In the twenty-second and final episode of the second season of Farscape, FUCK YOU. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Farscape.Â
There’s been a common thing I’ve said in reviews for season two of Farscape, and I’m sticking to it. I think it is fun to do critical analysis of tropes in genre shows, though I don’t think it’s the goal of the criticism I do. It’s a big part of it, but then there’s FRIENDSHIP and THEMES and character development. But it’s been a goddamn treat to watch Farscape, the little show that could, as it started off as a ridiculous space opera full of incredible character designs and a floating puppet and a bunch of morally ambiguous “heroes.” I still back my thoughts on about half of season one and the early episodes in season two: sometimes, when this show sticks too closely to tropes and expectations, it’s not nearly as exciting as it could be. Fun, yes! But after I experienced some of the more surprising and genre-bending episodes, I wanted even more.
And good lord, this show delivered.
So, I’m repeating myself here: One of the most rewarding things this show does is take shit beyond the realm of what we expect. I wonder if that was always an intentional thing, if the writers wanted to comment on the frustrations of episodic science fiction. Particularly since the “Look at the Princess” arc, this show has experimented with what that means. How serialized can this narrative be? Can there still be one-off, individual episodes? Is that idea a problem in and of itself? I’d say that Farscape blurs the line between what’s expected of episodic television, since we’ve got trilogies within a season and other longer arcs, and it’s sort of all over the place in the best way possible.
But what about the stories themselves? Episodic television has to be safe in some regards because of what the audience expects. Everyone stays together, problems are resolved in half an hour or sixty minutes, and often, we’re meant to be comfortable. That’s not to suggest that shows don’t break from this norm. They have been for decades, and not just in the science fiction genre either. I still feel like shows such as Kolchak: The Night Stalker, The X-Files, and LOST changed what television could do in terms of the story, at least in America. There are plenty of others, too, so that’s not me saying they’re the only ones. Farscape isn’t the first to experiment like this, but goddamn, I can still appreciate it in the context of the genre and the medium and the story, you know?
I appreciate this, despite that it makes me furious and sad and upset and fuck this show forever. Because… gah. And it’s frustrating to talk about because I have to engage with my own expectations and examine why I have those! Why was I so certain that Aeryn Sun would not die when she plunged into that frozen lake, stuck in her chair? Why was I so certain that Crichton would get the chip removed from his brain? Why was I so certain that Scorpius wouldn’t show up? Why was I surprised?
It’s a commitment to the story, and that’s why so much of the second half of season two completely rules my life. A show like this (HAHAHAHA NOTHING IS LIKE THIS) would normally introduce these gimmicks or framing devices and then spend 45 minutes resolving it as neatly as possible so that we can move on to the next adventure. But for the most part, the past matters in Farscape. It’s part serialization, it’s part respect, and all of it matters. So when the crew tries to heal both Moya and Crichton, the weight of the past still rests on them, and it informs their choices, and it heightens the drama, and then it crushes us because these characters can no longer escape it. Their past matters, even if it destroys them.
I don’t think this episode would have been nearly as effective or soul-crushing had we not spent an entire season exploring Aeryn’s challenges with relationships and love. Period. This would have been a shocker, sure, but the salt in the wound is Crichton finally professing that he loves Aeryn – and Aeryn finally being able to say it back – as a form of manipulation. The dichotomy of his identity disappears once Harvey!Scorpius is able to fully assimilate into Crichton’s mind, and thus we get what we’ve all wanted in the worst possible context imaginable. Aeryn means what she says, and the clone within Crichton’s mind doesn’t care. The timing of it all is a tragedy, but it’s just one tiny nightmare of a billion to come. As Harvey!Scorpius controls Crichton’s entire body (AND BEN BROWDER GIVES US THE PERFORMANCE OF A LIFETIME, HOLY SHIT), Aeryn is forced to confront the worst-case scenario: She will actually have to kill Crichton before he falls into Scorpius’s hands.
And yet, when it’s put to the test, the show teases us with the decision, right up to the point where it doesn’t matter anymore. It’s heartbreaking to watch because all we have to go on is Aeryn’s words and her facial expressions. As Crichton taunts her, she insists that she has the courage to kill him, but… does she? COULD SHE ACTUALLY DO IT? Is she more like D’Argo, who wouldn’t be able to do so if he were in her place? But the conversation becomes a moot point when Crichton lands on top of Aeryn’s Prowler, forcing Aeryn to eject, and then –
Well, I just expected a lot of things. Someone to swoop in to save her. Aeryn to get out of the seat at the last minute. Some other twist, any other twist that saved her. Perhaps my expectations for the narrative were my own desires, I don’t know. But it doesn’t matter, because Aeryn sinks to the bottom of that lake, and then the episode cuts to her funeral.
Her funeral.
Meaning she is dead.
She is dead.
And this is not like Scorpius in “A Not So Simple Plan.” There’s her corpse, she’s dead, D’Argo is giving her his Qualta Blade and Rygel is putting his medallion on her and I WAS IN SO MUCH SHOCK I COULDN’T CRY.
FUCK
THIS
TAKE IT BACK. GIVE ME SOME BIG PLOT TWIST THAT NEGATES THIS IN SOME TOTALLY UNBELIEVABLE WAY BECAUSE I DON’T WANT THIS. I DON’T CARE. Just say, “Magic! She’s alive!” and you’ve got me onboard, everyone wins, let’s move on.
But Farscape, at least for the time being, fully commits to this. Aeryn is dead, the crew begins to consider what they’re going to do with their lives, and everything is awful. D’Argo makes plans to spend a life on a farm with his son and Chiana, though he’s entirely unaware that this isn’t the life they want. Stark and Zhaan make plans to enjoy one another’s company while Zhaan takes care of Moya. Rygel secures a ship to take him… well, home, I imagine. Crais speaks openly to Talyn about A BIG OL’ SECRET THAT IS UNFAIR AND WHY WOULD YOU TEASE US WITH THIS POSSIBILITY IN THE SAME EPISODE WHERE YOU KILL AERYN WHYYYYYYY. It all unfolds before our eyes, it’s all real, there’s no trick in the plot, and it’s happening. It was a surreal thing to watch because the grief and sadness was all over these characters, and I was forced to accept that the show had really killed Aeryn off.
Of course, it’s all made even worse by Crichton, who chooses to go through with the procedure to have Scorpius’s chip removed at great risk to himself. It’s a scary thing, obviously, since the chip literally grew within Crichton’s brain. But I also found it to be yet another one of those scenes this season that was ambitious and risky, but the acting and cinematography made it work. Ben Browder is consistently incredible in this episode, as is whomever played the Diagnosan. (BEST CHARACTER DESIGN OR BEST CHARACTER DESIGN.) I imagine it must have been a challenge to figure out how you would represent the Diagnosan’s probes onscreen, but they did it and did so beautifully. (Did Crichton choose to keep his memories of Aeryn??? PLEASE. PLEASE SAY HE DID, OR ELSE THIS WILL BREAK MY HEART EVEN FURTHER.)
And then I just sat there in horror and disbelief and shock as Scorpius arrives right as Crichton gets the chip removed, reveals that this very Diagnosan installed his cooling rods (!!!!!!!! HOW WHAT !!!!!!), kills the Diagnosan, takes the chip and the wormhole technology, and leaves Crichton on that table with a giant hole in his brain. That’s the final image of this season: Crichton, literally unable to speak, shrieks as Scorpius leaves with what he wants, and Crichton is left with nothing.
To say that this is upsetting betrays just how relentlessly fucked up this episode is. As I said before, the writers take the premise for this episode, go beyond the realm of what we expect, and then leave us in a space that feels unresolvable. How? How do you fix this? Who is going to repair Crichton’s brain if Scorpius killed the Diagnosan? How does this show go on without Aeryn? What was on the chip that made Crais cry? WHY DID THIS SEASON FINALE THINK IT WAS OKAY TO TREAT ME THIS WAY?
Oh my god, I am so totally in love with this show, but still: fuck you, Farscape.
The video for “Die Me, Dichotomy” can be downloaded here for $0.99.
We have also reached the halfway point in this project! (Well, aside from the Peackeeper Wars mini-series/movie.) I didn’t want to keep my next projects a mystery for too long, but now that we’re in the home stretch with just a few months left, I’m going to let y’all know the next three series I’ll be covering for Double Features!
Following the completion of Farscape, I’m doing all 9 episodes (series one and two) of a show called In the Flesh, which wasn’t on my list, but I heard a two-word description of it and literally went YEP, I’LL DO IT. So that’s happening. Following that, I will be liveblogging the first two Terminator films, WHICH I HAVE NEVER SEEN, and then watching all of The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Upon completion of that, I will finally – finally – venture through all five seasons of Leverage.
This means that all three of these shows can be commissioned as much as you like and it’s not going to stress me out. Please note that if ANY of the In the Flesh episodes for season two go over an hour, you’ll need to buy extra time. HUZZAH FOR NEW PROJECTS.
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