Farscape — 4x18 — Prayer

Aired 2003-02-17

SpaceOpera.com rating:5

Average reader rating:5.81

Synopsis

Aeryn is being held captive aboard a Scarran freighter captained by Jenek, who's determined to find out if Aeryn's carrying Crichton's child. To discover the location of the Scarran base where Aeryn is being taken, Crichton and Scorpius travel through a wormhole to a mixed-up "unrealized reality" version of Moya. As the others wait for their return, pursuing Peacekeepers draw closer.

Filler rating: not filler

Numerous major long term plot threads are serviced here.

Remarkable scenes

Scorpius agreeing to John's terms by means of a mutual blood tasting.
The old Sebacean woman under the employ of the Scarrans introducing herself to Aeryn and explaining that she has no loyalty to either side because no matter who rules she'll never have power so it makes no difference to her.
The old Sebacean woman determining that Aeryn is pregnant and revealing it to the Scarran.
The Scarran deducing that it's possible that Aeryn's child may have inherited John's wormhole knowledge.
The Scarran using the heat probe to forcibly abort the alien woman's fetus.
Scorpius killing bizarro Rygel so that bizarro Stark can cross him over and learn the location of Katratzi.
John shooting bizarro Jool.
Scorpius killing bizarro Chiana.

Review

Aeryn's interrogation aboard the freighter was a gripping story but it could have been better. What worked well was seeing the progression of her will slowly being broken down until she divulged the truth that Crichton is the father of her child. But the side plot concerning the other alien mother who actually turned out to be a spy was completely unnecessary; annoyingly climaxing at the scene where Aeryn kills her and then appears to suffer no consequences for doing so. Nor does she make any attempt to escape further after her hands had been freed.

The bizarro-Moya plot was about roughly what I expected from last episode's cliffhanger. It was good for a few laughs, especially with regards to Scorpius' complete disregard for all of the bizarro characters, killing them at will without hesitation. It's not explained why they were never met with any kind of resistance, but honestly, who cares? The bizarro world wasn't supposed to make much sense anyway. Presumably it operates on different rules. All things considered this episode wasn't bad at all, but it certainly didn't live up to the full potential of its premise.

3 reader comments

Another good episode. Once again Claudia Black impressed me with her acting. But even though it really helped the viewer relate to or see her desperation I found Areyn praying out of character. Peacekeepers nor Areyn have never been portrayed as even remotely religious( I even think that the writers wrote the other "fake" prisoner questioning this as a way to acknowledge this fact).
I found it shocking (but not out of character) that John seriously considered killing "not" Chianna/Aeryn (Ben Bowder's acting in this scene was also impressive). I rated this one. nine (9)
by Margaret J | 08/09/2019 at 12:08 am

Another good episode. Once again Claudia Black impressed me with her acting. But even though it really helped the viewer relate to or see her desperation I found Areyn praying out of character. Peacekeepers nor Areyn have never been portrayed as even remotely religious( I even think that the writers wrote the other "fake" prisoner questioning this as a way to acknowledge this fact).
I found it shocking (but not out of character) that John seriously considered killing "not" Chianna/Aeryn (Ben Bowder's acting in this scene was also impressive). I rated this one. nine (9)
by Margaret J | 08/11/2019 at 12:12 am

Love this episode, one thing I don't get and nobody seems to be talking about, is that the characters in the alternate Moya are from an UNREALIZED reality, which would mean that they do not exist when Crichton goes back to the normal reality, so are they really killing anyone? He kills them, then he goes back to the main reality, thereby leaving the other one UNREALIZED. The way I saw it, he never really killed anyone at all. And people think he brought Scorpius because he knew he would need to kill people, he didn't know Stark wouldn't remember unless crossing someone over, and it makes more sense that he brought Scorpy cause he needed someone who could speak Scarran.
by Calen | 03/06/2023 at 4:51 am