Aeryn Wide Awake In the Garden

S01E02

HA! D'Argo's totally staring at a spur with his blood all over it. Oh, and then he drops it. Never mind. Aeryn and John join him in command, the latter bitching about the heat some more. "Moya's propulsion system is generating more heat than usual at this speed," Pilot says, and D'Argo notes a blockage in the vents to space. Aeryn asks about the A/C, and Pilot informs her that "all attempts to chill the ship are being overridden by the heat buildup," and John gives her a look. "Chill being the operative word here, Aeryn." Pilot gives updates that, even if he shuts down the nonessentials, the heat's going to be at plus fifteen within six hours. Rygel's like, "Fix it, bitches!" and...so is Aeryn. "I'll fix the damned problem myself." Zhaan tries to calm everybody down and says that they'll all search together, tier by tier, with Pilot narrowing it down from his chamber. She's good in a crisis, and good at being the glue. I will give her that. "On Luxan, this is a mild winter morning," says D'Argo, like somehow he's more of a badass for not caring about the A/C, and Aeryn's so not impressed: "Another reason Sebaceans hate his world." Ah, the smell of apartheid in the morning.

Zhaan indicates the main valve control for "all of tier seven" to John, who pushes and pulls and looks like an idiot for awhile, until she finally giggles and easily switches it. He duffs around ("Oh yeah. No, I knew that.") but she's very cool about it. "There's so much new information for you to assimilate. Sometimes the smaller things will allude you." He thanks her gratefully for understanding that fact. "The others treat me like I'm some kind of Earth idiot." God forbid she let that one go: "Granted, they're not the most patient beings. But what did you expect?" John doesn't notice the propaganda: "A little slack, maybe? You know, at least they know where they are. How things work. Takes me ten minutes to figure out how to open the door." She's really amazing in this scene -- none of the resentment that's characterized her interaction with Aeryn, and hardly any of the condescension D'Argo might earn. I think this is maybe due to Virginia Hey's acting here, because she's an impeccable actress (and loves Zhaan's kinder, more mystical side almost as much as I resist it) -- and so she shades everything with John in this episode to almost entirely loving solidness. It's a nice leadup to week, of course, but also says a lot about Zhaan -- the only people she treats with honest respect are Rygel and John, or the guy week. That takes a lot of strength, because she regularly levels with the most irritating possible people, and it's not condescension when she does it. They give her the best window for learning about people, I think, because they tell themselves less lies, because they're too naÃ¯ve to tell the really good ones. Like she can. Zhaan begs him to develop some patience with himself, if he's going to make it -- ignorance is a parasite -- and John nods. "I am trying. But you know, with Aeryn and D'Argo, it's like...everything's a test. It's like I'm in some neverending Frat Hazing at Alien U." Translator microbes are like, "We give." He tells her they can rent Animal House on their stopover planetside. She smiles again. "John, they're soldiers. Win their respect." He asks -- short of cutting somebody's throat -- how he can possibly do that. Since Zhaan's strategy of just openly telling anyone who will listen that she's better than them won't exactly work for him, because of how he's a fuckup. "Actions. Actions speak to them. Like tactical maneuvers. Defending the ship. Fixing the heat," she grins, pointing a thumb at the valve. He thanks her for this one, and takes off. She calls after him, making sure he's got the hang of the A/C. "Oh yeah. Just watch me spring into action." He says he's going to check all the vents in the living quarters and they agree to meet back at command.

D'Argo chases John through Moya, trying to force-feed him something gross. In space, you see, they don't have toothbrushes -- they have "dentics," which are like Khan maggots that you put in your mouth and let them crawl around sucking all your plaque and bacteria off your teeth. "Get out of my face!" screams John, meaning it literally, and D'Argo calls him a coward, noting that dentics are vastly more efficient than toothbrushes. John whines and bitches and moans and wishes fervently he were on the Enterprise -- because you know that however they do it, you never even have to admit that you eat or shit or get stuff between your teeth -- and finally D'Argo just shoves the thing into his mouth and watches him feel it working. John finally gags, and D'Argo grabs him by the neck. "Never. Swallow. A dentic!" Which hygienically and scientifically makes sense, but also comments on symbiosis: the rudeness of the host in killing its parasite would here be punished by toxicity and death. In space, you have to be nice to your parasites, and to the fact of their biological ickiness, because it mirrors your own. Off this line, Moya goes wonky and lurches, tossing D'Argo and John around and knocking Rygel into his painting, where a long red line now mars the canvas. Imperfection. Aeryn calls D'Argo and John ("Hmm...kinda minty!") up to command.

Outside, there's a lovely and sinister haze, moving strangely. "Best I can tell, it's asteroid debris," says Aeryn. D'Argo asserts that asteroid debris does not move like that. What does? Something gross. I don't know why anybody likes this show, but I do know that if you can get through this episode without barfing, you probably will like this show. The haze jerks on Moya again, and there's a jolt as John and Zhaan enter. "Don't tell me -- Moya's got hiccups," says John, and D'Argo demands that they immediately get away from the cloud. Aeryn illustrates that that isn't the real problem, because D'Argo always sees the closest thing and wants to fight it, and Aeryn always sees the farthest thing, and wants to kill it: a ship on the other side of the debris field. Aeryn and D'Argo agree that they have to stay on the other side of the cloud from the ship, and John figures out that it's a Peacekeeper scout ship. "Crais's eyes and ears," as Zhaan explains, "...And claws," Aeryn smiles. It's a Marauder, one of those ships I can never tell which is which. "Five man crew. Highest level of training. Success measured by body count." John starts to ask Zhaan, then changes course mid-question to Aeryn, the PK in attendance: "How fast can they go?" It's a nice nod to remind you that (a) Zhaan is his go-to girl for information, starting now basically, and (b) Aeryn's ex-PK.

A Marauder can go "hetch seven," which even John knows isn't that great: "That thing's a Hyundai!" He gives a whole speech to Aeryn's neck. He's not even trying to avoid the question at this point. D'Argo: "If they discover us, Crais will know exactly where to concentrate his search. And we cannot outrun a Command Carrier." Aeryn agrees with John, who gets pissy: "Of course [D'Argo's right], Ms. Sun! He's been here longer." The Marauder stops scanning and takes off, and Aeryn's whole body relaxes. Poor Aeryn. Pilot thanks her for her help, and she half-smiles: "We work together well, Pilot." Poor Aeryn. Outside, the haze moves around strangely, and seems to dissipate, causing John to sigh about the wonders of space -- but of course it's only coalescing in Moya's docking bay. And it's bugs! Horrible cockroaches everywhere! Credits! Ha hoo ha! Ya ya yo!

In the maintenance bay, John's flipping over a a DRD after tinkering. I always thought of them as Moya's immune system, but I like "laser-firing metal cats on wheels" better. "Go on, get outta here. Shoo. Go. Go home," he mutters to it, because even with the dentic he understands being nice to your parasites. Aeryn futzes around, trying to get things Enterprise clean so she doesn't have to think about the PKs, but John's not having it. He's a scab-picker. "So, those Marauders really shook you up." She answers the letter and not the spirit, because feelings are the enemy: "The ship is called a Marauder. The team on board are Commandos." And in case you forgot that she's ex-PK -- or that John loves poking this particular beehive -- he goes to the same place he does in every episode. "Like you?" She ignores it, which is wise, and starts tossing shit around. He asks if she's worried they'll come back, and she says it's unlikely: "Marauders follow a very strict search pattern. It's a cross-hatch star pattern." Because those who can't handle, teach, she draws it out for him in some pink debris. It looks like a multiplication symbol, like an asterisk, and if you go to the bottom of the page it says:

*Aeryn is not interested in your mess, so here's a small lesson in tactics.

She describes it as "Clean and efficient...no prey escapes." (I bet a regular Peacekeeper thinks they're just like the Federation: idealist, utopian, open-minded, egalitarian. And if they don't really take the Prime Directive into consideration, well, the Bajorans did okay, right? I bet the PKs love Star Trek.) "You ever serve on one?" Aeryn tells him that her "application for transfer was awaiting Crais' approval" when everything went to shit. "This little mutiny," she calls it, and tries to pull fascist rank on Earthlings: "I'm sure your world has no force so ruthless, so disciplined." John's like, "They're called linebackers...or serial killers. Depends on whether they're professional or amateur." Something else looks at them in Monstervision as John tries again with old Aeryn. "Look, you're not in this alone. Everybody onboard has had their lives derailed from what they thought they were gonna be. Should be. We're stuck together. And as long as we are, we might as well be --" She laughs right in his beautiful face with her big beautiful face. "What? Family? Friends? I want neither." You need both, lady. As well as a bunch of Jesus. Love isn't invasion, it's symbiosis: be nice to your parasites. "Well, somebody's gotta be there when you need 'em," accents John desperately, and Aeryn asks him what the hell she could possibly get out of John. Besides awesome makeouts, I guess, and he mutters to himself, "Manners? Personality? Stock tips?"

Zhaan helps Rygel straighten up his quarters, for much the same reason as Aeryn, but we don't know that yet. Rygel uprights his painting, notices the big red stripe, and darkly vows that somebody's going to pay. Zhaan sighs because she's so much better than Rygel is, and puts it on the easel. "Is that how you see yourself?" It's pretty regal. Rygel says that his mother always said he was the best looking, which is why she had his older brothers banished: "She said my face belonged on the Imperial seal." Oh, moms; they do have favorites. He whines that the painting is ruined and turns, revealing that there's a long red line on his face that matches the one on the painting. Imperfection. Zhaan laughs because she loves nothing more than other people's faults, and cleans him up as we watch them in Monstervision. Rygel sighs, because he's still only really comfortable around Zhaan, and the two of them make total sense together most of the time. He's all body, she's all spirit. (And unless somebody else comes along, his soul-twin Chiana for example, you can bet he'll get psychic powers at some point, and Zhaan'll get cancer, because the opposite thing from what you are is How They Get You. John has nightmares about war for the rest of the series; Aeryn's inability to deal with her feelings causes her to engage in some really fucked-up behavior when things get bad.)

Zhaan starts painting, pissing off Rygel, but as she moves faster and faster -- she did this in the premiere as well -- he is reduced to just a hum of dissatisfaction. After a few seconds, Zhaan steps back and he gets a good look. "Oh! Huh. Is that how you see me?" It's really quite beautiful. He looks like somebody worth knowing, for once. "It's called a spirit painting. We Delvians do it for recreation. ...It's rather rushed," she smiles, but she's proud. "It looks like Rygel the Great! Rygel the First, my most honored ancestor!" She smiles sweetly, beautifully: "Obviously, a part of his spirit resides within you." Monstervision watches as Rygel bitches hilariously at the painting: "You had it so very easy." It's a gift from Zhaan to Rygel, the thing he needs and will carry into the rest of this episode like a witch-gift in a fairy tale. A comb that becomes a forest; a bean that takes you to Heaven. Her "You could be more."

Back in the maintenance bay, Monstervision watches Aeryn and John cleaning; she walks over us, and as she reaches down for some more junk, a pair of pincers reaches out for her hand, but John distracts her away. "Aren't you hot?" she asks, and he says "No." The fuck he ain't. D'Argo comms in to report that he's showing "abnormal thermal fluctuations throughout the ship," and asks them to confirm the reading in the maintenance bay. Aeryn is vindicated and gets all smarty-pants about it. Aeryn is narrowly missed by a spur thing from the alien bugs. This is starting to get a little creepy. "D'Argo! The giant Ouiji board says -- uh, optimum plus three." Aeryn says it feels more like plus thirty, and D'Argo assures her they'll fix it once they isolate the cause. "Well, then stop talking, start isolating," she snits, and reaches down again. This time the beast gets her, right through the wrist. It's yucky. She yelps, and John's concerned, but she just yanks the thing out, tosses it aside, and wipes the blood off. I bet D'Argo would have concentrated a bit longer on the thing -- warrior v. soldier. They take off, and the bug grabs the bloody spur. This should be fantastic.

John walks into his quarters, where one of the bugs is removing a stray hair from a little black astronaut comb, and comms in to Pilot that the tier five passageway is clear, and he's heading for Rygel and Zhaan's quarters . So far, so good. Then, of course, he notices the open vent in his room, and gets worried. He finally spots the giant bug on the floor, and hops up onto a flange in the wall. "Um! Anybody, uh, anybody hear me? Anybody?" D'Argo comms and John tells him they may have located the problem. D'Argo asks over and over what he's found, but he's too busy edging away from the bug, and then noticing another one on the ceiling, and then generally doing the Dance of Cockroaches you might remember from college, where the floor is hot lava and you've got the willies. "Bugs!" he finally yelps, and Aeryn comms in to tell him he's an idiot: "Stop wasting time! Ship beetles don't clog exhaust vents!" John says it's more possible when they're two feet long, and asks for an ID on the things. D'Argo says he'll have to catch one of them, and John realizes he's actually gotta do something and interact with the creatures and that Zhaan was right. Aeryn comms that they're on their way, and to under no circumstances let the bugs get back into the vents. "Between you and me," he levels with the bugs, "You guys can go anywhere you want." The one on the ceiling drops, and heads for the vent, and John gets cornered by the other one, at which he screams, causing it to stand up on several legs, horrifyingly, and John begins to rue the day like it's never been rued before. They dance back and forth like Duck Soup, hilariously, and he finally manages to drop a blanket on top of one of them. He cheers wildly for himself for a bit before clobbering the thing. He waits for a while to see if it'll move, and then makes to take off with it, hanging like a hobo knapsack. It screams again, so he beats it some more. It's a human reaction. The blanket is covered in blood. It's just a parasite. He looks inside and almost boots.

In the medical bay, Zhaan cuts the bug and prays for it. Rygel makes fun of her for praying for a parasite, and she reminds him that they don't know what it is. "Well, it's on board this ship, uninvited!" he yells, and she admits she shares his concern. "But if I can analyze its DNA, perhaps we can understand why it's here." Rygel, because he's disgusting, grabs a big clot of bug and sniffs it, reminding her in turn that there could potentially be hundreds of them in the living quarters. Zhaan says she's agrees with Crichton's theory that they came aboard when the space cloud floated all over them. Rygel daubs a bit of the bug guts on Zhaan's perfect ass. He's so weird. She stops like going to yell at him about Moya's sexual harassment policy, but then exclaims, "Crichton! ...It's Crichton's DNA?"

The thing you killed without even thinking about it, the way you started the war because it was disgusting and too alien, the human reaction because you assumed it wanted to hurt you, the thing that scared you so bad you got brutal: it's got your DNA. Everything you ever shoved under the bed, everything that was too gross or wet or smelled weird, the show wants to bring it out and say this: It's got your DNA. Maybe you don't jump so fast with the baseball bat, time. John's with D'Argo -- where a hatch seal is covered in blue goo -- and wigs about his DNA, and Zhaan's just like, "Ask the analyzer, dude." He tells her to try again, and she tells him she needs another sample. "Oh yeah, no problem. Hell, the damned things are related to me." Aeryn asks John what's behind this seal that D'Argo's cutting into, and D'Argo explains that it's a hatch into the "ion backwash chamber." I love the ion backwash chamber. Crazy shit always happens in there. "Should be a giant empty room. The beetles have completely isolated it. All four entries are sealed. Pilot, we need that alternate entry," he growls, and Pilot says he's working on it. D'Argo tells John, confused, "Nothing can resist a prism laser saw!" John says it's not doing the trick, and that Zhaan wants some more bugs. "...Wants to check some unreliable data." Aeryn is now weird and rude: "Huh! The data's not the only unreliable thing around here." John's taken aback, and D'Argo explains the problem, which is a very scary problem we didn't know about: "Sebacean heat delirium. Sebaceans lack the gland necessary to regulate extreme thermal increases." Aeryn slides down the wall, thrown, and John draws a microthin line in the sand: "Wait, Crais and those other bastards chasing us are cold blooded? Literally?" Not Aeryn, just the "bastards." D'Argo characterizes it as "a weakness not enough of them die from." So they can die from it, huh? But not Aeryn, because he's seen the evidence that nothing can stop or injure or penetrate her. You can't even make her laugh! Just the "bastards." D'Argo's tired of waiting, and tells Pilot he's gonna start cutting. Pilot wigs on him as he starts, and a DRD gets him in the leg. D'Argo yells at the little guy and even kicks him, and tells Pilot he had his chance. Pilot growls at him pissily, in that awesome Pilot way, and D'Argo keeps cutting.

John sits down to Aeryn in the corridor, where she's getting all hardcore about busting open that hatch, and he tells her she needs to lie down. "No, I need to be left alone." He bites a thumb and gives her the puppy dogs, so she morbidly explains to him the science of heat delirium. "As our cells overheat, the nervous system shuts down: first short term memory, then motor functions. The last to go is long term memory." He says it's an ugly way to die, but that's not ugly enough for this show: "We don't die, our body lives on in that state. It's called the Living Death. It's the only time we kill our own for mercy." Figures the quality of mercy would only come up in something that awful. D'Argo finishes the hatch and looks inside, spotting...another bulkhead. This causes him to punch the wall, and then a bunch of creepy crawling and squealing from inside, and the lights start flashing darker and lighter.

Around the corner, Zhaan fools with another valve. John comes around muttering to himself ("My DNA, my DNA.") and overexcitedly yells at Zhaan about how the giant space cockroaches are now eating out the lights. He begs her to tell him that her DNA analysis was wrong and notices that she's not working the valve right. He tries to get her to flip the switch, and looks at her, concerned. "Zhaan, it's making it hotter, not cooler." John reaches for it again, and Zhaan elbows him in the stomach and punches his face, and he drops. He looks up, and Zhaan totally slo-mo barfs more blue bug goo onto the valve. So gross. He's like, "The hell?" and she wanders off.

John joins Aeryn in command and conferences D'Argo and Rygel in on comm. "How do you say 'we're screwed' in your native tongue? Zhaan just beat the crap out of me, then spit up that blue snot that the bugs use. She must've been infected or something when she..." Aeryn's just staring, not listening, working the console. He moves her hair and touches her face, worried. "You're not sweating. Oh no, that... That's heat stroke." Pilot informs him that Aeryn's "initiating a thermal increase," and John tries to stop her, earning himself a head-butt to the face. There are four male characters, counting Pilot, and three female, counting Moya. You do the math. Aeryn turns back to what she was doing, and John tries to physically pry her away from the console. She head-butts him backwards and beats more crap out of him, and he realizes she's playing hardball. It's cool how she is basically using PK moves here, so you could think she's just going nuts. Pilot, helpfully, tells John to stop her. John grabs her by the ankle and then crawls up her body, working toward her arm. Which then comes off in his hands! So Gross! She starts squealing, like the bugs, and falls to the floor, dead. (Every time John's confronted with an Aeryn that's not what she seems, that doesn't love him, and his heart breaks, and he kills her, take a shot.) So of course then Aeryn comes into command, asks what the hell he's thinking, making it hotter, and then notices him rolling around with her dead body. He comes to stand beside her -- still holding dead Aeryn's arm -- and they look down at dead Aeryn, up at each other, and down at dead Aeryn again. Closeup on Aeryn, grossed out and unsettled. This show does the twin thing about every five episodes, and I love how it never fails to be this existential outrage for them. Hayley Mills could teach them all a thing or two.

Everybody stares at dead fake Aeryn, laid on a table in the maintenance bay. "It was exactly like you!" John yells. "The way it moved! The way it felt!" Aeryn looks up at him with a really wonderful face, this mix of sort of half-sensual openness and total stone-faced denial. I've erased and rewritten that like a hundred times, but that's the best way to say it: hard, and soft, with a light dusting of WTF on top. "I mean it felt real. Alive. It looked and acted totally alive. It was...impossible to tell the difference." D'Argo's like, "But it was sabotaging the ship, which was a clue," and Zhaan -- because she's in control and knows everything -- pshaws. "He had no reason to suspect. This is a perfect duplicate of Aeryn's exterior, right down to the micron." Aeryn asks if dead Aeryn could talk, and he says she didn't, then turns to Zhaan: "Neither did you, when you attacked me in the passageway." Zhaan, because she's in control and knows everything, corrects him: "I was never in the passageway, John." He tells her about how there's also a fake Zhaan, and she immediately covers up the dead Aeryn, because it just stopped being science and started getting real. John figures that the first bug, from his room, was there sampling his DNA, to make a copy of him. Which is why they were centered originally in the living quarters. John and Zhaan get creeped out: "The perfect camouflage." "The perfect army." It's kind of sad how even Zhaan, now, is like: "Evil and must be destroyed." They have every reason to think so, now, but still, she could've been a holdout. It's got your DNA. Aeryn and D'Argo join in, realizing that there are potentially hundreds of bugs, and therefore hundreds of possible duplicates about to show up. "We will kill them all. On sight," grumbles D'Argo, and Zhaan asks how they're going to tell each other apart from the fakes. "We will cut off the tip of our small finger, for identification," he growls. John's not having that, although he does see the humor in it, and then he puts a little orange dot of spray paint on the back of their hands.

"Look, I don't care about replicants," says Aeryn. Ops v. tactics. "What we've gotta do is..." whatever the thing is. Which she doesn't remember, because she's starting to go south with the heat delirum. "I had something to say, I know I did." Zhaan worries to John that they need to get the temp down bad, and D'Argo says the bugs have gotten blue goo all over the climate regulators. John asks, as a scientist, if they can create something to dissolve the stuff, and Zhaan says she'll get started. Aeryn, because this is the part where everybody says what they're going to do, says she's going to work with Pilot. Zhaan acknowledges her with a worried look, and Aeryn tells her to fuck off as usual, but this time without unkindness or any edge: it's just an update on where she's at, which is very fine thank you. John determines to go find the main hideout of the bugs. I see that going well, especially after Zhaan's well-intentioned "actions, not words" pep-talk.

Rygel's again being used as an itsy-bitsy spelunker, again against his will, just like last week. Off his bitching, John smacks the wall, and the bugs scatter. Rygel complains some more, and D'Argo finally just tosses him in. Rygel whines from behind the wall, "Luxan manners never fail to amaze me," and D'Argo laughs evilly. John snorts at him, cutely. If I had my wish, they'd do this bonding over a Rygel fricassee, but I can say that I love Rygel's smallness, because it makes for more of this intimacy with Moya, which makes total sense to me. Only Moya has enough largeness of spirit to love Rygel without even worrying about it -- of course he can crawl around inside her, while the rest of the cast can barely look at him sometimes.

Aeryn asks Pilot half a question: "If we can't turn the temperature down, isn't there at least some way to...stop it from..." Pilot's concerned. "I am a Peacekeeper," she says. "A Sebacean. Look." Her hand shakes mightily and she says a good, good line: "Can't hold a weapon. I can't hold a thought." Even now, at her extremity, it's still about the attack. The just in case. Can you imagine if your whole life were constellated in terms of the motherfucker to shoot at you? Seriously. Every line she's said in these episodes is like, "No way, we gotta run." And that's what being a Peacekeeper feels like. No wonder they're all such assholes. It's hard out here for a fascist! She starts breathing really heavily, and then Pilot cups one of his arms around her as she goes into a full-on seizure. It passes, and she pulls herself together, stands on her own. "It is strange to be...so close to a Peacekeeper I do not fear. That is a compliment," he clarifies, but doesn't point out that, for John at least, it's the point of the episode.

They've said that this is where he falls in love with her for real, but that goes to a funny place, feminism-wise, unless you go further with it, which is to say: this is where he realizes she can be loved. Not because she's a damsel, but because she's not an android. That the walls are capable of coming down. Or maybe John's just that kind of guy, which is fine I guess. Or maybe it's the same thing. Pilot floats the idea that, should he perform a full propulsion shutdown, he could vent the cargo doors to space. But Aeryn's still about running, like she always is, and rejects anything that involves stopping. "No! It's too dangerous, we leave ourselves open for attack." Pilot reminds her that they are, um, already under attack, and we see that the whole long-term/short-term thing isn't really D'Argo's problem at all: it's Aeryn's. It stops being ops v. tactics when the entire "tactic" is "keep running forever." Aeryn makes me so sad. She rests on the console as Pilot stops Moya and vents the cargo doors.

Inside the ion backwash chamber, Rygel self-narrates over comms that he hears something, then gasps. Outside, John listens against the wall, and points out a particular location, which D'Argo then smacks really hard. Why are they doing that? That's so funny. D'Argo's like "Just trying to scare whatever's in there," and Rygel says it worked. Heh. John -- and the way he says it, you can tell he was standing there thinking about Aeryn Sun for a while before he spoke up -- worries about the heat some more. "Did you see the look on Aeryn's face? It was like she was staring at her own death." D'Argo says death is preferable to the Living Death; he's seen it before. John points to another spot, and D'Argo smacks the wall again, causing Rygel to bitch some more. I love that they're doing that. They're always so cute together, but this is really great. Especially since it's just business while they discuss this horrible thing. "They often beg for their own death," D'Argo says. "I cannot say I did not find the sight most enjoyable."

John asks if that means D'Argo's hoping Aeryn will die, and D'Argo softly explains something they've all kind of figured out but haven't admitted yet: "She was one of them. Now, she's a comrade. Like you." John calls bullshit, and starts insisting that D'Argo hates her as he hates all Peacekeepers, and that he wants her to die. He is very crazy right now! D'Argo shoves John against the wall and tells him to shove it. I love it when D'Argo's the normal one. John doesn't look away from D's eyes the whole time. There's always such a physical energy between the two of them, but especially in these close scenes: I think the bulk and presence and tension of him really focuses John. "Listen, human. Everyone is frustrated. We're all hot. And we're all gonna be a lot better off if we stop just wasting time, and just fix this blasted ship." He lets John up, and John takes out his frustration on the wall, scattering more bugs and bitching at Rygel. D'Argo takes his side, kind of -- "The little wretch is doing the best he can" -- and John nods. "I know. In the meanwhile, Aeryn is melting away." D'Argo gets apologetic and tries to clarify: "The part of me that wants Aeryn to live is greater than the part of me that wants all Peacekeepers to die." John, still smarting and scared, takes off saying that's not worth much. "Well, it's all I've got," D'Argo says, following him. And we won't know for a very long time what that actually means. How much that cost D'Argo to even think about, or say, and how sad it is that John doesn't know enough to acknowledge it.

Aeryn is sitting on the floor in Pilot's den, where he's been able to make it at least a few degrees cooler. There's a look on her face throughout, until she loses control of even that, that's wonderfully touching and sympathetic: this "oh, fuck" kind of quiet rage and sadness. Like, "I can't believe it got me." "It" would be her body. She's very grateful and sweet with Pilot, and tells him this isn't his fault, but Pilot -- way stressed -- names all the ways he's screwed and can't help her. "I cannot re-activate the consumable refrigeration unit. I have no place to bring your core temperature down." He voices his hope that the others will figure it out, and she laughs bitterly. Given the PK stuff, "why would the others care?" Pilot nods. You can't argue that one. It's a very lonely thing.

Rygel finally locates a nest, after crawling around inside the walls for awhile. There are eggs, coming out of the thing really fast, and some of them are already hatching more bugs. "Bad news, people," he whispers on comm. "Very bad news." John asks him what's up on comms, very very loudly, and Rygel screams that he's trying to get him killed, and that they were mean to toss him in the hole, and it's way too hot, and there's a nest. D'Argo's surprised by this last -- "Nest?" -- and I don't know if it's a microbe thing or just a funny little joke, but Rygel bitches: "Too many letters for you, Luxan? Try 'hive'!" It's less funny seeing the words on the page, I bet, but it works okay spoken aloud. John realizes Moya's being turned into an insect condo and Rygel announces that he will be moving out. Elsewhere, Zhaan figures out how to dissolve the blue goo, but just as she comms to them, a bug gets her through the neck with a huge stinger, and she goes down.

John screams, hearing her gasp, and everybody makes for med bay, and Rygel freaks out inside the wall. Pilot can't find Zhaan, but notes that Aeryn's losing consciousness in his den. She's shaking, and her breath is coming in shards. The DRDs poke at her and beg in beeps for her to wake up.

John goes to the hole where they shoved Rygel -- last heard screaming his fool head off -- and is surprised by a John clone, which drops from the ceiling behind him. The clone puts his hand on John's shoulder. He thinks it's D'Argo, and he turns around slowly -- the clone grows an orange spot on the back of his hand to match John's. They don't make out, at all, and that is very, very sad. John tries to talk to the clone, who stares at him silently for a bit, and then beats him up. They have a very silly, very one-sided comic book kind of conversation: "You know my moves. And I know yours." John realizes that the reason he got his ass kicked in seventh grade is that he fought fair. And it's interesting, because if somebody else said that to him, he'd shrug it off with some Jack Crichton speech about honor -- but here, he's telling himself. Tiny bit of innocence lost.

D'Argo carries Aeryn onto command, still asking Pilot where Zhaan is. Pilot can't help with that, but he can offer the lovely news that "a growing number of bipedal entities" are now wandering the ship. "Who knows how many more there are," murmurs D'Argo, and John answers as he enters: "Infinite." He holds up his own dead head: "Minus one." I guess he stopped fighting fair. D'Argo asks how he can be sure it's really John, and John says that he's talking, so you know. "If they could [talk], they wouldn't tell you that these markings are useless." D'Argo asks John where Rygel is. John asks D'Argo where Zhaan is. Nobody knows. Nobody ever knows anything on this ship. D'Argo says there were signs of a struggle, and she's gone, and who cares about D'Argo or Zhaan or Rygel or even Moya, because Aeryn's delirious: "Did we pass the obstacle test? I don't want to fail Commando training." (a) Not for at least three more years, and (b) Dude, we know. You passed. Flying colors. Stop passing.

D'Argo points out that they're getting isolated, and John says they've gotta find Zhaan and stick together. Rygel comms the yotz with Zhaan, he wants out of the wall. John asks for Rygel's 20 with an angry grin, and Rygel bitches about the bugs and stuff. "If I sit perfectly still, they don't advance. Yet, when I move, they get disagreeable." May I suggest the cha-cha? D'Argo suggests he stay still, and Rygel somehow summons yet more attitude: "If we ever survive this, Luxan, you must become my advisor!"

Rygel lets them know that the thing is spitting out clones at a phenomenal rate, and we see slo-mo Johns, D'Argos and Zhaans stumbling out of the nest. I'm so tired of the slo-mo already! We get it! They are spooky! They were already spooky! John's like, "But we already lose, though, so why?" Zhaan interrupts him, shambling into command with the huge thing sticking out of her neck, almost laughing with the direness: "Help me. I can't, uh..." The boys grab her and she's all having vapors. "I can't get this stinger out, it's pumping some kind of venom into me." It's pretty worrisome. Of course D'Argo's like, "I'll cut it out!" and John reaches out to stop him, and then Zhaan changes. She's tall, and regal, and a little bit scary.

"I am Monarch of the Drak," says the lady. It was supposed to be "Sultana," for that vague Arabian flair, but Virginia Hey is Australian, and she was like, "Nigella said that means a golden raisin, and you are not calling me a raisin." Also, if you're a woman over 35 and let them call you a raisin, Sela Ward will come to your house for selling out the sisterhood (because a woman with her bone structure is in the ideal position to talk about the beauty of aging gracefully, because she WILL NEVER AGE). I don't know why I know that story, but I do know every time this episode comes up, I think of Rygel climbing up a uterus, and then I think of Zhaan, Queen of Raisins. "These are my aggregate," says the Raisin Queen, pointing at the fake D'Argo, John, and Aeryn walking onto command. "You attack me, during my Genesis, and you must die." Freaked-out John says to freaked-out D'Argo: "What the hell is Genesis?" D'Argo draws his sword thing, and John grabs him. D'Argo just wants to chop her up, but John's like, "Actual Zhaan! Actual Zhaan!"

Commercial, and then John's like, "Where's Zhaan?" Raisin Arizona is like, "She's my voice, and then I'm going to kill her." John finally processes the Genesis thing: the eggs and the nest. "This is some sort of spawning. And you're the Queen?" He stutters because he's never right and it tastes weird. "Life must continue." John continues to explain everything to us, about how the Drak live in space, but need warmth to lay their eggs, and then when she's done, they'll leave. Raisin Cain goes, "Right, so why are you being dicks?" John figures out that it was hunky-dory (except for making Aeryn even bitchier on the way to frying up her paraphoral nerve like a samosa) until he gave that poor bug a blanket party in their quarters. "We started this damn war!" D'Argo: "It's, um, still a war." John begs her to chill out, and apologizes, and asks how long this is going to take. I think Aeryn should be in this meeting, dude. "Time?" John's like, "Right. Alien shit again." She admits that she's currently about halfway through the birth, and John's like, "Excellent," but he checks out Aeryn's meltdown and is like, "Cool, but is the heat really necessary?" Of course it is. "Warmth propels the emergence." Heard It Through The Grapevine's all, "Oh by the way, how come Moya's not cranking it?" So John has to explain about Moya being alive and a nice lady, and how they're all going to die. D'Argo uselessly repeats how they need to kill everything ever before the Raisins attack, and Ruth Younger goes, "You are our enemy!" The Fauxdrenaline Triplets step forward in lockstep, and John explains that they're going to kill Moya, and then all of her kids will die of the cold. There's a faceoff and she thinks, then moves the clones back with her eyes.

Lacuna! John, D'Argo, Zhaan and Aeryn are now locked in a room while Raisin the Roof remembers her breathing and gets her Pure Moods on. That's such a John plan: "We're just going to hide in here, is that okay?" D'Argo removes the stinger from Zhaan's clavicle while Aeryn takes up a whole bed looking a mess. John sits beside her, worried. I wonder how much is love at first sight, and how much is just the fact that she looks human? It's interesting. Rygel comms that they are all fahrbot for going forward with a plan like that. "Yet another reason I should handle all negotiations!" And I mean, credit where it's due. The little bitch can handle that stuff for real. John unconvincingly tells him not to worry. "It's only a couple more hours." Rygel squeals that he's not into sticking around inside Moya's walls for a couple hours: "I think this thing is salivating! And my body has functions!" Dude, we know. If you only remembered one thing about this entire show, I guarantee it would be his motherfucking functions. He's got your DNA. John fills us in on how they have to stay put and Laura Raisin'll keep the heat down as much as possible, and quit with the creepy clones. Zhaan, re: Aeryn, is still quite upset but getting calmer. "I think we caught it in time. Any longer at that level and she would have suffered permanent damage. Let her rest, John. She needs to recover some strength before she's aggravated again." Heh. I love that, like Aeryn's a pet bunny at a birthday party and John's just going to keep picking her up and putting her down and strapping a bonnet on her, because he doesn't know what to do with himself. "Jesus, let the bunny take a nap." It's so, so true, and all three of them are so cute in that moment, because they all know it's true, and they all know why.

John inquires about how Zhaan's doing, and she admits it's weird: "I can still sense her, deep inside...[it was like how] we're imprisoned in this room, with the rest of the ship just out of reach: I was within my own mind, yet I couldn't reach past, to think or feel what I wanted." Which is the best description of the not-so-nice stuff about Zhaan you're likely to hear, even if that doesn't apply here. John smiles sweetly at her that he's glad she's safe, and she gives him a bunch of wonderful, calm credit: "Now you've struck this truce, we're all safe." I could kiss her for that. John's so proud he floats back across the room to Aeryn, where he sits and remembers not to touch the bunny. She jerks her face toward him, still terrified by the boogeyman of her own body, and he asks if she's "feelin' better." (The accent right now, wow. Poor guy.) She's like, "No, actually still feeling hellish." He admits he doesn't know how long this is going to take, and caresses her cheek wonderfully. "We didn't cover the life cycle of deep space insects at JFK High." Everybody silently wonders what they did cover. Apparently simple levers and switches, for example, were not on the curriculum. Not freaking the fuck out all the time. Plans that make even a tiny bit of rational sense. Things they did cover: Giving Yourself a Hell Yeah, with Posturing Lab. Not Smacking Muppets. Sexual Tension Like To Kill Ya. Ass-Flattering Pants. That one, though, he did AP.

But what about the Marauder, you ask? Surely with Aeryn sucking on Crazy Death's toes, we need yet more problems. Commandos load out in Moya's docking bay, in slo-mo of course, and do a quick recon. Team Second, Kyona, uncovers the dead Aeryn body and recognizes it, and calls over her Team Leader, Lieutenant Melkor. Heh. Should've called her Caspar instead. Melkor checks out the body and congratulates it on escaping "a Captain Crais court-marshal." I fucking hate Peacekeepers. Caspar's like, "How come this Leviathan -- which is clearly the one that Crais is obsessed with, is hanging out with the keys in the ignition? It's not broken." A fake D'Argo appears and freaks them all out. It's hilarious how you immediately know they're clones, in this episode, because of the lack of banter. Normally, the cast cannot shut up for any reason. They tell him to chill, but he advances anyway, and they blow hell out of him. Melkor orders them to advance to command, shooting to kill as they go.

Our guys, still in the room, notice the heat's gone up again. Particularly poor Aeryn, who wiggles and groans and looks like hell: "Why?" Pilot informs them there's been weapons fire on board, and D'Argo and John both are like, "Wha?" Pilot tells them that Moya's not thinking too well right now, because of the Genesis, but that it seems to be coming from the maintenance bay, and then puts together the Marauder issue. He always sounds so freaked out. At least he always has a reason. D'Argo, predictably, goes into full-on wall-kicking growly mode, and John figures that the heat is happening because Sun-Maid thinks they welched on the deal.

Another D'Argo comes around the corner on the five PKs, and Caspar yells, "Another Luxan!" because they all look the same to Sebaceans. Melkor remembers the brief, that there's only supposed to be one Luxan onboard. They're both right. They blow hell out of fake D'Argo #2, and a Zhaan comes up behind them, and when they shoot her she hits the bulkhead and slides down, smearing blue bug crap all over the place. That was the one that freaked me out, even though I knew it wasn't her. Little did I know that they all manage to die in every single episode, like Kenny. If you had a nickel for every episode where we watch the entire cast die horribly, you could actually afford this show on DVD.

Back in the cell, John's trying desperately to contact the Raisin Queen. By yelling into the air. "We aren't the ones attacking you! Speak with me, dammit!" Aeryn whispers to him: "It's up to you..." He shushes her, tries to put her off, but she won't be quieted: "Before the Living Death takes hold, you have to be prepared to kill me. Promise." A world of no, for about a billion different reasons, but she gets him anyway: "Look, you said I'm not alone. A friend would do this for me." FOUL! "Family would do it swiftly." TOTAL FOUL! He cannot handle the idea of this conversation, much less actually having it. Me neither! John looks over at D'Argo, who made this happen with the power of the jinx.

Caspar mentions the heat as the Commandos continue toward command, and Melkor tries to switch a valve in the corridor, but is defeated by blue gunk. Sadly, there is no Delvian around to kiss him on the stupid forehead and give him something to prove. Melkor's convinced that "the prisoners" did it, as their only defense, and Caspar wonders aloud what the goo is. "We must resist," says Melkor, all flinty, and another Commando is like, "Fuck that." Melkor long-jumps at him and slams him into the wall. "I'll attribute that to heat delirium, Officer!" He shoves the guy toward command, and they continue. These guy don't even have a chance.

Rygel stands in front of the nest, on comms with John. I basically love the little shit here. "I can't do this. I can't." John's sorry, but there's no other option. The way it's shot, you don't really see how gross this is going to get yet, so you have to use your imagination as Rygel's like, "Do you realize how hideous this thing is?" Which: it's gotta be pretty bad if Rygel's grossed out. "You wanted to negotiate, now's your chance!" Zhaan (maybe a bit on the nose here) says to ask him what Rygel the First would do. John starts to ask, but Rygel just hangs up and turns his comm off. That's my boy. I couldn't be more impressed if he were capable of actual change or growth. Rygel walks regally (and CGI-liciously) up to a birth canal, meeting briefly with a bug at the entrance. It's all about the slo-mo and zany music, but this is actually a hugely symbolic moment, so I don't mind.

"I am Rygel. Sixteenth of my lineage, Dominar of the Hynerian Empire. At once your equal, and your humble petitioner. Requesting an audience." (Not to get graphic here, but he just basically did the entire plot of "A Human Reaction" in a few seconds, complete with reconnect to the father archetype: I'm guessing whatever goes on in there, we won't see it happen, because it's his journey alone.) And he's right, it's pretty ooky unless you're really into biology, which I am really not: straps and flaps of skin, the Original California Raisin staring at him through the veils. The Grail, on a not-so-fresh day. After a few moments, the soldier bug grants him entrance, and he moves into the oogy area. We see his silhouette as he makes his way in to her. Somewhere, Jonathan Riker breaks out in a cold sweat. If you can make it through this episode, you're good to go. Feel free to be just as proud as Rygel in this moment.

John, panicked, just keeps screaming over comms, begging Rygel to reply, but it's just silence. He's so not ready for this jelly. There are tears in his eyes for Aeryn. Commercial.

John's still screaming for Rygel, but D'Argo's like, "He's dead. She ate him." I'm so not even going into D'Argo's sex stuff right now, but: man alive. John's hysterical about how it was his idea, but D'Argo points out that the rest of them are still alive. Aeryn agrees with D'Argo, so John runs to mommy. "Zhaan, what do you think?" She flips out all Spicy Oatmeal again. "Monarch?" asks John, because the slo-mo can only mean one thing. Well, in this episode, five things, but he's right. "Silence," she commands. "I've got a Hynerian up me." He begs her to listen, but she just tells him to cram it while she talks to Rygel. "I will not be silent! You're killing her for no reason!" The meeting ends. "I have communed with your sovereign. He is most agreeable. I trust him." Good on you, Buckwheat. "Rygel is not my sovereign!" growls D'Argo, but John's like, hush. "Then you know we wouldn't hurt you." Raisinette's all Zhaan for a sec: "I know all." It's said with a grip of gravitas that shuts John up. He knows from holy stuff, I'll say that for him.

The commandos have reached the ion backwash chamber when a John clone arrives. Melkor takes it out, and some bugs show up, and there's lots of gunplay.

Zhaan screams when the soldier bug babies are hit. John begs her to let them out so they can help defend the homestead, sneaking a look at Aeryn. Every time you think she looks as assy as possible, she goes one better. "We can stop them," he pleads, and Raisin Helen takes a second, thinking, before she opens the cell door. The Aeryn guard outside steps back. "I will allow the thermal to lower," Swamp Things the Raisin Queen, and John tells her to wait, looking over at Aeryn. She locks eyes with him: "Do it." Man. She'd rather catch some Living Death than be keelhauled and executed, because then she won't have to look them in the eye. The depth and breadth of the PK thing is hard to pick up on, because you have to work backwards from knowing her, but consider this. The Peacekeepers don't even have parents: just the Peacekeepers. They don't have religion: just the Peacekeepers. They don't have friends or lovers or wives or husbands: just the Peacekeepers. They don't have yards with grass, or skies with clouds, or puppies, or diaries, or television, or manicures or Buffy or Taco Bell. Just Command Carriers. Fuck that up and you're not just fucking with your job: you're fucking with the entire universe. Everything is PK or not PK, and if you're not PK, you don't even really exist. And that's where Aeryn's at, and no matter how far you run, once you've fucked with the universe you're anathema to everything, including yourself. Normally I think chundering on about your honor is a pretty gay pursuit, but with Aeryn, I feel her. I'd rather die too.

"Don't lower the heat," John says, nearly choking on it. "Crank it up." John and Aeryn nearly start crying, both of them, because it's going to hurt. Raisin of the Flag on Iwo Jima thinks a sec, and then cranks it. Aeryn cries out in misery, and Zhaan slowly collapses as she turns back into herself. She smiles at John and nods toward the door: "I'll look after her. Go." D'Argo comes near to Aeryn and looks in her eyes. He pats her arm tenderly. That is big. That is pretty neat. You expect John to get all pinkeye when Aeryn's involved, but the promise in that touch, from D'Argo, is one of the largest emotional leaps to date. John and D'Argo head for the door. "It's just you and me," John says, going for the adrenaline, but D'Argo corrects him: "Actually, it is just me. And you." D'Argo heads out, but John comes back to Aeryn one more time, saying her name softly. "I feel the Living Death," she rasps, and he begs her to hold on. "I won't let it happen," he swears to her, but she reminds him it's not his choice. "Remember your promise," she says, as sternly as she can manage, and his face goes blank for a second before he turns and leaves. Aeryn groans, in the silence.

Melkor shoves a female Commando; they're all feeling the heat. "Move!" They walk carefully around the body of a dead Luxan, in a puddle of blue, lying in the corridor -- how friggin' long does it take to get from the docking bay to command? -- and we see that it's D'Argo, watching with eyes nearly closed. When the fifth one brings up the rear, D'Argo trips him up, climbs on his back, and knocks him out. He grabs the guy's gun and retreats stealthily. Good plan.

Zhaan holds Aeryn under a shower, cooling her down. Aeryn stares and shivers, spaced out. "Pilot?" says Zhaan forcefully, keeping it together. "More pressure. Colder water." Aeryn mutters to herself. "Living Death. Crichton promised."

The Commandos are fully keeping each other standing, as they finally reach command. Caspar spots John and gurgles, because that's like all she can do. Melkor's barely standing, and draws on John, but then Caspar spots another John in another direction. "Sir?" she chokes, and then Johns are everywhere. If ever there were occasion for a "Hell Yeah," this is it, and it's so sad because they're dying of the heat delirium and can't even enjoy it. Especially now that the multiple Crichtons showed up, I bet the temperature is going crazy! Melkor swings wildly, not sure who to shoot, and then orders them to shoot all the Johns.

Aeryn, under the cold water, is getting closer, mumbling random words. "Promise. Promise. Crichton?" There's nothing behind her eyes.

The real John walks onto command with his hands up, and then crouches beside Melkor: "Did ya ever have one of those days when life just ain't what you thought it was gonna be?" Shut up and beat his ass. "I killed you!" Melkor tries to shout, and John's just like, "Didn't help." Melkor fumbles and drops his weapon, barely able to stay upright. The other ones are just in heaps all over the place. "What kind of creature are you?" Melkor wonders. John calls this a good question, and then kicks the gun away. "Too bad Crais didn't ask that before he declared war on me." D'Argo shouts for John to clear his shot, but John claims Melkor for his own, and looks him in the eye. "We got two choices here, Peacekeeper. You can stick around, find out how hot it's gonna get. Or you can return to your Captain Crais." D'Argo senses a badness in this plan; John ignores him. Melkor shakes and laughs that John would even suggest letting them go. "Tell him he picked the wrong species to screw around with. He wants a fight? Fine. Look around. Take a good look around. And multiply that by thousands." The bad-assery of John Crichton is a rare jewel, but I like it. The quiet, scary voice. Melkor pulls a knife out of his boot as John's like, "Now, let's see about getting you home." Melkor jumps. He misses cutting John, but pins him against a wall, knife to his throat. D'Argo puts a gun to the PK's head: "I believe the human Crichton gave you a choice." John, high on crazy, tells Melkor to go for it. "Use your blade. And the time Crais sees my face, his crew will be dead and he'll be staring up from a pool of his own blood." JEEZ. Melkor, it's important to note, looks like Chris from The Sopranos , only Australian and wearing weird eyeliner. He wobbles and falls.

Some time later, the Marauder leaves. In a corridor, the DRDs are clearing up all the blue bug blood/vomit as John and D'Argo -- wearing some awesome red leather Doc-looking kicks -- head for command. "A brave gamble, Crichton," D says, and John's like, "You would have stopped him from stabbing me all up, yes?" And D'Argo says that there are two things of note: (a) "You risked Aeryn Sun's life." That's a biggie. And (b) it still would have been more fun killing them while they rolled around in the throes of heat delirium. That's not too sporting, D'Argo. John, the eternal optimist, is like, "Maybe Crais'll leave us alone now?" Which, no matter how crazy John gets, that's still less crazy than Crais on a good day. The "puddle of blood" talk is like flirting for that dude. But even as D'Argo's scoffing, John hums a little hope song to himself. "Small chance."

He gets very loud with Rygel, all, "Big fella! You look refreshed!" and Rygel says that he took a three-hour shower. "I had blue crud way up in places you don't wanna know about!" John laughs and tells him he did a hell of a job. "Yes, well, there's a lot of Rygel the First in here," says Rygel. Cute little snot. He goes off about how if he had some space-age outfit of "shimmer-weave" fabric, he'd look exactly like his ancestor. Whatever. That's so sweet. Mostly it's just funny because he's like, "It would STARTLE you!" with this weird intensity, like maybe it would startle you TO DEATH!

Pilot pleasantly reports that the temp is back to optimum, and John's like, "Awesome, where's Aeryn?" Pilot directs him to the Terrace, a location we don't often see. Zhaan closes up Story A so we can head to Emotown with no leftover questions. "The Draks are leaving. Monarch wishes a final word with us." John and D'Argo give each other this hilarious look, like, at each other like, "Here we go with the creepy." The Monarch is pleased: "Genesis is concluded." There's only a bit of bite in John's response that they're pleased about that too. "We were also pleased by the encounter between us." John begins a judicious and diplomatic response...but of course, she's talking to Rygel. "We shall not meet again, Great Ruler." I love that there's no punchline to this. Think about how cool that is. It's not that the Raisin Queen is foolish, or that some interstellar translator microbe fuckup has given her this idea: it's just that we need to be shown how strong, and good, Rygel can actually be. He tells her that he's good with just this one Drak experience, and she smiles, and checks out. D'Argo and John catch Zhaan, who sighs and says they'll be gone soon, and watches the screen. She's so remarkable.

John walks Zhaan back to her room, supporting her, hushedly telling her to just lean on him. "Yes, I know I can," she murmurs. He drops her off, and she stops him: "I must say you handled yourself like quite a man of action, today." He says he's getting the hang of it, but of course that means that... "Things change," Zhaan smiles, "And you find you're more confused than you were before." Yeah. "Time and patience," she intones. Is that her answer for everything? "Yes, because it's always the right answer." True that, but the holes in it, we won't see for awhile. "Okay, how does time and patience answer this? We see the Draks -- or we saw them -- as pests. Something to be stepped on and crushed." She chalks this one up to ignorance; I just hate that they're saying this out loud. This is not necessary. "Well, I definitely pulverized one on sight. And I would have done the same thing with the dentic, and those germ bugs that you injected me with..." The translator microbes. "But see, you see them as good," John says. Which is bad and dumb of him, because the last thing she needs is to be put on a pedestal like that. Not "how wise you are" but "how much we've all learned." Because everything she's going to say is terribly sad, because the one thing Zhaan can't do, which is balance her heights and depths, or see herself completely, is the thing she's advising us all to do. "Well, we have learned to work with them." John draws a metaphorical line about how one person's meal is another person's pet, and she just shakes her head, preferring not to think about that. "If you're asking for a distinction, I think it's often unclear. Moya is alive and she's our protector. She's also our servant. She relies on us and we rely on her. It's a mutual, symbiotic relationship." She tells him it's not all that arbitrary: "Reverence for all living beings. Which may come with..." Time and patience, he supplies, and she cutely says it along with him. I don't exactly love this as a catchphrase because it leaves out effort, which is her main issue: Time, patience, effort. "Why am I not enlightened yet? More time, I guess. More patience. I'm just going to sit on my blue ass and think myself holy." She smiles beautifully, because on the other hand, this episode and the one are the most awesome she'll ever be. "Yes, John. I get the feeling you're going to get the hang of things soon." Another thing she's wrong about.

John arrives on the Terrace, a lovely place we don't see enough, where Aeryn is crouched, watching the lovely Drak swarm into space. He stays back. "Remember me? Didn't we meet at a party a few years back?" She almost smiles. "Some of what happened, I can't recall, but almost everything else has come back." He asks how the shakes are going, and she holds up a hand. She's steady. "I'll be fine," she says, and stands. Vulnerability leaves these huge scars across her. That's such a fucked up concept to think about. John comes near, so she heads for the door, but turns. "You know. I always thought that lesser life forms were useless, just something to be squashed." Check out how this is her terrifying form of flirting, because she is crazy. John starts in on how humbling it is when you realize the Drak are just people like us, but interrupts himself with a smile. "You're not talking about the Draks, are you?" She grins sweetly. "Fine. Well, on behalf of lesser life forms everywhere, I accept the compliment." Which is a pretty cool elision: if the bugs are for stomping, then other races are for stomping, for the PKs, but realizing that symbiosis is just the nature of cohabitation in the universe, then this is a PK crossing that divide. Bugs are to people as people are to Peacekeepers. Yikes! But realizing that symbiosis goes both ways, she can make the even more fucked up connection: that without the lower races and lesser life forms, the Peacekeepers would be meaningless. There would be no peace to keep, just insane military commanders and their ponytails and magic boobs and Scorpius, tail-chasing and grab-assing across the galaxies. Without the lesser life forms, the Peacekeepers wouldn't exist. There's nothing particularly fresh about that master/slave deconstruction, it's everywhere from the Bible to Godot, but it's encouraging to see a PK come to the conclusion on her own.

Aeryn takes a long pause with hard eyes, asking permission of both of them to go on with this: "Could you have kept your promise?" She's near to tears. So is he. They don't speak. Her death is a wall between them and the only thing they can hold, which is each other. John finally breaks the circuit, turns back to the screen, and she joins him; they watch the Drak in silence. It's harder to look at that stuff directly, when the heart that loves whispers "Live, live, live," to the thing it loves, every second of the day; to say, "Do you love me enough, does your friendship mean enough, does our 'family' mean enough, that you could take me out?" Rygel 1, Aeryn 1, John 0. Of all the icky things in this episode, John's the only one that gets to ignore the question. Even though we all know the truth: his love will always be greater than his strength. It has a name. You know its name, and you know the hateful face it wears. The minty taste of killing what you love most. (It's a regularly recurring motif, "Aeryn in specifically physical, mortal danger," and I think it has less to do with fairy tales and boy stuff than it does with this: the only thing that trumps survival, in the Hobbes world they all live in -- which, not for nothing, but he wrote about mostly in Leviathan -- is love. You'd save Aeryn before yourself in a second, which means that's the question they have to keep asking; it's the worst thing imaginable, and it's got your DNA.) As much as he's the only family he has left, she's already the star he steers by, because she's the closest thing to home: It's symbiosis. So he ignores it all, like a good boyfriend, and stands side-by-side with her, and not face-to-face. The answer means something to her, but nothing to him. It's not a question that makes sense to a John Crichton: you know his favorite character was Data -- and Aeryn's as close as he'll get to consummating. "You know, all things considered? There are worse ways to end a day," he says without looking at her. So she turns to look at him instead.