Farscape season 2 done
I'm anxious to start up the third season now, but determined to write my thoughts down before going in.
• This season took me longer to finish than the first, and I think it's because I had a good sample of The Plot and wanted more. After "Mind the Baby", season 2 takes its time with a few rough patches of episodes along the way. "Vitas Mortis" was little more than background noise to me, and "Taking the Stone" wasn't as interesting as it could have been either.
• "Crackers Don't Matter" is a fan-favorite, I believe, but I wasn't a fan. I loved the concept, the beginnings of Crichton hallucinating Scorpius, and the sullen "We can't go back" ending, but for an episode intended to be dark, I felt it got too goofy to be taken seriously, and as a result, I thought its attempts to appeal to darkness fell flat.
• Fortunately, the following episode, "The Way We Weren't" was a huge improvement. I mentioned in a previous entry my need for experiencing character backstory first-handedly, and I loved getting it for both Aeryn and Pilot. The scene with Aeryn processing her past by going at a punching bag bareknuckled and bleeding was, uh, hot, and the scene with Crichton comforting her after breaking down was sweet. Loved Velorek and the doomed Aeryn/Velorek romance, loved that Aeryn herself was the one who doomed it. Loved the fucked up circumstances behind Pilot bonding to Moya. The continuing Aeryn/Pilot friendship is one of my favorites among the crew.
• Speaking of friendships--the Zhaan/Crichton friendship is easily my favorite, and one of those rare cases where I'm as interested in it as I would be regular ship, yet I don't ship it like that. Even stranger because it has all the hallmarks of a ship I'd be into--psychic links, intimate gestures, older woman/younger man, even bed-sharing (with Zhaan unashamedly naked at that!)--but I love it because it's platonic. I probably wouldn't say no to fanwork of them as a romantic pairing, but for now I'm enamored with their friendship first and foremost.
(Of course, this may change, as this is also what I said about Mob/Reigen once upon a time.)
Which is a long-winded way of saying I loved the parts in "Dream a Little Dream" that took place in the present with Crichton comforting Zhaan.
• "My Three Crichtons" I was expecting to be a waste of time. It's a ridiculous premise, even for a show with a "everything and the kitchen sink" approach to sci-fi. And the execution is ridiculous (god what was with future!Crichton’s big teeth and suddenly having what I think was supposed to be a Southern accent?), it's not one of my favorites.
But I absolutely love the ideas at play and how it works as a study of Crichton’s character. It’s Crichton’s emotional quotient vs his intelligence quotient distilled into two pure ids, and eventually he has to choose one over the other. At first he thinks it's the former because he's the less intellectually developed, but then he thinks it’s the latter because he’s lost his emotional intellect and then he decides to give himself up (before past!Crichton comes to kill future!Critchton-yeah this episode sort of wrote itself into a corner with the solution).
I love that even though Crichton doesn't do it, Crichton feels awful about it afterwards--awful about being the judge, jury and executioner of anyone’s existence, and having his own morality put to the test. I also love how this episode establishes the importance of Crichton as someone who’s driven by his heart, even for all that he is a scientist. And I loved that Chiana was the one who recognized it.
• I'm enjoying the slow burn of the Aeryn/Crichton romance. It's a "will they or won't they" with them having already kissed a number of times and been on the verge of admitting their feelings for one another and ultimately deciding to maintain the current status quo of their camaraderie--but it works. Every time they look like they're about to hook up I think, "This seems too soon"--and it's nice the show agrees with me! They've got a lot to process and come to terms with before pursuing a relationship, and I'm looking forward to when they'll finally be ready to get together.
• "Won't Get Fooled Again" blew me away it was so good and everything I wanted. Easily my favorite episode by far, may very well be one of my favorite episodes of anything television-related? It was like they looked at my id, saw the parts that made my lizard brain go the craziest, put that in a blender and served it to me and I fucking drank it up. WHAT A SCENARIO RIPE FOR AU PICKING watch as I write Farscape fic and all of it revolves around this episode. It's so good when canon just gives you permission to go insane.
Favorite things: Crichton being put in various fantasy scenarios including one where he's strapped down and dommed by his female crewmates and one of his male ones, Zhaan in a suit, Scorpius revealing he implanted a copy of himself in Crichton's mind, not one but TWO scenarios where his mom wants to fuck him, the fact that Crichton is being captured and tortured via mindrape again but with a different set of bad guys who just want to break his mind, the scenario with his dying mom that reduces him to tears and pleading in a collapsed fetal state on the floor while she whispers all his guilty feelings in his ear, the scenario with Aeryn rescuing him, the real reality of Scorpius rescuing him and promising to be with him and keep him safe while he's a broken husk of a man lying on the floor and Scorpius applauds. Probably more things I forgot. What a fucking feast.
It was also the first episode I saw, the one a friend had showed me years ago. What jogged my memory? Zhaan in a suit.
• "Liars, Guns and Money (Part 1): A Not So Simple Plan"--just when I thought the show couldn't get any hotter WOW THIS WAS HOT. Crichton fighting against the Scorpius in his brain and then Scorpius choking him and then Crichton back on Moya hugging his knees to his chest and admitting part of him wishes he didn't let Scorpius die while Aeryn has to comfort him and likely even more I'm forgetting. I don't smoke but I needed a cigarette break after that. Wow.
The next two parts were fantastic and, yes, hot.
• Season finale--also hot! Those final minutes! "I condemn you to live." Fucking A!
Knowing Aeryn lives piques my curiosity for the potential the impact bringing her back will have both on herself and on the rest of the cast. We've already seen how Crichton, D'Argo and Aeryn's presumed "deaths" impacted Zhaan, and we've already seen the crew itself in mourning and devastation over Aeryn's "real" death. Her being brought back from the dead, literally, could be just as traumatic as seeing her die. It goes without saying it'll do a number on Aeryn, be it from the undetermined passage of time between her death and her revival, or whether she even "wants" to be brought back.
Of course, I have no idea how she'll be brought back, or how much say every character has in the matter, or even if it'll be as impactful as I'm speculating it is. But Farscape has already demonstrated not shying away from showing the consequences of every choice and action the characters take (I was really delighted it remembered, repeatedly, that the crew agreed to cut off Pilot's arm at one point) and this would be too rich in potential for it to pass up on, so I think my expectations have a solid basis.
Crichton's state at the end of season 2, unable to speak is, of course, also temporary. But like Aeryn's death, the stakes are of a similar nature--it's not a question of "will Crichton get better", it's a question of "how will this impact Crichton's character and the rest of the cast from here on out". It's an essential sort of stake to have when writing a story where death may not be permanent or, at the very least, you want to give a reason for the audience to worry about the characters beyond the usual physical danger on the horizon.
I'm thinking back to how Crichton couldn't say "I love you" to Aeryn but the Scorpius in his mind could, and Crichton couldn't say it until Aeryn died--and now Crichton can't speak at all. Wonder if all these will tie together and how.
Wish list for next season:
• The Scorpius in Crichton's head isn't gone.
• Crichton continuing to be thrust into traumatic situations, often depriving him of his agency.
• Scorpius continuing to pose a threat to Crichton. There's no signs of it happening yet but I really don't want him to be declawed.
Uhh, that's it! I'm easy, and a freak.
• This season took me longer to finish than the first, and I think it's because I had a good sample of The Plot and wanted more. After "Mind the Baby", season 2 takes its time with a few rough patches of episodes along the way. "Vitas Mortis" was little more than background noise to me, and "Taking the Stone" wasn't as interesting as it could have been either.
• "Crackers Don't Matter" is a fan-favorite, I believe, but I wasn't a fan. I loved the concept, the beginnings of Crichton hallucinating Scorpius, and the sullen "We can't go back" ending, but for an episode intended to be dark, I felt it got too goofy to be taken seriously, and as a result, I thought its attempts to appeal to darkness fell flat.
• Fortunately, the following episode, "The Way We Weren't" was a huge improvement. I mentioned in a previous entry my need for experiencing character backstory first-handedly, and I loved getting it for both Aeryn and Pilot. The scene with Aeryn processing her past by going at a punching bag bareknuckled and bleeding was, uh, hot, and the scene with Crichton comforting her after breaking down was sweet. Loved Velorek and the doomed Aeryn/Velorek romance, loved that Aeryn herself was the one who doomed it. Loved the fucked up circumstances behind Pilot bonding to Moya. The continuing Aeryn/Pilot friendship is one of my favorites among the crew.
• Speaking of friendships--the Zhaan/Crichton friendship is easily my favorite, and one of those rare cases where I'm as interested in it as I would be regular ship, yet I don't ship it like that. Even stranger because it has all the hallmarks of a ship I'd be into--psychic links, intimate gestures, older woman/younger man, even bed-sharing (with Zhaan unashamedly naked at that!)--but I love it because it's platonic. I probably wouldn't say no to fanwork of them as a romantic pairing, but for now I'm enamored with their friendship first and foremost.
(Of course, this may change, as this is also what I said about Mob/Reigen once upon a time.)
Which is a long-winded way of saying I loved the parts in "Dream a Little Dream" that took place in the present with Crichton comforting Zhaan.
• "My Three Crichtons" I was expecting to be a waste of time. It's a ridiculous premise, even for a show with a "everything and the kitchen sink" approach to sci-fi. And the execution is ridiculous (god what was with future!Crichton’s big teeth and suddenly having what I think was supposed to be a Southern accent?), it's not one of my favorites.
But I absolutely love the ideas at play and how it works as a study of Crichton’s character. It’s Crichton’s emotional quotient vs his intelligence quotient distilled into two pure ids, and eventually he has to choose one over the other. At first he thinks it's the former because he's the less intellectually developed, but then he thinks it’s the latter because he’s lost his emotional intellect and then he decides to give himself up (before past!Crichton comes to kill future!Critchton-yeah this episode sort of wrote itself into a corner with the solution).
I love that even though Crichton doesn't do it, Crichton feels awful about it afterwards--awful about being the judge, jury and executioner of anyone’s existence, and having his own morality put to the test. I also love how this episode establishes the importance of Crichton as someone who’s driven by his heart, even for all that he is a scientist. And I loved that Chiana was the one who recognized it.
• I'm enjoying the slow burn of the Aeryn/Crichton romance. It's a "will they or won't they" with them having already kissed a number of times and been on the verge of admitting their feelings for one another and ultimately deciding to maintain the current status quo of their camaraderie--but it works. Every time they look like they're about to hook up I think, "This seems too soon"--and it's nice the show agrees with me! They've got a lot to process and come to terms with before pursuing a relationship, and I'm looking forward to when they'll finally be ready to get together.
• "Won't Get Fooled Again" blew me away it was so good and everything I wanted. Easily my favorite episode by far, may very well be one of my favorite episodes of anything television-related? It was like they looked at my id, saw the parts that made my lizard brain go the craziest, put that in a blender and served it to me and I fucking drank it up. WHAT A SCENARIO RIPE FOR AU PICKING watch as I write Farscape fic and all of it revolves around this episode. It's so good when canon just gives you permission to go insane.
Favorite things: Crichton being put in various fantasy scenarios including one where he's strapped down and dommed by his female crewmates and one of his male ones, Zhaan in a suit, Scorpius revealing he implanted a copy of himself in Crichton's mind, not one but TWO scenarios where his mom wants to fuck him, the fact that Crichton is being captured and tortured via mindrape again but with a different set of bad guys who just want to break his mind, the scenario with his dying mom that reduces him to tears and pleading in a collapsed fetal state on the floor while she whispers all his guilty feelings in his ear, the scenario with Aeryn rescuing him, the real reality of Scorpius rescuing him and promising to be with him and keep him safe while he's a broken husk of a man lying on the floor and Scorpius applauds. Probably more things I forgot. What a fucking feast.
It was also the first episode I saw, the one a friend had showed me years ago. What jogged my memory? Zhaan in a suit.
• "Liars, Guns and Money (Part 1): A Not So Simple Plan"--just when I thought the show couldn't get any hotter WOW THIS WAS HOT. Crichton fighting against the Scorpius in his brain and then Scorpius choking him and then Crichton back on Moya hugging his knees to his chest and admitting part of him wishes he didn't let Scorpius die while Aeryn has to comfort him and likely even more I'm forgetting. I don't smoke but I needed a cigarette break after that. Wow.
The next two parts were fantastic and, yes, hot.
• Season finale--also hot! Those final minutes! "I condemn you to live." Fucking A!
Knowing Aeryn lives piques my curiosity for the potential the impact bringing her back will have both on herself and on the rest of the cast. We've already seen how Crichton, D'Argo and Aeryn's presumed "deaths" impacted Zhaan, and we've already seen the crew itself in mourning and devastation over Aeryn's "real" death. Her being brought back from the dead, literally, could be just as traumatic as seeing her die. It goes without saying it'll do a number on Aeryn, be it from the undetermined passage of time between her death and her revival, or whether she even "wants" to be brought back.
Of course, I have no idea how she'll be brought back, or how much say every character has in the matter, or even if it'll be as impactful as I'm speculating it is. But Farscape has already demonstrated not shying away from showing the consequences of every choice and action the characters take (I was really delighted it remembered, repeatedly, that the crew agreed to cut off Pilot's arm at one point) and this would be too rich in potential for it to pass up on, so I think my expectations have a solid basis.
Crichton's state at the end of season 2, unable to speak is, of course, also temporary. But like Aeryn's death, the stakes are of a similar nature--it's not a question of "will Crichton get better", it's a question of "how will this impact Crichton's character and the rest of the cast from here on out". It's an essential sort of stake to have when writing a story where death may not be permanent or, at the very least, you want to give a reason for the audience to worry about the characters beyond the usual physical danger on the horizon.
I'm thinking back to how Crichton couldn't say "I love you" to Aeryn but the Scorpius in his mind could, and Crichton couldn't say it until Aeryn died--and now Crichton can't speak at all. Wonder if all these will tie together and how.
Wish list for next season:
• The Scorpius in Crichton's head isn't gone.
• Crichton continuing to be thrust into traumatic situations, often depriving him of his agency.
• Scorpius continuing to pose a threat to Crichton. There's no signs of it happening yet but I really don't want him to be declawed.
Uhh, that's it! I'm easy, and a freak.