dangermousie | Relativity and Incubator: I go meta crazy

Tonight were two episodes, both of which I love, for very different reasons: Relativity and Incubator.

Both of them are, in different ways, about what forms you, about parents and heritage and being confronted with reality different from prior beliefs. In Relativity, the target is Aeryn, in Incubator, Scorpius. The fact that FS did a whole episode about Scorpius, and made me understand exactly what makes him tick, and revealed his complexity even further, and yet never descended into ‘poor and misunderstood’ is a brilliant miracle. His back-story is horrific, but he is not any less horrific himself, for it.

In Relativity, Aeryn is confronted with her mother, someone who is absolutely critical to her formation as a human being, one of the two encounters in her PK life which created in her the woman who could respond, recognize something inherently full of potential in John’s ‘You can be more’ in the Premiere. Someone who could, however awkwardly, speak up as to his innocence to her superior officer. The second of such experiences was, of course, Velorek, someone who showed unexpected humanity, whom she could have loved, and whom she betrayed. That act of betrayal is what saved John’s life in Premiere, really. That echo of her previous effort to be a perfect PK, that echo of a man who believed she is more than a mindless killing machine. (I love how both with John, and with what little we saw of Velorek, Aeryn is the tougher, less emotional one. And yet not stunted or unwomanly. Too often, when shows try to create a tough lady, they create a man with estrogen, or someone lessened).

But the first formative encounter, the encounter that allowed her to realize the wrongness of her behavior towards Velorek, the source of her even feeling anything for him (I always thought her betrayal of him was as much a response to her own feelings she was uncomfortable with), the source of her almost-stomped out but present belief she is an individual, that she has worth, is that childhood encounter with her mother. The woman who was every inch a tough soldier, but who risked everything to come and tell Aeryn when she was a small child that she was her mother, and that she was conceived in love, and that her parents loved each other and her.

When Aeryn says that through the years, every time she saw a transport, she would look at soldiers, hoping to see the face of a woman she only saw once, your heart breaks for her.

But of course, this is Farscape, and this meeting is different, very different. Xalax Sun is the leader of the squad sent to retrieve Talyn and Crais (I love how Crais was twisty, and clever, and untrustworthy and somehow honorable here. And I love that the only reason John didn’t leave him to die is because he needed him. Though that is not truly all, I don’t think John could kill a man like that, in cold blood).

Xalax of the present day is not only PK tough, she is a dutiful zombie, dead inside, someone who has been dead for many years, as a result of her retrieval squad duties (brutal even by PK standards) and as a result of her choices. Her trip to Aeryn was found out, and she was offered a choice to kill Talyn (her lover) or Aeryn, and she chose Talyn (though I don’t think we learn about that choice until ‘The Choice’). In a way, this is a shadow of Aeryn and Velorek, only Aeryn never loved Velorek (she could have, given more time), and unlike Xalax, she was given a second chance, before the soul was brutalized out of her.

And that is the thing: Xalax is clearly tormented on a level, but she has locked away all feeling, as unworthy, because she has to justify to herself that what she did was right, the only way to live. And she locked it up because caring brings horrible pain, makes you vulnerable.

Does the latter emotional shut-down remind you of anything? It does to me. It makes me think of Aeryn in ‘The Choice,’ also in the aftermath of the death of her love, only she is both better and worse off: she did not kill him herself, but there is no child. It is an instinctive reaction to want to never be vulnerable again, to shut down.

And of course, Aeryn is lucky, she is surrounded not by PKs who keep pushing the inhumanity line, but by Moyans, who value feelings, who are beings with souls. And she has John, who is the same man she buried, minus some months of memories (but what formative experiences!) and she cannot fight her love for too long.

But Xalax had none of these. If Stark is what John could become in a horrible reality, then Xalax is Aeryn’s personal potential nightmare future.

And yet, that nightmare future is not to be, for either John or Aeryn. The episode is shot through with hope and love. After all, this is the episode that opens with John and Aeryn finally having made love (which is really the final commitment and acknowledgment for them), giddy in bed after a night of love-making. I love that in typical Farscape fashion, we first learn of it from the disgruntled Rygel who had been kept up all night because of it (his bed is on the other side of the partition) and is justifiably annoyed.

Having once been woken up at 5am by the couple next door doing exactly what J/A are doing, I can sympathize. I remember turning to Mr. Mousie, who was also woken up, and both of us just rolling our eyes. I have never been much interested in sex lives of others, but that time I took a keen interest in hoping that was a quickie. We were staying a small b’n’b that time, and looking at those people in the morning, over breakfast, and trying not to betray anything was…interesting. OK, mother of sidetracks.

And I love that John and Aeryn know of it, and they are being so silly and adorable, teasing Rygel, with Crichton banging on the wall in pretend imitation (LOL) and Aeryn grinning at him that he was “louder last night, believe it or not.” I love that it’s so real, no ‘holy glow’ sex or some super solemn bit: just joyful and natural and right, and a little silly.

If it wasn’t for the latest crisis, I imagine they would spend the whole day in bed :D

I always found Stark listening at the partition a bit odd, but this time it hit me: it is such a change for him to feel positive emotion, joy, happiness, emanating from beings around him. He deals so much with misery and death, he is trying to soak others’ happiness and not pain, for once. And I do love that later, sewing up Rygel (and how like Rygel, to be an ingrate, and how like Stark, to want to save him from dying) he sees/feels Zhaan. He deserves his comfort, whether it was real or not. I am convinced a large chunk of reason they kept Stark on the show was because he was the only one more insane than John.

But yes, the reason Aeryn is not Xalax, will never be Xalax, is John and the new world that opened to her when she became ‘irreversibly contaminated.’ He is there for her, through good and bad. Witness his stubborn, blind, quiet/panicked and very adamant refusal to believe she is dead. Witness his instinctive, almost primal insistence on her not being the one to shoot her mother. He shields her the way Xalax was never shielded, he prevents Aeryn from killing her family. And when he is leading her away, and she breaks down, he is supporting her, holding her up and, I never realized it before, covering her ears, so she won’t have to hear the shots. His attention to her, on her, is total.

They save each other, don’t they? Over and over and over again. It is a wonderful thing, but being this loved, this cared for, does lead to the abyss of the other side of the coin: the utter bereftness when that is gone. Aeryn has decided that she is alright, no matter what else happens, as long as she has John (just as that is exactly what Crichton has. No matter what, he can keep his sanity and his soul if she is around). But that means if the one person is removed, the world falls apart.

It is because John loved her so much, because she loved him just as much, because they were so organic together, that she cannot face being without him, in The Choice. And I love that is never about a woman needing a man, or needing romantic love to be complete. It’s about Aeryn needing John. And John needing Aeryn.

I love the end scene between John and Aeryn. It is incredible: both so grimy, battered, hurt in different ways because of the day from hell, but finding so much comfort and strength from each other, full of so much love and anxiety and relief. The chemistry burns the screen, and the peace they find with each other is palpable. And oh, when Aeryn says she will come to bed soon and they can sleep. Or not. And smiles? They can deal with anything when they are together. The flip side is that they cannot deal with being without each other. Xalax is the visible proof of the price you might pay for love, just as Stark is visible proof of the costs of torture. In the Farscape world, you have to actively fight to avoid those outcomes, those goalposts.

Here are some caps from Relativity, courtesy of Farscape-Caps.

Poor Rygel, has been kept awake (notice the sleeping clothes, eee!)

Stark listening to JA:

I have melted and died. Btw, aren’t their feet cold?

John has such a hair fixation *swoon*

OK, did I mention the deadness?

Ohhhh, my OTP. Farscape is the only TV show that never messed up (I was going to use the word ‘screwed’ but heeeee) its OTP in any way:

Tired of it yet? I am not:

Tee-hee, Rygel:

Sneaky, ambivalent, awesome Crais:

Xalax:

Ohhh, Aeryn:

Odd Couple:

This is just here for the hot:

As is this:

Mommy Dearest:

Ohhhhh:

Ruined, ruined Xalax:

Imprisoned:

I love her so and my heart breaks for her, when she is ready execute Xalax:

But John won’t let her. I love that he keeps her soul for her. After all, she keeps his for him.

So Crais will do it:

And John takes Aeryn away:

Oh God.

This just breaks me. I also love the tilty camera, it adds to the uncertainty and unreality of the scene:

Stark at peace (and may I say, looking HAWT with stubble) after finding Zhaan:

Even Rygel is impressed by Zhaanness:

The tag, with Aeryn so frail and so strong and John so steady and so uncertain:

Incubator is a very unusual episode, Scorpius centric. It’s not an ep I would rewatch a lot, but it is probably one of the densest, most complex, most meta-full episodes out there.

Before I get into the lengthy, and Scorpy-centric meta, I just want to say that I want to write love-letters to the continuity of FS. We see the Bird of Paradise flower not only on Scorpius’ desk, but also on the planet which was the goal of Sebacian colonists and where Scorpy’s mum ends up. That so makes sense that Scarrans attacked the convoy: they wanted that planet for the flowers. Considering this need for these flowers only comes out at the end of S4…I am speechless. Whether it was thought out from all the way back then, or just incorporated so brilliantly? I am amazed in either case.

And of course, Scorpy is more Scarran than he wants to believe. He prizes control and intelligence above all, and that is what that flower represents to Scarrans, after all.

But anyway, Scorpy meta.

I have realized something: Scorpy is a sociopath. What I mean by that is that he is someone who has no conscience, only the goal he wants to achieve. Unlike a normal person, he does not need to justify himself to himself by ‘this is good, this is nice etc.’ His goal being his goal is justification enough for anything. Unlike a regular person, he does not feel bad about doing bad or good about doing good (unlike a psychopath, he doesn’t feel good about doing bad, either). He does not have a conscience and related emotions, just the goal.

What differentiates him from a good person, from someone like Crichton is not his actions, but the reasons for them, and how he feels about them. After all, if you rip an unconscious woman’s clothes off because you are a rapist, you are scum. If you rip her clothes off to perform an emergency procedure to save her life, you are a good Samaritan. Crichton has done bad things, there is no doubt about it, but he tries them for good reasons or loving ones, or because he has no choice (to save Earth, to protect Aeryn, or because Scorpy clone forces him to). And he feels horrible when he does something bad, and he strives to do good. Scorpy feels nothing, only whether the action was expedient to his goal.

Due to his beyond messed up upbringing, Scorpy has only one goal: revenge on and eradication of the Scarrans. This is what makes him so ruthless, so efficient, so scary. Most people have more than one goal, of varying importance. See Crichton, for example: Aeryn, Earth, friendship, wormholes etc etc. The fact that most people have multiple goals is what prevents them from true ruthlessness in pursuit of any one goal: they always have countervailing considerations and motivations. Scorpy has none.

And of course, FS is very clear sighted on the whole horrible childhood as reason for Scorpy’s behavior, and an explanation for it, but not an excuse. Ultimately, what you become, what you make of yourself, is your responsibility. Torture is horrific but it is what you let it transform you into, that matters. It’s not trauma, it’s your response to it that makes you. Scorpius became a monster. John, broken, sharp-edged John, did not.

It’s interesting that Scorpy’s mind is full of smoke (symbolic). But his attempt to convince the ‘bleed-over’ imprint of John is doomed to failure. He is clear sighted in some ways but it some he is remarkably obtuse. Because he is a sociopath, because he is incapable of emotional connection in a true sense, he does not know how to deal with John. It’s the cost of solipsism. He just does not understand that John has different motivations. Scorpy needs to change not just the rules but also the playbook.

What Scorpy thinks is that if the motivators are strong for him, similar motivators are strong for Crichton: as John is not a PK, just replace Sebacians with ‘Earth’ and John will ‘see reason’ and want to eliminate the Scarrans before they do something to Earth.

But John doesn’t play that way. John is very different: something Scorpy begins to learn in S4 and PKW, but it’s a mechanical learning of which levers to push, not a true understanding.

In a way, Scorpy would have a better sell if he did appeal to emotions. Different emotions, not logic or revenge. In a way, Scorpy is emotional (revenge and hatred) but affectless. He believes he is purely rational and in a way, even his childhood trauma, or horrific story of his mother, is not something that evokes affect in him: he is cold. He is not even hurt remembering the childhood nightmare of his life, but is using it the way he would use any instrument, to get a result. He is not repressing, he truly has killed in himself any such capacity (the way Xalax had, only for him it’s huger, more permanent. She has kept some torment, he is clinically clean).

With John, it would have been better to appeal to emotion, to pity. To show that he still cared about the past. But Scorpy does not understand this. Scorpy is trying to make the same argument, only with different phrases. He doesn’t understand that his basic argument is incompatible with John’s psyche. He really does not get that you need different arguments for different people. In part, its his traumatic upbringing, and in part because it is he never met a person whom he had to convince: he was always so superior, he could manipulate, he felt no unfulfillable need for results.

Of course, any results would have been unlikely no matter what. I love that even ‘bleed over’ Crichton is sarcastic and mad. And if you think about it, this is the worst version of John to try to convince. This is the John of the end of S2, on the operating table, who believes Aeryn is dead. Is there any chance Scorpy could get through to him? And how significant it doesn’t even occur to Scorpy to inform this John that Aeryn is alive. It might make a difference to their interaction, but Scorpy is so fixated on what he thinks should appeal, on the reason, he completely overlooks that.

You know the biggest difference between John and Scorpy? John will offer anything, wormholes included, for Aeryn. For Scorpy, such emotional response is unthinkable. For him, nothing is higher than abstraction, no other person is higher than his goals. I think knowing Crichton actually makes him appreciate the fact, somewhat, that having cares for others is not just an automatic sign of deficiency. He comes to have a grudging respect for Crichton, and thus by inference accepts that you can be an intelligent and ‘worthy’ and still feel personal love and care.

And of course, no matter Scorpy’s reasons, John is Scorpy’s torture victim. Horrific, prolonged, psyche-destroying torture, not just on the Gammack Base but all of second season, through the madness created by the clone. If John can never truly trust or understand Crais, whose torture and torment of him was peanuts in comparison, than how can he ever deal with Scorpius?

Past a certain point, people cannot overlook torture, cannot overlook violation. That is another thing Scorpy doesn’t get because of his damage. He can, and will, deal with Scarrans in pursuit of his goal. But John cannot do the same, with Scorpy.

Or, to be more specific, he can, when the goal is so important he will disregard anything. I.e. when Aeryn is involved. Aeryn. No one and nothing else. No appeals to reasons, or concerns about future worrying possibilities, no goodness of Scorpy’s goals.

Aeryn is the one thing that trumps everything. And she is not at issue here as she will be in S4.

Scorpius cannot truly understand John (or anyone, really. No empathy). He can learn him the way a mechanic does a car, based on a compilation of facts and data, but there is no understanding. His psyche does not encompass goodness, or optimism, or love, or strength that isn’t based purely on logic. John’s trump card in their battles is that he can understand Scorpy, because John is a good person by choice, and within him, deep and hidden, is an understanding of Scorpy’s hatred, and Scorpy’s revenge, and Scorpy’s ruthless darkness.

Very Lymond-Gabriel, actually.

I do have a few comments about the portion of the ep that takes place on Moya. The crew is going stir-crazy, and I am faced with the realization that without the calm center that is Zhaan, Aeryn and even Rygel help being the glue that holds the crew together. And not just because Aeryn keeps John’s obsessiveness in check. Crichton obsesses to displace, when he is deeply worried and unhappy. It gives him something to escape into, and his fixation on wormholes is a way to deal with Aeryn shaped hole in his life, and his worry and jealousy and loneliness. He is not that way when he has her, when he is at peace.

I love how here, this time, John is unhesitating about refusing to turn over Moya in exchange for wormhole info. He doesn’t even think for a second. He has learned a horrifying lesson in SIW. And I want to smack D’Argo so hard, for stating that he is once again being selfish and it’s the attitude that got Zhaan killed. It. Is. Not. His. Damn. Fault. Zhaan. Is. Dead. Lay off him! UGH. Pin the blame on Crichton is just…makes me want to smash things.

And here are some caps from Incubator, courtesy of Farscape-Caps.

Scorpius. Doesn’t Farscape end up being a battle of mad scientists, John and Scorpy?