Binging just now, five years later, on CAPRICA I found this episode notable in relying on an excellent plot twist (in the Adamas' back story) which worked well and has been repeated in other series, notably a key element of the current TYRANT show.
It turns out that violent Sam was a weakling when they were kids, and it was brother Joe who pulled the trigger during the deadly interrogation of their father in a key flashback sequence. Similarly, the tyrant brother in TYRANT was not the one who mercilessly executed a guy in flashback but rather his L.A.-transplant brother, the star of that show who got up the gumption to pull the trigger, at daddy's behest.
The similarity (beyond obvious differences) of these two series' flashback reveals is striking - anyone who has watched both shows will note it. In the case of this CAPRICA episode, the realism and hard-to-watch horror of the kids' traumatic flashback is perhaps my favorite segment in the series, especially as these 1.5 season episodes went downhill fast en route to the extremely disappointing "wrap it up" final 5 minutes of "future" exposition scenes that conclude the canceled show.
It turns out that violent Sam was a weakling when they were kids, and it was brother Joe who pulled the trigger during the deadly interrogation of their father in a key flashback sequence. Similarly, the tyrant brother in TYRANT was not the one who mercilessly executed a guy in flashback but rather his L.A.-transplant brother, the star of that show who got up the gumption to pull the trigger, at daddy's behest.
The similarity (beyond obvious differences) of these two series' flashback reveals is striking - anyone who has watched both shows will note it. In the case of this CAPRICA episode, the realism and hard-to-watch horror of the kids' traumatic flashback is perhaps my favorite segment in the series, especially as these 1.5 season episodes went downhill fast en route to the extremely disappointing "wrap it up" final 5 minutes of "future" exposition scenes that conclude the canceled show.