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This gem starts with the crew,
squeezed into the confines of D'Argo's ship, having finally found
Moya. On their approach, of course, the first question John asks
Pilot is to explain what happened to Moya after she got sucked
through the wormhole. Pilot's answer doesn't instill them with
confidence, making them think they're heading into a trap. Which is
sort of true. It's more the metaphysical kind that offends your
predisposed assumptions about the Farscape characters you've come to
rely upon. (This is actually a good thing.)
You've seen the previews: A wary
John ventures into the Leviathan. He pulls a pulse gun on a figure
dressed black. It's Aeryn Sun, suffering from heat delirium. And
here's the not so surprising part: Scorpius (the turd that won't
flush) is on board with her. He came to her rescue, fitting her with
a coolant suit eerily similar to his own (Miss Black is a gorgeous
woman, but even she couldn't make a face thong work.) to save her
from the Living Death.
In exchange for his help, Aeryn
granted Scorpius asylum on Moya and drags a promise out of a
hurt/enraged/betrayed John to not harm her savior. So, insults,
sneers and sarcastic comments notwithstanding, the crew humor
Aeryn's request and place Scorpy in protective custody. (I'm rather
curious about the set used here. It's a room of Moya we've not seen
before. Although she is filled with holding cells, this one appears
to be quite different from the ones we have seen her crew use as
quarters.)
Quicker than you can say crispy
grolack a big mother of a ship appears. The pilot demands that the
"assassin" Aeryn Sun release the identity of her
"conspirators" in exchange for her only chance at a cure
for illness. Our Miss Sun's been busy and is really tight-lipped
about her actions since John has seen her last. But later we learn
that she contracted this illness after killing a rather prominent
member of this alien's government. She refuses to make a deal with
the aliens.
Now it wouldn't be an episode of
Farscape without offering more complications. While all this
angst-ridden merriment is going on, Commandant Cleavage and her pet
Braca are zeroing in on Moya's whereabouts. They've made a weapon
capable of killing the Leviathan while rendering the occupants
unharmed. It's such a powerful horrifying weapon, that you know it's
doomed to failure.
Scorpius learns of this from a
spy he has on the carrier and warns John. In an act of good faith,
Scorpius administers the cure that relieves John of the neural
clone. He is finally free of Harvey. (I dug Harvey, but that bit was
getting a little old.)
They hatch a plan (Don't
cringe… this one works.) to hustle the alien for Aeryn's cure and
then split before the PKs arrive. John and D'Argo bring Aeryn to the
alien ship that turns out to be mostly holographic. After Aeryn
receives the cure, they overpower the crew. Sputnik gets to employ
that superior intellect she's always on about to produce a
holographic Moya from the alien ship to confuse the PKs and their
incongruously less-menacing-more-cartoon-looking missile. The
prowler armed with the missile is piloted by Braca, (because he
personally had to make sure he screwed this one up). He targets the
fake Moya and the real one powers up and starbursts away to safety.
Out of a sense of obligation I'm
going to get to the baby part, although, to be honest, I was so
thoroughly enthralled with this ep, I forgot all about it. Aeryn is
supposedly or was supposedly pregnant with Talyn-John's child. When
John finally confronts her about it. Aeryn says nothing. And I've
got the feeling it's going to be a long time before we see any sort
of answer. TPTB love to torture you that way.
In an interview, one of the
Farscape producers described a certain way of thinking of each new
episode of Farscape, drawing an analogy to Christmas presents. To
paraphrase, sometimes you get an ugly sweater and sometimes you get
the cool present: you get a bike. Kids, this week we had a bike
waiting under the tree. It delivered on so many levels that maybe
this is just too simple a comparison. This was a ten speed bike with
a light and maybe a mounted ray gun. AmyJ
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