FARSCAPE Revisited Mini-caps / Season 4, Episodes 18-21

Farscape season 4 minicaps should’ve voted on whether to bring a nuclear bomb to this.

Stewart here…and fair warning, some spoilers lie within…

Hey, fellow travelers of the Uncharted Territories, its time for another round of mini-caps on the fourth and final season of Farscape. Just when John and Aeryn finally got past all that angst of the season and finally got lovey-dubby again, Aeryn gets taken prisoner by the Scarrans. Even worse, in order to find the secret base Aeryn may be taken to, John has to make a deal with Scorpius to find her. Read on to see how that turns out (Hint: it doesn’t go all that well).

“Prayer”

While Crichton seeks out the location of Katrazi in one of the unrealized realities with Scorpius, Aeryn has it worse. She’s captive to the Scarrans on a prison ship, and being interrogated in all kinds of sneaky and vicious ways. Even for Farscape, this episode gets pretty dark (and that’s before we get to the later proven to be faked abortion that occurs) with Aeryn’s plight and Crichton/Scorpius’s team-up. But all this is prelude to the big three-parter that starts the end of the season…and the series.

“We’re So Screwed”

“Part 1: Fetal Attraction”

Good news: Crichton and gang find Aeryn and move to intercept her before she gets to Katrazi. Bad news: she gets found, but Scorpius is taken. This is not a bad thing, until Harvey returns to tell him that Scorpius has a significant amount of wormhole knowledge in him. Oh, and they almost get Aeryn’s fetus into Chiana at one point. So that’s how frelled up things have get, and they get worse from there, thanks to the return of Harvey, who lets John know Scorpius has to be saved.

“Part 2: Hot to Katrazi”

Looks like Crichton and gang have to go to Katrazi anyway, in order to save–or kill—Scorpius before he reveals his information about wormholes to the Scarrans. And while this is going on, a major peace conference is happening with Grayza and the Scarrans, which Crichton interrupts as a distraction for the others to launch a plan to get Scorpius. And once again, Scorpius screws Crichton over. Obviously, they all should have went with the “kill” option.

“Part 3: La Bomba”

Well, Scorpius has messed up the escape plan, but for an actual good reason: to slow the likely Scarran invasion into Peacekeeper space. And that plan involves destroying vital Scarran resources on Katrazi, and dealing with an evil bioloid replicant of Stark. The solution for this comes from Crichton using his “Chekhov’s nuclear bomb” to take out the base’s compliment of baddies. And with the real Stark recovered, Grayza being relieved of command, and the Scarran’s invasion plans gone kaput, that should be it, right? Oh frell…

I gotta say, things get pretty grim in these episodes from the start. At least there’s some levity going into the three-parter that keeps things from becoming a navel gazing contest. And all those reversals, like Scorpius other job, and Sikozu’s superpower, keep things twisty enough. It almost makes you wonder what the season, ahem, series finale is going to bring. All I can say is, prepare to scream and cry a bit.

–A lot of international markets showing “Prayer” had some serious trouble with the Scarran Janek aborting that fetus scene for obvious reasons. Even with the idea that it was just a trick to fool Aeryn, it still got some controversy.

–Speaking of icky scenes, that whole scene with John and Scorpius tasting each other’s blood fills that quotient too. Although, that scene does prove to be pivotal later on because it led into Harvey’s return.

Dude, go to the space clinic before tasting that stuff! How unsanitary!

–In our “guess who’s behind the makeup” moment, you may not recognize Jason Clarke, who has gone on to be in supporting work in movies like Zero Dark Thirty, Lawless, and the upcoming The Great Gatsby as the Scarran Janek.

–“Why is nothing ever easy for you?”

–Jeez, Rygel gets the short end of the stick in all these big schemes. However, he’s able to forgive Noranti for almost unintentionally killing him. Progress.

Speaking of space diseases, poor Rygel…

–Of course Harvey was never gone. Really, would Scorpius be that stupid to get rid of him?

–“I’m just waiting to see how things go south.”

–So, Scorpius has been a spy for the Scarrans, but not really, in order to defeat the Scarrans, while dealing with his Peacekeeper superiors? Makes sense.

–Boy, Aeryn really enjoys watching Crichton stick it to those groups in the conference room.

–Stark is back! And he’s evil! Or crazy! But hey, Stark’s back!

–Are people not paying attention to the obvious? Never attack a man with a nuclear bomb strapped to him!

Your new John Crichton action figure! (messenger bag size nuclear bomb sold separately)

–Who really would win in a Kalish/Charrid arena brawl? Place your bets…

–“I’ve been searching my whole life for a female like you.”

–“I’ll give you my bike if you kill him.”

–Turns out Sikozu has death blossom powers or something. And now she’s shacking up with Scorpius.

–So Scorpius lied about having wormhole knowledge and John lied about keeping his end of their bargain. At least Scorpius compliments him on making some unexpected moves, like the nuclear bomb. So, there’s that.

–Nice touch with the Scarrans in the elevator, interacting like there going down a long trip in an elevator.

— Nice quip from Aeryn (apparently an ad-lib) about Akhna creeping out John: “It’s the hat.”

–Hmm, I wonder why Aeryn went to the medical station on the command carrier? Well, if you’ve seen the show, you know why.

–Crichton’s response to after dropping the nuke down the shaft to explode: “Oh god, we should have voted.”

–Noranti does a nice scalpel throw to kill the bioloid Stark.

–Grayza goes all Capt. Queeg and Braca relives her of command. Way to get promoted!

–What a great John/Aeryn reaction with that “Love you.”/ “Love you too.” Exchange.

–“What’d I tell you about smoking in my head?”

–“Welcome to the universe, Commandant.”

“Hang on. I got something in my eye here…OW.”

NEXT TIME: We end the final season of minicaps with some highlights and reflections, but before that, Crichton makes a massive sacrifice to save Earth from a Scarran invasion in the series finale “Bad Timing”.