Episode Report Card Couch Baron: B | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Reality Bites
By Couch Baron | Season 1 | Episode 13 | Aired on 07.22.1999
Zhaan and Tahleen are starting some ritual when Crichton barges in with the news about Aeryn. Zhaan already knows that she's gone back to Moya, as Zhaan wanted her to, and what's more, she needs Crichton to help her make a decision. By the way, Tahleen mentions in this scene that they don't know how to get back to Delvia, so her ostensible reason for wanting Zhaan's power -- the desire to free Delvia from the Peacekeepers -- seems even more suspect. Zhaan explains that she dreamt the other night as well, also of the last person she loved, and says that Crichton needs to open his mind. Tahleen wonders if that's a good idea, as his "capacity" is well below even that of a "Level One." Well, it's not like comments about Crichton's diminished capacity are anything new. And this is only my second recap. Zhaan is sure that Crichton will understand, and urgently instructs Tahleen to show him. Tahleen fixes Crichton with a look...
... and in flashback, Zhaan and her lover, "Bitaal," are holding each other's heads with their hands as Zhaan recites the Unity ritual. All seems well until Zhaan reveals that Bitaal betrayed their world, presumably to the Peacekeepers, and she kills him with her mental and physical powers on the spot. Hate it when that happens. Zhaan cries in anguish...
... and in the present, Crichton snaps out of it and is shocked. "You killed the guy you were having sex with!" Interesting that he focuses on that, instead of the idea that she also presumably killed the guy she loved. If I said that it disturbed me that Crichton places a high value on sex, however, I'd be lying. Anyway, Zhaan pleads that she needs him. Crichton: "For what? Target practice?" Hey, Crichton got off a good one! Well, for him, anyway. Zhaan says she needs the judgment of someone she trusts, and him to understand. Crichton asks, if she wants understanding, why she showed him that memory. Zhaan: "Because they want me to do it again." Well, in fairness, Crichton, you did ask.
Zhaan explains that Bitaal was their "spiritual counselor," but when his term was up, instead of yielding power, he and the other "conservative Pa'us" hired the Peacekeepers for external security, changing Delvia forever. Damn, people using religion to further their own personal power and glory. Good thing that only happens in fiction. Zhaan goes on that the Peacekeepers rounded up all liberals and voices of protest, and her own father was sent to an asteroid camp. She explains that as Delvians train for purity, they often become vulnerable to their own dark impulses, and if the impulses surface, they succumb to them as to an infection. However, were Zhaan to enter into Unity (the "sacred surrender of two minds together") with Tahleen, she could teach Tahleen to overcome the madness, allowing her to lead the liberals against the Peacekeepers. I probably shouldn't go into such detail, as all this is kind of a crock of shit anyway, but then I realized if people had never recapped crocks of shit, TWoP would never have come into being. ["Yeah, pull up a chair and tell me about it." -- Sars]