Farscape — 3x04 — Self-Inflicted Wounds Part II: Wait for the Wheel
Synopsis
Hoping to preserve their own ship at Moya's expense, Neeyala's crew has been sabotaging Moya and hastening her disintegration. Crichton and the crew must battle not only the saboteurs but also a mysterious and deadly alien serpent. As the situation worsens, the only possibility of saving Moya requires that one of her crew make the ultimate sacrifice.
Filler rating: not filler
Numerous major long term plot threads are serviced here.
Remarkable scenes
- John: "I'm telling you Aeryn, it was from Earth. A television transmission." Aeryn: "What, you mean like that Yoda from Dagobah?"
- Moya's crew breaking off into two separate factions both simultaneously planning the same thing even though they think they're on opposite sides.
- Jool: "You killed my cousin!" John: "Not on purpose! He was a corpsicle and your other cousin, he didn't last half a minute defrosted." Jool: "Then why did I survive?" John: "I don't know. You're not sick. Maybe they shanghaied you for body parts. You're the freebie." Jool: "Everything I've seen so far is despicable!" John: "Welcome to the Federation starship S.S. butt crack!"
- John cutting the serpent in half with the force field from D'Argo's ship.
- Harvey surfacing to have a chat with John.
- Aeryn kicking Pilot awake.
- Rygel: "Goodbye, you big beautiful blue bitch."
- Zhaan sacrificing herself so that Moya can escape the wormhole.
- Jool: "Do you know how much these shoes cost, young whore?" Chiana: "For me, three sex acts. Probably double that for you."
Review
Part 2 is less of a jumble and more pointed, but never fully recovers from the last episode's issues. Aside from the continuing annoyance of Jool's screams, a number of essential plot tidbits are left largely unexplored such as the implications of John discovering how to safely navigate wormholes, the discovery of a wormhole within range of Earth, the full extent to which Harvey can control John, and the full extent to which John and Harvey suspect Scorpius is still alive and what they plan to do about that. These unresolved issues make the story's conclusion somewhat unfulfilling.
But simultaneously, despite not enough important plot being adequately addressed, the story also drags at times. Like the prior episode, the biggest issue is the alien wormhole researcher plot. The aliens were unworthy as a plot device to create danger for the crew and even less worthy as a plot device for Zhaan's demise. It's touching that Zhaan's ultimate sacrifice was to save Moya, but I was far more moved when she originally ultimately sacrificed herself to save Aeryn. I think her death would have been stronger had she died the moment she saved Aeryn.