Thursday, September 12, 2019

Frau Blucher and the Shadow Depository

New plan, basically like the old plan--the motley of Farscape season one aliens gathered in the second part of "Liars, Guns, and Money" are still going to infiltrate the shadow depository. But now, instead of rescuing Jothee, it's Crichton everyone's making the effort for.

Season 2, Episode 21: Liars, Guns, and Money, Part III: Plan B

Now that the currency is gone up in flames, Crichton (Ben Browder) figured the only way to get Jothee (Matt Newton) out of Scorpius' (Wayne Pygram) clutches is to accept the deal and turn himself in. And maybe even death seems better than living under the control of Scorpius' neural chip.

Now we're at the point where none of Moya's crew questions the need to rescue Crichton. D'Argo (Anthony Simcoe) feels particularly indebted but surprisingly this the first point on which Jothee defies his father--he refuses to get caught up in his father's fight. D'Argo finally asks Jothee how he became disfigured--how distinctive Luxan facial features including the nose hood and one of his head tentrals (tenkas) were removed clumsily enough to leave scars.

He doesn't answer except to cryptically blame D'Argo. One senses this wayward kid has a lot of reasons not to whole-heartedly trust any family, blood or otherwise, something that may make him a natural friend for Chiana (Gigi Edgley) later on.

Crichton chained up by Scorpius and Natira (Claudia Karvan) doesn't stop making references to Young Frankenstein, however much he despairs. And Browder's performance emphatically conveys a man at his wit's and sanity's end. Even in the conclusion, when he decides to keep fighting after all, you can see he's being ripped apart inside.

Sadly, this is the last appearance of Natira. Actress Claudia Karvan is well known in Australia, so she probably had no shortage of job offers that didn't require four hours of prosthetics and makeup applied before dawn. But she's great here, waxing eloquent on her attraction to eyes in a manner bordering between sexual and gustatorial--apparently expressing both appetites as poor Rorf (Jeremy Sims) discovers.

Most of the other mercenaries fare little better but it is impressive how well writer Justin Monjo blends story threads for all of them. The most effective probably being the Sheyang, Teurac (Thomas Holesgrove), who needs Zhaan (Viriginia Hey) to inject him with a lethal substance to make his flame breath work when required.

And this episode features the timely return of Crais (Lani Tupu) with Talyn. In a scene where he and Aeryn (Claudia Black) tour the recent damage to Moya, he uncomfortably reminds her of her previous plea that Talyn be raised as a ship incapable of or slow to violence. This while she's asking him to help attack the Shadow Depository. "There's always a reason for violence," he says. It's hard to argue with him.

. . .

Farscape is available now on Amazon Prime.

This entry is part of a series I'm writing on Farscape for the show's 20th anniversary. My previous reviews can be found here (episodes are in the order intended by the show's creators rather than the broadcast order):

Season One:

Episode 1: Pilot
Episode 2: I, E.T.
Episode 3: Exodus from Genesis
Episode 4: Throne for a Loss
Episode 5: Back and Back and Back to the Future
Episode 6: Thank God It's Friday Again
Episode 7: PK Tech Girl
Episode 8: That Old Black Magic
Episode 9: DNA Mad Scientist
Episode 10: They've Got a Secret
Episode 11: Till the Blood Runs Clear
Episode 12: Rhapsody in Blue
Episode 13: The Flax
Episode 14: Jeremiah Crichton
Episode 15: Durka Returns
Episode 16: A Human Reaction
Episode 17: Through the Looking Glass
Episode 18: A Bug's Life
Episode 19: Nerve
Episode 20: The Hidden Memory
Episode 21: Bone to be Wild
Episode 22: Family Ties

Season Two:

Episode 1: Mind the Baby
Episode 2: Vitas Mortis
Episode 3: Taking the Stone
Episode 4: Crackers Don't Matter
Episode 5: Picture If You Will
Episode 6: The Way We Weren't
Episode 7: Home on the Remains
Episode 8: Dream a Little Dream
Episode 9: Out of Their Minds
Episode 10: My Three Crichtons
Episode 11: Look at the Princess, Part I: A Kiss is But a Kiss
Episode 12: Look at the Princess, Part II: I Do, I Think
Episode 13: Look at the Princess, Part III: The Maltese Crichton
Episode 14: Beware of Dog
Episode 15: Won't Get Fooled Again
Episode 16: The Locket
Episode 17: The Ugly Truth
Episode 18: A Clockwork Nebari
Episode 19: Liars, Guns, and Money, Part I: A Not So Simple Plan
Episode 20: Liars, Guns, and Money, Part II: With Friends Like These . . .

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