Previously on Farscape, only people who had seen "A Human Reaction," which aired like four and a half years ago, knew what John meant when he asked his father, "Was it a bass, or a trout?" I guess Sikozu is one of them though, because she immediately tries to confirm for John that the DRDs confirmed their visitors: three men, including John's father Jack, and a lady. At whom John's got his pulse pistol pointed. Jack: "It's me, son. It's all right, you're home. You're alive. And, if that wasn't miracle enough, this ship is actually a living organism?" John assures him she is, and when Jack starts asking if Sikozu's "another alien life-form," to which the correct answer is always "You have no fucking idea," but then you also have to mention how shitty her hair looks in The Peacekeeper Wars, and it's a whole thing, so John changes the subject to how the hell they managed to get to Moya.
Jack explains that IASA sent a shuttle "to open up communications" and then freaked out when Sikozu finally answered...in English. John lowers his gun and casts a tired, mean look at Sikozu: "She's too smart." One of the other guys introduces himself: "T.R. Holt, Special Advisor to the President." Holt congratulates John on accomplishing "Earth's first contact with extraterrestrial life," John laughs and calls down D'Argo and Aeryn from Lo'La. Aeryn, of course, immediately goes for her gun, because she is awesome, and John tells the humans to stay frosty. D'Argo stares at them with his arms crossed, and Holt gapes at him. Chiana, Noranti, and Rygel all cluster near Aeryn and D'Argo, staring back at Jack's team. Aeryn's played this game before; she looks scared out of her wits. ...Well, for Aeryn.
John steers Sikozu away for a short meeting -- she's totally adorable throughout this scene, by the way, just overjoyed at all the hubbub and new people -- and she asks what took him so long. It's been 42 days since his vacation in the land of Nagel and skateboards. "The wormhole's unstable; some time dilation may have occurred," John explains, and Sikozu tells him Scorpius is in a pod at the other end of the wormhole, transmitting breadcrumbs. "Yeah, you can stop pimping for him anytime," John snits. Sikozu asks what the hell his problem is -- "These are your people, do you think they pose us a threat?" -- and maybe two or three years ago that was a possibility. Now? "No. It's the other way around." Credits.
John watches the sun come up in a mostly clear sky, sitting at a dock and staring into space. Unused fishing tackle sits near him on the dock as he muses about how weird it is being back on Earth after all this time wanting to come home, how seeing his family and friends again is so weirdly normal. We see him in a large hanger, scientists everywhere, on a tour with Holt and Holt's toupee. DK's new wife Laura grabs him, and DK comes up as well, grinning: "Married on a boat in Naples. Wish you could have been there." John teases the woman: "You said he was a geek!" She agrees he still is, everybody's cute, everybody laughs.
John watches the sun come up in a mostly clear sky, sitting at a dock and staring into space. Unused fishing tackle sits near him on the dock as he muses about how weird it is being back on Earth after all this time wanting to come home, how seeing his family and friends again is so weirdly normal. We see him in a large hanger, scientists everywhere, on a tour with Holt and Holt's toupee. DK's new wife Laura grabs him, and DK comes up as well, grinning: "Married on a boat in Naples. Wish you could have been there." John teases the woman: "You said he was a geek!" She agrees he still is, everybody's cute, everybody laughs.
"I figured Earth would freak out," John continues on the dock, "And it's delivered in spades, on time, thirty minutes or less." A small army of press surge toward Farscape 1 and Lo'La, trying to get to John and D'Argo. "Uncle Sam is keeping the aliens safe and contained. A waterfront mansion for their personal use, with full security team standing by." Moya's crew file toward it, led by Holt and S.S. agents. "It's a cage, but at least it's a gilded one." It's a pretty awesome house, actually, but it's not like Merv Griffin awesome, as gilded cages go. Entering, Noranti grabs a flower arrangement and chows down, assuring Chiana that it's delicious. Sikozu takes a bite of an apple and immediately spits it on the floor. Chiana giggles and stretches on the couch while Aeryn checks out the fireplace.
"Of course, the suits are more interested in the technology, no surprise there, so we let 'em look." John advises a group of nerds on proper pulse pistol maintenance; one of them tries at target practice and accidentally blows out several computers, for some reason, causing people to jump. "They just can't comprehend what they're looking at, much less replicate it." John's journal is a very interesting mix of alien and English, which is...John's got beautiful handwriting. It looks like a Tolkien appendix. Some of them are accepting translator microbes, and we see D'Argo speaking Luxan at a man who's getting injected by a DRD, slowly fading into English. Neat. "But even translator microbes aren't gonna help some people listen. Not that you can blame them." D'Argo looks up from the old guy and yells at a man approaching Lo'La -- he touches the forcefield and gets bounced, screaming. Eyes are rolled.
This is a funny little episode, by one Richard Manning -- it's chock-full of little handjobs for the faithful, but also tells a whole story that's central to the mythos. As a quasi-critic you have to roll your eyes -- Caroline's sainthood, Jack's abrupt turnaround -- but speaking as one of those wide-eyed faithful, it rocks. "At least the alien life's not going too crazy." Which would be relative to what exactly? Chiana and Sikozu get their hotness on lounging by the pool, and for once the show gives us a hint of mercy: instead of strapping on a two-piece, Noranti's futzing around with a barbeque grill. Aeryn opens the gate for John's sister, Olivia, who's carrying a cooler. John tells us that his family's been hanging out and helping the aliens, as Olivia offers to bring Aeryn some clothes. She looks down at her leather and thanks her. My friend Andy always said that it was too bad for Buffy because no matter how well she got her shit together, she'd never be fit for human company; not sure I agree, but he said the same thing applies to John and Aeryn: They can never rest. And I always think of this moment with the leather when I think about that. The walking wounded and the war-scarred incomprehensible.
"And my cousin Bobby. Bobby is totally fascinated by the ETs." Or more specifically, Chiana and Sikozu in bikinis, whom Bobby is videotaping. Chiana puts down her magazine and gives him the finger with a grin, then turns to Sikozu. "Hey, I got this great idea. How 'bout we break outta here and go make some new friends?" Sikozu reminds her that they're not allowed out unescorted, and considering Chiana's way of making friends, she doesn't blame them. Heavy closeups of Sikozu in her bikini, who turns and looks into the camera with alien eyes.
"Sparky and Wrinkles? They're the happiest of the crew. They're in gastro heaven." Noranti pours popcorn kernels into Rygel's open mouth: "It's called...cop porn." Tasty!
"But T.R. Holt...he is not happy." John and Holt walk along outside IASA, both in dark sunglasses. "What's the big deal? It's a simple proposal, a trip on a spaceship for five hundred of Earth's best and brightest." Holt wonders who should pick those five hundred: John? "No, no. Let UNESCO handle that, or the Nobel Committee." Holt's more interested in, as he puts it, "keeping it local," which John translates as "red-blooded Americans" only. No deal, he says. "No cookie." Holt quotes an official: "The Farscape project was, and is, an American initiative. I do not think it is unfair that America should reap the first benefits of it." And what big-hearted patriot said that? "A former astronaut by the name of Jack Crichton." John stops and Holt looks at him. "Did you know we're making him IASA's Project Director for Extraterrestrial Studies?" He clicks his tongue. "Father and son. Dynamite PR." Holt begs John not to screw it up for Jack, who's "just so happy to be making a contribution." John takes off, asking if Holt's "nice suit" comes standard. Holt doesn't get the joke.
John's wearing totally cute kicks: black with white laces. "Which brings us to Dad." We watch the Crichtons in their dining room, through the curtains. "Dad's world was upside down, so he's trying to make it right side up by putting up Christmas decorations... even though it's Florida, and the whole block is cordoned off with security." Outside the alien mansion, a group of state troopers hold back the press. "Family traditions. They're supposed to bring us together, and to make everything normal."
John drops onto the couch, family bustling all about; Aeryn enters. "So. You do this every cycle?" He corrects her: "Year. Every year." She corrects herself, bites a smile. Jack tells her that Christmas has always been "our" favorite holiday. John reminisces about the Christmas where the smoke came back down the flue because "Mr. Jingles" was up there; he brandishes a framed photo of the famed cat at Olivia. Jack begs him not to hold "one little mistake" against him. Everybody playing their part. "The cat didn't have hair for three months, Dad!" Aeryn reaches for the cat picture: "What the frell is that?" Jack and Olivia discuss the horrors of riding lessons as John explains housecats to Aeryn. She's met Chiana, right? It's all so warm, the easy rhythms of family. The easy way Aeryn smells her way in, looking at John, wondering if she lets herself in through this back door, he'll let her in the front.
Bobby comes in, still rolling video. Jack and Olivia tease John about an ornament he made when he was five; John complains that they'll "break out the bare-ass baby pictures." Jack asks Aeryn what she thinks about that, and with a huge grin, she nods. Jack threatens to go get the photo album, and Aeryn makes fun of his discomfort: "I've seen it already." Olivia and Jack continue to tease him; the doorbell rings. John heads out to answer the door as Jack beckons Aeryn over: "Here. Let me show you this... "
A blonde woman -- Caroline, most recently from "Unrealized Realities" -- stands at the door, bearing mistletoe: "Special delivery from the Ghost of Christmas Past." John calls her Caroline before she wraps her arms around his head and kisses him, bottle in the other hand. Aeryn watches them kiss. "Welcome back to Terra Firma," says Caroline. John sees the confusion on her face and glances back to see Aeryn watching them; she drops her eyes when he sees her. "Hey, um...Caroline's here. Come on in." Caroline squeezes past John, into the room. John stands in the doorway, and in voiceover reminds himself that things have changed. Caroline and Jack say hello and he invites her in; Aeryn smiles politely at a photo album, gone from girlfriend to weird visitor in the ringing of a bell. She's fitting in, making the best of a situation. I don't know what the straight equivalent is to this exactly, but I know we've all felt it: I'm a good friend, you have a lovely family, and merry Christmas. Things have changed, John tells himself. "And we don't get to close our eyes and pretend they haven't." This is a funny one for me because I don't know the parallel you do, how you felt this, so I can only talk from what I know: I just know that The House Of Yes is my favorite movie because in the snap of your fingers, Parker Posey can be a man. You know? And that's Aeryn right now. You sit down, back straight, and try not to look at him too long, and you're grateful for the guest room. I'm a good friend, you have a lovely family. Merry Christmas. And life and the easy rhythms of family carrying on all around you. Walking that fine line of sex/not-sex and all the questions left unanswered. The open arms of your lover's family, and Caroline in the wings. I'm not going emo, I just can't figure out how you watch this from any other perspective.
"And everyone is telling me how different I am. They're right, but they don't have a clue why. They can't know what I've seen, what I've done...what's been done to me." Birds fly overhead; a pair of pelicans land on the water. "They can't know what's out there waiting for them, and I can't tell them, because they wouldn't believe me." Perhaps they'd lock him up. "Frell, I'd lock me up." Caroline walks down the dock, putting her hands on John's shoulders. Hands on the Crichton! John closes the book as he senses her arriving. "Hey, Buck Rogers. You're supposed to be fishing, not writing memoirs." She sits down, gets cute-nosy, but he just calls it "homework." Truer words. Caroline leans into him. "This was supposed to be a weekend off. No homework, no stress, no aliens, no demands. I guess I'm not doing my job." She turns his face towards hers, kisses him on the lips. He doesn't really respond.
TV tells us that "Mankind has always seen himself as the center of the Universe." John eats microwave cop porn, as one does. "To discover that's no longer true is highly traumatic. A fundamental status quo is being threatened here. The very existence of Homo Sapiens may be under threat. It's hardly surprising the hysteria's rising." Jack enters and sets a drink on the table before John. "Hysteria? In what sense?" asks the interviewer. John offers Jack some popcorn. "The presence of these alien creatures has induced various forms of societal hysteria..."
"Holt says it's bad on the political front," says Jack. "Every nation's demanding equal access to the aliens and all the information we get from them." John doesn't see the problem there. "We're going to give it to 'em." Jack wonders why on Earth, in 2003, the US should share technology that could be used against them. "Cause it's the right thing to do. Wouldn't worry about it, Dad. Subcommittee'll tie it up for years and load it down with a ton of guidelines." Jack calls his son naïve; John asks when Jack's dream to unite mankind changed. "September the eleventh. This isn't the same world you left four years ago, son. People don't dream like they used to. It's about survival now." Whose? "Olivia's survival. And Susan and Frank and Bobby's. Imagine them blown up by a suicide bomb or coughing up blood from a poison gas attack. This country is under siege. You just don't understand the global situation." And is that because he's been out of town, John wonders, "or because Daddy knows best?" He takes a drink. Jack asks him to be fair, telling him he can arrange a meeting for John to fight this out with Holt, or even the President. Just as long as he's not looking at his father this way. "I don't want to argue with anybody," says John, which is exactly half of the truth. "No, you just want to be obstinate and insist everyone agree with you." They argue over who is most stubborn in the family, John cuts it close: "I am going into space tomorrow. If you'd like to come along, you're welcome. Unless you're too stubborn." Jack shakes his head, and bites back a reply, because he's still an astronaut and he still wants to go. I wonder how much of this is just resentment that John, gone four years now, has the option of naïveté about the world. How much is a father's yearning for a time when his optimism could be as simple as his son's. I wonder how much of it ever is, time travel and wormholes or no.
Grayza's Skreeth prowls Moya's corridors; D'Argo greets John, who's brought Bobby and Jack. Bobby finds Moya: Awesome. "And this is just the garage," John says. Bobby begs for the tour, but John's busy, so he calls for 1812. Jack offers to give Bobby the tour, but John insists that they'll need a sherpa. He kneels to 1812 -- "Gimme that arm" -- and sprays one of the DRD's tool arms with WD40. "This should fix it up. It's a miracle." 1812 wiggles around, testing it. "1812, this is Bobby. Bobby, this is 1812. 1812 is going to be your tour guide. Don't let him break anything." Jack takes Bobby to see the Pilot, after one false start in the wrong direction. "Jack. That way." Aww, Jack And Bobby. I liked that show.
"You think they know how to open doors?" asks John. Heh. D'Argo asks John if he can check the wormhole's stability from Command, or if he needs to go outside again. "Command will be fine. I've had enough EVA to last a lifetime." Aeryn enters, John caught out and not looking, and she tells D'Argo the Prowler's systems all check out: "... So the scientists don't seem to have caused any damage." He assures her he made sure of that, and she thanks him and takes off. One Earth problem fixed. A million to go. Her face is tight and hard. Feeling the vibe, D'Argo pats John on the shoulder and leaves. There's a whole undercurrent here that's lovely, where D'Argo's like, "Hope the five minutes don't suck awfully bad," and John's like, "Yeah, thanks."
John follows Aeryn into the bay, where she's still checking her Prowler and ignoring him. "You got a problem with them poking around at your prowler, why don't you leave it here? The IASA boys got enough to look at with D'Argo's guppy and my module." He looks under the wing at her, and she stands up, cutting him off. "Would it be better if I stayed here as well?" He asks why she would do that. He's such a fucking boy all the time. Don't write yourself this pass. "I'm clearly not fitting in," she says, clearing her throat. "Whatever, it's up to you." Up to her? Yeah. She holds his gaze. Wanna flip another fucking coin, dipshit? She swallows. "Fine, I...well, I don't mind your scientists poking around with my Prowler. I can even field-strip a cannon..." Demonstrations of soldier's readiness, overtures made while she continues to turn herself off, or at least down. And he knows, and he regrets, and he's on drugs. I love the laka storyline because it reverses them, and makes everything suspect: everybody thinks he just hasn't forgiven her, but the truth is so much more complex, and it all comes to a head here, where it should: at the beginning. He tells her they've seen enough, no need to bother, and she smiles but it doesn't reach her eyes. The Skreeth watches as he asks her, begging for mercy, if she needs help. No. "No, of course you don't." He's being a dick but it's the drugs. And you know how I feel about that shit. You have a lovely family. Merry Christmas. There are so many ways to be afraid.
On the Command Carrier, Grayza pulls out a small box and removes something gross. Telling Braca "an explanation would be pointless," since he'll have no memory of what happens , she spikes his forehead with the gross thing, and there's a green flash. Braca's eyes roll back and he becomes the Skreeth. "It's Grayza. Report." Crichton is currently on Moya, the Skreeth tells her through Braca, which is orbiting Earth. Which is where? "Unknown. We traveled through a wormhole to reach it." Meaning that they can't get there, so the Skreeth needs to do recon. "Allowing me to interrogate Crichton will yield quicker answers," the Skreeth protests, but Grayza of all people knows his immunity to interrogation. "Stay hidden until we know more. Understood?"
On Moya, the Skreeth becomes invisible; Grayza unplugs the now-sweating Braca, dropping him with a gasp and a groan. She puts her hand under his chin, pulling his eyes toward her: "We took a short break for recreation." She asks if he doesn't remember. "Perhaps you will time." He thinks about how pissed Scorpius will be when he hears Braca's stepping out. She chucks his chin and stands: "But duty first." Now at attention, Braca straightens his tunic and awaits orders. "Run a full weapons systems check immediately. I want this ship ready to destroy a planet." Oh really?
John tells D'Argo, in a corridor, that Moya's readings match his homework: "It's gonna be at least seventy arns before the wormhole's stable enough for Moya to get back through." Three days is a long time, especially when you're high on laka with Aeryn and Caroline. D'Argo mentions Pilot's (and Moya's) excitement about "giving humans their first trip to the stars." Awww. John lets D'Argo know that's not happening: "We'll be long gone while they're still bickering over who gets the tickets." That's really sad. John tells D'Argo it's a plan to keep them occupied with something shiny so they don't just try to take the tech by force. "But we're not giving them anything," D'Argo notes. "Their scientists can't even work out how to use pulse pistols." Which is fine, since Earth doesn't have chakkan oil anyway. I like how John's handling all of this, even if the way it all works out is kind of heart-warmingly dorky. John examines a laka bulb and D'Argo stares at him; "Don't look at me like that," is John's response. As though they were still talking about the tech bluff: "You know how paranoid my planet is." D'Argo stays in the conversation not having to do with John's busy destruction of his romantic subplot: "Yeah, they don't like aliens." They don't like anybody, in fact, says John. "I'm glad to see you taking a positive approach," snorts D'Argo. He's gotten really good at these minefield conversations with my man John. "Cooperation, teamwork, distraction...give 'em a few hints, then we get the hell outta Dodge and hope they get their act together before the real space monsters show up." Look upward, while I duck out the back. John's really got a problem with confrontation right now.
Luckily, the show won't let him off that easy. Jack approaches Aeryn in a corridor, and she offers him a ride planetside in the Prowler. John approaches with his journal, trying weakly for his short-term amends: "Go for it, Jack. She's the best pilot I've ever seen." He closes the book. "Think you can manage a side trip to the moon?" Oh, Aeryn grins. "I think I can do better than that."
Saturn. Jack giggles as the Prowler takes a turn around it. It would be Saturn, not just because planetary rings = crazy space, but also because he's the father. "I'm farther from Earth than any human's ever been." Aeryn chuckles at that, and Jack agrees: "I guess my son does have a few miles on me." Aeryn, in the fore seat of the Prowler, gingerly nudges the bubble: "He must be happy to be back on earth though." She is not so good at these conversations, but she does well here. I do love Jack and Aeryn together. Any version of Jack, really. Even in dreams, they always get the tone just right. "I don't know. He's having a tough time readjusting. He...hasn't talked much about what he's been through." Not even about...his shipmates? She's a kid in strange territory. I don't have a problem with the twists and turns of the John and Aeryn thing; at no point do I have a problem. I think this show probably does the romantic tension stuff better and more inventively than any show I've ever seen. As a writer I respect it highly. As a judgmental relationship expert who always knows best, the fourth season of this show drives me completely nuts, because they are both being total pussies. They have reasons, good reasons, crucial brilliant reasons, and maybe it's an Aries thing, I don't know, but it makes me want to slap them both across the gorgeous face one hundred times without stopping. Don't make me write another Office recap, bitches.
Aeryn's face falls at Jack's response: "No, he's talked about your societies, customs. Remarkable stuff!" Jack already knows what she's asking; I don't think she knows that. She tries another angle: "He thinks that your species and mine might somehow be linked." Jack says that he wouldn't be surprised -- Earth geneticists are still studying it -- but if he didn't know better, he'd think she was human. She snorts. "I'm not." And since she is proving so terribly bad at this conversation, in her fear and loneliness, he takes the step for her, cutting to the quick, so like his son: "Do you wish you were?" She claims innocence, and he asks outright if she has feelings for his son. "Does that shock you?" No. "I suppose it might, if I thought of you as an alien life-form, but I don't. John has not said anything to me, but I believe he has feelings for you too." I've had this conversation too. "He did," says Aeryn. "Now..." But Jack knows: "Now, he's home. That's one of the things he's gonna have to sort out. Just give him time." She hums, and loves Jack, and heads back toward Earth.
Chez Alien on the Waterfront, where Sikozu is having a big fight with a cordless phone about how she's not having any kind of "biologic examination," acting like an "x-ray" is something unutterably horrible, with a large bruise on her forehead, and telling the person on the phone that if the other aliens are so into getting probed, they can damn well stick their probes up one of them. "You never know," says Chiana, predictably. "You might like it!" Which is funny and whatever, except what we don't know is that Sikozu has some serious fantastic reasons for not wanting anybody getting a look at her works. She finally tosses the phone out into the yard -- "Leave!" which I love -- and Rygel counsels her to eat one of his many hamburgers. "I do not want to eat. I want to go back to Moya!" Chiana says it's good, and gives her a gift for Pilot on which she's been working very hard. Suddenly Noranti bursts into song, accompanied by the Christmas book she's been trying to read. "Hark! The hirald angles sing-a! Glowry to the nude blowed king-a! Peach on Urp and murky millet! Goad and singers reckon sylled!" Chiana sings along, random words in a monotone, as Rygel grins. Sikozu finally snatches the book from Noranti's hands and tosses it out the door, onto the lawn.
Jack bends John's ear about the Prowler trip as they walk towards the Space Center. "Incredible! We flew through the Cassini Division! Beat the Cassini space probe by a year. I told Aeryn it was the best Christmas present I'd ever gotten, except for that tie-rack you made me in Junior High School." John hops up onto a rail. "Speaking of suits and ties, Holt is still fighting me on the tech-sharing plan and the explorer selection process. I could use a little support." Jack equivocates: "I've always supported you as much as I could, son." Which is the problem, if you're John. It was never enough. They argue about who's seeing the biggest picture, and John demands, again, that Earth work together on this. "Well, you're asking the impossible on that one." John throws his father's words in his face: "Impossible is not in our vocabulary. Who said that? You. You did. Four days before you set foot on the moon. You taught me to believe that. That belief kept me alive. Please tell me you still believe it." It's not rhetoric: his face is open and begging. He's ten years old. "I'm not sure what I believe anymore," Jack says, looking into his eyes. John holds his gaze and walks away; Jack bows his head. It's an impossible equation to solve, and John's put him in the middle, but if you can't ask your father for the impossible from time to time I don't know what good he is. And the awful part is that Jack agrees with me.
In the IASA hanger, DK and Laura are inspecting the Farscape 1 with John. "All this crap you've tacked on!" DK laughs. They discuss the hetch drive, the FTL engine, and how it's impossible. "Newton, Einstein, Hawking...we prove them wrong every time we pop out for groceries." But he can't tell them how it works, because he didn't design it -- just installed it. His adaptation to the universe has made him a user, not a tech, about these things, and it's a void he and DK can't talk across. I don't know what a best friend is for if you can't ask him for the impossible sometimes: "Sure, drop it in our laps. Let us scratch our heads and look stupid while you go on Nightline or have lunch with the President." Not the point. Laura compares them to "Neanderthals, trying to understand 747s." John admires the laptops of 2003 and promises Laura he can't tell them what he doesn't know. DK asks why he even bothered. The Skreeth watches as DK continues: "If we're never going to learn anything, why rub our noses in how dumb we are?" John protests that they're not dumb, and Laura agrees: "Neither are you. Taka says you asked for a metallurgic analysis of these ships. You're on the track of something." John tells her it's the same old Command Carrier riddle: "Why do Prowler pilots turn to goo?" Even now, he's hedging not on Earth technology, but the concerns of the Uncharted Territories. He's thinking as an off-world scientist, and the one thing he can't tell them about is the reason why. DK and Laura watch John walk away, frustrated at his inability to hand this stuff over. The Skreeth watches them.
There is an elegant -- even beautiful -- symmetry to the lies he has to tell here. He can't tell Jack or DK about the wormhole knowledge, which means he can't tell them what he's looking for with the Farscape and Lo'La, so he seems to be playing both sides against the middle when in fact he's trying to save everyone by making both the tech and wormholes open source. But the algorithm is progressive: he can't do one step before the one that comes before, which means it's a waiting game, and everybody getting tired of his waffling. And then there's Aeryn. He can't tell Aeryn that he's forgiven her, that he's still in love, because he's afraid of her response, so he covers up with laka. He seems to be playing both sides against the middle when in fact he's trying to save them both, by making space in his heart for Earth and for her, whenever she decides to come home to him again. She's always been intimately tied up with wormholes, and with home: both the abstract concept, which she is, and the concrete, which must -- for the sake of his soul -- include her. Just like in the story, the two bones are just an optical illusion, and he knows it: he wants everything, home and Aeryn, and there's no reason he shouldn't have it, but the complications accrete. The algorithm is progressive: he can't do one step before the one that comes before, which means it's a waiting game, and she's getting tired of his waffling. Wormholes, Earth and Aeryn. Jack. Four different doors to the same thing: that part of John that used to be symbolized by Zhaan and now -- I hate to say it, but there's a strength in admitting, and in taking on the responsibility of saying it aloud -- is symbolized by Scorpius. You heard me. Just like Noranti is a better Zhaan 2.0 -- ugly truth traded for beautiful lies -- Scorpius is the best symbol of all that still lies beneath what John can admit, and what John has to learn to love. Scorpius has always been intimately tied up with wormholes and with home, and with Aeryn. And Grayza fills that space in the credits, flows like vacuum, telling you he's changed location.
DK and Laura make their way to the carpark. "Something's going on," DK knows, and Laura too: "John is holding out on us." Only omitting the horrible burden that has been wearing down his soul since the first season, the dick. An IASA security guard opens their trunk and the Skreeth leaps out, hissing horribly. It kills the guard first -- he fires shots into the air -- and then takes out poor DK and Laura. Every time John tries to protect somebody with dishonesty, they end up dead. It's an oldie but a goodie. Commercial and then back, to where the Skreeth is digging its claws into DK and Laura's faces, and talking to Grayza through Braca. It's kind of neat how the Skreeth never talks except through him, even in the scene with Grayza. "Are you sure that they're telling you the truth?" asks Grayza. Indeed. "Plainly, not all humans have Crichton's alleged ability to resist interrogation." I hate it every time they bring that up. I could love Grayza, except for that. Braca drools; DK and Laura scream awfully and bleed all over. "Then Crichton has given no wormhole information to Earth yet?" AKA the rub. Just like with Aeryn: the game he's playing is only destructive. Not that he's wrong, just that it's a lesser of evils and not a great plan. Which is, you know, his mandate. The Skreeth confirms: "That knowledge can die with Crichton." Grayza's like, get a grip on those horses and remember I'm in need of it too. "I'm confident I can capture him, but...doubt I can bring him to you." Since Grayza can't come to the Skreeth, she'll just have to seize him and learn what she can. "...Then execute him." Grayza agrees with the Skreeth and gives her leave to kill DK and Laura.
John sits at the dining room table, flipping through a photo album with some coffee, when Olivia enters. "Shopping with aliens!" she tells him, setting her stuff down. "They closed off the whole mall. The store owners, I'm sure, were very annoyed." She kicks her shoes off and sits with him. John shakes his head: "I'm sure they love it. It'll be in all their ads tomorrow...not to mention something to tell their grandkids." She notes the photo album: "Do you want to go live in the past?" He smiles at the kid-sister Psych 101 and also at the irony: "No thank you. I've been there." She gets serious: "Well, where do you want to live?" It's really a choice. You get so used to this show every week that -- at some point in the episode -- you kinda have to force yourself to understand that it's a legitimate question. Be with that for a sec. He could stay. "I don't know, you tell me. Where do I belong?" She asks if he misses this life, and he points to pictures: "I look at these pictures and I recognize the faces...some of the places. But it's not my life." He points to pictures of their mother, young Olivia herself, and their father. "I miss him, but I can't...he's changed." Olivia smirks. "He's changed so much that you can't talk to him? You know, he says exactly the same thing about you." John admits that he has changed, but tells her that he can't tell Jack why. "Because he's the Director for Extraterrestrial Studies," -- her face goes sad -- "What he hears, the government hears." Olivia can't believe he doesn't trust Jack. "Coming here was a mistake. It was an accident, and it shouldn't have happened." I'm not a shipper, but the echoes are really loud in here. Aeryn, wormholes, Earth, and Jack. "There are things that the government cannot hear." Like, something bad? He rushes to comfort his sister, beeping her forehead and talking like ET: "Don't worry. It'll be okay." They giggle and grab-ass and you could swear she's really Browder's sister. It's a neat moment. "Trust me." She does.
Aeryn enters Chezlien with some large wrapped parcels. D'Argo: "I see we've been shopping again." She asks if Crichton isn't around, and thanks "Chi" for helping her with the gifts. Outside, a security guard stands in the doorway with more. D'Argo, Rygel and Noranti are watching TV, D'Argo's having a snack. D'Argo tells her John's gone, but Bobby's outside, "interviewing Caroline Wallace." Aeryn goes still and acts like nothing's wrong -- four years in and D'Argo's still the Weeble in their love affair! I love it! But not as much as how Chiana always tries to put John in a reciprocal position with her and D'Argo, and he never bites. Chiana asks for help with her packages; Rygel groans and D'Argo asks if she's gone ahead and bought the whole planet. "It's not mine. It's from Aeryn. I don't know what it is, but...I know it's for Crichton." She piles her packages on top of the stack in a guard's arms. D'Argo: "Won't get him back. He hasn't forgiven her." She picks up another large box and heads out of the room -- "Oh, he will, sooner or later. Some males can actually forgive" -- knocking D'Argo in the shoulder. "Oh, sorry." Advantage Nebari!
D'Argo watches her carry the box out of the room, and it's so wonderful, the look on his face: a mixture of irritation, love and a hell of a lot of affection. This makes me happy on several levels: One, because credit where it's due, that was awesome and cute. Two, because Chiana and D'Argo deserve each other, and I mean that in a good way. Also because I'd rather fuck Jothee than my own angst any day, which means Chiana is cooler than John and Aeryn put together. And three, because if Chiana and D'Argo are this obviously getting back to center, John and Aeryn can't help but follow, and I know that because I've seen this show before, and that is how the quadrille is danced. But okay and here's four: I don't think of "Unrealized Realities" as part of the triptych (I think of it as a prelude to "Constellation Of Doubt"/"Prayer"), because I love Chiana. I think the trilogy really runs from "Kansas" to "Twice Shy," because there's an undercurrent of the denied, secret healing that runs through them. And this is the first step: a declaration of terms. She's met D'Argo's mistrust and resentment (like Aeryn) with a push back, because of things she can't talk about (like John). And this scene is Karen Shaw's impudent retraction: she's willing to meet D'Argo halfway.
The echoes across are loud: the laka is intimately tied to John's violation by Grayza -- lay down Chiana's blindness beside John's emotional blurring, see the way they draw a quartered square: Chiana can't make the jump from the body to the mind without the body going wacky, John can't cross from thought to emotion without hitting "Fractures" and his own violation. Chiana's steps toward freedom last week with Johnny, in terms of clearing the dark spot on the line, are mirrored here in Aeryn's discovery of the laka (and D'Argo bears witness to this, of course, because like John he's not present for his own drama, because he can't, because boys are pussies). The first two stories show Aeryn crossing that bridge to John's home and history. week, Chiana takes the step toward saving that hurt part of herself (with both sexy and horrible results); and John is able to reclaim the territory of his heart. It's crystalline and magnificent, but also I should disclose that I have the mother of all summer colds and earlier today I broke into doped-up tears watching Chiana's screen tests. Minute 11 of the makeup tests is just a killer! I am so high right now! Gigi Edgley is awesome when she's just looking at you!
Speaking of awesome. Cousin Bobby's interviewing the lovely and unrealistically incredible Caroline: "So, how long have you known John Crichton?" She met him six years ago. "And how long have you been his girlfriend?" Aeryn enters the garden, behind Bobby, in faded jeans and a cute (only on Aeryn) western shirt, accompanied by a security guard, who stands guard at the gate. Caroline draws a hurried line across her throat at this line, seeing Aeryn approach: "Bobby, cut. Cut. Take five." It's adorable in a Jennifer Aniston oh fuck kind of way. Bobby sighs and leaves for his assigned break, and Aeryn walks over to her. It's very canny the way that Bobby is the normative voice, the one that sees alien Aeryn as a guest and human Caroline as the de facto girlfriend -- it lends a lot of weight to the awesomeness of Caroline, because it balances out her ability to not be an understandably jealous freaktrain like she 99.9% would be in real life.
"Don't stop, I'm interested in the answer!" says Aeryn. She laughs quietly to herself, and in that second she wins Caroline over. Sometimes it's better to just be honest. Well, all the time, but just putting it out there like that: it's Aeryn's MO and it fucks her a lot of the time, but I take it as a sign that she's (a) read enough of Caroline to know this is best, and (b) is demonstrating tremendous growth by the simple fact that she's opening the conversation by saying, "I am totally motherfucking out of my depth here and I need your help in this field exercise." I have no idea how this gambit would play in real life, because it's vomit-scary, but in the context of these characters it's a brilliant move. Caroline smiles a little too widely, but there's affection there: "Wanna tell me why you want to know?" Aeryn nods. "That's fair." They stand and begin to walk down the garden. "John and I were in a relationship." Caroline ducks her head, you know the gesture: "What kind of relationship?" Complicated. Caroline laughs, not unkindly. "I can imagine." Bobby films the flowerbeds. "...Well, actually, no. I can't imagine. John and I had a much simpler one. No strings, no grand plans, just good, casual times. Well, at least, that's how it was before." And now? The shadow over Aeryn's face, the open need. I'd be like, "Um, I'm actually a nun, and went back in time to not date him, is how much he's in love with you. Just please stop making that face at me."
Which is pretty much what Caroline says: "...He doesn't even want that much." Aeryn stops: "But he's been spending time with you." Caroline hypothesizes, and this is where you either drop suspension of disbelief altogether or nominate her for sainthood: "I think he's been testing himself. Working out what he really wants. It's not me." Aeryn shrugs and says she's sorry, and Caroline laughs sweetly. "No you're not! You still want him, don't you?" She nods. So simple, a kid in strange territory. Just answering the question as it's stated, primitive, and not the thousands behind it. She'd pull a gun at a chess game. "Yes. But it doesn't matter. He doesn't want me either." Caroline disagrees. "When I asked him about you, he said...there was nothing going on. He said that several times." Aeryn's like, "See, that's bad." Caroline kindly writes this off as Aeryn's lack of understanding about humans, when we know it's actually due to her inability to understand people. "Sometimes when we repeat a lie, it means that we're trying to convince ourselves of the truth. And that is that he still loves you. Very much." Angels bearing trumpets and Godiva chocolates descend and carry Caroline bodily into Heaven. Aeryn watches her, determined not to cry.
Two transport pods hover nose-to-tail at the wormhole's other end. Scorpius asks Sikozu about her forehead bruise, which is now much worse, and they talk about her turbulent travel back to him from Earth. "What are you doing?" she asks. They do their usual creepy Sex Dance of Death where they wriggle and undulate and make bizarre noises all over the place, but that kinda goes without saying. "Cross-coupling the fuel cells." Which, Sikozu realizes, will "turn this pod into a bomb." Scorpius explains that the wormhole leads to John, which means that Grayza could find him, and Sikozu asks if that means he thinks the Command Carrier will return. Scorpius says his "spy" on the Carrier hasn't been able to figure out what exactly she's up to, "But should she return, as a last resort I will detonate this pod within the mouth of the wormhole. That should destabilize it." Which of course means that he'll die. They nuzzle creepily. "You would have a better chance of destabilization with two pods," she groans, and he puts his hand around her throat.
I have no idea what's going on with these bitches most of the time, I will tell you that right now. They make little to no sense to me, and on top of it I can't ever keep their cover stories and quintuple-agencies straight. But you've got John and Aeryn torturing each other at one end of the wormhole, and Scorpius and Sputnik at the other end doing their weird fetish shit, and Scorpius just admitted he's willing to die, again, to keep John safe, and she's in for the long haul, and I guess that's worth something. And Grayza's got the Braca/Skreeth at the other end of the wormhole, but Scorpius has Skreeth/Braca in place at her end, so there's a whole yin-yang of triple-agent going on at which Braca is the nexus, and that's kind of pretty. Scorpius invites her to watch the sequence and they gaze creepily into each others' eyes, agreeing to die to keep John out of the PKs hands, hoping they won't have to before Braca goes 66 on Grayza's ass I guess, so it's a waiting game.
In the IASA hangar, D'Argo informs John that Pilot just told him Sikozu went back through the wormhole to get together with Scorpius. I guess three days have gone by: "That son-of-a-bitch. The wormhole must be stabilizing. She better not bring that bastard back through." Can you imagine? D'Argo assures him Sikozu has no intentions of returning, and John's pleased with that. "Good. No comms." D'Argo agrees that they won't be communicating back across the wormhole; they walk past Jack and Holt.
"I will inform the President," says Jack. Holt complains that he's getting "major flak from the Hill" about John's global initiatives. "He's gotta bend a little." Jack stifles what I'm sure would be, on any other day, a guffaw. "Make him. It's your job. The Joint Chiefs are up in arms, they want to classify the alien technology as a national security risk and impound it." This plays so much weirder three years later; like they'd even ask the question now. They only thought they were decrying American paranoia. It borders on cutesy now. "John won't permit that. He'll take these ships outta here first." Holt levels: "Look, I know you share my concerns about John's plans. All I'm asking for is a little compromise. Is that unreasonable?" Jack looks down and walks away, thinking.
Jack approaches John and D'Argo with Chiana: we're at a reception apparently. Chiana complains to John that the party is no fun, as they leave Jack with the VIPs. He explains it's not a party, just a photo-op, which apparently translates fine. "Smile," he says. Jack watches them, thinking hard about Holt and the Hill. "Can't we find a real party somewhere?" Chiana's very jumpy. Jack calls everybody to attention; his disrespectful son murmurs, "Here comes the 'My fellow Americans.'" He's such a little shit all the time.
"I once told my son he'd get the chance to become his own kind of hero. Well, he got it. And he made the most of it." Everybody snaps pictures; John, D'Argo and Chiana listen in the crowd. "I also taught him to stick to his guns when he thought he was right, so I can't fault him when he does. I've heard it said that he should accept our judgment over his because he owes us. I've even said it myself." Jack pauses. I don't understand why you would even introduce this whole problem if you're going to solve it so easily. It's the reconciliation of the John/Jack stuff, I get that, and this is the only way you can do this, but I think Jack should be less rah-rah about it. It's heartwarming at the expense of the weight of what's come before. Jack's nationalist tendencies in the wake of 9/11 puts a beautiful new spin on the "Earth is not ready for your jelly" story we first deconstructed in "A Human Reaction," radicalizing John's simple-minded "everybody shares" liberal ethic in the wake of a reminder that the world is demonstrably not good at choosing love over fear. All of which is good, and very Farscape, but then...Jack caves. I don't get it: "We're wrong. Look at the friends he discovered...the miracles he brought and then ask yourself what he owes us as compared to what we owe him." Chiana salutes him with her bottle of champagne; a nearby official nervously searches his pockets for that last Viagra. "Now, John insists that we share these wonders with the rest of the world, but some people are afraid of what'll happen if we do. John's afraid of what'll happen if we don't. And I'll go with that." Which I do, of course, buy, and I love it and I love this scene, but it's weird. Like with Caroline before: is it a trout, or a bass? It rings untrue, and we know for a fact that the carrot has arrived and they're actually on Earth. Which is what makes this episode so awesome, so I need to stop with the gift horse. Holt stares at Jack, equal parts perturbed and sad. I imagine him thinking, "That was awesome, but it's so sad about how the CIA is now going to murder you." Jack looks deeply into his son's eyes: "So, as IASA's Project Director for Extraterrestrial Studies, I hereby invite all nations to participate...in the ongoing Farscape mission." It's so well-stated; Jack Crichton is a beautiful man and good public speaker. John starts the applause and the crowd is impressed and bewildered at this show of the open hand; Holt's applause is like sour milk.
In the elevator: What made Jack change his mind? "Because I believe in you." It's wonderful. They walk through the carpark, where DK and Laura still lie: "That means a lot. There's a few things we should talk about." Meaning of course that Jack has earned ("Was it a trout, or a bass?") the full knowledge of John's experience. That he's a father first and a suit second. Which means family, which means when Jack says, "Son, it's Christmas Eve," John agrees that it'll keep. It's very subtle, this thread in the episode. So much of what John's going through is, of necessity, under the surface. All the lies around him that he thought would go away, if he could just go home. And they keep pulling tighter. They get into the car with the guards and head home; the Skreeth wraps herself around the back bumper.
Smiling Olivia holds the door for Aeryn, who's back in her leathers. "I know you're preparing for a private dinner, so I won't stay long." Olivia closes the door behind her, not sure what to do with this new Aeryn, somehow less a sister than before. "Is he...is John here yet?" Olivia leads her into the house: "Um, no. Not yet." Aeryn offers Olivia her clothes back, and Olivia asks if they didn't suit her, laughing awkwardly. This need to reach out. The damnable, wonderful tentacles of family drawing you in. Aeryn apologizes with her eyes and says she's more comfortable in black leather. "It's what I am, I guess," and they laugh like sisters. "And I brought the books, as well. I really appreciate it...everything." The sadness in her eyes, watching maybes and somedays drop like dead flies, like fantasies. Unrealized realities. "Are you leaving?" says Olivia, leaning in for a closer look. "You'll be here tomorrow morning to open presents with the rest of us, won't you?" The of course love that Aeryn has such trouble understanding. Aeryn: "I may not." Olivia worries -- "What's happened?" -- but Aeryn puts a calm, sweet face on it. "Nothing bad. It's not bad." The echo of John's scene with her earlier, the need for Olivia not to worry as the world's falling down around them. As the rejected love and bad wisdom ripple out, breaking apart this new family in ways that Jack and Olivia can't know. Leslie died and John got ate by a wormhole, and even DK marrying Laura didn't make them less alone. They did their best to make a home and a family, just the two of them. Olivia never married. It was just the two of them. And then John came back, bearing a beautiful new black-clad sister. And the world fell apart, and she doesn't even know it yet. Aeryn protests that no, she'll just probably be needed back on Moya for a while. "It's all right." Olivia goes to check on dinner, assuring Aeryn she'll be right back. Begging her not to leave. In this family, I bet her shit's fine-tuned.
In the hanger, Chiana's futzing with Viagra's tie: "So...are you as bored as I am?" She flexes her knees and assumes the position, teasing him. Holt runs up all apologetic -- "she's still learning our customs" -- and she turns her aggression on him. "Spank you very much? Maybe you can teach me." She bumps Holt's hip. As weird as it is, it's funny enough. D'Argo grabs her elbow and drags her away: "Okay, Chiana, let's leave." She continues to go all Chiana on the party, twisting around to yell at them: "What's wrong with you guys? ...Scared of us still?" Her outfit is totally adorable: short skirt like "Video Killed The Radio Star" and cool tights.
D'Argo hustles her out into the carpark for a Very Special Public Announcement about how: (a) all humans are bigots, who (b) fight even amongst their own species, and maybe, Chiana agrees, that's (c) why they barely left their own planet. Do you see the scientific ethics commentary? DO YOU? D'Argo smells something -- is it pedantry? -- no, it's the Skreeth. They check out DK and Laura's car, where the bodies are horribly lying. "Frell," whispers Chiana. John is a bad penny.
Jack walks into his living room, shedding his jacket and demanding his escort have some eggnog. He spots Aeryn, who's still standing there, awkward, and greets her warmly. John sees her and stops moving. Jack and Olivia take the guard into the kitchen, leaving John and Aeryn alone. Merry Christmas!
"I'm sorry," Aeryn says. "I just have to drop some things off to Olivia." These two. John bites his lip and assures her it's fine, and Aeryn darts a glance toward the kitchen. I don't like having scenes from my life played out in Technicolor like this, especially if I'm not being played by Ben Browder. Not that either of them are very flattering to be right now. "Do you want me to go back to Moya?" He cocks his head, unwilling to give a goddamn inch. "We've already talked about this. It's entirely up to you." Her eyes flash and she sets her jaw. "Fine. I'll go with what you prefer." He looks at her, questioning. "Look, I'm not trying to pressure you, John." Her voice nearly breaks. "I'm actually trying to...take the pressure off. Would you be happier if I wasn't here on Earth? You don't have to justify it or explain it. Just give me an honest yes or no." He breathes. The really hilarious part is that I could not have watched this episode for the first time at a less opportune moment or with a less opportune viewing partner. January 17, three weeks later. I literally wanted to crawl out of my skin and then eat it for breakfast and then blow up a bank and then punch your mom. Has that ever happened to you? It's so lame. The last time my world worked its kinks out so weirdly and predictably in sync with a TV show was Buffy. Let's just say 2000 - 2001 were a fucking hellride. I still kind of blame Joss Whedon for 2000 and 2001.
Jack interrupts, of course, asking Aeryn to stay for dinner. She begs off and Olivia strengthens his ranks as he's pushing: "There's always room for one more." The tears on her face are hidden by a three-qarters turn and her long black hair. Her voice always sounds like that. "It's a...traditional family thing." Oh, I cannot stand this! "We'll start a new tradition!" John says. Girl, just leave. Just walk out. "Look, it's up to you, but we'd love to have you." John asks Olivia, without looking away from Aeryn's turmoil, for a glass of eggnog. Olivia looks at them, hard, but goes to fetch it. Aeryn brings her head back up, cheeks covered in tears, and John steps close, the words on his tongue.
"Tell me you mean it. Step around those mine fields and the sixteen layers of rhetorical bullshit and tell me you're actually asking me to love you. Tell me it's not about Christmas, or Earth, or wormholes, or Jack. Tell me you won't accept the guestroom gratefully. Tell me from your pride and your fear that you're with me. All you ever had to do was ask. I cannot stop loving you. There is no pain greater than standing this close to you, smelling you, and not knowing if I'm allowed to love you again. On the other side of lies, and pain, and all the slings and arrows, is the only home I know and the only star I can sail by. The Prisoner's Dilemma only ever ends in hope. Please tell me this time is real, and I will give myself to you completely. All we ever did was die on each other. Just live, just live, just live."
...But of course the Skreeth attacks instead, and Olivia screams, and the Skreeth goes for her, and John and Aeryn -- face still covered in tears -- go into action. Combat ensues! The Skreeth grabs people and savages them! People flying through walls! Tables destroyed! Do not invite John and Aeryn to Christmas! Aeryn shoots at the thing like a hundred times! Christmas in flames! Skreeth turns invisible! All the lights go out and things are electrically dangerous! Everybody listens for the Skreeth but the Skreeth is vanished! John and Aeryn draw on each other! One-second pause. The Skreeth appears behind Aeryn and grabs her! She bites Aeryn's gun! John hits the Skreeth with some laka! "Suck on this!" he says! Aeryn asks what the Skreeth is sucking on! John says never mind! They hit the Skreeth! She hits back! He hits her with a chair! The Christmas tree goes down! Do not invite John and Aeryn to Christmas!
Aeryn pulls herself up: "John. Winona." And that's how you know they're going to be okay. He runs upstairs for his gun as the Skreeth rushes Aeryn, who shatters the glass coffee table and lies still. The Skreeth grabs John by the foot by punching through the wall beside the stairs; he tries to pull away and the Skreeth pulls the rest of the wall out. The Skreeth is kind of awesome. John pulls the Skreeth up the stairs by his ankle, one step at a time, because John is also awesome. "I've got Crichton," Braca hisses, spiked, Grayza watching eagerly. The Skreeth howls, and John kicks her in the face; she goes flying back down the stairs long enough for him to duck into a bedroom.
The lights flicker, more electrical danger happening, and Aeryn still on the floor surrounded by glass. John comes out with Winona in both hands, looking around for the Skreeth. All the lightbulbs are flashing and popping. It's very creepy. John cases the scene and the Skreeth suddenly appears behind him. Winona discharges, hitting the ceiling, and they fall off the balcony back to the first floor, under a giant chandelier. Winona goes skidding across the foyer. John tries to get his breath back; Aeryn opens her eyes to see the Skreeth looming over him, hand on his throat. Aeryn grabs Winona (whoa) and shouts a warning to John -- "Clear!" -- before shooting the chandelier down. John rolls away, and it gets the creature but good.
Braca screams, staggering; Grayza grabs his hands and watches him scream and sink to the floor.
John gets to his knees, watching the Skreeth gasp and spaz out. Aeryn helps him up, and they take deep breaths, looking at each other. They turn to the innocents: John to Jack and Aeryn to Olivia. They're battered but okay. As they all agree that they have no idea what just happened, the loud roar of Lo'La approaches outside. Everybody gasps and Aeryn spots her outside the French doors, palm trees all tattered and everything rushing back and forth like a storm. Olivia screams again: the Skreeth is back up. D'Argo targets her and takes her out with an enormous shot of blue science. The glass shatters and then the Skreeth shatters. After all the questions and yearning, this is what happens when John comes home. It's not his home anymore. This house is his old life. The Skreeth's death blows out the front door, scattering debris all over everybody.
Braca screams, face covered it spittle. Grayza crouches, he holds his head in agony. "What is it? Tell me what's wrong!" He can't; he collapses.
When the explosions calm down, John looks around. Aeryn and Olivia anxiously rise. "Well. Merry frelling Christmas," Aeryn says, and John nods. "Amen."
Grayza moves fast! She lies down beside Braca, unzipping her uniform for a quick Heppa hit, waking him. She's removed the Skreeth tool from his forehead. He leans back and gasps, seeing her above him. "Ma'am!" She assures him it was "the best ever," and that he continues to amaze her. Then, Grayza is awesome. "I'm glad I could be of service," he stammers, and she smiles down at him archly. He backtracks. "I mean, I'm pleased I could satisfy..." oh, the smile at this one. She looks away, grinning secretively. It's so awesome. He sighs, outmanned. "Will that be all?" She breathes, queen bee of all time: "Yes...for now." He groans, runs off with his uniform held closed with one tight hand. She watches him go, delighting in his discomfort and perceived inadequacy -- I love this scene so much, she rocks it -- but once he's gone, she sighs, exhausted. What the fuck now?
Aeryn's Prowler flies into Moya's hanger bay, where a huge trolley of junk is rolled out. "All the food goes to my chamber," says Rygel, indicating a huge bag of cop porn and some BK. Chiana asks what to do with John's presents: "You wanna put 'em in his quarters?" Aeryn shakes her head: "Not the right time. Cargo bay for now." She pushes the payload forward. D'Argo informs them they're leaving as soon as John gets on board. He lends her a hand with the trolley. The easy rhythms of family. Aeryn pulls Noranti aside, proffering the laka bulb. "What's this?" Oh, fuck say all three of Noranti's eyes.
Noranti looks away, keeps walking. Aeryn follows, protesting that Noranti must have made it. "It's for Crichton," Noranti says noncommittally, and keeps walking. "What does it do?" No response, but Noranti stops. "What does it do?" She finally -- with a "you asked" look -- turns to look at Aeryn. "It's to help him move on. Surmount his feelings and forget." Forget who? Noranti looks at her deeply; her barely open third eye glows blue. She turns and leaves, and Aeryn stands in the middle of nothing, staring at that tiny drug. Thinks about her culpability; puts it away again. Perhaps she pockets it. Perhaps she cries, I don't know. I'm just happy she finally found out.
Olivia holds out an open jeweler's box, holding an elegant diamond band. "I was gonna give you this on Christmas," she says, crying. John takes off his shades and looks at her. "This is Mom's." A tear runs down Olivia's cheek. "She left this to you," he says, but Olivia shakes her head. "I want you to have it. Mom'd love that." He snaps the box shut, a plane flies overhead. They'll do their best to make a home and a family, just the two of them. Olivia will never marry. It's just the two of them. Her voice breaks, just a whisper: "Don't go," and he whispers back, "I have to go." His father's ring was a puzzle: figure it out and you find your way home. But this ring is a puzzle, too. It means home, and it means that home is whatever star you choose to sail by. It started with his father's ring, and a thousand different possibilities; it ends literally with his mother's ring, and all the promises you can guarantee from an ending.
Jack steps over, stops moving as John -- in his long black duster -- embraces his sister. They take a deep breath; another jet flies by. Olivia is crying. John kisses her on the forehead and whispers, "You take care." He touches her cheek; she cries harder, and looks away. John looks down and sniffs, rubbing at his eyes. Jack, his face a portrait of longing, says just one word: "Stay." John shakes his head; he can't even speak. "Look, we'll guard the wormhole. We'll...we'll set up a defense shield. Nothing'll get through." Except SciFi, if you like that show. "No," John says, "I have a job to do." He never even got to tell him about the wormholes; life interfered. He has a job to do. "Your words again," he grins, pointing at his father. "I don't want to lose you, son," says Jack. And his voice is so old, and sad, and small. His breath is ragged. "I can't shake this feeling that you're not comin' back." John promises he'll return; Jack bites his lip. So much worse, this time. Son disappears, you can mourn. But when your child leaves for good, where do you put it? Ask any father ever. "You take care of my home," says John, nearly destroyed. "It's a promise." You can barely hear him. John wraps his arms around his father, kissing him softly on the cheek. "Take care of yourself," he whispers. Jack sniffs, close to breaking, and watches his son walk away, shades on, into the light, and hopes he'll come back. But you and I both know this shit was a cakewalk compared to what will happen then.