In Whole
And now, on Farscape...

Yep, the Scarren Ak'nor is back (y'know, Francesca Buller, Ben's wife, Bringing Home The Beacon) and is having a good old chinwag while torturing Scorpy. Scorpy seems to find this 'foreplay' quite amusing.

Meanwhile, the cavalry is on it's way in Lola. The plan appears to be - get ready for this - walk into the most heavily guarded Scarren base, incite a civil war and walk out with Scorpius. Flawless. Seems Jenek's freighter is there as well, along with Grayza's Command Carrier. The Scarrens signal them, and Sikozu replies, saying that Crichton wishes to add to the peace talks. They are let to dock.

Crichton then uses that moment to strap a small thermonuclear bomb onto his arm.

As the opening sequence commences, you really wonder whether that was such a good move...

Frell I love this show...

With some nice special effects, Lola is escorted down onto Katrazi, a big, almost grunge Death Star looking ball of rock. Meanwhile, Grayza is in talks with the big bad boss Scarren, Emperor Staalik, ruler of all Scarren forces and a small chain of pizza shops. Grayza is trying to make good her case for peace. Also present are Braca, Ak'nor, a few other Scarren guards, some Charrid representatives, and some Kalish representatives. Grayza is still bluffing about PK wormhole tech.

Sombre entrance - John and Aeryn walk in, much to Grayza's disbelief. Staalik is wondering why he shouldn't just have John seized, and John reveals his little bomb. Heart rate goes up, they go boom. Heart rate goes down, they go boom. Too hot, cold, happy, sad, psychic tricks - boom. And it looks like they buy it.

But the real purpose Crichton is there - the great sale, of course! Yep, it's a special sale, one-time offer, highest bidder wins, for... (drum roll please) WORMHOLE TECH, with a free set of steak knives thrown in if you order before a certain date!!! (you can literally sense how much Ben enjoyed this scene - it rocks!). Yep, John has decided that, as an American of course, it's his duty to sell out and settle down (damn that cheesey patriotic music)!

"Now, what am I offered for all the powers of the universe?"

Time out. Staalik and Ak'nor are having a little chat. Ak'nor thinks Crichton is bluffing and has come for Scorpy. Jenek is there as well, and Staalik tells him to find out how to disarm Crichton's bomb. Staalik is also getting quite upset with Ak'nor for letting Aeryn get away - seems Ak'nor doesn't have a very good succession rate.

Team meeting. D'Argo believes he has located all the spying devices the Scarrens left around. Sikozu says Pilot has enhanced the encryption on the comms so they should be able to communicate no problem. Plan - D'Argo and Rygel go talk the Charrids into a war, Sikozu to do the same with the Kalish. Chiana and Noranti - recon.

Now on Grayza's Command Carrier, Crichton and Aeryn have been invited to a little bartering session, Grayza still trying to maintain how far along she says they are in wormhole tech. Grayza is still wanting to get peace, despite nearly betraying the Luxans, and wants him to give her wormhole tech to ensure everyone's safety. John still doesn't trust her, but says - first side in this situation to figure a way out, wins. During this time, Chiana finds Jenek, and intends to find out the painful way if Scarrens have any mivonks. Seems they do, but they're internal. Meanwhile, D'Argo makes some drinking buddies with a pair of Charrids.

In the command centre of Katrazi, Sikozu is going about her business, saying that the Charrids are trying to expell the Kalish from Katrazi by force, because they are fearful of the Kalish. More or less at this time, D'Argo is saying how bad the Charrids are treated by the Scarrens, and even the Kalish are treated better. D'Argo asks them to join him, under the command of his employer - Rygel!

Meanwhile, Sikozu is getting even more suspicious. Talking with one of the Kalish, she refuses to submit proper identification, but reveals something else instead - a rather gross trick she can do with her eye. The other Kalish does the same. Seems Sikozu and this Kalish are both bioloyd resistance members, but this one Kalish is the only one to infiltrate into Katrazi. He confirms there is much hatred here between the Kalish and the Charrids, and Sikozu tells him their plan to start a civil war for their escape.

John and Aeryn get back to their quarters on Katrazi, but not before the bomb is secretly scanned by a Scarren DRD. They both think the others are buying the bomb, which for all they know may or may not be working. However, the two are about to get 'intimate' when the bomb starts bleeping faster. Seems like it's working.

Meanwhile, Jenek has a scan of the bomb, but it'll take him some time to decode. Staalik goes to see John, still thinking he is bluffing. So John decides to give them some coordinates - tells them to send a vessel there and, when it gets to those coordinates, to let them know when the ship arrives. Staalik accepts the offer, and sends out a ship. He also wants to know the progress of getting aboard Lola and check it out, but the Scarrens cannot penetrate the forcefield surrounding it.

Ak'nor is still suspicious that Crichton knows nothing, and Scorpius does, and says Scorpy is ready for his final inquisitor.

Rejoining Scorpius, Ak'nor maintains Scorpy's joke of foreplay, before introducing someone new to the equation. A dear old friend of Scorpius'.

Stark.

Yep, the mad old Bannik is back, rather happy to be given this opportunity to torture his former captor Scorpy. Scorpius can't even escape into death - Stark boasts he would capture Scorpius' soul, and with it everything Scorpius knows... However, whereas Scorpius had two cycles to torture Stark, Stark has only been given two arns. Oh well. Guess Stark will have to be more 'imaginitive'...

Chiana and Noranti manage to hear Scorpius' yells, and Noranti tells Crichton that they've found Scorpius. John comms Rygel, but he's busy doing business with the Charrids (and doing rather well at it too). John then tries Sikozu - he wants the plan to go faster to cover their escape. Rygel is doing very good with the Charrids, saying that when the Scarrens get wormhole tech, they'll only need the Kalish for their technical skills. The Charrids can just go and starve to death for all the Scarrens care. And the Kalish, Rygel says, intend to make it go all the quicker by embarrassing the Charrids.

Meanwhile, the Kalish have found out John's bomb is nothing but spare parts. But it still could be a bomb - they don't quite know what those spare parts are. The Kalish say they need a few days, but Staalik of course wants to speed up the agenda. As Staalik leaves, the Kalish consider their position - it seems to be correlating with what Sikozu has said - the Charrids are inciting the Scarrens against the Kalish, and it's starting to work.

John, Aeryn and Chiana are organising back-up plans. They know what level Scorpius is on, and if they can't make it back to Lola they need an escape route to the surface. Chiana keeps looking, while John and Aeryn go to see Staalik, who isn't in a good mood. Seems that when the Scarren Striker got to the coordinates John had given him, a wormhole had opened and swallowed it. Why, John asks, didn't they tell him it had got there, as he had said? As Staalik is threatening them, John threatens to sell the wormhole tech to the PKs, and leaves.

Meanwhile, Sikozu is being lead by the resistance member bioloyd Kalish person to a huge cavern full of flowers that the Scarrens consume. It's a high security area - only the Charrids are supposed to go in there, but he knows the code. So if anyone else goes in there, the Scarrens will assume the Charrids left it accessible. But the Charrids will suspect the Kalish stole the codes, and confront them. Sikozu comms John to tell him they've come up with a faster plan, just as John comes across Braca, who simply asks "are you here to rescue him, or kill him?"

Back with the Scorpy/Stark reunion gig, Stark has to hide as John and Aeryn come in to see Scorpy. Aeryn is blocked from entering. Suddenly John is heat-probed by Ak'nor, and the 'bomb' starts ticking faster. Ak'nor eventually chickens out though, trusting that the bomb is real, and allows Aeryn to enter. However, they have no choice but to leave Scorpius, at least for the moment, which annoys Sikozu no end.

Sikozu still gives John and Aeryn access to the Scarren's flower cavern, ikozu leaving them alone in the lift as it heads down. John and Aeryn take this moment to try a little ballroom dancing in the lift, Aeryn standing on John's feet to move in step.

Rygel and D'Argo seem to have incited enough hate into the Charrids, and back with John and Aeryn, the lift stops all too quickly. Alarms are ringing, and the Charrids know there are intruders in the 'Cristirium Chamber' it's called now, and go to check it out. In the chamber, John's wondering what they should do there in a whole load of flowers to get themselves arrested and, as they begin to go about the process of 'getting arrested', they get arrested.

Being brought before Staalik and Ak'nor, John simply says the door had been left open by some Charrids beforehand. Seems the Charrids are Ak'nor's responsibility, another thing to annoy Staalik today. John though asks to be given Scorpius, on a whim, saying that John doesn't like to see people who don't know anything being tortured.

But Stark isn't finished with his fun!!! He has promised to break Scorpius, not promised that Scorpius knows about wormholes. Still, he's having a merry little time, unfortunately curtailed by Staalik, who decides to torture the truth out of Scorpius himself.

But Scorpius says that, if John is brought to him, he can separate him from the bomb. John trusts Scorpius all the more than he suspects.

Staalik is still suspicious. Scorpius may betray him.

But why would he? Scorpius has served Staalik faithfully for ten cycles...

Back on the Command Carrier, Grayza is offering the Moya crew pardons from the supreme council if they don't give the Scarrens wormhole tech. Crichton leaves the offer for the moment.

On Katrazi though, Scorpius is being brought to John. He wants the riot that he wanted, so they can escape when the get Scorpius. Sikozu is overseeing the situation - the Scarrens are giving the Charrids a telling off, just as expected. Scorpius is brought in, and John tries to buy time, saying he wants protection, safety and peace. Staalik agrees to this, and leaves Scorpius with John and Aeryn. Both of them want to kill Scorpius, making sure Scorpius didn't tell the Scarrens anything. Scorpius says he didn't tell them anything, and John and Aeryn have a quite amusing argument over who is going to kill Scorpius. In the end though, they decide to leave with him.

Back with the Charrids and Scarrens, the Charrids are now blaming the Kalish for giving the intruders the access codes. The Scarrens leave them, saying they want a full report from both Charrids and Kalish in two arns, and both sides go about throwing insults, which eventually leads to a firefight in the control room, with Kalish running all over the walls.

Seems the riot has started.

As Sikozu says goodbye to the Kalish resistance member, the Scarrens learn of what is going on and order John to be detained. Ak'nor wants Scorpius detained as well, but of course Scorpius isn't going anywhere.

As John, Aeryn and Scorpius are making their getaway, they are confronted by a Charrid, who Braca dispatches, before heading off to make sure Grayza is okay. Chiana and Noranti are making their way to Lola, Noranti drugging a Scarren to get through, while D'Argo and Rygel find out just how stupid the Charrids are by asking every Charrid to take Sikozu, then knocking them out.

John, Aeryn and Scorpius arrive at Lola - Moya is disguised as an ore freighter and is ready to starburst, but two Charrids are guarding Lola. Scorpius feels he can't continue and collapses, but gets back up a moment later. Aeryn gets the Charrids attention, telling them if they fire they'll detonate the bomb.

And then Scorpius knocks Aeryn out and pins John, telling him he needs to breath deeply if he wants to live.

And as the bomb speeds up, Scorpius tells John that if he trusts Scorpius enough to live, John will discover the truth...

What I thought
Nice. Very nice. With the amount of Scarrens, Kalish, and Charrids around, you really have to admire the puppeteers and make-up people on the show (probably explains why Pilot wasn't in it - everyone was too busy doing the extras!). But yeah, what we have here is Crichton in his usual random state of mind ("isn't it fun?" Aeryn says when one Kalish has doubts about his sanity). And yep, we have the triumphant return of... (drum roll) STARK!!! Yes, possibly my favourite character of Farscape is back (I've even got his saying "You deal with the dead? Someone must" on my mobile phone start-up), and being a bit evil with Scorpy, though you can't really blame the mad one. Ooo, and we get to find out even more stuff about Sikozu - they really are milking the suspicion factor on her! Some great lines, great moments (Crichton and Aeryn ballroom dancing in the lift was sweet, but all too short-lived) and enough suspicion to give the CIA a run for it's money. 5 out of 5.

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