Recap / Farscape S 03 E 01 Season Of Death

Season 3, Episode 1:

Season of Death

Crichton is trapped on the operating table with his brain open, Scorpius and the Peacekeepers have taken the Diagnosian's enclave and there's a Scarran on the loose. Chiana and Jothee make a terrible mistake, and Zhaan tries something very dangerous to bring back Aeryn.

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Tropes present in this episode include:

• Ace Pilot: Officer Kobrin, who is confident that he can evade Talyn long enough for them to make it back to the carrier, and boasts that he is the most highly rated pilot in the fleet. Not quite as good as he thinks, but good enough for Scorpius's plan.
• Acting for Two: Thomas Holesgrove plays Tocot, the Diagnosian operating on Crichton, and Plonek the Scarran who Grunchlk unfreezes. For added amusement, Plonek's first action on being unfrozen is to murder Tocot. Luckily they only appear in the same shot once, with a stunt double being used to make the shot work.
• All for Nothing: Grunchlk says he contacted Scorpius the moment Moya and Talyn arrived, meaning Harvey didn't need to keep trying to contact Scorpy in the prior episode. Additionally, while the chip is removed there's still a copy of Harvey in Crichton's brain.
• As the Good Book Says...: Albeit not an exact quote.
  Harvey: Death is the only sensible course, John. "For everything there is a season. A time to be born and—"
  Crichton: "—and a time to die." Yes-yes-yes. The Devil quotes scripture.
• Back from the Dead: Aeryn
• Battle in the Center of the Mind: Between Crichton and Harvey. However, once Crichton realizes that Harvey is now powerless and trapped in his head, it rapidly turns into a Curb-Stomp Battle in John's favor.
• Big Damn Heroes: Aeryn again.
• Bittersweet Ending: Aeryn is alive and the crew is safe, but Zhaan is soon to die. Worse, Scorpius is still alive and eager to put the stolen wormhole knowledge to use.
• Butt-Monkey: Grunchlk is yelled at, assaulted, shot, loses a finger, and shoved into a cryopod. Then again, it could be seen as karmic.
• Can't Kill You, Still Need You: The Scarran muses that Grunchlk might still be useful and puts him on ice.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Crichton demonstrates to Harvey who is really in control.
• Death Seeker: Harvey wants Crichton to die so that their mutual suffering can end. His argument ends up being very receptive for Crichton.
  Harvey: This? This is intolerable for both of us. End it, John. Free us from one another. Scorpius has beaten you. Aeryn Sun is dead. Your power of speech is gone. The only one you'll ever talk to again is me. Is that how you want to live? End it, John. Do it.
• Description Cut: Scorpius muses that Crichton is going to be lonely now that the chip has been removed. In the next scene, Crichton and the audience learn that Harvey hasn't gone away.
• Despair Event Horizon: "Aeryn's gone. Want to die."
• Didn't See That Coming: The chip's gone, but Harvey is still stuck in Crichton's head. The Diagnosian suggests this was because the chip was in Crichton's brain for too long and that that caused a neural bleed.
• Double Agent: Grunchlk, who is working for Scorpius as well as the Scarrans.
• Faking the Dead: Scorpius tricks the crew into thinking he was aboard the Marauder that Talyn destroyed.
• Fingore: When the Scarran's presence is revealed, Scorpius gets Grunchlk to talk by forcing him to bite off a finger. Even Braca is creeped out by that.
• Foreshadowing:
  • After Braca insists that something be done about Crais and Talyn.
    Scorpius: First Command has already taken care of that situation.
  • The episode title itself: In this season, Zhaan, a duplicate John Crichton, Talyn and Crais die.
  • We learn that the Scarrans want to recapture Scorpius. We'll learn why later.
• Good Cop/Bad Cop: When questioning Grunchlk about the Scarran, Braca keeps hitting him. Grunchlk refuses to talk, so Scorpius reveals Braca was the good cop and proceeds to make Grunchlk lose a finger.
• "Hell, Yes!" Moment: As he is smacking Harvey around:
  Crichton: Can I get a "hell yeah?!"
  Crowd: HELL YEAH!
• Heroic Sacrifice: Zhaan gives up her spiritual energy to revive Aeryn, knowing what that will mean for herself.
• Ironic Echo:
  • After the crew learns the donors aren't actually dead, Grunchlk insists that they are all "effectively dead." Stark later finds Grunchlk in a cryopod, he reports him as "dead too... effectively..."
  • Aeryn gives Zhaan the same Verbal Business Card she used to introduce herself to Crichton in the first episode.
    "Officer Aeryn Sun, Special Peacekeeper Commando, Icarion Company, Pleisar Regiment. Have you come to reassign me?"
• Large Ham: Crais, complete with Milking the Giant Cow, when he orders Talyn to open fire on Scorpius's ship.
• Leave No Survivors: When the commandos subdue Zhaan and Stark, they await orders for what to do next. Scorpius orders them to take Stark alive and kill Zhaan.
• Mercy Kill: Stark opens one of the cryopods, which causes its occupant to immediately die. Crichton is not happy, but Stark says he could hear the man's suffering and that it was far worse than anything else here.
• Motivational Lie: Stark rouses Crichton by telling him Harvey is just a powerless remnant that he can overcome.
  Crichton: [after winning the fight] How'd you know?
  Stark: I didn't. I just thought it sounded good.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: In The Teaser, most of the crew keep bothering Pilot to ask him about things he doesn't know yet or to tell him things he already does. It happens in succession, so he ends up so annoyed that he yells at Chiana to leave him alone.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Scorpius when he learns that the Command Carrier will be delayed in picking them up for another five hours.
    Scorpius: Crichton’s shipmates won't stay away that long.
    Braca: We can eliminate them.
    Scorpius: They don't worry me; a Leviathan gunship commanded by a vengeful traitor does.
  • D'Argo opens the door to leave the operating room and finds the Scarran on the other side.
    Crichton: Where the hell did that come from?!
• Promotion to Opening Titles: Wayne Pygram (Scorpius & Harvey), Lani Tupu (Crais) and Paul Goddard (Stark).
• Properly Paranoid:
  • When asked to do Unity with Crichton, Zhaan feared Harvey was still in his mind.
  • The Scarran suspects "Grunchlk" isn't being entirely truthful.
• Puppeteer Parasite: For interacting with the crew, Scorpius sticks Grunchlk with a device that allows him to control his movements and speech.
• Put on a Bus: Crais and Talyn depart and won't return until "Eat Me."
• The Reveal: Grunchlk snuck a Scarran into the facility, and set his CryoPod to thaw him out when Scorpius arrived, suspecting that Scorpius would not act with the best intentions.
• Shout-Out: Crichton's "Hell, Yes!" Moment above is a reference to "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, for whom "Can I get a 'Hell yeah?!'" is a Catchphrase.
• Spanner in the Works:
  • Rygel heads down to the facility to talk to Grunchlk and discovers the scene in the operating room. As a result, most of the crew head to the surface—putting Scorpius at risk if they spot him and inform Crais.
  • Then the Scarran wakes up and complicates things for everybody.
  • Played for laughs when Crichton and D'Argo try to get rid of the Scarran. They lure him out into the cold and intend to head back inside, but then the door controls malfunction.
• We Need a Distraction:
  • Crais and Talyn intend to keep the Command Carrier busy long enough for the crew to depart safely.
  • Discussed early into the episode. Scorpius's Marauder was able to sneak onto the planet because Crais and Talyn were distracted by Aeryn's final flight.