La Bomba revolves around flowers and lies and Scarrans and bombs, but most of all it centers on power. Power to rule, power to destroy, power over the development of a species and the future of the universe. That’s a huge load for one episode to carry, but La Bomba, in partnership with parts 1 and 2, does a magnificent job.

The episode begins where Hot to Katratzi left off—the rescued Scorpius refuses to be saved. John’s strapped to a bomb that’s rapidly ticking its way to detonation, and Harvey’s back from the “dead.” The Scarrans are holding the crew prisoners (or guests under house arrest) and Scorpy has a lot of ‘splainin’ to do.

The four-way conversation between John and Scorpius, and Harvey and John’s brain is an unusual set-up, but it’s a great way of clearing up much of the deception and lies that have been threaded throughout the season. Back in Promises, the way Scorpius removed Harvey from John’s head had always seemed too easy, especially given the fight Crichton’s twin’s clone put up. Now we know why. He’s just been hanging around his coffin waiting for his resurrection.

Scorpius looks genuinely hurt when John tells him that he really would have left him to the mercy of the Scarrans. Talk about your double standard! Now the new team of “Cadaver and Hutch” will have to work together to destroy the flowers and escape from Katratzi. In this case it seems that Scorpius is the more honorable of the two. Given the chance, Hutch won’t hesitate to leave Cadaver behind.

Grayza seems to think she’s the good guy here. Nope, no ma’am, no way. Even if she really believed she was only looking for peace, her actions tell a different story. Her search for peace is secondary to her real quest—power. She’d take the power without the peace, but not the other way around. The woman is on a power trip and everyone seems to know it but her.

Fortunately, there’s Braca. Braca! Not only does he find honor, he finds a first name! There is no trace of the obsequious little weasel from the past in Captain Miklo Braca, Officer of the Fleet, Peacekeeper Interplanetary Service. When he relieves Grayza of her command he saves thousands of lives on the Carrier. That’s got to win him a whole lot of loyalty from his new crew.

Speaking of women on power trips, we also have Ahkna. Every time Ahkna comes near Crichton, he cringes away from her. Aeryn puts John’s fear in perspective when she says, “It’s the hat,” but her shoes are pretty scary, too. I know I mentioned this before, but Francesca Buller isn’t very tall compared with the rest of the actors on Farscape. Ahkna needs to be imposing or the character would merely look ridiculous. Fran is magnificent in the part—in her hands, Ahkna becomes eight feet tall and mean. Very mean.

Sikozu’s little secret comes out in this episode: she’s a genetically engineered bioloid, a biosynthetic machine, created to kill Scarrans with radiation, which explains the heat-ray thing she did back in Fetal Attraction on the control panel. It also explains why her limbs are re-attachable.

So many threads are tied off this week. We finally find out why Scorpius was drooling over the Bird of Paradise flower in Incubator, why he was torturing Stark in Nerve and The Hidden Memory and why Stark was torturing him. We also know where Stark has been lately. There have been hints at a Chiana and D'Argo reunion so it’s nice to see them together again. And Sikozu and Scorpius seem to be a couple now, too. Ewwww.

Once more, I want to compliment the people behind the scenes. Farscape is a show that relies on more than superb acting and writing and directing. Dave Elsey and the people in the Creature Shop have created a whole species of Scarrans, each one different and recognizable as an individual. The costumes are incredibly imaginative, too, from Ahkna’s hat to Staleek’s crystherium-styled costume.