Text Transcript
When Farscape was originally broadcast, the first season episodes didn’t have names. The episodes that later were named “Nerve” and “The Hidden Memory” are parts one and two of the same episode.
So as we fade in to episode 20, we have the mess that episode 19 left us—Aeryn’s life is saved but Crichton is a captive of Scorpius on the gammak base. Rygel, as always, is ready with a suggestion about what to do.
<Rygel clip>
The selfish, egotistical, self-centered little Dominar’s helpful suggestion is thwarted by a new complication.
<Moya is in full labor clip>
Yeah, more than a little inconvenient. But the news gets worse.
<not natural clip>
Plot thread one: Moya’s giving birth.
Plot thread two: Crichton is still on the base.
< Aeryn: Where’s Crichton? Clip>
Hey, among family, we’re all idiots. But at least our heroes are useful idiots because Crichton needs help. He doesn’t have a plan, and he doesn’t have a way out.
<Crichton resisting the chair clip>
Stark is not much help.
<Don’t talk to me clip … no spy for Scorpy>
Fortunately, Gilina is a big help; Crichton is in expert hands.
<keep your back to the camera clip>
Meanwhile, back on Moya, she is in… less than expert hands.
< Pilot on data and Rygel on progeny clip>
On the gammak base, Gilina messes with Scorpius’s chair, part of her plan for Crichton.
Gilina’s ingenious plan works.
<fake memory clip … put Crais in the chair>
Ah, Crais in the chair, poetic justice, definitely.
That scene is problematic, which I will explore in this recap’s Ponderables section, but it’s an ingenious plot twist, as we shall see.
Right now, the rescue party has arrived.
<Aeryn: I found an access shaft clip>
Crichton needs more help, and not just from Aeryn.
<Stark heals Crichton clip>
Ooooo, Stark is a much more intriguing person than we first thought. But he can’t help Crichton escape. That’s Aeryn’s job.
Aeryn finds Gilina and learns where Crichton is and comes up with her own ingenious plan.
<Aeryn dupes Heskon clip>
Hey, being rescued by the radiant Aeryn Sun would earn my eternal devotion. We are left to assume that off camera, Gilina told Aeryn about the signal coming from Stark’s device.
More importantly, Aeryn’s successful jail break interrupts Scorpius as he sees through Gilina’s diversion. The aurora chair shows that Crichton’s memory doesn’t exist in Crias’s memory, but Scorpius can’t pursue the issue.
<security breach clip>
Gilina and Aeryn team up to help Crichton and Stark escape, but there’s a much bigger drama taking place back on Moya.
<Pilot “oh no” clip>
And Rygel becomes a creepy old man.
<Pilot on pressure tanks, inside the tank>
Dirty old man.
<emerging from the tank>
Gilina tells Aeryn they will need the ident chip of a senior officer to get through the base’s locked gates. Aeryn thinks bagging a senior officer is no big deal, but the one she finds is a very big deal.
<Aeryn confronts Crais clip>
It is a powerful scene and a watershed moment for Aeryn. It’s importance will resonate for cycles to come.
In this episode, we are lurched from high drama to soap opera melodrama.
<Do you want to be with Crichton clip (what?)>
Yeah, bad timing. Speaking of …
<The offspring clip>
Yay, everyone’s okay…on Moya.
Not so much on the surface. Weapons fire, explosions, Peacekeepers running around. It’s chaos on the surface. Zhaan shows her knowledge of explosives, and Scorpius shows his aggression.
<Scorpius standoff clip>
That was a little too easy, like so much in this episode.
Crichton departs leaving behind Scorpius, but it’s the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
What We Learn in this Episode
Despite some flaws, this is a deep and interesting episode. We learn a bit about who Stark is, though we are given more tantalizing hints than solid background information.
We learn about D’Argo’s weapon.
<Zhaan asks D’Argo about the blade clip>
We learn about the birth process of Leviathans, or at least this one. Moya has a child now. She’s no longer pregnant, but has an infant who is not normal. It’s a new complication for our heroes, and now they have a new enemy chasing them.
Ponderables
This two-part episode of “Nerve” and “The Hidden Memory” is truly excellent, but it is not without some oddities. A few plot twists are a little too convenient. I mentioned in the “Nerve” recap Crichton and Chiana’s sudden ability to pilot a prowler. There’s also this plot hole.
<Scorpius confronts Crais about the false memory>
Crais should remember why Crichton knows these facts because Maldis revealed them to Crichton in “That Old Black Magic.” Crais was there.
I could nitpick on some other plot elements, but the big ponderable of plot convenience over believability is Gilina.
She was a fun ancillary character in “PK Tech Girl” especially in how she triggered Aeryn.
<Sorry for interrupting clip>
But Gilina showing up on the gammack base, being at the right place at the right time to see Crichton, have the ability to rig the genetic scanner, then rig the aurora chair, and basically move about at will and do whatever she wants undetected in a highly secure science military base strains credibility.
Okay, fine, every plot needs at least one suspension of disbelief to keep the story going, and Farscape goes to that well too often in this two-parter. But also improbable is Gilina’s schoolgirl crush on Crichton. It isn’t necessary for any plot convenience, and it doesn’t fit with what we know about the Peacekeepers. Maybe the writers thought they needed her infatuation with Crichton to be her motivation for helping him. They could have chosen other reasons, such as resentment at the military hierarchy. In any event, the story line of Gilina tragically in love with Crichton didn’t work for me. What do you think?
In the aurora chair, both Crichton and Crais are said to be fighting to hold a memory back from the chair’s detection. Not sure how that works. Do you think about a memory to not have someone read your mind about it? And how the heck did Gilina know how to fabricate a scene with Crais and Crichton? Talk about a plot contrivance!
No, Farscape isn’t perfect in its use of plot or characters, as we’ll see in the next episode, but it’s still far ahead of any other science fiction show, as we will see more of in the rest of the original series. Tune in next time for more deep dive Farscape recaps, same Moya time, same Moya channel.
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