Infinite Possibilities, Part 2: "Icarus Abides"
Nitcentral's Bulletin Brash Reflections:
Farscape:
Season Three:
Infinite Possibilities, Part 2: "Icarus Abides"
"Run away while the hero gets himself killed. That's my motto."
-- Furlow to Crichton
"Hey Sparky! You can't have my stuff."
-- Crichton to Rygel
PLOT SUMMARY:
Harvey really didn't take over Crichton's body. It was just a last ditch effort before he died. Suddenly, Harvey's gone and Crichton's back. Rygel's not dead, just wounded.
With Scorpy gone, Jack unlocks the wormhole knowledge. Gradually, John begins to get the info. Now he and Jack begin to construct a "displacement engine" that can destroy the dreadnought.
Back on Talyn, a Scarran gets on board and demands to take control of the leviathan. Stark pretends to become the Scarran's slave as Crais is left to suffer the antagonism of the overconfindent Scarran.
On the surface, Furlow wants the weapon to give to the Scarrans in return for some big bucks. She kills Jack. Some Charrids drop in (literally) and we find out that Furlow's been in league with the Charrids the whole time. But now the Charrids are ticked that too many of them are being whacked off so they betray Furlow and try to steal the weapon. She kills them too.
When John and Aeryn return from checking the hanger bay doors, Furlow tells them that the Charrids killed Jack and she killed them in self defense.
Aeryn goes out to the turret to help Rygel. Meanwhile, Furlow tries to convince Crichton to share the profits of the wormhole tech with her. He refuses, so she steals the displacement engine.
Back on Talyn, Crais gives the Scarran a neural transponder and uses his own transponder to render the Scarran immoble so that Talyn can kill him.
Furlow makes off with the engine in a dune buggy. Crichton and Aeryn give chase in another one. Aeryn jumps off to get rid of a pesky Charrid while Crichton goes to stop Furlow. He gets the engine back, but Furlow flees and John is exposed to a fatal amount of radiation.
Time to use the weapon. John goes up in the pseudoFarscape1 and opens up a big wormhole. The dreadnought is sucked in and destroyed.
Back on Talyn, Crichton is dying. He says goodbye to his friends and shares an intimate moment with Aeryn. Crichton dies.
ANALYSIS:
>> I should keep a running tally of main characters who die this season.
>> I liked the charade Stark and Crais pulled on the Scarran. Very entertaining.
>> RANT: I knew this would happen. I knew it back in "Green-Eyed Monster. I knew that they'd kill off this Crichton. It's a complete slap in the face. Ever since "Thanks for Sharing", all the good stuff has happened on Talyn. The crew of Moya has basically been nothing but comic relief and filler. Rather than keep the more interesting Crichton, they leave us with the Crichton back at square one. He still has Harvey, he still has no knowledge of wormholes, and he's no closer with Aeryn than he was back in TFS. I know what TPTB are trying to do. They want to make things weird when Aeryn meets back up with the other Crichton (which better happen soon. I'm getting sick of this), but it just seemed like such a cop out. I thought they were actually taking chances by moving beyond the Scory clone and advancing relationships and finally finding the wormhole knowledge, but now it's all gone.
Okay. I'm going to quit ranting. Let others rant. Maybe things will work out in the end.
>> Why wasn't there even a single mention of the other Crichton on Moya. This Crichton didn't even mention him.
NITS:
>> Why oh why oh why didn't this Crichton write down the secret to wormhole travel for his counterpart? Why not leave behind some clue? What the heck?
>> Back in Part 1, it was stated that shrapnel would kill Rygel if he was hit, yet he lives.
OVERALL:
>> As a stand alone two parter, I liked it a lot. It kept my interest and the special effects were beyond spectacular.
>> In the grand scheme, it was kind of a disappointment.
NEXT WEEK: Farscape: The Animated Series (See what I mean about Moya's crew being comic relief?)
By Mr. Luxury Yacht on Saturday, August 04, 2001 - 7:26 am: The first nit I have off the top of my head is that radiation isn't that localized. John and Furlow didn't look that far away, and the way they spoke about it, they were both probably irradiated well beyond safe limits, as were probably everyone else nearby (just think of the span of the radiation of the Hiroshima or the Nagasaki atomic bombs).
By Anonymous on Sunday, August 05, 2001 - 4:17 pm: jeez, just how many more characters are going to die this season?
By cstadulis on Monday, August 06, 2001 - 2:57 pm: I completely agree with Mr. Moderator's rant. I was very, very pissed that this Crichton got killed, particularly since things were getting so interesting with him. Why did they have to kill him? I'd much rather see Moya's Crichton get the ax, since he really hasn't been doing anything.
Man, I'm really getting tired of this whole "Season of Death" thing. It started with Aeryn dying at the end of last season, then Zhaan, then D'argo (or at least his clone), Chiana's clone, Rygel (though he keeps coming back) and now one of the Johns. Who's next?
By Sarah Perkins on Monday, August 06, 2001 - 3:48 pm: I'm not even a real fan, I just watch it once in a while, so my opinion hardly counts, but if they were determined to make this the "Season of Death," aren't they doing a fairly good job of it? I mean haven't at least a couple of the deaths been pretty cool? Star Trek, for instance, can't seem to pull off stuff like Crichton's death here, or Zhaan's. I think they're just showing off--how many other series have been able to get away with this kind of stuff? [though I too am angry at the fact that the Crichton that survived isn't Aeyrn's]
By Callie Sullivan on Wednesday, December 05, 2001 - 6:13 am: Although I agree with everyone else that the ‘wrong’ Crichton was killed and that it’s a cop-out by the writers, I nevertheless enjoyed the ending tremendously and was able to have a really good weep all through it while knowing that John isn’t actually completely dead.
However, I’m now at the point of no longer looking forward to the reunion between Talyn’s and Moya’s crews – I suspect there’ll be far too much angst between Aeryn and John instead of just getting on with the story.
I’m assuming that Crichton touching Stark’s hand to his head, and them then sharing a significant nod, means that Stark now holds the wormhole knowledge to pass on to the other John.
If, as he suspects, the John on Moya is the photocopy, might this cause problems for him in future?
By Josh M on Tuesday, July 29, 2003 - 12:21 am:Of course the Talyn Crichton died!! This is television. This is drama. No one is ever happy. Not on Farscape. Not on Buffy. Nowhere.
I love this show.
By Josh M on Tuesday, July 29, 2003 - 12:21 am: Too bad it's done.
By Josh M on Tuesday, July 29, 2003 - 12:33 am: I loved Stark's reaction, his awe, to the destruction of the Scarran ship.
"I don't have a prayer for that."
By Josh M on Tuesday, September 30, 2003 - 9:20 pm: Of course, I always was the "less interesting" Crichton fan. I liked him. No Aeryn, no Winona, nothing.
By Merat on Sunday, October 07, 2007 - 11:21 am:I love the way Stark says, "and I HAAATE him" about Crais.