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Farscape: Promises

And now, on Farscape…

Aeryn, John, and the entire crew of Moya are together, once again. Aeryn is glowing as she is embraced by her happy comrades… okay, I’m lying. The truth is far more dark and complicated. It’s Farscape, after all.

My hopeful wishes for a sweet and emotional reunion for our star-tossed crew are quickly dashed when Aeryn is first seen on Moya. She looks terrible! She’s dressed in a shiny black suit, her hair is stringy and flat, and she looks exhausted. It’s really upsetting to see Aeryn like that. Instead of the fierce warrior that we are used to seeing, she looks like a Scuba Barbie doll that’s been left on the beach for a week. I'm not liking what I’ve seen so far, but it’s about to get a lot worse.

Scorpius, who is supposed to be dead and buried, comes into view. Aeryn says that he saved her, that she has promised him that he won’t be harmed, and that she will leave the ship if that happens. She makes John promise not to harm him. I want Aeryn to promise me that this nightmare will be over soon. Guess what? It isn’t. The next time that we see John and Aeryn together, Aeryn is now wearing a coolant helmet thingy like Scorpius wears. Luckily, hers doesn’t drill into her head. I’m sorry, but Aeryn dressed in that full suit is just not the way that I want to see her. I didn’t like it when John was shown Scorpy-ized either, in season three. I guess it’s just a thing with me. Anyway, whatever intimate conversation they are having together, it’s just not the same with Aeryn like this.

There are some good action sequences, in the middle of all this. Another ship has come to join the party, but unfortunately —they're not going to provide the snacks. Apparently, Aeryn has assassinated their leader and they want her turned over to them. I do like the plan to save Aeryn from them, especially Sikozu’s part in it. I don't like it when Aeryn tries to kill herself for the cause, though. I just don't get why she is acting this way. She’s being somewhat sweet to John and the others, but she is loyal to Scorpius and willing to die (along with her unborn baby, no less) to not compromise her accomplices in her assassination plot. Of course, our fearless crew figures everything out and Aeryn is saved. She gets cured of her heat delirium and John even gets a gift. Sikozu and Scorpius came up with a way to remove Harvey for good from John’s mind.

Space Oddities:

Scorpius says that his only goal now is to safeguard the wormhole knowledge in John’s head for when the inevitable Scarran bloodbath begins. He reminds John that he is the only one who knows the way to Earth, so that means John’s way home will be lost if Scorpius is killed. I believe Scorpius, mostly. He’s tried every other way to get John to give him the knowledge he seeks — now he’s going to try the buddy-system and see if that works.

Pilot is not enjoying his introduction to Sikozu, who is being quite bossy and rude with him. He misses Jool, now. Ha! Pilot wants a captain for his ship, he’s tired of too many voices giving him orders. You go, Pilot.

Commandant Grayza, Braca, and company are working on a surprise for Moya. They have a missile that can kill Moya, but not harm the crew. That’s not nice, you guys. This plot gives the episode some added tension — as if things are not dire enough, already.

Goodbye Harvey, I’ll miss you. There were so many fabulous episodes featuring the drama that the neural chip provided. I loved chip-crazy Crichton, the always entertaining Harvey, and everything that John and Aeryn went through together because of that itsy-bitsy chip. Harvey might have only been a neural clone, but he was such a great character.

Aeryn’s Hair Report: It’s a wig! Claudia wanted something spiky for her new appearance, but the producers wanted her to have long hair. Claudia’s hair is naturally curly and she didn’t want to have to straighten it every day, so they compromised on that wig. I think the wig was accidentally exposed to alien DNA. It just gets longer and flatter as the season goes on. Yikes.

Cosmic Quotes:

John: (to Scorpius) "Kryptonite, silver bullet, Buffy? What's it gonna take to keep you in the grave?"
D'Argo: "Perhaps we should just take your head off. Worked for Durka."

Crichton: “Damn it, Harvey — guns are dangerous, man! And ain't no smoking in my head.”

Aeryn: (about Scorpius) “I gave my word that he would not be harmed.”
D'Argo: “Do you expect us to honor that promise?”
Aeryn: “Yes, or I leave Moya now.”
Chiana: “What's he doing here? What does he want?”
Aeryn: “He wants asylum.”
Crichton: “Asylum? What is it with Peacekeepers? First, they hunt us. Then they want to move in! What, do we have a bed and breakfast? Do we have a sign outside that says free HBO?!”

John: “You’re not real.”
Harvey: “I’m real to you, to myself.”

I know that this is an episode with lots of emotion, action, and some very good performances, but… I just can’t enjoy it that much. Aeryn is saying some nice things to John (she even says “love”) and she is interacting with Chiana and the rest of the crew while she is also actively trying to do the honorable thing and keep her promises. That’s all great, but she’s also wearing an awful suit (and wig), teaming up with Scorpius, and clamming up just as John mentions the baby. This is just not what I wanted for the reunion episode. It’s okay, though. There are some episodes up ahead that will be fun, perchance.

Two and a half out of five Scorpy Suits.

Mallena loves Aeryn when she is not wearing a Scorpy Suit.

2 comments:

  1. Now we're talking!

    So good to have the crew reunited. along with Scorpius and Sikozu!

    The return of Aeryn was totally unexpected, especially dressed in a gimp suit and looking really the worse for wear. But nevertheless it was good to have her back despite not being her usual self.

    Didn't care much for the main storyline. although I guess it was necessary to add some backstory to Aeryn's current mindset. However, the return of Braca and Grayza is very much welcome, even though neither have such an evil streak as say Scorpius, an early-Crais, Maldis, Natira or Durka.

    I was quite surprised at the sudden demise of Harvey, but I guess it was necessary now that Scorpius no longer has the means to master wormhole technology.

    Not the best episode I've ever seen but certainly ranks as the best so far for season 4.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The whole band is back together and despite Aeryn not really being herself, which i choose to attribute to heat delirium plus regret for leaving John, its the best episode so far this season.

    That said, I do wish instead of the lava episode, we had been shown how Scorpius escaped Arnesk, seen Aeryn fleeing having been infected and then seen the rescue and her agreement to bring Scorpius to Moya.

    I think Braca is the spy, he is playing a long game.

    Even though there was no warm and fuzzy reunion, i did feel the tension and raw emotions in every John and Aeryn scene. So so so happy Aeryn is back.

    ReplyDelete

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