﻿ Caprica: The Imperfections of Memory

For the Adherent of Pop Culture

Episode Studies by Clayton Barr
enik1138 at popapostle dot com
Caprica: The Imperfections of Memory "The Imperfections of Memory"
TV episode
Written by Matthew B. Roberts
Directed by Wayne Rose


Amanda fears for her sanity while Daniel and Joseph get closer to finding the avatars of their dead daughters.


Read the synopsis of this episode at the Battlestar Wiki site.


Didja Notice?

This episode reveals that Amanda spent time in the Delphi Convalescent Institute, a mental institution, after the death of her brother years ago. (The Institute later appears in the BSG2000 episode "The Farm", now used by the Cylons as an experimental facility on human subjects.) An envelope seen at 2:20 on the DVD shows the institute's address as 45 Terreo Avenue, Delphi, Caprica D5287I. We also see that the envelope above is addressed to the Graystone Foundation, 5520 Via Appia, Suite 100, Caprica City, (Caprica) C2908P. We can see here that the Caprican equivalent of a zip code contains four numbers bridged by two letters; the front letter may represent the city's name since the Delphi zip begins with D and the Caprica City zip with C.


Clarice's husband Olaf, states that he and Nestor have found from their examination of the swipe drive that the Zoe avatar program was once on the Graystone computer, but is not now because it was "downloaded" to another device. But electronic data doesn't just off of one device just because it was downloaded by another; it just copies data from one device to another, so the original data is still on the source drive. We might argue that Daniel Graystone deliberately erased the avatar program to prevent anyone else from finding it.


At 3:42 on the DVD, a small truck identifies the men who are removing the items from the Mag Lev memorial as workers for Gideon Enterprises.


At 4:46 on the DVD, Amanda and Clarice are parked just off of Jervis Street. This is an actual street in Vancouver, where the series was shot.


At 7:48 on the DVD, a store called Lenny's, selling foam rubber products is visible across the street. I have not been able to confirm whether this is an actual business in the Vancouver area where the series was shot.


    At 10:20 on the DVD, Amanda is looking at the cell phone photos she attempted to snap of the man who appeared to be her dead brother, Darius, at the memorial wall. The images all come out blurred, presumably due to her having to react and snap the pictures so quickly. But the photo seen at this moment does show a blurred face that corresponds to the man she saw earlier, even though that man had seemed to vanish and reappear elsewhere at virtually impossible split seconds throughout the episode. We are led to believe by the end of the episode (and subsequent episodes) that Amanda had hallucinated him, just as she had years ago in her youth when he died in a car accident. So, if he was an hallucination, how is it her camera seems to have picked up at least one blurred image of him? Was it a real person she saw at that moment whom she merely imagined to be her brother? The question is probably best answered by the fact that this particular subplot (as revealed in the episode podcast commentary) was originally written and shot as Vergis using a lookalike of Amanda's brother to pop up around her off and on in order to make her question her sanity as part of his plot to destroy everything her husband, Daniel, loves, including her. The Vergis angle of the plotline was dropped in editing, making Darius' appearances actual hallucinations on Amanda's part. The filmed scene of Vergis with the lookalike is available in the deleted scenes of this episode on the DVD.
   Another possibility is that Amanda is seeing a Messenger version of Darius, the way Baltar and Caprica Six (and others) see in episodes of BSG2000. At times, a Messenger will seem to "inhabit" the body of another individual in order to appear to the chosen target, possibly explaining the blurred photo of someone as well. If this Darius can be interpreted as a Messenger, what is his purpose in appearing to Amanda? And were her earlier visions of him years ago also this Messenger?


At 13:21 on the DVD, Amanda sees an advertising poster for the Caprica City Museum of Contemporary Art. This is the first mention of that museum in the series. The other poster partly visible in this shot is for a tour of the Vancouver rock band Electrosensual.


At 14:43 on the DVD, a billboard ad for Lethe beer is seen in New Cap City. Lethe is the brand Joseph was drinking in "Gravedancing".


At 14:50 on the DVD, Mabel's Fry Shack is seen in the background in New Cap City.


Heracles mentions Vinagro which, from the context of his statement, seems to be the Caprican equivalent of Viagra, a drug for treating erectile dysfunction. Later, we also see that Vinagro is a sponsor of the Caprica City Buccaneers (Vinagro's slogan is: "Making the game last longer...")


Clarice and Amanda share a bottle of Scorpion Marsh Genuine Ambrosia. Presumably, this is a brand made on Scorpia.


At 19:11 on the DVD, we see a number of Caprican television channels as they flick through quickly, showing: a commercial for VMatch.cap, the same online dating website of which Philo is a member; a current events talk show called Rhetoric; the CSN channel selling a limited edition Graystone Industries OS9 Holoband (CSN probably stands for Caprica Shopping Network).


In this episode, we see the Buccaneers play a team the announcer calls the Centaurs. But the television broadcast of the game seen 27:32 on the DVD has a score display calling the team Stallions. We never learn here what colony/city the team represents, but the Battlestar Wiki identifies them as the Olympia Stallions from Tauron


In this episode, we get our first clear look at a Caprican Viper (we get some quick glimpses in "There is Another Sky"), a jet fighter designed only for atmospheric flight and precursor to the more well-known space fighter Vipers used during the Cylon War and by the rag-tag fleet after the fall of the Twelve Colonies. Oddly, notice that these Vipers have a pentagonal symbol painted on the fuselage, similar to the one later used by the Cylons.


The CAF seen painted on the tail of the Vipers at 24:03 on the DVD likely stands for Caprica Air Force.


At 24:34 on the DVD, we see Jack's Storage in the background in New Cap City. At 24:46, we see Bud's Bar and McAnn Shoes. Big Ted's Pawn Shop and Murphy's Pub are also seen seconds later. "McAnn Shoes" is probably a play on the real world shoe retailer called Thom McAn from 1922 into the 1990s (Sears now owns the brand name, but the Thom McAn stores have all closed).


At 27:52 on the DVD, it's obvious that the actor portraying Philo (Alex Arsenault) has a pierced left ear (and later his right ear is seen to be pierced as well).


At 31:50 on the DVD, Daniel's piano appears to have a Lierberman brand name on it. 


At 34:02 on the DVD, graffiti on a wall in New Cap City reads, "This is not me, it's just my body vehicle." This could be interpreted as both a reference to the avatars in the game and to the concept of an everlasting soul after the death of the body in the real world.


At Dive, Amanda asks Clarice if she knows the old saying, "All of this has happened before and all of it will happen again." This line will become a prominent motif in BSG2000, attributed to the Kobolian prophet Pythia. The line is a paraphrase of the introductory monologue of the 1953 animated Disney film version of Peter Pan.


This episode introduces Emmanuelle, whom Joseph meets in New Cap City. She is later revealed to be the avatar of his assistant, Evelyn, in "End of Line".


Emmanuelle tells Joseph that Heracles referred to him as a "cube". This is probably the same as being called a "square" in our world; a socially ignorant person.


Notes from The Caprican


The article "EXCLUSIVE: Interview with the C-Bucs' Kevin Kovat" features the pyramid player whom Amanda says in this episode "is pathetic this season."


In the article "The Dive: A Place to Hide", reviewer Lauren Hill remarks that she thinks she even saw a woman of the cloth in a corner booth there. This is likely intended as a reference to Sister Clarice's frequent visits to the establishment as seen in several episodes of the series.


The article "Top 5 Best V-Match Dates!" mentions the flight simulator date experienced by Zoe/Rachel and Philomon in this episode.


The article "Pantheon Bridge Getting New Safety Measures" foreshadows Amanda's attempt to commit suicide by jumping from the bridge in "End of Line".


The article "Vergis and Graystone: The Plot Thickens" implies that the pyramid teams the Caprica City Buccaneers and Tauron Bulls have a classic, almost mythical, rivalry.


Notes from the podcast on the DVD


The shots of Zoe's Viper cockpit controls in the flight simulation were borrowed from the BSG2000 episode "Maelstrom".


Memorable Dialog

she looked me right in my eye.wav
what kind of world is that?.wav
you are such a geek.wav
that's really hot.wav
all of this has happened before.wav
which god?.wav

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