Reins of a Waterfall

Season 1, Episode 3, Aired
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8.3
out of 10
EPISODE RATING: Great
210 votes
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Following Amanda's public revelation that their daughter was responsible for the MAGLEV tragedy, the Graystones must face the wrath of angry Capricans. For Daniel, this includes a confrontation with Sam and Joseph Adama, in which Joseph demands that Daniel reunite him with his daughter's avatar. Daniel also realizes he can't deal with his grief in private -- this is all going to play out on a public stage.moreless
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Fan Episode Reviews (8)

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  • Reins of a Waterfall

    10
    "Perfect"
    By TrueTvWatcher, Jan 28, 2012
    Reins of a Waterfall was a really great episode of Battlestar Galactica and I really enjoyed watching this episode because there was a lot of development for the characters and the story lines are really taking shape. It was great to see Lacy learning more about what happened and piece together what is going on. I also thought it was interesting to see Zoe come up with a game plan. Adama tells his brother to make things even between him and Graystone which seemed like a drastic decision after not being able to find his daughters avatar. I liked how Zoe rescued Adama's daughter in the virtual world. I look forward to watching the next episode!!!!!!!!!moreless

  • *** Spoiler-free *** Dead boring and annoying media driven story, poor execution, disastrous writing, no Cylon, intriguing but disappointing Graystone versus Adama, brainless character psychology and questionable young adults acting

    3.0
    "Bad"
    By goa103, Oct 10, 2011
    Even if Rebirth's ending was awkward because of the Graystone mother hokey speech, I was confident that Caprica's third installment would be excellent. Well I was wrong, very wrong. I'm so disappointed by Reins of a Waterfall that I worry about the upcoming episodes quality. Do they plan to mix science-fiction and soap like in Defying Gravity or something ? I mean it was a non-event and the story was dead boring. For once it was directed by one of the three show creators and I think he did a really poor job. As for the writing it was a complete disaster. It was really like watching a completely different show with a low-budget, disjointed arcs and old fashion concept.

    First the Cylon was MIA and the story focused on the after speech events. The Graystone family was trashed on TV but it's one thing to try to avoid it in the real life but when you have to watch a full episode about it well it's just unbearable. I understand that their intention was to make the story intense and to test how strong the characters are but they miserably failed. Graystone 0, Adama 1. Indeed the last family was quite convincing when Daniel and his wife disappointed me. How did they survive so long in such a tainted world ? Yes because hopefully some elements were quite surprising and I wonder how some characters will react or defend themselves. From the on-going investigation to the family collision there should be plenty of elements to nourish the upcoming arcs but now I worry about the execution. But in the end the worst element was probably some characters behavior. Daniel's wife is far too emotional but his more rational profile balances their relationship. However the teacher's game was just too obvious when her approach was far more subtle in Rebirth. I want some heavy and smart character development and not a few breadcrumbs to feed viewers that are not demanding.

    Beside the terrible media part some characters also visited the virtual universe. In my pilot review I already mentionned that I didn't like the club and things got worse. One performer's acting was quite bad and I was also disappointed by Alessandra Torresani. They'll really have to take things to a whole new level to compete with what we have been accustomed to with shows like Dexter and Lost. Even Smallville's performers were better in the first seasons because there were plenty of pros to cover the cons. It's probably the issue with young actors and actresses, they look all pretty but when it comes to acting you get questionable performances. I know it's a harsh comment and that they deserve respect but I'm just puzzled by how things turned. They just weren't able to put the pieces together. What happened ?

    I could spend hours listing the problems I noticed, from the bad lighting to the sharp editing, but I prefer to just forget about it and hope the next episode will be better. The pilot and Rebirth proved Caprica has an overwhelming potential and it's definitely a strong argument to not give up on it because of one poor episode. I could watch it again to better understand what went wrong but I don't want to waste my time. So if you have something more important to do my advice is just to read a quick recap and skip it ! Now I almost regret my spoiler-free policy. Laughing out loud is the only thing I'm left with, and a pencil to scratch the surface of Kaprika.moreless

  • I am confused (spoilers for this and Battlestar Galactica, by the way)

    6.5
    "Fair"
    By noelveiga, May 07, 2011
    I was disappointed by the finale of Galactica. I mean, what a cop out, right? It's all been God's plan from the beginning because technology is a sin and we should all be humping cavemen. Either it is a surprisingly conservative view from a show that scared conservatives away by sheer depth of concept or it is a rather poorly thought out apolitical tone.

    So when Caprica was announced I couldn't care less. Seriously. What's the point? I already know how all the characters end up (building up to intergalactic apocalypse kind of does that to you), I already know it's all God's plan to deprive us of iPods and Caprica's main purpose in the story was always to be nuked to ashes, so how interesting could it be to have an entire show set there?

    And, as the final season of BSG, Caprica is a mixed bag. The ironic perspective on a largely catholic take on monotheism being treated like we treat islam is laid even thicker here, with all the subtlety of a planet-wiping nuclear cylon attack. The ongoing arc about the investigation of the terrorist attack is slow and ultimately pointless, as characters are missing key facts the audience has and the relationship stuff is either shallow or irrelevant.

    But then, it's a show about a teenage girl with delusions of grandeur trapped in the body of a giant robot.

    Only whenever you start enjoying that, the whole warped Hollywood take on Frankenstein kicks in and the show becomes a clich again. It swings like a pendulum. For every interesting notion there is a trite aspect or an inconsistent characterization. Yes, some of the Galactica brilliance is still there, but only in the same way it was there in the final two seasons of BSG. And that, I'm afraid, is not a compliment.

    So yeah, I'm watching now. And yeah, I'm not so bored or annoyed that I'm not willing to follow, but I'm spoiled. I know these guys pulled off something very tough in the early goings of BSG, and watching them wander around trying to reconnect with that without quite getting it right is disappointing, even if what they actually do is of high quality.

    Also, quick tip for setting up sci-fi universes: once you've set up that an actual God exists in your story, it becomes remarkably hard to build up suspense. So don't do it.moreless

  • Caprica's insight into human and political drama is declining in what I assume is a bastardization of Michael Angeli's writing and a failure by Ronald D. Moore, as director, to ensure new head writer Jane Espenson doesn't tarnish the show he created.moreless

    7.5
    "Good"
    By Muldfeld, Oct 07, 2010
    Episode ruined by what I imagine are Jane Espenson's add-ons.

    The main story involving Joseph Adama and the two Graystone parents was very good. Maybe an 8.5.

    However, so many things were poorly written, acted and cliche.

    1. The talk show host is still a terrible idea and poorly acted by Patton Oswalt, who can't act!
    2. Lacy's scenes at school with the kids harassing her were uninteresting. The boy who looked at her funny is a terrible actor! The scene in which she pinned him down and threatened to beat him up was ridiculous and uninteresting.
    3. Sister Clarice continues to bore me, and using that Robotech-style voice for the ultra bad guy was cheesy. This seems a cheap way to avoid her character being blamed for anything. It's like they do on "Lost" by having some hierarchy of greater and greater "evil" as you go up the totem pole, so that when you explore a seemingly bad character, you find out they weren't that responsible, but that someone more important and more "evil" was influencing their actions.

    It's poor writing because it's a moral cop-out. You don't have to go dark enough and examine real issues because the suspected character didn't actually do it. I feel they're doing that with Zoe. Instead of examining why a terrorist would do this through Ben (who is acted poorly as well!), they just avoid the issue because Zoe never intended to kill anyone. I'm not defending blowing up civilians, but I am saying that they should explore the mindset and potential political reasons that might make someone so angry. It's the same reason why we should examine why US soldiers committed atrocities in Vietnam (Mai Lai) or Iraq (Haditha) or the phenomenon of going Columbine. By the way, years ago there was a great documentary by Frontline called "Killer at Thurston High" that showed how much in pain the kid who shot his mother and schoolmates was.
    4. I really liked the bald FBI-type guy, especially in the very good pilot, but here he's not interesting. And his female partner is cliche.
    5. The scenes with William Adama hanging around the mafia guys was boring, as was the gay married couple scene. Just nothing to it.
    6. Luciana Carro is not a very good actress and she shouldn't have been cast.

    The good stuff again involved the Adama parents. It was kinda neat seeing Zoe pressure Lacy to help her, but it felt a bit uninteresting, dialogue-wise. I really liked the idea of Zoe implying that Adama's daughter was some kind of avatar her dad had sex with; very creepy. I really liked the scene between the judge and Adama. I loved the ending in which Adama shocked the heck out of me in wanting the female medical doctor Graystone killed.

    I know Michael Angeli is an amazing writer and so is Ronald D. Moore, which makes me heavily suspect that Angeli's script was severely altered and Moore didn't bother to rewrite it. Espenson is ruining this show fast! And to be fair, Ron Moore didn't cast this thing very well or make very good artistic decisions.

    7.7 out of 10

    (I should emphasize that only the rarest of shows get 10 -- only the absolute best episodes of The X-Files ("Talitha Cumi", "Paper Hearts", "Redux II", etc.), Battlestar Galactica ("Pegasus","Lay Down Your Burdens", "Occupation"/"Precipice") and Deep Space Nine ("In the Pale Moonlight"). I would give the best story of The 4400 to date, "Terrible Swift Sword"/"Fifty Fifty," around 9.0, and I really loved that.)moreless

  • It was slow and boring this week.

    6.0
    "Fair"
    By bcagen, Oct 07, 2010
    Agree with the previous reviewer that Patton Oswalt is a very bad addition to the show. I am dreading Graystone appearing his character's talk-show. Cringe.

    The premise involving Zoe's avatar, Tamara's avatar still doesn't make sense. Show needs more action. There is too much talking about what happened, what will happen, without much actually happening. Also, none of the elements have much connection to the main plot : Sam telling William to skip school, Joseph buying off judges, William being told to be proud of this heritage, those scenes with the cop, that lady cop and their supervisor. Fleshing out the characters and the universe is fine, but they have to be connected to the main storyline.

    Not much else to say because not much happened this episode...

    Oh, why was Zoe's avatar eating a sandwich? Why make Sam gay It doesn't add anything to the character.moreless
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