"You were in my shoes. I was in your pants…"

[danceswithwords]

Standard disclaimer: this post and/or the comments may and probably will contain spoilers for the entire series. Previous episode posts here.

Comments

[danceswithwords]

The Skeksies, I mean those buzzard-like bad guy creatures also transform in that the second in command must "Evolve" by killing the captain who fails in his two attempts at killing Moya.

I liked the way the design of the creatures, which to me has a prehistoric, oddly dinosaur-like quality, went with their social and military code of survival of the fittest.

I think the crew secretly still denigrates John's plans and leadership.

I don't know if I'd go so far as to call it denigration. They all bring a healthy skepticism to bear, but it's not just with John--it's with everyone. The crew on Moya is what I'd call a tough crowd.

[thedeadlyhook]

I'm finally getting to the point where I can comment on some of these posts. : ) I have to admit that my viewing experience so far has had this Trek-ian quality of feeling like I'm not so much seeing the characters change so much as just getting to know them better. But you've nailed it, on this bodyswitch ep, the way their relationships all stay the same. Rygel's reactions in particular were, I thought, priceless. Even as Crichton, he's not taken seriously.

And the vomit! I think the first thing someone ever said to me about Farscape was that they loved the look of the show, the design work and all that, but didn't like to watch it because it always went out of its way to be "gross." Although that was actually something I found sort of endearing.

[danceswithwords]

And the vomit! I think the first thing someone ever said to me about Farscape was that they loved the look of the show, the design work and all that, but didn't like to watch it because it always went out of its way to be "gross." Although that was actually something I found sort of endearing.

I'm not normally a fan of such things, but in Farscape it seems to work--so much else about the show is larger than life, from the visuals to the emotions, that the over-the-top bodily humor fits.

[thedeadlyhook]

And even aside from the general over-the-topness of it, I keep thinking that there's a sort of running theme with all the sharp focus on body fluids and general physicality (Scorpius's heat regulation, for ex., and the flowers that make the Scarrans (sp?) smarter near the end of the series). I'm really getting a vibe that Farscape wanted to intentionally emphasize physical limits, rather than suggest a sort of Cartesian model that you see often in Star Trek or Stargate - high evolution as being a thing of pure mental energy. I guess it's also significan then that there are so many mental constructs in the series too - Harvey, the Wormhole Tech entities...

[asta77]

But ultimately, Chiana's the only one of them who's flexible about what body she inhabits, an attitude that speaks not just to Chiana's opportunism but to what drives her sense of self. Everybody else is irrevocably attached to his or her physicality.

That was one of the most interesting aspects of the episode for me, for everyone else having lost their physicality was an issue. Each reacted to it differently. Pilot with fear as he saw his life slip away. D'Argo with frustration and anger. John and Aeryn with a detremination to fix this. And Rygel with his usual selfish pissiness. ;) But Chiana seemed fine with the possibility of being stuck in D'Argo's body forever if it meant saving her own skin even if it wasn't here own skin. The one person who uses her body to her advantage more than any other on board Moya is the one person who can quickly cast off that part of herself

[laurashapiro]

The one person who uses her body to her advantage more than any other on board Moya is the one person who can quickly cast off that part of herself.

An excellent point.

I've found a few things to love about Chiana in this scene:

~ evidence of a totally flexible sexuality
~ a suggestion that as much as she can do in her own body, she'd be even more of a force to be reckoned with in a larger, stronger one. I don't think this is penis-envy, but rather pure practicality: she could add intimidation and general ass-kicking to her list of survival skills. That's my practical girl.

[asta77]

a suggestion that as much as she can do in her own body, she'd be even more of a force to be reckoned with in a larger, stronger one.

And you too have an excellent point. D'Argo's body would be a nice addition to her arsenal of weapons as she struggles to survive in this universe. Not that she's a weakling by any means, but I think it's safe to say she's found herself in many situations where she wasn't able to physically fight off aggressors. And she was still at a stage where she largely only thought about herself and how to make the best of her situation. I have to think if it was Rygel's body she found herself in she may have had second thoughts about abandoning her own body.

[laurashapiro]

I'm pretty sure you're right about that. (:

[laurashapiro]

I don't know why, but I never assumed John and Aeryn had sex after this episode. What I saw was the flirtation going further, for sure, and the body-swap situation erasing everybody's physical boundaries to the point where further ahem explorations seem inevitable -- that Chi and D'Argo get together here makes total sense.

But we know that Aeryn still has boundaries that she isn't ready to let John breach, and they aren't physical ones: Aeryn understands physical intimacy as "recreating" -- she's capable of separating sex and love. But she knows that John isn't, and she's not ready to go there.

So what the end of this ep does for me is deepen the UST, and that just makes John's frustration with her in LaTP seem even more buyable. I'm betting that after the "You--!", he chases her, there's some roughhousing, and some making out, and she gets out of it gracefully and they probably both go back to their rooms for a good wank. (:

[danceswithwords]

I think in part my viewing was influenced by having come to the show after seeing "The Peacekeeper Wars," knowing that they'd obviously been together enough to conceive a child (I had no idea, at the time, how twisted and complicated THAT development was!) and feeling, after "A Human Reaction," that, like you say, the boundaries are still there, and Aeryn's not ready to let him in emotionally yet, but that that didn't preclude physical intimacy entirely, just made it a somewhat separate development. I think I saw John at this point as someone who wanted the whole enchilada but would settle for some tortilla chips in a pinch, to use a terrible Mexican food metaphor. :)

But I think you're right that it leads up beautifully to "Look at the Princess," that he feels like the walls are finally starting to come down, and that the more he feels like he's finally close to getting what he wants, the more impatient and frustrated he gets.

I love your summation of what we find out about Chiana in this episode. She's so adaptable.

[laurashapiro]

She's adaptable all right: AC/DC. (:

And I'm perfectly happy with your Mexican food metaphor. I'm betting John would like it too, as long as you don't mention margarita shooters.

[raislak]

In many shows or movies one wonders how close the cast really is. I'm always impressed with this episode as a reminder how well these actors must know each other to take on not just the personna of the other characters, but mannerisms used as well.

I suspect that regardless of how difficult it was, they had a blast doing it.

[danceswithwords]

I think it must have been fun for them to riff off each other like that. And they all did a really fabulous job.