Episode Report Card Couch Baron: B+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT NOOOOO!
By Couch Baron | Season 1 | Episode 18 | Aired on 09.16.1999
The Peacekeepers are searching when D'Argo, with Zhaan at his side, shoots at them from around a bend in the corridor. The Peacekeepers are about to rush the "prisoners" when Crichton tries the gambit of yelling out about the situation on the ship. Chiana, for her part, is in the back of the crowd, unwatched, and given that we know she's so good at hiding, I really don't understand why she doesn't just take off for the (now less than an) arn and lay the goddamn spores. Maybe she can't bear to leave before she figures out what part of England Crichton's trying to make like he comes from. Anyway, everyone reluctantly lowers their weapons and agrees to the plan.
Cut to the Peacekeepers briefing the rest of the group. The blonde tells them that the virus's best defense is to jump from one host to another until nobody knows who it's in, and then to wait and lay its spores. And yet Chiana continues to hang around. Zhaan asks if there's a test for its presence, and is told that a host will show signs of high acidity, but only after the virus leaves its body. Not only do I think this plot is preposterous, it also bears certain similarities to the Star Trek: TOS episode "Wolf In The Fold," which is not exactly a good thing. Yet, the dramatic tension works for me overall. What is it about this show? Anyway, they split up into groups of two, and stress no physical contact with Rygel. You know, this group really is pretty thick not to entertain the possibility that Chiana could be the host here, ESPECIALLY the Peacekeepers, who supposedly have such experience with the virus. It's like, "Rygel's got the virus because Chiana says so!" "Is that that same Chiana who told us a story about a Muppet overpowering a Peacekeeper, which is also a story that no one else happened to witness?" "Um... " It just goes to show you that that old Luxan saying had it right: When you assume, you make an eema of you and me. Or something.
Pilot reports to Crichton that the DRDs can find no trace of Rygel. Well, they were quite useful earlier, so they get a pass. Plus, they're adorable. After some shots of pairs searching, we cut to the blonde Peacekeeper (named "Hassan") telling Zhaan that the virus leaves behind a mild hallucinogenic, rendering its hosts incapable of remembering their possession, or whatever. I mean, so preposterous. With all the weapons at its disposal, we're to believe that this thing routinely has trouble inhabiting the same host for a measly arn? It should have wiped out the entire galaxy by now! Unless "intellant" means "lazy as all get out," which is possible, considering it's not a word and all. All right -- enough said about this storyline. No promises on the accent, though. Zhaan tells Hassan that an entire Delvian colony was once wiped out by an intellant virus, and she lost family to it. Hassan keeps looking around for Rygel, so Zhaan sighs, "Sorry to bore you." Well, she does have something on her mind, here. And that's good, because letting your guard down seems to result in gory deaths among female Peacekeepers, but it looks like that won't happen here.