In the fifth episode of the third season of Farscape, this show never ceases to be the most messed up thing imaginable. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Farscape.
WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS SHOW? STOP BREAKING MY HEART.
Death
I’m not ecstatic that this episode is so sad, but I appreciate that the writers have made it clear that Zhaan’s death hangs over everything. Whether it’s referenced openly by the characters or its in the more subtle ideas of memorializing the past, Zhaan is in every bit of this episode. You can see it in the readiness of Jool and Aeryn arguing. You can see it in Stark’s anguish. And it still hurts. I’m thankful, then, that the show didn’t have these characters move on from her without any sort of acknowledgment of how painful the grieving process would be.
Virginia Hey isn’t in the opening credits anymore, either. IT’S TOO MUCH FOR ME.
Time Travel
Ah, the time travel story in a sci-fi show! This is certainly not the first time I’ve seen something like this. (Hell, Doctor Who is often just a different variation on this very theme.) The grandfather paradox, present in science fiction since the 40s, is nothing new, and while it’s not technically at work here, I think you could argue that the principle is still the same. The crew is sent back 500 cycles to the day of the events that the memorial they were visiting was referring to. Thus, they cannot interfere because they might change the future! Except they quickly change the future anyway and oh no whatever do they do?
Yeah, I wish this story were that simple, because then it might be less brutally upsetting, but no, this is Farscape. The show engages with the grandfather paradox – it certainly comprises the sole conflict of “…Different Destinations” – and then resolves it in the most soul-crushing way possible. But it’s not just that this episode is so sad. There are a number of ways that this story stands out from what we’re meant to expect of it. As I mentioned in the beginning, the entire thing is tempered by the recent death of Zhaan, so it’s difficult to avoid considering how it’s all a commentary on her. Death is inevitable for these characters (EXCEPT AERYN, AND I’LL GET TO THAT BECAUSE OH MY GOD), and they’ve just had to accept their own mortality. Will Zhaan always be remembered? Will her sacrifice be trivialized by others in the future, or will she have a proper memorial?
That’s particularly interesting because of the implications this has for Aeryn and the veneration of Sub-Officer Dacon, who the Peacekeepers believed to be a brave war hero responsible for helping the Vaneks and the nurses find peace. That’s the primary reason she argues so fiercely with Jool at the site of the memorial; she finds it blasphemous for Jool to suggest that Dacon was nothing more than propaganda for soldiers.
However, then Aeryn meets Dacon, and he’s… a cook. A bumbling cook who has virtually no experience as a soldier and who most definitely doesn’t appear to have done anything that the Peacekeeper legends have attributed to him. So, as both Aeryn and Crichton race to keep all of the pieces in their correct order, they discover that that’s a lot easier said than done. Aeryn is forced to consider that the legend she’s found so inspiring is a lie, that Jool was right. Meanwhile, Crichton discovers that the reason for the advancing Vanek horde isn’t exactly what history recorded either. They’re dying of thirst, and the mountain holds the source of the river that dried out. I’m not saying that at all excuses what the Vaneks do here, but it offers up an explanation for their attach that wasn’t taught alongside the ceasefire.
Then Grines is killed by Cyntrina’s mother right when Crichton sets everything into motion, AND THIS EPISODE BECOMES SUPER FUCKED UP.
The writers also brilliantly include an outside perspective on the matter in the form of the crew back on Moya, and it’s those scenes that help contextualize just how relentlessly messed up this episode is. By being able to see the real time affects of the actions of the crew in that past, we can understand how their behavior has catastrophic repercussions in the future. The planet goes from a Vanek majority to desolation to becoming a wasteland to PLAIN OL’ NOT EXISTING. All in the span of a few hours!
And yet, it’s the scenes in the past that help us understand the complicated drama unfolding. Cyntrina’s mother also gives us context, as does Cyntrina herself. Aeryn’s conversations with Dacon help us to get a more complete view of what happened that day 500 cycles prior. But how much of that is going to matter? How can these people nudge the pieces as close to the original form as possible? Y’all, to answer this perplexing question, Crichton summons HARVEY. And look, I feel like this is a huge deal??? Crichton has sought out advice before, but it’s so blatant this time. It feels like Crichton’s just accepted that Harvey is in his head and there’s nothing he can do to change that. So why not treat him like a resource or an outside perspective? EXCEPT HARVEY REJECTS CRICHTON. My god, he really is an independent force within Crichton’s brain. THAT’S SO COOL TO ME.
Eventually, though, the moment comes when Crichton’s theory – of putting the pieces back in order – is tested, and it’s really impossible for me to not see Aeryn’s own existential crisis wrapped up in this. She’s so certain that Dacon doesn’t have to die in order to fulfill the requirements to put the future on track. But that’s coming from a woman who cheated death, one who discovered herself that the rules can be broken. So it makes sense that of any character here, she’d be the one to believe that Dacon could meet a different fate.
She’s wrong, though, and then everything’s even more awful than before because not only does his sacrifice broker a ceasefire, but the planet COMPLETELY DISAPPEARS IN THE FUTURE. Great. GREAT. Just when Aeryn is shown that Dacon made a brave sacrifice, that he understood what it meant to be a soldier, EVERYTHING IS CHAOS. The solution to this is kind of ridiculous, but that’s also why it’s so impressive. With no option left to put the timeline back in the right place, D’Argo, Aeryn, and Crichton have to use their weapons to create the illusion that there’s a huge army so that the Vaneks surrender. Yeah, typing it out sounds absurd, but I think that’s kind of the point. It’s a big showy bit of violence, one that’s actually kind of disturbing? I mean, the trio kill a lot of Vaneks, and it’s really jarring to think about.
I suppose it’s even worse when you think of how this episode ends. There’s a bleak futility to “…Different Destinations” because what these people did made things undeniably worse. IT ENDED UP SO MUCH WORSE, Y’ALL. The memorial is no longer for the ceasefire; it’s to remember the nurses and children slaughtered by the Vanek horde. And of course, to drive down the misery even more, the final image of the episode is of the carving that Cyntrina made. D’Argo remembers her, and this episode is not okay.
What the fuck, Farscape. WHAT THE FUCK.
The video for “…Different Destinations” can be downloaded here for $0.99.
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