Nope, Definitely Still Hasn't Jumped the Shark (WARNING: Spoilers for Farscape Episode 4.18, "Prayer")

OK, I've got lots of random thoughts on this one, so let's just jump right to them, shall we?

You know, casting my mind back to the first time I watched "Unrealized Reality," I remember thinking something along the lines of, "OK, I get the reality where the Scarrans invaded Earth, and I kinda-sorta get the one where John's a PK, but this whole thing of having everybody mixed up with everybody else... I mean, come on. It's obvious that they just threw that in for the sake of weirdness, or else maybe just because they thought it would be fun for the actors to do. And, yeah, it's cute, I guess, but it seems pretty pointless, in plot terms." I never certainly expected that it would turn out to hold the key to a major element of the plot. Once again, I really should know better. And this is exactly the kind of thing I was talking about earlier, about not being able to judge specific elements of this season until we've got the entire picture from later eps.

I thought for a moment that we were getting a little more insight into how Stark's Stykera mojo works, which is always something I've been very curious about. Alas, as John put it, "different Stark, different rules," so I guess we still don't know jack about him, really. I'll add that it does seem bizarre and highly coincidental that Stark just happened to randomly blurt out the one word Crichton would be interested in, out of all the detritus that is undoubtledly lurking in his (or, um, her) head, but you know, I find that doesn't really bother me. Given the mystical nature of the Farscape universe (and presumably this alternate version of it, as well), I find I can actually believe that that word came out of Stark's mouth precisely because it was the word that would be important to John. Because, you know, it's Stark, and he's a conduit for all kinds of weird things. It suddenly occurs to me, though... If Sikozu-Stark once crossed over a Scarran, and she has to love people to send them over, does that mean she once loved a Scarran? Hmm. Apparently Sikozu-Stark has a really interesting backstory...

I loved the interaction between John and Scorpius. There are such fascinating vibes between those two, a weird and wonderful mixture of deep anatagonism and a twisted sort of connectedness... This is the dynamic I was really hoping to see more of when Scorpius joined the crew, but aside from some nice moments in "I Shrink, Therefore I Am," we haven't been getting very much of it. I'm delighted to see it executed so very well here. And speaking of executions... There's also something about Scorpius' moments of extreme ruthlessness that's good to see, in a disturbing sort of way. I knew what he was going to do when he left the room, and it still gave me a chill when he killed "Rygel." Not to mention Aeryn-Chi. What can I say, I love the fact that, even though he's now a sort-of ally, he hasn't been watered down at all from that incredibly scary bad guy we first met in "Nerve." (There's probably some sort of comparison to be made here with Spike from Buffy, but I think I'm going to leave it alone for the moment.)

Have I mentioned that I love Raelee Hill's version of Stark? She's just so... adorable! It was great to see her again. Mind you, I would still very much like to see the Paul Goddard version again soon.

Aeryn praying in her cell, I wasn't too thrilled about, as it seems to perpetuate that annoying (and inaccurate) old "no atheists in foxholes" cliche. But I'll let it go.

Nice to see a mention of Velorek! I think I said at one point (whether here or elsewhere I don't remember) that I almost thought it would be kind of nice if the baby was his. Well, if the Scarrans don't have the DNA on file, I guess it must be Crichton's. Yeah, I know, what a shock.

All right, you know, I really am not in the habit of nitpicking the science on Farscape. For one thing, they ususally don't give us a great deal of scientific detail to nitpick, which is actually kind of refreshing. And I can suspend my disbelief for a lot of the stuff that does seem physically or biologically impossible (e.g. different species being able to interbreed). But this deal about being able to get the wormhole knowledge from Crichton's child's DNA... WTF?! That's so wrong that it's just really hard to ignore.

So, the Scarrans are still doing cross-species breeding experiments? I had kind of thought that they had discontinued them after declaring the experiment that produced Scorpius a failure, but I'm not at all sure where I got that idea from. Of course, Aeryn's cell-mate could just have been lying about that, too.

I also find it a bit difficult to believe that Aeryn's pregnancy would make her more vulnerable to the Scarran heat weapon. Isn't part of the idea of having the fetus go into stasis at that early a point to make sure that pregnancy doesn't adversely affect the physical state of the PK soldiers? Well, that one's not really too big of a deal. I can deal with it a lot more easily than the whole memories-in-DNA thing, anyway. (I mean, not only is that scientifically ridiculous, but if you could get Crichton's memories from his DNA, why didn't Scorpius just do that in the first place, huh?)

Interesting that Sikozu is the one who's arguing strenuously in favor of starbursting the hell away, because that would mean they'd not just be stranding Crichton, but also Scorpius. Anybody but me starting to get the feeling that the honeymoon's over for those two? (I will not make a joke about Scorpius prefering to suck on Crichton's fingers. I will not. Even though it's really tempting...)

Watching John and Scorpy intimidating and shooting the various members of the Mixed-Up Moya crew really does give me kind of a cold feeling on the back of my neck. Scorpius demonstrates with no hesistation and no remorse the lengths he's willing to go to to acheive his goals (as if we didn't already know), but the fact that Crichton was even willing to point the gun at Aeryn-Chi in the first place is a rather disturbing indication of just how far Crichton is willing to go when he's pushed. Seeing that darkness in Crichton both frightens and fascinates me.

No additional hints as to whether Scorpius did set them up in "Bringing Home the Beacon" or not, but I think we can be quite sure that Aeryn getting captured was not his idea. He seems genuinely scared by where events are taking him, and I don't blame him in the slightest. I also note that the indications are strong that John is intending to keep his word about giving Scorpius wormholes, as Scorpius would be able to tell if he was lying. (I'm not sure what the hell the whole blood-drinking thing was about, though. And I'm still not gonna make that joke... Really.)