Farscape: The Flax, 1.13
Dec. 14th, 2006 01:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dangermousieThe Flax.
Also known as the ep that must have driven shippers into a frenzy.
Even now, watching this makes me squee and giggle and sigh and swoon like a silly twelve-year old.
Behind the cut spoilers only for this ep and very very vague spoilers for AHR and LATP.
To get the non J/A stuff out of the way first:
Farscape's world design appeals to me all over again. Throughout this ep I am fascinated by the gorgeous and wholly alien game Rygel is playing. It looks so beautiful.
And I am struck by the wholly organic change in D'Argo. He was willing to chop off Pilot's arm to get the map to go home, but here he choses to give it up so he can rescue John and Aeryn. And how realistic that he is unhappy with the choice.
OK, enough of non J/A, on to the John/Aeryn goodness of this ep.
Where do I start?
I love the snark and banter when she is teaching him to fly the transport pod. Crichton is still an alien here and this underscores it: it takes him much longer to learn this, says Aeryn, than it does any PK. It struck me how frustrating some of this experience must be for him. He is someone who is used to being smarter than the average, to relying on instinctively figuring things out quicker. But here, he is treated like some sort of deficient and being ten paces behind everyone must be incredibly frustrating (but also he really loves to learn, so fun too).
OMG! I never noticed it before! There is this one brief little moment where she is standing up and he is sitting down and he cannot help but check out her cleavage. Heeeeeee. And they are both srot of terrified by it :P
And then we get to the whole kill shot/fix things/etc bit.
How much do I love it?
I think this is the first (but unfortunately not the last) time John is facing the certainty of death and his fear and his nervousness and yet his trust in Aeryn just break my heart. He is so vulnerable here.
And then, when she administers the kill shot, and she is fixing the oxygen line, and John's time runs out and she choses to revive him, even though the line is unfixed?
Oh.
My.
GOD.
This is really against her PK training (as John points out later). And it's completely illogical. If she kept on fixing the line, she'd survive, and now they'll just both die.
But this is the first time of many where John and Aeryn cannot be rational, cannot do anything but save each other, when the life of the other is at stake. Where it's not a logical, controlled thing, but instinct: they cannot let the other die, even if it means they themselves with die as a result. This is the first time they don't do the sane thing but are driven by the emotion for each other and I cannot take my eyes away.
I love John's reaction to finding out that Aeryn didn't fix the line because his time was up and she didn't want to be sitting here alone. He is not joyous: he is worried for her (for them), he wants her to live, he is a little startled, a little humbled by the enormity of it all, and just wholly...open. The place becomes a hothouse of emotion for a bit, yet it's all unspoken.
I love how she is seeking some reassurance about the afterlife, by asking him what he saw, and he does not offer comforting lies but says he saw nothing. They just won't lie to each other, will they? And they are both giving and recieving comfort by huddling together. How much do I love the way he puts his arm around her, and draws her near when she says she is cold: it's tentative, very tentative, and he hesitates for a moment because he is not sure how she will recieve it, and it's also so gentle. It's a gesture of comfort but he is recieving it as much as giving it.
I know it's ridiculous, I know they get rescued. I've seen the damn ep a number of times. But I can't help, but get nervous and teary-eyed.
And then, guuuuuuuuh! Trust Farscape to have their first kiss be in such circs. How much do I love that she is the 'agressor' and that they are so desperately urgent and get horizontal so quickly. It's the whole 'we will die soon and must feel now' that will quite logically lead to AHR.
And of course, D'Argo docks before this can go anywhere and the resulting awkwardness if both funny and endearing.
And then we get to that priceless tag. Where the more they deny that this will ever happen again (dangermousie: Yeah, right!) the more it's clear this is something this is not a one-time thing. And their uncertain glances at each other when they think the other is not looking and reassurances that this would have happened with D'Argo or Zhaan and the clear lie of this statement and their knowledge it's a lie?
I die.
And then he grins and asks her, just to make clear :P "You are the female of your species, right?" and she does a little lunge (is it just a 'ask this again and I will clock you' lunge or what?) and OMG. Heeeee. He is grinning from ear to ear and replying 'I take this as a yes' and he walks away, with that wholly Crichton, expressive look on his face, almost giddy. And she stares after him, and she is glowing.
And I die.
This is such an echo (or fore-echo, I guess, since this first) to their expressions at the end of LATP trilogy in S2. Which makes sense, since this is also a wantershed moment in their admission to each other.
Oh.
How
I
love
this
show.
Also known as the ep that must have driven shippers into a frenzy.
Even now, watching this makes me squee and giggle and sigh and swoon like a silly twelve-year old.
Behind the cut spoilers only for this ep and very very vague spoilers for AHR and LATP.
To get the non J/A stuff out of the way first:
Farscape's world design appeals to me all over again. Throughout this ep I am fascinated by the gorgeous and wholly alien game Rygel is playing. It looks so beautiful.
And I am struck by the wholly organic change in D'Argo. He was willing to chop off Pilot's arm to get the map to go home, but here he choses to give it up so he can rescue John and Aeryn. And how realistic that he is unhappy with the choice.
OK, enough of non J/A, on to the John/Aeryn goodness of this ep.
Where do I start?
I love the snark and banter when she is teaching him to fly the transport pod. Crichton is still an alien here and this underscores it: it takes him much longer to learn this, says Aeryn, than it does any PK. It struck me how frustrating some of this experience must be for him. He is someone who is used to being smarter than the average, to relying on instinctively figuring things out quicker. But here, he is treated like some sort of deficient and being ten paces behind everyone must be incredibly frustrating (but also he really loves to learn, so fun too).
OMG! I never noticed it before! There is this one brief little moment where she is standing up and he is sitting down and he cannot help but check out her cleavage. Heeeeeee. And they are both srot of terrified by it :P
And then we get to the whole kill shot/fix things/etc bit.
How much do I love it?
I think this is the first (but unfortunately not the last) time John is facing the certainty of death and his fear and his nervousness and yet his trust in Aeryn just break my heart. He is so vulnerable here.
And then, when she administers the kill shot, and she is fixing the oxygen line, and John's time runs out and she choses to revive him, even though the line is unfixed?
Oh.
My.
GOD.
This is really against her PK training (as John points out later). And it's completely illogical. If she kept on fixing the line, she'd survive, and now they'll just both die.
But this is the first time of many where John and Aeryn cannot be rational, cannot do anything but save each other, when the life of the other is at stake. Where it's not a logical, controlled thing, but instinct: they cannot let the other die, even if it means they themselves with die as a result. This is the first time they don't do the sane thing but are driven by the emotion for each other and I cannot take my eyes away.
I love John's reaction to finding out that Aeryn didn't fix the line because his time was up and she didn't want to be sitting here alone. He is not joyous: he is worried for her (for them), he wants her to live, he is a little startled, a little humbled by the enormity of it all, and just wholly...open. The place becomes a hothouse of emotion for a bit, yet it's all unspoken.
I love how she is seeking some reassurance about the afterlife, by asking him what he saw, and he does not offer comforting lies but says he saw nothing. They just won't lie to each other, will they? And they are both giving and recieving comfort by huddling together. How much do I love the way he puts his arm around her, and draws her near when she says she is cold: it's tentative, very tentative, and he hesitates for a moment because he is not sure how she will recieve it, and it's also so gentle. It's a gesture of comfort but he is recieving it as much as giving it.
I know it's ridiculous, I know they get rescued. I've seen the damn ep a number of times. But I can't help, but get nervous and teary-eyed.
And then, guuuuuuuuh! Trust Farscape to have their first kiss be in such circs. How much do I love that she is the 'agressor' and that they are so desperately urgent and get horizontal so quickly. It's the whole 'we will die soon and must feel now' that will quite logically lead to AHR.
And of course, D'Argo docks before this can go anywhere and the resulting awkwardness if both funny and endearing.
And then we get to that priceless tag. Where the more they deny that this will ever happen again (dangermousie: Yeah, right!) the more it's clear this is something this is not a one-time thing. And their uncertain glances at each other when they think the other is not looking and reassurances that this would have happened with D'Argo or Zhaan and the clear lie of this statement and their knowledge it's a lie?
I die.
And then he grins and asks her, just to make clear :P "You are the female of your species, right?" and she does a little lunge (is it just a 'ask this again and I will clock you' lunge or what?) and OMG. Heeeee. He is grinning from ear to ear and replying 'I take this as a yes' and he walks away, with that wholly Crichton, expressive look on his face, almost giddy. And she stares after him, and she is glowing.
And I die.
This is such an echo (or fore-echo, I guess, since this first) to their expressions at the end of LATP trilogy in S2. Which makes sense, since this is also a wantershed moment in their admission to each other.
Oh.
How
I
love
this
show.
