Mental Ramblings (Warning: Spoilers for Farscape Episode 4.15, "Mental as Anything")

For last week's episode, I think I actually ended up doing something vaguely resembling a coherent review. This week, I'm afraid, you're just getting random disconnected thoughts. So.

To begin with, although this wasn't a great episode in my estimation (it feels a lot like filler before the real action starts to happen, which I suspect is exactly what it is), it gets major points for being a good, solid D'Argo ep. We haven't really had much lately in the way of episodes focused on individual characters other than John, and, fond as I am of John, I've always thought that one of the best things about Farscape was its character ensemble. And it was high time for D'Argo in particular to get a bit of spotlight. I'd been wondering since the beginning of the season just what the heck had happened with Macton, and it's good to have at least one of those dangling plot points from the end of the third season finally resolved. It's also good to see the defining event from his past delved into a bit and certain aspects of his character explored. Anthony Simcoe does a marvelous job of showcasing just how much D'Argo has changed since we first met him, even as he carries the wounds from his past with him.

At first, I couldn't figure out why the heck they were at this monastary. It seemed to come out of nowhere. What, the writers thought it would be cool to, like, set an episode at a monastary? But I was very happy at the way the reasons eventually all started to click into place. Oh, of course, it was Scorpius' idea, and Scorpy always has an Agenda. It seems that he's expecting a face-to-face confrontation with the Scarrans very soon, and the Scenes from Next Week would seem to bear him out on that one. I'm definitely sensing a build-up here to something big.

I could have told you that attempting to lead this particular crowd in mental discipline exercises was bound to be a frustrating experience. Hmm, D'Argo's too agitated and angry to focus. Rygel's giving in to his vicious and vindictive streak at the prospect of whaling on a Charrid, to the point where he's about to do himself an injury. Scorpy appears to be getting off on the pain. And John doesn't want to cooperate, because he's had too many people poking around in his head already. (Well, it's hard to blame him for that one.) Emotional control and mental focus just aren't these guys' strong points.

For a while there, it's impossible not to entertain the idea that maybe Macton is telling the truth, and that D'Argo did do it. That moment didn't last too terribly long for me, but it's a testament to the way that Farscape habitually refuses to flinch from taking risks with its characters that it struck me, however briefly, as entirely possible that what we thought we knew about D'Argo was wrong.

Macton. Geez, what a slime. Is every Peacekeeper such a warped, twisted fuck? Well, possibly so; one of the repeated motifs in Farscape involves the interaction between environmental influences and personal growth, and the PK environment is pretty darned twisted. By the way, I'm a little surprised that Macton was allowed to keep contact with his sister. Presumably he was a conscript, like Crais, but I somehow got the impression that Crais was permanently cut off from his parents.

So, Aeryn bought John a TV? Awww. I wonder what movies she got? I also repeat what I said last time: do they think for a second that they're fooling anybody? Least of all Scorpius? Please.

I missed Sikozu, Chiana, and, yes, even Noranti. I guess this monastary didn't take girls?

Man, Scorpius really got around the galaxy when he was younger. He hooked up with Natira, he got his cooling gear fitted by the Diagnosan, and apparently he studied with these monk dudes. I would so love to see "Scorpius: The Teenage Years" and get the full story on all that.

There's been a lot of debate about whether Scarrans have telepathic abilities, or whether they just rely on good old fashioned torture to get info out of you with that heat weapon thingy. I've always been inclined towards the "telepathy" end of that debate, myself, and that seems to have finally been confirmed. The wording was a little ambiguous, but the impression I get is that they use the heat to break down your mental defenses, and then they smash the info out of your brain. Although their abilities to do that do seem kind of limited.

D'Argo's line at the end, about how he's thinking about things he can't take back, made me wonder if he wasn't thinking about Jothee, and whether we weren't being set up for a possible future reappearance by Jothee. I'd like to think so, although I suppose the odds of them getting to that in the remaining seven episodes aren't terribly high.

What exactly was all that key-dropping and John-burning-his-hands supposed to accomplish anyway, huh? Just to toughen him up against the heat? I'm not sure you'd really need to go all the way to some funky monastary just for that...