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selenakWiki summary: After an assassination attempt, Crichton is put into hiding on an orbiting cargo ship, but he is betrayed to Scorpius. Aeryn accepts a proposal to go on a hazardous rock-climbing trip with a local suitor.
It's the middle episode in a trilogy, so essentially not that much changes - at the end of this episode, John is where he was at the start, only as a statue, none of his comrades has been able to change something about his situation, either, with Chiana and D'Argo functioning as a kind of Greek Chorus while Rygel has fun matching wits with the Empress - I think this is the first time since s1 we see that Rygel, when he tries, actually is good at negotiating and interacting with other experienced power players - , while Aeryn can't either deal with her feelings nor ignore them, so after a vain attempt to do something via menacing Jenavian and Katralla, she takes off with the guy who keeps reminding me of a Club Med animateur.
And yet, on the other hand, a lot happens. When John in Taking the Stone did his Russian Roulette stunt, it was a bare hint of what's on full on display here: the entire sequence with Braca is John Crichton at his suicidally craziest, and yet it's also entirely logical and an example of John displaying his intelligence and ability to improvise. You can tell he's listening the entire time Scorpius has his gloating conversation with Braca, and instead of fuming about being trapped, he's using what he hears there. It's something that can only work in the kind of society the Peacekeepers are where Braca at this point can be in no doubt that Scorpius will kill him if he doesn't deliver Crichton with mind intact and alive for plundering, and only in a circumstance where Braca is under outside pressure (again, John using something he's learned in the previous episode, i.e. how closely the planetary defense system guard the system and react to any weapon presence). It's a crazy gambit and yet entirely built on information the audience has been given along with John, fast paced and even when you know what will happen breathtakingly executed, with two chilling moments in the middle of the action sequence. One is when ro-Na, the latest small memorable creature played by Francesca Buller, aka Mrs Ben Browder, ends up electroluced, Braca hardly notices and while John pauses for just a second, he then continues anyway; the John of the first season would have been horrified, despite the fact ro-Na has sold him out to Scorpius. The other is when for the first time - Crackers Don't Matter excepted, when it could have been just a heat induced hallucination - the audience watches John hearing Scorpius' voice inside his head. I have no idea what I thought the first time I saw this, whether I thought it was just meant as a psychological thing or whether I guessed what was to come. Either way, it's extremely effective.
The John and Aeryn conversation is remarkable to me not so much for the shippy angst but because Aeryn accepts the quintessential argument here, that running away isn't an option because Clavor as King would spell disaster for the entire population. She doesn't say these people aren't their responsibility, that they don't owe them loyalty. (I mean, leaving the whole fairy tale /trope like monarchy situation aside, and whether it does need the royal family at all; it's not this kind of story.) Again, a far cry from s1, and yet: Aeryn the Peacekeeper also defined herself as part of a greater whole, back in the day.
(Speaking of tropes, the reveal of Jenavian being a PK spy was an amusing inclusion of one (and one that makes sense, given the Scarrans are already represented.)
Meanwhile, in another subplot: good lord, Jonathan Hardy, what even is that accent? I didn't remember this bit. Is he trying for an Indian/Pakistani sound? Anyway, I felt and feel a bit too obviously manipulated by this subplot since it was obvious even for a first time viewer that Moya (and Pilot) would not end here, and hence that Zhaan will somehow save the day. Otoh, upon this rewatch I find it quite appropriate that Zhaan, who spent the season so far with her sense of self getting shaken to battered repeatedly, here is in a situation where she faces what should be her territory as a priestess - a godlike entity whose judgment Moya accepts - and yet, even aside from her and her friends own need of Moya, you can tell it outrages her on every level. And speaking of characters getting battered this season: poor Moya. First her kid takes off with a kidnapper, and then she has a couple of near death experiences which include a glowing parasite and Zhaan spreading spores, in between she's twice separated from Pilot (and bear in mind that the last time before that this happened, with her old pilot, said old pilot had been murdered), and then her creator tells her she should just kill herself. This kind of thing never happened to the Enterprise.
Lastly: Chiana telling John she loves him, D'Argo (successfully) trying to make him laugh during those last moments before getting frozen as a statue: this episode has some lovely friendship moments. Including, of course, Zhaan and Pilot, with their tender scene.
Daughter of Lastly: still, part of me wishes Zhaan would have quoted Picard when talking to Kahaynu: "You're not God. The universe is not that badly designed.".
The Other Episodes
It's the middle episode in a trilogy, so essentially not that much changes - at the end of this episode, John is where he was at the start, only as a statue, none of his comrades has been able to change something about his situation, either, with Chiana and D'Argo functioning as a kind of Greek Chorus while Rygel has fun matching wits with the Empress - I think this is the first time since s1 we see that Rygel, when he tries, actually is good at negotiating and interacting with other experienced power players - , while Aeryn can't either deal with her feelings nor ignore them, so after a vain attempt to do something via menacing Jenavian and Katralla, she takes off with the guy who keeps reminding me of a Club Med animateur.
And yet, on the other hand, a lot happens. When John in Taking the Stone did his Russian Roulette stunt, it was a bare hint of what's on full on display here: the entire sequence with Braca is John Crichton at his suicidally craziest, and yet it's also entirely logical and an example of John displaying his intelligence and ability to improvise. You can tell he's listening the entire time Scorpius has his gloating conversation with Braca, and instead of fuming about being trapped, he's using what he hears there. It's something that can only work in the kind of society the Peacekeepers are where Braca at this point can be in no doubt that Scorpius will kill him if he doesn't deliver Crichton with mind intact and alive for plundering, and only in a circumstance where Braca is under outside pressure (again, John using something he's learned in the previous episode, i.e. how closely the planetary defense system guard the system and react to any weapon presence). It's a crazy gambit and yet entirely built on information the audience has been given along with John, fast paced and even when you know what will happen breathtakingly executed, with two chilling moments in the middle of the action sequence. One is when ro-Na, the latest small memorable creature played by Francesca Buller, aka Mrs Ben Browder, ends up electroluced, Braca hardly notices and while John pauses for just a second, he then continues anyway; the John of the first season would have been horrified, despite the fact ro-Na has sold him out to Scorpius. The other is when for the first time - Crackers Don't Matter excepted, when it could have been just a heat induced hallucination - the audience watches John hearing Scorpius' voice inside his head. I have no idea what I thought the first time I saw this, whether I thought it was just meant as a psychological thing or whether I guessed what was to come. Either way, it's extremely effective.
The John and Aeryn conversation is remarkable to me not so much for the shippy angst but because Aeryn accepts the quintessential argument here, that running away isn't an option because Clavor as King would spell disaster for the entire population. She doesn't say these people aren't their responsibility, that they don't owe them loyalty. (I mean, leaving the whole fairy tale /trope like monarchy situation aside, and whether it does need the royal family at all; it's not this kind of story.) Again, a far cry from s1, and yet: Aeryn the Peacekeeper also defined herself as part of a greater whole, back in the day.
(Speaking of tropes, the reveal of Jenavian being a PK spy was an amusing inclusion of one (and one that makes sense, given the Scarrans are already represented.)
Meanwhile, in another subplot: good lord, Jonathan Hardy, what even is that accent? I didn't remember this bit. Is he trying for an Indian/Pakistani sound? Anyway, I felt and feel a bit too obviously manipulated by this subplot since it was obvious even for a first time viewer that Moya (and Pilot) would not end here, and hence that Zhaan will somehow save the day. Otoh, upon this rewatch I find it quite appropriate that Zhaan, who spent the season so far with her sense of self getting shaken to battered repeatedly, here is in a situation where she faces what should be her territory as a priestess - a godlike entity whose judgment Moya accepts - and yet, even aside from her and her friends own need of Moya, you can tell it outrages her on every level. And speaking of characters getting battered this season: poor Moya. First her kid takes off with a kidnapper, and then she has a couple of near death experiences which include a glowing parasite and Zhaan spreading spores, in between she's twice separated from Pilot (and bear in mind that the last time before that this happened, with her old pilot, said old pilot had been murdered), and then her creator tells her she should just kill herself. This kind of thing never happened to the Enterprise.
Lastly: Chiana telling John she loves him, D'Argo (successfully) trying to make him laugh during those last moments before getting frozen as a statue: this episode has some lovely friendship moments. Including, of course, Zhaan and Pilot, with their tender scene.
Daughter of Lastly: still, part of me wishes Zhaan would have quoted Picard when talking to Kahaynu: "You're not God. The universe is not that badly designed.".
The Other Episodes
no subject
Date: 2020-10-18 08:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-10-19 05:53 am (UTC)As for John, if ever a lead deserved a time out to recover, he did, but seriously, even if everything else had been fine, I still think 80 years conscious while frozen in place in enough to drive anyone insane.
Incidentally, surely someone has written the AU where Katralla and he acually do stay married and try to make it work (whether 80 years later or in the present)? At this point, I could still see it working, as arranged marriages go. (Later in the show, no.) Not as a passionate love affair, but they both care about other people and have a sense of responsibility, she's actually not that different from his pre-Aeryn type (blond, tiny, smart), and most people who meet John on a longer basis come to care about him deeply (or they hate his guts, true).
no subject
Date: 2020-10-19 12:13 pm (UTC)There were several fics back in the day. Blue Eyes by Thea (still at Leviathan) and Inheritance by ChristinaK (AO3) are the first two that spring to mind, and Kixxa wrote one where Scorpius returned for John.