Caprica "Here Be Dragons" TV episode Written by Michael Taylor Directed by Michael Nankin

Daniel and Amanda confront Zoe; Lacy's position in the STO is in danger; Clarice and her husbands assault the Graystone home; the Guatrau takes action against the Adama brothers.

Read the synopsis of this episode at TVRage

Didja Know?

The title of this episode is a phrase once used on maps, denoting an unexplored and possibly dangerous area.

Didja Notice?

After meeting Sam in v-world, Amanda tells Daniel she recognizes Sam's face and doesn't trust him. Sam had previously driven her home from the set of Backtalk with Baxter Sarno, pretending to be a studio driver, in "Gravedancing". He was actually sent by Joseph to kill her, so Daniel could feel the same kind of pain he felt at the loss of his wife in the maglev bombing. Joseph called off the hit and Sam delivered Amanda home with her none the wiser. Presumably she now realizes that this Sam Adama, member of the criminal Ha'la'tha, had no reason to be masquerading as a driver for Sarno unless he had planned something nefarious at the time.

Daniel is amazed at the level of detail in the v-world forest constructed by Zoe and Tamara, beyond anything he knows how to do. He speculates on the use of generative algorithms or stochastic processes. These are both ways of working with variables in mathematics.

Amanda recognizes the dragons that Zoe turns the group's horses into as being from the Dragon Fighters of Kobol, a book that was Zoe's favorite as a kid. Possibly, this is a nod to the Dragonriders of Pern book series by Anne McCaffrey, which Caprica producer Ron Moore once attempted to get made as a TV series.

Amanda thinks Zoe wouldn't go so far as to kill her and Daniel's avatars in v-world. But she already "killed" Daniel's backdoor avatar (in "The Heavens Will Rise"). It doesn't seem so much to assume she would kill her parents' mainstream avatars as well.

   At 5:42 on the DVD, Willy is building a sailing ship model kit with Evelyn, though she seems more into it than he. In BSG2000, Commander/Admiral Adama is seen building ship models on a few occasions.
   It seems a bit odd, the implication that the Colonies would have sail-powered ships in which sailors would be gone "for years" as stated by Evelyn, when humanity already had spaceship technology which brought them to the twelve worlds of the Colonies from Kobol about 2000 years ago. It's possible that the Colonies lost their ability and knowledge to build spaceships after the long voyage, for unspecified reasons, and had to start almost from scratch. It's also possible she is referring to old stories from Kobol itself.
   Though the brand name is not visible, Willie appears to have Testors model paints and cement on the table in front of him.

When the Ha'la'tha sends an assassin to kill Joseph, Ruth kills the assassin with a meat cleaver to the back. Shortly after, she tells the family, "Half an hour. That's how it worked in my time. If I didn't call in within half-an-hour, another shooter was sent to follow up." This implies that Ruth was once an assassin working for the Ha'la'tha! Also notice that Evelyn gets a bewildered, shocked look on her face after Ruth says that...apparently this was a revelation to her, too!

Deciding the family must flee Caprica to escape the death sentence of the Ha'la'tha, Joseph leaves a message for Sam and asks Ruth to go pick up Larry and meet them at the spaceport. Recall that Larry is Sam's husband.

While inside their holoband experience, Daniel and Amanda don't seem to notice the power outage and household computer announcement about the initiation of the security barricade. Shouldn't they still be somewhat aware of their physical environment even while engaged in holoband activity?

Serge is severely damaged, possibly destroyed, by gunfire in this episode. :(

Serge confronts the intruders at the Graystone house before being shot down. But what happened to Caesar, the family dog? He's not seen, nor do we even hear any barking from outside. I guess he's not much of a watchdog!

The handheld interface devices used by Nestor and Olaf to break the security in the Graystone home appear to probably be Sony PSP Go gaming units.

At 23:32 on the DVD, notice that an STO symbol is on the wall behind Odin, a sword inside the infinity symbol used by the Monad religion.

When Daniel notices the U-87 beginning to activate behind the Willow party, he attempts to buy he and Amanda some time by begging to know God, saying he wants to "sleep well after life's fitful fever..." This is actually a quote from Shakespeare's Hamlet. The question is left open as to what Caprican or Colonial work also includes such an obvious Earth-based quote.

When Daniel tells her they can collaborate on building her a new robot body with skin, Zoe remarks, "Skin job." This term was often used in BSG2000 in reference to the human-looking Cylons. It implies that Zoe's new body will be the next step in the evolution of the existing Cylons.

At 41:03 on the DVD, it appears that Sam and Joseph have pre-made fake ID cards stashed in the safe at Goldie's. We don't get a clear enough shot of them to see what names are used on the cards.

While trying to distract Willie from his father and Sam being behind in returning from their break-in at Goldie's, Evelyn tells him about a brother she has on Tauron who hunts foxes with trained dogs. Admiral Adama mentions this uncle in the BSG2000 episode "Sometimes a Great Notion".

At 41:54 on the DVD, a poster for an upcoming boxing match at P.N.E. Gardens is seen on a wall at Goldie's. These gardens actually exist in Vancouver, Canada, where the series was shot, on the grounds of the Pacific National Exhibition.

Willy Adama dies from a gunshot wound in this episode in what was meant to be a shock ending for faithful viewers who expected him to grow up to become the Commander Adama seen in BSG2000. It is revealed in the epilog of the final episode, "Apotheosis", that Joseph and Evelyn will have a son whom they also name William, in honor of the too-short life of Willie, as is Tauron custom. The second William Adama is the one who becomes "Bill" Adama and leads the rag-tag remnants of humanity to Earth as Commander/Admiral Adama in BSG2000. In the audio commentary of "Apotheosis", executive producer Kevin Murphy explains that when they shot the pilot, a math error caused them to have a Willie Adama that was too old to become the Commander Adama seen in BSG2000; Adama would have been in his 70s by the time of that series! So the writers/producers concocted the interesting workaround of playing with viewers' expectations and flipping it on its ear with Willie's death and the introduction of a new William Adama in the proposed second season. (It might also be argued, from a continuity standpoint, that an early indication that Willie was not the same William Adama who would grow up to become Commander Adama is that Willie's eyes are brown, while Commander Adama's eyes are blue.)

Unanswered Questions

Where is Tamara in this and the following episode? She is not seen and Zoe makes no mention of her whereabouts.