Episode Report Card Couch Baron: C | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT He Said, She Said
By Couch Baron | Season 1 | Episode 12 | Aired on 07.15.1999
As death approaches, Crichton and Aeryn reveal their cores, as the impossibly brave Crichton says Aeryn should have finished the repairs and left him to die, while the tragically human Aeryn says she chose not to do that because she'd be sitting there alone. Although I think most of this episode was pretty pointless, this scene is totally gut-wrenching, so all the usual props to these two. Aeryn is approaching "emotional wreck" at Hetch... whatever number is "really fast." She asks Crichton what he saw when he was technically dead, and he admits that all he saw was a void. He speculates that maybe he wasn't supposed to die in that moment, but Aeryn suggests that his real time is close at hand. They look at each other for a long moment, and the tension is thicker than Crichton's skull. Finally, Aeryn seizes the day and kisses Crichton, and soon they're on the ground starting to get out of their suits, until just as Aeryn is pulling part of her face gear over her head, they hear the noise of someone docking. So in one scene, we've got two people who have never been so happy to be walked in on, and at the same time, the same people never having been so pissed to have their lives saved. That's good stuff. The hatch opens and D'Argo enters, and after too little (read: none) explanation of how he and Staanz defeated the Flax and too much use of the Pan Flute of Wackiness in F, D'Argo suggests they leave...
... and when they walk into Staanz's ship, they see him chained to his chair. He suggests he and D'Argo be mates, in the non-Australian sense, as he's actually the female of "her" species. As I suggested before, whaaaaatever, except it's hilarious that this is happening in front of Aeryn and Crichton. Crichton makes a giggle-worthy comment about two hearts colliding, and D'Argo tries to eggshell-walk his way out of there as Staanz tells him "she" loves him. Hee.
We're safely back on Moya, as DRDs roam free and D'Argo contemplates just how confused he is at the moment. Zhaan appears, notes D'Argo's expression, and asks him what happened out there. If he sums it up in fewer than eleven pages, I'm gonna be hella pissed. D'Argo self-flagellates for his indecision, and Zhaan, for once, can't come up with a bit of Delvian bubble-gum wisdom, so D'Argo stalks off. I'm really not sure why they couldn't have saved Aeryn and Crichton and then gone to check out the Luxan ship. You might point out that that would only make a fifteen-minute episode, and I might counter that that would hardly be a problem from where I'm sitting.