Episode Report Card Jacob Clifton: A+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Putting Out, With Dark Sunglasses
By Jacob Clifton | Season 1 | Episode 9 | Aired on 06.17.1999
"You don't think I understand you, do you? Oh, I understand. No, believe it or not, we've had men like you on my planet. Educated men, men of science and medicine." John name-drops Mengele in case you're not feeling this particular anvil; Namtar calls him a "visionary." John grabs him -- "He was a monster" -- and Kornata injects Namtar with the stuff she decanted on Moya. Everybody goes flying with mind powers. "For this betrayal, you will die!" Namtar says, and then quickly shrinks all Gachnar because both shrinking and rats are funny and what we need right now is funny. Kornata lifts RatNamTar and drops him in a cage.
Problem not actually solved: Aeryn, almost totally Pilot now, alive with words and sounds she can't understand, walks slowly out into the light. And drops, calling John's name. John prepares to inject her with more Kornata science, but Kornata stops him: "No. For her, it must be the eye." Aeryn nods, because as bad as things in the eye are -- and in the myths, there's no difference between the hand and the eye, Woden wears an eyepatch because it's easier to think about than a god without a hand -- that's better than this. He injects her and she begins to seize. John screams, louder and louder: "What have I done?" Only saved her life, Kornata says. And John holds Aeryn.
When you fall in love with the shapeshifter, you meet her at the crossroads, full moon at midnight, and you hold her. No matter what she becomes. Fire, snake, hateful killer, snarling horse, wild beast. Pilot. Murderous, schizophrenic mother's daughter. Treacherous, disappearing soldier's lover. Hands around your throat; hands around your heart. Even when it's killing you. Even when she's Harvey's lovely daughter, all in a coldsuit, hair gone long and straight and black as night, lover and enemy in one, you hold her. You hold her, because it's your love that draws her back; your love that's the star by which she steers herself home. And she'll do the same for you, because you're a shapeshifter too.
Even when it's killing her.
John, while I've been going on and on, has arranged some food cubes into a LOL face for her delight. She's confused. "It's a happy face," she says, back to Aeryn again. He tries to explain and gives up. She reaches for the sustenance that Moya provides and will always provide; she begins to eat. She admits that food still tastes funny. "What was the worst part?" He asks, beautiful eyes full of her. "Aeryn?"