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selenakWik summary: After escaping Grayza, Crichton helps D'Argo and Sikozu plan an escape from the Peacekeepers before the planet becomes too hostile for any life.
In a rare exception of two parters, I liked this second part better than the first. (It helps that there are no more hallucinatory sequences.) The balance between surreality, humor and emotion works better for me. Elack's Pilot continues to break my heart, and be one of the most pathos-inducing bit characters the show did for me, and it seems for Rygel, too, who doesn't come across as anything but sincere instead of double dealing with her. Jool's goodbye is touching. Incidentally, while the friendship/tentative romance with D'Argo as developed up to this point works for me, I'm also glad it didn't continue, in that I don't think Jool/D'Argo would have made a better couple than Chiana/D'Argo, though for different reasons, and it would have felt like you have to pair up the non-Aeryn young female regular with D'Argo by default. This said, I remember being utterly bewildered when in "The Peacekeeper Wars", the series suddenly retconned Jool as having had a crush on Crichton. Anyway: this is a good final episode for her as a regular, and even the use of her trademark metal melting scream is just perfect.
Something I had forgotten: the info that the sex/hypno sweat drops hail from artificial glands which, however, condemn anyone who has that operation performed on them to a slow death and is irreversible. I don't think this comes up again in the remaining show. It sounds as if it was intended as a clue to be used later to give Grayza a backstory - did she chose to have that operation, or was it done without her consent, only for her to then turn the situation around and use it for her advantage? The later would certainly have been more interesting. Grayza, alas, continues to be a bad main villain on this rewatch in a way that feels bewildering, given these same writers had accomplished the switch from Crais to Scorpius back in the day so very, very well. But where Scorpius in his first few episodes got to demonstrate both intelligence and scary efficiency, Grayza doesn't demonstrate either. That she can rape people is not what makes a good main antagonist.
John gets over Noranti having tried to kill him remarkably quickly, but okay, that makes her one of so many on this show, and he buys her reason. In general, the whole archaelogy/time loop subplot works better for me, as mentioned in the previous review, now that I know the show is going somewhere with this; I can also appreciate we get repeated reminders that humans and Sebaceans likely have a shared origin.
Sikozu meets Scorpius for the first time here. During my original s4 watch I like their relationship (and was accordingly disgruntled in The Peacekeeper Wars); rewatching, I still enjoyed the scene, which offers good characterisation for both of them, Scorpius for figuring out a way even when shot and put in a grave, Sikozu for not just picking up the offered help - via the word he whispers to her - and running with it but actually trying to maintain her end of the implicit bargain. Since "whose side is Sikozu really on?" is a running theme in these early episodes, that's an interesting point to make about her, given only the audience, not our heroes, get to witness it.
Speaking of Scorpius: any opinions on how much or little John gets out of the ongoing humiliation conga Grayza puts Scorpius through? Because tv tropes seems to think he enjoys all of it. I didn't have the impression myself either during the original watch or during the rewatch, so I'm interested in other opinions. BTW, by this I don't mean I think Crichton is full of compassion and sympathy for Scorpius all of a sudden, especially since "Dog with Two Bones" demonstrated he didn't really believe Scorpius about NOT intending to come after him and Earth in revenge, but the whole situation with its blatant sadism is just too much for Schadenfreude.
Most bewildering pop culture reference of the episode: "I'm not going back into the saddle with Mata Hari!" Mata Hari was a spy (and a dancer, of course), which makes her a bad analogue to Grayza. Wouldn't it be more likely for Crichton to compare her to a female Disney villain like Maleficent or Cruella de Vil?
The other days
In a rare exception of two parters, I liked this second part better than the first. (It helps that there are no more hallucinatory sequences.) The balance between surreality, humor and emotion works better for me. Elack's Pilot continues to break my heart, and be one of the most pathos-inducing bit characters the show did for me, and it seems for Rygel, too, who doesn't come across as anything but sincere instead of double dealing with her. Jool's goodbye is touching. Incidentally, while the friendship/tentative romance with D'Argo as developed up to this point works for me, I'm also glad it didn't continue, in that I don't think Jool/D'Argo would have made a better couple than Chiana/D'Argo, though for different reasons, and it would have felt like you have to pair up the non-Aeryn young female regular with D'Argo by default. This said, I remember being utterly bewildered when in "The Peacekeeper Wars", the series suddenly retconned Jool as having had a crush on Crichton. Anyway: this is a good final episode for her as a regular, and even the use of her trademark metal melting scream is just perfect.
Something I had forgotten: the info that the sex/hypno sweat drops hail from artificial glands which, however, condemn anyone who has that operation performed on them to a slow death and is irreversible. I don't think this comes up again in the remaining show. It sounds as if it was intended as a clue to be used later to give Grayza a backstory - did she chose to have that operation, or was it done without her consent, only for her to then turn the situation around and use it for her advantage? The later would certainly have been more interesting. Grayza, alas, continues to be a bad main villain on this rewatch in a way that feels bewildering, given these same writers had accomplished the switch from Crais to Scorpius back in the day so very, very well. But where Scorpius in his first few episodes got to demonstrate both intelligence and scary efficiency, Grayza doesn't demonstrate either. That she can rape people is not what makes a good main antagonist.
John gets over Noranti having tried to kill him remarkably quickly, but okay, that makes her one of so many on this show, and he buys her reason. In general, the whole archaelogy/time loop subplot works better for me, as mentioned in the previous review, now that I know the show is going somewhere with this; I can also appreciate we get repeated reminders that humans and Sebaceans likely have a shared origin.
Sikozu meets Scorpius for the first time here. During my original s4 watch I like their relationship (and was accordingly disgruntled in The Peacekeeper Wars); rewatching, I still enjoyed the scene, which offers good characterisation for both of them, Scorpius for figuring out a way even when shot and put in a grave, Sikozu for not just picking up the offered help - via the word he whispers to her - and running with it but actually trying to maintain her end of the implicit bargain. Since "whose side is Sikozu really on?" is a running theme in these early episodes, that's an interesting point to make about her, given only the audience, not our heroes, get to witness it.
Speaking of Scorpius: any opinions on how much or little John gets out of the ongoing humiliation conga Grayza puts Scorpius through? Because tv tropes seems to think he enjoys all of it. I didn't have the impression myself either during the original watch or during the rewatch, so I'm interested in other opinions. BTW, by this I don't mean I think Crichton is full of compassion and sympathy for Scorpius all of a sudden, especially since "Dog with Two Bones" demonstrated he didn't really believe Scorpius about NOT intending to come after him and Earth in revenge, but the whole situation with its blatant sadism is just too much for Schadenfreude.
Most bewildering pop culture reference of the episode: "I'm not going back into the saddle with Mata Hari!" Mata Hari was a spy (and a dancer, of course), which makes her a bad analogue to Grayza. Wouldn't it be more likely for Crichton to compare her to a female Disney villain like Maleficent or Cruella de Vil?
The other days
no subject
Date: 2021-06-06 08:30 pm (UTC)The better analogue to Mata Hari would have been Jenavian Chatto in-series ( with whom John did rather happily share a saddle, as it were), who could probably dance a mean tango. I would have loved to have seen her again, perhaps as a PK liaison in S4. I always thought that Grayza rose up the ranks from being a spy, as the implantation of the gland seems tailor-made for espionage. And I was interested in the Houses Jenavian mentioned, although it occurs to me now that perhaps she originally thought John was a fellow spy from one of the Colony families, rather than PK, as "House" seems more suited to monarchial intrigue than non-familial PK society.
no subject
Date: 2021-06-07 05:14 am (UTC)Agreed on Jenavian Chatto as a Mata Hari analogue, and a character worth bringing back.
Grayza starting out as a spy: yes, that makes sense, and if I had to come up with a story, it would be that her original superior expected her to die in short order after performing whichever mission (Sikozu doesn't sound as if the women who normally have that operation done live very long), but Grayza found a way to slow down the biological breakdown and used both the knowledge she gained and her ability to influence people to switch career tracks from spy to military.