Farscape — 2x09 — Out of Their Minds
Synopsis
When Moya is attacked by Halos-1, a hostile ship, the crew discovers that rather than being injured, they have all swapped minds. Zhaan, on a diplomatic mission to the alien ship, is the only one unaffected. The Halosians then plant an acidic weapon in Moya's neural cluster, so that not only is the crew in a state of bodily confusion, they must also deal with the acid burning through Moya's circuits. Zhaan, with no way of getting to the crew, must contend with the Halosians on her own.
Filler rating: not filler
First appearance of Talyn and Crais since the season premiere. They have little screen time, but the events here will become more significant later.
Remarkable scenes
- John regarding the hostile vessel: "Have we sent the don't shoot, we're pathetic transmission yet?"
- Zhaan discovering that Talyn had previously attacked the aliens.
- Moya taking fire from the hostile aliens, protected by the defense shield.
- Moya's crew exchanging personalities.
- Chiana inhabiting D'Argo. I love how you could tell just by the signature body movements.
- The aliens showing Zhaan the recording of Talyn attacking them.
- Pilot talking D'Argo through administering Moya's many functions.
- The Polaroid DRD.
- Rygel in John's body having to go pee at an inopportune time.
- Yoz revealing that Talyn merely defended himself and that they in fact fired first.
- John taking the opportunity to grope Aeryn's breasts while inhabiting her body.
- Everyone switching bodies again but still being in the wrong bodies.
- Zhaan convincing Yoz to take command.
- Zhaan escaping and taking over the alien ship.
- Everyone trying to explain to Zhaan why she needs to fire on Moya again.
- D'Argo to Chiana: "I really, really enjoyed being inside your body."
Review
This episode is a great deal of fun. Watching the actors play each other's characters might sound like a silly farce, but the actors do a great job of selling it both realistically in the sense of exploring the implications of this science fiction plot device and delivering the inevitable resultant comedy.
On top of that this episode finally gives us some insight into what Crais and Talyn have been up to. Although I'd have preferred their involvement in the story to be more pronounced. Likewise, the alien antagonists of the week were not terribly compelling either.
Other than that, there's little else to say about this story. There's some cute relationship stuff between Chiana and D'Argo, as well as John and Aeryn, and the episode is filled with delightfully awkward switched-character moments.
I suspect D'Argo, and to a lesser extent Chiana now have some deeper understanding of just how different Pilot's life is compared to the rest of them, similar to though perhaps not as deep as the bond Pilot and Aeryn developed in DNA Mad Scientist. All in all, this episode is mostly just some good fun and great comedy. Not unlike The Flax or Crackers Don't Matter.