Episode Report Card Jacob Clifton: A+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Till The Suck Runs Out
By Jacob Clifton | Season 1 | Episode 11 | Aired on 07.08.1999
"Rygel, before the flares started you were on the horn to the locals, right? You said you talked to somebody that was some kind of a mechanic." Oh, she's some kind of something, all right. Her name is Furlow and she's like if Norm from Cheers was a lady that kept trying to sniff your chili and steal your wallet. Wearing overalls. She's pretty fun and cool in this episode, all things considered, but I hold a grudge so bad I'm hating her from the future. Pilot sends John the coordinates for Furlow, and D'Argo attempts to put his foot down: "I forbid this." John has no time for D'Argo's bullshit today. "Sometimes you're a real pain in the ass," he says, and cuts communications. As John and Aeryn fade from the clamshell, D'Argo screams his name again and again: "Crichton! Crichton!" Already we have a problem, because D'Argo stopped making sense before this episode started. Inside the module, Aeryn slams a switch, scowling ahead. "You're with me on this, right?" Aeryn points out that he only asked after they were heading down, which is a much more valid issue than the ones that D'Argo has raised, because those do not exist, because all he's doing is yelling. Me, I would take it as a compliment, because what he's saying is of course she's coming with him, because they're the of course kind of in love where you don't even have to talk about it.
Somebody in a white robe and goggles tracks Farscape One as it lands near the Dam-Ba-Da Depot, and then we watch the techs hauling the module into a maintenance bay.
John and Aeryn follow Furlow around the depot, where she 'babbles about what needs to be done. "Should have it for you by nightfall. Probably." He asks if she's sure it's all okay, if the plasma leak is contained, and she gives him a speech, while also yelling at her tech crew, about how his module is cruddy and primitive. She offers to take it off his hands and he grins. "She's not for sale." He tells her he just wants to get back in orbit "before these flares go away entirely." Furlow says the flares should die down by the end of the day -- but they'll be back in 4.8 [years]. John wigs. "I gotta get back up there! I'm collecting data." She figures -- she's a tech -- that he's researching "unusual spatial phenomena." I don't know what she means by that, but Aeryn tells her to get back on topic, because even ladies of Furlow's questionable aesthetic aren't allowed to talk to John about science. "Don't make conversation. Fix the module!" Furlow thinks Aeryn's gross; John's kind of weirded out by her tone as well: "Sorry if we seem a little pushy, but we are in a hurry and you're obviously the best mechanic on the planet. So, think maybe you can help us out?" She's right, he's wrong. Follow the instinct. Even I can tell this chick is no good; even adjusting for the fact that Aeryn's always, always right. "Since you ask so nicely," Furlow flirts, "I'll see what I can do." She then politely asks Aeryn to get the hell out of there so she can work, and tosses John a couple pairs of goggles, for the flares.