notes on Farscape S3, 3x22 (Dog With Two Bones)
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.
3x22 Dog with Two Bones
The end of season three reminds me of the end of Buffy's season four: the penultimate episode wraps up one set of issues, mostly plot-related; the final episode deals with emotional issues, largely through dream/fantasy, and launches a whole new set of issues. Less pleasantly, it also reminds me of the end of season seven of X-Files: the female lead's pregnant. I want to hope that this will turn out not to be a horrific development, but... I'm skeptical.
This ep is a stellar example of Farscape's willingness to almost completely dispense with exposition. We haven't seen as many of these eps lately - there's been too much emphasis on the season arc or arcs - but it's something I liked about several of the episodes in the first season. I'm glad to see it return. I'm also glad I wasn't still doped up on cough syrup while watching this one.
John's dreaming of happy endings, of a conventional wedding, Aeryn with flowers in her hair, family and friends and aliens all peacefully co-existing. It's a very different vision of Earth than we saw revealed way back in season one - a vision so powered by love that it doesn't even register the fear of human reaction that powered the episode of that name. Interesting, though, that when the crone's dust (or herbs, or whatever) clears his mind of "the way things never were," what he sees becomes stranger (Chiana doin' the groomsmen, Jack falling for her), but only goes horribly wrong when the PKs arrive. Compared to the Peacekeepers, Earth is not the problem. But for that very reason, Earth can no longer be the goal: he cannot risk leading the PKs to his home planet.
John's position in relation to the rest of the crew thus becomes particularly poignant. The destruction of the command carrier, and the information they got from Scorpius before its destruction, has in some ways hit the cosmic reset button: all the characters are pursuing the goals they had at the time of their first appearance: D'Argo's to revenge his wife's murder, Rygel to go home and reclaim his throne, Chiana to find her brother and join the Nebari resistance, Aeryn to rejoin PK community (though it's now ex-Peacekeepers, a group of anti-terrorist assassins). Only John can't pursue his original dream, the dream of going home.
Or at least that's how it looks to the crew. But what Jool says to Aeryn - "You've changed so much; don't go backwards" - applies, I think, to all of them as well as to John. They're no longer the same people they were when they formed these dreams; three years, and particularly three years together, have changed them all. The necessary shift in priorities that becomes so clear to John is no less necessary for each of them, although they can't see it.
And John won't see it. "My friends are leaving," he says, as if it's a foregone conclusion; or maybe it's just that he wouldn't wish the pain of giving up his dream on anyone. He doesn't try to grab the bone he can't have, but he drops the one he's holding just the same.
That final farewell scene (or rather not-farewell scene) between John and Aeryn nearly broke my heart: "Do you love Aeryn Sun?" "Beyond hope." And a huge thank-you to whomever edited this ep so that I didn't know until afterwards that John knew the whole time that Aeryn was pregnant. This way, I get to have it both ways: the heartbreak *and* the fury. Because, yeah, the revelation made me furious with him: how could he test her like that? Why not just say "I know you're pregnant; let's talk about it"? Why pick *now* to go all stoic? John can handle a lot, but since when is he stoic?
And one last observation, from my original notes: "Who's the crazy old lady? Crone ex machina? WTF? Also, she's biting Jool's ear with her skanky teeth."
So where are we? Aeryn's pregnant and has taken off for points unknown, Moya's been sucked through a wormhole, everybody else is out of comm range, and John's module is alone in the middle of nowhere. Not the angst-fest that the end of last season was, but quite the cliffhanger nonetheless.
here's luck: So let's recap.
renenet: Season Of Death.
here's luck: Yeah.
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.
3x22 Dog with Two Bones
The end of season three reminds me of the end of Buffy's season four: the penultimate episode wraps up one set of issues, mostly plot-related; the final episode deals with emotional issues, largely through dream/fantasy, and launches a whole new set of issues. Less pleasantly, it also reminds me of the end of season seven of X-Files: the female lead's pregnant. I want to hope that this will turn out not to be a horrific development, but... I'm skeptical.
This ep is a stellar example of Farscape's willingness to almost completely dispense with exposition. We haven't seen as many of these eps lately - there's been too much emphasis on the season arc or arcs - but it's something I liked about several of the episodes in the first season. I'm glad to see it return. I'm also glad I wasn't still doped up on cough syrup while watching this one.
John's dreaming of happy endings, of a conventional wedding, Aeryn with flowers in her hair, family and friends and aliens all peacefully co-existing. It's a very different vision of Earth than we saw revealed way back in season one - a vision so powered by love that it doesn't even register the fear of human reaction that powered the episode of that name. Interesting, though, that when the crone's dust (or herbs, or whatever) clears his mind of "the way things never were," what he sees becomes stranger (Chiana doin' the groomsmen, Jack falling for her), but only goes horribly wrong when the PKs arrive. Compared to the Peacekeepers, Earth is not the problem. But for that very reason, Earth can no longer be the goal: he cannot risk leading the PKs to his home planet.
John's position in relation to the rest of the crew thus becomes particularly poignant. The destruction of the command carrier, and the information they got from Scorpius before its destruction, has in some ways hit the cosmic reset button: all the characters are pursuing the goals they had at the time of their first appearance: D'Argo's to revenge his wife's murder, Rygel to go home and reclaim his throne, Chiana to find her brother and join the Nebari resistance, Aeryn to rejoin PK community (though it's now ex-Peacekeepers, a group of anti-terrorist assassins). Only John can't pursue his original dream, the dream of going home.
Or at least that's how it looks to the crew. But what Jool says to Aeryn - "You've changed so much; don't go backwards" - applies, I think, to all of them as well as to John. They're no longer the same people they were when they formed these dreams; three years, and particularly three years together, have changed them all. The necessary shift in priorities that becomes so clear to John is no less necessary for each of them, although they can't see it.
And John won't see it. "My friends are leaving," he says, as if it's a foregone conclusion; or maybe it's just that he wouldn't wish the pain of giving up his dream on anyone. He doesn't try to grab the bone he can't have, but he drops the one he's holding just the same.
That final farewell scene (or rather not-farewell scene) between John and Aeryn nearly broke my heart: "Do you love Aeryn Sun?" "Beyond hope." And a huge thank-you to whomever edited this ep so that I didn't know until afterwards that John knew the whole time that Aeryn was pregnant. This way, I get to have it both ways: the heartbreak *and* the fury. Because, yeah, the revelation made me furious with him: how could he test her like that? Why not just say "I know you're pregnant; let's talk about it"? Why pick *now* to go all stoic? John can handle a lot, but since when is he stoic?
And one last observation, from my original notes: "Who's the crazy old lady? Crone ex machina? WTF? Also, she's biting Jool's ear with her skanky teeth."
So where are we? Aeryn's pregnant and has taken off for points unknown, Moya's been sucked through a wormhole, everybody else is out of comm range, and John's module is alone in the middle of nowhere. Not the angst-fest that the end of last season was, but quite the cliffhanger nonetheless.
here's luck: So let's recap.
renenet: Season Of Death.
here's luck: Yeah.