NFB Re-Watches Caprica: “Things We Lock Away”

You found me…

Air Date: 19/10/2010

Director: Tim Hunter

Writer: Drew Z. Greenberg

Synopsis: Zoe-A finds Tamara-A inside New Cap City, but the meeting does not go as she planned. Clarice keeps Lacy prisoner in her home, unaware that Amanda is now working for the GDD against her. Daniel re-takes his company, but is unprepared for the consequences.

Review

“Things We Lock Away” seems to me to be an effort to hook back in the regular BSG audience, by making an effort to portray things within the show’s narrative as extreme, thrilling and just generally more exciting than they were before. The effort is seriously mixed in execution and outcome: the episode starts with a swordfight of all things, and the feeling that we are watching something fundamentally silly is there from the off. Caprica now feels like it is flailing around the place trying to find a tone and a pattern that will suck people back in, but the bipolar nature of how it wants to present itself probably just kept driving them away.

I mean the opening, with Zoe-A, is all sorts of out there, and her sub-plot is a microchosm for the problems of the episode in general. After some blade-based fight combat she makes her pitch to Tamara-A, forgetting until it is a bit too late that Tamara-A might not exactly be too pleased to actually see Zoe-A, considering how her progenitor died. That this complex entanglement of two fascinating digital characters then devolves into an extended swordfight doesn’t do the sub-plot any favours.

And mixed in with it, in a firm example of that tonal issue, is this strange revelation that Zoe-A was born from Zoe’s childhood trauma of the burning house she barely escaped from. The younger Zoe dealt with that by coming up with she must have assumed was an imaginary friend, but the imaginary friend was essentially her, just in an older form. This seems to have gotten hooked into Zoe’s psyche to the point that she was still talking to this figure as a teenager, and indeed being guided by it to create Zoe-A, perhaps as a “real” replacement. Are we supposed to see the hand of the divine in all of this, with what I will call Head Zoe a figure similar to Head Six and Head Baltar? Or are we to take it that Zoe was fundamentally disturbed from a young age and this, mixed with her prodigy-esque coding talent, created someone with a bit of a God complex? And is this all a bit of a muddle from a virtual recreation of Zoe misremembering things? And what does Head Zoe mean when she implies that Zoe-A can walk a different path to the real Zoe? It’s all interesting stuff, as is the idea that the Zoe-A copy has carried with it the memory Head Zoe, but it doesn’t really fit into the larger narrative, where Zoe-A is engaged in a pointless duel to the non-death with Tamara-A, one that feels like an action sequence that exists for its own sake.

The idea of Tamara-A as a holy avenger, using her status in New Cap City and freaky powers to enact revenge on Zoe-A for the crimes of Zoe, is a potent one I will admit. She essentially seems to have become some manner of warlord in New Cap City, lost in the violence and in the natural euphoria of being the best at it. There’s a question to be asked about the nature of Tamara and Tamara-A: the girl we got a brief look at in “Pilot” didn’t seem to type to thrive in a Thunderdome-type situation, but that is what Tamara-A is doing. Is this a result of faulty programming, or was Tamara a person with darker inclinations than it initially seemed? Zoe-A seems to think it’s a bit of both anyway, positing that Tamara-A has allowed the environment of New Cap City infect her mind and turn her towards a reckless, hedonistic violence, not dissimilar to the warning that Joseph got back in “Ghosts In The Machine” about life in New Cap City. I suppose it is Zoe-A’s job to turn Tamara-A away from such things then, which happens quickly enough in “Things We Lock Away”, probably too quickly. This sub-plot spends an entire episode engaged in a fight to the death that probably goes too far, and I hope we get some real, tangible, progression for it in the next episode.

A literal thing that gets locked away in this episode is Lacy, with Clarice taking the strange decision to imprison her in the family attic. Poor Lacy goes through the ringer in essentially being browbeaten by Clarice’s husbands, but does manage to pull through it enough to first attempt escape as best that she can – calling into question Clarice’s idea to imprison her in the first place – and then fighting back against the conditions by refusing to eat, eventually getting her way. It was decent drama but that said it’s a bit hard to feel too much sympathy for a would-be terrorist bomber now getting mistreated by terrorists. Lacy in the hands of an STO training camp might prove interesting, given that she doesn’t really seem like that committed a member, but we’ll have to see.

Over at Graystone Industries Daniel’s counter-coup gets carried off without much in the way of incident, but what is intriguing now is seeing Vergis in a weak position, for once. In a way I think that this does happen a bit too fast, and certainly the events with Vergis in the latter half of the episode also happen much too fast. But I suppose we can say that it is a case of Caprica just trying to get on with things, and to exemplify how powerful the ha’la’tha is in terms of their support for Daniel in showcasing how Vergis’ plan and life falls away to nothing in so rapid a passage of time.

Daniel’s response to this change of circumstance is bizarre all the same, as he attempts to save Vergis’ life by proposing an anti-ha’la’tha alliance with him. It’s really hard to get a firm grasp on Daniel sometimes: just an episode ago this was a guy willing to use the most personal of details to blackmail people, uncaring of the suicide that resulted, but now he wants to be all pally with his worst enemy so that he can take on the mob that put in in this position. It’s a mix of obstinacy and moral fortitude that jumps around the place for Daniel, and it isn’t terribly satisfying to watch. He really doesn’t get, after so many examples, why betraying the ha’la’tha is a bad idea?

And just why does Tomas Vergis have to die exactly, anyway? One would think that an intrinsically Tauron organisation like the ha’la’tha wouldn’t just jump to that eventuality, so that too does not sit right. On a more meta level, it doesn’t really seem clear to me how the narrative is served by Vergis’ departure: perhaps there was a problem with the actor’s availability or something, but I thought Tomas was one of the better aspects of the show, a rival for Daniel who could meet him at the required level and best him repeatedly. His manner of death is certainly dramatic, but that isn’t really enough to justify it in my eyes. The nominal main character of the entire Caprica exercise now has his hands at least partially bloody from three deaths, and it’s getting harder and harder to want to follow Daniel along.

Another unsatisfying aspect of “Things We Lock Away”, and with Caprica generally as it happens, is Amanda. The writers have felt the need to really rush her into a sub-plot where she is a CI for the GDD, and where she expressed some reluctance about this in “Retribution”, she’s now pretty much all in, to the point of weaselling her way into staying at Clarice’s home. Caprica doesn’t seem to have any more of the patience that it showed in abundance earlier in its run, now it has places to be and can’t be waiting around for anyone. “Things We Lock Away” briefly goes back to the admittedly very interesting idea that Clarice is interested in Amanda as a sort of religious figure, but it’s just not enough for me. Maybe Caprica can make something out of this mess, out of the apparent need to treat Amanda the way that the narrative has chosen to treat her, but I’m having trouble seeing it.

Amid all of the various characters who could be deemed antagonists, anti-heroes or just plain immoral in Caprica, Clarice now appears to be our primary antagonist, going into full “Head of the STO” mode. Clarice works as a villain to an extent: she’s certainly noteworthy in appearance, thought and action, she carries with her a tangible threat, she has commitment to spare for what she is trying to do. The way she works around Amanda, her family and Lacy her is pretty clever, so her effectiveness as a villain is not in doubt. But I think where the character is falling down is in terms of what exactly the plan is at this point. The end goal is the creation of this virtual heaven, but it’s still unclear to me how that automatically makes monotheism the top dog in Colonial society. Caprica attempts to move this plot along by giving us a new target for Clarice, in the form of Zoe’s confiscated jewellery, but it all seems a little desperate to me at this point in time. Caprica hit a real high point in “End Of Line” but has stumbled repeatedly since. “Things We Lock Away” continues the trend of the show casting around for anything to save its faltering narrative, and finding little in the way of purchase.

Control your return to the soil.

Notes

-The title appears to have no origin beyond the writers of this episode. In that context I suppose it refers to Zoe-A’s repressed memories of Zoe’s imaginary friend, and Lacy of course.

-Hunter is a well-established TV director who has worked on just about everything over the last three decades, but this is his only Caprica credit. Greenberg is a very highly regarded TV writer, with a lot of Whedon-related work with Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Firefly and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, among many others, but this too is his only credited writing time with Caprica.

-The ratings slipped badly again for “Things We Lock Away”, to the extent that, reading news from the time, it was commonly accepted from this point that the show was doomed.

-I don’t want to go on about it, so I’ll use this space to say that I find the “arena combat” trope pretty tired in science-fiction/fantasy. “Amok Time” has a lot to answer for.

-Some well placed spotlights over this arena, but I guess it is a virtual space, so why not?

-One suspects that Zoe-A’s manner of dispatching the goons sent after her in this arena is just her showing off, giving the crowd what they want.

-Tamara-A appears, and I do love this image of her, confident, assured and wielding a shotgun like it is just an extension of her. She’s in charge.

-Lacy appears to be subjected to something akin to the old Chinese Water Torture with the drips, or maybe that’s just a stylistic focus from the director.

-A brief interrogation montage showcases Lacy getting it with both barrels, a potent mix of verbal abuse and love bombing, that would mess with anyone’s head.

-It’s a bit strange, the regimented manner in which the Graystones Industries’ board marches into this meeting room. Are they meant to look like robots?

-Vergis does not like being touched, given the sharp look he gives Cyrus when he gets a nudge on the arm. It’s perhaps symbolic of how he knows things have turned on him.

-Bear McCreary gives us some new music for “Things We Lock Away”, characterised by tight mournful sounding strings.

-Clarice has a very strange polygamous marriage it has to be said. There appears to be members of it who are not members of the STO, but they acquiesce in Lacy’s imprisonment?

-While the show is yet to make it abundantly clear, Head Zoe is apparently meant to be akin to Head Six and Head Baltar, as Tricia Helfer was originally approached to appear here as the character.

-Child Zoe’s drawing is amazing, a mostly happy picture of a house and family, but for the billowing flames. We don’t really need Head Zoe is tell us ” You’re drawing the fire”.

-Gotta love Zoe-A’s reaction to being reminded of Zoe’s role in the maglev bombing: “Oh, that.”

-Capricans appear to use a very basic looking SMS programme on their phones, which is obviously hilarious to a 2023 viewer. But also notable/hilarious is the very basic command that Duram sends Amanda here: “INFILTRATE HER HOME”.

-Could maybe have done without Lacy’s hysterical “You’re drugging me!”

-Daniel is a little stunned to learn that his alliance with a murderous crime syndicate is going to necessitate some murder, though I can only appreciate the flowery way this is proscribed: “He must be returned to the soil”.

-An interesting turn of phrase from Daniel as he tris to convince the ha’la’tha to back off a plan to murder Vergis: “Human beings value life”. As opposed to what?

-Gotta say, the crowd noises for this beatdown of Zoe-A sounded really bad, like they had been recorded from a group of unprepared extras.

-In a flashback, Zoe asks her father if she can go “snow-ramming” with her friends. I am unable to discover anything you could call “snow-ramming” that someone like Zoe would do with her friends for fun, so I have to chalk it up as a weird turn of phrase for a futuristic world.

-“And what would I create?” asks Zoe of Head Zoe. “Life’s a good start I think”. It’s this line that makes you wonder if she is more than just a figment.

-Right from the off, Zoe is hellbent on Zoe-A being more than just a very sophisticated batch of code: “You’re a person”.

-“Tear her heart out!” says one member of the arena crowd, with all the verve of someone who was told what to say moments beforehand.

-In a bit of a strange choice there is no musical accompaniment for most of the Lacy/Clarice conversation, the silence notable in the context of the rest of the episode.

-Lacy just randomly posits that Zoe might have kept a data back-up of her programme in her infinity symbol brooch, and just like that we have a MacGuffin for the rest of the season.

-Clarice tells Lacy that she’s off to an STO training camp on Gemenon, that will help with her “walk with God”. Even in saying this risible phrase it’s clear Clarice isn’t really into it.

-Clarice’s story about Zoe giving her a diary as a gift is a bit weird, carrying with it a vaguely flirtatious nature, or am I just reading into a bit too much?

-The fight scenes in this episode are only OK at best, framed a bit strangely and with lots of cutting around the punch. At the end of the day Caprica just isn’t supposed to be this kind of show.

-Zoe-A goes as far as wondering why Tamara-A wants to be part of this “entertainment” for a rabid crowd, and that was a clunker of an allusion to Gladiator and its famous “Are you not entertained?” line in a similar circumstance.

-Daniel is really insufferable as he suggests to Vergis that everything they have gone through is “all part of the game”. He really believes it too.

-“Control your return to the soil” is apparently a dictate of Tauron society, meaning that you should “plan your death”. Even here Tauron culture exhibits a fascinating amount of control on its people.

-Daniel’s gambit to win over Vergis so they can both take on the ha’la’tha is pretty silly. He really doesn’t seem to get the enormity of what it is that he is dealing with.

-Vergis’ last victory is something else though, tricking Daniel into holding the knife that kills him. I’ve really liked this character, and even here he is making himself interesting.

-I did appreciate the end of the episode, with a clear demonstration of how the ha’la’tha takes care of things likes bodies. Vergis lays dying on the Graystone floor in a pool of his own blood, but in a few moments it’s all wiped clean.

Overall Verdict: “Things We Lock Away” is an episode I liked less and less the more that I thought about it, and perhaps that is also a consequence of coming at the end of a run of episodes that are at best average and at worst poor. For every interesting plot point or intriguing bit of characterisation Caprica delivers multiple instances of silly story-telling (the virtual arena), nominally protagonist characters who have become outright villainous (Daniel), bad narrative choices (killing Vergis off) or the maintaining of sub-plots that were weak from their inception (Lacy, Amanda). By the time this aired Caprica was on the brink, and it wouldn’t take much longer for the end to come.

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