Farscape Rewatch: Dog with Two Bones
Wiki summary: As the crew prepare to go their separate ways, a rogue Leviathan attacks Moya. A mysterious old woman forces Crichton to choose between the two things most important to him; Earth or Aeryn.
What I remembered: this episode feels more like s4 than s3, and not just because Noranti debuts. It's the first angst for angst's sake installment.
what I thought upon rewatch: not quite. Aeryn wanting distance from MoyaJohn now that the threat of Scorpius & wormholes is gone still feels earned, in that it's only weeks after TalynJohn died, in show time, though her joining what for Chiana sounds like an assassination squad is a bit too on the nose in terms of wanting to make the audience worry whether Aeryn is going to follow her mother's footsteps. Otoh, John's central dilemma in this episode and the pregnancy reveal do feel like angst-for-angst's sake, more on that in a moment.
Anyway, this episode. Ending the season not with a big action finale but a more quiet epilogue felt back then and still feels to me as if inspired from Restless, the Buffy season 4 episode where BTVS, which definitely was an influence on Farscape, did the same thing. The plot MacGuffin - Moya wants to bury Talyn's remains in a sacred space for Leviathans, a Leviathan driven mad by grief shows up targeting our gang - is more an excuse to provide some nods towards outward action than anything else, though it fits with the general grief and death theme, as this is a very introspective episode. For John, that is. Something that definitely does foreshadow s4 is that despite the crew intending to split up, there are no scenes between, say, D'Argo and Aeryn, Aeryn and Pilot (!), Chiana and D'Argo, or hey, Chiana and Rygel saying goodbye. We're strictly in John's perspective and for the most part see every solely as they relate to him. (Which is far, far more protagonist centred than the show used to be.) This said, I'm going to slightly contradict myself by pointing to the Jool and Chiana scenes, and add that I do not resent but like that John asks Jool to look after Chiana during Talyn's burial, because I have a soft spot for the John & Chiana relationship in general. (Also for examples that John who's about to slide into complete obsessive mode re: Aeryn still remembers other friendships.)
We're spending a lot of time in John's head again, imagining marrying Aeryn on Earth with all his friends attending, merging the life he's created with his friends and beloved with the life he left behind on Earth, and finding it is impossible, with the reasons for the impossibility going from light hearted (D'Argo and his Qualta blade, Chiana hooks up with Dad Jack) to more serious (Aeryn leaves him after finding it impossible to adjust to life on Earth) to deathly serious (everyone dies because Scorpius avenges himself on John). Now, I'm not arguing with John's mind coming up with any of these scenarios - it's ic. Or with his general conclusion that he can have his old life or his new life but not both at the same time, which leads him to decide for his new life. But I am arguing with this as the conclusion of the season. (Restless, for the record, doesn't just show us Buffy's mind but that of all four main characters.) Even if you accept the John-centricity of the epilogue: "Do I stay or do I go?" wasn't his central question this season to chew on, narration in the credits not withstanding. (Just as point of comparison; in the actual s4, I do love the "what I've done, what's been done to me" scene from Terra Firma. Now that's the kind of John brooding I'd have thought to make thematic sense for the last s3 episode, especially given what just happened on the Command Carrier.
But mostly I miss introspectives for non-John characters. The closest thing we get is Chiana challenging Aeryn on her professional plans. And I want more.
On to what we got, not what I wanted: given, well, everything, I can understand why John's subconscious doesn't trust Scorpius' retort in the previous episode to the question as to whether Scorpius will seek vengeance against him. But in terms of show reality, well, Scorpius isn't s1 Crais. Or rather, vengeance against John isn't his own White Whale. I can't decide whether or not John imagining the big massacre happening on his wedding is fluenced by Frankenstein and the "I'll be with you on your wedding night" threat the Creature makes.
Introducing Noranti (without a name): I had forgotten that two thirds in, we actually do get an explanation as to how she came on board Moya. (She and some unnamed other prisoners were on a life pod following the Command Carrier implosion which was picked up by Moya; the others left, Noranti stayed.) While I get what the creators were going for by introducing her without said explanation for the majority of the episode - making the viewers feel as disoriented and bewildered as John himself - , I do think it was a mistake. I remember coming to like Noranti in s4, not least because the actress, whom we've lost this past year, rocked, and it's definitely good that the show came up with a female regular who wasn't young and pretty. But letting her join in this episode as a plot device (as if John ever needed someone urging him to brood before) and general magical MacGuffin is irritating more than anything else. Especially with the "Aeryn is pregnant" line as the last big reveal. See, that really is where the s4 decline of the way Aeryn is written starts. Not the pregnancy as such -The Peacekeeper Wars were a good illustration of how to write Aeryn pregnant and giving birth in an Aeryn way - but using it as a dramatic solution/cliffhanger, and one provided by not Aeryn herself, but a new character solely there (at this point) for exposition. To offer constructive criticism i.e. an alternative: how about revealing Aeryn's pregnancy by giving her a goodbye scene with Pilot and Moya, during which they talk about Talyn and losing your child, maybe also about Xhalax and having/not having/losing your mother, and then Aeryn lets it slip she's pregnant or deliberately confides it to Pilot? This way, her pregnancy would feel as a part of Aeryn's seasonal story that ties with her relationships explored this season (among which Talyn and Xhalax definitely were) as well as with her revisiting her childhood in another way on the Command Carrier the previous episode. It would feel like e a part of Aeryn's story and character development, instead of feeling like a plot device for John's.
The other episodes This entry was originally posted at https://selenak.dreamwidth.org/1444779.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.
What I remembered: this episode feels more like s4 than s3, and not just because Noranti debuts. It's the first angst for angst's sake installment.
what I thought upon rewatch: not quite. Aeryn wanting distance from MoyaJohn now that the threat of Scorpius & wormholes is gone still feels earned, in that it's only weeks after TalynJohn died, in show time, though her joining what for Chiana sounds like an assassination squad is a bit too on the nose in terms of wanting to make the audience worry whether Aeryn is going to follow her mother's footsteps. Otoh, John's central dilemma in this episode and the pregnancy reveal do feel like angst-for-angst's sake, more on that in a moment.
Anyway, this episode. Ending the season not with a big action finale but a more quiet epilogue felt back then and still feels to me as if inspired from Restless, the Buffy season 4 episode where BTVS, which definitely was an influence on Farscape, did the same thing. The plot MacGuffin - Moya wants to bury Talyn's remains in a sacred space for Leviathans, a Leviathan driven mad by grief shows up targeting our gang - is more an excuse to provide some nods towards outward action than anything else, though it fits with the general grief and death theme, as this is a very introspective episode. For John, that is. Something that definitely does foreshadow s4 is that despite the crew intending to split up, there are no scenes between, say, D'Argo and Aeryn, Aeryn and Pilot (!), Chiana and D'Argo, or hey, Chiana and Rygel saying goodbye. We're strictly in John's perspective and for the most part see every solely as they relate to him. (Which is far, far more protagonist centred than the show used to be.) This said, I'm going to slightly contradict myself by pointing to the Jool and Chiana scenes, and add that I do not resent but like that John asks Jool to look after Chiana during Talyn's burial, because I have a soft spot for the John & Chiana relationship in general. (Also for examples that John who's about to slide into complete obsessive mode re: Aeryn still remembers other friendships.)
We're spending a lot of time in John's head again, imagining marrying Aeryn on Earth with all his friends attending, merging the life he's created with his friends and beloved with the life he left behind on Earth, and finding it is impossible, with the reasons for the impossibility going from light hearted (D'Argo and his Qualta blade, Chiana hooks up with Dad Jack) to more serious (Aeryn leaves him after finding it impossible to adjust to life on Earth) to deathly serious (everyone dies because Scorpius avenges himself on John). Now, I'm not arguing with John's mind coming up with any of these scenarios - it's ic. Or with his general conclusion that he can have his old life or his new life but not both at the same time, which leads him to decide for his new life. But I am arguing with this as the conclusion of the season. (Restless, for the record, doesn't just show us Buffy's mind but that of all four main characters.) Even if you accept the John-centricity of the epilogue: "Do I stay or do I go?" wasn't his central question this season to chew on, narration in the credits not withstanding. (Just as point of comparison; in the actual s4, I do love the "what I've done, what's been done to me" scene from Terra Firma. Now that's the kind of John brooding I'd have thought to make thematic sense for the last s3 episode, especially given what just happened on the Command Carrier.
But mostly I miss introspectives for non-John characters. The closest thing we get is Chiana challenging Aeryn on her professional plans. And I want more.
On to what we got, not what I wanted: given, well, everything, I can understand why John's subconscious doesn't trust Scorpius' retort in the previous episode to the question as to whether Scorpius will seek vengeance against him. But in terms of show reality, well, Scorpius isn't s1 Crais. Or rather, vengeance against John isn't his own White Whale. I can't decide whether or not John imagining the big massacre happening on his wedding is fluenced by Frankenstein and the "I'll be with you on your wedding night" threat the Creature makes.
Introducing Noranti (without a name): I had forgotten that two thirds in, we actually do get an explanation as to how she came on board Moya. (She and some unnamed other prisoners were on a life pod following the Command Carrier implosion which was picked up by Moya; the others left, Noranti stayed.) While I get what the creators were going for by introducing her without said explanation for the majority of the episode - making the viewers feel as disoriented and bewildered as John himself - , I do think it was a mistake. I remember coming to like Noranti in s4, not least because the actress, whom we've lost this past year, rocked, and it's definitely good that the show came up with a female regular who wasn't young and pretty. But letting her join in this episode as a plot device (as if John ever needed someone urging him to brood before) and general magical MacGuffin is irritating more than anything else. Especially with the "Aeryn is pregnant" line as the last big reveal. See, that really is where the s4 decline of the way Aeryn is written starts. Not the pregnancy as such -The Peacekeeper Wars were a good illustration of how to write Aeryn pregnant and giving birth in an Aeryn way - but using it as a dramatic solution/cliffhanger, and one provided by not Aeryn herself, but a new character solely there (at this point) for exposition. To offer constructive criticism i.e. an alternative: how about revealing Aeryn's pregnancy by giving her a goodbye scene with Pilot and Moya, during which they talk about Talyn and losing your child, maybe also about Xhalax and having/not having/losing your mother, and then Aeryn lets it slip she's pregnant or deliberately confides it to Pilot? This way, her pregnancy would feel as a part of Aeryn's seasonal story that ties with her relationships explored this season (among which Talyn and Xhalax definitely were) as well as with her revisiting her childhood in another way on the Command Carrier the previous episode. It would feel like e a part of Aeryn's story and character development, instead of feeling like a plot device for John's.
The other episodes This entry was originally posted at https://selenak.dreamwidth.org/1444779.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.