to reshape New Cap City, Daniel Graystone seeks the help of Sam Adama to enter the dangerous game. The Willows move closer to apotheosis. Jordan Duram's investigation is plagued with more problems. Lacy Rand becomes a threat to the STO after it is discovered that the U-87 units recognize her commands.

Summary

Teaser

• From a turret atop their newly made castle, Tamara-A and Zoe-A survey with satisfaction the forested mountains that they have created inside the New Cap City game. Tamara wishes to add one more detail, and with a simple squeeze of her hand, the forest echoes with the faraway screeches of dragons.
• With Amanda Graystone at his side, Daniel Graystone searches for the two girls in New Cap City by tracing the alterations they have been making to the game. Amanda argues that she should be the first to approach Zoe, since she had a nasty fight with the original flesh and blood Zoe Graystone the day before their daughter was killed in the terrorist bombing of a commuter train. Daniel counters that he had done worse, torturing the avatar of Zoe with her fear of fire when he believed that she was hiding inside the prototype U-87 combat robot. Amanda slaps him across the face, but allows him to locate the girls in a sea of code. Using a backdoor access that is a regular feature of all V-World software, Daniel snatches one of them without warning and pulls her into a private space. Daniel dons a holoband and enters.
• He speaks calmly with a terrified Tamara, who ignores his request to see Zoe and only begs to be let go. Her persists until he hears Zoe greeting him. He turns and sees her waiting. Daniel relaxes, but suddenly Zoe attacks him with a dagger hidden behind her back. He throws off his holoband and re-enters the real world, clutching at his chest.

Act 1

• Daniel recovers from the attack, but informs Amanda that he is now shut out of his back door and must use a standard portal into New Cap City--and just like everyone else, he has only one life in the game. Amanda tries to find the positive in the situation, but she is interrupted by a text message from Jordan Duram insisting that they meet. Before leaving, she tells her husband about her involvement in Duram's plan to expose Clarice Willow and her family as members of the STO terrorist group.
• Duram is surprised that Amanda told Daniel about their work, but he quickly moves on to his reason for the meeting in a public park: he has been suspended from the Global Defense Department and the organization has been "compromised at the highest level." Nevertheless, he wants to keep pushing ahead with the investigation. He gives Amanda a rigged holoband for her to switch with Clarice's band. Amanda is reluctant, with the Willows being more cautious than ever in the wake of Mar-Beth Willow's disappearance. Jordan begs her to do it, fearing that something terrible is about to take place.
• Inside a V-World recreation of Atlas Arena, noisy spectators eagerly await the day's game as a young suicide bomber calmly sits and plants an explosive underneath her seat. Standing off to one side, Clarice and one of her husbands, Nestor, discuss the placement of their martyrs throughout the stadium and how their initial blasts will trigger additional bombs, collapsing the entire structure. Removing their holobands and returning to their house, they discuss other aspects of the plot with Olaf Willow. Scanned avatars of the martyrs will be activated inside a new virtual heaven immediately after their deaths, and press releases about the goal of apotheosis will go out thirty days after the bombing. Nestor begins to express doubt about the plan. He observes that their heaven is not a true afterlife for the martyrs and that their avatars are nothing more than "showmanship." Despite Olaf's defense of the martyrs' sacrifice, Nestor goes on to question whether Clarice actually represents the will of God. In response, Clarice offers Nestor an additional ticket to the game at the arena. Nestor backs off, unwilling to die for his faith.
• On Gemenon, Lacy Rand and other STO recruits listen as praetor Kevin Reikle lectures on the design and use of a weapon. A disturbance outside their tent distracts the recruits and they spot one of their own, Lexon, getting into an escalating confrontation with an officer over a breach of protocol. The officer forces Lexon to his knees and calls out to a nearby U-87 robot to shoot him. As it complies and walks toward them, Rand ignores Odin Sinclair urging her to ignore the incident and runs outside, yelling at them to stop. Surprising everyone, the robot stops and responds to Rand, "By your command." The officer tells it to resume and it does, until Rand yells once again. The Cylon obeys, but this time it refuses to accept the officer's shouted orders.

Act 2

• One of the STO's top leaders, Diego, questions Rand about the incident. Although he is relieved that a good soldier like Lexon was not lost, he reminds her that discipline is paramount in their ranks. Rand wonders aloud why they need to rely on killing those who fail rather than inspiring proper behavior. Diego dismisses her suggestion, but before he allows her to leave, he asks how she was able to subvert the U-87's programming and take control. She answers truthfully that she does not know, but suggests that the robot might have a sense of decency.
• Sam Adama arrives at the Goldie's betting parlor in Little Tauron and starts to read a newspaper when he is interrupted by a welcome surprise--Fidelia Fazekas. The two hug and they begin chatting about her early release from prison, and about Sam's brother Joseph and how he has been coping since the loss of his family members in the commuter train bombing. Sam also apologies to her for the circumstances that led to her being in jail, and Fazekas accepts it. As she leaves, Sam spots Daniel walking across the street toward Goldie's.
• In the privacy of the kitchen, Sam quickly tells him to stop coming, otherwise it will arouse suspicion about their new arrangement. Daniel tells him that the avatars of Tamara and Zoe are alive in V-World and that he needs Sam's help reaching them. Sam is offended at the implication that he is "hired muscle." When Daniel explains his plan to bring both avatars into the real world by building humanlike bodies for them, Sam is angered and tells him that those things in V-World are not real. Daniel pleads that he needs to reunite his family.
• Amanda sneaks into the Willows' workspace inside their house undetected, and swaps Clarice's holoband for Duram's fake. Back in the park, she delivers the band to Duram, who urges her to avoid Willow completely and to stay inconspicuous for a while. Amanda senses that he is holding something back, and he relents: Mar-Beth is dead, the result of Duram's attempt to protect Amanda. She is shocked that an innocent mother who had just given birth was sacrificed by him. All that Duram can do is speculate that the baby would have grown up to be a terrorist like its family, and assures Amanda that she has been invaluable to the security of Caprica. Amanda walks away as Duram is lost in thought. Suddenly, a gunshot cracks through the park, and Duram tumbles down a hill. Amanda runs to him and uses her scarf to stop him from bleeding, but she sees no sign of the shooter.

Notes

• This episode confirms the identity of the orange planet in the vicinity of Caprica as Gemenon: a scene on Caprica ends with an orbital view panning up from Caprica and settling on the orange planet, and a new scene at the STO training camp on Gemenon begins.
• When Sam Adama and Fidelia Fazekas talk in Goldie's, Sam asks rhetorically, "My tax dollars at work?" This is almost certainly a mistake, given that the currency of Caprica (and possibly other worlds) is the cubit and dollars likely existed only on Earth many millennia later.

Questions

• Why do the U-87s obey Lacy's commands?
• Who shot Duram?
• Is the medical practitioner Amanda mentions related to Sherman Cottle?

Noteworthy Dialogue

• Duram praises Amanda for her work against the Willows as she walks away in shock:

Duram: You've done a great service for the people of Caprica. (Mumbling sadly to himself) You've done a great service for the people of Caprica.

Guest Stars

• Meg Tilly as Mother
• Scott Porter as Nestor
• Ryan Robbins as Diego
• Ryan Kennedy as Odin Sinclair
• Chris Heyerdahl as Kevin Reikle
• Carmen Moore as Fidelia Fazekas
• Sina Najafi as William Adama
• Genevieve Buechner as Tamara Adama
• Panou as Olaf
• Teryl Rothery as Evelyn
• Jim Thomson as Voice of Serge
• Karen Elizabeth Austin as Ruth
• Eva Allan as Devanna
• Luc Roderique as Lexon
• Rob Boyce as STO Guard #1