In the eighth episode of the second season of Farscape, Zhaan recounts the tale of what happened on Litigara. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Farscape.
Oh, it feels good to be so right and so wrong at the exact same time.
I found it hilariously ironic that this episode confirms that there was something missing in “Mind the Baby” in terms of the story told about Zhaan, Rygel, and Chiana. AND THEN I FOUND OUT WHAT HAPPENED AND IT’S ALL ONE GIANT FLASHBACK AND I WAS NOT READY FOR IT.
Goddamn, this is a great episode. Let’s discuss why!
Explanations!
The obvious one that I want to get out of the way is that “Dream a Little Dream” fills in all the gaps I happened to notice in “Mind the Baby,” which will certainly re-contextualize that episode for me if I ever re-watch it. And having now seen this episode? I think this method of splitting the two stories works incredibly well. There would have been no way to cram both of them into a single episode, and following either “Family Ties” or “Mind the Baby” with this story would have felt really weird. SEE, IT’S GOOD THAT I DON’T UNDERSTAND EVERYTHING WHEN I WATCH IT FOR THE FIRST TIME. It made these reveals a lot more powerful.
So now I understand Zhaan’s sudden decision to take up the Seek again, as well as her reaction to seeing Crichton for the first time. And I get Chiana’s line about the trial they went through! IT’S LIKE MAGIC.
Court Procedurals
I mentioned this in the video for “Dream a Little Dream,” but I love ridiculous, barely-accurate legal dramas and court proceedings. Oh my god, I lived for all the courtroom scenes on Law & Order: SVU, y’all, you have no idea. There’s a bit of the genre in this episode, both in terms of honoring the tropes you commonly see and then in openly making fun of them. Farscape imagines what a world full of lawyers would be like, and guess what? It’s a fucking nightmare dystopia. SURPRISE! And lord, there are so many fascinating details planted throughout this episode, like how the lawyers in power could control elements in society that would guarantee that someone would get arrested. Litigara (I GET THE NAME OH MY GOD) is a brutal, cutthroat world, one that pretends to hold The Law as the highest social standard, but the whole system is utterly corrupt. I think all of the oppression metaphors work on the surface, but the whole Utilities / Lawyers dichotomy is pretty simplified.
STILL! Look at the courtroom design. It felt like a nod to the series finale of The Prisoner, and I adored how surreal the set design team made it. It’s an expansive place, and yet it still felt incredibly repressive. It’s brilliant! The whole thing is designed to be both uncomfortable and absurd, which is precisely what this whole episode makes us feel. I mean, I can’t believe I watched this entire episode and didn’t make a single reference to Kafka. The case against Zhaan is unreal to watch because it feels so openly hostile and ridiculous. Even if we take out Ja Rhumann’s part, the trial itself still comes across as repressive. The judge was ready to give her verdict before any of the witnesses were heard!
But lord, I love the idea of inexperienced lawyers becoming lawyers by some stroke of luck and desperation, and Farscape does a beautiful job with this trope. It’s simply a treat to watch Rygel and Chiana, the characters on this show who most rely on lying, have to submit themselves to a court where they cannot lie at all, or they’ll face the same punishment as their client. While Chiana is clever throughout this episode, the writers don’t magically make her a perfect lawyer in a matter of days. No, she’s pretty awful, as is Rygel, and they barely stumble through this case. Even the eventual solution they come up with is a lie! Well, okay, it’s a slight manipulation of the truth. Just slight!
Bless their hearts, though. I cannot fault them for trying very hard to do right by their friend.
Zhaan’s Journey
And for the proper amount of emotional turmoil, look no further than Zhaan. While the narrative device that frames “Dream a Little Dream” is only loosely connected to the larger narrative, I appreciate that it happened after “Home on the Remains.” If you think of this as Zhaan’s chance to examine her own nature and anxiety after she nearly killed Aeryn, it works remarkably well.
The giant flashback in the middle of this episode takes us inside of Zhaan’s mind in an increasingly haunting way. We get to see how she reacts to the stress and grief of her search for her friends, and it’s fascinating to contrast that with how D’Argo, Aeryn, and Crichton reacted to the same search in “Mind the Baby.” While they had more immediate concerns, Zhaan devoted herself to finding the ones she cared about. Unfortunately, with each day that she didn’t find them, she blamed herself more and more for her failure. Zhaan’s struggle here is entirely internal, so I’m impressed at how well Farscape was able to portray this on screen.
That’s done partially through the hallucinations she has of her missing crewmates. Initially, they’re just manifestations of guilt, which is why she’s so quick to try and plead guilty in her own case. If she can guarantee that Chiana and Rygel survive this ordeal, then she’ll have no problem sacrificing herself. It’s heartbreaking to watch! We know that Zhaan is the most empathetic character on the show, and seeing her tear herself apart over something she’s not in control of is a difficult thing. It’s her glimpse of D’Argo that helps her realize that she does have the power to fight her own despair. It’s fitting to me that D’Argo, who was also imprisoned alongside Zhaan, is able to remind her that she once suffered through this very horror once before. Yet we can’t forget that all of this is Zhaan’s own epiphany. The memory of her friends assists her in turning back to the Delvian Seek, but that strength was in her the whole time.
This episode doesn’t posit that the experience was a bridge to perfection. Zhaan is still struggling with her spiritual growth. But it’s a touching reminder that Zhaan’s spirituality did help her and others. She’s got more time to ascend to a higher level and perfect her craft, but she should also be proud of how far she’s come.
The video for “Dream a Little Dream” can be downloaded here for $0.99.
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