In the third episode of the fourth season of Farscape, Crichton resists Grayza while the team tries to escape the clutches of the Peacekeepers and a deadly planet. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Farscape.
Trigger Warning: For sexual assault, nonconsensual drugging
I think this is a neat two-parter that gives us a decent story for Jool before sending her off on her own adventure, but I think that I’ve finally figured out why I feel so confused all of the time. The writers are trying to do so much in ninety-minutes that practically every scene in the “What Was Lost” arc has no room to breathe. There’s no introspection; there’s no space for these scenes to expand or for us to adjust to changes. I have a sneaking suspicion that this is on purpose and that the drastic changes in the feel of the show are part of some greater plan for season four. Like I said in my review of “Crichton Kicks,” I do appreciate how risky this all feels, but at the same time, I think there are too many plots and sub-plots and characters and motivations that are all jammed into this story.
Still, that doesn’t mean I disliked this. I just feel weird about this season. LET US DISCUSS THE MANY THINGS THAT HAPPENED IN “Resurrection.”
Oo-Nii
So, let me start off with a good example of why this episode felt too crowded. When Oo-Nii’s eventual motivation is revealed, he comes across as a one-note antagonist. Any depth there might have been is negated because it turns out that all he wants is a bounty from the Peacekeepers. It does explain some of his behavior in the last part, but I’m left feeling dissatisfied by what we get from him. Here’s a creature who seems like a native part of Arnessk and claims to have spent 20 cycles searching for the probes, but… where did he come from? Was he only twenty cycles old? Why do any of this? At what point did he agree to work with Vella? Had he always planned to betray Vella or was this just an opportunistic turn for him?
This show generally is so fantastic with one-off characters, and perhaps I’m holding Oo-Nii to higher standards because of it. Still, I’m mostly confused by his inclusion here. Does he actually matter to the narrative? He provides the third act’s conflict in “Resurrection,” but the group would’ve had to find the probes and activate them regardless of his interference, so the ending is the same either way.
Grayza
Well, she’s terrifying. I could have used a more open condemnation of what she’d done to Crichton because in no universe is drugging a person to have sex with them not sexual assault. And while I have no desire to talk openly about this right now, I do admit that this is a touchy subject for me because I was once drugged and sexually assaulted, so I find nothing about what Grayza does to be erotic. I’m not really sure if the writers or the show were trying to show us her sex appeal through her actions in this episode. I got the sense that while Grayza initially used sex to manipulate Crichton, she actually came to want more from him than just information. Why else would she consent to being tied up? That wasn’t to manipulate him.
One thing that “Resurrection” conveys extremely well is Grayza’s sense of pride, which is one of the most significant aspects of her personality. When Crichton (understandably!) suggests that she’s merely Scorpius’s pawn, that there’s no way she’d be interested in what he knew about wormholes, she flips out. It’s not enough for her to merely deny this. She has to drag Crichton and his friends out into the jungle, force Crichton to dig a hole, and then has Braca shot Scorpius in the back, AND THEN BURIES SCORPIUS ALIVE. Which….. y’all. Y’ALL. HOW. HOW IS THIS SHOW DOING THIS, WHAT ARE YOU DOING. But it’s a clear demonstration that the priorities of Farscape. Scorpius is now literally gone from the narrative, buried beneath the earth on Arnessk. Grayza is now the main threat.
But as I said, it shows us how seriously Grayza takes her sense of pride. There’s a scene near the end of this episode where she spells out – in no uncertain terms – the ramifications of any rumor spreading regarding Crichton tying her up in her own chambers. I think you could also read this another way, though. What if it’s not so much about pride but about maintaining her image? She’s such a ruthlessly intimidating figure, and she doesn’t want to lose that. Regardless, GRAYZA IS SO TERRIFYING. It’s her coldness and lack of humor that makes her so totally unlike Scorpius as a villain.
Y’all, HOW IS SCORPIUS BURIED IN THE GROUND. WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS SHOW.
The Value in Running
I know that the point of this show is to tell the story of a bunch of criminals and ne’er-do-wells running away from their pasts, but a great deal of “Resurrection” felt like a familiar cat-and-mouse game, one the show has done many times before. It wasn’t refreshing, there wasn’t some new twist to keep me fully enthralled by the narrative, and because there’s so much going on with this massive cast, we don’t get stories that I feel could have been better served. I think that the final chapter in Elack’s story was sad and meaningful, as was Jool’s end. But in Jool’s case, we get the departure of a main character with very little time spent on seeing her leave. She fights the Peacekeepers and then she fights Oo-Nii and then she’s saying goodbye to everyone, and that’s it? It’s so sudden! That’s not to suggest it wasn’t foreshadowed in the last episode, because it was, but I still had no clue she was even interested in any of this in the first place. And now I’m expected to accept that Jool is going to stay with these priests to help them… I don’t know. Enter the modern age? What exactly is she going to do? If I’d known this was a life goal of hers, this would make more sense, but it’s not. It just seems conveniently tacked on to explain her leaving.
But I do understand that Jool was the only member of Moya’s crew who had no reason to continue running. That was a lot more meaningful as a reason. So why should she continue to fly through the universe without a purpose, avoiding one disaster after another? To me, that’s the saddest part of this. Jool is the only character who is finding some sort of happiness or satisfaction on this show. Everyone else is still drifting with yet another threat hanging over their heads.
Hey, at least now I know that Granny’s actual name is Noranti. If she’s going to be on Moya in the near future, can they institute a ban on blowing herbs and drugs into people’s faces? Because she really needs to stop that.
The video for “Resurrection” can be downloaded here for $0.99.
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