First, I want to say that I loved this episode for many of the same reasons I got hooked on Farscape in the first place: humor, character interaction, interesting ways of problem-solving and no (or very little) gloom and doom. Welcome to Farscape Christopher Wheeler!

Even though most of Moya’s crew still thinks of John as the inept human who’s lost in space – both literally and figuratively – everyone else in the Uncharted Territories has great respect for the man. He’s probably the most wanted “criminal” in the universe so it’s no surprise that bounty hunters are swooping in from every corner of the galaxy hoping to retire on the bounty they collect from turning him over to the Peacekeepers. Except for the Scarrans who want him for themselves.

Enter the Coreeshi bounty hunters. Whoever (Mr. Wheeler? Mr. Elsey?) thought up these guys has a wonderful sense of fun. Not only do they read minds and hear heartbeats, they use the shrink ‘em and store ‘em method of dealing with opponents. This way they keep their enemies close but are safe from attack.

I found it very interesting that there were so many combinations of the crew, and each one of the combos was used to great effect:

D'Argo and Aeryn, the two soldiers, worked together without a word passing between them. Aeryn distracted Axikor while D slurped up the valuable communicator badge with his tongue.

Chiana & Sikozu tried using their strengths against the Coreeshi: Chiana went for seduction while Sikozu tried to think them to death. Neither worked but that’s beside the point. These two and their skills work well together no matter how much they might try to deny it.

D'Argo and Scorpius could be a formidable team – D'Argo has the warrior skills and Scorpy has the cunning. If they ever become true allies, they’ll be difficult to beat.

Rygel and Sikozu: age and youth She kept trying to figure out how the shrinking worked and Rygel cut to the core of the problem, that it didn’t matter if it was impossible, it happened.  She’s smart, he’s wise.

Chiana and Aeryn see things quite differently but they finally seem to be forming a friendship. I loved them rolling around in the beer can with Aeryn yelling “CRICHTON!” and Chiana yelling “Faster!”

John, Scorpius and 1812: what a team! John started the day with a completely different attitude than he had at the end. Now there’s a bit of trust between them. And who knew Scorpy had such a sense of humor? (“How did you survive this far?”)

There’s a new class of Scarrans, a ruling order, whose looks are similar to the other Scarrans we’ve seen but are a bit less horsy. From a practical point of view, if there are Scarran-heavy episodes coming up (and I think there are) the makeup and Creature Shop duties for these guys would be a lot easier to manage. 

Now we’re off to Tormented Space. As Crichton would say, “That’s gonna hurt.” However if this episode is anything to go by, it’ll be a lot of fun, too. Even bad Farscape is good television but when you get an episode like this one where everything works, it’s outstanding.