Know Thy Enemy is an episode of the 2009 TV series Caprica.
Plot[]
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The episode opens on Tauron City on the night the MCP chip was stolen. Tomas Vergis enters the Vergis Corp headquarters finding signs of a break-in. The lab window has been punched open to get inside, the MCP is gone, and there are two bodies of his employees on the ground.
A month later, Daniel and Amanda Graystone go out to a private party at a museum in Caprica City, the first time they have been out in weeks. The company is doing good, the Caprica Buccaneers won today's game, and Amanda went outside without being called "terror mom". Daniel spots Vergis at the party, quietly looking at a statue. He knows the guest list, and asks how Vergis got inside, to which he says he simply donated a lot of money to buy his way in. Vergis cuts to the chase: he knows Graystone stole the MCP chip and killed two of his men, and wants them to meet elsewhere later.
Back at the Graystone house, Daniel explains to Amanda how Vergis is just angry at him over losing the U-87 contract and is threatening to sue him for theft of intellectual property, something Daniel says he cannot back-up but could stall production. Cyrus Xander arrives, and Daniel wishes Amanda good night. Downstairs in his workshop, Daniel and Xander talk about their predicament. Vergis can't have proof or Daniel would be in jail by now, so he supposes that Vergis intends to blackmail him. Xander loses confidence in the situation when he learns that the criminals Daniel hired to steal the chip are Tauron, as it makes it a serious possibility the Ha'la'tha would decide to side with Vergis instead. The only advice he can give Daniel is that he meet with Vergis as planned, but admit to nothing.
Act 1[]
After the revelation that the avatar of his daughter Tamara is still lost in the holoband world, Joseph Adama starts a quest to find her by tracking down the whereabouts and identity of Heracles. Buying a Holoband of his own, he finds himself in V-World's tutorial world, spoken to by a computer version of Daniel Graystone. He is unable to tell the computer anything of value. He is taken out of the world by the real Daniel himself, who has entered his apartment with his chauffeur, Sean. Daniel wants answers about the Ha'la'tha's intentions, and if the only reason they robbed the MCP was to deliberately give Vergis something to use against him. Joseph explains that it was an unsanctioned raid, and the Guatrau never would have allowed an attack on a friend like Vergis even if to destroy another company. He then shifts the topic on to Tamara, how despite Daniel telling him her avatar perished, a boy came to his apartment claiming to have met her. Back at home, Daniel is cutting up vegetables to prepare dinner, but can only think of the two men who were brutally murdered.
The following day, Sister Clarice Willow watches television as the news reports the bombing of yet another Holocafe, an act of terror suspected of being by an STO cell. Clarice does not know who is involved, despite being an STO member, though she is told it is probably the work of Barnabas Greeley. Olaf shows Clarice some technology he has obtained called a "Swipe drive", which wirelessly interfaces with computers and copies data from them, meaning they could steal Zoe's avatar and find out how to create other avatars were they to find the right computer. As it is likely in the Graystones' house, she must find a way inside.
Sister Willow phones Amanda, where she tells her more or less the same thing she did in the phone call the other night. She then asks if she can come over to give Zoe a final goodbye, but is told that due to the GDD raid two days earlier there is virtually nothing left of Zoe's in the building. Sister Willow claims she has a few books at school that were Zoe's, and offers to bring them over.
Joseph talks with Sam about the burglary at Vergis Corp HQ. If the Guatrau finds out Ha'la'tha members were involved, he will naturally want to know why. Sam assures him there is no way to trace either of them to it.
Daniel has lunch with Vergis. He insists he didn't commit theft or murder. Vergis has moved on from that now, and offers to buy the Caprica Buccaneers at a price of 300 million cubits. He implies Daniel is desperate for more money than he seems, and the sale will help keep the board on his side.
At the Graystone Industries lab, Philomon takes a break and frustrates over his lack of success on dating sites. He moves his attention to the U-87, where he flirts with it, to the confusion of Zoe-A. Daniel enters the lab, and asks him to re-examine the robot's new left arm.
Act 2[]
Keon is at a dock house used as a meeting place for Barnabas' STO cell. He asks about Zoe and Ben, and Lacy Rand wanting to finish their objective. Barnabas is a flagellant, and wraps barbed wire around his right arm as the conversation goes on. He is willing to meet with Lacy if she is really a Monotheist, though warns Keon he could kill her if she is not.
Sister Willow goes into V-World to talk with her commanders. She learns that her cell and their focus on converting children has fallen out of favour, with the leadership preferring Barnabas' radical solutions. She begs for more time to complete her cell's objectives.
The following day, Daniel and Xander discuss the Vergis meeting. Daniel is sure he wants the Buccaneers for a more sinister reason than just taking something from him. While they could do with the 300 million cubits for production, they are still no closer to replicating the MCP and creating three prototypes for the Caprican defense department. Xander supports selling it, as it could do a lot to working out how MCP works.
Act 3[]
Sister Willow arrives at the Graystone residence with a pile of books. Amanda does not feel too caring over the books themselves, but is happy to have something of Zoe's not taken by Agent Jordan Durham. Sister Willow expresses equal loathing for Durham after his raid of the school. The two begin bonding over Scorpion Ambrosia, a type of beverage not popular on Caprica due to its sulphur taste. Amanda lets slip that she has a few of Zoe's old drawings left in the house stored in Daniel's lab, which could not be seized as the GDD was not allowed there. The ambrosia makes Amanda more impulsive, and she quickly invites Sister Willow into the lab to see them. Sister Willow downloads Daniel's computer data while Amanda talks about how much she hates the U-87 before moving on to the house they used to live in that burnt down when Zoe was five. Amanda understands she is drunk, and wishes her goodbye, thankful she came over.
Joseph Adama obtains CCTV images of Heracles, and asks his secretary, Evelyn, to find the boy, claiming it's for a case.
Keon takes Lacy by motorcycle to the dock house to see Barnabas. Barnabas is a smuggler, and wants to know why he is needed. Lacy explains she had to take something of Zoe's to Gemenon, but can't say why. Barnabas makes her leave, and becomes angry at Keon for letting her visit as she can't reveal important information. He suggests he should tell her how Keon built the bomb Ben used, but quickly calms down and tells him to just find out what the cargo is.
At the Graystone lab, Zoe-A sends Philomon a message as "Rachel" on V-Match.
Act 4[]
Vergis gets a spot on Sarno. The immediate topic is the known rivalries between both the Caprica Buccaneers and Tauron Bulls, and between Graystone Industries and Vergis Corp. Vergis saves face by reinterpreting the fierce competition between him and Daniel as a friendly rivalry, then moving on to how he intends to seek Caprican citizenship, having grown up there as a child refugee. His ratings quickly soar on Caprica.
At the lab, Philomon spots the message from Rachel, and puts on his Holoband to meet her, finally giving Zoe-A an opportunity for the two to meet. Philomon meets "Rachel" in a chat party. When Philomon feels she looks familiar and clicks on, she explains away she modified her avatar to avoid cyberstalkers, then adds credibility by saying the reason she stuck with such a morbid avatar is because she had no more money for avatar upgrades.
Sister Willow lounges back in her home, drawing the ire of Olaf and Nestor for her change in behaviour. Nonetheless, they were successful and have Daniel's computer data.
Daniel is having dreams again of the two men killed, imagining he is one of the men being stabbed to death.
Act 5[]
Evelyn meets up with Joseph, having found the boy he was looking for, Tad Thorean, a North Ridge High School student.
Vergis meets Daniel again, but loses his attempt to buy the team. Daniel mockingly calls him 'toothless', and accused him of gaining citizenship to take the military contract. He reveals his real reasons: Daniel loves Pyramid, and the owning the team was his childhood dream, and so Vergis will take away everything he loves as revenge for his friends' deaths. He offers to buy the team instead for 500 million cubits, again insisting he needs that money for the MCP chip. He ends their meeting on the threat to eventually destroy his company.
Production[]
Writing[]
As it had been some time since the pilot and Tomas Vergis was not around for the previous four episodes, it was decided during production that there be a scene of Vergis discovering the burglary and slaying of two employees. Originally he was to simply meet Daniel Graystone at the museum. This scene was dubbed the "Shark Attack" scene, calling back to the film, Jaws, where there was considerable time between the opening kill the next. Vergis' dialogue was carefully written so as to give the relationship between him and Graystone a Steve Jobs vs. Bill Gates appearance, rather than have him be an out-and-out maniacal villain in the manner of Charles Manson. Eric Stoltz and John Pyper-Ferguson had a good relationship during these sequences.
Directing[]
Tomas Vergis' introduction at the museum, the intended first showing of the character, was directed in a way that his face be largely seen from the rear-side. Several sequences were performed where Graystone both witnesses two men be slashed to death with knives, along with a POV of Graystone being killed - filmed by swinging knives at a Canon SLR - to explain Graystone's guilt at the deaths. This did however lead to issues where his involvement in the death could be seen as him literally being there, which a viewer who missed the pilot may think.
Design/Effects/Music/Editing[]
Bear McCreary made sure to differentiate the Caprican and Tauron characters by music. Graystone's scenes involves classical music, while Tauron was to sound more ethnic in variety. V-World also had retro-tech music calling back to films like Blade Runner. McCreary had problems composing the final Vergis scene as they have tense dialogue that is kept as subtext.
The Barnabas scenes and the sequence of Philomon underperforming on a dating app were originally intended for There is Another Sky. At the time of production, the studio expected the main characters to each get their own focus in every episode, but this caused serious problems of coherency from an editing standpoint. It was decided halfway through Season 1.0 that it no longer be the case, and the first five episodes after the pilot were edited to re-order these scenes, giving some episodes virtually no focus on main characters.
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 |
| Polly Walker | Clarice Willow |
| Scott Porter | Nestor |
| Patton Oswalt | Baxter Sarno |
| John Pyper-Ferguson | Tomas Vergis |
| James Marsters | Barnabas Greeley |
| Alex Arsenault | Philo |
| Sina Najafi | Willie Adama |
| Hiro Kanagawa | Cyrus Xander |
| Jim Thomson | Serge (voice) |
| Liam Sproule | Keon |
| Feguins Toussaint | Bodyguard Sean |
| Panou | Olaf |
| Teryl Rothery | Evelyn |
| Erica Carroll | Woman |
| D. Harlan Cutshall | Man |
Sources[]
External links[]
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