notes on Farscape S3, 3x09 (Losing Time) - 3x10 (Relativity)
Past Farscape posts are indexed here.
PLEASE NOTE: I am watching Farscape for the first time, and I am staying resolutely spoiler free. As of this writing, the last episode I've seen is 4x11 (Unrealized Reality). You're welcome to comment on any eps I've seen, including those not mentioned here, but if you spoil me, I will beat you to death with a shovel. A vague disclaimer is nobody's friend. Also, please keep in mind that I wrote these notes while watching the ep; I work on the prose afterwards, but the notes themselves are limited to what I'd seen at the time.
3x09 Losing Time
I can't decide whether it's more amusing or disturbing that John's on Scorpy's mind about as much as Scorpy's on John's. Speaking of Scorpius: correct me if I'm wrong, but the others all still think he's dead, right? And of course Scorpy doesn't know that we've now got two Johns. Oh boy.
Hey, look! Blood! Lots of it! Because it's just not Farscape without bodily fluids.
Chiana and Jool and D'Argo all have new outfits. Apparently *everyone* made a stop at the spacemall I hypothesized back in my notes on 3x07 Thanks For Sharing.
"I live on this ship. Something strange always happens." D'Argo, dude, that may be the single truest thing you've ever said.
Prowler test pilot soup? Eww. No, really - ewwwwwwwww. Yeah, okay, I know I just said that it's not Farscape without bodily fluids, but this isn't quite what I meant. This particular instance may have achieved a new and special level of the evocatively gross. Did I say ewwwwwwww already?
So the energy rider in Chiana is giving John orgasms, huh? Well, at least he's getting some from somebody besides himself. Heh.
"This plan is so bad, it *has* to be ours." Okay, that may be the second-truest thing D'Argo's ever said.
Seeing Pilot possessed is more upsetting than seeing any of the rest of them possessed, I think - maybe because I've seen it less often and am not used to it, but whatever. Pilot's such a constant, such a stable presence, that there's a creep factor entirely separate from the Something Bad's In Charge Of The Ship problem.
The DRD bumping Chiana to wake her up reminds me of my cats bumping their hard little skulls against me when they want me to get up from the computer and give them their dinners. Oh god, I'm felinpomorphizing imaginary robots.
Okay, Chiana now knows where D'Argo is? Is this general telepathy, or some sort of D'Argo-specific weirdness? Lo, I am puzzled.
Scorpy's having bad dreams about John shoving him into wormholes! I am filled with glee.
Taken as a whole, I'm not sure what to make of this ep. It doesn't help that I was still loopy on cough syrup while watching it, but still. I enjoyed it, and the self-contained story was nicely twisty-turny, but I'm curious as to how, if at all, it links up to The Bigger Picture. Leading contenders: Scorpy's nightmares (I mentioned the glee, right?), Chiana's newfound telepathy, or the oops-still-working-on-that Sebacean wormhole travel thing.
3x10 Relativity
Talyn's on Degoba! This is me laughing my ass off: the Star Wars jokes have gone visual!
So John and Aeryn have been going at it all night, huh? I'm counting John's performances for Rygel's benefit as part of the "all night," because he's clearly amusing Aeryn with it, and it's so nice to see these two laughing together (as opposed to Suffering or Being Traumatized together) that I'm putting that right up there with The Sex in terms of healthiness for them and pleasantness for us.
"Crichton, you always have a plan! Well, sometimes." Yeah, that about sums it up, doesn't it. I love Stark. Unfortunately, as the rest of the ep proves, sticking Stark with Rygel just makes me like Stark more and Rygel less. Ah well.
I wondered, as I think we're meant to, whether Xhalax intitially holds her fire because of Aeryn or because she's just waiting for her shot; later, when it becomes clear that she doesn't know that Aeryn's her daughter, I began to wonder about the PK agenda in sending her after Aeryn. Obviously they're hoping that Aeryn will be unwilling to kill her mother, that being pursued by her mother will throw her off her game enough to be killed or captured. It's not clear, though, what they expect Xhalax's attitude towards Aeryn to be. The fact that they haven't mentioned that Aeryn might be involved with Talyn (even though they know this or could guess it) suggests that they believe it might affect Xhalax's judgment - though on the other hand it's also typical of the PK info-on-a-need-to-know-basis-only stance that we've seen before, and thus perhaps not as significant as I'm making it out to be.
I find it very moving, and wholly unsurprising, that John won't let Aeryn shoot her mother. It's a gesture of faith on his part: you are more than your mother is, you will not be able to kill her without pain and regret.
Oh, so Crais shot Xhalax, did he? Yeah, right. Years of X-Files and BtVS and, hell, Farscape have taught me that we can't believe somebody's dead until we've seen the body, seen the body's face, seen the autopsy, and seen the dust scattered. And frequently not even then. I'm just sayin'.
I did wonder about the title of this one. A pun, of course - "relatives," yet another hit-me-harder iteration of the parents/children theme that's been a staple of the show since the second half of S1. But that theme doesn't crystallize here with anywhere near the clarity and brilliance of, say, "Family Ties." I found myself thinking about the issues of time and space raised by the title and dropped, or rather never picked up, by the ep itself. Those of you who've thought about this more than I have: What am I missing? What else is the title pointing to?
PLEASE NOTE: I am watching Farscape for the first time, and I am staying resolutely spoiler free. As of this writing, the last episode I've seen is 4x11 (Unrealized Reality). You're welcome to comment on any eps I've seen, including those not mentioned here, but if you spoil me, I will beat you to death with a shovel. A vague disclaimer is nobody's friend. Also, please keep in mind that I wrote these notes while watching the ep; I work on the prose afterwards, but the notes themselves are limited to what I'd seen at the time.
3x09 Losing Time
I can't decide whether it's more amusing or disturbing that John's on Scorpy's mind about as much as Scorpy's on John's. Speaking of Scorpius: correct me if I'm wrong, but the others all still think he's dead, right? And of course Scorpy doesn't know that we've now got two Johns. Oh boy.
Hey, look! Blood! Lots of it! Because it's just not Farscape without bodily fluids.
Chiana and Jool and D'Argo all have new outfits. Apparently *everyone* made a stop at the spacemall I hypothesized back in my notes on 3x07 Thanks For Sharing.
"I live on this ship. Something strange always happens." D'Argo, dude, that may be the single truest thing you've ever said.
Prowler test pilot soup? Eww. No, really - ewwwwwwwww. Yeah, okay, I know I just said that it's not Farscape without bodily fluids, but this isn't quite what I meant. This particular instance may have achieved a new and special level of the evocatively gross. Did I say ewwwwwwww already?
So the energy rider in Chiana is giving John orgasms, huh? Well, at least he's getting some from somebody besides himself. Heh.
"This plan is so bad, it *has* to be ours." Okay, that may be the second-truest thing D'Argo's ever said.
Seeing Pilot possessed is more upsetting than seeing any of the rest of them possessed, I think - maybe because I've seen it less often and am not used to it, but whatever. Pilot's such a constant, such a stable presence, that there's a creep factor entirely separate from the Something Bad's In Charge Of The Ship problem.
The DRD bumping Chiana to wake her up reminds me of my cats bumping their hard little skulls against me when they want me to get up from the computer and give them their dinners. Oh god, I'm felinpomorphizing imaginary robots.
Okay, Chiana now knows where D'Argo is? Is this general telepathy, or some sort of D'Argo-specific weirdness? Lo, I am puzzled.
Scorpy's having bad dreams about John shoving him into wormholes! I am filled with glee.
Taken as a whole, I'm not sure what to make of this ep. It doesn't help that I was still loopy on cough syrup while watching it, but still. I enjoyed it, and the self-contained story was nicely twisty-turny, but I'm curious as to how, if at all, it links up to The Bigger Picture. Leading contenders: Scorpy's nightmares (I mentioned the glee, right?), Chiana's newfound telepathy, or the oops-still-working-on-that Sebacean wormhole travel thing.
3x10 Relativity
Talyn's on Degoba! This is me laughing my ass off: the Star Wars jokes have gone visual!
So John and Aeryn have been going at it all night, huh? I'm counting John's performances for Rygel's benefit as part of the "all night," because he's clearly amusing Aeryn with it, and it's so nice to see these two laughing together (as opposed to Suffering or Being Traumatized together) that I'm putting that right up there with The Sex in terms of healthiness for them and pleasantness for us.
"Crichton, you always have a plan! Well, sometimes." Yeah, that about sums it up, doesn't it. I love Stark. Unfortunately, as the rest of the ep proves, sticking Stark with Rygel just makes me like Stark more and Rygel less. Ah well.
I wondered, as I think we're meant to, whether Xhalax intitially holds her fire because of Aeryn or because she's just waiting for her shot; later, when it becomes clear that she doesn't know that Aeryn's her daughter, I began to wonder about the PK agenda in sending her after Aeryn. Obviously they're hoping that Aeryn will be unwilling to kill her mother, that being pursued by her mother will throw her off her game enough to be killed or captured. It's not clear, though, what they expect Xhalax's attitude towards Aeryn to be. The fact that they haven't mentioned that Aeryn might be involved with Talyn (even though they know this or could guess it) suggests that they believe it might affect Xhalax's judgment - though on the other hand it's also typical of the PK info-on-a-need-to-know-basis-only stance that we've seen before, and thus perhaps not as significant as I'm making it out to be.
I find it very moving, and wholly unsurprising, that John won't let Aeryn shoot her mother. It's a gesture of faith on his part: you are more than your mother is, you will not be able to kill her without pain and regret.
Oh, so Crais shot Xhalax, did he? Yeah, right. Years of X-Files and BtVS and, hell, Farscape have taught me that we can't believe somebody's dead until we've seen the body, seen the body's face, seen the autopsy, and seen the dust scattered. And frequently not even then. I'm just sayin'.
I did wonder about the title of this one. A pun, of course - "relatives," yet another hit-me-harder iteration of the parents/children theme that's been a staple of the show since the second half of S1. But that theme doesn't crystallize here with anywhere near the clarity and brilliance of, say, "Family Ties." I found myself thinking about the issues of time and space raised by the title and dropped, or rather never picked up, by the ep itself. Those of you who've thought about this more than I have: What am I missing? What else is the title pointing to?