Aeryn Sun is gravely injured
after an encounter with the Peacekeepers, so Moya’s crew has to find
some medicine to save her. The thing is,
the closest place to get that medicine happens to be a moonbase—a top-secret
PEACEKEEPER moonbase.
John Crichton ends up being the one person best fit to sneak in
disguised as a Peacekeeper, and Chiana’s tagging along for the ride. As long as Crais doesn’t show up, they should
blend in just fine. What could possibly
go wrong?
As Farscape’s first
two-parter, “Nerve” and “The Hidden Memory” form the first two episodes of the
series that really feel like an epic.
They manage to execute a complex series of events almost flawlessly, in
which the heroes go on one mission but end up getting jerked around in all
sorts of unpredictable directions. John
and Chiana’s infiltration of the Peacekeeper moonbase carries a weight of high
tension throughout the first half of “Nerve”.
Before the second half, you don’t know whether or not their cover will
be blown. “The Hidden Memory” makes for
a perfect second act, with a lot more going on in this one: John trying to
escape the Peacekeeper base, Moya’s crew going all in on a rescue
mission, and so much more. The momentum
is a lot faster in “The Hidden Memory” than in “Nerve”, and it doesn’t feel
like 50 minutes at all. Plus, “The
Hidden Memory” is also a rare episode where the B-plot (the birth of Moya’s
son, Talyn) is equally as good as the A-plot.
For the first time in the series,
we finally meet Scorpius. This new villain
strikes a perfect balance of style and substance, introduced in “Nerve”
as a mysterious figure before his true menace is revealed. The scene where he captures John leaves a
terrifying first impression on the audience as to who this new guy is. He spends much of these two episodes
interrogating John Crichton, and you get a sense this is a guy who knows
exactly how to psychologically break his captives. Wayne Pygram’s performance as Scorpius is
masterful. There is a coldness in his
demeanor with how he doesn’t mind torturing his prisoners at all—to him, it’s
just usual business. In “The Hidden
Memory”, Scorpius doesn’t lose any of his menace at all. His crowning moment is in the second part:
it’s when he straps Crais—the man we’ve all assumed to be the main
antagonist of the show—to the chair. By
disempowering Crais, Scorpius earns his status as the biggest threat to John
Crichton, so far. Now THAT is how you introduce
a villain.
All in all, these two episodes
are all about the characters. When he
first arrives, John Crichton does a good job at playing the part of a
Peacekeeper captain, displaying the confidence and authoritativeness of a
Peacekeeper commander; you can tell this guy’s had enough encounters with the
Peacekeepers in the past to pull it off. Also, during his torture scenes, I especially
love it when he’s taunting Scorpius in his chair with pure laughter. You can tell he’s losing his mind but is
trying to stay strong in the face of danger.
Chiana really gets to shine in “Nerve” as well. When conning the Peacekeepers on the base, she
gets so into character that it’s really funny when John tells her not to go too
over-the-top with the act. (Excellent part on Gigi Edgley to play a con artist
like that.) In “The Hidden Memory”, she’s got plenty of hilarious banter with
Rygel that clicks very well; Gigi Edgley does a fantastic job expressing frustration
with what is basically an animatronic puppet.
D’Argo has been showing his softer side as of lately—especially in
“Nerve”, with the way he works hard at keeping Aeryn alive, living up to her
preference to die alone. That’s what I
call an honorable warrior.
If there are any characters whose
arcs hit their climaxes in “The Hidden Memory”, they’re Bialar Crais and Aeryn
Sun. Crais is hiding his own secret (the
title of the second part) from Scorpius.
In doing so, he learns a lesson: the longer you run away from your
mistakes, the harder they’ll come back to haunt you. Case in point: his confrontation with Aeryn
Sun, who in turn is finally confronting her past. Stepping back into a Peacekeeper base must be
one hell of a memory lane trip for her (at least for someone not sitting
in Scorpius’s chair). The exchange of
words she has with Crais succeeds at cementing just how far she has come along
with breaking free of her toxic upbringing.
There is just so much conviction with how she finally gets to tell Crais
the one thing she has always wanted to say.
In a way, it reverses the trope of the villain delivering his speech to
a depowered hero into a heroine delivering her speech to a depowered villain. In addition, I must also take note of Crais’s
grown hair and stubble. He looks more
disheveled than the prim and proper captain we first met in the pilot. This indicates how far he’s fallen in his
obsession with his own revenge quest.
Also, let’s give a shoutout to
two of the guest stars who are the true heroes of this fight: Stark and
Gilina. Stark is John’s inmate on the
base, and he is quite a mysterious fellow.
His supernatural powers, often not of this universe, opens many future
opportunities with this character. He
has plenty of potential to present a greater importance later on in the
series. Gilina comes back for one more
outing, and and she hasn’t lost any bit of her resourcefulness from “PK Tech
Girl”. The episode builds upon the
potential of her earlier relationship with John Crichton suitably and
naturally, and it holds some big wright on the episode’s outcome. Because she knows ins and outs of a
Peacekeeper base just as much as she does around a starship, the good guys
couldn’t succeed at retrieving the medicine for Aeryn or rescuing John without
her. In fact, whatever the heroes do
next in the series is all due thanks to this girl.
Every single conflict in this
two-parter builds up to a final showdown that could be best described as the
most exciting 10 minutes in all of Season 1.
I have to give props to how the CGI energy shots look totally real
against the practical sets and costumes of the season. There are also several moments in this scene
that are so over-the-top they’re awesome.
For instance, this is one of those rare situations where you could buy
into something as absurd as an alien priestess (who’s also a talking plant,
nonetheless) firing an energy assault rifle while keeping a straight face. The one-liners John and Stark throw at each
other make the battle actually really funny in some parts. But perhaps the coolest part is Aeryn
dual-wielding an assault rifle and a pistol at the same time—it defies all
logic but looks just so badass onscreen.
The entire final battle is nothing short of amazing.
“Nerve” & “The Hidden Memory”
are perfect gamechangers for the series.
They provide the best turning point for an ongoing storyline, where the
previous established character and plot arcs converge at a climax that is more
than satisfying, while also bringing in new stuff that sends the characters in
a bold new direction. They are the
best episodes of Farscape’s first season, hands down.
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