Episode Report Card Jacob Clifton: A+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Till The Suck Runs Out
By Jacob Clifton | Season 1 | Episode 11 | Aired on 07.08.1999
The module's ready and Aeryn's vision is clearing up. "Listen, Aeryn. Crais' offer of amnesty...you're not seriously considering it, are you? You don't think he'll keep his word, do you?" She believes it, but. "But what he means by honorable retirement is a radiation-induced brain fever to bring on the living death." So then WTF? "It was nice, just for a moment, to believe that it was genuine. That I could go back." Just like John with the flares! So subtle! They stare at each other and wonder how this episode happened. Aeryn, I assume because she's bored as shit, says she needs to run the preflight check, and he tells her to rest her eyes. "I'll take care of this."
Aeryn hesitates, with an apologetic smile, before telling him there's a debt with Furlow she can't honor, so he needs to settle the account. Assuming, as we all did I'm sure, that this involved sex with Furlow, he wanders over and they discuss the bill. She includes a fee for goggle rental, but agrees to throw those in after some haggling. Except they don't have any money, so "we have a problem." Unless, she says, "there's something else of value you have to offer...and I don't mean your charming smile." Come on. Neither do I. John stares at her. "You know," she muses, "The ability to create a stable wormhole -- travel through space and time -- would be incredibly..." Profitable is the word. He agrees to download a copy of his data down to her from Moya, but she shakes her head. "Exclusive rights, or there's no deal." They stare at each other forever and he reminds us that "that data may be [his] only ticket home," and she invites him to stay at Dam-Ba-Da and "be part of an exciting experiment," but of course he's gotta keep running. So his whole choice is about running with the crew or getting home, sort of, in five years. "There's probably half a dozen bounty hunters on their way here right now," he says, and she agrees that this is a problem.
He digs the data tape from his dungarees and hands it over. "I get to start from scratch." On a project we basically inferred for ourselves and thus don't actually understand the sacrifice being made here. Or the better words would be "care about." I love John and I love his whole wormhole deal, but...come on. Don't go all crappy TV show on me now. "Hey, Furlow. Five years from now I'll be waiting for you at the end of that wormhole." She brightly invites him to come back to Dam-Ba-Da if he ever needs any more repair work done. Which is actually the saddest and most effective part of the entire episode, and we won't know that for at least two years. I hate fucking Furlow so bad. She keeps talking, nobody cares, John and Aeryn take off, having learned nothing and lost nothing we knew had value.