Episode Report Card Keckler: C- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Portrait Of Dorian Blue
By Keckler | Season 2 | Episode 6 | Aired on 04.20.2000
In her lab, Zhaan takes a deep breath, summons strength and bravery from within her damaged Pa'u soul, and tries to make contact. A shout of whispers slams her out of her brief trance.
Back in the cargo bay, Chiana is pressing her hands up against the mottled yellow glass of the freezer and whimpering. Hon, you wanted to be in there; stop whining. Then there's a fwooomp of flame, and D'Argo turns to Crichton, simply (and rather too calmly) saying, "John." He walks over to the freezer and tries to force the door. Crichton yells for Pilot, asking what's going on in the freezer. Pilot doesn't know, because nothing should be combustible in there. Flames swarm behind Chiana's urgent silhouette, her hand on the opaque door. Horrifically disturbing shades of Apollo 1. D'Argo orders Pilot to release the jammed door. The door controls aren't responding. Thinking with her fists, Aeryn orders them to stand back and shoots the control panel. (See? Aeryn's answer to everything is to blast the hell out of it, God love her.) D'Argo and Crichton surge in to open the door. It still won't open. Chiana screams as the flames lick at her life. D'Argo grabs a pole of some sort and is about to ramrod the door when the flames are suddenly extinguished, along with Chiana's screams. There's nothing behind the door. Just freezer-burn. "CHIANAAAAA!" D'Argo bellows.
Pilot shakily says that the door locks are responding, and opens the freezer. Crichton sticks his head in and looks through the frosty white smoke at a dark melted smear, accented by the glint of Chiana's lost necklace. Pilot asks with a quaver, "Crichton, is Chiana --" "She's gone, Pilot," Crichton responds quietly. Pilot blinks out a tear.
In her lab, Zhaan prays. Rygel zooms in and asks, "It's true, then -- Chiana's death?" Zhaan pauses her death chant to tell him it is true. Rygel wants to know why she and the others didn't manage prevent it, given that the portrait gave them advance warning. Zhaan snaps that they all tried, which is more than can be said for him. "Where were you when she died? Sleeping? Eating?" Zhaan sobs out. Rygel draws himself up and says stiffly, "Had anyone seen fit to inform me..." Zhaan hisses at him to get out just as D'Argo and Crichton walk in. They all mutter about the things they could have done to prevent Chiana's crème brûléeing. Crichton adds that there's still one thing they can do, and asks Zhaan how they can get rid of the portrait. "Fire would be a fitting end!" she announces, and pours some green goop on the surface of the portrait before setting it alight with a blowtorch. Zhaan's got the coolest toys of anyone on Moya. Zhaan chants as the portrait burns.