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Farscape - Season 2 - Episode 13

My Rating - 5

Fan Rating Average - 3.9

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# Votes: 46 1 3 7 4 9 8 6 6 10 12

Synopsis
Now married, Crichton and Katralla are frozen into living statues so that they may watch over the presiding governments of the next eighty cycles. Immediately, Clavor and the Scarran emissary Cargn attempt another assassination. Jenavian Charto again comes to the rescue, and she and the restored Crichton escape into the barren lands. Unfortunately for D'Argo, Chiana and Rygel, Empress Novia threatens the execution of every off-worlder on the planet if Crichton is not found. When finding John becomes a life and death matter, D'Argo turns to someone equally desperate to locate the astronaut: Crichton's enemy, Scorpius. [DVD]

Filler Quotient: 0, not filler, do not skip this episode.
- Numerous major long term plot threads are serviced here.

Problems
None

Factoids
- The Scarran heat ability can be used in lethal ways.
- This episode establishes that Scorpius, like any Sebacean, is weak against heat. But his Scarran side loves heat, making him paradoxically even more vulnerable to heat than ordinary Sebaceans. Scorpius must thus wear a cooling suit. The rods inserted into his head are cooling rods.

Remarkable Scenes
- The Scarran decapitating John's statue and dumping the severed head into acid to burn away.
- Scorpius retrieving John's head, only to be assaulted by the Peacekeeper spy.
- Zhaan assaulting the leviathan ship builder.
- The Peacekeeper spy discovering John's not a Peacekeeper.
- The leviathan ship builder revealing he was testing Zhaan's worthiness to inhabit Moya, not trying to euthanize Moya.
- The Scarran killing the prince.
- John taking out the Scarran.
- The empress revealing that the princess was impregnated with John's seed.
- John recommending that Tyno take his place as regent, declaring that he'd be a good father to the child John will never know.

My Review
Part 3 mostly fixes the focus issues at the expense of some of part 2's action gains. John and Aeryn have sort of kind of maybe probably worked out their relationship tension, but it took extreme separation anxiety and near death experiences for them to sort of kind of maybe probably accept their feelings for each other. Meanwhile, John got a princess impregnated with his child, though not by his own choice. The idea that his daughter won't be born for another 80 cycles is intriguing, but also a convenient way for us to dispose of this plot thread forever, rendering it largely inconsequential.

The only plot of actual consequence is John's time with Scorpius. We get some interesting exposition about Scorpius and what his big black suit and the weird rods being inserted into his head are all about and we also get to see Scorpius both fail and in some respects deal with failure. At first I was annoyed that Scorpius couldn't hack it on Sebacean royalty planet, but now that we've spent more time with his character, I can see why. Scorpius isn't Crais. He's interested in getting John, yes, but he won't sacrifice his career in the process. Thus, we see a more nuanced Scorpius here.

We also see a weaker Scorpius. His thermal regulation weakness has been exposed and in fact Scorpius was mere inches from being killed by John. Why John didn't kill Scorpius in that moment I may never know. As D'Argo said, it was a mistake. A huge mistake. Maybe it's just a flaw in John's character. He can't kill poor old Scorpy even when he knows he should because he's just too darn nice a guy. Whatever the reason, it should have been made more clear to us. Instead, it looks like a quirky, snap decision John makes for no good reason. Overall, the three parter was decent, but largely a disappointment. With better focus in all 3 parts it could have been a much stronger story.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

  • From Ulkesh on 2010-05-09 at 2:44am:
    As for why John didn't kill Scorpius...

    I got the distinct impression that Harvey (the neural implant Scorpius in John's head) was exerting some kind of subconscious influence, preventing the killing stroke.

    This seems the only halfway-reasonable explanation at this point, but my knowledge of the implant is limited; I'm watching the series for the first time and am just about where you are in the reviews.
  • From DK on 2012-08-06 at 8:24pm:
    The indecisive and flip-floping attitude of the princess and Aeryn were both so outrageous I don't know where to begin.  I guess the most outrageous part is that apparently we the viewers are to believe that this is acceptable behavior.  Although come to think of it, it is typical female behavior so I can't knock the show for being unrealistic but it did make me wish someone would choke the both of them.

    I did enjoy some of the original sci-fi thinking such as the *sweet or sour kiss* and viewing your unborn children at any age and being turned into a statue for a while to learn the government.  
  • From Margaret J on 2019-06-24 at 8:07pm:
    Disappointing end to an otherwise great trilogy. Not horrible just not as great as part 1 and 2. I did not like John making out with the PK spy seemed out of character and it takes away from his supposed feelings for Aeryn and IMO totally unnecessary plot-wise. Some of the scenes dragged on to long, as if they were just filling time.
    I also did not like the end to the Moya story arch. Having it turn out to be Zahn that they were testing IMO took away fro or made irelevant the first 2/3s of that story.
    I gave it a 7

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