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selenakWiki Summary: The crew takes Moya and Crichton to an ice planet, hoping that both can be treated by a Diagnosan. Crichton's neural chip has taken control of his mind and body and will stop at nothing to survive, including harming Aeryn.
This is still one of the darkest, meanest cliffhanger endings of a overall stellar season, and knowing that Aeryn is only mostly dead, not dead dead, to quote Miracle Max, hardly lessens the impact. Mind you, rewatching made me realize they were setting up part of her resurrection by the method of her death (i.e. freezing), given Grunchlk explicitly tells our gang the various frozen organ donors were all alive in the sense that they were frozen just moments before their deaths. Also Crais' dialogue with Talyn about the information on the chip they'd wanted Aeryn to know only makes sense if you're assuming this is a set up for another season with a living Aeryn, otherwise there wouldn't have been a point in writing it. (If the scene was just to show how Aeryn's demise affects Crais and Talyn, they could have talked about something else.) When I first saw the show, Aeryn surviving/coming back was one of the few things I was spoiled for, so I can't say whether or not I would have believed the series would continue without her, or whether I would have picked up on those hints.
After the action-heavy previous episode, this one is all quiet aftermath with a sense of dread building, and solely the Aeryn/Harvey!John chase scene as outward action sequence. The sense of horror is strong for me throughout due to bodysnatching with a trapped original consciousness being one of my big red buttons; also, this is a superb performance by Ben Browder throughout. When I first saw the episode (dubbed and on German tv), I thought they kept switching between him and Wayne Pygram. Only later when watching it in the English original did I realise it was Browder throughout, adopting Pygram's speech rhythms and body language whenever the neural clone was in control. In a way, I wish the show would have let him do the episode without the Scorpius make-up, because he was so good that I would have known whoever was in control of John's body regardless, but I suspect they let him do the relevant scene in full Scorpius gear for the same reason that BTVS had Angel(us) kill Jenny Calendar in his vampire game face - they didn't want the audience to associate the character with the evil deed, solely the bad alter ego.
Anyway, the irony is that in this episode, you can actually see the clone, hitherto solely modelled on Scorpius' character traits, starting to adopt Crichton's as well. Not just the "Yeehah!" yelling but the way he talks to Aeryn, which is a dark side variation of John in playful mood. Actual Scorpius isn't the type to say "Darling: uncontested!" in reply to Aeryn pointing out she's still the superior combat pilot.
Speaking of actual Scorpius, him killing the surgeon just because he can is perhaps one of the few times we see Scorpius doing something evil for evil's sake (and to someone he owes a debt to, no less, as we learn this surgeon was the one responsible for the cooling rod). It feels a bit more Doylist than Watsonian-wise motivated to me, i.e the surgeon dies so John's situation is even more desperate in the last scene because the writers want to make it so. Then again, Scorpius is certainly feeling petty in that finale, and annoyed at all the trouble he's had due to Crichton so far.
The impending crash that is Chiana/D'Argo/Jothee gains speed here as D'Argo on the one hand keeps pushing them both off (and treats Chiana more like a child than a partner), but on the other hand secretly plans to propose and plans for a shared future on a farm which is most un-Chiana-like. I wasn't keen the first time around on that entire subplot, but this time I think it's actually well prepared and motivated, i.e. you can see where each of the three is coming from, including Jothee with his mixed feelings about his father and aversion to the D'Argo planned future on the farm.
All the Moyans - and Crais - grieving for Aeryn hits me hard, again despite knowing she'll revive; Rygel giving her his medal is perhaps my favourite detail, not least because from Rygel, for whom wealth is important only second to feed as a symbol of security and freedom, it really means something. If you think of how Rygel saw Aeryn back in s1, you see that he as well as the rest of the crew has come to care about each other. (Which doesn't stop him from planning his departure again rather than stay with an incapable of Starburst Moya; just because he's come to care doesn't mean he does not take self preservation first still.)
The Crais and Talyn as well as the earlier Crais and Aeryn scene are in a way the season coming full circle, as Crais in the season opener offered Aeryn for the first to to come with him and Talyn. Back then, no first time watcher was expecting her to accept, and she didn't even have to think about it. This time, she does think, and I remember thinking that it would be very interesting to watch if she did agree, though I didn't expect her to say yes, figuring the show would of course keep Aeryn on Moya with Crichton. What can I say: unexpected s3 plot was unexpected! (But welcome.) The other difference is that this time, the episode lets us see Crais and Talyn without Aeryn talking about this, thus showing he's not trying to lure her into a trap or intending something negative; he's still ambiguous, but he's become a pov character like our regulars.
Lastly: something I had forgotten over the years is that that the show gives Moya time to recover, i.e. despite some immediate first aid from Talyn in the previous episode, she's still very much suffering from the aftereffects of the burning. Which is the kind of worldbuilding that allows us viewers to really regard Moya as a "living ship", a sentient being feeling pain like the rest of the regulars, not a mechanical device which can be repaired after being shot at without being the worse for it.
And that's a wrap for s2; I'll put up the s3 masterpost next.
The other days
This is still one of the darkest, meanest cliffhanger endings of a overall stellar season, and knowing that Aeryn is only mostly dead, not dead dead, to quote Miracle Max, hardly lessens the impact. Mind you, rewatching made me realize they were setting up part of her resurrection by the method of her death (i.e. freezing), given Grunchlk explicitly tells our gang the various frozen organ donors were all alive in the sense that they were frozen just moments before their deaths. Also Crais' dialogue with Talyn about the information on the chip they'd wanted Aeryn to know only makes sense if you're assuming this is a set up for another season with a living Aeryn, otherwise there wouldn't have been a point in writing it. (If the scene was just to show how Aeryn's demise affects Crais and Talyn, they could have talked about something else.) When I first saw the show, Aeryn surviving/coming back was one of the few things I was spoiled for, so I can't say whether or not I would have believed the series would continue without her, or whether I would have picked up on those hints.
After the action-heavy previous episode, this one is all quiet aftermath with a sense of dread building, and solely the Aeryn/Harvey!John chase scene as outward action sequence. The sense of horror is strong for me throughout due to bodysnatching with a trapped original consciousness being one of my big red buttons; also, this is a superb performance by Ben Browder throughout. When I first saw the episode (dubbed and on German tv), I thought they kept switching between him and Wayne Pygram. Only later when watching it in the English original did I realise it was Browder throughout, adopting Pygram's speech rhythms and body language whenever the neural clone was in control. In a way, I wish the show would have let him do the episode without the Scorpius make-up, because he was so good that I would have known whoever was in control of John's body regardless, but I suspect they let him do the relevant scene in full Scorpius gear for the same reason that BTVS had Angel(us) kill Jenny Calendar in his vampire game face - they didn't want the audience to associate the character with the evil deed, solely the bad alter ego.
Anyway, the irony is that in this episode, you can actually see the clone, hitherto solely modelled on Scorpius' character traits, starting to adopt Crichton's as well. Not just the "Yeehah!" yelling but the way he talks to Aeryn, which is a dark side variation of John in playful mood. Actual Scorpius isn't the type to say "Darling: uncontested!" in reply to Aeryn pointing out she's still the superior combat pilot.
Speaking of actual Scorpius, him killing the surgeon just because he can is perhaps one of the few times we see Scorpius doing something evil for evil's sake (and to someone he owes a debt to, no less, as we learn this surgeon was the one responsible for the cooling rod). It feels a bit more Doylist than Watsonian-wise motivated to me, i.e the surgeon dies so John's situation is even more desperate in the last scene because the writers want to make it so. Then again, Scorpius is certainly feeling petty in that finale, and annoyed at all the trouble he's had due to Crichton so far.
The impending crash that is Chiana/D'Argo/Jothee gains speed here as D'Argo on the one hand keeps pushing them both off (and treats Chiana more like a child than a partner), but on the other hand secretly plans to propose and plans for a shared future on a farm which is most un-Chiana-like. I wasn't keen the first time around on that entire subplot, but this time I think it's actually well prepared and motivated, i.e. you can see where each of the three is coming from, including Jothee with his mixed feelings about his father and aversion to the D'Argo planned future on the farm.
All the Moyans - and Crais - grieving for Aeryn hits me hard, again despite knowing she'll revive; Rygel giving her his medal is perhaps my favourite detail, not least because from Rygel, for whom wealth is important only second to feed as a symbol of security and freedom, it really means something. If you think of how Rygel saw Aeryn back in s1, you see that he as well as the rest of the crew has come to care about each other. (Which doesn't stop him from planning his departure again rather than stay with an incapable of Starburst Moya; just because he's come to care doesn't mean he does not take self preservation first still.)
The Crais and Talyn as well as the earlier Crais and Aeryn scene are in a way the season coming full circle, as Crais in the season opener offered Aeryn for the first to to come with him and Talyn. Back then, no first time watcher was expecting her to accept, and she didn't even have to think about it. This time, she does think, and I remember thinking that it would be very interesting to watch if she did agree, though I didn't expect her to say yes, figuring the show would of course keep Aeryn on Moya with Crichton. What can I say: unexpected s3 plot was unexpected! (But welcome.) The other difference is that this time, the episode lets us see Crais and Talyn without Aeryn talking about this, thus showing he's not trying to lure her into a trap or intending something negative; he's still ambiguous, but he's become a pov character like our regulars.
Lastly: something I had forgotten over the years is that that the show gives Moya time to recover, i.e. despite some immediate first aid from Talyn in the previous episode, she's still very much suffering from the aftereffects of the burning. Which is the kind of worldbuilding that allows us viewers to really regard Moya as a "living ship", a sentient being feeling pain like the rest of the regulars, not a mechanical device which can be repaired after being shot at without being the worse for it.
And that's a wrap for s2; I'll put up the s3 masterpost next.
The other days
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Date: 2020-12-20 04:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-12-20 05:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-12-20 09:26 pm (UTC)