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Farscape - Season 4 - Episode 02

My Rating - 7

Fan Rating Average - 5.43

Rate episode?

Rating: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
# Votes: 23 14 7 2 7 14 9 12 19 38 5

Synopsis
Crichton, Chiana and Rygel are reunited with D'Argo and Jool at an archaeological site run by Jool's people, the Interions. The purpose of the dig is to find a missing probe that might reverse the planet's dangerous atmospheric conditions. Peacekeepers led by Grayza land and capture the crew, and Crichton finds himself unable to fight back, mysteriously compelled to do Grayza's bidding. [DVD]

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

Problems
- The recap of this episode features a scene which was never aired in which Braca threatens to execute Grayza were he ordered to by one of her superiors, an act of loyalty to the Peacekeepers for which she promotes him to captain.

Factoids
- D'Argo named his ship Lo'La, after his murdered wife Lo'Laan.
- "Grandma" is 293 cycles old.
- There's another deleted scene of unusual importance in this episode. Shortly after D'Argo reveals his ship's cloaking ability to Chiana, the scene continues. Chiana asks why D'Argo stopped hunting Macton. He says that he no longer has any desire to kill him, believing that it would bring him no happiness. He instead sent him a message threatening to do so to terrorize him, believing that making Macton live in fear would be more satisfying.

Remarkable Scenes
- Alien to John: "Peacekeeper, drop your weapon." John: "That's a common mistake. I'm not a Peacekeeper."
- John stumbling on D'Argo, Jool, and the old woman.
- Grayza torturing Scorpius.
- Grayza manipulating Braca with some kind of pheromones.
- The old woman drugging Crichton again.
- D'Argo confronting Jool and asking her what she thinks of Luxans. Jool's reluctant response: "I think that you're unusual for a Luxan."
- Grayza capturing John and Chiana and dragging out a collared Scorpius walking on his hands and knees to amuse John.
- Grayza: "Do anything you want to him. Do anything at all." John: "No thanks. I don't think I can come up with anything better than that."
- Grayza using her pheromones on John.
- The old woman drugging John and making him leap to his presumed death.

My Review
This rather strange episode ranges from incoherent, to fascinating, to profound at various times. The notion of yet another super weapon of mass destruction that must be kept out of the hands of the bad guys is obnoxious, but the plot finally beginning to seriously explore the idea that the most human-like races in the Farscape universe may have an actual genetic connection with humans is fascinating. Apparently the ancient Egyptians are somehow related to the Sebaceans and Interions.

Other nice details included Scorpius' clear fall from grace. The way Grayza controls him with those green corrupted cooling rods is a fantastic way to make this old nemesis seem more sympathetic. Grayza's preying on his weak spot. Couple that with Braca switching sides without hesitation and we've got the makings of a lovely predicament for Scorpy. Another minor detail I liked was that in John's visions the priests were singing the Farscape theme.

Finally, the old woman's character, while sometimes annoying, is rapidly starting to captivate me. She'd be more compelling if her actions didn't always seem so random, but for the most part she seems to work quite well as an unstable but probably good natured ally. I'm also continuing to enjoy Moya's lack of a presence. Even though we now know roughly where she is, it's still nice that it's taking a while for the crew to reassemble. Overall while the episode could have used a more solid narrative, it still comes off as a fairly strong piece.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

  • From Hugo on 2016-05-24 at 5:04pm:
    Yet another episode which I found had poor editing/direction - some things are really confusing.
    * So how did they get out of that cell towards the end?
    * The colorful creature/alien was never really introduced properly, and I find it odd that e.g. Chrichton is wondering more what that is...
    * I didn't get how Chrichton was suddenly swimming with that creature...
  • From Ambaryerno on 2019-04-02 at 7:35am:
    You missed another Problem: Jool's hair is red throughout the entire story. However previous episodes establish Interon hair only turns red under extreme stress, so for much of the episode it should be orange.
  • From Margaret J on 2019-07-25 at 7:16pm:
    I had to get past the fact that they apparently are not going to deal with/explain the fact the Moya and on board crew got sucked up in a wormhole, and how they managed to get out and resume life in the same relative section of the universe,
    before I could sit back and enjoy the episode for what it was.
    Enjoyed the Dargo John reunion,even the Dargo Chianna - but still do not want them back together.
    Personally I do not care about Jool or the old lady (though at least the later is slightly more interesting) so their reunions with John and Chianna were nothing more than fillers for me.
    I do like or I should say that I find Grayza interesting and good villain material. This episode really made me want to see Bracca suffer - something I never felt with Scorpius or Crais so I guess they are doing a good job there. And Scorpius, poor Scorpy I almost could not watch his parts especially were He is dragged in on a leach - very disturbing.
    All in all the story regarding the aliens on the planet was convoluted and boring BUT the overarching story with Grayza and crew kept me interested and left me wanting to see part two. I gave it a six (6) rating.
  • From Jon Reremy on 2020-12-26 at 11:12am:
    NOOO SCORPIUS :( I ALREADY HATE THIS SEASON
    Generally I tend to love it when such an originally menacing presence is brought down to their knees, and in such a humiliating way, but I didn't feel that dark pleasure with Scorpius for once. It was just unsettling... and the way he kept spewing that foam from his mouth. I mean it's neat that they really sold it (or just Scorpy's actor who's freaking amazing), and John's reaction to it was inscrutable the way I would've liked it. But man I really really hate this development, and I know I'm not gonna have any fun with Grayza or Braca at all. I hope I'm wrong. Anyway I've been looking ever since AVclub stopped their reviews of this show past season 3 for anything that could fill that friend-simulator void of a Farscape watch-along and this place more than fulfilled. Great work, great words... thanks

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