Hey, Sikozu, You're Supposed to Be Some Kind of Mechanical Genius. Get Over Here and Fix My Cable, Will Ya? (WARNING: Spoilers for Farscape episode 3.09: "A Prefect Murder")

This, of course, is the point in my week where I ramble on about the latest Farscape episode, whether anybody's even vaguely interested in reading about it or not. Unfortunately, that turns out to be rather difficult to do because 15 minutes in my cable started acting up, and I had to watch most of the episode through a haze of static and a signal that kept cutting out. Grrr. I set up the VCR to tape the second showing while I'm at work in hopes that things would have improved by then, but knowing the Socorro cable system, I'm rather doubtful. Fortunately, I took out an insurance policy by calling up my brother-in-law in Oregon and getting him to tape it for me, too. One way or another, eventually I will see this episode as it was meant to be seen!

In the meantime, I'll just ramble on about the parts I could actually make out. Fortunately, most of the really confusing stuff happened at the beginning, before the cable really started to go south. And confusing it was, what with all the jumps back and forth from one point in time to another or from one POV to another, and all the flashes of stuff-that-we're-not-sure-whether-it's-actually-happening-or-not. I love the fact that Farscape is willing to take chances and do this kind of experimental stuff, and I very much appreciate the fact that the writers/directors have a high enough opinion of us viewers that they feel that can just toss us into the deep end and expect us to swim. In this case, though, I'm really not 100% sure just how well it worked, although that may have a lot to do with the fact that the later scenes that served to tie everything together and make sense of it all were hard to follow through the static.

I can't say I was all that impressed by the plot, either. Yeah, yeah, clan warfare and alien mind control bugs, whatever... It was probably worth it, though, just for the payoff of that wonderful scene of John and Aeryn holding guns on each other and trying desperately to stop themselves from shooting each other. What a metaphor for their relationship as it now stands! And the fact that John isn't entirely sure a part of him doesn't want to pull the trigger is absolutely chilling, and far too believable. Damn, but that man is messed up right now... By the way, kudos to both the writer and to actor Ben Browder, because John's reactions (or non-reactions) to Aeryn throughout this episode hit exactly the right notes. The current tension between them and the dulled emotional edge the drugs have given him are subtly portrayed, but they're perfectly clear. And even if it was (perhaps) laced with his characteristic irony and humor, hearing him call her "Officer Sun" gave me quite a pang.

Other random things...

Chiana getting thrown off the planet for being a tralk surprises me not at all, especially considering that, after all she's been through recently, she's bound to want some form of, er, release. And we all know what that usually means for Chiana. Sikozu getting involved with the prince guy surprised me rather more. Wouldn't you think she'd have a bit more sense than that? Hmm, well, OK, maybe not. And one has to admit, he's a lot cuter than Scorpius. Not that that's difficult. (You know, I could really make some crude remarks at this point, but I'll be good...)

Speaking of Scorpius, I was very disappointed by the fact that he wasn't even in this episode, since to me his interactions with the other characters are one of the more interesting things about this season. From what little I could make out of the previews, though, it looks like he's going to have a pretty big role next week, so I suppose I should just be patient. (I also kind of missed Rygel, although I was happy enough to get away from Noranti for a while.)

D'Argo really is acting the part of Captain, and the others seem remarkably cool with it. I'd really expected this new arrangement to cause a fair amount of conflict, whoever the captain ended up being. So far, though, they all seem pretty happy letting him be the group's spokesperson and letting him give the orders and just generally act like the leader. (Well, of course, Chiana then goes and does as she damn well pleases, anyway, but, hey, that's Chiana.) I'm just waiting for the eventual mutiny when he finally does something the others violently disagree with. Or for the blow-up when he loses his temper and does something stupid. I mean, I like D'Argo, I respect D'Argo, I think D'Argo's generally up to the responsibility... but he does have these little impulse-control issues, still. And his tendency to shoot first and ask questions later definitely has the capacity to cause him some serious problems.

Anyway, aside from the John/Aeryn situation continuing to deteriorate, this episode, like the last one, doesn't seem to have developed any of the story-arc kinds of issues any farther. I'm still waiting for hints about all the things we don't know about that happened between "Dog with Two Bones" and "Crichton Kicks"... But then, who isn't?