Brief synopsis:
Its Crichton's turn to need rescue now as he is at the mercy of both Scorpius and Captain Crais. Fortunately, he has many allies with Gilina on the base implicating Crais rather than Crichton, and Aeryn Sun on a mission to save Crichton, and with a score to settle with Crais. Meanwhile, Moya's pregnancy comes to an end...

The Main Story:

Continued from Nerve...

Whilst Moya goes into labour, she is unable to starburst, but this suits Aeryn fine as she finds out about John, and is determined to bring him back. Despite having only just recovered, and still lacking strength, Aeryn puts on another of the uniforms from the attacking Peacekeeper squad in A Bug's Life, and heads for the planet. D'Argo and Zhaan aren't happy to see her leaving in her current condition, and go with her to aid the rescue attempt. However, only Aeryn will be able to infiltrate the base, as neither of the other two would fit in. With Gilina's help, the trio are able to fly to the base undetected, and begin the hunt for John.

Back at the Aurora chair, John is reaching his limit, and Scorpius allows him to take another break. Back at the prison cell, he talks with Stark, and learns about the magnetic sequencing device that Stark has been constructing to try and decode the lock on the cell door. It can only do one code at a time, so it could take forever. Gilina contacts John by tapping into the cell comms again, and tells him not to block his secret anymore. Gilina then goes to do some tech work on the Aurora chair, secretly altering several settings, and adding new recordings.

When John then goes into the chair, and releases his secret, its not what was expected, but instead a different past where he and Crais make a deal, involving wormhole technology. John plays along, and pretends that the game's up, and talks to Crais as if it really happened. This is enough to get Scorpius to put Crais in the chair, which he does so with ease after even Crais's own men agree that Scorpius has unconditional authority on the Gammak base. This provides a timely break for Crichton.

Despite the fact that Aeryn is still shaking, she finds her way in, and starts to make her way through the base. She meets up with Gilina, thanks her for the treatment, and asks the best way to John's prison cell. Meanwhile, Stark takes care of Crichton by projecting a soothing image into his mind. Aeryn then uses the excuse that she detected Stark's magnetic device in order to gain entry to the cell, where she then knocks out the guard, and makes her escape with John and Stark.

In the Aurora chair, Crais is broken completely, but the secret Scorpius uncovers is not the one Crichton's mind revealed, but one involving the death of Lieutenant Teeg, and Crais's decision to ignore the orders from High Command. The torture session is stopped prematurely however as Aeryn, John, Gilina and Stark prepare to make their escape.

Back on Moya, Pilot tells Chiana and Rygel that Moya will require a total vacuum throughout the ship, with the exception of Pilot's chamber. With limited time to get there, Chiana and Rygel are forced to get into a pressurised tank in maintenance bay 6. With one tank locked, the two have to share cramped quarters, which Rygel seems to enjoy much more than Chiana.

Stark finds his own way out, whilst Aeryn attempts a more methodical approach. Leaving John and Gilina to hide, she goes back to find Crais, and takes his Ident chip. The Captain was responsible for wrecking her life as a Peacekeeper, so she not only takes the chip, but leaves the Aurora chair on, and walks away. Gilina meanwhile wants to know if Crichton wants her, or Aeryn. When Crichton won't answer, Aeryn arrives back to interrupt them, prompting Gilina to stay. Aeryn and John then make their escape together.

Scorpius discovers Crais however, and realises Aeryn's plan. He takes the level risers to try and beat them to the surface.

On Moya, the pregnancy moves forward a stage, and pressure is restored to the ship, freeing Chiana and Rygel. However, there appear to be complications with the baby. The Peacekeeper interference runs deeper than at first thought - there are gun emplacements aboard the baby, which are preventing the child from breaking free. Chiana volunteers to go down to the birthing chamber to try and help free Moya's baby. Once down there, it seems that the only way out would be to encourage the baby to fire a low level blast, just enough to tear through a seam and break free, without being so powerful as to break through bulkheads. The baby does so, and Chiana only just manages to clear the area in time, but the baby breaks free, and goes to Moya's side.

Back on the surface, John, Aeryn, Stark, D'Argo and Zhaan unite, and try to fend off the Peacekeeper assault. Setting charges, and providing a constant stream of pulse fire, they work their way back to the ship. However, just as they are nearing freedom, Scorpius bursts onto the scene, and grabs John. Gilina also makes an arrival after realising she could not stay on the base. She tries to stop Scorpius, but gets shot in the process. It gives John the chance to wriggle free though, and the crew all make their escape.

On Moya, they are safe for now as Gilina managed to scramble the scanning data files before leaving, but Gilina hasn't much time left. Though John's heart has clearly moved on, he doesn't show it, and gives her one last kiss, whilst Stark shows her the mental image of a wonderful place he once visited, sending her peacefully away.

References and continuity:

The officer killed by Crais, shown in the recording provided by the Aurora chair was Lieutenant Teeg. She was killed by Crais during the events of That Old Black Magic when she was the only other person apart from Crais who knew about the orders from High Command to withdraw from the Uncharted Territories.

When Aeryn says "I lost everything because of you" she is referring to her status of "irreversibly contaminated", put on her by Crais after she had been with Crichton for a while in the very first episode, Premiere.

When Crais has his backstory altered via Gilina's modifications to the chair, the whole story seems to get a bit much for Crichton, and he makes a reference to the long running US sitcom Melrose Place, a show with some outrageous storylines, with multiple personalities, and all sorts of unexplained weirdness.

John comes up with a new nickname for Crais, Peacekeeper barbie, an imaginary variety of the popular children's doll.

Funny or interesting quotes: Stark: "How many Peacekeepers do you know in this base." Stark is suprised enough that Gilina is helping, so when Aeryn breaks them out of jail, he bursts out with this excellent line.

Rygel: "My progeny were tiny, tiny and handsome, like their father."

Rygel had never been present at any of his children's births, making Talyn the first birth he had been involved in, but he is quite sure his children were just like him.

Aeryn: "You order me? You will never order me again."

Aeryn leaves Crais in the Aurora chair, and won't listen to the desperate Captain's orders.

Episode Trivia:

• Stark was held prisoner for two cycles, and put in the chair over 100 times. He held things which was what kept him alive as Scorpius was determined to make the chair break him.
• When the Luxan homeworld was undersiege a hundred cycles ago, the Qualta blade became the weapon of freedom. D'Argo's great grandfather used one then, and D'Argo uses one now as part of a long tradition.
• After filming the scene between Aeryn and Crais in the Aurora chair, there was a blackout, and several crewmembers screamed.

Justin Monjo wrote this episode, and was also responsible for:

Director:

The director of this episode was Ian Watson. He also directed many other Farscape episodes:

Episode Aliens:

A Leviathan Sebacean cross-breed, Moya's unusual child.

Farewell to:

• Gilina, shot by Scorpius.
• Moya's pregnancy, she now has a child.

Guest Stars:
Alyssa-Jane Cook as Gilina. Anthony Kierann as Lieutenant Heskon. Moya's baby (later called Talyn) as himself.

Personal Opinion:

I really enjoyed this episode as its great to see all the crew looking out for eachother. Even new arrival Chiana is willing to watch somebody else's back, and characters such as D'Argo and Aeryn are clearly willing to risk all to save their crewmates. Aeryn was especially impressive in this episode, infiltrating the base only days after her massive injury. It was also nice that Stark brought a little humour to the episode too, preventing the episode from feeling overly dark.

This was the first time a Farscape story had been spread over two episodes, and it was pulled off magnificently. From now on, there are many three parters, two parters, and long story arcs, each achieving the same sense of scale and making the series feel like more of an epic. Farscape avoide the dull "alien of the week" routine, and goes for big impact stories that make the audience actually care.

	The great escape, but at great cost		9/10