Blowback

"Blowback" An episode of the Caprica Series
Episode No.	Season 1, Episode 14
Writer(s)	Kevin Murphy
Story by
Director	Omar Madha
Assistant Director
Special guest(s)
Production No.	114
Nielsen Rating
US airdate	4 January 2011
CAN airdate	November 2, 2010
UK airdate
DVD release
Population	{{{population}}} survivors
Additional Info
Full Credits
Episode Chronology
Previous		Next
False Labor	Blowback	The Dirteaters
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Official Summary
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Listing of props for this episode
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Overview

Lacy Rand's training as a soldier in the STO starts in an unexpectedly violent way. Jordan Duram is pushed to reveal the identity of his confidential informant. The Guatrau becomes a danger to Daniel Graystone—and puts serious doubts into the minds of Sam and Joseph Adama.

Summary

Teaser

• In the spaceport of a major city on Gemenon, Lacy Rand looks around uncertainly, and then walks up to a young man to ask for directions. The two begin a conversation and lie to one another about their reasons for being on the planet, until Diego approaches them, calls Rand and Odin Sinclair by name, and leads them to a jump ship waiting to fly them and other young Soldiers of the One recruits to the retreat of the Monotheist Church.
• Sitting among other recruits, the two continue to talk as the jump ship reaches cruise altitude. Rand confesses the doubts she harbors about her monotheist faith, and Sinclair tells her that his parents had him abducted, drugged, and transported to Gemenon for training. Diego steps forward and publicly introduces himself, welcomes them all, and promises that those who survive the ordeal of training will become "warriors of the one true God." At that moment, a much larger vessel positions itself above them, fires clamps onto the jump ship, and forcibly reels them in. The recruits scream in fear, and Diego arms himself for battle. The Apolli invaders quickly lower an airlock seal onto the jump ship, force their way in, and shoot the adult STO soldiers dead. Their leader speaks to his men in Old Gemenese. Sinclair whispers a translation to Rand: "The mighty gods are striking back."
• Amanda Graystone peeks through an open door in the Willow house at Clarice Willow, who is talking out loud to someone on a holoband connection. Mar-Beth Willow comes up behind Amanda, scares her, and accuses her of spying on her wife. Amanda claims that she suspects Clarice of using drugs again, but Mar-Beth does not buy the excuse.
• Meanwhile, Clarice meets with Alvo in their regular V-world room and demands that he use his Global Defense Department contacts to retrieve a pin once owned by Zoe Graystone. Alvo pledges to do as she asks.
• GDD director Gara Singh accesses an evidence room late at night, opens a box labeled "Graystone House," and takes out a pin in the shape of an infinity symbol before replacing the box and leaving just as quietly as he entered.

Act 1

• Amanda meets with GDD agent Jordan Duram in a public park with nothing to report except for Mar-Beth's suspiciousness. Afraid for her physical safety, Amanda pleads for a surveillance camera. Duram hesitates due to the risk of revealing her as his confidential informant, but he relents.
• In Singh's GDD office, Duram makes his request but does not offer a warrant to back up the request. Without it, Singh immediately demands documents on all of Duram's CIs. He flatly refuses, citing professional standards and the fact that the GDD may have a leak. Singh does not change his position.
• Daniel Graystone meets with Joseph and Sam Adama in the Graystone Industries headquarters to show them surveillance footage from a loading dock: U-87 Cylons being smuggled offworld. Sam turns hopefully to his older brother and asks if the Guatrau has changed his mind about sending assistance to rebels fighting on their homeworld of Tauron. Joseph is reluctant to answer, reminding Sam that the Guatrau is interested in money first and foremost before finally admitting that the robots are heading for the STO on Gemenon. Sam becomes outraged at the Guatrau's willingness to continue ignoring the plight of their own people, and at Joseph's complicity in helping him to ship weapons to the very group that murdered his own wife and daughter. Joseph tries defending himself, but Sam leaves the room. Daniel tells Joseph that selling this kind of technology to an enemy of Caprica puts him in danger of being executed as a traitor. He promises that he will take the Ha'la'tha leadership down with him if that happens, and insists that Joseph set up a one-on-one meeting with the Guatrau.
• Aboard the captured jump ship, the Apolli leader communicates with local authorities by phone, promising to harm his hostages if they do not comply. As this takes place, Rand and Sinclair whisper to one another. Sinclair tells her that he has been communicating with another recruit by eye contact, preparing to strike at the inevitable moment that their captors will start to grow hungry or tired and begin to lose focus. He slowly works on unscrewing a metal rod from beneath his seat. Suddenly, the Apolli leader pulls a boy up from his seat. The boy cries and begs for his life, but he is pushed inside an airlock out of view of the other recruits. A single gunshot is fired. Rand looks out a window and sees a body tumbling toward the clouds below.

Act 2

• Duram visits the evidence room and asks the attending agent, Alpert, about a camera seized during an investigation of a Libran porn ring. After Alpert says that it is still in storage, Duram bribes him to let him into the room. He finds the camera, but he also notices that the "Graystone House" box has recently been handled, and he finds an empty bag inside the box--the same one that had held Zoe Graystone's infinity pin. On his way out with the camera, Duram asks who has after-hours access to the room. Alpert tells him that only the top GDD leadership have the codes for that. Duram leaves, more suspicious and worried than ever.
• At home, Daniel tries to convince the Guatrau that the Grace avatar program he is struggling to develop will change the very fabric of society. The Guatrau is unmoved, and challenges Graystone to admit that he believes selling robots to STO terrorists is unwise. Taking a diplomatic approach, Daniel says that it will bring short-term profit, but that it will endanger the bolder possibilities of the avatar program once it is perfected. The Guatrau asks how much more time Daniel needs to do that. He answers three months, but is given only two weeks.
• The Guatrau walks along a Caprica City street with an entourage that includes Joseph and Sam. Despite his admiration for Daniel's courage, he worries about the man's ambitions. He gives a coin to Sam, symbolic payment for Daniel's assassination. The Adama brothers accept the order but are taken aback by it.
• The lead hijacker of the STO jump ship tries a different approach, speaking to his captives about the "hubris" of monotheism in the hopes of convincing them to abandon their faith. One trembling young man stands and openly rejects the monotheist God, and kisses an Arrow of Apollo pendant around the leader's neck. He takes the young man away and asks his comrades to give him some food. Seeing that no one else will follow this example, he chooses the next hostage for execution, Devanna. She quickly regains her composure, calmly and confidently asks God to forgive him, and does not struggle as she is led to the airlock, shot, and tossed away. At that moment, Sinclair finally manages to unscrew the metal bar and prepares to use it.

Notes

• "Blowback" is a term used for violent, unintended consequences of a covert operation.
• Because the last five episodes of the season were rescheduled by Syfy, this was the first episode to air in Canada before the United States.
• After the cancellation of the Caprica series was announced, the original SyFy timeslot of 10:00 PM EDT Tuesday was filled by the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "A Matter of Time."

Analysis

• When Lacy first meets Odin at the spaceport, she asks, "Do you speak Caprican?" to which Odin replies, "Everyone speaks Caprican", indicating that the power and influence of Caprica have led to its native language being spoken as at least a second language throughout the other colonies. This accords with the fact that every character in the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica speaks Caprican, 58 years after these events. The quasi-canon map of the Twelve Colonies lists official languages only for Caprica, Gemenon, Leonis and Tauron, which could mean that Caprican has displaced other languages on the other colonies, or that the production team didn't create a name for each one.
• The "hijackers" speak Old Gemenese, which is similar to Romanian, as established in the re-imagined series movie "Razor". The quasi-canon map of the Twelve Colonies states that Old Gemenese is the official language of Gemenon (obviously, in this case, the word "old" does not mean that it has fallen out of use).

Guest Stars

• Peter Wingfield as Gara Singh
• Jorge Montesi as The Guatrau
• Ryan Robbins as Diego
• Ryan Kennedy as Odin Sinclair
• Chris Heyerdahl as Kevin Reikle
• Anita Torrance as Mar-Beth Willow
• Panou as Olaf Willow
• Jim Thomson as Voice of Serge
• Eva Allan as Devanna
• Tom McBeath as Agent Alpert
• Calum Worthy as Cass
• James Kirk as Sagittaron Recruit
• Luc Roderique as Dex
• Matthew Smalley as Cadet Recruit #1