In the thirteenth episode of the third season of Farscape, I will have a difficult time explaining this episode now or at any point in the future. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Farscape.Â
Trigger Warning: For discussion of drug use, consent, and body horror.
WELL. Remember when I wrote that whole big thing about drugging in genre shows in the last goddamn review? I HAD NO IDEA WHAT WAS COMING NEXT. And you know, I still think the show does a decent job of portraying the consent issues surrounding Fe’Tor’s freslin production and the way he manipulated both Jool and Chiana into his residence so he could use them to create more of the drug. Like, this could have been so much worse! It’s not amazing, but it’s better than I expected.
This is an extremely bizarre episode, namely because “Scratch ‘N’ Sniff” feels like it’s trying to do too many things at once. At times, it’s a noir mystery, but because of the comedic elements, it doesn’t pack a punch and it doesn’t feel like a thriller. Then, it feels a lot like The Princess Bride, which everyone should know by now is one of my great obsessions. There is nothing I love more in this episode than Pilot’s constant annoyed interruptions, and when it’s done well? It’s the best part of this story. But its integration into the noir-esque structure felt jarring because I couldn’t tell what this episode wanted to be.
To put it bluntly, this episode is a mess. At times, it’s endearing. It needs to be messy if we’re to accept that the narrative is structured as it is because Crichton, nursing a hangover, is trying to tell Pilot a story. That would mean that Crichton is an unreliable narrator, which would have made this episode even better! But since we never hear any other variations on the tale, that aspect is kind of pointless. How can we ever believe that Crichton’s lying if all we’ve got is Pilot saying he thinks Crichton is lying? Granted, this show has already done a Roshamon-style episode, so I don’t know that we needed another one, but I felt like I needed more in order to make sense of what the writers were attempting here.
Still, I’ve never seen a show address recreational drug use quite as explicitly as this one does, and practically every character is shown, at one point or another to be drunk or so high that they’re in another dimension. It’s not like “Scratch ‘N’ Sniff” is reluctant to portray this in detail, either, and we get to see how this Moya-mandated vacation turns into a disaster in the process. Thankfully, the writers don’t blame the characters for wanting to have fun; it’s clear by the end of the episode that freslin is super fucked up and Fe’Tor and his ilk are revolting.
And amidst this all is Raxil, who I found to wildly entertaining and ridiculous, a tiny ball of moral ambiguity and cunning. I’m forced to re-think her behavior because now I wonder if it was possible that she was acting that way specifically to trick D’Argo and Crichton into thinking that she wasn’t a threat to them. BECAUSE SHE FOOLED EVERYONE, INCLUDING ME. But even if that’s not the case, she does fit into the noir narrative extremely well; she’s an archetypical character for that kind of story, since she’s the one who appears to innocently lead these people into a mystery that she was technically responsible for the entire time.
Plus, I don’t think this episode would be nearly as wacky as it was without her. Would D’Argo and Crichton have met Kabaah without her? Because holy shit, look at that alien! AMAZING. The Jim Henson Company proves yet again that no other space opera can do what Farscape does because THEY’VE GOT PUPPETS. (Does that mean there’s an inevitable crossover between the Muppets and Farscape? Is there a Muppets version of Farscape? Come on, Jim Henson Company, make this shit happen.) This entire episode is full of some of the most ridiculous prosthetics, costumes, make-up, and puppets, and I’ll always be impressed by how often this happens on this show. As confusing as this episode felt at times, I think that actually works in favor of telling a story about chaos. This really did feel like the crew on Moya had a drug-fueled adventure down on this planet, and things like bright colors and constantly changing extras contributed to the background of “Scratch ‘N’ Sniff.”
Still, I found it hard to get into the story itself. The varying tone, the chaotic jumps in the narrative, the fact that this episode doesn’t seem to have any lasting contribution to a larger narrative, and my complete disinterest in Fe’Tor as a villain didn’t help. Like, I’ll be honest with y’all: I’m having difficulty coming up with any sort of analysis for the main plot. Drugs created by milking glands of living creatures suck? Offering drugs to people without telling them about the possible side affects is awful? Raxil is really entertaining? D’Argo and Crichton are going to argue until the galaxy winks out of existence? My problem is that I don’t quite know what was real, what could have been embellished by Crichton, or what was an outright lie. That would have been fun to dissect, but we’ve got the problem of having just one narrator and one point-of-view, so I’ve got nothing to compare it against.
I don’t want to give the impression that I hated this episode, though. It’s absurd and patently ridiculous, and I found it charming because you can tell how vibrant the writing is. The people making this show are ambitious as hell, and I appreciate that this episode tries to do something that’s unexpected, challenging, and fucking weird. This episode feels quintessentially Farscape, and I can’t imagine any genre show I’ve seen trying to do something like this.
The video for “Scratch ‘N’ Sniff” can be downloaded here for $0.99.
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