In the eleventh episode of the fourth season of Farscape, done. I’m done. What has this show done to me. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Farscape.Â
No. Nope. NOOOOOOOOOO WHY HAS MY SCHEDULE SPLIT THIS ARC. WHAT HAVE I BECOME?
Look, I already loved this episode before that thing happened, so let’s take some time to talk about what a dense, challenging, and rewarding experience this was. Then yelling. SO MUCH YELLING.
Before the Wormhole
I’ll keep repeating this: Stick Aeryn and Crichton in a room, lock the door, and FORCE THEM TO HAVE A CONVERSATION. It’s agonizing to watch them pine and worry over one another with no contact, though I did appreciate seeing that each of them had a friend who offered to help them out. But at the end of the day, this is something that Aeryn and Crichton need to resolve with each other. (Now I can continue to freak out about the ending because HOW THE FUCK CAN THIS EVEN HAPPEN GIVEN WHERE JOHN IS. ahhhhhhh I am not okay I AM NOT OKAY.)
We’ve also got Sizoku and Scorpius making an alliance against the Scarrans. And you know, it makes a lot of sense, given that, like Scorpius says, they have intimate experience of why the Scarran threat should be taken seriously. So what does that mean? Will she also do whatever she can to protect Crichton? Or will she actively work to convince Crichton that he needs to destroy the Scarrans? I’M INTRIGUED BY THIS.
During the Wormhole
This is such a gusty move on the part of the show, and I know I’m a broken record now. BUT THE WRITERS COMMIT SO FIERCELY TO WHAT HAPPENS HERE, AND I ADORE IT. I’d forgotten about Pilot and Moya forgetting what happened in the wormhole they were sucked into, and so this episode was a lovely reminder that there was still an unresolved plot. Holy shit, y’all, what a story. Like I said above, the writers take a concept that’s ridiculously complex – the relativity of space and time and the theory of unrealized realities – throw it in our faces, confuse us, shock us, make us laugh, and make it incredibly clear that John Crichton possesses a power he does not understand.
The Ancient that Crichton dubs Einstein has a fascinating role here, one that’s both incredibly aggressive and frightening, but then evolves to something that’s more beneficial to Crichton than anything else. Actually, I don’t know if it’s technically correct to call Einstein an Ancient; Einstein says that the Ancients were a modified version of his species that could exist in Crichton’s realm. So Einstein is higher on the hierarchy than the Ancients, correct? That was my impression. Regardless, I was initially skeptical about a being testing Crichton’s intentions because it wasn’t exactly something new in terms of story. Wasn’t that the whole point of the original story in the first season and the Ancient!Jack from the last season?
And then Einstein says he’s there to kill Crichton, and Crichton falls through a wormhole right into another world.
So yes, right from the start, I was going to love this episode. PARALLEL UNIVERSES AND ALTERNATE REALITIES ARE MY ETERNAL WEAKNESS. But holy shit, Farscape goes to such an incredibly complex and evocative place with something that’s normal standard in genre shows. Einstein kept insisting that time was important, and I’m so thankful that he showed Crichton (AND ME, LET’S BE REAL) why that was the case. He doesn’t just pop Crichton into parallel worlds; he explains how vital it is that Crichton understand the relativity of time. I think that, in hindsight, I believed that the very first “trip” was to a parallel realm, but it’s not, is it? Isn’t that the exact same experience that Crichton had in the first episode of this show? There’s nothing different about his placement or the characters present or the order of events. Hell, he’s able to predict when Rygel spits at him or when D’Argo is going to tongue him. (Out of context, that sentence sounds suspiciously dirty.)
I’m guessing, then, that that first demonstration was simply an example of time, not space.  And all of the documentary clips – which I barely understand, THEY ARE SO WEIRD, WHY IS THAT THE FORMAT EINSTEIN USES – verify that nothing has changed. All of those people relay information that Crichton already knew about his life. This doesn’t get Crichton to understand, so Einstein pops him into another realm, this one that is incredibly jarring and upsetting.
BECAUSE THAT’S AERYN AS CHIANA AND HOLY SHIT, CLAUDIA BLACK IS SUCH A GOOD ACTRESS. The experience is meant to show Crichton that other worlds exist. But why? Why is that important? It’s only upon looking back at this episode that I was able to fully understand what Einstein was trying to do. Throughout “Unrealized Reality,” he’s attempting to impart the importance of time in relation to wormhole travel, but he doesn’t do so by sending Crichton to the worst case scenario. He does it gradually. First, he’s sent to the past. Then, to the past in an alternate world where the people he knows are different in varying ways. Then, to a world where Aeryn is the same, but his interference in his current state actually proves deadly. All of this is to lead into the big kicker: Crichton has to arrive at the precise time he left or his journey into a possible past could have horrific implications. Not just that, but Crichton could end up permanently within an unrealized reality.
I now see that Einstein threw Crichton into that disturbing reality where he was part of the Peacekeepers immediately after Crichton said he wasn’t afraid of the knowledge in his head. I GET IT, Y’ALL. I UNDERSTAND A THING. And it makes so much sense because Einstein needed Crichton to appreciate the knowledge to the point that he was terrified of the capabilities it held. So he’s put into increasingly upsetting situations that all show him why he needs to be vigilant. Well, it’s not just vigilance, of course. There’s the logistics of travel itself, which are important because they will prevent Crichton from ending up in some horrific reality. I love the idea that the Ancients gave him a subtle ability to recognize the signatures of the places he’s traveled before because it places so much meaning on experience. Experience is everything here, and that’s how Crichton was supposed to find his way back to Moya. What had he experienced more than Moya? What was he tied to more than that ship and those people and Aeryn?
Oh god, I CAN SEE HOW THIS WAS FORESHADOWED FROM THE BEGINNING, OH MY GOD.
The final two glimpses that Einstein gives Crichton are the most disturbing and upsetting ones, and as I said, they’re supposed to be. Crichton learns firsthand what will happen if he doesn’t trust what he knows and if he doesn’t prevent anyone else from getting their hands on the technology. He sees the effects of the Scarrans using wormholes and invading Earth, creating those Scarran-human hybrids we see and guaranteeing generations of oppressed people who live under them. But then we see an unrealized reality that’s more frightening than anything else. (Well, it’s also kind of funny because practically every cast member gets to play someone else, and it’s beautiful. IT’S SO BEAUTIFUL.) It’s scary because Crichton almost gets stuck in a horrible world where nothing is what it should be and Crichton is the one to betray all of his friends.
That’s what Crichton needed: to be scared of what he could do.
After the Wormhole
And so, armed with the knowledge of the Ancients and the proper amount of fear, Crichton is cast out into a wormhole one last time, Einstein gone to his realm. THEN HE TURNS AND IT’S THE MOON AND THAT’S FUCKING EARTH AND OH MY GOD. WHAT HAVE YOU DONE, FARSCAPE. WHAT HAVE YOU DONE???? WHAT TIME IS CRICHTON IN? HOW DARE YOU SEND HIM TO EARTH WHEN HE’S JUST IN A SPACESUIT, AND HOW DARE YOU SEPARATE HIM FROM HIS FRIENDS, AND HOW DARE YOU UNKNOWINGLY TIME THIS SO THAT I HAVE TO WAIT A WEEK TO SEE HOW THIS IS CONCLUDED.
All right, that’s my fault. But fuck. This might just be the most ridiculous and shocking plot twist in the whole show, and I’m probably wrong, but I’m distraught. Forgive me. HOW ARE THEY GOING TO RESOLVE THIS????
The video for “Unrealized Reality” can be downloaded here for $0.99.
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