Farscape — 4x04 — Lava's a Many Splendored Thing
Synopsis
After a forced landing, the crew is divided by an elaborate trap that leaves Crichton, D'Argo, Noranti and Rygel underground in a lava-filled system of caves. Chiana and Sikozu are left outside, trying to re-activate D'Argo's ship. Inside, Crichton and the others are hunted down by mercenaries who are not only protected by energy shield belts, but are led by a monster impervious to the fiery lava.
Filler rating: partial filler
This episode is mostly filler. Making contact with Moya at the end of the episode is trivial continuity that can be understood in context later. But a couple small details are referenced later in extremely minor ways. The body armor acquired in this episode is referenced later, but knowing where they got it isn't super important. Also, clips from this episode are shown briefly in an episode in the middle of the season. None of these references are essential, but it is still pretty neat if you've seen this episode when those references are made.
Remarkable scenes
- John, regarding Noranti's food: "That stuff's not gonna turn anybody into a newt is it?" A reference to Voy: Threshold perhaps? ????
- D'Argo: "They're shielded!" John: "They have body armor? That's a hell of an invention. How come we don't have that?"
- Noranti: "Let me mediate!" D'Argo: "You don't think we should let her try?" John: "No, she's gonna get shot!" D'Argo: "And that would be bad?"
- D'Argo throwing Noranti and John over the lava.
- D'Argo jumping over the lava, slipping, then wrapping his tongue around Noranti's neck for leverage.
- John and D'Argo debating whether or not hitting the guys with the shields with a rock would work.
- Chiana and Sikozu covering D'Argo's ship in his vomit so they can activate the controls sensitive to his DNA.
- John's conversation with Harvey.
- John attempting to rescue Rygel by using the shield to go into the lava.
Review
Noranti feeds the tired and hungry crew of Lo'La poison, so they all have to land on hostile planet of the week to go throw up, getting themselves into trouble with some bad guys in the process. There's some very effective humor in some scenes, but aside from that this episode is largely just a waste of time.