Episode Report Card Jacob: A | 366 USERS: B- YOU GRADE IT A Human Reaction
By Jacob | Season 1 | Episode 16 | Aired on 1999.08.20
Fade in and out as John's examined in a white room. They draw blood and stare, and he's out of it. Fade.
"Let's go again," says Wilson. John's now pissed as hell, fully awake, and stuck inside a concrete and glass containment cell. "So why did you land in Australia?" A soldier snaps a photograph. "I didn't land," says John. "I crashed." Flash. The pictures are grainy and cool, like an old-time GQ spread. "And what is your mission, here?" John -- straddled on a chair, brow furrowed -- whines that there is no mission, beyond what he previously stated in the credits. "Have you been here before?" asks Wilson. John's exasperated: "I'm John. Crichton. You know that, Wilson." As Wilson stares at him, John starts to finally figure it out: "You think I'm an alien?!" Wilson laughs and repeats the question, again. Flash. "Australia. Yeah. Three times. You were here with me, last year, when I tested the Farscape's engines, Wilson. So what the hell is going on?" Flash.
Fade in on an African man, speaking to John through the glass. Translator microbes have never mattered more than they do in this episode, so briefly: in all the cultures other than Earth that John has encountered, translator microbes are injected at birth. They take up residence in the brainstem, and translate for the carrier (and us). What this means is that John -- or Aeryn, or D'Argo -- can understand all languages, but can only speak his own, or whatever languages he actually learns to speak. "This is the twelfth guy, Wilson. How many more are you gonna roll in here, before you believe these are translator microbes in my head, and not some space virus?" Wilson sips coffee behind the guy, still all business. "What did he say?" "Well," says John slowly, his eyebrows and jaw doing that resolute thing that means he's actually focusing on what's going on, "I think he said that until he gets some answers, he's not gonna play anymore." Just in case Wilson's not aware of the power of the eyebrows, or the jaw, John rolls backward in his chair, then rises and retreats against the far wall, as far back as he can go.
Later, John's acting more like himself, zipping back and forth across the cell on his office chair, calling out to a soldier named Cobb who's sitting studiously reading his paper outside. They talk, but Cobb won't look at him. "Can I get a newspaper? Come on, Cobb! What am I gonna find out?...Look, I've been away, for-- What'd you say? Seven months? I just wanna know what's happened. Something. Since I've been gone. Who won the Super Bowl, Cobb?" Cobb raises his head and stares at just nothing, for several seconds, like he's accessing some kind of database or something. It's not a normal act. Finally, he says, "I don't know." John needles him: "I know you're Australian, Cobb, but you gotta know who won the Super Bowl! You know who Ty Cobb is, Cobb? No? How about Babe Ruth? You know who Babe Ruth is?" The southern accent is in full effect: John's losing it. Cobb: "Some fat guy that played for the Yankees." John does his wacky dancing around. "Good! Fat guy! At least you know something!"