Writer	Director	Tour Date	Production Number
Richard Manning	Ian Watson	April 12, 2002	3.20
Synopsis
Moya's crew put themselves in the hands of the Peacekeepers in the hopes of finding a way to destroy the wormhole project -- if they can survive their enemies' hospitality, and the usual intra-Peacekeeper backstabbing.
Best Lines
Crais: "Lt. Braca, I predicted your rise in this organization. I stand by that prediction. You are a consummate Peacekeeper." Henta: "You could have come back." Aeryn: "It was too late then." Henta: "You think you didn't have a choice?" Aeryn: "I didn't want to come back." Henta: "Then you are a traitor." Aeryn: "A deserter, perhaps." Henta: (voice breaking) "Can you tell me why?" Aeryn: "If you really want to know..." John: "Have we met?" Grayza: "Commandant Mele-On Grayza. And you must be the infamous John Crichton." John: "Infamous.... Two points, Commandant. One: your boy here has made a lot of promises which you should keep, because, two: when my friends are threatened, I am infamous for making really stupid moves. Yes?" (checks with Aeryn) Aeryn: "Mm-hmm." Grayza: "Point two is clearly correct. But I can not accept point one." Grayza: (to Scorpius) "I'll return with a full council sanction. You shouldn't have made me into an enemy." (to John) "And you shouldn't have pointed a weapon at me." John: (muttering) "I gotta stop pointing guns at people." Scorpius: "I hoped you'd see reason." John: "What do you think I see, hunh? I'm here on a big stinking command carrier, Dick Tracy's neuro-bracelet linking me to Bram Stoker's nightmare, what more do you want from me?" Scorpius: (calling up a hologram of Earth) "Cooperation." Scorpius: "The Earth is reachable, John, even without wormholes. At top speed? Just over sixty cycles.... You give me what I want, or I swear: I will keep you alive just long enough to watch the destruction of your homeworld."
Kiki Says
Buckle up, children, and hang on for the ride to the top of the roller-coaster. The real dive doesn't happen 'til the beginning of the next ep, but you can see the drop-off from here. Like any set-up for a two-parter, this ep has its slow spots, but they're mostly covered up by the fun shoot-'em-ups and face-offs that fill in the time while the tension climbs. I have to admit, I was with Jool and Chiana when they asked why they'd come along -- because it actually looks like a dumb, dumb idea to have anyone but John go (because he has to) and maybe Aeryn (to watch his back). As it turns out, Rygel and D'Argo both have legitimate reasons to go -- part of the price for John working with Scorpy was for each of them to get a personal wish granted. Rygel gets intel on his homeworld, and D'Argo gets information on Macton Tal, *and* his nifty bone-rings removed. Jool and Chi? Um, I think they went along because they couldn't take the suspense any better than the audience. Silly girls. Jool's hair stays red through the whole ep, a sure sign that she should've stayed home and gone for the hot-oil treatment instead. Just for the record, this *does* look like one of John's dumber plans to begin with, never mind the i-yensch insurance bracelet. The opening scene of Moya's crew walking a gauntlet of PK's would've been enough to send me screaming back to the transport pod if I were any of them. But John's obsessed, Crais is out to prove... something, and Aeryn is deadly determined not to see another Crichton get killed, so.... You can pick out Sgt. Troublemaker (Lt. Reljik) in the first seconds of that gauntlet walk, as well as Crais's old flame, eyes forward except for when they're yearning after Crais. Or spitting flames at him. Hard to tell, Larell doesn't give much away. Scorpy being avuncular and welcoming gives me the heebie-jeebies. So finding out that John actually *did* have a plan is a wonderful relief for the three whole seconds until we find out how badly those proto-plans are going. The antidote of Harvey and John in the black-and-white WWII trenches is the only thing that makes this whole scenario look -- well, not *totally* like a stupid idea. (Except for the meta-moment when the audience sees that Richard Manning wrote and Ian Watson directed, which lead to a spontaneous simultaneous "Oh, *frell*" from your Tour Guides. "Go home, John!" screams the Audience. "Richard and Ian have teamed up to get you! Ruuuuuuuun!") The overwhelming antipathy of the PK crew, for a variety of reasons -- Aeryn and Crais's perceived desertion and treachery, John's troublemaker past, D'Argo being a Luxan, and, well, PKs being PKs -- is amply demonstrated long before the first attack by Reljik's buddy with the Evil Dead Arm Attachment.The fight breaks up the setting-up hissing-and-insulting scenes nicely, and ends predictably but satisfyingly with the PK being responsible for his own death by not knowing when to quit. Yay, D'Argo, for offering an arm to safety, but not dying stupidly, like the PK did. The scenes with Lt. Henta are particularly well-played, especially since we get to see Aeryn remembering happier times Before Everything, and her later discussion with Henta about PK ideals -- order, loyalty, sacrifice -- make it clear that it wasn't all like what we saw in "The Way We Weren't." There had to have been *someone* besides Velorek that she missed; Henta seems willing to listen, just not willing to risk ostracization in front of everyone else (and you can't blame her a bit). Crais's old memories keep coming up too, in the form of the obsequious Braca. And isn't it nice to see the boy *can* be taught? There's no way he's going to try to throw down with John again, not after getting his head kicked in twice. Braca gets put in his place *beautifully* -- this is a guy who can never grow beyond what he is. The same may or may not be said of the ambivalent Larell. That they were close is obvious, and isn't any surprise: Crais had the loyalty of his crew and officers before he let obsession get out of hand. That she has ample reason to hate his guts is also clear. But who is she lying to, Crais or Braca? PKs have let personal emotions get in the way before, but I just can't trust this chick. I have no idea why; maybe because the protestations to both sides of her loyalty, come just a little too easy. Reljik is predictable, bullying, and boring; he deserves his little *paft* ending on a power rod, although he gives us a niiiice fight in the power grid. The rocket-packs, the one-second-and-then-you-explode grid, Scorpy reacting to John's physical pain -- all great stuff. My fave part may be John yelling for Aeryn. We all have our little habits: John screeches for Aeryn to save his life when he's in a power grid, and I laugh. Grayza is loathsome. I'm going to have *fun* hating this chick! Smart, arrogant, cold, calculating, doesn't lose her temper, but clearly holds grudges well. With that edge of PK condescension and the ability to think on her feet and improvise when outflanked that will make her eminently hateable and a joy to watch -- especially if there are any more confrontations with Scorpius in the future. Kudos to Rebecca Riggs for hitting the ground running as our newest villain. Who knew you could prefer *Scorpy* to anyone? But we're familiar with him, and he had a bad childhood. You can almost like him, compared to Commandant Kleavage and her plans for selling out to the Scarrans---- Hmm. No, I still wanna see him die painfully. Mostly for messing with John's head. Scorpy humbles himself, bribes John, lets him play with his toys, treats him with respect; and of course it's all a lie. He's John's match in obsession, after all, and his is destroying the Scarrans.The only edge John has against Scorpy is Harvey (and that little trick of normalizing John's life signs? Awesome. Heh. I'd totally forgotten Scorpy was a human lie detector). Which should be enough, but he's not just fighting Scorpius and the Peacekeepers: he's fighting his own doubts, his fears about being the one responsible for tipping the balance of power yet again. The Ancients didn't do him any favors with their little going-away present, not at all. There's the sheer joy of solving the wormhole problem with the fellow scientist-guy Co-Kura working on him too. Not to mention the totally healthy realization that this kind of messing around is what got TalynJohn killed. All great stuff, well-played by Ben Browder; it's subtle, but it's all along the lines of John's obsessive streak, so you can start to worry about him along with Aeryn, watching it. If Scorpy had left well enough alone, John might have backed off and *not* done anything -- but since that was exactly what he was afraid of, he just had to push it. And now John knows Earth's in danger if Scorpius has enough time on his hands to send someone there. Yeah, *that* was a smart thing to tell him, Scorpy. Hoo boy. Pack your shades (for the explosions), your popcorn (to throw at Grayza), hang onto the roll bar and take a deep breath: we may achieve zero-gravity with the drop off this cliff.
Perri Says