[identity profile] chavalah.livejournal.com posting in [community profile] scifi_rewatch
I probably like (even love) this episode more than most of the fandom. It’s the first Chiana-centric one since she arrived in “Nerve.” We get some interesting backstory, and some great character beats between Chiana and John, Chiana and Aeryn and John and Aeryn.

That being said, when you write the episode about the teenage species of space, it’s always going to look at least a little ridiculous. :P They were interesting, though, for how they reflected Chiana’s views of life. Ultimately the weakest parts were Rygel’s bits, in a B story that was predictable, hokey and didn’t add anything to the over-arching story.


Summary:
A disoriented-looking Chiana stumbles around the ship. She finds John tinkering with (and getting shocked by) the navigation system, which Pilot has let him play with for some reason. Chiana is obviously distressed but a preoccupied John brushes her off when she tries to talk.

Alone in the maintenance bay, Chi picks up a power tool and cuts a hole through her abdomen! She cries out a little in pain, then removes a disk from inside her body. The middle is blinking rhythmically, but then it stops and dies out. The music swells as Chiana whispers “Nerri,” stands quietly for a moment and then bangs the top off of a DRD in a sudden fit of anger.

Cue to the prowler leaving Moya and Aeryn yelling “that little tralk!” Chiana is AFK with the Peacekeeper vessel. The crew is mobilizing, and D’argo and Zhaan have found the disk in the maintenance bay. They identify it as a life disk that is no longer functioning, aka the person Chiana was connected to is dead. John immediately realizes what he did earlier, and is remorseful.

Meanwhile, Chiana has landed the prowler on a decrepit-looking planet that flashes with yellow lightning. She’s trying to egg herself forward, but she keeps seeing threatening-looking people behind stone structures. A few finally converge on her and push her into a wall; one has a knife! Chiana screams.

Later, John, Aeryn and Rygel have tracked Chi to said planet, which Ryg identifies as a burial place for dead royalty. Aeryn’s A-OK to take her prowler and return to Moya, but after John finds Chiana’s discarded clothes, he pressures her into looking for her. They find a hatch nearby and climb down, with John’s parting words to Rygel being “don’t rob the graves, Sparky!” Rygel scoffs, then pauses and takes the idea to heart. He immediately yanks open a chest and finds treasure inside; his eyes grow big.

Aeryn and John have reached a series of underground tunnels; they hear what sounds like Chiana in pain! They run…and find Chi suspended, upside down and moaning, as two huge rocks move near her head, creating a force field. She’s now dressed in the pink dreadlocks and leathery-revealy outfit of the folks who live here. Her crewmates immediately suspect torture; Aeryn holds back the dredded-youngsters at pulse rifle point and John goes for Chi. But instead of finding her relieved, she’s pissed that he disturbed her; “no one’s lasted 50 microts on that thing. I had ‘em beat!” As John becomes more firm and paternalistic, Chi brushes him off, ending with a mocking “I don’t have the time.” She stalks off, and leaves the other tunnel-dwellers to marvel over how “ancient” John and Aeryn are. But they mostly sound stoned and wander off. Aeryn’s a bit huffy that she’s been referred to as being “worn out” and doesn’t want to do what John asks—talk to Chi. The Nebari is too angry at John for him to attempt it himself.

The transport goes flying back to Moya with just Rygel and a big bundle inside. He relays to D’argo and Zhaan that John and Aeryn are looking for Chi underground. D’argo follows the Hynerian to his room, suspicious of the bundle, and it indeed turns out to be loot from the planet. “You robbed the dead?” D’argo asks with incredulity. Rygel blows him off, pries a mask off a corpse and then eats a worm protruding from the eye socket. Oh, “Farscape.” :P

Chiana sits by a campfire, drinking, as Aeryn approaches and tosses the disk to her. The girls are acting standoffish, even hostile, but Aeryn turns as Chi admits the disk was linked to her brother, Nerri. She brushes off Aeryn’s condolences and instead tries to get the Peacekeeper to stay with her. Or at least stay for “the Gathering..” apparently it’ll blow their minds.

John, meanwhile, is doing his own reconnaissance. He tries to steady a distressed, wasted young man named Das who mumbles about “the lost people” knowing something. Later, Moya’s crew joins “the clans” for “the Gathering” led by leader, Molnon, at a great pit. Due to Das’s child being born, the clans will celebrate by “taking the stone.” A few folks do a swan dive into the pit as the rest of the group drones. An invisible net is activated before they reach the bottom, so that they don’t crash into the ground but instead land gracefully and alive. Aeryn identifies this as a sonic net, used in PK training. Meanwhile, Das is up next. He kisses his pregnant lover resignedly but when he falls the net doesn’t activate—he’s dead. The clans make a funky statue move. John and Aeryn are repulsed, the clan is neutral, and Chiana wants to try this. :O Later, she meditates with Das’s widow, Vyna, who is pregnant with a see-through belly. Aeryn drags John away before he can drag Chi away. Alone, she tells him that the life disk belonged to Chi’s brother and she’s likely trying to prove that she’s still alive. An increasingly irritated John brushes off the “psych report” and leaves in a huff.

He spies on Chiana with Molnon by Das’s body. She wonders why the leader isn’t mourning his friend, and he tells her their philosophy: don’t live your life by fear. Be liberated like us; take the stone until your final jump. They start making out.

Oh Moya, Ryg is trying to sleep with the mask on his face but finds it difficult with Zhaan chanting in the corner. He tries yelling at her to shut up, but she’s maternal and stern about doing this for his benefit. What if the treasure is protected by a curse? Then it’ll just affect me, Ryg says, but now doesn’t look too happy when Zhaan leaves.

John and Aeryn track down Vyna who’s drinking despite her pregnancy. She brushes off their condolences for Das and tells them that she gave her blessing for Chi to jump when the baby is born. Chiana’s back in the suspension room, creating a sonic force field with the stones, and still not in the mood to talk to John, especially when he’s less than thrilled with her new friends. She jumps down to face him angrily: remember when he told her she could leave Moya at any time? A stone-faced John asks Aeryn to jump in, but the Peacekeeper stands by Chiana making her own choices. Again, John leaves in an angry huff. When Aeryn asks Chi if she’ll jump, she sounds less sure.

John goes looking for Molnon, getting no help from the constantly stoned clansmen. He’s alerted to breathing behind him, and yanks out a veiled woman covered in pus and scars. She’s stunned that he’s old but still alive. She introduces herself as Janixx and explains that at 22 cycles, the clans’s bodies start to decompose like this unless they take the stone in death. The others refer to them as “the lost people,” hint hint. Janixx also confirms that Das might’ve known why this happened to them, but she runs off before John can ask her more questions.

Our human now has a new line of questioning with Molnon, since the leader is obviously close to 22 cycles. But the leader refuses to answer any questions until John eats one of the lobes of a mushroom—three get you high, one gets you dead deal. John relents, and once he’s under the influence Molnon admits that he’s scared of death, aka the stone taking him the next time, so Chiana will jump in his place. John is furious, but also really wasted—drooling, stumbling and blubbering as he promises he’ll tell Chiana. He starts laughing when Molnon taunts him that he won’t remember, and then collapses.

Aeryn finds him on the ground and when she rouses him he’s a little better. He’s pulled some skin off of Janixx, which he asks Aeryn to send to Zhaan for analysis. He stumbles out, and alone begins to play with Aeryn’s PK medical kit. Chiana bursts in, suddenly thrilled to see him. She’s under the impression that Molnon convinced him to let her jump—nope. :P He slams the lid down on the kit and indeed remembers what Molnon told him; he’s using Chi so he won’t have to jump. Chiana brushes it off—she still wants to jump. She and John are at a standstill, her hopeful and him struggling. He finally relents…seemingly…but as he brings his hand up to her face, he injects her with a sedative. She stumbles, stunned and upset, but ultimately succumbs. John hoists her over his shoulders just as Aeryn comes in with a “what the frell” expression. She repeats her psych lesson from before—even if you drag her back to Moya like this, she’ll find another way to kill herself if that’s what she wants. Gotta let her work through it. Resigned, John lays Chiana down on a bed and strokes her face. He and Aeryn end with a brief note on understanding loss.

Rygel’s chilling in his tripped out quarters, decorated with “the blood-stained trophies of my conquests!” but he barely gets the words out of his mouth before an urn suddenly breaks and a bunch of wall hangings fall to the ground, leaving only the mask. Zhaan, meanwhile, has analyzed the tissue—long-range radiation exposure, but the pit is acting as an amplifier. They’d all live longer if they just move to the surface of the planet. She and D’argo briefly discuss the implications with John and Aeryn; after signing off the comms, Rygel rolls in on his thronesled, refusing to be intimidated by his crew members playing tricks on him. Yeah, ok. :P

Vyna is giving birth, meaning Chiana is jumping. Also, Vyna is giving birth alone and in pain cos that’s also what the clans do. She doesn’t care what they’ve learned about the radiation, and in the end asserts that Das wanted to jump. Pft, worn out old people just don’t understand! :P So John goes to the clans at the Gathering, using the “I’m old” angle to try and convince them to move. Molnon laughs it off; he doesn’t want to be ancient and move up to the surface with the tombs. John harshly shushes Chiana, who’s getting pissed and moving slowly towards the edge of the pit; he jumps behind Molnon instead, threatening him until he’s able to finagle a clan vote.

Back in Rygel’s funhouse, the dominar is growing increasingly frightened but belligerent about all of the strange occurances. But when some jeweled darts pin him to the wall he asks Pilot if the transport pod is fixed yet. :P

John catches up with Molnon who claims that the clans voted to keep jumping. He gave Chi a head start; she’s in the pit room now. John punches the clan leader hard in the stomach; he faints and our human stalks off. He finds Chiana, alone. He’s calmer than he’s been with her all episode; he admits that the clans voted to keep dying like this, but why does she want to die? Chiana claims that she never had courage as a kid; Nerri was her rock. John counters that she’s shown him courage many times, but she still asserts that she has to see if she can do this. And if you die? John asks. In response, Chi swan dives from the edge. John rushes forward as she falls, droning like she practiced. The sonic net activates and she falls gracefully to the ground! The music is triumphant as John screams her name. She did it! Chiana is exuberant herself, and ends in a mock statue pose. :P

Moya’s crew is back to the surface of the yellow lightning planet. Aeryn gently prods John about gathering Chiana so they can leave, but John wants to give her more time to grieve. Chiana, close by, is burying the life disk in a shallow grave. John asks Aeryn if he’s seemed “off” to her lately (the mushrooms made him feel wonky, perhaps,) but the former PK just takes it as a joke. Aeryn diverts her attention to Rygel, who’s busy dumping all of his treasure back where he found it. Chop chop! John approaches Chiana and kneels behind her. She gently mocks the situation by calling him “old man” and he responds tenderly by calling her “little girl.” In response to his query if she’s ok, she laughs softly and says he should’ve tried the jump; it was incredible. Nah, too old, John replies. :P He puts his hands over hers and tells her it’s time to go. Yeah… “let’s get out of this dead place,” Chiana agrees. They walk back to the transport and make the mock statue poses.

Thoughts:
On a macro level, I give props to “Farscape” for exploring loss and grieving in such a relatable way. It’s a huge strength of the series that they are able to prod these issues with such emotional depth while remaining true to the characters they’ve created.

I really love the relationship between John and Chiana. By my icon, I guess you’re telling that I always have. :P He was the first person, after all, to reach out to her on Moya. It’s true that D’argo and Chiana have slowly developed their own thing, but it’s nothing like what she has with John at this point. I love John’s protective streak, even if it can be disturbingly paternalistic. (Hypocritically, I loved the use of the nicknames. :P Was very touching for that final scene.) Part of me always thought of this episode as John and Aeryn as Parents, even, but I think that beyond that, this exemplifies how the human and the sebacean respond to personal crises. John is exceptionally protective, especially when he’s guilty about blowing off a grieving friend, say, but Aeryn is more hands off, realizing that folks need to work through their issues on their own. Eventually, John came around to that in this instance.

Loved Aeryn and Chiana, too. They’re not friends—in fact they’re often at extreme odds. But it was nice to see Aeryn step up and give her best when her crew member was in need. Speaks to her loyalty to the unit, of course. And it’s much better girl bonding than the last episode. :P


Chiana is my favorite character, so this ep was great in getting part of her backstory, seeing some of her vulnerabilities, and amplifying her “devil may care” teenage antics, which speak to her desires to live loud and independent. I know her mourning over Nerri has a bit to do with this, but it’s also good to remember that her people, who wanted to brainwash her, are known for their passive, mindless group-think behavior. Chiana is basically the antithesis of the society that tried to claim her. Gigi Edgley also had good chemistry with the actor playing Molnon, so I bought all that teen sexuality. :P Gigi, in general, just nailed the emotional beats of this episode, as did Ben Browder and Claudia Black. Even the clansmembers, if ridiculous, seemed believable to me. Not to get too deep about this, but the broader culture made sense as a suicide cult populated by stoned teenagers. :P In general, many cultures are slow to change; they like their rituals. And at least we can all make fun of the statue pose.

I’ll just touch briefly on the Rygel subplot to say that yeah, it had a few chuckle-worthy moments, but it didn’t teach us anything new—we already knew Rygel was a greedy hound. The random mask curse is nothing more than a plot device. After listening to the ScapeCast, I agree and wish that they’d spent the B storyline this ep talking about something a bit more relevant—like where is the crew as a unit at this point? We didn’t even see Pilot this ep. Does everyone want to save Chiana? (What is D’argo thinking? :P) Where do they plan to go next?

Finally, is John “a little off,” like he asked Aeryn? He did brush Chiana off, at first, but as folks on the ScapeCast extrapolated, he’s still human. He’s a good guy who cares deeply for his friends, but he still has flaws. Everyone has a bad day or misinterprets something important from time to time. Like I’ve mentioned before, he’s also in his cynical, spiky hair phase after getting his ass handed to him in season one. :P But what about the mushroom, and how he escaped that situation so unscathed (even remembering what Molnon told him?) I guess you’ll have to wait to find out! :P /spoiler tease

Favorite Quotes:

*John, Aeryn and Rygel arrive on the cemetery planet*
John: So this entire planet's covered in graves?

Rygel: It's a Royal Cemetery Planet. Haven't you ever seen one?

John: Nope. CHIANA!

Rygel: Well, where did you bury your leaders on Erp?

John: Just underground. Chiana!

Rygel: Next to where you lived? That's disgusting!

*After giving Aeryn the disk and sending her off to talk to Chiana*
John: If you find Chiana, show her this. Ask her about it.

Aeryn: Ask her yourself.

John: Aeryn - she's pissed at me. And try not to be too angry about the Prowler. Be nice.

Aeryn: I'm not good at nice.

John: Just don't shoot her.

*Chiana tries to win Aeryn over*
Chiana: Hey I - . I gotta show you around this place. You know what they do if they want you to stay? They make you run through these-these, these rings of fire, like, um, naked. Totally naked. And, once you go through that, you, you go into the sonic call. That's where I just was. Your whole body, it vibrates! It's... You got to try it.

Aeryn: I think you had a little bit too much to drink.

Chiana: Don't be like Crichton. Come on. Everyone's so lame on Moya. Stay with me. You gotta. Or at least stay for the Gathering.

Aeryn: And what is that?

Chiana: Oh, Molnon says it's the draddest. Says it'll blow my mind.

*Chiana and Molnon on the same wavelength*
Chiana: Your best friend's just died.

Molnon: All die, nixa. But you're frightened of it. Never knowing when it's going to happen. Should I do this? Or do that? Fear, nixa - it overwhelms. Not us. We live. We do what we want. Liberated, 'cos we Take The Stone. The dead jump the last. I know you get it. Stay with us, nixa. Celebrate The Stone. It's the second draddest time.

Chiana: Oh? And what's the draddest? *smoochtime*

*John and Chiana’s argument reaches a climax*
John: All right. Fine. You know what? You made your point, and I'm sorry that I ignored you on the ship. Okay?

Chiana: Crichton! Why I'm here- it's not about you. In case you haven't noticed, I'm not your kid, I'm not your sister, and I'm only your - your TRALK - in your dreams! So please, please, go away!

John: I'm trying to help.

Chiana: I don't want it and I don't need it! I like it here. I like these people.

John: Chiana, you realize that nobody here has a clue? They're nothing but stoned monkeys who jump off a cliff!

Chiana: THEN YOU TELL ME WHAT WE'RE DOING ON MOYA THAT'S SO FRELLIN' WONDERFUL! Tell me that- At least they get to live before they die Crichton. That's what I want to do. You said to me - you said to me, anytime I want to jump ship. Anytime I want to leave. Well... see ya.

*Aeryn walks in on John with unconscious Chiana hoisted over his shoulders*
Aeryn: What-? What are you doing?

John: Oh I think it's pretty self-explanatory.

Aeryn: You're not going anywhere.

John: Yes, I am.

Aeryn: No, you're not.

John: She wants - to jump! She wants - to kill herself!

Aeryn: You can't take her like this.

John: Yes! I can!

Aeryn: No, you can't.

John: I ca- Aeryn! What the hell is wrong with you? You are the PIN-UP GIRL for frontal assault! You should be DRAGGING her back to the ship yourself!

Aeryn: Crichton just listen to me, will you? If Chiana really wants to, she's going to find a way to kill herself. And maybe not here, or now. So you have to let her work through this on her own. You cannot take her back to Moya like this.

John: When did you get so insightful?

Aeryn: I understand loss.

John: So do I.

*Before Chiana’s jump*
Chiana: The Clans voted?

John: Yah.

Chiana: And they're gonna stop jumping?

John: Nope. They voted to keep jumping. They want to die. I just can't believe that you want to die.

Chiana: I never had any courage. As a kid, Nerri gave me everything. I just - I just followed him.

John: You've shown me courage plenty of times.

Chiana: I've gotta see if I can do this, Crichton.

*foreshadowing John/Aeryn moment :P*
John: Lately... Do I seem - a little crazy to you?

Aeryn: What do you mean, "lately"?

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SciFi Rewatch: Recapping Favorite Old Time Shows

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