Rebirth is an episode of the 2009 TV series Caprica. After the pilot, this was the first episode of the regular series filmed in production order, and aired on 29 January 2010.
Plot[]
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The day is Friday 5 Junius 1942, almost a month since the Maglev bombing and two days since Zoe-A was reactivated in U-87 Cylon body. Graystone Industries' defence project has stalled once more in spite of their procurement of Vergis Corp's Meta-Cognitive Processor. Cyrus Xander explains the problem to Dr. Daniel Graystone personally - only the combination of the prototype MCP and the prototype U-87 Greystone worked on at his home result in a successful next-generation battle robot, and any other combination of chip and robot will result in a "moron". The Caprican military is not happy with this, and Graystone has the working prototype sent back to his house for afterhours study. Meanwhile, at the Greystone residence, Dr. Amanada Graystone searches through Zoe's belongings and asks Serge to gather home movies.
At the conclusion of the school day at Athena Academy, Sister Clarice Willow extends an invite to Lacy Rand to drop by her house in the weekend for lunch. She gets a phone call from Zoe-A, who warns her not to trust Clarice or tell anyone about her. Back at the company lab, technicians Philomon and Drew have been assigned to transport the prototype. Zoe-A quickly takes a dim view to Drew, taking his description of her as a tool personally.
Act 1[]
The Graystones attend a high-profile Caprica City Buccaneers game at Atlas Arena as a show of national resilience, though Amanda leaves after the national anthem, preferring to stay at home. Stuck in traffic, Joseph Adama sends an answerphone message to Daniel, having had more time to think about Tamara-A. He realises right after the call that he accidentally drove to Promethia High School, Tamara's school, rather than Wilson Elementary School to pick up Willie. He calls up the school, but finds he already got a life home anyway. Joseph returns embarrassed, saying he was held up at court while Willie correctly guesses he went to Tamara's school, having done so before. Though has not received a message from Daniel yet, he has received an invitation to a memorial event at Apollo Park held by the Graystones on Sunday 7 Junius. He wants nothing to do with the event, and leaves angrily at his mother-in-law's suggestion of going. At Graystone Industries, technicians Drew and Philomon study the U-87 prototype before it is to be shipped to the Graystones'. Philo takes a more artistic approach to the U-87, seeing "her" as a work of art and having it move its arms to test its capability of following orders. Drew is tired of Philo's test, and forcibly straps the U-87 down for loading, and quickly gets on Zoe-A's bad side. Agent Duram arrives at the Graystone house to ask Amanda more questions, particularly over Zoe's relationship with Ben Stark. Amanda is shocked at the revelation that Zoe had a boyfriend, and closes the door on him. Meanwhile, the two techs arrive at the Graystone residence to find the U-87 attempting to escape from the van, forcing Philo to pull the MCP out to shut it down. Putting the MCP back in the U-87, Zoe becomes scared when the Drew tries to repair the chassis with a drill, and rips two of his fingertips off.
Act 2[]
Sam steals from a market
Daniel heads home and takes over work for Drew, who has left for the hospital. He and Philo determine that the MCP diffused some of its functions to the chassis' electronics, explaining why the U-87 prototype is only effective with the MCP in, and not any other combination. After Philo's departure, Daniel continues pondering the connection between Zoe-A and the Cylon, but gives up. When Joseph heads over to the Graystone residence, Daniel refuses his entry. Amanda meanwhile has left the house to ask Lacy questions. Lacy is needed inside by her mother, and can only tell her that Zoe intended to run away to Gemenon to be with a new family.
On the afternoon of Saturday 6 Junius, Lacy goes to Sister Willow's house, which she finds to be full of children and adults, the result of Sister Willow participating in a group marriage with several husbands and wives joined in mutual matrimony, which is a rare but not unheard of arrangement. Sister Willow explains to Lacy the family dynamic, that her husbands are Nestor; Tanner; Olaf and Rashawn, and her wives are Mar-Beth; Helena and Desiree, who the group get their surname from. All are practicing Monotheists with ties to the Soldiers of the One. Clarice and Nestor direct their conversations towards Zoe and computing, making strong implications they are aware of her avatar program. Lacy finishes her lunch and leaves without revealing Zoe-A. The other wives and husbands approach the two; unaware of Zoe's legacy, they mistakenly think the two are planning to marry Lacy and add her to the household.
Meanwhile, Willie begins hanging out with his uncle Sam, who starts showing him the ways of Caprica City's Little Tauron district, where Joseph used to live before becoming a lawyer. Sam explains to Willie the ways of the district, how his ceremonial tattoos identifying him as Ha'la'tha give him respect to the extent shopkeepers will happily let him take food without paying.
Act 3[]
Still out in Little Tauron, Sam gets a business call, then proceeds to pick up a bin and throw it through the window of a shop to intimidate the owner in full witness of the police, who arrest him along with Willie as an accomplice. Subtly teaching him to embrace the Ha'la'tha, Sam instructs Willie to freely allow himself to be arrested rather than face additional charges for fleeing. Sam has more than enough money to pay their fine, and they are back out on the streets quickly. Sam uses this opportunity to teach Willie another lesson, that if someone tries to make him feel guilty he is to immediately bring up something they are guilty of. When Willie gets home, he is chastised by his father, but quickly switches the topic to the poor state of Joseph's household, and how there is no family. After working on the U-87 prototype to no success, Daniel goes to the bedroom to find Amanda watching Zoe's home videos again. He questions why Amanda wants to go to the memorial service, while he is trying to put Zoe in the past. The two then leave the house. When Lacy returns home from Sister Willow's house, she receives another phone call from Zoe-A, telling her to visit the Graystone residence. Zoe-A begins exploring the house inside the robot body, and breaks Zoe's bed, forgetting the weight the chassis has. When Lacy enters the house, she is initially shocked by the robot, but quickly comes to terms with it being her friend. Zoe-A herself finds it difficult coming to terms with it due to the way people behave toward the robot and, thus, her.
Act 4[]
It is Sunday 7 Junius. The Graystones arrive at the memorial service for the victims of the maglev bombing, which Amanda uses as an opportunity to talk to the parents of Zoe's classmates to get answers. There, she meets Ben's mother Natalie, who was well aware of Zoe, unlike Amanda, Ben. Handing over Zoe's possessions that were left in Ben's room, Amanda spots an ouroboros-shaped pendant she recognised in Zoe's home movies. Daniel arrives at the memorial despite his previous refusal, as an opportunity to get to Daniel. Daniel doesn't want to talk about the Avatars, and insists that Tamara-A is gone, despite never having checked. He spots Amanda walking onto the stage, and walks over to her. Amanda is disturbed by the pendant, as the ourboros symbol is used by the Soldiers of the One. Not thinking, she declares Zoe to have been the terrorist responsible for the bombing. The revelations infuriates the guests, who take it out on the parents. The Graystones are then forced to leave the memorial to avoid injury.
Production[]
Rebirth was shot in a three-camera style using digital, with the exception of the opening sequence of the U-87 which involved a lensbaby.[1] In terms of direction, a number of shots were made of ordinary Caprican life to quickly compare viewers with what Caprican life is compared with real life. The first scene recorded for the episode was the scene where Willie and Sam smash a window, which was overseen by production company executives.[1]
In terms of writing, Rebirth was planned out as the first of six episodes in a serial at a writer's retreat organised by Ron D. Moore. It was later decided that they had enough ideas for eight episodes, and Season 1.0 had whole scenes moved between episodes, with the third and fourth episode being made from one script. Rebirth itself, as the first in the regular series, had to introduce audiences to the series as a whole. Contrasting with Battlestar Galactica's Season 4's increasingly bleak tone and the tone of the Pilot, ideas introduced in Rebirth included a more comedic tone in scenes, from jabs at the Caprican similarities to real life, to sight gags of Zoe-A in a party dress seen by everyone else as the U-87. The relationship between Willie Adama had his uncle Joseph was written to be an homage to the film, Goodfellas, while also offering world building for Tauron life. Much of these tones would be dropped after End of Line.[1]
Sources[]
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