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selenakWiki summary: Crichton, Chiana, Rygel, and Sikozu head to Arnessk, where they find D'Argo, Jool, and Noranti. The happy reunion isn't about to last when the Peacekeepers, led by Commandant Grayza, are around.
Okay, now I remember why I had to come around to Noranti. And why Dog with two Bones mentally was classified by me as feels like a s4 episode. It's the trippy feeling. I've never taken LSD, but that's what this episode feels like, I'm sure. And not in the "Won't get fooled again" way.
Mind you, since on this rewatch I know the archaeological stuff has a point and the show is going somewhere with the whole "there used to be peace here" stuff, I feel less disoriented than the last time. I'm also reminded of how several people commented when I was watching s1 and s2 that Farscape does occasionally give you this sense of our heroes stumbling across the wreckages of several civiliations. S4 doubles down on this, starting with this episode. And in the Peacekeeper Wars<, there will actually actually be a pay off. But what's still confusing isn't so much the "past great civilisation could provide key to the future" plot sprung on us now; it's the "last time on "Farscape" in the opening providing several scenes with Greyza, Braca and Scorpius which made me wonder for a second whether Amazon Prime made me skip an episode. So: were these deleted scenes from s3 or the s4 opener? Or is there a version of Farscape episodes somewhere that I managed to miss and which does contain these scenes?
In any event: I remember, back in the day, hoping that Braca hadn't really changed sides, which is how I discovered I'd become somehow invested in Scorpius' relationship with Braca, and Braca himself. (David Franklin: or, how to get the writers to let you survive and flesh out your role into an actual part by superb facial reactions alone. Let this be a lesson to any actor cast in a "Yes, Sir" role.) Rewatching the episode, I wonder whether the writers had already decided whether or not he truly had changed sides at this point or whether ithey hadn't come down yet on one possibility. Why? Because in order to make it crystal clear that John Crichton gets raped in this episode, the show needs to establish Grayza's boob-sweat-as-hypno-pollen is not something you can fight off, and she does use it on Braca in order to find out whether he's secretly loyal to Scorpius. (Which, as we later find out, he is.) I guess Braca got out of the situation by taking the question literally, i.e. he's able to reply "no" to the question "Do you mind that Scorpus has lost his command?" because he's confident Scorpius will make a comeback with his help.
Which brings me to Grayza. What I thought then: pale Servalan imitation, do no buy her as the successor to Crais (in s1) and Scorpius (thereafter) as the main antagonist. Also, given Grayza is the highest ranking female Peacekeeper official we've seen so far, revealing that her sweat drops are able to make people her slaves in a manner that's explicitly coded sexual is certainly... a choice. Plus: she's clearly not entirely Sebacean. Or if she is, then she has modified herself. In a culture with a xenophobia that's an important part of the show's world building, this remains curiously unexplained . I mean, with Scorpius, we got the backstory. For Grayza, we never did, which leaves it at least possible she show means us to believe she got there by hypnosweat alone, which, again: a storytelling choice, and not a good one. (Also much in contrast to how the show handled both Crais and Scorpius.)
I don't mind the Servalan imitativeness so much anymore as I used to on this rewatch. But I do still mind the other elements. Including that there's a certain laziness in storytelling in letting Grayza, who has seen Scorpius fall from PK grace through his focus on wormholes and Crichton and who knows the later happened to Crais as well back in the day, now get interested in him with no better argument than "well, if both the Scarrans and Scorpius made such a fuss and he took out a Command Carrier, he must be worth investigating". Which blatantly translates into: we need the new PK antagonist hunt our hero as well.
The rape: well, aside from resenting the boobsweat plot device per se, see above, I have to say within that bad choice, I think it's to the show's credit that it doessn't kid around with what's inflicted on Crichton here. Farscape was the first genre media I had watched back then which not only presented it thus but also later in the season let Crichton himself refer to it as rape. It's also how Ben Browder plays it in this episode, with both his reactions during and his body language afterwards. This was highly unusual then, and still is. (I remember the endless discussions as to whether what Regina does to the Hunter in s1 of Once upon a Time was rape or not, not least because the writers themselves didn't appear to have thought this through. Look. If the show has establislhed a magical device overriding human will first, and she uses this, and then has sex with a man who previously gave no indication he wanted to have sex, it's rape. If the genders were reversed, it wouldn't even have been a question. Whereas in Farscape, you can tell the writers did know what this was and intended it to be taken as such. Which, if you have to use rape as your storytelling element, is how to do it.)
On the more enjoyable side: reunion with D'Argo and Jool! (I'm absurdly touched D'Argo doesn't just ask after Aeryn but also Rygel. Though on second thought: as far as D'Argo knows, Rygel took off to finally return home, so why should he be back?) The Jool and Chiana scene in lock-up, one of their last scenes together if I'm remembering correctly, is a good reminder of how close they've become. The D'Argo and Jool fallout, otoh, over Jool's reaction and thus revealed opinions on Luxans in general was, I thought, an in character divide and also a good example of how bias someone has absorbed works. (Usually, fantasy racism works by having evil character declare "you're *fantasy race derogatory nickname* scum! Whereas Jool, who is a sympathetic character, going "of course I don't think you're stupid, I think you're totally the exceptions from other Luxans!" is way more every day -ism.)
Elack's old, dying pilot continues to break my heart. Not-yet-named Noranti evokes mixed feelings: On the one hand, I think that given the show already inflicted future flashforwards on Chiana, having Noranti able to conjure up visions in John is just a bit too much. On the other, I also think Melissa Jaffar delivers an intriguing performance here, because the way Noranti goes from mystical mumblings to cooly delivered sharp insights ("if all the priests died, where are the bones?") , and you never know what's more real, the chattering or the intelligence, is attention-capturing. But yeah, could have done without the visions. And I groaned when she brought up Laka. I remember hating that subplot.
The other days
Okay, now I remember why I had to come around to Noranti. And why Dog with two Bones mentally was classified by me as feels like a s4 episode. It's the trippy feeling. I've never taken LSD, but that's what this episode feels like, I'm sure. And not in the "Won't get fooled again" way.
Mind you, since on this rewatch I know the archaeological stuff has a point and the show is going somewhere with the whole "there used to be peace here" stuff, I feel less disoriented than the last time. I'm also reminded of how several people commented when I was watching s1 and s2 that Farscape does occasionally give you this sense of our heroes stumbling across the wreckages of several civiliations. S4 doubles down on this, starting with this episode. And in the Peacekeeper Wars<, there will actually actually be a pay off. But what's still confusing isn't so much the "past great civilisation could provide key to the future" plot sprung on us now; it's the "last time on "Farscape" in the opening providing several scenes with Greyza, Braca and Scorpius which made me wonder for a second whether Amazon Prime made me skip an episode. So: were these deleted scenes from s3 or the s4 opener? Or is there a version of Farscape episodes somewhere that I managed to miss and which does contain these scenes?
In any event: I remember, back in the day, hoping that Braca hadn't really changed sides, which is how I discovered I'd become somehow invested in Scorpius' relationship with Braca, and Braca himself. (David Franklin: or, how to get the writers to let you survive and flesh out your role into an actual part by superb facial reactions alone. Let this be a lesson to any actor cast in a "Yes, Sir" role.) Rewatching the episode, I wonder whether the writers had already decided whether or not he truly had changed sides at this point or whether ithey hadn't come down yet on one possibility. Why? Because in order to make it crystal clear that John Crichton gets raped in this episode, the show needs to establish Grayza's boob-sweat-as-hypno-pollen is not something you can fight off, and she does use it on Braca in order to find out whether he's secretly loyal to Scorpius. (Which, as we later find out, he is.) I guess Braca got out of the situation by taking the question literally, i.e. he's able to reply "no" to the question "Do you mind that Scorpus has lost his command?" because he's confident Scorpius will make a comeback with his help.
Which brings me to Grayza. What I thought then: pale Servalan imitation, do no buy her as the successor to Crais (in s1) and Scorpius (thereafter) as the main antagonist. Also, given Grayza is the highest ranking female Peacekeeper official we've seen so far, revealing that her sweat drops are able to make people her slaves in a manner that's explicitly coded sexual is certainly... a choice. Plus: she's clearly not entirely Sebacean. Or if she is, then she has modified herself. In a culture with a xenophobia that's an important part of the show's world building, this remains curiously unexplained . I mean, with Scorpius, we got the backstory. For Grayza, we never did, which leaves it at least possible she show means us to believe she got there by hypnosweat alone, which, again: a storytelling choice, and not a good one. (Also much in contrast to how the show handled both Crais and Scorpius.)
I don't mind the Servalan imitativeness so much anymore as I used to on this rewatch. But I do still mind the other elements. Including that there's a certain laziness in storytelling in letting Grayza, who has seen Scorpius fall from PK grace through his focus on wormholes and Crichton and who knows the later happened to Crais as well back in the day, now get interested in him with no better argument than "well, if both the Scarrans and Scorpius made such a fuss and he took out a Command Carrier, he must be worth investigating". Which blatantly translates into: we need the new PK antagonist hunt our hero as well.
The rape: well, aside from resenting the boobsweat plot device per se, see above, I have to say within that bad choice, I think it's to the show's credit that it doessn't kid around with what's inflicted on Crichton here. Farscape was the first genre media I had watched back then which not only presented it thus but also later in the season let Crichton himself refer to it as rape. It's also how Ben Browder plays it in this episode, with both his reactions during and his body language afterwards. This was highly unusual then, and still is. (I remember the endless discussions as to whether what Regina does to the Hunter in s1 of Once upon a Time was rape or not, not least because the writers themselves didn't appear to have thought this through. Look. If the show has establislhed a magical device overriding human will first, and she uses this, and then has sex with a man who previously gave no indication he wanted to have sex, it's rape. If the genders were reversed, it wouldn't even have been a question. Whereas in Farscape, you can tell the writers did know what this was and intended it to be taken as such. Which, if you have to use rape as your storytelling element, is how to do it.)
On the more enjoyable side: reunion with D'Argo and Jool! (I'm absurdly touched D'Argo doesn't just ask after Aeryn but also Rygel. Though on second thought: as far as D'Argo knows, Rygel took off to finally return home, so why should he be back?) The Jool and Chiana scene in lock-up, one of their last scenes together if I'm remembering correctly, is a good reminder of how close they've become. The D'Argo and Jool fallout, otoh, over Jool's reaction and thus revealed opinions on Luxans in general was, I thought, an in character divide and also a good example of how bias someone has absorbed works. (Usually, fantasy racism works by having evil character declare "you're *fantasy race derogatory nickname* scum! Whereas Jool, who is a sympathetic character, going "of course I don't think you're stupid, I think you're totally the exceptions from other Luxans!" is way more every day -ism.)
Elack's old, dying pilot continues to break my heart. Not-yet-named Noranti evokes mixed feelings: On the one hand, I think that given the show already inflicted future flashforwards on Chiana, having Noranti able to conjure up visions in John is just a bit too much. On the other, I also think Melissa Jaffar delivers an intriguing performance here, because the way Noranti goes from mystical mumblings to cooly delivered sharp insights ("if all the priests died, where are the bones?") , and you never know what's more real, the chattering or the intelligence, is attention-capturing. But yeah, could have done without the visions. And I groaned when she brought up Laka. I remember hating that subplot.
The other days
no subject
Date: 2024-09-17 10:59 am (UTC)