Discussion Post: Episode 3.02 - Suns and Lovers - GENERAL

[lyssie]

Expect spoilers for everything in here, including the comics.

My apologies for the month-long hiatus. Every time I've tried to think up questions for this episode, I've failed.

Comments

[astrogirl2]

Glad to see this community isn't defunct! I'm enjoying the rewatch, but I'm sure I'd never keep it up if it weren't for weekly reminders on my flist. It takes me long enough to get each episode watched as it is. So, thoughts on "Suns and Lovers":

The plot isn't much, really. Religious fanatics and survival-on-powerless-space-station stories are a dime a dozen in science fiction. But the ongoing character relationship developments, soapy as they are, are great. Chiana and Jothee actually have some rather hilarious moments before the inevitable emotional train wreck hits. And, boy can these people do train wrecks. Also inevitability; I remember that on first viewing I could see all this coming a mile away, but that just made it all the more painful.

As for John and Aeryn, I think that in retrospect this may be one of the last times when her attitude towards their relationship really rang completely true to me in terms of her character and background. Of course she'd settle on the idea that they could have sex and she could just tell herself it didn't mean anything. And it's very in-character for Crichton that he doesn't let her get away with it. One of the things I always did like about the J/A relationship was the way it completely reverses traditional gender roles, with the woman being the emotionally unavailable one and the man wanting emotional commitment, and yet there's never any big deal made over that.

And then there's Stark and Zhaan. Poor, poor Stark. So desperate to fix things, so clearly trying to stay upbeat and calm and not really succeeding. (And also apparently so glad just to be in Zhaan's company. I am really, really sorry that we never got to see more of the two of them just being a couple.) And, Zhaan, alas, seems to have pretty much made up her mind to die and just wants to be left alone in her resignation. *sniffle*

Meanwhile, Rygel is brilliantly nasty, and we get to hear Pilot's evil laugh, which is just frelling scary.

I also like the fact that Crichton's reputation is beginning to precede him. Yeah, that's not gonna cause him any problems in the future. :)

By the way, this episode gets lots of continuity points for remembering D'Argo's amazing sense of smell, which I remember half-expecting the writers to have forgotten about when Chiana and Jothee first started getting it on in "Season of Death." But it loses them again and then some for a plot hole that's always bugged me: We've got this dying guy who has information we need, right? But he can't manage to get it out, what with being busy dying and all. Gosh, it's too bad we don't know anybody who can communicate non-verbally with dying people! I mean, come on. Stark got the plans for the shadow depository out of the mind of a dying architect. Later on, in "The Choice," we see him apparently asking directions from a corpse. WHY IS HE JUST STANDING THERE? Sheesh.