Friday, June 12, 2020

Then It's the Bomb That will Bring Us Together

Flowers are deadly serious business on Farscape, especially when there's a nuclear bomb involved.

Season Four, Episode Twenty One: We're So Screwed, Part III: La Bomba

Negotiations inevitably fall apart once again and our heroes are forced to improvise complicated plans as they go along. Things really go south when the sensor Crichton (Ben Browder) rigged for his nuke belt stops working, taking all his leverage with it.

Both he and Aeryn (Claudia Black) seem strangely withdrawn in this episode. I suspect this was intentional, maybe a comment on the inevitable emotional fatigue that may occur after years and years of torture and harrowing escapes. Still, especially in Claudia Black's case, I can't help just feeling like the actors are checked out. I wonder if it was related to any offscreen drama.

Everyone else seems very alive--Chiana (Gigi Edgeley), D'Argo (Anthony Simcoe), and Rygel (Jonathan Hardy) are all as crazy and/or irascible as ever. But their parts are small--most of the episode's actual drama involves the power plays among Scarrans and Peacekeepers.

The Scarrans are certainly a wonder to behold. The Emperor (Duncan Young) actually navigating between benevolence and threats when dealing with Crichton comes off as genuinely smart. The rivalry between Ahkna (Francesca Buller) and Janek (Jason Clark) is amusing.

And, meanwhile, Braca (David Franklin) relieves Grayza (Rebecca Riggs) of duty, citing her mental instability and not her dress code. I do miss the time when a character on a tv show could show that much cleavage for no particular reason.

Really, though, it's a fair cop; Grayza was going to force the whole crew to join her in a suicide mission.

We also learn a little more about Sikozu (Raelee Hill) in this episode and her involvement with a strange resistance group. It's too bad this is only one episode away from the end of the series--I would have liked to have seen her relationship with Scorpius (Wayne Pygram) play out properly.

The Stark (Paul Goddard) who tortured Scorpius is revealed in this episode to in fact be a bioloid. Noranti (Melissa Jaffer) and Rygel (Jonathan Hardy) rescue the real Stark. I don't quite see why the real Stark couldn't have tortured Scorpius.

All in all, a good episode but, again, not quite reaching the highs of pre-season four episodes.

. . .

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 . . .
Episode 21: Liars, Guns, and Money, Part III: Plan B
Episode 22: Die Me, Dichotomy

Season Three:

Episode 1: Season of Death
Episode 2: Suns and Lovers
Episode 3: Self-Inflicted Wounds, Part I: Would'a, Could'a, Should'a
Episode 4: Self-Inflicted Wounds, Part II: Wait for the Wheel
Episode 5: . . . Different Destinations
Episode 6: Eat Me
Episode 7: Thanks for Sharing
Episode 8: Green Eyed Monster
Episode 9: Losing Time
Episode 10: Relativity
Episode 11: Incubator
Episode 12: Meltdown
Episode 13: Scratch 'n Sniff
Episode 14: Infinite Possibilities, Part I: Daedalus Demands
Episode 15: Infinite Possibilities, Part II: Icarus Abides
Episode 16: Revenging Angel
Episode 17: The Choice
Episode 18: Fractures
Episode 19: I-Yensch, You-Yensch
Episode 20: Into the Lion's Den, Part I: Lambs to the Slaughter
Episode 21: Into the Lion's Den, Part II: Wolf in Sheep's Clothing
Episode 22: A Dog with Two Bones

Season Four

Episode 1: Crichton Kicks
Episode 2: What was Lost, Part I: Sacrifice
Episode 3: What was Lost, Part II: Resurrection
Episode 4: Lava's a Many Splendoured Thing
Episode 5: Promises
Episode 6: Natural Election
Episode 7: John Quixote
Episode 8: I Shrink Therefore I Am
Episode 9: A Prefect Murder
Episode 10: Coup by Clam
Episode 11: Unrealised Reality
Episode 12: Kansas
Episode 13: Terra Firma
Episode 14: Twice Shy
Episode 15: Mental as Anything
Episode 16: Bringing Home the Beacon
Episode 17: A Constellation of Doubt
Episode 18: Prayer
Episode 19: We're So Screwed: Fetal Attraction
Episode 20: We're So Screwed, Part II: Hot to Katratzi

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