Unvanquished

"Unvanquished" An episode of the Caprica Series
Episode No.	Season 1, Episode 10
Writer(s)	Ryan Mottesheard
Story by
Director	Eric Stoltz
Assistant Director
Special guest(s)
Production No.	110
Nielsen Rating	0.4
US airdate	October 5, 2010
CAN airdate	October 5, 2010
UK airdate	2011
DVD release
Population	{{{population}}} survivors
Additional Info	Season 1.5 / Mid-Season Opener
Full Credits
Episode Chronology
Previous		Next
End of Line	Unvanquished	Retribution
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Three weeks after a series of devastating events, different paths are taken: Daniel Graystone seeks an alliance with the Ha'la'tha in order to retake his company, Sister Clarice Willow arrives on Gemenon to ask for supreme leadership of the Soldiers of the One, and Lacy Rand and Zoe-A continue their new lives.

Summary

Teaser

• Daniel Graystone is lost in despair, with his wife Amanda Graystone gone and control of Graystone Industries now in the hands of Tomas Vergis. Vergis has secured the U-87 contract with the Caprican Ministry of Defense, and Graystone Industries is producing new Cylon battle robots under his leadership.
• A teenaged girl is dropped off by her mother at Atlas Arena to see a pyramid match between the Caprica Buccaneers and the Gemenon Twins. Her farewell to her mother is unusually emotional. At the arena, she shares a signal with a number of other attendees. After she sits down, she takes a detonator from her backpack and places it under her seat. Others do likewise and begin to pray, ignoring the tens of thousands of spectators around them, including Clarice Willow. The stadium explodes.
• Clarice takes off her holoband. The scenario was a simulation illustrating her proposal to the leaders of the Monotheist Church on Gemenon. One of them, Obal Ferras, points out that a massive terror attack would not draw unbelievers to their fold. Clarice continues her proposal. The assembled return to their holobands and see a simulation of the "chosen" from the bombing being reborn in a V-world paradise. Clarice explains that this will happen if the monotheist church uses the holographic avatar program to offer its members tangible eternal life, what she calls apotheosis.
• Ferras disapproves of Clarice's idea, but he agrees to ask the Blessed Mother to meet with her, once Clarice points out that she has earned the right after the terrible things she has done for the church.

Act 1

• Daniel meets the Guatrau, leader of the Ha'la'tha, with Joseph and Sam Adama in attendance. Daniel proposes that the Ha'la'tha help him take control of Graystone Industries back from Vergis in exchange for access to the avatar program, in order to bring dead people "back to life" in V-world. He uses the recent death of the Guatrau's son as an example of the desire to reunite with the deceased. Despite the angry response from his men, the Guatrau calmly listens.
• The Guatrau has Daniel, Sam, and his guards leave the room so that he can talk to Joseph privately. Joseph advises him not to accept the deal, citing his own experience with the V-world avatar of his own daughter. Although the Guatrau respects Joseph's honesty, he decides to go ahead and that Joseph will represent his interests. This marks Joseph becoming a true Ha'la'tha instead of just an associate.

Act 2

• Daniel asks Joseph and Sam for the Guatrau's answer, but they tell him only that the Ha'la'tha will find him.
• The Blessed Mother and Ferras discuss Willow and her proposal. The Mother points out the talent that Willow has brought to the Soldiers of the One since childhood, but Ferras expresses nervousness over her following on Caprica and what he calls her "messiah complex" – and he does not hesitate to label apotheosis a blasphemy. The Mother authorizes Ferras to remove Willow.
• The Adama brothers visit the Graystone Estate with the Guatrau's decision: they will arrange for Daniel to be installed as CEO once again, in exchange for granting the Ha'la'tha full access to the corporation. Daniel seems to accept the terms, but then Joseph hands him a wireless trigger and demands that he detonate a bomb inside his mother's car. Daniel refuses. He is angered to learn that Joseph was bluffing, testing Daniel's personal limitations.

Act 3

• Despite lingering doubts from fellow members of the terrorist cell, Lacy Rand continues to demonstrate her dedication to Barnabas Greeley and the STO, in prayer and on the firing range.
• Willow visits Diego, one of the STO's commanding officers. Both of them bemoan the recent decline of the Monotheist Church and its negligence toward the STO, represented by the fact that the soliders are forced to live in tents in cold weather. Diego reveals that Ferras asked for permission to have Willow killed, but he claims to be unaware of the Mother's decision. Making vague promises to improve the lot of both the STO and the church, Willow seduces him.
• In the Graystone Industries labs, Cyrus Xander reports to Vergis that the burnt and broken U-87 prototype damaged in its escape attempt will not function again. Vergis orders it melted down, but he notes some hesitation. Xander assures him that he has no attachment to the robot like Daniel did, and is happy to dispose of it.
• Daniel places a video call to Amanda's answering system. He struggles to say something, but can only tell her that he misses her. He is interrupted by Serge announcing that Xander has arrived. Based on what he is told, Daniel believes that Vergis is already mismanaging the corporation. However, Xander informs him that Vergis is mass producing Cylons – non-sentient but fully functional, something that Daniel failed to accomplish. Xander sees Daniel becoming suspicious, but he reminds his former boss that he is reporting to him behind Vergis' back. Daniel relaxes, and tells him to be careful.
• Ferras gives Willow good news: the Blessed Mother has agreed to see her. As they walk, Ferras expresses concern about whether Willow is aware of the ramifications of apotheosis, and wonders aloud if she wants to set herself up as God by introducing this technology. They continue their walk, entering a seemingly empty hall in the church complex. She is confused, until the other leaders of the church and Diego step out of the shadows. Ferras apologizes, and Willow becomes terrified at what will happen next. Diego takes out a blade – and plunges it into Ferras. With a sudden air of triumph, Willow declares that Ferras has fallen from the faith, and the church leaders swarm him and stab him repeatedly.

Act 4

• Xander decides not to scrap the U-87 prototype, telling the workers that Daniel may be back for it one day. The robot is boxed in a wooden crate instead.
• Zoe-A walks through New Cap City wearing a dark hooded cloak. She is stopped by a group of thugs who identify her as "one of the deadwalkers" and attack her. Zoe "kills" them one by one with a katana, ejecting them from the game. The remaining assailant points a handgun at Zoe and has her at his mercy, until she causes him to freeze. Zoe identifies the mark on his forehead as belonging to the other deadwalker, but the man does not know where she is. Zoe unfreezes him and takes him down before he can escape.

Act 5

• Amanda Graystone receives Daniel's message from earlier. She is alive, and sitting on a bed in a forest cabin. Amanda begins to dictate a response, but then Sister Willow arrives and joins her on the bed, proclaiming that it is good to be home.

Notes

• Zoe's deactivated U-87 prototype becomes the first Cylon to be "boxed." In this case, the term is twice used to describe the literal crating of the physical machine for storage and possible future repair. Decades later, humanoid Cylons will use the term to indicate the electronic detention of the personalities/soul(s) of individuals or of entire lines, without bodies. Similarly, Zoe and Tamara exist only in V-world at this point, without corporeal bodies.
• The appearance and behavior of the thugs wearing bowler hats and suspenders who attempt to assail Zoe seem to be inspired by Alex and his "droogs" in A Clockwork Orange.

Analysis

• Zoe-A demonstrates the ability to manipulate the V-world with her mind, making a human assailant freeze, much like Tamara-A demonstrated in "There is Another Sky" by getting rid of programs that were in the form of guards.
• Before Zoe-A dispatches the last of the assailants, the hum of a Cylon scanning eye can be heard. This may suggest that aspects of the original pre-MCP combat programming transferred into Zoe-A when the prototype U-87 was destroyed and Zoe was uploaded into V-world. It may also explain Zoe's previously unseen prowess in battle.
• Daniel tells the Ha'la'tha that he has "lost" Amanda. This is misleading phrasing that makes it seem to the audience as though she is dead or he is allowing others to believe that she is dead. However, the next episode shows that the fact of her survival is not secret from the public.
• The unseen and previously unmentioned mother of Daniel Graystone and paternal grandmother of Zoe Graystone is still alive.
• The term "Soldiers of the One" refers only to the militant arm of the monotheist church, and not to the church itself. The clergy like to keep themselves separate from the STO even as they find them useful. Although Clarice Willow's cover is as an Athenian nun, in monotheist circles she is considered STO and not clergy.
• STO training camps, such as the one Clarice was trained in, were first mentioned in The Caprican.
• Other religious factions on Gemenon mentioned by Diego are the "polytheist rebels" and the "Hephaistons." The latter are presumably devotees of Hephaistos.
• Lacy continues to work with Barnabas Greeley, even though her reason for serving him - delivering the first U-87 to Gemenon - is gone. Presumably she is motivated by the justified fear that he would kill her for leaving the STO.

Questions

• How was Sister Clarice able to secretly take Amanda away from the Pantheon Bridge, the site of Amanda's suicide attempt and her own car bombing? (Answer: It wasn't a secret.)
• Does Greeley believe that Clarice is dead? (Answer)
• Why did the Mother ask Ferras to leave her a holoband after meeting with him?
• How did Zoe-A arrive in the V-world after the damage to her robot body?
• Do boxed humanoid Cylons (such as the Number Threes and individuals), end up in a V-world as well?
• Did Zoe arrive in New Cap City to start with, or did she go there intentionally after finding herself in the V-world?
• Did Zoe go to New Cap City to find Tamara-A, or did she learn Tamara was there after arriving?
• What does Zoe intend to do if she finds Tamara? (Answer)
• How close are Amanda and Clarice now?
• How has Daniel's mother been affected by the recent controversies surrounding her family?
• How do the droogs recognize Zoe as being a dead walker? Has Tamara become aware that she is not the only dead walker? (Answer)

Noteworthy Dialogue

• Obal Ferras speaks with Clarice Willow about her plans for creating a new heaven in V-world for the faithful:

Willow: We can be a faith that builds temples here in the dirt, or we can build them in the sky.

Ferras: So you really want to serve God?

Willow: I do.

Ferras: Or do you want to be God?

Guest Stars

• Meg Tilly as Mother
• Patton Oswalt as Baxter Sarno
• John Pyper-Ferguson as Tomas Vergis
• James Marsters as Barnabas Greeley
• Jorge Montesi as The Guatrau
• Winston Rekert as Obal Ferras
• Ryan Robbins as Diego
• Hiro Kanagawa as Cyrus Xander
• Feguins Toussaint as Bodyguard Sean
• Liam Sproule as Keon
• Jim Thomson as Voice of Serge
• Zak Santiago as Pann
• Aidan Dee as Hippolyta
• Kacey Rohl as Ada
• Linnea Sharples as Ada's Mother
• Greg Rogers as Businessman
• Doreen Ramus as Eldery Woman
• Chris Robson as Father of Family
• Luke Camilleri as Brewer