Whereas last episode, “Gravedancing,” was about damage control, this episode was about understanding your actions and understanding the toll those actions take on everyone connected to you. The outcry from the Board of Directors for Graystone Industries after Daniel’s announcement that Graystone will not make a profit off Holo-bands or V-World all but promises that he’s going to be forced out of office. Sam helping Willie skip school leads to a confrontation with his brother about obligations, and Tamara realizes with dawning horror the hell she finds herself lost in.
Surprisingly, we see very little of the Zoe-R and none of Zoe-A. This episode is dominated by the Adama family. Willie, as he acts out and is torn between his father’s wishes and his uncle’s cultural teachings; Tamara, as she desperately tries to find something real in the virtual world; and Joseph, clinging to the past and neglecting the future. What little we see of Zoe-R is during a speech her father gives, positing that the new future for Graystone Industries is mass-producing a workforce that doesn’t sleep, eat, retire, or need to be paid.
Anyone who has seen Battlestar Galactica knows where this thinking lands the Colonials, but watching as it unfolds I felt a keen sense of melancholy. To these people it’s not a monumental event that in six decades leads to the end of the Colonies–it’s just another day at the office, trying to save a company suddenly losing massive amounts of profit.
Tamara Adama’s plotline was the most interesting, in my opinion. Unlike Zoe-A, Tamara has no idea what she is, how she got there, or what is happening. For her, the real world vanished and suddenly she’s in this violent, masochistic world peopled by folks who think nothing of playing Russian Roulette for money or shooting a girl for needing help. She runs to a woman named Vesta, who supposedly can help her, and who promises to–for a price.
Tamara’s joint venture with another young guy (named Heracles) leads them to New Cap City–fully updated with the Maglev bombing, don’t you know–caught in a truly lawless Battle Royale for supreme power. You die there, you can’t ever return. It’s kind of…roaring twenties in New Cap City. From the dresscode, to the music and even the chain of command–it’s the land of gangsters and mafiosos. Tamara, so sheltered in her real life and so confused in her new virtual life, catches onto the implications pretty quickly. Her inability to “de-rez” is perfect. Everyone in the town is so used to just shooting first, asking questions later (if at all) that when she doesn’t go away after getting shot…dumbfounded shock.
By the end of the episode Tamara has become the original One-Eyed Man in the Land of the Blind, leading me to wonder what else is in store for her. She sends a message to her father through Heracles’ real self, but the question is–will he heed it? The Tauron ceremony of letting go (complete with new tattoo) demands that he does. That he think of the future and put the past in the past. His brother Sam calls him on that, in fact–basically saying if Joseph won’t act like a father to Willie, then Sam will, and there’s nothing Joseph can say about it.
Joseph’s attempt at “bonding” with Willie is tainted by the fact he tries to bring them back to a time when the entire family–Shannon, Joseph, Tamara, and Willie–were happy. It’s painful to watch Joseph try to connect with his son Willie during that scene. A man so stuck in the past that he can’t see his son has grown beyond the simple pleasure of a family outing to the stream and didn’t want the burden of “memories.” Willie was ready for the future, ready to become a man and move on with his life, but Joseph stubbornly stuck to the past.
The Tauron ritual of letting go, so the deceased can be at peace, was heartbreaking to watch. It felt as if Joseph truly wanted to let go, that he wanted to let their shades rest and move on to the future with Willie. Maybe because of the blood debt mentioned in both the pilot and “Gravedancing,” he isn’t able to fully let go. The question is implied, though, that since Tamara is in V-World, as her own separate identity, is she really gone?
In many ways this is the culmination of the past 3 episodes’ work to flesh out storylines and character motivations and bring to a head the plotlines so they can merge together better. The fragmented character storylines, that seemed to drift farther apart in each episode, found a common denominator once more: the avatars of Zoe and Tamara. Faced with the knowledge that his daughter may still be “alive,” where else would Joseph turn but to Daniel?
