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Posted By: The Master Aug 18, 2001 - 04:43 pm

I knew Crais didn't kill Xhalax. That frelling traitor!

Ok, we go from Cartoons to Hotel Hell. No one can say Farscape isn't creative! Overall it was dark and creepy and a great setting for Aeryn's mourning process. I did thing the creatures were a little over the top in the mutant/gooey things department, but it worked. The view from Aeryn's window was cool...Bladerunneresque "urban nightmare" landscaping.

Great ep for Claudia...she really got a chance to show what she can do. And what she can do! Ugh...pullin' my heart strings big time!

So now Aeryn got a chance to mend things with Xhalax (or at least resolve them) after all. Nice, but not entirely statisfying. I kinda wish they had done a separate ep. to cover this, but this worked too.

LOVED the scene in the hallway with Aeryn taking Crais and Stark down a notch. Especially when she turned on Stark to let him know she was an idiot and knew exactly how he felf about her.

Rygel never ceases to amaze...just when you think you can count on him to be a selfish little slug who'd just as soon stab you in the back as look at you, he turns around and does something nice! The scene with him and Aeryn at her window was great. He also was the surprising voice of reason, saving Crais from getting blasted by Stark on Talyn because they needed him to fly the ship. Sheesh...who'da thunk it?

Stark...hmmm. What's in his mask? My guess it is now carries the secret T-John passed to Stark on his death bed. So I guess M-John puts it on and suddenly learns it? Have to see where that goes.

And so Stark leaves them for a while...are we going to get "Stark's Adventure" eps or now? (Hope not!) Next week they reunite the crews...bets on how much Aeryn tells M-John about her relationship with T-John?

Posted By: ZimNova Aug 19, 2001 - 10:25 am

Season of Death, yep.
First off I too liked the shots from Aeryn's hotel suite. Only thing is they showed a planet far more advanced than that shown in the hotel lobby with all the zombie types hanging around.
Master, I agree, the half Sebacean, half insect race (which we have yet to be introduced to) *Talyn* as well as the zombies were way over the top as I had a hard time visualizing any of them flying the 'cars' we see from Aeryn's window. Only logical explaination I can come up with is that the hotel is on *skid row* or more likely a planetary version of down below from Babylon-5.

I still don't understand how we see Crichton.
Sure, Aeryn is grieving and may have imagined seeing him so just what was she seeing? An apparition, Crichton's ghost? Plot device?
As noted, Rygel was again a worthwhile member of the crew. Saving Crais' butt was only the start.
What will Stark find? Will Zhann be making a guest appearence later this season? I would love to see her character again.
Without his mask he'll fit right in with all the other weird characters on the planet.
Also, unless either Moya or Talyn return he'll have to hitch a ride home after he finds whatever he's looking for.

I was about 80% sure Xhalax was still alive but with Farscape one can never be certain of anything. That Crais cut a deal with her, trading her life to get the PK retrieval squads off Talyn's back makes sense. He was making a choice that was in the best interests of everybody aboard Talyn.
I'm glad Aeryn is at last free of Xhalax for good.
There was a price though. She seems to have gone back to full PK mode. How this plays when the two crews re-unite and she meets up with M-John should be vary interesting indeed. I wonder if Aeryn will be warm towards John, willing to try at love again or will M-John be *dead* to her if she withdraws back into herself unwilling to start over again. Of course poor M-John won't have a clue one way or the other.
Stark's mask will be a key. Does it contain something of the late T-John's essence, his memories of life aboard Talyn and his loving relationship with Aeryn?
Or perhaps the advanced wormhole technology discovered from *Jack* and Furlow? Both? None of the above but something else all-together?
That's why I love Farscape. It always keeps one guessing.

Posted By: Bmat Aug 19, 2001 - 01:06 pm

I thought John was similar to the people we saw in the B5 episode- was it Day of the Dead or something like that- that the ship was divided off and people met others who had died.

I was uncomfortable with the makeup, pretty nauseating stuff. Didn't Talyn tell Aeryn that he had assumed that appearance in order to evade capture? He must actually have been Sebacean and not the hybrid we saw?

Posted By: fanuilh Aug 20, 2001 - 04:39 am

The fellow that met with Aeryn was an imposter, I thought. He wasn't necessarily full or half Sebacean. He may have had his appearance altered to hide (that much may have been the truth) but he wasn't Aeryn's father.

My impression was that when Crichton appeared, it was because Aeryn was thinking about him and wishing he were there with her. Nobody else saw him. In Day of the Dead, the "visitors" were visible to anyone in the Zone (i.e. when Garibaldi spoke to Lochley on the comm, she could see Dodger, and Dodger could see her -- and Dodger saluted with the wrong hand but that's another post).

I did like the scenes from Aeryn's window. Neat, neat, neat. And I'm afraid of heights!

The strange little four-eyed mutant "seer" was just plain creepy. Made me want to go find a real big fly swatter.

Posted By: Crowe Aug 20, 2001 - 05:31 am

This was a pretty good ep. Lots I didn't expect. (Except for Ayren's mom, I just didn't think she'd pop up that soon).

I didn't expect Stark to go vapor on us, but I'm sure he'll be back. Maybe with in a cool story with Zahn guesting back on the show even if it's just for an ep or two.

Looks like the Master called it though with Stark's mask and during Icarus Abides. I think it's probably memories, maybe wormhole info like The Master is suggesting. But who knows. I don't think John will use it right away though thus adding to the delay of him and Ayren getting back together.

I think when Ayren gets back to the ship, she'll push John away. It's good for the plot to keep them that way. We got to see what it was like for them together. Not many shows get to do that while the show is hot. They usually wait till the show is dying to throw in some romance to try and save it. I think it's always a last ditch effort because it usually kills the show. I'm glad they are going to put us back on needles waiting for them to hook up. But this is Farscape. For all we know she could get back to the ship, see John and fall over herself trying to get back with him and he be the one to push her away because she "hooked" up with T-John. haha. That sounds like something the writers would do to us!

I'm looking forward to the ships getting back together. I'm impressed with Crais's development as a character. I look forward to seeing where they take him in the future.

--Crowe

Posted By: ZimNova Aug 20, 2001 - 11:26 am

Fan, right. The 'bug-eyed' Talyn was an imposter so it would appear. I say appear because he was able to pass the PK DNA test at the start to gain Aeryn's trust.
Was he in the employment of Xhalax who maybe gave him a bit of her DNA to fool the machine?

The title *The Choice* works on many different levels.
Xhalax says her choice was between Talyn & Aeryn given to her by the ruthless PK command for having conceived a child not to further the ranks but out of love. Bad mistake for a PK.
As a mother she chooses Aeryn (she can find another man but not another daughter). Question is; did she lie to the PK about Talyn? I don't think so based on the pain she claims to have lived with ever since that fateful day, plus the fact that she is a hard case, a cold blooded killer.
Crais' choice was to find another to act as Talyn's pilot and leave the crew to go off on his own as soon as possible.
Stark's choice was to seperate from the crew and remain on the planet looking for the ghost of Zhann while sending his mask back with Rygel to M-John containing whatever he received from the late T-John.
Rygel's choice was to return to Talyn, then get back to Moya and some decent chow.

Aeryn's choices however were many.
She was about to *Take the Stone* without the benefit of a sonic net. Her grief over the loss of T-John had led her to the brink of suicide.
Her choice was life.
She lets a wounded Xhalax fall to her death. She chooses to let go of her past memories of her mother & father as they were not the loving parents she had hoped to find. Xhalax was nothing more than another PK following orders trying to save her career when she kills her lover Talyn.
She dons her PK uniform, pulls her hair back into the tight braid and may withdraw back into renegade PK kick-ass mode. With the Scarran threat still out there that may come in handy. We'll see.

I too was reminded of the S-5 Babylon ep. *Day of the Dead* while watching TC. The characters seen in the Bikiri section of the station were inter-active with outsiders unlike Crichton was here. Aeryn does have pretty realistic hallucinations though!

Fan, FYI. That left handed salute is a sign of disrespect to a senior officer in the current military.
"Clean the latrine?, Yes Sir", then behind the officers back or otherwise out of sight, the left handed salute, "Frell you sir".
For Dodger to have done it to Lochley's face was a major insult but hey, what can Lochley do to her for Dodger's already dead! LOL

Posted By: fanuilh Aug 21, 2001 - 04:56 am

Zim, about the salute.... Did you really think Dodger meant to be disrespectful? I didn't think so. I think maybe the point was she was flustered and confused; she never showed any contempt towards leadership in "GROPOS."

Posted By: Crowe Aug 21, 2001 - 06:34 am

Was dodger even in the military? Or did she die before Lockley went in. That would mean she wouldn't know jack about how to salute except what she saw on tv.

I remember the ep, but not well. I didn't catch it this time around.. DOH!

--Chris

Posted By: Bmat Aug 21, 2001 - 06:40 am

Yes Dodger was a member of the GROPOS- Ground pounders.

Here is a description from the B5 Encyclopedia:

"GROPOS" stands for "ground pounders" and refers to the Earth Alliance's equivalent of the U.S.
Marines. In fact, the term "Earth Force Marine Corps" was contained in the Gropos' marching song.

http://www.oinc.net/B5/Enc/

Posted By: Iznardi Aug 21, 2001 - 08:19 am

Hmmmm. Well, an old fiction-writing lesson says the most useless thing you can do with a character is kill them off. Farscape seems to enjoy killing them off, not just once, but lots of times. It occurs to me that we STILL have no proof that Xalanx is dead. We saw her fall. But no body.

I have to be the lone voice in disliking this episode. I was with it to the halfway point. But once it became another confrontation between Aeryn and her mother, and it was clear they would kill off mother yet again--I gave up. I mean, please, can't they come up with some other plot!