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Farscape at
its best! Lambs to the Slaughter has it all: action, character
development and interaction, music, stunning visuals, beautiful
sets, outstanding photography, plots, subplots and even a few
sub-subplots. You know you’re in for an exciting hour right
from the beginning when Moya’s crew huddles together as they
exit the transport pod into a room full of hostile Peacekeepers.
The atmosphere in that room was incredibly tense as they came
down the stairs; it got worse as John and Aeryn walked down the
aisle toward Scorpius.
Scorpius has
gotten desperate for the key to wormhole technology to the point
that he’s lost control of his ship. He’s come a long way
from the menacing horror show of Nerve
and The
Hidden Memory. Now he’s putting up with John’s
temper tantrums (whether feigned or real), giving the people
from Moya everything they ask for, and further endangering his
own position in the Peacekeepers. Hatred is a great motivator
and Scorpy has more than his share of it for the Scarrans. Now,
with a truce between the Scarrans and the Sebaceans imminent,
he’s under even more pressure. As a side note, I also wonder
if he’s got a fragment of residual John inside his head from Incubator
– he seems to have a little bit more humanity.
After
two years of hating Scorpius, John’s beginning to wonder if
he’s not so bad after all. Or at least not as bad as the
Scarrans. Even Harvey agrees that the worst threat to the
universe right now is the Scarrans. The wormhole information the
ancients put in his head is beginning to do it’s job for John
and he can see what will and what won’t work. He’s got a
tough decision to make and Scorpy isn’t helping his cause by
threatening him with the destruction of Earth.
The
various shots of the ships flying in and out of the Command
Carrier were outstanding, as was Moya being hit by the energy
pulse from the retriever squad. The only thing that didn’t
seem quite as well done as the rest of the episode is the scene
in the generator room. John zooming around in the jet pack just
didn’t look real. I kept looking for “OZME” or “Powered
by Froonium” on the side of the thing.
Poor Chiana.
When she gets frightened or nervous she falls back on what she
knows best and tries to seduce Lt. Reljik. While this worked
with Lt. Heskon in Nerve, she was less successful this
time, nearly starting a brawl between D'Argo and Reljik. It’s
nice to see that D'Argo still comes to her rescue, though.
It looks like
we’re going to have a new insane military commander to hunt
John in the coming season, assuming they both live through the
end of this season. But if Commandant Mele-On Grayza intends to
be taken seriously she should probably get dressed. Please!
Somebody get that woman a blouse!
Aeryn’s
having a difficult time being back on the Command Carrier.
Everyone she knew when she was a Peacekeeper considers her a
traitor and they aren’t shy about letting her know how they
feel. It must be terrible for her, knowing what life is like
outside and yet still feeling somewhat guilty for leaving.
Claudia Black does a great job of showing the hurt Aeryn feels
when Henta throws the drink in her face.
Crais is
getting the same treatment from his former shipmates that
Aeryn’s getting. I loved the scene where he’s walking down
the corridor with Braca and hears the mutterings and whispers
from the people he passes. He meets up with his former…what?
Girlfriend? Recreation partner? Whatever. I don’t think he
really trusts her and with good reason. She’s spying for
Scorpy, but Crais doesn’t really care as long as he gets what
he wants: Talyn’s return to health.
John and
Aeryn are working as a team again. Amazingly, she’s going to
back him up whatever his plan is. (I can remember a few times
when she refused to back him up no matter what his plan was.)
She may be doing it for the other John, but the results are the
same.
There were
two small things that bothered me about this episode. The first
is the reason the whole crew went along in the transport pod,
especially Chiana and Jool. This wasn’t exactly a shopping
trip and neither of them had any requests for Scorpius. Why not
just stay on Moya? The second is the fight between D'Argo and
the incredible hulk with the buzz saw. Hulk was sent on this
“mission” by Reljik who should have known better. He must
have realized D'Argo was under Scorpius’s protection. Did he
think he could get away with killing him, even indirectly?
But those are
very minor points. All in all, this is one of the top episodes
to date. Farscape is following the tradition they set during the
first two seasons – save their best stuff for the end of the
season.
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