Mark Watches ‘Farscape’: S02E02 – Vitas Mortis

In the second episode of the second season of Farscape, the crew locates a Luxan, who asks D’Argo to help her with a difficult ritual. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Farscape.

I think this episode suffers from the same problem I had with Zhaan’s story in the season premiere. I’m dropped into the middle of a story in a way that doesn’t add to the experience. This left me more confused than anything else, though I did enjoy how this episode explored D’Argo’s culture and how it ties to his current predicament. It’s a story of moral ambiguity, too, since Nilaam isn’t really actively malicious here. What she does to Moya is an accident, though she nearly becomes malicious over the course of “Vitas Mortis.”

And yet, I was lost for at least the first third of this episode. How did they end up on this planet? Why is Crichton so immediately upset about being here? Since when did they find a commerce planet? There are only a few lines to give us any sense of context to how Zhaan, D’Argo, and Crichton ended up in Nilaam’s palace. I don’t need fiction to spell everything out to me, but this felt like I had missed a good ten minutes of the story. It’s like when you tune into a show just after the first commercial. That’s exactly what this felt like. I think I could have easily accepted that I wasn’t going to have the set-up explained, but Crichton’s behavior made me feel like I’d not gotten part of the story. For someone who has spent nearly a year traveling among alien species and observing their varied cultures, he’s incredibly intolerant here. He doesn’t want to understand what it is Nilaam’s doing. He doesn’t care that the ritual she asks D’Argo to do is meaningful in his culture. And it’s really bizarre! There’s a difference between caring for the fate of friend and being an intolerant jerk, and Crichton does not make any distinction between the two.

However, once I was able to get past this and accept that this story was well on its way, I felt that it was a thoughtful story, one that was more about character interactions than plot. Crichton had to accept that Nilaam wasn’t trying to actively harm D’Argo for him to finally step aside and let D’Argo participate in the ritual. For the most part, Nilaam’s intentions are left ambiguous to the audience, and, along with Moya’s deterioration, it makes up the main conflict of “Vitas Mortis.” (Though that conflict doesn’t show up for twenty minutes or so. The pacing in this episode is so strange!) When she suddenly changes her mind and completes the Ritual of Renewing instead of the Ritual of Passing, I expected that D’Argo would soon bear the consequences of Nilaam’s decision.

Except he doesn’t. And for a few hours, he gets happiness. IT’S HEARTBREAKING. While it had been much longer for Nilaam, D’Argo hadn’t seen a Luxan in a long while. So I understand their utter joy upon getting to spend time with one another, to have sex, and to entertain a future where they could be happy. I don’t think the characters on this show are quick to express hope at all, but D’Argo really did have a reason to think he could return home and find his son. (I assume that this is why he sought out a Luxan, yes?)

Unfortunately, Nilaam’s actions negatively affected Moya, not D’Argo. (I noticed that Chiana was immediately aware that something had gone wrong with the Ritual. Was that because she’s got some mysterious link with D’Argo or with Moya? I SAW THAT, I CAUGHT A THING.) Let the video for this episode stand as more evidence that I often don’t understand things until they’re spelled out for me. LORD, I DID NOT GET WHAT WAS HAPPENING UNTIL D’ARGO CONFRONTED NILAAM. It didn’t help that Nilaam was so genuine about not truly understanding what had happened. Well… actually, I’m not so sure she was totally innocent. I think she knew what she’d done the second she stepped onboard Moya. Regardless, that’s the sad part of this episode. Nilaam was so afraid to let go and move on that she latched on to the most powerful thing around her and sucked it of energy and potential. She didn’t seek to hurt Moya, but her intent didn’t matter. She was still killing the Leviathan. (Yo, if Farscape can understand that intent is not magic, so can you!)

But that isn’t to say that “Vitas Mortis” lacks sympathy or empathy. It’s all over this story. That’s how Crichton is able to accept that D’Argo has the right to risk his own life for the Ritual. He empathized with Nilaam’s desire to pass on because he knew exactly what it was like to be separated from his own kind. It’s how D’Argo eventually convinces Nilaam to follow through on the Ritual of Passing. It’s in all of Aeryn’s bonding with Pilot. (THEY ARE MY FAVORITE CHARACTER PAIRING IN THE SERIES, HOLY SHIT, I WANT HOURS SPENT ON THEM.) Farscape can be cynical or brutal at times, but it’s not a bleak series either. The writers consistently seek out emotional motivations for their characters. They write them as multi-faceted beings. (Maybe not Scorpius, but I don’t know that much about him yet.) So while I think this is an odd episode, I liked it because of the attention paid to understanding why all of this happened the way it did.

Plus, Crichton made a butthole joke. Totally worth the experience.

The video for “Vitas Mortis” can be downloaded here for $0.99.

Mark Links Stuff

– If you would like to support this website and keep Mark Does Stuff running, I’ve put up a detailed post explaining how you can!
– Please check out the MarkDoesStuff.com. All Mark Watches videos for past shows/season are now archived there!
– My Master Schedule is updated for the near and distant future for most projects, so please check it often.
– I will be at quite a few conventions and will be hosting events throughout the US, Canada, and Europe in 2014, so check my Tour Dates / Appearances page often to see if I’m coming to your city!
– Inspired by last year’s impromptu event in London, I am taking Mark in the Park on the road! You can see all currently planned dates and pitch your own city here.

About Mark Oshiro

Perpetually unprepared since '09.
This entry was posted in Farscape and tagged . Bookmark the permalink.