Farscape Rewatch: Family Ties (1.22, Part 1)
Wiki Summary: When Rygel decides to sell out the crew of Moya to the Peacekeepers, the crew must come up with a way to escape capture. Their luck changes when Rygel returns along with Crais. They formulate a risky plan to destroy the Gammak Base.
Still one of my favourite season finales upon rewatch. The three scenes I recalled most vividly before said rewatach were the stark visual image of D'Argo and John holding hands, floating through space as the Gammak Base ignites, Chiana having prepared a meal for everyone with their favourite food as her way of saying thank you, and the John/Rygel scene (what? It was the one that made me ship them!). But there are so many more to praise and love. Some of which gain their additional subtext with hindsight, like Crais, the first time he's on board Talyn, going on about the total genius who designed this particular Leviathan/PK hybrid. (Aeryn might have guessed who that genius was right then and there.) Otoh Crais and Aeryn on board Talyn: so much emotion because of what's to come. This starts what became one of my favourite constallations on the show, with Aeryn and Crais being the divorced parents sharing custody of the kid. Only, you know, without ever havng been a couple. Though I note this is also the first episode where we see Crais' new attitude towards Aeryn and I'm still not over him starting to find her interesting after she put him through the Aurora Chair.
This is also the debut of Wild Card! Crais, successor of Insane Military Commander!Crais, and it remains one of the best choices for a character on the show to take him there. The first time around, I was as stunned as the Moyans by this turn of events, and I truly did not know what to expect, especially since the show both gives him the scene with Crichton (more about that one in a minute) and then lets him kidnap the baby, making it clear this is neither a complete moral turnaround nor Crais-as-mole, but Crais as doing what's best for Crais with a side of dawning emotional awareness re: the rest of the universe. Upon this rewatch, it struck he is, in fact, at no point lying (that we know of, other than to Scorpius, presumably, and we don't see that scene). For what it's worth, I think the confession to Crichton - "it should have been about my brother" but that it had become about himself - is meant honestly, and also that this realisation is what enables Crais to let go of his vendetta at last. (Along with now loathing Scorpius and realising he's a dead man walking among the PKs and actually wants to live.)
I also find it fascinating how John responds, how Ben Browder plays it. He's, and I mean that not as a joke but literally, one of the best criers - John alawys comes across as incredibly vulnerable when he does that, and I can't help but contrast it to the scenery chewing way that, say, Edward Olmos plays Adama having his cry/break down in Battlestar Galactica's season 4. What I thought upon this rewatch: as much as he values his new life and the family he's made (which the episode highlights), I think part of what John's crying for is the awareness that being on the run from Crais has transformed him in darker ways, too, and he can't go back. Just compare this scene to the one mid season when Crais faked changing his mind while Maldis was holding them prisoner; that John was still far more eager to believe and optimistic about people. (And got skewered for his trouble, if only on the mental plane.) It's not that this one thinks Crais has to be lying but that he's aware whether or not Crais is,none of them can go home again.
Otoh, younger more naive John Crichton would have been far more indignant about Rygel selling them out. Whereas this scene - *chef's kiss*. No, but really: I do love that John is entirely (and correctly) convinced that Rygel went with the attempt to buy freedom and safety for himself by betraying the rest of them and just changed his mind because the situation changed, and that he's wearily affectionate anyway; that Rygel for the first time displays actual shame (not that this stops Rygel from wanting to escape later as soon as possible when they're debating whether or not Moya should starburst, but especially with the benefit of retrospect, this truly is a turning corner for our Dominar of action).
Speaking of looking-out-for-themselves people turning a corner: due to being a late arrival, Chiana had a shorter arc than everyone else among the Moya regulars this season, but it still feels earned that she's now at the point where she emotionally commits herself to this group as well. That shared meal makes me still go "awwww" (as much as the earlier dinner scene back before the arrival of the Gammak Base did). Since I have a soft spot for the John and Chiana relationship, let me add that the earlier scene between them, with her offering sex as thank you and him declining and asking her to help someone else instead, could have come across wrong in so many ways - patronizing, or slut-shaming, to name but two. Instead, it plays out tenderly, up to and especially including the kiss.
Meanwhile on the Command Carrier: Scorpius displays his supreme people hiring skills by winning over Braca, henceforth to be his Trusted Lieutenant, but makes two serious mistakes that prove to be significant for the future. Firstly, letting Crais and Rygel return to Moya. He assumes he can use Crais to draw the Moyans out and doesn't care one way or the other to what Crais is actually up to; having easily dealt with him both through the Aurora Chair and then on his Command Carrier, he assumes Crais to be unable to harm him, full stop. Secondly, by giving the order that John must be captured alive at all costs (due to the wormhole knowledge in his mind), he's given John a weapon to be used against himself, and he also has in the long term ensured his own obsession with Crichton won't go unnoticed by Central Command, either.
Crais referring to Scorpius as a "Scarran half breed" is as far as I noticed on this rewatch the first time someone says "Scarran" on this show, and would argue the writers knew that this would be a future plot point.
Lastly: as beautiful a visual as D'Argo and Crichton in space before a moon engulfed by a fire wave is, it's also deeply disturbing in a way I didn't find it upon my original watch. Partly because of a variation of the "what about the construction workers on the Death Star?" question; there were a lot of people on that base. Partly because younger me hadn't made the emotional connection to cities bombed in war which I now can't help but make. Partly because this is a big escalation. We saw earlier in A Bug's Life John being now ready to kill one possessed person (to save others) without hesitation. Here, he's ready to kill hundreds. (Depending on how many are on that base and how many can evacuate after impact.) Don't get me wrong, it's again a life and death situation, and the Peacekeepers on that base were a hostile oppressive force. But there's a reason why he gets the "terrorist" label after tht one in the Unchartered Territories, and it's not entirely unearned.
This concludes season 1; I will put up a post with a schedule for s2 some time this week. Thank you for watching (and reading, and commenting) along with me! Returning to Farscape has been a treat.
The Other Days This entry was originally posted at https://selenak.dreamwidth.org/1403820.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.
Still one of my favourite season finales upon rewatch. The three scenes I recalled most vividly before said rewatach were the stark visual image of D'Argo and John holding hands, floating through space as the Gammak Base ignites, Chiana having prepared a meal for everyone with their favourite food as her way of saying thank you, and the John/Rygel scene (what? It was the one that made me ship them!). But there are so many more to praise and love. Some of which gain their additional subtext with hindsight, like Crais, the first time he's on board Talyn, going on about the total genius who designed this particular Leviathan/PK hybrid. (Aeryn might have guessed who that genius was right then and there.) Otoh Crais and Aeryn on board Talyn: so much emotion because of what's to come. This starts what became one of my favourite constallations on the show, with Aeryn and Crais being the divorced parents sharing custody of the kid. Only, you know, without ever havng been a couple. Though I note this is also the first episode where we see Crais' new attitude towards Aeryn and I'm still not over him starting to find her interesting after she put him through the Aurora Chair.
This is also the debut of Wild Card! Crais, successor of Insane Military Commander!Crais, and it remains one of the best choices for a character on the show to take him there. The first time around, I was as stunned as the Moyans by this turn of events, and I truly did not know what to expect, especially since the show both gives him the scene with Crichton (more about that one in a minute) and then lets him kidnap the baby, making it clear this is neither a complete moral turnaround nor Crais-as-mole, but Crais as doing what's best for Crais with a side of dawning emotional awareness re: the rest of the universe. Upon this rewatch, it struck he is, in fact, at no point lying (that we know of, other than to Scorpius, presumably, and we don't see that scene). For what it's worth, I think the confession to Crichton - "it should have been about my brother" but that it had become about himself - is meant honestly, and also that this realisation is what enables Crais to let go of his vendetta at last. (Along with now loathing Scorpius and realising he's a dead man walking among the PKs and actually wants to live.)
I also find it fascinating how John responds, how Ben Browder plays it. He's, and I mean that not as a joke but literally, one of the best criers - John alawys comes across as incredibly vulnerable when he does that, and I can't help but contrast it to the scenery chewing way that, say, Edward Olmos plays Adama having his cry/break down in Battlestar Galactica's season 4. What I thought upon this rewatch: as much as he values his new life and the family he's made (which the episode highlights), I think part of what John's crying for is the awareness that being on the run from Crais has transformed him in darker ways, too, and he can't go back. Just compare this scene to the one mid season when Crais faked changing his mind while Maldis was holding them prisoner; that John was still far more eager to believe and optimistic about people. (And got skewered for his trouble, if only on the mental plane.) It's not that this one thinks Crais has to be lying but that he's aware whether or not Crais is,none of them can go home again.
Otoh, younger more naive John Crichton would have been far more indignant about Rygel selling them out. Whereas this scene - *chef's kiss*. No, but really: I do love that John is entirely (and correctly) convinced that Rygel went with the attempt to buy freedom and safety for himself by betraying the rest of them and just changed his mind because the situation changed, and that he's wearily affectionate anyway; that Rygel for the first time displays actual shame (not that this stops Rygel from wanting to escape later as soon as possible when they're debating whether or not Moya should starburst, but especially with the benefit of retrospect, this truly is a turning corner for our Dominar of action).
Speaking of looking-out-for-themselves people turning a corner: due to being a late arrival, Chiana had a shorter arc than everyone else among the Moya regulars this season, but it still feels earned that she's now at the point where she emotionally commits herself to this group as well. That shared meal makes me still go "awwww" (as much as the earlier dinner scene back before the arrival of the Gammak Base did). Since I have a soft spot for the John and Chiana relationship, let me add that the earlier scene between them, with her offering sex as thank you and him declining and asking her to help someone else instead, could have come across wrong in so many ways - patronizing, or slut-shaming, to name but two. Instead, it plays out tenderly, up to and especially including the kiss.
Meanwhile on the Command Carrier: Scorpius displays his supreme people hiring skills by winning over Braca, henceforth to be his Trusted Lieutenant, but makes two serious mistakes that prove to be significant for the future. Firstly, letting Crais and Rygel return to Moya. He assumes he can use Crais to draw the Moyans out and doesn't care one way or the other to what Crais is actually up to; having easily dealt with him both through the Aurora Chair and then on his Command Carrier, he assumes Crais to be unable to harm him, full stop. Secondly, by giving the order that John must be captured alive at all costs (due to the wormhole knowledge in his mind), he's given John a weapon to be used against himself, and he also has in the long term ensured his own obsession with Crichton won't go unnoticed by Central Command, either.
Crais referring to Scorpius as a "Scarran half breed" is as far as I noticed on this rewatch the first time someone says "Scarran" on this show, and would argue the writers knew that this would be a future plot point.
Lastly: as beautiful a visual as D'Argo and Crichton in space before a moon engulfed by a fire wave is, it's also deeply disturbing in a way I didn't find it upon my original watch. Partly because of a variation of the "what about the construction workers on the Death Star?" question; there were a lot of people on that base. Partly because younger me hadn't made the emotional connection to cities bombed in war which I now can't help but make. Partly because this is a big escalation. We saw earlier in A Bug's Life John being now ready to kill one possessed person (to save others) without hesitation. Here, he's ready to kill hundreds. (Depending on how many are on that base and how many can evacuate after impact.) Don't get me wrong, it's again a life and death situation, and the Peacekeepers on that base were a hostile oppressive force. But there's a reason why he gets the "terrorist" label after tht one in the Unchartered Territories, and it's not entirely unearned.
This concludes season 1; I will put up a post with a schedule for s2 some time this week. Thank you for watching (and reading, and commenting) along with me! Returning to Farscape has been a treat.
The Other Days This entry was originally posted at https://selenak.dreamwidth.org/1403820.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.