Farscape — 2x13 — Look at the Princess, Part III: The Maltese Crichton
Synopsis
Now married, Crichton and Katralla are frozen into living statues so that they may watch over the presiding governments of the next eighty cycles. Immediately, Clavor and the Scarran emissary Cargn attempt another assassination. Jenavian Charto again comes to the rescue, and she and the restored Crichton escape into the barren lands. Unfortunately for D'Argo, Chiana and Rygel, Empress Novia threatens the execution of every off-worlder on the planet if Crichton is not found. When finding John becomes a life and death matter, D'Argo turns to someone equally desperate to locate the astronaut: Crichton's enemy, Scorpius.
Filler rating: not filler
Numerous major long term plot threads are serviced here.
Remarkable scenes
- The Scarran decapitating John's statue and dumping the severed head into acid to burn away.
- Scorpius retrieving John's head, only to be assaulted by the Peacekeeper spy.
- Zhaan assaulting the leviathan ship builder.
- The Peacekeeper spy discovering John's not a Peacekeeper.
- The leviathan ship builder revealing he was testing Zhaan's worthiness to inhabit Moya, not trying to euthanize Moya.
- The Scarran killing the prince.
- John taking out the Scarran.
- The empress revealing that the princess was impregnated with John's seed.
- John recommending that Tyno take his place as regent, declaring that he'd be a good father to the child John will never know.
Review
Part 3 mostly fixes the focus issues at the expense of some of part 2's action gains. John and Aeryn have sort of kind of maybe probably worked out their relationship tension, but it took extreme separation anxiety and near death experiences for them to sort of kind of maybe probably accept their feelings for each other. Meanwhile, John got a princess impregnated with his child, though not by his own choice. The idea that his daughter won't be born for another 80 cycles is intriguing, but also a convenient way for us to dispose of this plot thread forever, rendering it largely inconsequential.
The only plot of actual consequence is John's time with Scorpius. We get some interesting exposition about Scorpius and what his big black suit and the weird rods being inserted into his head are all about and we also get to see Scorpius both fail and in some respects deal with failure. At first I was annoyed that Scorpius couldn't hack it on Sebacean royalty planet, but now that we've spent more time with his character, I can see why. Scorpius isn't Crais. He's interested in getting John, yes, but he won't sacrifice his career in the process. Thus, we see a more nuanced Scorpius here.
We also see a weaker Scorpius. His thermal regulation weakness has been exposed and in fact Scorpius was mere inches from being killed by John. Why John didn't kill Scorpius in that moment I may never know. As D'Argo said, it was a mistake. A huge mistake. Maybe it's just a flaw in John's character. He can't kill poor old Scorpy even when he knows he should because he's just too darn nice a guy. Whatever the reason, it should have been made more clear to us. Instead, it looks like a quirky, snap decision John makes for no good reason. Overall, the three parter was decent, but largely a disappointment. With better focus in all 3 parts it could have been a much stronger story.