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"I let you walk unguarded, and you repay me by trying to escape." - Grayza
"I'm not Steve McQueen... I wasn't trying to escape. I thought someone was throwing me off a cliff. I live in a strange universe... things like that are fairly normal." - Crichton
Episode 4.03, "What Was Lost, Part 2: Resurrection"
Written by Justin Monjo
Directed by Rowan Woods
Air Date: 6.21.02
Picking up from "Sacrifice", Crichton's just thrown himself over a cliff into the ocean while under Wrinkles' drug-induced influence. He's saved by black lagoon boy, though, who quickly takes him to another part of the dig site via an underwater passageway. There, he's briefed by D'Argo and Sikozu about their plan, but only part of it. They know that when he's around Grayza he's under her control and won't be able to keep secrets, and as D'Argo tells John, he's gonna have to "take one for the team" in order to buy them some time. So John essentially has to go get it on with Grayza for two arns while D'Argo goes back to Elack to convince Rygel to convince the Pilot to crash into the planet, buying them a chance to escape. Well, the old leviathan's gonna buy it soon anyway, so why not, right?
Meanwhile, Crichton insinuates that Grayza is really just Scorpius' lackey. To put that theory to rest, she has Braca shoot him point blank. About this time, Sikozu's sold out the crew by telling Braca their plan. Now unlike Crais' "sell-out" in "Wolf in Sheep's Clothing", Sikozu's is legit. Her allegiance is still to herself at this point. Well, I think that was the case, anyway... it's possible I'm wrong, but if so, I fail to understand exactly what she was hoping to accomplish...
In any case, Sikozu redeems herself by helping Chiana, Jool and Wrinkles escape. At the same time, Crichton manages to give Grayza the slip in a most humiliating manner - he leaves her mostly (completely?) undressed and tied up. Elack and her Pilot come through by crashing into two of the three Pk marauders, and the crew gets away in D'Argo's ship. Unfortunately, it's a short trip as the ship was damaged during the escape and they have to land once more. The good news is that Grayza & Co. are off chasing a decoy probe, but the bad is that the planet's magnetics are now reaching lethal levels, and their only hope for survival is for Crichton to find the remaining Darnaz probe, complete the triangle and restore planet's original environment before it's too late.
Sure enough, they succeed, despite the creature from the black lagoon, who it turns out wanted the probes for himself all along. What's unexpected, however, is what they find after that. The ancient temple that Jool had referred to in part one re-appears, along with the priests would were there 12,000 cycles ago. Apparently, whatever was caught inside the triangle was frozen in time since that day.
This turns out to be one of those life-defining moments for Jool, as she decides to stay behind, and help the priests catch up on everything they've missed. Although Jool's stint on the show wasn't that long, she became a valuable member of the crew. Her farewell to D'Argo was the most emotional, as it's obvious they'd developed feelings for one another during their time on Arnessk.
So once again, we had Monjo writing and Woods directing, which is fortunate. It really helps the sense of continuity and tone to have the same creative minds working on both parts. But I'm a little surprised at Monjo, quite honestly. He may very well be my favorite Farscape scribe, but I just can't quite shake the thought that there were some small plot holes and/or contrivances present in this episode.
The one that bothered me the most was Sikozu helping Chiana and Jool escape from their cell. While it was admittedly cool to watch these babes in action, it just made no sense. The three of them discuss their plan within a few feet of the two guards but the guards hear none of it. And the guards also fail to react to the fact Jool screams and melts off their restraints. On top of that, they're rather easily knocked out. And finally, weren't there like five or six of them earlier? Even if none of that bothered me, it's later revealed that Wrinkles had Winona the whole time. Did she simply not care enough to use it?
I also found the Peacekeepers to be uncharacteristically inept this episode. Grayza was surprised that they had a transport on the surface? Did she think they'd teleported from Moya or Elack? Wrong show, Commandant! Then again, Grayza was stupid enough to let John tie her up. I mean, it's one thing to be kinky, but talk about bad judgment. And honestly, we all know that Scorpius is alive. Are we really supposed to think that Scorpius would be that easily killed, after all this time? Of course, here's a thought -- Scorpy's "execution" is prompted by John's accusation that Grayza is his pawn. Now, we know that's not true; John was simply trying to get under her skin. But what about Braca? He knows full well that the half-breed is largely impervious to pulse fire, as are all Scarrans. His loyalties may still be to Scorpius... it's still too soon to know for sure. For his sake, they'd better be, 'cause you know Scorpy will be back with a vengeance.
There are, of course, many things left answered. We still don't know where Moya is, and what happened at the end of season three. We still don't know what D'Argo went through while away. Also still unknown is Aeryn's location, which Grayza had promised to help John track down. Fat chance now. Less importantly, we never found out for sure who killed Vella - the creature from the black lagoon or Wrinkles. We probably won't ever know, either. It wouldn't be the first time. We never found out for sure if Chiana or Durka killed that Nebari in "Durka Returns" if you recall.
But a lot did happen in these two episodes. Jool is, at least for the time being, no longer on the show. The more important development, though, is that we finally learn that Humans are definitely linked somehow to Interions and Sebeceans. You know this information will play a role later on, so don't be surprised if Jool resurfaces to tell John of her findings on Arnessk. Sikozu, meanwhile, seems to have become a bonafide member of the crew. Well, Chiana still doesn't trust her, but what can ya do. So at this point, we've got Crichton, D'Argo, Sikozu, Chiana, Rygel, Wrinkles and 1812 (everyone's favorite DRD) on the run. But what comes next for the crew is largely a big question mark at this point.
Rygel - "Great... we are hunted by Peacekeepers, towing a dead module, lost in the uncharted territories with no purpose in life... how good does it get?"
Noranti - "Oh no, one of us has a purpose, don't you Crichton?"
Crichton - "...you're right... I do have a purpose..."
Three episodes in, season four is definitely off to a solid start. I can't wait to see where it goes from here. And on the off-chance that this really is the end of the road for Jool, hats off to Tammy MacIntosh for a giving us such a lively character for the past year. Jool may have been a tad grating at times, but I'll miss those fiery red locks and spunky attitude.
Episode Rating: 7.5 out of 10
- Ultra Magnus has a purpose. Probably.
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