Caprica Review: “End of Line”

Caprica‘s first season ends with, predictably, cliffhangers.

Title: “End of Line”

Cast and Crew

Directed by Roxann Dawson
Written by Michael Taylor

Eric Stoltz as Daniel Graystone
Allesandra Torresani as Zoe
Genevieve Buechner as Tamara Adams
Paula Malcomson as Amanda Graystone
Esai Morales as Joseph Adama
James Marsters as Barnabas Greele
Magda Apanowicz as Lacy Rand
Leah Gibson as Emanuelle
Sasha Roiz as Sam Adama
Polly Walker as Sister Clarice Willow
John Pyper-Ferguson as Tomas Virgis
Hiro Kanagawa as Cyrus Xander
Alex Arsenault as Philomon
Liam Sproule as Keon

Additional cast and crew information may be found here.

Premise

Daniel Graystone, faced with imminent financial ruin, takes extreme measures.

Zoe-Proto-Cylon-Avatar, faced with imminent demise, makes a daring escape.

The feud between Soldiers of the One factions, faced with growing pressures, takes a deadly turn.

Emmanuelle and Amanda, faced with a deteriorating Joseph Adama, take decisive steps.

Amanda Graystone, faced with increasing depression, takes a flying leap.

The writers, faced with a season finale, force cliffhanger developments.

High Point

I liked the revelation of Emmanuelle’s identity, though it begs some questions regarding how long that person has been at work in the virtual world.

Zoe’s escape included some twists I had not anticipated.

Low Points

I’ll accept a certain number of stylizations and plot contrivances. However, the forced plot developments (the military makes unrealistic demands of Graystone’s project) and coincidence-driven escape (Amanda and Clarice encounter each other at exactly the correct moment) recall the frivolous yet meticulous Hand of God that adversely affected the final seasons of Battlestar Galactica

The Scores:

Originality: 4/6.

Effects: 5/6. The effects remain strong, though some of the real-world effects, especially in the final chase season, recall too closely the virtual-world effects of New Cap City.

Story: 4/6. See High and Low points.

Acting: 5/6. Good overall.

I have a complaint involving more characterization rather than acting: Extremist groups fall to factions easily, and I’m glad they’re showing it. One imagines, as well, that remorseless killers make good terrorists. However, I’m not certain that someone needlessly flaunting Barnabus’s level of sociopathic behavior in front of his followers, at the expense of his followers, would have achieved such a prominent position in Soldiers of the One. This feels like the actions of a terrorist supervillain from propaganda, not an actual terrorist, like Sister Clarice or the train-bombers. Established, organized terrorists (as opposed to solitary, destructive nutjobs and some loose-cannon terrorist volunteers) act in a manner that makes perfect sense, from the perspective of their world-view. Such true believers actually run terrorist networks and also, in the long run, prove a lot more dangerous than destructive nutjobs. Unfortunately, they’re harder to write and perform.

Emotional Response: 4/6.

Production: 6/6.

Overall: 5/6.

In total, “End of Line” receives 33/42

4 replies on “Caprica Review: “End of Line””

  1. This isn’t really a season finale, if I’m not mistaken it’s just the mid season break.

  2. Who else thinks that amanda graystone will survive her jump due to some sort of force field/energy net? The episode had quite a bit of info about the bridge and suicides thrown in there, I suspect they’ve done some things over its life to prevent them.

    • Difficult to say. They’ve already saved Clarice through a deus ex machina, they’re clearly going to save Zoe, so they might sacrifice Amanda, who isn’t a very popular character. That would have some interesting effects on Daniel.

      Of course, without Amanda, who will make idiotic decisions that advance the plot?

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