Frell me dead

It should almost go without saying, but this post contains huge spoilers for the third season of Farscape. If you haven’t seen it, I recommend you skip this entry altogether.

“I shouldn’t be here.”
“This is exactly where you should be.”

The third season of Farscape is almost certainly its strongest. It’s also the season I’ve re-watched most often, before this little experiment of revisiting the entire series in full began. Any season that includes episodes like the two-parter “Self Inflicted Wounds” or “Green Eyed Monster,” the two-parter “Infinite Possibilities” or “The Choice,” almost gets a pass on anything else it may or may not do over the course of the remaining episodes. Heck, I’m just about willing to forgive the show anything for the last ten minutes of “Infinite Possibilities” alone. This is the show at the height of its power, telling its most mature and resonant stories, a show confident enough to take some huge storytelling risks, almost all of which pay off…to the point that the fourth season almost couldn’t help but be a letdown.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Season 3, as it announces itself right out of the gate, is the “Season of Death.” That’s a shadow that hangs over the show and its characters throughout the third year. The season starts with Zhaan sacrificing herself to save Aeryn, and then again (with more finality) to save everyone else. The loss of Virginia Hey as an actress, and Zhaan as a character, would have a profound impact on the show going forward; it’s impossible not to wonder how the show would have evolved differently had she remained. The season ends with the death of Crais and Talyn, a hero’s death to be sure (and in many ways a redemption for them both), but no less a significant loss for everyone else. And in the middle, anchoring the season, there’s the death of John Crichton — or at least the one version of him — and those heartbreaking final moments of “Infinite Possibilities” that get me every frelling time.

All four of these deaths hang heavily over the show, but they’re by no means the only ones. There’s practically not an episode in which somebody doesn’t die, and many of these deaths are ones we’re made to feel.

“I got shot at a peace memorial!”

So let’s take a look at them, shall we?

• In “Season of Death,” there’s Tocot, the Diagnosan, killed by a Scarran (who later freezes to death), and there’s his business partner/assistant Grunchlk, left “effectively dead” by Stark before the episode is through. Then there’s also Scorpius’ pilot, Kobrin, who over-estimates his piloting skills and pays for that hubris with his life. Over all of this hangs the great sacrifice that Zhaan has made, the knowledge that Aeryn now owes Zhaan her life, and the belief (which we, but not they, know to be false) that Scorpius is also dead.
• In “Suns and Lovers,” there’s the slow and painful death of Moordil, the alien bartender, as well as the subsequent (if much more sudden and fiery) death of Borlik, the religious zealot who caused Moordil to die. And there’s the Interion, who wakes from cryogenic slumber only to throw up violently and die.
• In “Self Inflicted Wounds,” there’s the crew of the alien ship that crashes into Moya, who either sacrifice themselves or are killed trying to complete their mission — and, moreover, save the lives of the families who will be killed if their mission fails. And this, of course, is Zhaan’s last episode (minus a cameo in the following season).
• In “…Different Destinations,” there’s almost nothing but death, the horrific and haunting deaths of time travel gone terribly wrong. I’m having a tough time thinking of another show where it’s the heroes who are the cause of so much inadvertent bloodshed.
• In “Eat Me,” there’s a dying Leviathan (and Pilot), any number of feral Peacekeepers shot dead, and duplicates of D’Argo and Chiana both dispatched with equal relish by that week’s villain, Kaarvok. And then, of course, the Leviathan, Peacekeepers, and Kaarvok are all blown to tiny bits.
• In “Thanks for Sharing,” the entire royal family of Kanvia is dead before the episode is over. (Although, in all fairness to the characters, one of them was probably dead before they got there, and certainly not killed by them directly.)
• In “Green Eyed Monster”…well, Crichton only nearly dies.
• In “Losing Time,” there are the two energy beings that possess Chiana and Pilot, respectively, who both end up dead when they refuse to leave the ship peacefully. And there’s Drillic, Scorpius’ team leader, whose arrogance ultimately costs him his life.
• In “Relativity,” there are the Colarta hunters, plus the apparent death of Aeryn’s mother. That last is also a pretty big deal, with much debate over how Aeryn shouldn’t be the one to kill her.
• In “Incubator”…well, most of the deaths there are in Scorpius’ memories — his mother, her husband, and possibly Tauza, the Scarran who teaches and torments Scorpius, and who he’s all too happy to torment back — but there’s also Linfer, who winds up liquefied, and the remnant of Crichton in the neural clone, who dissipates and then is gone.
• In “Meltdown,” there’s Sierjna, the woman Stark helps pass over to the other side into true death, and Mu-Quillus, her captor, who gets turned to dust.
• In “Scratch ‘N’ Sniff,” Fe’Tor dies, albeit happily. And I think maybe a little bit of me died re-watching the episode. There’s some clever and funny stuff in it, some moments of real humor, but it’s clearly an attempt to save a failed episode with a lot of crazy editing and sound effects. And the attempt doesn’t quite succeed. This is probably the one time in the season when the huge storytelling risks the show was taking don’t pay off, so maybe it’s just as well that the number of casualties here is lower.
• In “Infinite Possibilities,” which is probably my favorite two-part episode of the whole season, there’s the Charrid that Rygel kills during “interrogation,” the Scarran killed trying to seize control of their ship, the death of Harvey inside Crichton’s mind, and the murder of the Ancient “Jack” by the double-crossing Furlow. Then there’s the mass destruction of the Scarran Dreadnought and everyone aboard it — “I have no prayer for that.” — and of course the ultimate death of John Crichton. Zhaan’s death will color the entire season, and the death of Crais and Talyn will ensure that it ends on a less than victorious note, but it’s this Crichton’s death, and what it means for Aeryn and her relationship with the other Crichton, that will shape everything else that is to come.
• In “Revenging Angel,” nobody dies, for a change, but everybody comes pretty darn close.
• “The Choice” is all about death, and about being haunted by the ghosts of the past, of the loves we have lost. I also think it’s easily Claudia Black’s finest hour. There’s the death of the man who claims to be her father, of the woman who actually is her mother, and Aeryn’s decision to say goodbye to the ghost of the dead Crichton.
• In “Fractures”…well, there’s the Scarran, Nebari, and female Hynerian who come aboard, along with an unconscious Peacekeeper Tech, and all but one them ends up dead before the episode is through. And Naj Gil, the Scarran, is knocked for a loop and will die at the top of the next episode. Plus, there’s that message from the dead Crichton, still haunting the living in a way.
• In “I-Yensch, You-Yensch,” there’s the hospital ship that Talyn destroys, the decision to reboot and effectively kill Talyn himself, the pair of would-be criminals who take everyone at the diner hostage, and the death of the diner cook and owner who hired the criminals in the first place. This last death shouldn’t necessarily matter, since we’ve never met these characters before, but we’re left with a moment to consider the woman who will be left mourning this man’s loss. Actions have consequences, and often leave victims behind.
• And that takes us right into the final three episodes (the two-parter “Into the Lion’s Den” and the finale “Dog With Two Bones”), where many Peacekeepers die (most in the explosion that kills Crais and Talyn), Aeryn’s one-time friend dies (severing any last ties she might have had to Peacekeeperdom), the Command Carrier is destroyed, and John realizes he can’t go back to Earth without endangering the people he loves. That doesn’t stop him from fantasizing about it, of course, from trying to have it both ways, and pretty much everybody dies in those daydreams.

“Don’t worry about me. I’ve never felt better.”

That’s a pretty long list, with death in one form or another in practically every episode. I’m sure there others I’m failing to recall. But, as amusing as it is to put together this list, to tally up the number of dead, Season 3 of Farscape isn’t just about the body count. Or, to put it another way, it’s also about another kind of body count. There’s a distinct theme, or motif, of doubling — or “twinning” to use Kaarvok’s term — throughout the entire season.

There’s the obvious example of the twinned Crichton, whose appearance splits the crew (and their stories) in half. It’s interesting that the duplicate — or perhaps he’s the original, since the show never lets on which Crichton is the copy, and the characters certainly don’t know — makes his final appearance through the use of Stark’s half-mask. We see a similar half-mask motif at work in the imposter who claims to be Aeryn’s father in “The Choice.” There’s also the twinned D’Argo and Chiana, neither of whom survive for very long, but both of whom raise issues of authenticity and identity. (Given the state of the Peacekeepers in “Eat Me,” it’s altogether likely that the Chiana and D’Argo who come back aboard Moya are the duplicates, since Kaarvok seems to “eat” the original and leave an increasingly degraded series of clones behind.)

But there are other examples.

There are the two frozen Interions brought aboard Moya in “Season of Death.” There’s the ship that crashes into, and intertwines with, Moya in “Self Inflicted Wounds.” There are the two sides at war in “…Different Destinations,” with our characters caught in between, trying to do the right thing…and failing when their ideas of what that right thing is clash. There are the two energy beings in “Losing Time,” and the two somewhat similiar beings in “Meltdown.” There’s the further split of the stories in “Scratch ‘N’ Sniff,” with Chiana and Jool largely exiled to the sidelines. (Although, with the amount of editing this episode received, it’s impossible to call it anything like an even split.) There’s the other duplicates of Crichton, first in Scorpius’ mind (in “Incubator”), then in his own (as a cartoon in “Revenging Angel”) and then finally in Aeryn’s (in “The Choice”). There are even other duplicates for D’Argo, transformed into a very different alien in “Scratch ‘N’ Sniff”, and into a literal cartoon in “Revenging Angel.” There are the two Colarta hunters in “Relativity.” There are the aliens who come aboard Moya in “Fractures,” who are all but mirror-universe doppelgangers for D’Argo, Chiana, and Rygel. (And, with the Tech, possibly for the Aeryn that no longer is.) There are the two would-be robbers in “I-Yensch, You-Yensch,” as well as the bracelets that connect D’Argo and Braca, causing them both to feel the other’s pain. (We see the bracelets again, this time on Crichton and Scorpius, in “Into the Lion’s Den.”) And finally, “Dog With Two Bones,” the season’s coda, is all about Crichton realizing why he can’t have the best of two worlds. It’s an episode where everything ultimately comes down to a single coin toss, heads or tails.

And I’m sure there are even still more examples. It’s certainly possible to read too much into this — to see doubles or duplicates where none were intended, racking up lists almost as insanely extensive as the tally of dead bodies I pulled together above. But it’s interesting to view these duplicates, these alternate versions, these might-have-beens, in light of all the death that haunts the season.

“I am standing in your heart, and I’m about to squeeze.”

Season 3 is very much about how the choices the characters make, the choices they are often forced into making, have serious, sometimes unintended consequences. People die because of their mistakes, and often they must sacrifice themselves to save the lives of others. It’s a season not just about death, but about coming to terms with the high cost of protecting life, of saving the things and people you love. It’s about the knowledge that you may not always be able to do so, that you might fail tragically in the attempt, but the choices and sacrifices you make are nevertheless vital. It’s a season in which the consequences of actions are constantly reflected back on the characters, but where the cost of inaction is also often much too great. A season in which there often is no good choice, only the right choice. These are characters who have grown by leaps and bounds since their earliest appearances, and who are now faced with the higher stakes and more difficult choices that accompany that growth.

All of which makes it sound like the whole season is a huge downer, a serious and depressing cavalcade of death and bad choices from beginning to end. When the fact is, it’s anything but. These are also hugely fun episodes, smartly written, with big, action-filled set-pieces and stuff blowed-up real good. It’s a season that takes enormous storytelling risks: the death of major characters, the split between the two separate crews, episodes that sympathize with the villain, episodes that act like frenetic cartoons, episodes that literally are frenetic cartoons, etc. And yet this is Farscape at its very best, with episodes that I never get tired of re-watching, with moments like Crichton’s death scene and Aeryn’s reaction to it that choke me up every time. In revisiting the season, I was most interested in the crew aboard Moya, since these are ostensibly the weaker episodes, the ones I haven’t re-watched as much, but also since I now know that this is the John Crichton that lives. His is the story that will continue. I was struck by how connected it all seems, how each episode feeds into the rest. (“Scratch ‘N’ Sniff” is maybe the only exception to this, and my least favorite episode overall, but it does set up some of what comes into play later in “Revenging Angel.”) This is a season, more than the previous two, that feels like a single whole, less episodic and more a driving narrative. It’s less about the wacky planet of the week — although the show was never about that, and there are some truly wacky planets here — and more about the journey from beginning to end.

“I suggest you hang on to something.”

I’m moving on now to Season 4, which I remember as something of a disappointment (with a couple of real high points). And yet I’m nevertheless looking forward to it, if only because Season 3 has reminded me just how important the journey actually is.

Plus, I know just how good “Bad Timing” is, so there’s that.