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Farscape - Season 3 - Episode 21

My Rating - 10

Fan Rating Average - 5.65

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Rating: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
# Votes: 17 19 2 36 2 10 2 25 2 30 36

Synopsis
On the Command Carrier, Crichton is making incredible breakthroughs in his wormhole research, accessing information previously locked away. His crewmates are not so sure about the success of the plan, and are debating whether to leave or stay. Crais also has his own interests at heart, and when he is denied access to Talyn by the Peackeepers, he realizes he needs a bargaining chip. He goes to Scorpius and reveals Crichton's true intentions: to sabotage the wormhole research and destroy the Carrier. The plan blown, Moya's crew is immediately arrested, and it seems all is lost. [DVD]

Filler Quotient: 0, not filler, do not skip this episode.
- Numerous major long term plot threads are serviced here.

Problems
- Grayza has a line in the recap of this episode in which she says to Scorpius: "Your project has cost us dearly and yielded nothing." This was not actually aired in the previous episode though.
- When Crais boards Talyn you can see stars out the window, but this shouldn't be the case because Talyn is within the command carrier at the time.

Factoids
- According to Aeryn, there were over 50,000 men, women, and children aboard Scorpius' command carrier.

Remarkable Scenes
- Aeryn: "How's he planning to stop Grayza?" John: "We're talking about Scorpius. You prepared to bet against him?"
- John proposing destroying the command carrier.
- Crais revealing John's plans to Scorpius in exchange for control over Talyn and reinstatement into the Peacekeepers.
- Crais meeting secretly with John and proposing to starburst Talyn while still within the command carrier in order to destroy it.
- Crais: "Starburst in a confined space where the energy can't dissipate will be the hero's death that Talyn deserves."
- John: "If I don't kick this project in the ass before Commandant Cleavage gets back, she's gonna execute me anyway, right?"
- John: "All right, Scorp, you ready to rumble?" Scorpius: "Oh yes, John."
- John taking Scorpius for a ride through the wormhole.
- Crais boarding Talyn by force.
- John: "Flying through wormholes ain't like dusting crops, farm boy. It takes a little finesse."
- Crais to Scorpius: "I am standing in your heart and I am about to squeeze."
- Talyn starbursting within the command carrier.
- The ensuing evacuation havoc.
- Co-Kura: "To stabilize a wormhole, to tame it, to tame its power, would have been the greatest scientific discovery anyone could imagine!" John: "It is not just science! It's never just science. It's a weapon. It kills. And I will not let the Peacekeepers have it."
- Scorpius: "Commander John Crichton. Generations will know that name. Because of you very soon the Scarrans will destroy us."
- Scorpius telling John that he never really did see any point in going after Earth.

My Review
In one of the most spectacular episodes so far Scorpius sees everything he worked for crash down before his eyes in Talyn's and Crais' noble sacrifice. The episode even implies that Scorpius may have gone down with his ship. Season of death indeed. By the end it seemed clear that John felt bad for poor Scorpy even after all Scorpius had done to him, but I can see why. Scorpius' declaration in his final moments that he never had any intention of hunting down Earth was a nice touch and makes it clear that all Scorpius ever wanted was to loyally serve the Peacekeepers in their fight against the Scarrans. The degree of evil Scorpius was willing to wield to further that goal was considerable, but his goal wasn't necessarily wrong on the whole.

The moral dilemma of whether or not the Peacekeepers should possess such a weapon of mass destruction is also well played. John struggling to fight his temptation to continue researching this knowledge with the vast resources the Peacekeepers were offering him was fantastic and Scorpius' final statements about the consequences of John's decision were terrifying. Will the Scarrans invade the Peacekeepers now? Will John have to take some responsibility for putting the Peacekeepers on the losing side of this fight? Or will Grayza be able to pull it out of the fire by forming alliances as she claims? And will John be able to use his wormhole knowledge to get home? This episode does an awesome job wrapping up previous story arcs while setting up for some incredibly exciting new ones to come.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

  • From Lennier on 2010-07-12 at 12:33am:
    The totality of it all is hard to resist. As such, the episode is determined to underline as vastly as possible that this is the end of an era.

    Some of the imagery, such as Scorpius standing on the flooding staircase, is among the most memorable of the series. Also, Crais' final monologue approaches Babylon 5 levels of majesty.

    A triumph.
  • From Hugo on 2016-03-25 at 4:21pm:
    An amazing episode, and I can't just stop loving scorpius - he is an amazing character. I felt that the commandant plotline was left hanging though, and not much for the other main characters to do - except John and Crais.

    I really liked the Crais "betrayal" BTW.

    Trope warning on the exploding ship though: random explosions and flashed in the background, but not too much to obstruct our heroes... One would expect that the hull would break and air leak...
  • From Margaret J on 2019-07-20 at 7:34pm:
    Great episode all the major plot points (Talyn, Scorpius, Crais and wormholes) came together and tied up nicely.
    I kinda felt bad for Scorpius and nice to to know he at least got to take a ride through the wormhole before his plans all went to .$&@.
    Sad to see Crais die as well but nicemthat he got to speak his mind to scorpius first and go out as a hero. Was expecting more of goodbye between him and Aeryn but what we got was in character so I can not really complain.
    Based on Scorpius's track record I do not really believe Scorpius is dead nor that we have seen the last of wormholes but if we have I Will still be satisfied with how it all ended. I rated the episode a ten (10)

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