Farscape — 4x21 — We're So Screwed Part III: La Bomba
Synopsis
After thwarting Crichton's escape plan, Scorpius denies that he's a Scarran spy, and demands Crichton's help to destroy a cavern of vital Scarran flora - claiming it will also provide them with a better means of escape. And while Rygel and Noranti fight an evil Stark, Sikozu must reveal her true colors if they are all to survive.
Filler rating: not filler
Numerous major long term plot threads are serviced here.
Remarkable scenes
- Scorpius denying that he's a Scarran spy, arguing that had John been able to get off the base, he and his entourage would have surely been killed shortly thereafter.
- Scorpius telling John that they need to destroy the Scarrans' Strelitzia flowers.
- Scorpius revealing that he has no wormhole knowledge and that he reprogrammed Harvey as a failsafe just in case John ever betrayed Scorpius.
- John: "You tryin' to say Harvey's back because of me?" Scorpius: "You should honor your contracts, John."
- Noranti to Scorpius: "Oh I do admire your compartmentalization of duplicity."
- Scorpius revealing that Stark is really a bioloid and that the real Stark is probably a prisoner somewhere on the base.
- Sikozu's contact in the underground getting himself killed delivering the elevator key.
- Scorpius attempting to destroy the Strelitzia flowers but being thwarted by a shield.
- D'Argo: "We couldn't override their override of our override!"
- John: "I can't believe it. I left a nuclear bomb in an elevator."
- Sikozu taking out the Scarrans.
- Noranti taking out bioloid Stark.
- Braca seizing control of Grayza's command.
- D'Argo reactivating his ship and shooting the Scarrans guarding it.
- Scorpius offering to rescind John's wormhole debt if John helps him destroy the Strelitzia flowers.
- John dropping his nuclear bomb down the elevator shaft with a timer of only 60 microts.
- The bomb destroying the Scarrans' Strelitzia flowers along with the guards preventing Moya's crew from fleeing the base.
Review
An outstanding climax to this arc of episodes. It would easily be worth a perfect score were it not for the surprisingly anticlimactic ending. The bomb goes off and all of a sudden all problems are solved. The guards are vaporized, but our heroes are perfectly protected. No one tries to shoot them down as they trot away in Lo'Laa and we skip straight to John philosophizing about his body count. Though I certainly do love John's profoundly disturbed reflections on the number of people he's killed since he embarked on his Farscape mission.
Of particular note was his rather poetic line about having worn a nuclear bomb in a field of flowers which is a nice reference to Lyndon B. Johnson's "Daisy" presidential campaign ad, but I felt like they only partially earned the scene. The epic climax could have been more suitably epic. Instead the routine nature of these adventures sets in before the bomb even goes off. The mood gets sucked out of an otherwise exciting action episode by a sort of deflated apathy in the characters. Thus the episode turns brooding and reflective before the ideal point in the plot.
In any case, the story has much to offer. I loved the backstory on Stark. It's still not explained just how he ended up in Scarran hands, but we learn more about his historical relationship with the Scarrans as well as the original reason why Scorpius was torturing him in the Aurora Chair. It's all borderline trivia, but enjoyable for fans. Though I could have done without yet another surprise super power for Sikozu.
Moreover, we learn that the Scarrans are dependent on the Strelitzia flowers for their intelligence. Now without the flowers, the Scarrans will presumably be unable to maintain their military superiority over the Peacekeepers. A prize so valuable that Scorpius gave up on wormholes for it! Indeed a lot of plot threads are wrapped up here. It would seem that pretty much all that's left is for John's and Aeryn's relationship to be clarified, to find exactly what links Earth to the Peacekeepers and the Scarrans, and to reunite Moya's crew with their homeworlds.