Apotheosis

Apotheosis is an episode of the 2009 TV series Caprica. The episode was the 19th and final episode of Caprica, concluding Season 1.5. While the final minutes of the episode set-up plot points for Season 2, internal politics at Universal led to the series being cancelled in favour of a second Battlestar Galactica spin-off proposal, Blood and Chrome.
== Plot ==
=== Teaser ===
In the aftermath of her failed attempt to kill the Graystones, Sister Clarice Willow and Olaf are forced to walk back through the streets alone, with their husband Nestor dead. He is unwilling to take Clarice back to the Willow residence to get her computer data, as the police will know where to find them. They are approached by Agent Gara Singh, the GDD director. He finally reveals himself to Clarice as 'Arvo', the man she has been talking to who claimed to have a contact in the GDD. He comes with them to their house to get the relevant computer data. He is keeping tabs on the Graystones should they try to alert the police, and any uses of "Graystone" or "Atlas Arena" in reports will be flagged, should they have found out about the planned terrorist attack. While this may blow his cover, with only 14 hours left for the attack he expects to be off-world before anyone notices. He reminds Clarice the GDD has 4,712 agents under his command, and he will prevent the plan being foiled by giving them 'evidence' the Maglev bombing was committed by Zoe Graystone under orders from Daniel and Amanda.
At the Graystone residence, the company is privately investigating the residence, and Cyrus Xander won't call the police until their entire legal team is brought in. Photos are taken of Nestor's body for evidence, and technicians figure out how the Willows broke in. A special team will obtain the U-87 for clean-up, and Graystone has made it his personal goal to destroy the Soldiers of The One by systematically exposing their allies and secret documents and acquiring or destroying their materiel. Amanda re-enters V-World to talk with Zoe-A, hoping to get information on Clarice. Zoe-A has gaps in her memory as part of Zoe's design to both make her an individual as well as keep her from knowing Clarice's goal. Amanda re-rezzes, her Holoband ripped off by Singh as the GDD take over the investigation and place the Graystones under arrest. He presents a document casually left in the house showing a list of apparent STO contacts as proof of their guilt, confirming to Amanda what Agent Jordan Durham said about the GDD being compromised. Xander takes out a gun on Singh to help the Graystones escape. Singh lets the two go for now, and warns Xander that he will personally push the switch when he is executed alongside them. The Graystones escape in a private ship.
=== Act 1 ===
In the aftermath of Willie Adama's murder by the Ha'La'Tha, Joseph and Sam are offered protection and support from fellow mobsters disgusted by the killing. There is a knock at the door, and Fidelia Fazekas and the Guatrau himself enter. Under the Tauron rights of mourning, enemies may grieve as long as they are unarmed. Speaking through Fidelia, the Guatrau has granted amnesty for the Adama brothers, but Sam instead takes the opportunity to slam Fidelia's head on a table with a gun to her head. Joseph halts his brother, and speaks to Fidelia quietly. The two come to an understanding, that the Ha'La'Tha has a civil war brewing and it has been so since the recent uprising began - Willie's killing will inevitably be used to justify the first shot. Fidelia sympathises with Joseph's views on the uprising, and offers to send weapons and money to Tauron.
The Graystones touch down in Orpheus Park on Amanda's instructions to recover the stolen Holoband. Letting their pilot go, they are stuck in the park but are untraceable. Daniel finds the Holoband and plays the program saved on it - the Caprica Buccaneers against the Delphi Legion game. He sees Monotheist NPCs salute one another and detonate explosives before appearing in another setting, proclaiming to have been saved. He realises this relates to Zoe's avatar program, and that the only scheduled game between the two is in eight hours time.
=== Act 2 ===
The Graystones walk back into the city, disguised in caps to mask their faces from the CCTV cameras. Amanda uses a payphone to warn the police about the bombs, but they become suspicious when she refuses to divulge her identity or how she knows about it. To avoid being noticed, the two move on to plan B.
The Guatrau and Fidelia head over to Goldie's, where it has been decided he will enter negotiations with Joseph via Holoband. Fidelia presses him to commit, while he would rather get it over with via telephone and consider the ramifications of their U-87 shipment with the Graystones in the news. 
Singh is having coffee in the street, when a GDD agent runs up to him, informing him of the bomb threat. Singh declares it to be a GDD matter rather than a police one, which would prevent meddling.
The Guatrau enters V-World in a virtual simulation of Goldie's, and finds himself at a table with Joseph. Their negotiation is strenuous, with Joseph angry at the Guatrau for treating Willie's death like a business issue. The Guatrau begins choking and unable to speak, revealed in the real world as Sam forcing a plastic bag on his head. Joseph leaves V-World in a neighbouring room and finds the Guatrau surrounded by fellow Ha'La'Tha members and his daughter, who refuse to prevent the killing having agreed to remove him from power. Refusing to honour the Tauron tradition of suicide by knife, Joseph forces cyanide pills down his mouth as were used by many in the previous Tauron Uprising. The Guatrau quickly dies from the poison, and the mobsters declare Fedelia their new Guatrau.
=== Act 3 ===
Olaf is delighted at the rate the news coverage has come in declaring the Graystones terrorists, as he begins final preparations for the bombing. As Nestor never got round to making an Avatar for Clarice, she decides not to go and instead welcome the other Avatars in V-World. While he is angry at Clarice for what he sees as cowardice, he is proud to go out to the arena, having faith the One True God will save his soul.
In V-World, Zoe-A watches real-time news coverage of the search for her parents, realising they are still in danger. The same footage plays in a taxi cab as Daniel and Amanda drive on to their backup plan. Stopping close to the Graystone Industries building, they track down Drew as he sits on a park bench. Daniel recruits him to head into the R&D lab and take his hard-drive to a restricted terminal. Inputting the code Y-R-25-Zeta-Theta-Epsilon will give him access. He is then to access the U-87 Synthetic Vision System and hand control back to him, as he needs to be within 400m of the robots to use it.
Arriving at Atlas Arena, everyone is subject to checks. STO members are working as security guards, allowing Olaf access despite searching his bag and finding a bomb. Daniel and Amanda enter a secure room with the computer, and are recognised immediately. They are forced to bind the man and rip out the phone cord to stop him alerting security.
=== Act 4 ===
Daniel has had four Graystone Industries shuttles drop off a platoon of U-87s on the pitch to the confusion of the audience. They move into formation, with individual squad leaders setting up a circle. Ordering them to turn on their "chemical sensors", then begin searching the crowd for bombs, but won't act until they have found all of them. When six are identified, the Cylons begin firing at the terrorists with sniper rifles. The Cylons continue killing the terrorists, but Olaf is left after someone knocks him over in the panic, and he is unable to detonate his bomb. The man Amanda bound wriggles free and attacks, stopping Daniel from commanding the Cylons temporarily. One of the squad leaders sends its Cylons out to search for Olaf, who Daniel can't find. Security tries to force its way into the room they are hiding in, giving Daniel only a short time to complete the mission. The Cylons spot Olaf getting up in the stand, and a group race out to him, backed up by snipers while Daniel and Amanda are detained by security. Olaf finally gets ready to detonate his bomb, but the chasing Cylons jump him, shielding anyone nearby from the explosion.
Meanwhile, Clarice has put on her Holoband while the Caprican national anthem was on, and the STO members arm their bombs. Zoe confronts Clarice in her V-World Heaven, wanting to know why she is after her parents. The terrorists' avatars begin loading into the V-World Heaven - "Heaven Sim" - upon death through Clarice's server. Zoe questions how many people they may have killed for this, but Clarice believes it to be in the greater good. Zoe points out the blatant flaw in Clarice's plan. The heaven construct won't bring people closer to God - it will make people think they can do whatever they want and get into heaven anyway. Zoe is accused of committing blasphemy in criticising Clarice's use of her program. She finally uses her powers to destroy Heaven, unleashing a storm as the ground falls apart, proclaiming herself to be God. Heaven has become a volcanic wasteland. The other avatars become unstable and die, as Clarice's computer server is destroyed before Olaf's avatar can even start to upload.
=== Act 5 ===
The days and years after the incident at the arena pass by fast. Daniel is interviewed by Baxter Sarno after his vindication, as the Cylons have become vastly popular following the incident. Achieving his dream, the Cylon has entered mainstream life - no longer a military-grade product, industry is now relying on Cylon construction workers, and some people own Cylon domestic servants to walk their dogs. He is watched in the V-World recreation of the Graystone residence by Zoe-A and Amanda. Joseph offers a prayer to his son, Willie. Having had a child with his new wife Evelyn, he has named him after him to carry on their grandfather's spirit.
Elsewhere, Clarice talks in a V-World church, giving a sermon to many different kinds of Cylon - and Zoe-A - and prepares to go to Gemenon to seek the Blessed Mother's support for "divine recognition of the differently-sentient". In a brief cut to the future, we see Odin as the STO leader on Gemenon and Lacy Rand as Blessed Mother, having wiped out everyone in her own rebellion. Cutting back to the sermon, Clarice describes the Cylons as they functionally are - metal and plastic, with their brains encoded on silicone. She tells them there is no limit to what they may become in future, and while humanity's children they are also God's children, deserving to be treated as something other than slaves. In another cut, we see the Graystones succeed in creating a human-looking body for Zoe-A as they promise, and welcome her into the real world. Clarice's sermon moves on to her prophesying of someone who will set them free from slavery, exclaiming: "The children of humanity shall rise and crush the ones who first gave them life."
==Production==
=== Writing ===
* David Eicke ordered a last-minute change to the scene where the Graystones escape from the GDD. They were planned to escape by car, but it was replaced with a VTOL aircraft.
* Kevin Murphy pitched the Guatrau being killed while wearing a Holoband, a sequence he proposed repeatedly in Season 1.5 but was rejected for each character.
* The V-World sequence of Joseph meeting the Guatrau was initially set in an empty chat room with no virtual elements, being a bare black room. However, the building used for the Goldie's sequences was popular with the cast and crew, so the decision was made for a VR Goldie's.
* The idea of Cylons dropping into Atlas Arena and shooting people was based on a mock-up by the FX team in their off-hours, and inspired the episode.
* The perfected U-87 models that attack Atlas Arena have a less robotic movement style than the exposed-chassis U-87s. This was considered by Kevin Murphy to be an alteration in their software by Vergis Corp, who had the time to iron things out.
=== Directing ===
* The scenes of Caprica City's streets were carefully performed and filmed due to concerns that making the city look too much like Vancouver would make it stand out against the CGI-heavy establishing shots.
== Cast ==
Actor 	Character
Eric Stoltz 	Daniel Graystone
Esai Morales 	Joseph Adama
Paula Malcomson 	Amanda Graystone
Alessandra Torresani 	Zoe Graystone
Magda Apanowicz 	Lacy Rand
Sasha Roiz 	Sam Adama
Brian Markinson 	Jordan Durham
Polly Walker 	Clarice Willow
Patton Oswalt 	Baxter Sarno
Peter Wingfield 	GDD Director Gara Singh
Jorge Montesi 	The Guatrau
Ryan Kennedy 	Odin Sinclair
Carmen Moore 	Fidelia Fazekas
Hiro Kanagawa 	Cyrus Xander
Karen Elizabeth Austin 	Ruth
James Pizzinato 	Drew
Panou 	Olaf
Teryl Rothery 	Evelyn
Julius Chapple 	Larry
Feguins Toussaint 	Bodyguard Sean
Rena Baskin 	Abasi Lowe
Dale Wolfe 	Steve Bahara
Iris Paluly 	Jax
Hrothgar Mathews 	Dave
Marcus Towfigh 	Young Bill Adama
Rodney Reid 	Cab Driver
Mike Dopud 	Sal
J.C. Williams 	GDD Agent
Michael Sangha 	GDD Agent
Mark Donnelly 	Anthem Singer
Kelvin Lum 	Caprica Police (as Kevin Lum)
Philip Cabrita 	STO Martyr #1
Steve Thackray 	STO Martyr #2
Catherine Lough Haggquist	STO Martyr #3
Tim Aas 	Scruffy Dude
John Stewart 	Supervisor
Mike Russell 	Worker
==Gallery==
Apotheosis - Graystone wanted posters.png
==Sources==
== External links ==
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