Staying In Scarran Space

It's a quarantine lockdown on Farscape on a Scarran space station in a plot that finally makes something more of Noranti than a walking gag.

Season Four, Episode Nineteen: We're So Screwed, Part 1: Fetal Attraction

We have a chance to meet more Kalish, Sikozu's (Raelee Hill) people who are subjugated by the Scarrans and running the border station on which the episode takes place.

When it turns out the ship carrying Aeryn (Claudia Black) is about to leave in thirty minutes, Noranti (Melissa Jaffer) hastily concocts a strategy that involves provoking a relapse of a highly contagious disease Rygel (Jonathan Hardy) had at some point in the past, when he was Dominar. This buys some time as the station administrator is forced to call a lockdown, detaining the Scarran ship. Since Kalish and Sebaceans aren't immune to the disease, Noranti has to work quickly to cure Rygel.

Melissa Jaffer is a good actress--she'd been on the show previously as a dying Luxan in season two and she would go on to have a small role in Mad Max: Fury Road--so it's good to see Noranti being more than the omniscient, mysterious healer or the old lady who likes to gross out the young people. You can see her frantic as she tries to hold onto her identity as the mystic with all the answers, fronting a confidence as she digs through herbs and potions. Inevitably she has to face the fact that her solution for saving Aeryn results in the deaths of uninvolved Kalish and Sebaceans.

It also gives Rygel an all too rare moment to reflect on his time as a Dominar in a way that shows him as more than caricature. As a ruler, he too, had to make decisions which would inevitably cause people to die with never any certainty that an alternative wouldn't be better. But Rygel concludes by saying, "Welcome to Moya" and, indeed, one of the nice things about Farscape is that it doesn't shy away from putting its characters in difficult positions.

Physical as well as philosophical. Poor Aeryn endures more in season four than in the other three seasons put together. I suppose she hasn't quite caught up to all of the involuntary surgery and mind rape Crichton (Ben Browder) has been subjected to, though. Not the kind of competition you want to win.

. . .

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