Episode Report Card Couch Baron: C+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Pray For Osteoporosis
By Couch Baron | Season 1 | Episode 21 | Aired on 01.20.2000
When we return, it's day again, and Crichton and D'Argo are sniping at each other. M'Lee volunteers that the creature will take Zhaan to his "eating grounds" before, you know, eating her. She offers to take Crichton there, and D'Argo agrees that that's a good plan. Then again, he's kind of pissed off at the world right now for a number of reasons, so maybe Crichton should be expecting for this to go pear-shaped even if he doesn't remember this show's normal drill.
Cut to M'Lee leading Crichton to an area with some ugly-looking remains. After telling Crichton that "this is where the eating is done," M'Lee starts groaning, and tells Crichton she's feeling hungry. Spikes pop out all over her body as Crichton remains oblivious, but when the laws of TV finally allow him to look at her, he's horrified. But the shambling mound appears out of nowhere, grabs Crichton's gun, and shoots at M'Lee as she goes running off. He raggedly explains to Crichton that M'Lee is his enemy, and I know I joke about Crichton being dumb rather a lot, but I do think he'd gotten there already.
Scorpius enters Crais's quarters, and we learn that Scorpius countermanded Crais's order to enter the asteroid field. Crais thinks Scorpius has gone too far, and says that if his command were in question, he would have been recalled. But Scorpius points out that he saw in Crais's memories that he was in fact recalled, and is guilty of murder. Crais thinks that when he brings in Moya, he'll be cleared of those charges, but Scorpius dismissively tells Crais they won't be changing their course, and leaves. Hard to believe M'Lee's all that hungry with so much filler around.
So now we're in the creature's lair, and, with Zhaan present and safe, he tells Crichton that he would have explained himself earlier, but he finds the atmosphere so thin that the slightest exertion leaves him unable to speak. So...not a skier? Zhaan pipes up that M'Lee is a "calcivore" -- she feeds on bones. One wonders if she's ever tried an alternative form of calcium. I mean, why eat the cow when the milk's so cheap? Exposition ensues that tells us the creature, who's named Br'nee, is a very accomplished "botanistic pharmacologist" -- in other words, as Crichton puts it, he uses plants as medicine. Br'nee goes on that his ancestors seeded the then-barren asteroid over three hundred cycles ago, and he led the first team of harvesters, who apparently became fodder for the likes of M'Lee. Also, once M'Lee is full, she reverts to the passive creature she was when they first encountered her, in which state she's apparently vulnerable. They hear M'Lee shrieking in the distance...