Episode Report Card Couch Baron: A+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Unacceptable Losses
By Couch Baron | Season 1 | Episode 22 | Aired on 01.27.2000
Back on Moya, Crichton, surprisingly, is the only one wondering if they should really be believing the worst, asking if it's possible Rygel's stalling for them. Everyone gives him a "Just stand there and look pretty" face, not that you can blame them for doing so on any level. Crichton suggests they go over what they know, and D'Argo rumbles that the map they took from Br'nee in the last episode has allowed Pilot to plot a starburst path away from the Peacekeepers. Unfortunately, Moya's child is too young to starburst, and his weapon systems aren't developed enough to take on the Command Carrier. Crichton says he's not going to be taken alive, and that he wants to "go down swinging." D'Argo agrees, and Aeryn scoffs, "Oh, just to be in the warm glow of all this testosterone!" For some reason, she sounds a little sarcastic. Crichton suggests a suicide mission -- one of them will take a transport pod laden with explosives, feign intent to surrender, and at the last second, steer the pod into the Command Carrier's nerve center. We cut away from the scene before they decide between rock-paper-scissors and one-two-three-shoot.
Rygel is dining away as Crais bites out that he's on his third helping. Rygel counters that it's for his third stomach. "That's what happens, you see. By the time it's full, the first one's empty again." Heh. Scorpius conversationally says that if he were to take Rygel back to the Gammak base and put him in the Aurora Chair, his hunger pangs would be the least of his problems. Well, that may be, Scorpy, but do you really want to sit through home movies of all the tail Rygel's scored over the years? Anyway, Rygel is unbowed, saying that his physiology won't tolerate the Chair, and Crais confirms that he'd die almost instantly. His delivery doesn't exactly suggest that he's advocating abandoning the idea, but he has been in quite a sour mood lately. Scorpius gets down to business: He'll give Rygel his freedom in exchange for Crichton, and despite Crais's protests, he deems Moya and everyone else on her irrelevant. However, in addition to his liberty, Rygel demands a ship, a qualified crew, money, a map to Hyneria, and a full pardon. We focus in on Scorpius's eyes, intense with concentration, and he realizes Rygel is lying. Interesting -- this implies that Rygel didn't plan to sell out his shipmates, but it's never mentioned what, then, his plan was, and it's kind of hard to figure. Did he intend to starve the enemy by single-handedly eating all their food supplies? Maybe Scorpius is reading into an unconscious conflict of which Rygel himself isn't aware. Scorpius orders Crais to imprison Rygel, but Rygel, in a serious tone, says that Crichton will not be taken alive. Now aware that Rygel has shifted into telling the truth, he asks if Rygel is willing to help him capture Crichton. Rygel takes a long moment...