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
As John and D'Argo call over to Aeryn on comm, Rygel's finishing up. She tells Pilot to get her in the sky, and Pilot says he can't: "The pain along the neural nexus is too great!" But they have the chlorium now. You know, by the end of the series that's like a minor miracle: they always show up late or fuck it up somehow, but it's rare that it helps anyway. Rygel cuts the last connection, and Pilot confirms the beacon's no longer transmitting. Rygel is beautiful for a moment: "I did it! I did it! I did it!" John pokes his head in the hatch and tosses him the bag of chlorium, asking him to spread it all over the places that he cut. But it's not just Rygel who did something new: "Prepare for lift off. Moya has never done this before. I don't know what to expect," worries Pilot. Down in the hatch, Rygel tosses equal handfuls of chlorium around the nexus and into his own mouth. Heh.
There's still shit dripping down the walls and weird noises, but the environment is already much improved. Aeryn sits down on the corridor floor, where Zhaan lies unconscious. She wakes her quietly, and Zhaan smiles. "Ouch." John calls Aeryn to command, like they can do anything to help Moya wherever they are, and she sighs and gets up. Rygel crawls out of the hatch and lies beside Zhaan, exhausted. "Never, ever, again," he grumbles, proud and tired. It's a beautiful little moment with the two of them, the most alien and the oldest among them all. The cutter (violence, destruction) and the healer (science, knowledge). The Muppet and the crazy-ass.
Commercial. John and Aeryn come running into command as Moya slowly lifts out of the swamp and into the air. Pilot calls triumphantly that they're going to make it, and everybody stares out.
Lyneea watches them go from her steps, her child asleep beside her. The music is triumphant music, and her face is full of wonder. She is facing to the right. John stares back at her, facing left, looking out at the planet. They miss each other. It's painful. Aeryn watches him and finally murmurs, "Don't tell me you're going to miss that rock?" And he smiles sadly. "No, not that rock." Aeryn leaves him alone, still looking back. He's not talking about Earth.