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Farscape - Season 2 - Episode 12

My Rating - 6

Fan Rating Average - 5.41

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# Votes: 14 5 11 6 6 6 10 17 9 10 15

Synopsis
Agents working for Prince Clavor try to assassinate Crichton, but their efforts are thwarted by Clavor's fiancee, Jenavian Charto. She turns out to be a secret Peacekeeper Operative on a mission to stop Clavor from taking the throne and making a deal with the Scarrans. Crichton goes into hiding, assisted by the Royal retainer, ro-Na. Meanwhile, Zhaan, Moya and Pilot meet the 'Builder' Kahaynu, one of the Leviathan creators. Angry over the birth of the gunship Talyn, Kahaynu orders nothing less than the immediate death of Moya. [DVD]

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

Problems
- John's exposure to vacuum in this episode was a bit lengthy for it to be realistic. Had the scene been about a quarter of the length it would have been a bit more realistic, if less cool. :)

Factoids
- The leviathan builders genetically engineered the leviathan species and gave them intelligence.
- Ro-NA was played by Ben Browder's wife, Francesca Buller.

Remarkable Scenes
- A Peacekeeper spy saving Crichton, believing him to also be a Peacekeeper spy.
- The floating orb trying to assassinate John and the princess.
- Rygel scheming with the empress.
- John trying to get Braca to mortally wound him, knowing Braca would be hesitant to do that since Scorpius wants him alive.
- John getting the orbital satellites to fire on the cargo vessel.
- John jumping from the cargo vessel to the transport pod into open space while the orbital satellites were taking shots at him!
- D'Argo to John just before he is to be statued: "Chiana and I are having fantastic sex."

My Review
Part 2 is basically a repeat of part 1 except it brings some fantastic action into the mix. John's spacewalk is of particular note. It's among the most badass scenes I've seen in all of Farscape so far! Unfortunately though, this episode does little to mitigate the previous episode's issues with focus. Aeryn is still incoherent and useless, Moya's still off in la la land with Zhaan, and the rest of the characters are unable to help John get out of his predicament, rendering them almost as useless as Aeryn.

As for Zhaan, we now know why Moya wandered off, but the reason isn't a very good one. It's intriguing to meet the leviathan ship builders, but for a race so advanced they seem to have rather primitive critical thinking skills. They can build leviathans, but seem to lack the ability to sterilize them. Thus, they decide to kill Moya to prevent her from reproducing further. A plot so ludicrous it almost belongs in the technical problems section.

Perhaps the most interesting thing in this episode was John hearing Scorpius' voice in his head telling him to focus in order to survive. Could this be a slow resurgence of hallucination Scorpius from Crackers Don't Matter? A less comical, more serious version of that Scorpius that exists solely to act as John's anti-panic mechanism would indeed make for some fascinating drama. As for the real Scorpius, I'm glad we saw him make an actual play to try and grab John, but it too was rather weak. I expected more from Scorpy.

Finally, on a lighter note, it was fun watching John masquerade as a Peacekeeper again in the teaser. I sometimes wonder if they'll be abusing that cliche for its endless comedic effects for the rest of the series. Overall, this episode is a step up from the last one, but not by too much. Scenes like John's spacewalk were undeniably badass, but do little to mitigate general poor plotting. Hopefully the next installment is a grand slam.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

  • From Lennier on 2010-05-09 at 2:01am:
    I was laughing through that entire scene in which John acts insane and manages to escape Braca. That was just hyperactivity at its finest.

    It also reinforces to me how much Ben Browder got to do, and how far he stretched, in Farscape and how little during his time on Stargate SG-1.
  • From Margaret J on 2019-06-23 at 6:33pm:
    I really liked this one too and although still not perfect I may have liked it a little better than part one. It had a little bit of everything, great character moments, action, mystery, humor and main plot progression.
    Like you I loved the visuals during John's "space walk". but, yeah it did take me out of the moment a bit with how improbable it was. The scene between RoNo/NoRo (character played by BB wife), Bracca and John on the ship with John goading him to kill him was hilliarious. The Aeryn and John scene when he was explaining just how tired.he was was heartbreaking as was the stuff regarding Moya and Pilot.
    Hearing Moya's voice was nice but I wish it had been a little clear I found it hard to understand. All in all I gave this one the same score as the last, a 9.

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