Episode Report Card Jacob Clifton: A+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Believing The Strangest Things
By Jacob Clifton | Season 1 | Episode 7 | Aired on 05.07.1999
Some time later, John comes to get Aeryn for the mission. She stares into space and ignores him and is irritated and pissy. John yells that it's finally her chance to "flex those big Peacekeeper commando muscles out in the field!" and gets very enthused, but she's like, "Peacekeeper. Yeah, really." John asks what the problem is, and it's Aeryn so you know it's crazy talk. Her problem is that she has found and explained a "top secret tracking device" to a "bunch of escaped prisoners" and will now be leading a mission to destroy it." John takes care of these with a quickness. "Well, number one, you're not leading the mission. Number two, those Peacekeepers you're so worried about, they'd kill you right now. It's the Peacekeepers who..." and she cuts him dead. "Turned on me for speaking up for you. Don't know what I was thinking." He says that back home, it's called being stand-up, and she replies that she stood up, and consequently is homeless, not to mention marked for death. "Well, join the club," John twitches, and she looks away. John gets crazy cute about the twitch. "Hey, does this bother you? Because it bugs the crap out of me. So can we go? ...Before my EYE falls OUT?" She rolls her eyes but she clearly thinks he's a funny little thing.
Why is John on this mission anyway? Because (a) he's a "scientist," (b) he's a liability and can't be left on his own at any time, and (c) Zhaan's the only one who's a bigger girl than he is, which (d) leaves only a Muppet.
Stepping out of Moya into the wet air, John stares around. He's so happy and still: "Kinda like Louisiana. Or Dagobah." "Where Yoda lives," he says off Aeryn's confused look, grinning and messing with her affectionately: "...Just a little green guy. Trains warriors." Aeryn's like, "Whatever," but he grins outrageously cutely anyway. They head out into the swamp, and D'Argo immediately gets angry with the analyzer they're using to find the chlorium. "Peacekeeper technology! You use it," he grumbles, shoving it at Aeryn, and she won't even touch it. "Techs use them, not infantry." Which means several things simultaneously, because this is the first we've heard about the PK Tech Boys and PK Tech Girls, or about Aeryn's technophobia, both of which are major points in her development...and in John's, who takes it from her and immediately gets it going. "Pilot says you touch this, this and this. Works just like a VCR, except easier." Techs use them, not infantry. Not warriors like D'Argo and Aeryn: scientists like John and Lyneea, whom we'll meet a little later. I love these little fractal moments in the show, where some tiny little interchange actually tells the whole story in twenty words or less.