One may not expect SyFy's Caprica to be the most religious show on television. It's set in the very distant past in another part of space, fifty-eight years before another recent SyFy show, Battlestar Galactica. According to Galactica's finale, our ancestors came from Caprica and the other eleven worlds, which we remember through the signs of the zodiac. Caprica was sold to Galactica's audience as the origin of the robots known as Cylons. By the end of Galactica, we knew that it had to be about more, but it's exceeded my expectations.
Caprica is world at the brink of civil war, torn between monotheistic and polytheistic beliefs. The one is one of Ancient Greece, or perhaps Rome, not long before it's fall. Fans of the previous series know how it will end, but this show is so different that it is easy to forget what's coming. The monos, represented most prominently in the series by terrorist organization STO, seek to discredit and destroy the polys, whom they blame for the corruption of their world.
The world in question is in sorry shape, indeed. Teenagers escape to virtual reality, where they populate clubs bent on human sacrifice and orgies. A mob from nearby planet Tauron thrives. Suicide bombers blow up crowded trains. Which is, in fact, how Zoe Graystone (Alessandra Torresani) perished in the pilot, though her foray into virtual worlds, and mixing avatars with reality, has allowed her to still be a main character. Whether the existing Zoe, who lives only in computers, is real is a questions to be debated among the various religions.
Sister Clarice Willow (Polly Walker) seeks to be the voice to lead the Capricans into the next golden era. Last night's season premiere began with Clarice overseeing a group of people, some of them children, as they smuggled explosives into a crowded sports arena. The stadium and everyone in it spectacularly were leveled. But it wasn't real. Clarice has developed a recruiting technique for her organization. She wants to promise believers reality post-death, in a virtual world, like the one where she showed the destruction. Her group's leaders are wary, and order her assassination. But her support is strong, and her friends kill the messenger. Seeing little choice, the leader of them all, known as Mother (Meg Tilly, The Big Chill), asks Clarice what she needs to fulfill her plan.
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Article comments
1 - doug m.
"Is risen"? Are you sure about that?
2 - Jerome Wetzel
The title of my article is a reference to the religious material in the show, and the rising in power in the episode of Sister Clarice. Plus, it's been off the air for more than six months. But, yes, sadly I know that the ratings were down.