For the Adherent of Pop Culture
Adventures of Jack Burton ] Back to the Future ] Battlestar Galactica ] Buckaroo Banzai ] Cliffhangers! ] Earth 2 ] The Expendables ] Firefly/Serenity ] The Fly ] Galaxy Quest ] Indiana Jones ] Jurassic Park ] Land of the Lost ] Lost in Space ] The Matrix ] The Mummy/The Scorpion King ] The Prisoner ] Sapphire & Steel ] Snake Plissken Chronicles ] Star Trek ] Terminator ] The Thing ] Total Recall ] Tron ] Twin Peaks ] UFO ] V the series ] Valley of the Dinosaurs ] Waterworld ] PopApostle Home ] Links ] Privacy ]


Episode Studies by Clayton Barr
enik1138 at popapostle dot com
Caprica: Apotheosis Caprica
"Apotheosis"
TV episode
Written by Kevin Murphy and Jane Espenson
Directed by Jonas Pate

Clarice's STO cell proceeds with its plan for the bombing of Atlas Arena while Daniel and Amanda pull out all the stops in an attempt to stop it.

Read the synopsis of this episode at TVRage

Didja Know?

This was the final episode of the series, as it was cancelled by Syfy due to low ratings. The final five minutes of the episode give viewers a preview of what was to come in the proposed second season.

Didja Notice?

At 4:39 on the DVD, one of the books next to Nestor's dead body in Daniel's home lab is 1001 Best Websites for Educators by Timothy Hopkins, M.S. This is a real book, published in 2004.

At 9:53 on the DVD, one of the Ha'la'tha members gathered at the Adama home to mourn the death of Willie declares, "The Oneris crew is with you..." This is the first mention of Oneris. It must be a crime family within the Ha'la'tha.

The registration number on the Graystones' flyer is CJ4N.

At 16:33 on the DVD, one of the security cameras seen at Atlas Arena is labeled as a Pelco brand. Pelco is a real world manufacturer of security and surveillance equipment.

At 16:38 on the DVD, Amanda walks up to an Alcor Telecom phone booth. Alcor is a real world telecom solutions company based in Italy.

As Amanda makes her bomb call to the police at 16:58 on the DVD, the Blue Edge Organic Cafe is seen in the background. This is a real cafe in Vancouver, where the series was shot. The cafe is seen again in the background at 24:38 at what is presumably supposed to be an entirely different location during the Graystones' dash across the city.

As the Guatrau and his daughter talk inside Goldie's Off Track Betting at 17:33, notice there are two cardboard case boxes for Heidelberg beer sitting on the floor in the background.

The vial of red capsules Joseph uses to kill the Guatrau is kapi. In the audio commentary of this episode on the DVD, executive producer Kevin Murphy reveals it is the same vial of poison Joseph's father kept as part of a Tauron custom for the family to kill themselves if captured by hostile forces, as seen in "The Dirteaters".

Notice that the Guatrau's daughter slips a coin into his breast pocket after he dies. This is a Tauron tradition, as first seen in "There Is Another Sky".

The taxicab the Graystones ride off in at 24:50 on the DVD is from the Caprican Cab Co.

I hadn't recognized him before, but the close-up of the keycard at 26:18 on the DVD reveals that the Graystone Industries employee who helps Daniel and Amanda is Drew Tanner, Philomon's colleague on the U-87 project who got the tip of his finger chopped off by the Zoe avatar while she was inhabiting the U-87 prototype, due to his disrespect and mistreatment of the robot.

At 26:22 on the DVD, several USB and Ethernet cables (computer/networking standards in the real world) are seen in the drawer Drew finds Daniel's laptop in.

Daniel tells Drew his access code for his laptop's hard rive, Y-R-25-Zeta-Theta-Epsilon. "YR25" most likely represents his daughter Zoe's birth year and, in the Greek alphabet, Zeta-Theta-Epsilon appears as ΖΘΕ.

At 27:31 on the DVD, Daniel and Amanda walk past a poster advertisement for Caprican Garb, "Get Dressed Where the Style Fits".

A banner at Atlas Arena at 27:32 on the DVD seems to proclaim the Caprica Buccaneers as part of the Alpha League of professional pyramid teams.

The television announcer for the pyramid game states that overhead coverage is provided by the Graystone Blimp. This is a play on the real world Goodyear Blimps, which display advertising for the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company and provide aerial coverage of sporting events.

The full Caprican anthem "Caprica Abides" is sung at Atlas Arena in this episode. The song is performed by Mark Donnelly known for his performances of the Canadian National Anthem "O Canada" at the games of the Vancouver Canucks hockey team. The lyrics of "Caprica Abides" are below. (The song was also partially performed in "Rebirth".)

Caprica let us celebrate

Raise our hands despite the weight
And all her joys we extol
Caprica Abides

Caprica let us persevere
Shield ourselves from doubt and fear
And all the sorrows of the soul
Caprica Abides

Caprica let us persevere
Shield ourselves from doubt and fear
And all the sorrows of the soul
Caprica Abides

At 30:07 on the DVD, some advertising banners for Caprican brands are seen, though the products are not described. One looks like a watch brand. Another is called Caprican Imperial; this is revealed in BSG2000 to be a cigar brand in "Trust" and "Black Market". The LED displays running along the bleachers also advertises the next C-Bucs home game against the Centaurs; it is unknown which city or colony the Centaurs represent.

    At 31:40 on the DVD, the Marine airship is marked as VX-9. This may be a reference to the real world VX-9 (Air Test and Evaluation Squadron Nine), a joint venture of the U.S. Navy and Marines, based out of Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake.
   Notice also that the craft has a pentagon-shaped symbol on the wings, similar to the soon-to-be-familiar Cylon symbol.
   The tailfin of the craft is marked with the registration number 202012. Possibly this was done as a reference to the last date of the Mayan calendar, December 20, 2012. The date was the subject of much speculation; some people believed that the world would end on that date, while others thought a spiritual awakening would begin on the 21st. I'm pretty sure we're still alive and still the same dastardly humans we've always been.
Marine aircraft

After identifying the attempted-bombing culprits among the game's spectators, the Cylon leader sends a message to the remote control unit (Daniel's laptop), "Scan complete. Terminate targets?" This may be a reference to the robotic Terminators of the Terminator franchise.

The coda of this episode is titled "The Shape of Things to Come". The title is probably based on the future history book of the same title published by H.G. Wells in 1933.

At 37:47 on the DVD, a construction crane bearing the name Femo is seen. Femo is a Canadian construction company. Notice in this shot that many of the construction workers are actually Cylons.
Cylon workers

The statue seen at 38:22 on the DVD appears to be a monument to the Cylons who saved the spectators at Atlas Arena in this episode.

During an interview by Baxter Sarno, Daniel ironically states that to attribute human qualities to the robots is folly. Yet, he is himself, planning to unite the avatar of his daughter Zoe with a human-like robotic body out of his love for her.

At 38:48 on the DVD, notice that stocks in Graystone Industries are on a steady rise.

The coda reveals that Joseph and Evelyn later had a son together, named William, after his dead brother, in the Tauron tradition. This is the William Adama that will grow up to be the commander of the battlestar Galactica in BSG2000. At 39:36 on the DVD, little William is seen wearing suspenders with a buckle that says 6-1986. I'm unaware of any significance. Note that Ruth is present for William's ceremony, indicating she has maintained her ties to the Adama family even though, with the death of Willie in "Here Be Dragons", she no longer has any blood relatives among them.

In Clarice's church at 39:46 on the DVD, notice that the bases of the columns all have the inscription "The One".

The worker Cylons have a slightly different look than the military ones we've seen up to now.
worker Cylon

Clarice asks the assembled Cylons at her congretation, "Are you alive?" This same question is later by Number Six of the human officer at Armistice Station in "Humanity's Children".

Clarice refers to the Cylons as more than just "humanity's children", saying we are all God's children. She also refers to them as the "differently sentient".

The coda reveals that Lacy became the Blessed Mother of the Monad Church.

At the end of the coda, the Zoe avatar is given physical form in a human-like body, rising from a fluid-filled tank similar to the resurrection tanks of the Cylons seen in BSG2000.

Notes from the audio commentary by Kevin Murphy on the DVD

After shooting of the season had already started, the producers realized they'd made a mathematical error in Bill Adama's age from BSG2000 when they started Willie Adama at 11 years old in "Pilot" Part 1; this would have made him 70 years old when BSG2000 begins. They decided to change the name of Joseph's wife in post-production to Shannon (from the previously acknowledged mother of Bill, Evelyn) so that they could introduce the Evelyn character later, who would go on to become the mother of Joseph's second son, named William Adama, who would grow up to become the commander of the battlestar Galactica, later in the season (as seen in this episode's coda). Willie Adama, of course, was killed by Ha'la'tha gunfire in "Here Be Dragons".

Murphy reveals several elements that would have been part of the second season if the series had been renewed:

  • There would have been a five year jump from the end of season one to the beginning of season two.
  • Duram (shot and hospitalized in "Here Be Dragons") survives his injuries and goes on to become Zoe's commander in a quest to destroy the Cylons.
  • Zoe goes on a vision quest in the virtual world where she would meet a member of the Final Five. At this time, the Final Five are on a long journey through space to the Twelve Colonies and keeping their minds active inside VR. This Final Five member gives Zoe information that allows her to develop the first skin job robot body for herself.
  • A Terminator-like skin job would have been seen.
  • Clarice establishes a virtual church advocating Cylon rights.

Murphy reveals that season one had one fewer episode filmed than was originally scheduled due to the interference of trying to shoot in Vancouver while the Winter Olympics was happening there in 2010.

Unanswered Questions

Since the series was not renewed for any further seasons, a number of questions are left unanswered, even taking into account Kevin Murphy's revelations in the audio commentary:

  • What happened to Gara Singh? Was his duplicity uncovered? Did he lose his position in the GDD?
  • Did Duram regain his position in the GDD?
  • Was Clarice's role in the attempted bombing of Atlas Arena revealed to the public? Was she arrested and charged at all? It seems from the coda she mostly got away unpunished.
  • Would there have been a further role for Tamara in Zoe's plans?
  • Does Lacy institute changes in the way the Monads operate? Does she still condone the STO or will she eliminate it? Does Lacy go on to leave any heirs? Would the Cylons obey an heir the way they do her?
Memorable Dialog

if I commanded it.wav
I know how this ends.wav
I'm keeping a careful list.wav
buckle up.wav
I know my purpose now.wav (edited)
I am God.wav
Cylons integrated into society.wav
so say we all.wav
are you alive.wav
I really think you should kneel.wav

Back to Episode Studies