And You Were There, And You Were There... (WARNING: Spoilers for Farscape episode 4.12, "Kansas.")

Well, that was fun. Not quite as satisfying as I'd hoped, though. After all, it was basically just a combination of standard time travel and aliens-on-Earth themes, minus any of the bizarre and unique twists Farscape usually tends to put on the old sci-fi standards. OK, I was probably meant to be having flashbacks to Back to the Future and E.T. and half a dozen other movies, but if you ask me, most elements of the plot were a bit too reminiscent of stuff I'd seen before to feel fresh, even when approached with the typically quirky Farscape style. On the other hand, there was some terrific humor, and it's good to see Crichton's background being built on a bit. And the surprise at the end certainly promises interesting things to come.

Various random thoughts:

I really do wish I understood the whole "unrealized realities" thing better. Oh, I get the concept perfectly well, I'd just like a better feel for how and why the whole thing works. Not the technobabble (and Farscape tends to eschew technobabble, anyway), just a better sense of what goes on on a cause-and-effect level. Why did this particular change happen? Why haven't things like this happened every time someone has navigated a wormhole? That sort of thing.

There was far less of a language barrier than there ought to have been, and it bugged me. OK, Aeryn's been learning English; we've seen her diligently practicing. Her vocabulary seems a bit bigger than I would have expected, but I can accept that. But how come Chiana and Noranti seem to be able to communicate just fine?

I loved Aeryn watching Sesame Street, and not just for the clever Henson self-reference, either. And stealing candy from trick-or-treaters is just soooo Rygel!

In an interview a while back, Ben Browder mentioned that he thought even people who hadn't seen any previous epsiodes would likely be able to follow the current storyline, that it would be obvious that there was a backstory, but that the overall arc should stand alone. Based on how continuity-heavy the season's been thus far, I was very skeptical of this claim, but I think I can now see what he means. Which is something that bodes well for getting the ratings up, too...

I can never figure out whether Granny's an asset or a menace. Actually, I think the answer has finally come clear to me: she's both. Doing the Jedi mind trick on the cop = good. Testing out drugs on the hapless cop and nearly killing young Johnny = bad. Somebody start keeping a better eye on her, please!

Personally, I would not have left Sikozu and Scorpius alone on the ship. These folks have gotten way too trusting towards those two.

When young Johnny identified Chiana as "Karen Shaw," I actually had to hit the pause button and spend several mintues going, "Oh my god, no. Oh, that is so wrong!" before I could continue watching. Such are the hazards of having detailed character backstory knowledge...

Speaking of character backstory, we've gotten a number of hints over the course of the series that Crichton's home life as a kid was far from perfect, and what we see of it here fits very well with that. That's the kind of consistency I like to see. Actually, I would have liked to have gotten to know Teen Crichton better. I'm curious as to what he was like at that age, and we don't spend enough time around him to find out all that much.

So Braca was a spy for Scorpy all along?! I suspected as much, at first, but his behavior rapidly convinced me otherwise, and I haven't considered that as a real possibility for a long time. Either the guy's a much better actor than I ever figured, or there's something else going on... Actually, I think it'd pretty much have to be both. At the very least, I think there's been a lot more info flowing from Braca to Scorpy than vice versa. Among other things, I'm scratching my head over why he would have thought Scorpius was dead, if he was in on whatever plan it is Scorpy's got going. And how about that emotional reunion scene, huh?! Scorpius and Braca? Ya think? OK, I admit it, that thought might have crossed my mind at some point in the distant past, too... But I've just spent the past 11 epsiodes thinking of Braca as a traitorous, snivelling little weasel. Doggone it, I was just starting to really enjoy hating him, and now I'm not sure what to think of the guy! Though, wait, I'm not actually supposed to be on Scorpy's side anyway, am I? Does that mean it's still OK to hate Braca, even if my main reason for doing so has evaporated? So... very... confused. I don't even know who's a good guy and who's a bad guy anymore! In other words, it's Farscape as usual, doing one of the things I love best about the show. Cool. (Heh. You know, Sikozu's gonna be so jealous! No wonder he made her leave the room... Or am I just reading way too much into things?)

To answer the final trivia question: I believe it was a trout. What do I win (other than not being immediately shot by a paranoid John Crichton)?