From what we’ve seen so far, Caprica is at its best when it focuses on just a few quality stories and tells them with meticulous fervour. This can often stand in stark contradiction to the ambitious, sprawling, ever expanding universe Caprica is simultaneously trying to craft.

Episodes like this weeks however, where we essentially only follow the show’s two best plot lines, redeem a lot of mediocrity and remind us why this show is worth keeping up with. By keeping everything grounded, this BSG-spin-off reveals the sky high potential of its pedigree.

As usual, spoilers after the jump.

Right away we are tossed into New Cap City this week as Joseph continues his search for Neo-Tamara. I definitely was intrigued by her whole bending the powers of v-world Matrix shtick, so I was a little disappointed they didn’t actually find her this episode if only to see if she’s learned to harness her powers and become an online Pol Pot. Still, it’s the cliffhanger kind of disappointment you enjoy so I thoroughly will live with that.

I thought the cabaret ringleader cum Pete Wentz impersonator was a bit silly, frankly, especially since he told riddles that had no real consequence to the story. It seems like they just wanted a strange transvestite who told riddles to be in their show because it sounds like a neat idea. In practice, not so much. He could have been replaced by an iPad.

Where are they going with this? To my virtual dictator awesomedom or some sort of more philosophical discourse?

On the other end of the spectrum (I want to say in the real world but that still seems vaguely incorrect in this context), Daniel spends the majority of this episode running tests on the U87 Cylon in order to trick Zoe into revealing herself. He knows she’s in there, but out of sheer stubbornness (which clearly is a genetic trait) he wants her to “come out of the closet,” on her own. Or, you know, because he surrounds her with a ring of fire knowing she has a deep seeded fear of flames. Whatevs.

Although at times these scenes were a bit heavy handed, I thought they were some of the best moments the show has had. Alessandra Torresani and Eric Stoltz really got to show off some acting chops here, with Zoe emoting an awful lot with mere body language and Stoltz going all Nicholson in A Few Good Men.

The relationship between daughter and father is really something else between these two characters, and that’s before even considering she isn’t really even his daughter. Or is she? I don’t know. That kind of defines the show though eh?

Every coin has two sides though — in this episode it was the continuing madness of Amanda Greystone and Sister Clarice. I don’t really know where this is going, nor do I find their strange relationship neither entertaining or believable. It’s like the one short of Elmira in an episode of Tiny Tunes; they don’t work, but the writers keep shoving it in there.

Still, I have a sinking feeling this is just another one of those BSG/Caprica writing scenarios where they have some great idea but only a mediocre journey to explain how we end up there.

You take the outside of the Oreo with the cream right? At least this episode had a hell of a lot of cream. Double stuff that biznatch.

First off, iPad? Ew.

Second, Apple has got itself some phenomenal swag, as the kids say. It created enough buzz with this product launch to render an Obama State of the Union speech all but irrelevant and the kicker? The company describes its own product as magical.

Whaaaaa? Can you imagine if Ford came out with a new car and called it “The most fuel efficient, stylish and magical car in its class”? They would get laughed out of the country. I think the use of that one adjective is going under reported in all this tablet hoop-la, but hey — that’s just me. I’m totally going to call everything I do magical from now on though; be forewarned.

Anyways, as for the iPad itself, my initial reaction was… meh. It’s a giant iPod touch, which may or may not be exciting depending on who you are. The potential of the hardware does make you think though.

If, for example, a university professor somehow found a way to put an entire course syllabus, text book, videos of his lectures immediately after class, powerpoint notes, relevant website links, interesting journal articles and videos (TED videos or whatnot) into an easy to navigate interface, one that allowed for simple bookmarking and note taking… couldn’t a device like this revolutionize the way students learn? Instead of a textbook and a pencil, suddenly you can immerse and navigate all your information in a more tactile manner, plus amendments can be made in real time.

It certainly beats WebCT. I hated that thing.

That same train of thought can naturally be applied to magazines and newspapers. Some may whine that Apple didn’t do enough for print media, but I totally feel it is incumbent on magazines and newspapers to learn how to evolve their content for an entirely new type of medium. Somewhere between a blog, a website and a magazine is a digital publication that has the intimacy of print but the interactive and rich-media experience of a website, mixed with the responsiveness of a blog.

It’s not up to Apple to make that product, but it has created a device which makes that product inherently feasible (if not inevitable).

At first blush, the iPad may not change the world, but it has definitely prodded the technological paradigm in the direction of digital tablets as a medium. Think travel guides, cook books, interactive museum guides with video… the possibilities are endless. The potential for the iPad is enormous, constrained only by the software developed for it.

Considering currently the thing has no multi-tasking capabilities, or even flash, I am unimpressed. But I am intrigued. We may laugh at the stupid name, but in hindsight this might be a more seminal product than we currently realize.