Kansas, pt 2

Farscape Episode Review

In which there is time travel.

What Happened

John's home, but he's come back to the 1980s, however, setting off a variety of Cosmic Issues. For one thing, his father's about to die in the Challenger mission. The idea to fix this is to get Dad to refuse to go and hope that will set thing straight.

John goes around to all the family members, asking them to keep Dad from leaving. When talking won't work, he decides to re-create the childhood accident that originally prompted Dad to refuse. Chiana sneaks out, meanwhile, and manages to get picked up by younger-Crichton.

When the neighbor calls the police to the abandoned house they are squatting in, everyone is forced to rely on Aeryn's vague grasp of English to talk their way through it. Their continual engagement with the nosy cop escalates in Wacky Fashion.

Chiana keeps younger-Crichton "occupied," then lures him to the run-down home where the group's been staying. She slips him one of Grandma's drugs, meant to knock him out for a couple days, but he collapses without a pulse - just as the cops pull up. Crichton briefly ceases to exist and becomes semi-corporeal until Grandma revives his younger self. While the other move younger-John into the garage, where they set a little fire, ghost-Crichton warns his mother to tell his father he's in danger.

Jack manages to knock himself out during the rescue attempt, forcing Crichton and D'Argo to improvise and drag them both out, but the result is the same. Jack refuses the assignment and history is set straight.

While they've been gone, Grayza has boarded Moya, searched, found no one, and left, leaving behind a nasty little assassin to bring Crichton to her. When the shuttle goes through the wormhole, however, and lands back on Moya, they find a welcoming committee of a different type: John's father, welcoming him home.

What We Learned

• They should consider investing in seat-belts.
• If there is a problem with the time-line, it would start close to John.
• Bad hair equals younger. Or the 1980s. Or both.
• They might want to stay out of sight. We don't want to screw up the universe more than Crichton already has.
• John was a brat.
• John's mother was still having milk delivered to the house... in bottles.
• John named his named his truck "Betty."
• We don't hit. We may shoot people sometimes, but we don't hit.
• Yes, no, bite me. That's all D'Argo needs to know.
• Aeryn is having way too much fun with Sesame Street.
• Aeryn looks like Cher. John won't say if that's a good or a bad thing.
• Jack runs fast for an old guy.
• Their plans never work.

Best Lines

John: "No, grandma, you do not touch my body... Where's Chiana?"

What Did I Think?

Typical hi-jinks in the past, but with some powerful scenes between John and his family, particularly the one where he "haunts" his mother into realizing he's in danger.