The ghost in the shell
Daniel Graystone (Eric Stoltz), unable to recognize that he has trapped his own daughter (or rather, the avatar Zoe created of herself before her death, now for the lack of a better term called Zoe 2.0) in the metallic body of his Cylon prototype, struggles with the fact that the consciousness is not reproducible. The chip he had Joseph Adama steal only works in this one body (apparently, a difference that makes no difference here makes a difference - without going into the depths of discussion regarding "souls" that "Battlestar Galactica" dove into, here there is more to a sentient being than a body and a reprintable mind). Not unlike John Henry in "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" (who was also the first of his kind, at least in the present time), Zoe's mind can not be separated from the body.
This poses a business problem for Daniel, who is going to lose his government contract if he can't supply an army of Cylons, but the personal issues Zoe faces are even more terrifying. Seeing her own reflection, she is unable to recognize herself. The viewer sees both: the virtual body of Zoe, and the giant machine that seems entirely disconnected from the small girl. It's also important to remember that this Zoe never really had a body: she is a programme, and how precise a copy of the real Zoe she is we will never know, as this girl was lost in the explosion. I would even go as far as to assert that we can tell from Zoe 2.0 memories of Zoe that this version of her is far more vulnerable and less self-secure than the girl that is now lost.
We see Zoe as the product that Daniel Graystone creates - when she is manhandled by his employees, trying to figure out why she is special. One of them "humanizes" ("feminizes") her - although this is mostly an expression of advanced geekery than actual recognition of her humanity - the other treats her the way we would, seeing her metallic surface, although these scenes are more disturbing when the person we see is actually the girl, not the machine.
Engineer 1: “Great piece of engineering.”
Engineer 2: “Yeah I know, she gives me the chills.”
Engineer 1: “She? Dude, stop feminizing, it’s weird. It’s unnatural.”
Engineer 2: “I really don’t think there’s anything wrong with feminizing it.”
Engineer 1: “Nothing wrong except it’s not a person. It’s useful. It’s just a tool.”
The question of identity is different than in "Battlestar Galactica", where the skin jobs had to deal with the fact that their memories were false and they were actually the enemy most of them had been fighting for most of their life: Zoe is different - she is a programme of a person in a machine, and she is most interesting when confronted with Lacy Rand (Magda Apanowicz), Zoe's best friend who decided at the last moment to stay behind at the platform when Ben, Zoe's boyfriend, blew up the train. In this episode, we see the stark contrast between Lacy's family and the Graystones: The Rands live in a run-down house, and Lacy is clearly an outcast at school because she is not as rich as the other students. Now she is the only person Zoe trusts with the knowledge that she is still herself, inside the machine, and Lacy is the only one who seems to be able to accept that (although seeing her hug the machine that somehow contains her friend doesn't just make her feel uncomfortable).
Zoe 2.0: “The only control that I have right now is that no one knows I’m in here. Promise me that you won’t tell”.
The question remains whether Lacy can deal with that responsibility. When she first sees Zoe, after Daniel had her transported to his home, she stares at her both in terror and awe (“So this is you. Your arms and, your face. Your voice come out of her, and you see here? Look at your arms.”) – while Zoe tries to read in her face who she sees when she looks at her.
Zoe: “God it’s confusing. I mean I’m Zoe, and the Avatar, and a robot. Like some kind of, what do you call it, three parter.”
Lacy: “Trinity. That’s what you are. Three faces of one thing. Sort of.”
Zoe: “My mom called me a monster.”
Lacy: “To be fair…“
As the only remaining member of the three-party terrorist group Ben Stark led, she is also immediately confronted with different demands: Sister Clarice (Polly Walker), the headmistress of the college, tries to involve her in her polygamist family, to find out what Lacy knows about Zoe's project.
Nestor: “Computer stuff, right? That’s my major. Did you know that there are bits of software that you use every day that were written decades ago? You write a great program and, you know, it can outlive you, it’s like a work of art. Maybe Zoe was an artist? Maybe her work will live on.”
This moment highlights how alone Lacy is in this: she knows how right Nestor, Clarice’s husband, is in this, as the code Zoe wrote literally keeps her alive beyond her death.
"My daughter was a terrorist"
Another storyline in this episode follows the Graystones and Adamas as they try to deal with their respective losses. Zoe’s loss has devided Daniel and Amanda, as both deal differently with her death. While Daniel has moved on and focuses on his project, just trying not to think about his daughter and unable to tell his wife what he did with the Avatar that is now, although he doesn’t know, stuck in the prototype, Amanda slowly figures out that she did not know her daughter at all. She watches videos of her as a child, and at the same time keeps what the investigating officer told her about Zoe in the back of her mind (that she was a terrorist, not a victim of the explosion). Of all the things the investigating officer tells her, the one thing that really shocks her is finding out that she had a boyfriend (“My daughter didn’t have a boyfriend, she wasn’t old enough, she died before…”). Later, at the memorial service, Ben Stark’s mother gives her an envelope containing items Zoe left in his room, among them a brooch with the symbol of the Soldiers of the One. It’s interesting to see how Amanda deals with that information: instead of internalizing her pain, she decides to step up, to share this with everybody at the service, to the horror of Daniel Graystone.
"My daughter was a terrorist"
Another storyline in this episode follows the Graystones and Adamas as they try to deal with their respective losses. Zoe’s loss has devided Daniel and Amanda, as both deal differently with her death. While Daniel has moved on and focuses on his project, just trying not to think about his daughter and unable to tell his wife what he did with the Avatar that is now, although he doesn’t know, stuck in the prototype, Amanda slowly figures out that she did not know her daughter at all. She watches videos of her as a child, and at the same time keeps what the investigating officer told her about Zoe in the back of her mind (that she was a terrorist, not a victim of the explosion). Of all the things the investigating officer tells her, the one thing that really shocks her is finding out that she had a boyfriend (“My daughter didn’t have a boyfriend, she wasn’t old enough, she died before…”). Later, at the memorial service, Ben Stark’s mother gives her an envelope containing items Zoe left in his room, among them a brooch with the symbol of the Soldiers of the One. It’s interesting to see how Amanda deals with that information: instead of internalizing her pain, she decides to step up, to share this with everybody at the service, to the horror of Daniel Graystone.
“I miss Zoe, I miss her with every breath, but I don’t really know what I’m missing. My daughter had a whole life, and a boyfriend, that I knew nothing about. Beliefs that I don’t understand at all. Looking back I think that she only showed me what she wanted me to see. I just didn’t know her. You’ve all talked about how guilty you feel. It’s our hob, we create life, and one day we have to face who they are. What they become and what they do. My daughter, Zoe Graystone died in the bombing of the Meg Lab Train number tree. But I think she might have caused it. This was hers. I found this, my daughter was part of the Soldiers of the One. My daughter was a terrorist. I’m sorry.”
Random notes:
Hi, Jason Street, nice to see you again.
As Jane Espenson indicated in an interview: sexual orientation really is a non-issue on Caprica. Tough uncle Sam Adama just mentions in a very by-the-way sentence that he is gay, and Lacy takes the fact that Sister Clarice has several wives and husbands very calmly (one of these husbands trying to seduce her, not to well).
“The crowd goes frakking wild, sir. They’re tearing off the seats, it’s bedlam.”
You know the scientist is troubled when he programs the house robot to cheer him on.
Hi, Jason Street, nice to see you again.
As Jane Espenson indicated in an interview: sexual orientation really is a non-issue on Caprica. Tough uncle Sam Adama just mentions in a very by-the-way sentence that he is gay, and Lacy takes the fact that Sister Clarice has several wives and husbands very calmly (one of these husbands trying to seduce her, not to well).
“The crowd goes frakking wild, sir. They’re tearing off the seats, it’s bedlam.”
You know the scientist is troubled when he programs the house robot to cheer him on.
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