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Caprica
"Rebirth"
TV episode
Written by Mark Verheiden
Directed by Jonas Pate |
Graystone tries to understand why he has
been able to create only one intelligent robot; Zoe, trapped in
a mechanical body, turns to her friend Lacy for help.
Read the synopsis of this episode at the Battlestar Wiki site
Didja Know?
This was the first episode of the actual Caprica series
after the 2-hour pilot was picked up by Syfy. It delivers the
Caprica opening titles for the first time, filled with
symbolism about the main characters and statuary of the gods.
Notice at 7:24 on the DVD (or 43 seconds into the opening titles
if you time it by itself), that a building in the background has
a digital banner reading "Welcome to New Cap City", suggesting
the particular scene depicted is from the virtual version of
Caprica City seen in episodes starting with "There is Another
Sky".
Didja Notice?
At 2:29 on the DVD, notice during the flashback scene of the VR
club that the temple ahead of Zoe says "The One True God" on the
entablature.
In this episode, it's revealed that the MCP only works in the
original U-86 body that Daniel loaded his daughter's avatar into
in
"Pilot" Part 2. Somehow, the Zoe avatar has bonded to both
the MCP and that particular prototype body so her intelligence
only comes through when the MCP is in that body. Of course, she
is hiding the fact that it is her in the body from everyone but
Lacy.
| Lacy's cell phone at 5:40 on the DVD, is
a G-Zone Boulder, made by
Casio. |
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Cap News is seen to be a major televised news provider on the
planet Caprica.
A popular financial television program on Caprica is Cubits and
Pieces. Cubits, of course, are a form of currency in the Twelve
Colonies, possibly similar to the U.S. dollar. If cubits are
like dollars, are "pieces" meant to represent Colonial cents? If
so, the financial program would have the equivalent title of
Dollars and Cents.
In this episode the Caprica Buccaneers pyramid team goes up
against the Olympia Stallions. (Serge's Twitter feed says that
Olympia is a wealthy suburb of Tauron's capital city of
Hypatia.)
Several cars are seen parked on the street at 8:26 on the DVD.
The first two from the right appear to be a Citroen DS Break
(Wagon) and a standard Citroen DS (Joseph's car). The third from
the right appears to be a
Smart Car.
The establishing shot of Joseph's apartment building is seen
numerous times throughout the series. Notice that the direction
of the stop signs change in shots. Sometimes on the backs of the
stop signs are visible and sometimes the fronts are, even though
we are viewing the scene from the same direction each time! Do
the stop signs in Caprica City swivel to stop cross or oncoming
traffic at different high-congestion times of day?
The flyer for the Memorial Event for the victims of the maglev
bombing states that it is on Junius 7th. The event is sponsored
by Graystone Industries, C-West Coffee, Caprica Realty,
Transworld Industries, Friends of Aquarion, and others. (The
Caprican of Februarius 6 states that the memorial is to be held
"this week", i.e. in Februarius. The date stated in the episode
must be considered the correct one since The Caprican is really
an online "newspaper" for our world about events on Caprica and
the dates in it correspond to when the articles were posted and
the corresponding episode was to air for the first time on
Syfy.)
The living room in the Graystone mansion is slightly redesigned
from the one seen in
"Pilot" parts 1 and 2. During the filming of
"Pilot", a real world home was shot on location. For the
actual series, a replica set was built on a sound stage. On the
set, the bar area was painted entirely white, while some blue
was apparent in the real world home. Also, Zoe's bedroom is no
longer in a downstairs area; it is on the ground level, adjacent
to the living room.
The Graystone Industires vehicle used by Philomon and Drew to
transport the U-87 to Daniel's home lab is a Mercedes-Benz
Sprinter cargo van (also sold by Chrysler in the United States
and Canada). This particular one may have been sold or rented to
the Caprica production by Carter Dodge Chrysler in Burnaby,
British Columbia, Canada, near Vancouver, where the series was
shot.
The Caprica license plate appears to be TX-00-K9.
At 13:37 on the DVD, notice that the U-87 has the
pentagonal-shaped Cylon symbol on the back of its head. It also
looks like it has a SCSI-3 port, or something similar, just
below it!
At 14:18 on the DVD, it can be seen that the U-87 plate on the
front of the Cylon prototype has an additional code number
underneath it, PMD-0407-1690-0008. In some scenes throughout the
series, this part of the plate is blank. It may be a differnece
between the CGI and life-size set piece versions of the U-87.
At 14:22 on the DVD, a bolt in the pentagonal Cylon shape is
seen on the U-87's arm. (Another bolt on its leg is seen at
14:38.)
The musical piece Daniel is playing on the piano at 18:25 on the
DVD is "Exploration", the opening prelude music of the original
BSG ("There are those who believe..." etc.). On his blog for
BSG2000, Caprica composer Bear McCreary reveals he originally
borrowed it for the BSG2000 episode "Someone to Watch Over Me"
and called the piece, within the story, “Nomion’s Third, Second
Movement” by Stu Nomion. Stu Nomion is intended to be the
in-universe representation of original series composer Stu
Phillips.
At 18:51 on the DVD, notice there is a framed photo of Daniel,
Amanda, and a baby (presumably baby Zoe) on top of the piano
being played by Daniel in his home lab.
At 21:14 on the DVD, it's obvious that one of the produce boxes
is from the
Dole
Food Company!
This episode is our first indication that Sam Adama is gay, as
he mentions his boyhood trying to flirt with boys while his
brother would date their sisters.
The Tauron language signs seen throughout the series are
generally written in Greek. Caprican words seem to be English.
At 23:17 on the DVD, an electric guitar is seen in Daniel's home
lab. Does he play?
The shot of the Graystone dog, Caesar, laying at the feet of the
U-87 at 24:39 on the DVD, suggests that the pooch knows somehow
that the robot contains an avatar of Zoe's soul.
Clarice's wives and husbands insinuate that she and Nestor were
trying to seduce Lacy Rand for some purpose. Clarice
sarcastically asks her young husband, "Nestor, did I ask you to
seduce Lacy Rand?" to which he responds, "What? No!" But the
deleted scenes for the episode reveal that the two did arrange
elements of their meeting with Lacy to do exactly that (mostly
for the purpose of gaining access to Lacy's knowledge of Zoe's
avatar).
It's implied by Clarice's spouses during their not-quite spoken
accusations about the lunch with Lacy, that Clarice has a "track
record". To what are they referring? Has Sister Clarice had
inappropriate relations with a student in the past?
At 25:56 on the DVD, Daniel is throwing a wad of paper at a goal
mounted on the wall that appears to be based on the game of
pyramid.
At 26:26 on the DVD, notice that, for whatever reason, the pages
of the "manual" of the U-87 which Daniel flips through, are not
trimmed at the corners in the normal Colonial manner, having
square corners instead.
At 27:04 on the DVD, a painting in Daniel's home lab depicts two
hands reaching for each other with index fingers extended. It
bears some similarity to the hands of Adam and God in the famous
painting on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel by Michelangelo,
The Creation of Adam, ~1512. Here, it is possibly an allusion to
Daniel Graystone giving life to a new species in the form of the
Cylon.
At 27:44 on the DVD, Sam says the car parked on the street is
nice, but looks "like skor". Serge's Twitter feed implies that
skor is Tauron for "shit".
At 27:57 on the DVD, Carley Quality Meats Ltd. is seen next to
the business vandalized by Sam. This is an actual meat market in
Vancouver.
At 28:06 on the DVD, there are a number of "extras" (they appear
to be just real world employees of the businesses on the street)
in the background calmly observing the "vandalism" caused by
actor Sasha Roiz as Sam Adama.
| The patch on the police officer's arm at
28:38 on the DVD reads Caprica Justice Department. The
logo includes an eagle-like symbol, not entirely
dissimilar from the emblem of the Galactica on BSG2000,
which makes sense since the Galactica represented
Caprica in the Colonial fleet. (A Caprican flag with a
stylized symbol even more like the Galactica one is seen
at 38:27.) |
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The police van at 28:45 on the DVD appears to be a Mitsubishi
L300 Delica.
When Amanda is watching home movies of Zoe as a teenager in the
recent past, notice that Zoe is seen wearing an infinity symbol
pin, the symbol of the Soldiers of the One.
| The shot at 31:50 on the DVD is the
corner of Gore Avenue and Powell Street in Vancouver,
British Columbia, Canada, where the series was filmed.
The building on the left of screen is the exterior of
Goldie's Off Track Betting in the series (although this
scene does not seem to be intended to represent
Goldie's). |
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| Shot from this episode |
Corner of Gore and Powell, Vancouver
(from
Google Maps) |
At 31:52 on the DVD, Sam and Willie are released from the
Caprica City Police station at 667 Gore Avenue. This a real
street in Vancouver, currently a real estate office.
At 32:38 on the DVD, a man ducks out sight on the left edge of
the screen in the yard of Lacy Rand's house; probably a member
of the production crew.
When Joseph confronts his son about ditching school, notice that
Willie uses his uncle Sam's advice: "Someone tries to make you
feel guilty, you figure out what they feel guilty about...you
talk about that."
At 33:57 on the DVD, we see one of Caprica's newspapers, the
Caprican Northwest Tribune. The article from the Caprican
"Storm of the Century Hits Caprica" appears to be a
reference to the events of a headline that appears on the front
page of the Tribune in this episode "Worst Storm of Decade
Damages Thirty Homes".
| At 34:06 on the DVD, an ad for the New York Lottery
is seen on the side of the newsstand, partially obscured
by a sticker over it. |
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Sister Clarice goes to a drug bar called Dive.
Mrs. Stark gives Amanda a few things she found in Ben's room
that she believes belonged to Zoe. One of them is a book called
The Physics of Religion and Spirituality: A Caprican
Approach by someone with the last name Hardage.
As Amanda takes the stage at the memorial event, microphones for
both CAP News and CAP TV Entertainment are seen on the podium
behind which she stands.
One of the books seen on the shelf at 44:30 on the DVD appears
to be
Basic Principles of Design by Manfred Maier from
1981.
At 45:46 on the DVD, the Graystones pull away from the mob in
what appears to be a
Jaguar
automobile, possibly a Jaguar Mark 2.
Notes from The Caprican
The article
"Amanda Graystone reveals family link to MAGLEV bombing" is
dated Februarius 8, even though a flyer in this episode states
the memorial takes place on Junius 7th. The date stated in the
episode must be considered the correct one since the Caprican is
really an online "newspaper" for our world about events on
Caprica and the dates in it correspond to when the articles were
posted and the corresponding episode was to air for the first
time on Syfy.
The article
"Who Are the Soldiers of the One?" states that Zoe was 15
when she was killed in the Maglev explosion. Actually, she was
16.
Notes from the podcast commentary by
David Eick and Jonas Pate on the DVD
Armenians were the models for the Taurons.
Notes from the Deleted Scenes on the DVD
Another pyramid team called the Storms is mentioned. Whether
they represent another city on Caprica or another colony world
is unrevealed.
Serge knows that the Zoe avatar is inside the U-87.
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