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selenakWiki summary: Talyn gets swallowed by a Budong, and it is up to Stark to save them. Crichton, already distrustful of Crais, believes he and Aeryn are having an affair while Talyn himself soon shows his hatred of the human.
Ben Browder's first scriptwriting effort is solid, but not one of my favourite episodes. In fact, I don't think I ever rewatched this episode after the initial viewing, but then, with the exception of The Choice, that's true for most of the Talyn based episodes, my fondness for Crais, Aeryn and Talyn not withstanding, whereas I did rewatch Team Moya's adventures during the same time more than once. Anyway, this episode has several elements to its cedit - and of course is ever so Farscapian with vomit as the solution to getting out of a space whale, excuse me, Budong. The subplot establishes Stark and Rygel as a surprisingly effective comedy duo. The main plot is basically troubled teen Talyn having a go at unwanted Stepdad in order to get divorced Dad and Mom back together again, with some oedipal undercurrents - is it that he relates to Aeryn as a mother figure, or that he wants her for himself, or both? - and some body horror as we see that the permalink with Talyn takes its physical toll on Crais, not to mention that the teen is running the show and not above causing Crais pain in order to gets what he want. It's a great episode for Aeryn, who gets to show both her joy and sense of wonder, so very much linked to her being a pilot (and a little bit of a Pilot) when she links with Talyn for the first time, her exasparated no-nonsense attitude (the "Talyn, you've seen them both naked, can you tell us whose is bigger?" remark when John and Crais are posturing) , and the efficient ruthlessness, now combined with emotional insight, when she finds a way to get Talyn to let John return to the ship at the very last moment by first flooding Talyn with a sense of love and then removing it. The final scene also puts an end to the postmortem-resurrection enstrangement between Aeryn and (this version of) John and to this non-shipper is still touching. Lasty, on the positive side, this episode reminds us that reformed Crais is still morally ambiguous Crais; yes, he did inform Aeryn of his condition before linking her with Talyn, and thus she made an educated choice, but he didn't mention the pain "punishments" when Talyn doesn't get his will, and to quote Captain Picard, a lie of omission is still a lie. (More of these to come as I recall.)
And yet. I think the reason why I'm not so keen on this episode is that while I'm not anti all triangles (I've learned to be careful in this regard - no sooner does one make a sweeping generalisation like "I don't like jealousy triangles" that a whole series of exceptions to this rule appear), but almost a whole episode of John being passive-aggressively dickish to Aeryn because he thinks she had sex with Crais (under circumstances which would have been specifically Crais blackmailing her, had they happened, no less) is hard to take, and it sours the efficiency of the final scene somewhat. On to Moya John next week!
The other episodes
Ben Browder's first scriptwriting effort is solid, but not one of my favourite episodes. In fact, I don't think I ever rewatched this episode after the initial viewing, but then, with the exception of The Choice, that's true for most of the Talyn based episodes, my fondness for Crais, Aeryn and Talyn not withstanding, whereas I did rewatch Team Moya's adventures during the same time more than once. Anyway, this episode has several elements to its cedit - and of course is ever so Farscapian with vomit as the solution to getting out of a space whale, excuse me, Budong. The subplot establishes Stark and Rygel as a surprisingly effective comedy duo. The main plot is basically troubled teen Talyn having a go at unwanted Stepdad in order to get divorced Dad and Mom back together again, with some oedipal undercurrents - is it that he relates to Aeryn as a mother figure, or that he wants her for himself, or both? - and some body horror as we see that the permalink with Talyn takes its physical toll on Crais, not to mention that the teen is running the show and not above causing Crais pain in order to gets what he want. It's a great episode for Aeryn, who gets to show both her joy and sense of wonder, so very much linked to her being a pilot (and a little bit of a Pilot) when she links with Talyn for the first time, her exasparated no-nonsense attitude (the "Talyn, you've seen them both naked, can you tell us whose is bigger?" remark when John and Crais are posturing) , and the efficient ruthlessness, now combined with emotional insight, when she finds a way to get Talyn to let John return to the ship at the very last moment by first flooding Talyn with a sense of love and then removing it. The final scene also puts an end to the postmortem-resurrection enstrangement between Aeryn and (this version of) John and to this non-shipper is still touching. Lasty, on the positive side, this episode reminds us that reformed Crais is still morally ambiguous Crais; yes, he did inform Aeryn of his condition before linking her with Talyn, and thus she made an educated choice, but he didn't mention the pain "punishments" when Talyn doesn't get his will, and to quote Captain Picard, a lie of omission is still a lie. (More of these to come as I recall.)
And yet. I think the reason why I'm not so keen on this episode is that while I'm not anti all triangles (I've learned to be careful in this regard - no sooner does one make a sweeping generalisation like "I don't like jealousy triangles" that a whole series of exceptions to this rule appear), but almost a whole episode of John being passive-aggressively dickish to Aeryn because he thinks she had sex with Crais (under circumstances which would have been specifically Crais blackmailing her, had they happened, no less) is hard to take, and it sours the efficiency of the final scene somewhat. On to Moya John next week!
The other episodes
