Farscape: S02E22: Die Me Dichotomy
This was one of those amazing episodes that keep you on the edge of your seat (or in my case with your hand in the tissue box). Now, I really do know why I love this show so much! Small note: I had to do the synopsis from the US Sci-fi airing of this show so I am sorry if bits and pieces are missing. (I will redo it when I get the videos)
Before the opening credits we break into a conversation between Rygel and Zhaan over their booty from the Shadow depository. Rygel offers Zhaan the few pieces that were set aside for her, Zhaan then grabs Rygel by the belt (?). with a whispery kind of mad voice, she goes off on Rygel for being a greedy little snot. She then asked him if he thinks all the spoils were worth the damage to Moya.
Rygel responds with, “Of course not you blue bitch but what’s done is done!”
He goes on to explain that Crais and Talyn have located a surgeon from a healer species, so everyone gets to keep a few small items with the rest set aside for Moya’s repairs. Then Zhaan calms down and actually says she is sorry for miss judging him.
Meanwhile Crichton is having a conversation with Scorpius in a mirror. He bunches the mirror, it comes back, and he does it a few more times until Aeryn comes in and pulls him away from the mirror. She then tries to explain what is happening to him. All the while Scorpius is talking to him in the nonexistent mirror. She tells Crichton that they are very close to meeting with the healer and that it may be able to remove the chip from his head. He asks her what she sees in the mirror, she says that there is no mirror and no Scorpius. All of the sudden Crichton looks like Scorpius and says, “You’re right Aeryn there is no Scorpius here. There’s only me.” Then he smiles a nasty scorpie smile and the intro credits roll.
We cut back in the middle of a conversation between the Doctor (a rather traditional looking alien called a diagnosan) and his sleazy interpreter Grenchlk (who reminds me of Ozzy Osbourne with a bad case of acne). Aeryn, D’Argo and Chiana are standing by watching. The interpreter turns to them and informs them that the diagnosis is good and Moya can indeed be healed. The catch of course is the price, which is 12 thousand cretmas. D’Argo gets defensive and looks like he’s about to hit Grenchlk. The doctor calls him back as if to yell at him for the high price but when he comes back he claims that the doctor is a “greedy bastard” who always thinks he under changes and of course the price has gone up to 15,000 cretmas. D’Argo and Aeryn turn away looking a bit defeated and Aeryn walks off to “assess their funds”. Mean while in her own special way Chiana harasses the Doctor by trying to remove his facemask. D’Argo catches Chiana in the act and tells her to leave him alone. Grenchlk comes over and explains “Doctor Diagnosan intuits disease through inhalation. (opening the nose part of the facemask) Here, (touching the doc’s nose) very sensitive.” The doctor sneezes and the interpreter goes on to explain that the bacteria in Chiana’s hair would kill him if he so much as breathed it into his nose and mouth at the same time.
Cut to Crichton walking through a hall, he runs into Rygel who wants to talk to him about picking his bits of the stolen goodies. As Crichton walks past he talks in Scorpius’ voice and bashes poor Rygel in the head. We then see Crichton as Scorpius with a big smile on his face.
I don’t know about anyone else but I thought that was funny as hell!
In another part of the ship D’Argo and Jothee are talking about the restoration of the boy’s tenkas (those tentacle things on a luxan’s head). Jothee gets angry at the suggestion of replacing them and we find out that he was embarrassed about being Luxan, so he cut them off himself. D’Argo is taken aback by this and feels as if Jothee hates him. Jothee says, “It’s okay they don’t hurt anymore.” They walk past Aeryn and Rygel and we over hear Rygel yelling about Crichton’s attack.
Back with the Doctor, Stark is arguing over the price of repairs (which has gone up to 20,000 cretmas) with the ugly interpreter. Stark tries to talk the price down to 18,000 but the interpreter gets mad, picks him up by the shirt and says, “I hate to negotiate like this but, I do find that it cuts through the kratata. (which I guess means shit) This is business! I have the supply I make the demand.” Zhaan comes into the scene just in time to break up the fight. The interpreter turns to the doctor and informs him that, “the family is in denial but I won’t let them fight anymore.“
In Moya’s neural cluster Crichton is fiddling with the communication system while talking to Aeryn. He explains that being busy keeps the scorpie chip at bay. Aeryn tells him that as soon as Diagnosan is done with Moya he will take a look at the Crichton and try to remove the chip. They get rather close to each other, getting very sentimental, at this point a shocker happens. Crichton tells Aeryn that he loves her! Aeryn says it back and they go in for the kiss. But whoa! Crichton grabs Aeryn by the back of the head and bashes her skull into a conveniently located post!
Mean while, Crais and Talyn are thinking up a way to get Aeryn to join their crew. The rather one sided dialog is, “Now listen to me! Officer sun cannot be black mailed or inticed! If she is to join us it has to be of her own valuation. We hear mechanical little ship sounds and Crais continues. Agreed if she joins us freely we will tell her the truth.”
All of the sudden Talyn picks up an odd transmission coming from Moya, Crais yells to play it louder. We then switch to D’Argo running down a hall really fast talking to Pilot who tells him it’s a peacekeeper signal that only high ranking officers and a few others know. Jothee expresses his interest in helping his father go after Crichton and of course D’Argo angrily refuses.
Back in the neural cluster, Aeryn is still out cold with Scorpie-Crichton working away on the communication system. Jothee gets there before his father. Crichton informs him that he is in no danger, because Scorpius only wants him. Jothee tries to hit him with his tongue, but ends up getting knocked out when Scorpie-Crichton grabs it in mid air and sorta pulls. D’Argo finally gets there and succeeds in knocking Crichton out with his tongue (no wonder Chiana likes him so much).
With Crichton in tow they set out on a small ship to the Diagnosan’s planet. The next scene Crichton is strapped down to a table with the Stark standing over him. Stark explains that the doc is just going to take a look at him and Crichton says, “Just make sure he puts the K Y on the glove.”
The door to the surgical theater opens and in comes Crais, The dialog between Crichton and him goes something like this “What the hell are you doing here?”
Crias: “A meager gesture of support, while the others attend to Aeryn and Jothee.”
Crichton: “Is there any permanent damage.”
Crais: “Just their pride. You seem remarkably lucid.”
Crichton: “Don’t get too close I could turn any second.” Stark breaks in and tells Crichton that everything will be all right, and that everyone will do what ever it takes to help. The doctor chirps at Stark and pushes him away from John.
The Doctor fiddles with a little control panel and the lights turn green, The interpreter guy explains that the light is a biological neutralizer and that not even the plague could harm him under it. The doc tells John to relax, then all of the sudden the top of his head is gone. We get a really good look at John’s brain at this point and it’s all covered with black moving tendrils. Upon seeing this, the diagnosan says he cannot fix it without donor tissue.
Back on Moya D’Argo and Chiana are arguing about their future while spraying an anastezia on Moya’s infected areas. A rather stoned looking Stark pops In right on time to calm the couple down. on the Diagnosan’s planet John and Aeryn are standing in the donor storage area where Grenchlk keeps “frelling millions” of bodies. In walks Grenchlk and Zhaan with good news for John. He has found 3 compatible donors that are pretty much human. Zhaan looks like she is about to explode after seeing just how many bodies are in the storage room. She informs John that they are all still alive, and John says he doesn’t want the surgery if he has to take bits from a living being. Grenchlk (trying to protect his profits) tells John that they are all accident victims and the like, who would not survive if they were to be revived. John decides to go through with it and Grenchlk says “of course if it don’t work we get to keep your body”.
On Moya D’Argo and Stark have taken over the job of spraying Moya. They are both pretty stoned now and bitching about the fact that they cannot feel their tongue. Mean while Jothee and Chiana are keeping an eye on Pilot. Jothee, tells Chiana that he does not want to live the quiet life on a farm with his father, instead he wants to go out and get a little wild. Chiana then looks disappointed and says, “Oh I guess it’s going to be you and him.”
Pilot breaks in and tells her that D’Argo has been practicing a secret with one of his D.R.D.’s. Chiana tells him he’s high and pilot in a slurred tone says, “I am no higher than I have ever been, my position is fixed.”
Chiana: “no the drug in Moya is effecting your brain.” Then he activates the D.R.D, an image of D’Argo pops up and it says, “Chiana, you know that I have to spend a lot more time with Jothee so I was hoping we could all find a quiet place and settle down together I was hoping that you would consent to be my wife.”
Everyone is back on the ship at this point, and we see John strapped down to a bed with Zhaan caring for him. He asks her to join with him, so that she could keep a message for his father. She leans over him, they touch foreheads and all of the sudden Scorpius takes over! Zhaan tries really hard to break the contact but can’t and Scorpie- John taunts her over it. She does manage to break away from him and then run from the room.
In Talyn Crais is trying to sucker Aeryn into joining him. He is just about to succeed in winning her over when Talyn picks up a transmission from Crichton who has taken the farscape module and left Moya. John who has completely lost control of himself by now is trying to broadcast their position to the real Scorpius. Aeryn goes back to Moya gets into her small ship and goes after John. Aeryn and Scorpius-John chase each other down to the Doctor’s planet.
After several minutes of aerial combat, Aeryn believed she had won, and she ordered Scorpius-Crichton to land his craft. He did land his craft — right on top of Aeryn’s prowler, puncturing the hull of her ship. Aeryn was forced to abandon ship. She broke away from the prowler in her ejector seat, and plummeted to the icy ground below. As the surface drew closer, Aeryn informed the crew that yet another thing had gone wrong. Scorpius-Crichton’s attack had fused shut her ejector seat, preventing her from separating from the heavy chair before landing. By this time John had gotten back control of himself but all he could do was yell at her to get out of the seat. Nothing could be done to save her and Aeryn hit a frozen lake, went through the ice and drowned.
In the Diagnosan’s freezer, a small service was held for Aeryn. Zhaan’s Prayer was as follows, “The goddess graciously receives to her bosom, all those who pass from this existence regardless of faith or belief. She holds however, a special place for those who travel this life as a journey. Aeryn Sun will surely harvest her favor. Her life was a series of strides toward enlightenment, casting off the chains of prejudice and hatred, reaching beyond violence and bigotry. She sought a balance of lasting inner peace. In her name.“
D’Argo goes up and lays his sword on her, Then Rygel lays his coronation necklace on her and says, “you are more worthy of this. At peace Aeryn!”
Zhaan continues, “May the goddess receive you with charity, may the goddess sanctify your spirit, may the goddess purify your soul, may the goddess recite your name in the whispers of the wind.”
John walks up to Aeryn’s body and takes a lock of her hair, then tells her he loves her.
Later John is getting the chip removed the doctor tells him that because of the chip, Aeryn’s death was not his fault. Grenchlk then tells him that he needs to help the doctor because he does not know, “What bits of Gray do what”
So John has to stay awake during the whole thing. The Doctor begins poking around in John’s brain asking every so often what each thing is, at one point he touches the part of John’s brain containing American politics from Nixon to Clinton. He tells the doc to lose it. Next is all of the “critters” they stay, then all of his pets, they also stay. Then the Doctor hits the part of John’s Brain with all of the memories of Aeryn, John then starts to cry and the Doctor says “keep this” Eventually the Doc hits the speech center of his brain and unfortunately it must go, but the doc insures him that he can fix it.
The chip is finally out and set aside in a little jar, but right as the doctor gets ready to put john back together, Scorpius comes crashing in! He kills the doctor by pulling off his mask and breathing on him then he steals the chip which now holds the worm hole technology and walks out…
To be continued in season three.
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