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scifi_rewatchThis is one of those episodes that looks profoundly different in hindsight. For example, D’argo undergoes a journey of crisis that is very similar to something a romantic partner of his who may or may not be referenced in my icon goes through next season. :P For a largely plot-based episode, it really was mostly about D’argo again—about his dreams, desires and the course of his life. So obviously a fan would have different feelings on that based on where the rest of the show has gone.
Aeryn is perhaps a secondary main character this week—she uses her mind rather than her fighting skills, proving John’s prognosis from the premiere that “you can be more.” We’re also reintroduced to the Peacekeepers—yes, even out here in the Uncharted Territories, the main baddies remain a threat. Just in case one thought this show was getting a little too episodic. Cohesiveness is coming!
John hides in the maintenance bay while D’argo screams his name in a fury. Yikes. A DRD approaches and D’argo knocks it out.
Later, we see that the DRD had been recording D’argo’s onslaught as John looks over the footage with his other crewmates. Luxan hyper-rage, Aeryn explains. Apparently D’argo needs to posture to John as the other male on the ship. “What about Spanky?” John complains. “He knows better,” Rygel replies. :P It’s no matter anymore; “D’argo’s been off the ship for three days, but we couldn’t find you to tell you. You hide very well,” Aeryn continues. He’s taken her prowler to the planet below to lay low, but now it’s time to collect him and continue on their merry way.
So the crew leaves Moya in a transport, touching down on this deserty planet, Skyar, with some impressive CGI of the landing bay. People in red robes are hanging around, and John leads his fellows into a head-banging techno party. He notes that the species looks Sebacean but Aeryn quickly corrects him; they’re manual laborers; distant cousins at best. “Kissing cousins,” John surmises. Kind of like humans and sebaceans. That gets him an offended laugh from Aeryn; “the day they prove that is the day I allow Palvolean meat hounds to tear all the flesh from my bones.” Aeryn may have the best lines this eppy. :P
D’argo is among the headbangers, and he spots John in the crowd. John, understandably, runs but when the Luxan gets near, he pulls the human into a hug. “So great to see you,” he tells a bewildered John as he laughs. John looks very perturbed, which will not be unusual for him on this planet. He brings D’argo back to the rest of the crew, where Aeryn looks outright offended. “Have you been laboring?” she asks her fellow soldier. She’s so classist, that one. But even the others notice that D’argo is a little too chill for normal. D brushes them off; “everything is very right,” he says while making googly-eyes at a red-faced, bright-eyed woman nearby. The hyper-rage is gone, so Aeryn smacks him with something. :P “You’re a warrior; act like one!” D’argo points out that he’s been a prisoner for as long as he’s been a warrior. Plus, it’s nice to be somewhere where “my efforts have purpose.” With that, he allows himself to be dragged away by the ladies. Perhaps being a different species makes him a bit of a hot number. :P Least his complaint from the end of last week is being taken care of!
But he’s not the only one there who’s of a different species! A completely white humanoid alien—white skin, white hair, white clothes—approaches the crew and introduces herself as the leader of the Sykareans, named Volmae. She has the same slow, methodical voice as Matala from the last episode. Anywho. She touches hands with Zhaan, who introduces herself as a Pa’u. John gives her the peace sign. :P Rygel burps. Volmae says D’argo has told her of them, and invites them to stay as long as they want. But when she leaves, Aeryn remarks, “She gives me a woody.” At John’s perturbed expression, she defends her statement—“it’s a human saying I’ve heard you say often when you don’t trust someone or they make you nervous…” “Willies,” John corrects her. “She gives you the willies.” Oh, classic Farscape.
A voice on the telecom tells the partiers to scoot, so they do. Aeryn accosts D’argo in the hallway, but he’s unmoved. John, meanwhile, is shoved into the wall by some chick. “No matter what you hear, you must stay,” the alien hisses. John tries to explain the situation to his female crewmates, but Aeryn is more interested in leaving without D’argo. Whoa. John argues against this. Meanwhile, Rygel is causing a ruckus! Explosions are happening all around his throne sled! He accuses someone of trying to assassinate him, but Aeryn brushes it off; “Nobody here knows you; it’s only the people who know you that want to kill you.” :P Still…troubles. John suggests that Aeryn bring Rygel back to Moya, especially since Sykar gets really hot during the day. Nice continuity. So the crew splits up.
John and Zhaan make their way to D’argo’s quarters, which he’s sharing with one of the ladies. Zhaan maintains that D’argo is being affected by something here, and John implores him to come back with them. D’argo brushes them off as well, more interested in some alone time with the lady friend in his room. :P This leaves John and Zhaan to share accommodations in the main living space. As Zhaan changes clothes behind a screen, John notes that the city is decaying, yet no one seems to care about that. But then bigger problems arise when Zhaan insists that they share the twin sized bed. Which frankly I don’t think should be much of a problem, except that John probably looks on Zhaan as a maternal figure. :P
Oh Moya, explosions are still happening around Rygel. What is up with that? Aeryn approaches him cautiously and flicks a drop of sweat from his brow with her pulse rifle. When it hits the ground, it explodes. Damn. Now that’s a problem.
Zhaan grabs John’s crotch in her sleep, and John uncomfortably removes her hand. Aeryn calls in the nick of time, allowing for John to get up. :P She explains that Rygel’s bodily fluids have become flammable. That’s right. Welcome to “Farscape;” alien sex and exploding body fluids. :P John tells Aeryn she needs to run some tests on him but the former-Peacekeeper is insulted; “I’m not the scientist!” John suggests that she get Pilot to help her. Also isolate Ryg and don’t allow him access to food. Poor Hynerian looks most put out by that stipulation.
In the morning it’s John spooning against Zhaan, but she doesn’t seem to mind. :P I love how free she is with her sexuality—another continuity gesture. D’argo and his lady friend leave for work, which confuses John; weren’t they celebrating last night because the work cycle is over? No, D’argo explains, they were celebrating because this is the last day of work! Um, ok…guess some alien customs are stranger than others. :P So John and Zhaan join them for the day before the rest day. We see folks grabbing food from an assembly line as the intercom intones, “Keep your mind on your task.” Folks are laboring in a field; overseers give them roots to plant. D’argo is among the happy workers.
John finds the girl who accosted him the night before, so he chases her up to a train car. Then suddenly three of her friends pull him in and shove a worm through his belly button! Youch! “They’ll kill you if they know you have the worm,” the old guy hisses. “Eat and the pain will go away.” With that they leap off the moving train while John groans in agony. Later he rolls off in a new location, obviously doubled over and seeing double. :P Following the advice of his captors he eats some food and then falls over as the intercom announcements seem to speed up.
Back in the field, Zhaan is asking D’argo if he’s so sure he wants to settle down so quickly. D’argo still seems confident in his decision, and Zhaan starts eating the root. She recalls how quickly she wanted to become a Pa’u and then admits, laughing, that the work really is fulfilling. Uh-oh! Zhaan’s been turned! I love how subtly they snuck it in there.
Rygel is mummified in cryostasis, which keeps him from excreting fluid…but also makes it easy for Aeryn, say, to snap off some whiskers. :P Pilot coaches Aeryn on what to do next but the former-PK is still freaked by brain work. It actually is a little bit annoying. Suck it up, soldier!
John has somehow made it back to D’argo’s abode where he lies in agony in bed. When his shipmates come in he explains that he’s been puking all day, but neither of them seem to care much. Zhaan tells him that she’s in love with this place now, and John realizes immediately that something is wrong. Snap out of it, he tells her, we have to go now! Zhaan refuses, and takes some proffered red robes from D’argo instead. John almost complains to Zhaan about what happened to him today, but he notices D’argo’s inordinate interest. He backs off, and D’argo goes to get him some new clothes. They’re going back to the club tonight!
Trouble starts anew at the party. The accosting alien puts a weapon to John’s back and leads him to the rest of the worm-party, enjoying drinks. She introduces herself as Tanke and the old man as her father, Hypa. They explain that the worm in his stomach is eating the toxin out of the tannot root—which is what the Sykareans have been planting and eating the whole time. A drug! Tanke, Hypa and the rest in the group are among the few Sykareans who have natural immunity to the root, but they have to fake it or be killed. They send John back off into the wild.
Volmae approaches him, making the peace sign. :P She says he looks handsome in his red clothes, and John acts strung out. :P Compared to the “druggie” ways he starts acting in season two, this is nothing, folks. Volmae offers him food, which he eats. She asks if Aeryn and Rygel will be returning, and John says “Oh yeah. I want them to feel the contentment I feel.” He also confirms that Moya is a cargo ship. And that’s all the plot-buildup that we’re going to get for now!
Back on Moya, Aeryn is still bitching about using science. It’s not fair, Pilot, she whines, it doesn’t come easy to her like it does him. (Sheesh, and you accuse D’argo of acting un-soldierlike? :P) Pilot corrects her assumption; actually, hard science doesn’t come easy to him, either! Yes, he’s bonded to Moya and has access to all of her scientific databases. “But I only understand a fraction of them.” Aeryn is floored. He asks Aeryn to keep his secret; “I feel like I can trust you.” …aaw. There’s a lot more of Aeryn and Pilot’s relationship to come.
Next work day on Sykar, D’argo and Zhaan work side by side with smiles on their faces. John squints up into the sun and puts his hat on; nice continuity.
Aeryn has isolated the problem with Rygel while she looks at his body scan on a screen. She calls it a joint effort but Pilot allows her to have all the glory. “It was me,” she said, as if in a wonder.
John is lugging a bag of tannot root to the train when Aeryn coms him and explains that Rygel had an explosive response to the food. John is amused by Aeryn’s new science know-how as she explains how she flushed his system. But on the planet things have gotten complicated; stay up there and he’ll be in touch. For now he has to ambush Tanke, dragging her inside the train car! He wants to know how to get the worm out. Tanke says that the root was brought here by “the others” who forced them to plant it. Eating it changed most of the population to be docile and submissive. Every half cycles these others come back to collect. They chose Volmae to lead them, but “it could have been any of us;” really? When Volmae is the only different species there? Or maybe she used to look like everyone else, but the worm inside changed her. Damn. Makes me wonder what John might look like after awhile! Anywho. Tanke wants John to take his ship and go find help asap. They need someone to stand with them and fight! This talk is interrupted when one of Tanke’s crew comes in to say that her father is sick. Hypa, in fact, is sitting tired in the fields but is refusing to work anymore. John’s heart goes out to these folks, of course. When he can get to Tanke alone again, she explains that they’re being worked to death as the planet slowly turns into a wasteland where nothing will grow. Hence the desert look. Volmae and the drugged Sykareans don’t seem to care anymore. Tanke remembers a time when her father was a great musician and people came to hear him play. It’s actually a pretty nice image for a throw-away line made by a one-episode alien.
Volmae finds John again at the dance party that night. She takes him on a walk to a warehouse as she keeps grilling him about space travel and his ship. My people “never felt the urge to traverse the heavens,” she says, sounding like she might want to break the cycle. “A ship can be like a home, can’t it?” “It’s nothing compared to this paradise,” John answers, keeping up the gig. But the game’s about to get much harder…they enter a room filled with crates; a room flying with familiar colors. Volmae wants to know if Moya can hold most of this cargo, asking rhetorically, “what do they do with all of this? If it has value for them, then it must have value for others.” Hmm, foreshadowing! And in more ways than one. “Peacekeeper,” John whispers nervously when he’s left alone. Remember those guys? So much for them not entering the Uncharted Territories. The crew of Moya isn’t destined to just have episodic adventures; Crais and his cronies are still in the picture! Gulp.
Aeryn holds a blanket around a shivering, coughing Rygel while telling him to stop complaining. “Peacekeepers are trained only to kill!” he proclaims. “So don’t forget that this Peacekeeper saved your life.” Anywho, John has commed them to say they should get down there, but neither of them know why. They take the transport and Aeryn finds John on the train car. She remarks that he looks terrible. John wants to know where Rygel is and Aeryn responds that he’s hiding in the pod. Wouldn’t blame him if Sykarean food made me excrete explosives, too! :P But that’s not good enough for John; he tells his crewmate to grab the Hynerian and meet him. Aeryn demands to know what’s going on and John says there’s no time. This trend continues for awhile. :P No they can’t grab D’argo and Zhaan and just leave; the situation has become “complicated.” Volmae plans to steal Moya with what’s left of the tannot root. Aeryn says hell no! But what exactly is going on? John snaps that he has a bug “crawling in places where the sun don’t shine” so can’t she just shut up for once and do what she’s told? Aeryn, for her part, doesn’t smack him, but exclaims, “what do you think I’ve been doing on the ship?” They’re such an old married couple. :P This scene drags on for a bit, though.
Volmae comes to John at the night’s party and gets confirmation that Aeryn and Rygel are here to start loading the crates. Now you must bring them to me! She says. But John refuses! Volmae is floored…what happened to the mind control? “I order you!” she says loudly. John stalks off and Volmae, plus a bunch of other people, follow. He joins Aeryn in the hall, putting his arm around her. “We want our friends back.” And in case Volmae missed it the tannot root doesn’t affect him, nope. Aeryn points the rifle: “release them.” D’argo steps up to say his piece: “This is my home now, John. If necessary, I will destroy you.” Time for John to signal Rygel! Rygel, from above, is grunting with exertion. Nothing happens for a little bit while D’argo continues to advance. But then…green explosive piss just in time! Oh “Farscape”…you make me feel like a 10-year-old boy. :P The people scatter, and John explains things from his scientific know-how perspective. The explosive piss comes from the tannot root. Peacekeepers use it to make weapons. Chakra oil for rifles, Aeryn explains, holding hers up. Volmae denies this; no, they say they only use it for food! “And the Peacekeepers never lie, do they, D’argo?” John says pointedly. D’argo looks stunned. Apparently aiding his enemies in weapon-making is enough to wake him up. The planet is dying… John continues. Think you can outrun the Peacekeepers when you don’t have what they want? D’argo concurs that it would be impossible.
Aeryn offers to teach the people how to make chakan oil to fight back. But we have no weapons! Volmae proclaims. We can make some, Hypa steps up. Volmae orders him seized, but no one moves. “If we are to die as a people, let us die fighting,” Hypa says. “The Peacekeepers are in control of me,” Volmae says, clearly still looking for an escape. No they’re not, John replies. “You are. You have the means. What are you going to do about it?” Tough love, man. The people are stunned. Volmae refuses to start work now; “tomorrow is a rest day; a real rest day.” Um…an allusion to the fact that she’s decided to abandon Peacekeeper practice? Doesn’t quite work for me, nor does the strange image of Hypa leaning in front of her. Perhaps I should write it all up to “alien.”
Back on Moya—because they don’t stick around!—Aeryn yanks the worm out of John’s belly button. “Pilot was right; that was easy,” the new Junior Miss Chemistry set, as John called her on the planet, says. :P John whines that it hurt like hell. “Like you have anything to complain about,” says Rygel. He just came out of his second cryostasis. Aeryn “pffts” them off. “Ryg, who does she think she is?” John grumbles. Well, she’s not a scientist, but she’s still “superior,” Aeryn says. Rygel seethes; “if I were warmer, I’d have an appropriately venomous reply. Be warned—I owe you one.” He stalks off on his throne sled.
The childish antics leave with the Hynerian. :P Aeryn admits to John that it was nice to “triumph” using her mind rather than her guns for once. “Doesn’t just have to be this once, Aeryn,” John says, sliding off the bed. Aeryn offers him some advice in return; “Let D’argo come to you when he’s ready.” Warrior advice for a scientist. Seems like the two of them are slowly reaching an understanding.
D’argo looks heartbroken as he commiserates with Zhaan. “Perhaps I’m never destined to be happy.” He thought he found it on Sykar, but the planet turned out to be a dud. He admits that he would have “approached” Zhaan at the next party for some you-know. :P Zhaan says that she would have accepted him. So much for your sexy scenes with John, you player! ;) D’argo goes to sit next to her. When he was a boy, he dreamed of “two lives;” one was to be a “magnificent warrior,” the other was to be “a simple life, a family, children, a garden. I thought I’d found that.” Aaaw. “Those kinds of dreams cannot be found,” Zhaan says. “We have to build them.” Sound advice given to a growing-more-complex Luxan. I love that an episode that starts with him in hyper-rage ends with him sad about missing the chance for a quiet, familial life.
There’s so much character growth in this episode. Aeryn, the soldier, becomes a scientist to save a life (and bonds with Pilot). D’argo, the alpha male, has secret desires for a simple, farming life. Zhaan and John experiment with alien attraction. :P Well, I liked the possibility anyway.
D’argo is a slowly evolving character; last episode we learned that he’s keeping his real reason for imprisonment a secret, and this week we learn of his un-warrior-like desires. Like hyper-rage, heat delirium and Peacekeepers, this factoid will make appearances in the future. “Farscape” is great with continuity that way, and it ties these earlier episodes, which can sometimes be a little too episodic to my tastes, to the bigger picture. I can’t wait to see where we go next!
___
Aeryn is perhaps a secondary main character this week—she uses her mind rather than her fighting skills, proving John’s prognosis from the premiere that “you can be more.” We’re also reintroduced to the Peacekeepers—yes, even out here in the Uncharted Territories, the main baddies remain a threat. Just in case one thought this show was getting a little too episodic. Cohesiveness is coming!
John hides in the maintenance bay while D’argo screams his name in a fury. Yikes. A DRD approaches and D’argo knocks it out.
Later, we see that the DRD had been recording D’argo’s onslaught as John looks over the footage with his other crewmates. Luxan hyper-rage, Aeryn explains. Apparently D’argo needs to posture to John as the other male on the ship. “What about Spanky?” John complains. “He knows better,” Rygel replies. :P It’s no matter anymore; “D’argo’s been off the ship for three days, but we couldn’t find you to tell you. You hide very well,” Aeryn continues. He’s taken her prowler to the planet below to lay low, but now it’s time to collect him and continue on their merry way.
So the crew leaves Moya in a transport, touching down on this deserty planet, Skyar, with some impressive CGI of the landing bay. People in red robes are hanging around, and John leads his fellows into a head-banging techno party. He notes that the species looks Sebacean but Aeryn quickly corrects him; they’re manual laborers; distant cousins at best. “Kissing cousins,” John surmises. Kind of like humans and sebaceans. That gets him an offended laugh from Aeryn; “the day they prove that is the day I allow Palvolean meat hounds to tear all the flesh from my bones.” Aeryn may have the best lines this eppy. :P
D’argo is among the headbangers, and he spots John in the crowd. John, understandably, runs but when the Luxan gets near, he pulls the human into a hug. “So great to see you,” he tells a bewildered John as he laughs. John looks very perturbed, which will not be unusual for him on this planet. He brings D’argo back to the rest of the crew, where Aeryn looks outright offended. “Have you been laboring?” she asks her fellow soldier. She’s so classist, that one. But even the others notice that D’argo is a little too chill for normal. D brushes them off; “everything is very right,” he says while making googly-eyes at a red-faced, bright-eyed woman nearby. The hyper-rage is gone, so Aeryn smacks him with something. :P “You’re a warrior; act like one!” D’argo points out that he’s been a prisoner for as long as he’s been a warrior. Plus, it’s nice to be somewhere where “my efforts have purpose.” With that, he allows himself to be dragged away by the ladies. Perhaps being a different species makes him a bit of a hot number. :P Least his complaint from the end of last week is being taken care of!
But he’s not the only one there who’s of a different species! A completely white humanoid alien—white skin, white hair, white clothes—approaches the crew and introduces herself as the leader of the Sykareans, named Volmae. She has the same slow, methodical voice as Matala from the last episode. Anywho. She touches hands with Zhaan, who introduces herself as a Pa’u. John gives her the peace sign. :P Rygel burps. Volmae says D’argo has told her of them, and invites them to stay as long as they want. But when she leaves, Aeryn remarks, “She gives me a woody.” At John’s perturbed expression, she defends her statement—“it’s a human saying I’ve heard you say often when you don’t trust someone or they make you nervous…” “Willies,” John corrects her. “She gives you the willies.” Oh, classic Farscape.
A voice on the telecom tells the partiers to scoot, so they do. Aeryn accosts D’argo in the hallway, but he’s unmoved. John, meanwhile, is shoved into the wall by some chick. “No matter what you hear, you must stay,” the alien hisses. John tries to explain the situation to his female crewmates, but Aeryn is more interested in leaving without D’argo. Whoa. John argues against this. Meanwhile, Rygel is causing a ruckus! Explosions are happening all around his throne sled! He accuses someone of trying to assassinate him, but Aeryn brushes it off; “Nobody here knows you; it’s only the people who know you that want to kill you.” :P Still…troubles. John suggests that Aeryn bring Rygel back to Moya, especially since Sykar gets really hot during the day. Nice continuity. So the crew splits up.
John and Zhaan make their way to D’argo’s quarters, which he’s sharing with one of the ladies. Zhaan maintains that D’argo is being affected by something here, and John implores him to come back with them. D’argo brushes them off as well, more interested in some alone time with the lady friend in his room. :P This leaves John and Zhaan to share accommodations in the main living space. As Zhaan changes clothes behind a screen, John notes that the city is decaying, yet no one seems to care about that. But then bigger problems arise when Zhaan insists that they share the twin sized bed. Which frankly I don’t think should be much of a problem, except that John probably looks on Zhaan as a maternal figure. :P
Oh Moya, explosions are still happening around Rygel. What is up with that? Aeryn approaches him cautiously and flicks a drop of sweat from his brow with her pulse rifle. When it hits the ground, it explodes. Damn. Now that’s a problem.
Zhaan grabs John’s crotch in her sleep, and John uncomfortably removes her hand. Aeryn calls in the nick of time, allowing for John to get up. :P She explains that Rygel’s bodily fluids have become flammable. That’s right. Welcome to “Farscape;” alien sex and exploding body fluids. :P John tells Aeryn she needs to run some tests on him but the former-Peacekeeper is insulted; “I’m not the scientist!” John suggests that she get Pilot to help her. Also isolate Ryg and don’t allow him access to food. Poor Hynerian looks most put out by that stipulation.
In the morning it’s John spooning against Zhaan, but she doesn’t seem to mind. :P I love how free she is with her sexuality—another continuity gesture. D’argo and his lady friend leave for work, which confuses John; weren’t they celebrating last night because the work cycle is over? No, D’argo explains, they were celebrating because this is the last day of work! Um, ok…guess some alien customs are stranger than others. :P So John and Zhaan join them for the day before the rest day. We see folks grabbing food from an assembly line as the intercom intones, “Keep your mind on your task.” Folks are laboring in a field; overseers give them roots to plant. D’argo is among the happy workers.
John finds the girl who accosted him the night before, so he chases her up to a train car. Then suddenly three of her friends pull him in and shove a worm through his belly button! Youch! “They’ll kill you if they know you have the worm,” the old guy hisses. “Eat and the pain will go away.” With that they leap off the moving train while John groans in agony. Later he rolls off in a new location, obviously doubled over and seeing double. :P Following the advice of his captors he eats some food and then falls over as the intercom announcements seem to speed up.
Back in the field, Zhaan is asking D’argo if he’s so sure he wants to settle down so quickly. D’argo still seems confident in his decision, and Zhaan starts eating the root. She recalls how quickly she wanted to become a Pa’u and then admits, laughing, that the work really is fulfilling. Uh-oh! Zhaan’s been turned! I love how subtly they snuck it in there.
Rygel is mummified in cryostasis, which keeps him from excreting fluid…but also makes it easy for Aeryn, say, to snap off some whiskers. :P Pilot coaches Aeryn on what to do next but the former-PK is still freaked by brain work. It actually is a little bit annoying. Suck it up, soldier!
John has somehow made it back to D’argo’s abode where he lies in agony in bed. When his shipmates come in he explains that he’s been puking all day, but neither of them seem to care much. Zhaan tells him that she’s in love with this place now, and John realizes immediately that something is wrong. Snap out of it, he tells her, we have to go now! Zhaan refuses, and takes some proffered red robes from D’argo instead. John almost complains to Zhaan about what happened to him today, but he notices D’argo’s inordinate interest. He backs off, and D’argo goes to get him some new clothes. They’re going back to the club tonight!
Trouble starts anew at the party. The accosting alien puts a weapon to John’s back and leads him to the rest of the worm-party, enjoying drinks. She introduces herself as Tanke and the old man as her father, Hypa. They explain that the worm in his stomach is eating the toxin out of the tannot root—which is what the Sykareans have been planting and eating the whole time. A drug! Tanke, Hypa and the rest in the group are among the few Sykareans who have natural immunity to the root, but they have to fake it or be killed. They send John back off into the wild.
Volmae approaches him, making the peace sign. :P She says he looks handsome in his red clothes, and John acts strung out. :P Compared to the “druggie” ways he starts acting in season two, this is nothing, folks. Volmae offers him food, which he eats. She asks if Aeryn and Rygel will be returning, and John says “Oh yeah. I want them to feel the contentment I feel.” He also confirms that Moya is a cargo ship. And that’s all the plot-buildup that we’re going to get for now!
Back on Moya, Aeryn is still bitching about using science. It’s not fair, Pilot, she whines, it doesn’t come easy to her like it does him. (Sheesh, and you accuse D’argo of acting un-soldierlike? :P) Pilot corrects her assumption; actually, hard science doesn’t come easy to him, either! Yes, he’s bonded to Moya and has access to all of her scientific databases. “But I only understand a fraction of them.” Aeryn is floored. He asks Aeryn to keep his secret; “I feel like I can trust you.” …aaw. There’s a lot more of Aeryn and Pilot’s relationship to come.
Next work day on Sykar, D’argo and Zhaan work side by side with smiles on their faces. John squints up into the sun and puts his hat on; nice continuity.
Aeryn has isolated the problem with Rygel while she looks at his body scan on a screen. She calls it a joint effort but Pilot allows her to have all the glory. “It was me,” she said, as if in a wonder.
John is lugging a bag of tannot root to the train when Aeryn coms him and explains that Rygel had an explosive response to the food. John is amused by Aeryn’s new science know-how as she explains how she flushed his system. But on the planet things have gotten complicated; stay up there and he’ll be in touch. For now he has to ambush Tanke, dragging her inside the train car! He wants to know how to get the worm out. Tanke says that the root was brought here by “the others” who forced them to plant it. Eating it changed most of the population to be docile and submissive. Every half cycles these others come back to collect. They chose Volmae to lead them, but “it could have been any of us;” really? When Volmae is the only different species there? Or maybe she used to look like everyone else, but the worm inside changed her. Damn. Makes me wonder what John might look like after awhile! Anywho. Tanke wants John to take his ship and go find help asap. They need someone to stand with them and fight! This talk is interrupted when one of Tanke’s crew comes in to say that her father is sick. Hypa, in fact, is sitting tired in the fields but is refusing to work anymore. John’s heart goes out to these folks, of course. When he can get to Tanke alone again, she explains that they’re being worked to death as the planet slowly turns into a wasteland where nothing will grow. Hence the desert look. Volmae and the drugged Sykareans don’t seem to care anymore. Tanke remembers a time when her father was a great musician and people came to hear him play. It’s actually a pretty nice image for a throw-away line made by a one-episode alien.
Volmae finds John again at the dance party that night. She takes him on a walk to a warehouse as she keeps grilling him about space travel and his ship. My people “never felt the urge to traverse the heavens,” she says, sounding like she might want to break the cycle. “A ship can be like a home, can’t it?” “It’s nothing compared to this paradise,” John answers, keeping up the gig. But the game’s about to get much harder…they enter a room filled with crates; a room flying with familiar colors. Volmae wants to know if Moya can hold most of this cargo, asking rhetorically, “what do they do with all of this? If it has value for them, then it must have value for others.” Hmm, foreshadowing! And in more ways than one. “Peacekeeper,” John whispers nervously when he’s left alone. Remember those guys? So much for them not entering the Uncharted Territories. The crew of Moya isn’t destined to just have episodic adventures; Crais and his cronies are still in the picture! Gulp.
Aeryn holds a blanket around a shivering, coughing Rygel while telling him to stop complaining. “Peacekeepers are trained only to kill!” he proclaims. “So don’t forget that this Peacekeeper saved your life.” Anywho, John has commed them to say they should get down there, but neither of them know why. They take the transport and Aeryn finds John on the train car. She remarks that he looks terrible. John wants to know where Rygel is and Aeryn responds that he’s hiding in the pod. Wouldn’t blame him if Sykarean food made me excrete explosives, too! :P But that’s not good enough for John; he tells his crewmate to grab the Hynerian and meet him. Aeryn demands to know what’s going on and John says there’s no time. This trend continues for awhile. :P No they can’t grab D’argo and Zhaan and just leave; the situation has become “complicated.” Volmae plans to steal Moya with what’s left of the tannot root. Aeryn says hell no! But what exactly is going on? John snaps that he has a bug “crawling in places where the sun don’t shine” so can’t she just shut up for once and do what she’s told? Aeryn, for her part, doesn’t smack him, but exclaims, “what do you think I’ve been doing on the ship?” They’re such an old married couple. :P This scene drags on for a bit, though.
Volmae comes to John at the night’s party and gets confirmation that Aeryn and Rygel are here to start loading the crates. Now you must bring them to me! She says. But John refuses! Volmae is floored…what happened to the mind control? “I order you!” she says loudly. John stalks off and Volmae, plus a bunch of other people, follow. He joins Aeryn in the hall, putting his arm around her. “We want our friends back.” And in case Volmae missed it the tannot root doesn’t affect him, nope. Aeryn points the rifle: “release them.” D’argo steps up to say his piece: “This is my home now, John. If necessary, I will destroy you.” Time for John to signal Rygel! Rygel, from above, is grunting with exertion. Nothing happens for a little bit while D’argo continues to advance. But then…green explosive piss just in time! Oh “Farscape”…you make me feel like a 10-year-old boy. :P The people scatter, and John explains things from his scientific know-how perspective. The explosive piss comes from the tannot root. Peacekeepers use it to make weapons. Chakra oil for rifles, Aeryn explains, holding hers up. Volmae denies this; no, they say they only use it for food! “And the Peacekeepers never lie, do they, D’argo?” John says pointedly. D’argo looks stunned. Apparently aiding his enemies in weapon-making is enough to wake him up. The planet is dying… John continues. Think you can outrun the Peacekeepers when you don’t have what they want? D’argo concurs that it would be impossible.
Aeryn offers to teach the people how to make chakan oil to fight back. But we have no weapons! Volmae proclaims. We can make some, Hypa steps up. Volmae orders him seized, but no one moves. “If we are to die as a people, let us die fighting,” Hypa says. “The Peacekeepers are in control of me,” Volmae says, clearly still looking for an escape. No they’re not, John replies. “You are. You have the means. What are you going to do about it?” Tough love, man. The people are stunned. Volmae refuses to start work now; “tomorrow is a rest day; a real rest day.” Um…an allusion to the fact that she’s decided to abandon Peacekeeper practice? Doesn’t quite work for me, nor does the strange image of Hypa leaning in front of her. Perhaps I should write it all up to “alien.”
Back on Moya—because they don’t stick around!—Aeryn yanks the worm out of John’s belly button. “Pilot was right; that was easy,” the new Junior Miss Chemistry set, as John called her on the planet, says. :P John whines that it hurt like hell. “Like you have anything to complain about,” says Rygel. He just came out of his second cryostasis. Aeryn “pffts” them off. “Ryg, who does she think she is?” John grumbles. Well, she’s not a scientist, but she’s still “superior,” Aeryn says. Rygel seethes; “if I were warmer, I’d have an appropriately venomous reply. Be warned—I owe you one.” He stalks off on his throne sled.
The childish antics leave with the Hynerian. :P Aeryn admits to John that it was nice to “triumph” using her mind rather than her guns for once. “Doesn’t just have to be this once, Aeryn,” John says, sliding off the bed. Aeryn offers him some advice in return; “Let D’argo come to you when he’s ready.” Warrior advice for a scientist. Seems like the two of them are slowly reaching an understanding.
D’argo looks heartbroken as he commiserates with Zhaan. “Perhaps I’m never destined to be happy.” He thought he found it on Sykar, but the planet turned out to be a dud. He admits that he would have “approached” Zhaan at the next party for some you-know. :P Zhaan says that she would have accepted him. So much for your sexy scenes with John, you player! ;) D’argo goes to sit next to her. When he was a boy, he dreamed of “two lives;” one was to be a “magnificent warrior,” the other was to be “a simple life, a family, children, a garden. I thought I’d found that.” Aaaw. “Those kinds of dreams cannot be found,” Zhaan says. “We have to build them.” Sound advice given to a growing-more-complex Luxan. I love that an episode that starts with him in hyper-rage ends with him sad about missing the chance for a quiet, familial life.
There’s so much character growth in this episode. Aeryn, the soldier, becomes a scientist to save a life (and bonds with Pilot). D’argo, the alpha male, has secret desires for a simple, farming life. Zhaan and John experiment with alien attraction. :P Well, I liked the possibility anyway.
D’argo is a slowly evolving character; last episode we learned that he’s keeping his real reason for imprisonment a secret, and this week we learn of his un-warrior-like desires. Like hyper-rage, heat delirium and Peacekeepers, this factoid will make appearances in the future. “Farscape” is great with continuity that way, and it ties these earlier episodes, which can sometimes be a little too episodic to my tastes, to the bigger picture. I can’t wait to see where we go next!
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