notes on Farscape S3, 3x13 (Scratch 'N' Sniff) - 3x15 (Infinite Possibilities: Icarus Abides)
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 4x13 (Terra Firma). 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.
3x13 Scratch 'N' Sniff
It says something about the silliness of this ep, I think, that I'd actually *seen* a screencap of the shot of D'Argo and John-in-stockings in that window-tube thing, and had just assumed it was a photomanip of some kind. Note to self: never assume that any Farscape-related image, no matter how strange, is not actually from the show itself.
I don't have a lot to say about this ep except:
- alien beach music! maintained right through the credits!
- John and D'Argo high-fiving! Also, bickering.
- What the hell is up with Chiana's random ESP? Where are we going with this?
- Pilot interfering with John telling his story!
- the editing in this one is really what makes the ep. Like "Fool For Love," except, uh, completely different.
Yeah, this is A Silly Episode. Which makes me worry, because - I quote verbatim from my original notes - two relatively silly eps in a row? this must mean we're due for some horrible, horrible pain...
3x14 Infinite Possibilities: Daedalus Demands
John's teaching Aeryn English! I find this beautiful and also heartbreaking. And he's hearing/feeling The Ancients, or at least the faux-Jack Ancient we've met before; I find this... well, kind of creepy, actually.
You know you've watched the BtVS commentary tracks too many times when you hear the phrase "phase stabilizer" and cannot keep from exclaiming, either internally or aloud, "For god's sake, don't touch the flubotnam in Jar C!!!"
Harvey and John in bumper cars. The surreal just keeps on keepin' on around here, doesn't it.
So here we have it: John doesn't want to go back to Earth alone. It's not clear to me to what extent he's assuming that Aeryn will go with him, and to what extent he's just hoping. He acknowledges that it's something they should talk about, but... yeah. I wonder whose idea it was for Aeryn to start learning English?
laurashapiro asked why I love Stark. Stark keeping Rygel from taking off in the transport pod as soon as Our Heroes get into hot water is just one more reason. And I'm amused by his preening over Aeryn's trusting him to take Crais back to Talyn: "She likes me more than she likes you." Also, he annoys Crais, which I appreciate; letting Crais walk into the wall cracked me up.
Ah, Furlow. The sight of her planting a big kiss on the befuddled John? Hilarious. Intellectually, I hate what she stands for - sell the wormhole tech to everybody to achieve balance of power in terms of its weapon-of-mass-destruction potential? can't really get behind that notion, sorry - but as a character she's a wonderfully matter-of-fact counterbalance to the High Drama that Farscape loves (and admittedly does very well).
Faux-Jack telling John about the knowledge they put in is just so... well, anticlimactic, for one thing, but also odd given the way he accosted John at the beginning of the ep: "we gave you a gift." And the timing of John's confession that he's known about the "gift" - well after it's first mentioned - suggests that he didn't initially intend to let The Ancients know that (or how) he knew.
And, okay, here's where Farscape gets its surreal to pay off: bumper-car funny becomes roller-coaster-crash horrifying.
And Harvey wins.
3x15 Infinite Possibilities: Icarus Abides
...or not.
I love this opening scene, the emotional complexity of it: Aeryn is prepared to shoot John once she's sure that he's been taken over by the neural clone; Harvey's right that it can't be easy to hold a gun to the John's head - and yet she's so ready to do it, taunts about indecisiveness notwithstanding, that only Jack's intervention keeps the pulse blast from taking him out. It's one of the things I love about Aeryn, that certainty, that willingness to do the hard thing because she believes it must be done.
Except, in this case, she's wrong. Indecision is exactly what's needed, and her certainty almost results in disaster.
Well. We'll get disaster soon enough. As my notes say: "Out of the frying pan, into the fire."
Did we know that Stark has shielding against the Scarran mind-blaster thingy? Pretty handy, that.
"That's cool." Why yes, yes it is. Now if someone would just unlock the How To Write A Dissertation knowledge that I feel sure is locked away somewhere in *my* head, we'd be all set.
So Furlow's with the Scarrans, huh? Well, no, not really; I doubt she's lying about the fact that the Scarrans had her crew slaughtered and her tortured. Furlow's not with anyone but herself. Villains usually think they're the heroes of the story; Furlow has no such illusions: "Always be the one to walk away while the hero dies."
Speaking of which... Here's the moment at which I knew that everything was going to have to go horribly wrong: Aeryn tells John that if his newly released knowledge can get them home, she wants them to take care of business and then go. John gets Aeryn (gets an "I love you" from Aeryn, even), gets the wormhole knowledge, and gets to go home? No. It's just too much wish-fulfillment. Something's gotta give.
When Crais refuses to leave John and Aeryn, and John says "knock it off - you're gonna make me start liking you"? Couldn't have said it better myself.
The goodbye scenes are beautiful. Crais: understated still-reluctant camaraderie; Rygel: gentle teasing and real affection; Stark: simple relief from pain and no words at all.
And Aeryn. Oh, Aeryn.
Here's the thing: we knew as soon as John got twinned that one of him was going to have to die. And from a dramatic point of view, why have the relatively unhappy one die when you could have the happy one die? As John himself says, he's at peace, and he's with Aeryn. There are way worse ways to go (and he's faced down more than a few of them). So from that perspective, it's a satisfying (if still horribly painful) choice. And, of course, we get to have everybody else - by which I mostly mean Aeryn - deal with the death of a major character, while knowing that we still have (another authentic version of) that major character around. And we'll eventually get to see Aeryn deal with the other John - god, won't that be painful? The same, except not the same; John, but not her John; the man she fell in love with, but not the man she's loved for the last few months.
It's a hell of a setup.
As for the title: I'm fascinated, particularly by the subtitles. (Those parent/child issues just keep on comin'...) In the classical myth, Daedalus didn't demand; he warned. And Icarus didn't abide; he flew too high and died of it. So how are we to understand the allusion in relation to these episodes?
Jack demands that John help him investigate Furlow's use of the wormhole knowledge, but he also gives a gift - not of wings, but of access to the knowledge that could lead to flight, to escape, the way out of the labyrinth. And the flight kills John, but not because he ignores his father's warning; John makes that last flight knowing that he will die. He flies too close to the sun not out of heedlessness or vanity, but... well, in order to save the universe. His choice to abide - to reject Furlow's suggestion that she and the "flyboy" (!) get the hell out of there - is the opposite of Icarus's; in fact, it's more like Alien!Jack's, the Ancient who stayed behind to ensure that his people might be safe in their new home.
Of course, try telling any of that to Aeryn. Being willing to kill John herself if it must be done doesn't mean that she's ready to lose him.
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 4x13 (Terra Firma). 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.
3x13 Scratch 'N' Sniff
It says something about the silliness of this ep, I think, that I'd actually *seen* a screencap of the shot of D'Argo and John-in-stockings in that window-tube thing, and had just assumed it was a photomanip of some kind. Note to self: never assume that any Farscape-related image, no matter how strange, is not actually from the show itself.
I don't have a lot to say about this ep except:
- alien beach music! maintained right through the credits!
- John and D'Argo high-fiving! Also, bickering.
- What the hell is up with Chiana's random ESP? Where are we going with this?
- Pilot interfering with John telling his story!
- the editing in this one is really what makes the ep. Like "Fool For Love," except, uh, completely different.
Yeah, this is A Silly Episode. Which makes me worry, because - I quote verbatim from my original notes - two relatively silly eps in a row? this must mean we're due for some horrible, horrible pain...
3x14 Infinite Possibilities: Daedalus Demands
John's teaching Aeryn English! I find this beautiful and also heartbreaking. And he's hearing/feeling The Ancients, or at least the faux-Jack Ancient we've met before; I find this... well, kind of creepy, actually.
You know you've watched the BtVS commentary tracks too many times when you hear the phrase "phase stabilizer" and cannot keep from exclaiming, either internally or aloud, "For god's sake, don't touch the flubotnam in Jar C!!!"
Harvey and John in bumper cars. The surreal just keeps on keepin' on around here, doesn't it.
So here we have it: John doesn't want to go back to Earth alone. It's not clear to me to what extent he's assuming that Aeryn will go with him, and to what extent he's just hoping. He acknowledges that it's something they should talk about, but... yeah. I wonder whose idea it was for Aeryn to start learning English?
laurashapiro asked why I love Stark. Stark keeping Rygel from taking off in the transport pod as soon as Our Heroes get into hot water is just one more reason. And I'm amused by his preening over Aeryn's trusting him to take Crais back to Talyn: "She likes me more than she likes you." Also, he annoys Crais, which I appreciate; letting Crais walk into the wall cracked me up.
Ah, Furlow. The sight of her planting a big kiss on the befuddled John? Hilarious. Intellectually, I hate what she stands for - sell the wormhole tech to everybody to achieve balance of power in terms of its weapon-of-mass-destruction potential? can't really get behind that notion, sorry - but as a character she's a wonderfully matter-of-fact counterbalance to the High Drama that Farscape loves (and admittedly does very well).
Faux-Jack telling John about the knowledge they put in is just so... well, anticlimactic, for one thing, but also odd given the way he accosted John at the beginning of the ep: "we gave you a gift." And the timing of John's confession that he's known about the "gift" - well after it's first mentioned - suggests that he didn't initially intend to let The Ancients know that (or how) he knew.
And, okay, here's where Farscape gets its surreal to pay off: bumper-car funny becomes roller-coaster-crash horrifying.
And Harvey wins.
3x15 Infinite Possibilities: Icarus Abides
...or not.
I love this opening scene, the emotional complexity of it: Aeryn is prepared to shoot John once she's sure that he's been taken over by the neural clone; Harvey's right that it can't be easy to hold a gun to the John's head - and yet she's so ready to do it, taunts about indecisiveness notwithstanding, that only Jack's intervention keeps the pulse blast from taking him out. It's one of the things I love about Aeryn, that certainty, that willingness to do the hard thing because she believes it must be done.
Except, in this case, she's wrong. Indecision is exactly what's needed, and her certainty almost results in disaster.
Well. We'll get disaster soon enough. As my notes say: "Out of the frying pan, into the fire."
Did we know that Stark has shielding against the Scarran mind-blaster thingy? Pretty handy, that.
"That's cool." Why yes, yes it is. Now if someone would just unlock the How To Write A Dissertation knowledge that I feel sure is locked away somewhere in *my* head, we'd be all set.
So Furlow's with the Scarrans, huh? Well, no, not really; I doubt she's lying about the fact that the Scarrans had her crew slaughtered and her tortured. Furlow's not with anyone but herself. Villains usually think they're the heroes of the story; Furlow has no such illusions: "Always be the one to walk away while the hero dies."
Speaking of which... Here's the moment at which I knew that everything was going to have to go horribly wrong: Aeryn tells John that if his newly released knowledge can get them home, she wants them to take care of business and then go. John gets Aeryn (gets an "I love you" from Aeryn, even), gets the wormhole knowledge, and gets to go home? No. It's just too much wish-fulfillment. Something's gotta give.
When Crais refuses to leave John and Aeryn, and John says "knock it off - you're gonna make me start liking you"? Couldn't have said it better myself.
The goodbye scenes are beautiful. Crais: understated still-reluctant camaraderie; Rygel: gentle teasing and real affection; Stark: simple relief from pain and no words at all.
And Aeryn. Oh, Aeryn.
Here's the thing: we knew as soon as John got twinned that one of him was going to have to die. And from a dramatic point of view, why have the relatively unhappy one die when you could have the happy one die? As John himself says, he's at peace, and he's with Aeryn. There are way worse ways to go (and he's faced down more than a few of them). So from that perspective, it's a satisfying (if still horribly painful) choice. And, of course, we get to have everybody else - by which I mostly mean Aeryn - deal with the death of a major character, while knowing that we still have (another authentic version of) that major character around. And we'll eventually get to see Aeryn deal with the other John - god, won't that be painful? The same, except not the same; John, but not her John; the man she fell in love with, but not the man she's loved for the last few months.
It's a hell of a setup.
As for the title: I'm fascinated, particularly by the subtitles. (Those parent/child issues just keep on comin'...) In the classical myth, Daedalus didn't demand; he warned. And Icarus didn't abide; he flew too high and died of it. So how are we to understand the allusion in relation to these episodes?
Jack demands that John help him investigate Furlow's use of the wormhole knowledge, but he also gives a gift - not of wings, but of access to the knowledge that could lead to flight, to escape, the way out of the labyrinth. And the flight kills John, but not because he ignores his father's warning; John makes that last flight knowing that he will die. He flies too close to the sun not out of heedlessness or vanity, but... well, in order to save the universe. His choice to abide - to reject Furlow's suggestion that she and the "flyboy" (!) get the hell out of there - is the opposite of Icarus's; in fact, it's more like Alien!Jack's, the Ancient who stayed behind to ensure that his people might be safe in their new home.
Of course, try telling any of that to Aeryn. Being willing to kill John herself if it must be done doesn't mean that she's ready to lose him.