Episode Report Card Jacob Clifton: A+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT ...And Wash Away The Rain
By Jacob Clifton | Season 1 | Episode 3 | Aired on 04.01.1999
Matala watches Verell working; he confirms that the "containment field instability problem" isn't really a problem, again, and asks how long until the rendezvous. "Sooner than you think," she hisses. I love how whenever they're alone she acts fifty times creepier. No wonder he doesn't like hanging out with her.
Galley, where D'Argo's resisting the idea that John is seeing the future. "He is convincing enough," says Zhaan, sweetly, and Aeryn says that at the least they should be subduing Matala. I can believe ignoring John, because he is a fuckup, but I would think fighter brotherhood, and Aeryn's undetectable humor, would help D'Argo understand that they're not screwing around. John, very hyper, says they need to get the shuttle out of Moya immediately, and he's very sincere with D'Argo: "Listen, D'Argo, I wish to God Matala was telling you the truth, that you could go off with her and join the Ilanic wars --" D'Argo doesn't know what he's talking about, and John remembers that was in a vision. "Look, Matala's going to offer you that, to keep you off-balance, and to distance you from us." D'Argo wigs, of course, and says it's the other way around. Zhaan begs him to chill out, and he keeps screaming, and then John gets awesome. He barks at the ladies to leave, over D'Argo's protestations that there's nothing to talk about, and they leave the boys alone.
"There is nothing you can say to me that --" D'Argo starts, all Qualtafied, and John tells him to shut the hell up. "In that future conversation when Matala offers you to go to the Ilanic wars, you tell her it isn't possible. You tell her that your crime, the crime that you were imprisoned for, would stand in the way. And not the crime that you told us, not the crime that you say you were imprisoned for, but the real crime. The crime that you've been keeping secret from everybody aboard this ship." D'Argo stares at the black gravity of this; the love between the two of them, the way that John hates that he has to do this, turn D'Argo around to look at the radius of what's pulling him down. Not looking at it because he's strong, but because the universe demands it. "How do you know that? You can't." But he can. Apologetic and loving, eyes bright: "Oh, I do know. And I'm telling you the truth. D'Argo, Matala is the enemy. Look, I'm sorry."
Later, Aeryn notifies John that something's coming, and John says it's the Ilanic cruiser. Pilot's surprised again, because they are still not close to the rendezvous point, but there it seems to be. Aeryn points out, with D'Argo's eyebrows knit, that "like Matala," it could be "Scorvian on the inside." Ouch. John asks how long until they can starburst, and Aeryn says they'll be in the cruiser's gun range long before that. Zhaan asks if they can outrun her, and Aeryn says they can't, but she can outmaneuver the cruiser long enough to keep them safe. So awesome. John tells Zhaan to distract them and get chatty on the transmission, and even D'Argo joins in: "Scorvians look nothing like Ilanics! If they refuse to make visual contact, you have your answer." He's still pissed, but hey! Look at that! All of a sudden the four of them are working in concert, supplying what they've got to supply, and that's never happened before. Fighter, planner, flyer, speaker. That's the opposite of loneliness, the white hole on the other side of D'Argo's fear, the thing that was keeping all four of them divided -- this week -- and all he had to do was look.