Scorpius' back story is explored in another episode of Farscape that focuses on the fraught nature of new or atypical forms of family. In the case of Scorpius, as you might imagine, his atypical family history doesn't have much to recommend it.
Season Three, Episode Eleven: Incubator
We already know that Scorpius (Wayne Pygram) is a product of a union between a Sebacean and Scarran, two peoples now locked in a precarious cold war. We see in this episode a young Scorpius (Evan Sheaves), bearing more extensive facial disfigurements, being raised by a brutal Scarran woman in the absence of either of his parents. She tells him that it was a Sebacean who raped a Scarran who then gave birth to him.
The episode sadly doesn't explore how and why Scorpius received a value system that would have objected to the idea of a Scarran raping a Sebacean. From what he learns later, his Sebacean mother was raped as a part of an ongoing series of breeding experiments that implied the Scarrans saw Sebaceans as inferior species with no claim to the rights presumably afforded to sentients.
Flashbacks showing Scorpius' mother aren't quite as effective as I'd have liked and seeing her encounter with the Scarran has less impact than hearing about it second hand.
More interesting are parts of the episode focusing on Crichton (Ben Browder) and Scorpius' continued pursuit of wormhole technology. Scorpius' back story is shown to a residual personality imprint of Crichton in the neural chip, essentially putting a copy of Crichton in Scorpius' head like Harvey lives in Crichton's. Which means there are now three copies of Crichton running around.
Scorpius feels he needs to win over this copy of Crichton to unlock hidden parts of the wormhole knowledge. But the head scientist working on the project under Scorpius, Linfer (Jo Kerrigan), thanks she's figured out how to stop pilots from liquifying when going through the wormholes they've made. She, rather unexpectedly, attempts to defect to Moya where, very unexpectedly, Pilot (Lani Tupu) and Moya trust her implicitly based on her species, much to Crichton's frustration.
Come to think of it, I'm not really fond of that subplot, either. This episode was written by Richard Manning, who's done better. I do like how it further muddies the villain waters and how it makes it harder to see the Peacekeepers as simplistic baddies.
. . .
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
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