Farscape Episode 1.16: “A Human Reaction”

[chavalah.livejournal.com]

This episode is an important first on many levels. It’s the first time John goes back to Earth! …kinda. :P It’s also the first time that he meets up with a specific group of aliens who will continue to play a part in his journey in surprising ways…I’ve already spoiled too much.

It also may or may not be the first time that John and Aeryn “get it on” all the way. Apparently, Ben Browder and Claudia Black figured they reached this level in their relationship since “The Flax.” But either way, the J/A shippers are one step closer to heavenly paradise. :P


Moya flies through space and inside, John talks in his tape recorder about how things are so nice and quiet here. Meanwhile, Zhaan and Chiana are arguing. :P Zhaan apparently found her bessom oil in Chi’s chamber, but our new crewmember denies stealing it…then confesses to stealing it, but so what? Someone doesn’t seem to be on board with John’s plan from last ep about fitting in. Anywho, our human watches them from a distance, his thoughts growing maudlin. “I miss the sun. Days, nights, simple things.” But his real reason for talking now is the start of a midlife crisis, as he holds his first gray hair into the camera. “I’m afraid I might be growing old out here,” he confesses.

But there’s no time to linger, as Pilot calls him up to command! They’ve found an anomaly in space—a wormhole! :-O John is suddenly alert, but the others are dismissive of it and generally more interested in protocol on ship—Chiana brings up, anyway, who’s the captain? Does John have the right to stop the ship? Does Rygel have the right to start it? Good questions indeed…but tucked away inside the wormhole, teasing us along with the “Farscape” theme song is EARTH. Real, actual Earth. Ryg and Chi remain unimpressed with our little blue planet, but do we even have a show anymore?

Later, dressed in his orange IASA jumpsuit, John heads off to find Aeryn. His offer to take her with him is on the table, but she’s not so certain. What if she doesn’t belong there? “You would. You will—I promise,” John tries to assure her. But all Aeryn can give back is an “I’m sorry.”

The wormhole, meanwhile, is very unsteady, so John needs to vamoose right now. Zhaan follows him into the maintenance bay talking about how dangerous it is. “You’ve given me every good reason not to go,” John tells her. “I could end up dead. I could end up more lost than I am. You’ve given me every single thing except one.” That one, of course, is the possibility that this could work. And it’s enough for him to try. Still…the crew of Moya has reached a friendly point. No longer are they all escaped prisoners forced in together. John tells her that they’ve all saved his life. Rygel and D’argo enter to say their goodbyes; John tells Big D that he hopes he finds his son, and he tells Rygel that he can have his stuff. :P Feel the love. Zhaan gets a forehead bump, the first step of unity, and Aeryn, standing further out, gets a soft goodbye. Is this it???

The others wait in command while John, in his module, hesitates at the mouth of the wormhole. Zhaan, Pilot and Rygel express varying degrees of exasperation at his lack of action. It takes D’argo to talk some sense into him from the comms—“If you don’t do this now you will regret it forever.” John rips his father’s ring and chain from his neck and holds it as a good luck charm as he goes in. Pilot and the others lose his reading very quickly after that.

John hurtles through the wormhole, still talking to Pilot but receiving no response. He crashes onto Earth with a sonic boom…blinding white light, which gives way to blue. The module is on a beach! John stumbles out, slowly orienting himself, and ends up collapsed on the sand. “Hello, sky!” he cries out jubilantly. Later he catches up with a woman jogging on the beach and asks if this is Australia…convenient, surely, for filming. :P The woman doesn’t respond, her eyes fixed on a point behind him. John turns and sees soldiers approaching, and a helicopter. He eagerly heads towards his fellow humans, but they’re taking aim at him! One guy, Wilson, shoots him in the leg with a tranquilizer. John attempts to run for a few seconds but ends up collapsed on the ground.

Our human slowly regains consciousness in a penned off glass prison room inside a concrete warehouse. E.T.-esque military doctors are prodding him and taking pictures, and he’s now dressed in sweat clothes. Wilson—whom John knows—interrogates him about why he’s here. It becomes clear that Wilson is trying to rule out whether or not John is an alien, though John reminds him that they were in Australia last year to test the Farscape module’s engines. No dice.

Later, they bring in an African man speaking in a foreign dialect; John is exasperated that they’ve wheeled in twelve guys and still don’t believe that the translator microbes aren’t a space virus. When asked what the man said, John responds “I think he said…that until he gets some answers he’s not going to play anymore.” With that, he crosses his arms and recedes into the shadow of his cell. More time passes and there’s a new soldier sitting outside the cell; John knows him, too. He begs for some current information on the world, but Cobb remains mum, except to say Babe Ruth was “some fat guy who played for the Yankees.” OK then. :P

Wilson, meanwhile, is looking over at a sketch artist who is drawing a cartoonish version of Rygel. What alien puppetry is this? :P They’re distracted from their shock by the arrival of…Jack! John’s father! Soldiers are trying to bar Jack’s access but John’s already seen him; both Crichtons yell for each other but they mute John’s audio switch so you can only see him gesticulating wildly. “I want to see my son now!” Jack demands. Wilson attempts to demure that they’re trying to determine if he’s John. But ultimately, Jack’s able to get through. He stands in John’s cell but even he appears wary. While John begs for some sort of release, Jack makes him recount his tenth birthday. It takes awhile for all the details to come out right, but ultimately it fleshes out into Jack almost missing it due to work, but he commandeered a jet and made it anyway. Then they went out for some 4 am fishing where John caught a bass…or a trout, John corrects. Guess he passed the test, and the father and son embrace.

John’s like wtf; this is way beyond procedure here. Jack explains how the wormhole never left after John disappeared, leaving Earth wide open to attack. Response from humans? Well, we’re seeing it! But it looks like John has been cleared enough to go outside with Jack, despite junior’s reticence that Wilson would suddenly be so lenient. Well, turns out there are spies all around them in parked cars and on the beach, so. Wilson is waiting for phase two where John will disclose everything he’s been through since leaving, which John says of course he’ll do! He calms down, though, to give Jack back his ring. “Don’t know if it brought me luck, but it saved my ass.” Jack alludes to what he’s been through these seven months, wondering if John might not be alive. “Well, now you know how I felt every time you went on a mission,” John responds. Time for some therapy here? Or maybe it’s just time to get to work.

It’s a working lunch as John talks around food. :P They have incredible worlds…people…but no chocolate. John gets up to stop some tech from damaging the Moya modifications on the module. He turns to go, but then turns back…has he met this tech before? Yup—he was part of Cobb’s team last year for the Farscape tests. OK then. He knows a lot of people in his recovery team, hm. But we have bigger things to worry about when alarms sound when something else enters through the wormhole! John squints at the television…it’s one of Moya’s shuttles! Don’t shoot! Wilson’s still not sure whether or not the transport poses a threat. During a tense standoff John snarls that there are no weapons aboard and finally Wilson calls off the attack.

Aeryn, Rygel and D’argo are brought into the compound on gurneys—no sign of Chiana or Zhaan; maybe they’re still arguing about mysterious thefts. :P The others now share a cell with John. They explain how Earth disappeared and Aeryn decided get a closer look, but then they got sucked in. Outside the cell we hear what Wilson hears—alien languages, though we also see the subtitles. :P It’s weird to remember so distinctly that these characters actually hear very different things than we do. Meanwhile, Rygel’s looking kinda sick due to the tranquilizer. John interprets that the aliens are scared, and Jack is concerned for sonny boy’s safety as they show their agitation. John explains to his friends that the humans are freaking out. “I vowed I would never be taken prisoner again,” D’argo says tersely. John maintains that he’s not a prisoner and he’s going to take care of them, starting with a doctor for Ryg.

Later Jack and John are sitting in a waiting area and John is growing impatient. Jack implores him to relax, but John can’t even read a current magazine; they’re all seven months old. Are they trying to keep him from the outside world or something? Jack wants to talk about the aliens; “they can help us unlock the universe. You’re positive they’re not here to harm us?” No, says guilty John, they were worried about me. They’re his friends. The Crichtons are suddenly called to the medical unit. Inside, Rygel is propped up on an operating table—dead, his body spliced open as like a science experiment. It’s a stunning, horrific demise for a Hynerian we’ve grown to love!

John storms after Wilson, throwing things and snarling about making a mess of this alien sighting that humans have been waiting for. …I feel like he should be saying something more personal, but then again it’s Rygel? :P Wilson’s response is cool. Later, back in the cell with Aeryn and D’argo, he tells them the “official word” is that Rygel died from an allergic reaction to the tranquilizer. Uh huh. John ultimately admits that he thinks Ryg was killed. “You know those animals killed him!” D’argo fumes. He gets more and more worked up until he tells John he doesn’t trust him and threatens that if the humans come for him he’ll kill them. Can’t say I blame him! “Peacekeepers wouldn’t even kill their prisoners to study them,” is Aeryn’s disgusted response, though somehow I feel she may be blocking out parts of her own history. :P Or maybe I just feel for John…what a homecoming!

Later, outside overlooking the beach again, Jack approaches and says John’s guilt is foolish—he never could have assumed he could protect his friends from this. So John pleads with his father—call every contact, every general, undersecretary and Pentagon mistress, and get the big wigs to put a stop to this. Meanwhile, he’s going to go plead with Wilson. “Son, are you willing to die for those creatures in there?” Jack asks a little incredulously. John responds that he gave them his word.

Inside the operating room, Rygel’s body has thankfully been taken away but on the ground is a knocked out guard! John kneels to inspect him and Aeryn appears behind, a gun to his head. She asks if she killed him and John cautiously answers no. He’s then able to convince her that they’re on the same side so that she’ll lower her gun. “They took D’argo somewhere and when the guard came back for me, I was ready for him,” Aeryn responds, quavering in her explanation on how she escaped the cell. John is now completely on her side. Outside the room they run into Cobb. John translates Aeryn’s clipped Sebacean as “she’d like to kill you.” Apparently with John’s blessing. He demands D’argo’s location and Cobb seems satisfied to report that he’s on his way to another base and his friend can’t save him. Seething, John grabs up his pistol and ID and knocks him out in retribution for Rygel. Aaw.

The ID gets them out into the open, but they’re slowed by Aeryn walking slowly, sticking her tongue out during a rain storm. Apparently she’s never experienced one of these either…really? Aeryn’s coming off a little weak for me on Earth. :P John is also able to use Cobb’s ID to disengage a lock on some housing where he stayed with his father a year ago. Smart…no one will look for you there! *rolls eyes*Aeryn points it out, too, but John is convinced that Jack won’t sell them out. They go inside and look over a rainy Sydney; John calls it “Earth minus the sunshine.” He gets Aeryn a beer, which she babbles about as being similar to Fellip Nectar until a moody John asks her to shush. He apologizes for “everything,” as in more than getting her stuck on a hostile Earth, but back to the day where they met and he took her away from her own world. Aeryn is apparently feeling generous and calls Earth “very beautiful.” But she asserts that she won’t be recaptured. “They will have to kill me if they come to take me tomorrow.” John sighs and sits next to her. His head starts on her shoulder, with his lips moving to her neck and then up her face where they stare longingly at each other before finally moving in for the kiss. Easily the most sexually tense moment of the show thus far.

…but we don’t get to see the aftermath! :P When we catch up with the lovebirds in the morning, John’s stretched out shirtless in bed and Aeryn is wearing baggy man clothes. :P She’s agitated and wants him to get up already so they can get a move on. “Yes, it’s fine, John, it’s just not top priority right now,” is her brusque response to his stuttering about last night. So John gets his act together and decides to give Aeryn some fashion advice. He seems a bit dreamy as our former-PK awkwardly surveys herself in a flowered dress and cardigan. Gotta say; it looks weird! They make it to the front door but immediately take up defensive positions; someone’s there! It’s Jack! John and Aeryn argue briefly about whether or not he’s brought soldiers. Ultimately they let Jack in, but Aeryn, now speaking to us sans translator microbes, wants Daddy searched. With John’s refusal she leaves the gun leveled at Jack’s uncomfortable face. He’s here to say there’s no way people will help him. The official word is that the aliens never existed. Jack is here to make sure they get out of town; he’ll cover their tracks. John gets cold feet; don’t cover for me, Dad! “At least this time I get to say goodbye,” Jack responds; feeling feklempt over here! They share a long look before their farewell. Aeryn follows, then turns in the doorway and says something cautiously in Sebacean. “Thank you, Aeryn Sun,” he responds. A-whaa? Aeryn and I are perplexed!

But no time to dawdle! Walking on the boardwalk Aeryn thinks everyone is staring at her, but John’s starting to think something else. First, he walks into the girl he ran into on the beach the other day. Didn’t they used to go to high school together? He starts pulling magazines off the rack. They’re all still seven months old; wtf? Aeryn tries to calm John down as he grows more agitated; the vendor (most definitely Australian) used to be a neighbor of his in the fifth grade! “I’ve never seen you before in my life,” the vendor persists, but John, loud and defiant is onto something—he knows every single person here, including Aeryn herself! What does that mean? He starts running wildly, identifying people at random, and leaves the humans and Sebacean behind.

John then enters a poker house, maniacally waving his gun at the silent faces all around him. “I know all you guys, don’t I?” He chuckles. “It’s a little out of context, but I know all of you.” The camera stops briefly on some nearby faces; who are these people? John has moved onto the fact that he knows every place he’s been to as well. “Been in there. Nothing new,” he says after kicking in the men’s room door. He’s about to leave when he pauses and looks towards the ladies’. “But I’ve never been in there.” So in true “Farscape” fashion, John realized he’s been duped onto a fake Earth by kicking in a women’s bathroom door and finding a swirling yellow mass inside. :P

John saunters back to the military warehouse, no longer perturbed by the guards or Wilson ordering him to stop and reveal Aeryn. “I’m going to talk to the man in charge and we both know it ain’t you.” Inside, he finds Jack alone and demands to know who he is. The man we saw as Jack tells John that he did well, better than most species. He’s in a physical place that is created from his memories. The only other real people here are Aeryn, D’argo and Rygel; they followed him in. Suddenly, light shines into the former cell where D’argo…and Rygel, too, are waiting! D’argo sounds paternalistic as he tells John it’s time to go home. Rygel asserts that of course he’s not been killed; he’s been given Hynerian marjools to glomp on! Well, ok then. :P Hope Aeryn is feeling as happy where she’s been abandoned, heh.

“Jack” explains that this whole getup was to garner John’s “human reaction” to the way aliens were treated. At the moment, John is preoccupied by something else. He grabs the guy by the shoulder and slams him against a pillar; “you made me believe you were my father!” he roars. “Jack”’s shirt front tears off at that, belying some gooey, alien insides. Yikes. John is even more perturbed, and he steps away. “Jack” apologizes and leads John to a new room where a few aliens are hanging from pods. He doesn’t answer whether or not they’re near Earth, but they’re not far from Moya. He needed to gage how his people would be received on Earth (and what better spy than a father as seen through his sons eyes) before they used their remaining power to make a wormhole to take them there. To take over? John asks cynically. “Cohabitate. Replenish our hive,” “Jack” asserts as John looks at the gently pulsing alien bodies, sad eyes staring up at him (gah, I love Henson. ♥) “The Ancients have stories of a world that will welcome us. We can only hope they’re true.” Obviously humans don’t fit the bill.

John looks around, as suddenly his own pictorial memories are spinning around him like a moving lamp in a child’s bedroom. He says “Jack” stole his memories and demands to see what he really looks like. “Jack” is bathed in light from above and transforms into a skeletal, brown alien. He continues in a deep, male voice that maybe if more people were like him than Wilson or Cobb, the Ancients and the humans could cohabitate. Instead: “the highest life form on the planet is also the most destructive. Your humans would kill us.” John looks up at the chirping hives, finally calm, and asks what “Jack” will do now. Keep searching for a home, the alien responds. John feels obvious kinship: “so will I.” The alien gives back John’s ring from his father; classy move. Maybe we’ll meet again, he says as parting words. Maybe, John responds, and that’s the end of the episode.

…I think in several ways this ep personifies the biggest message of “Farscape,” and not even for super, spoilery reasons that I can’t go into yet! :P Through the eyes of the ancients, humans are shown to be more small-minded and destructive than anything. But at the same time, we (and exemplified through our protagonist, John Crichton,) have amazing capacity for empathy. “Farscape” shoves us into a world where we’re not the smartest or the strongest or most evolved. But that empathy is something precious that should not be ignored.

And on a broader level, “Farscape” is about John looking for a home. And his shippyness with Aeryn. :P

Though if I were to criticize part of this episode, just what did D’argo and Rygel think they went through? Were they not really with John when they were supposedly held hostage by the humans? Did they forget about it at the end? What about poor, abandoned Aeryn? Frankly, I think she was acting the most weird out of all of them (sorry, shippers. :P) But it’s like she was suddenly this naïve creature who’s never seen rain before (pretty sure there will be some rainy planets coming up) and Peacekeepers aren’t as bad as humans when it comes to torture (let’s just take a look at Durka, shall we?) Those parts didn’t strike me as genuine. But the rest of the episode was positively brimming with it. …who here thought John would really make it home before even the end of the first season? :P Heh heh.

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