History Recap / FarscapeS01E16AHumanReaction

* WrongBathroomIncident: A major plot point. John Crichton is led to think that he has returned to Earth from space, but is actually undergoing a VirtualRealityInterrogation. When he realises that he hasn't seen any people or places that he didn't already know, because the system was using his memories to create the illusion, he breaks the illusion by going into the women's toilet in his work building, the one place in it that he'd never seen.

** When Aeryn, D'Argo and Rygel show up they can't communicate with anyone but John as he's the only one with Translator Microbes. When a scene includes a character without the microbes we finally get to hear unstranslated Sebacean[[note]]Which is actually Claudia Black speaking English backwards[[/note]], Luzan and Hynerian.

* TranslatorMicrobes: One of Wilson's concerns about John is how he has "foreign microbes" that human scientists have no context for. Evidently John did explain what they do, as a sequence shows him being told to explain what a Ghanaian man (speaking the Fante language) is saying. According to John this is actually the twelfth guy they've had him translate, so he feels they really should've gotten the point by now.

* AlienAutopsy: Crichton finds Rygel cut open on an autopsy table. The official explanation is he died of an allergic reaction to the TranquilizerDart, then they tried open-chest cardiac massage to revive him. When D'Argo asks if he believes this story, Crichton has to admit that he doesn't.

* BerserkButton: Crichton is disappointed to not be home after all, but he is outright enraged by the deception of the one posing as his father.
-->'''Crichton:''' ''[grabbing him]'' You made me think [[SuddenlyShouting YOU WERE MY FATHER!]]

* BluffTheImpostor: When discussing John's 10th birthday, Jack Crichton talks about how they went fishing at Sawyer’s Mill to find out if he's an alien imposter. John knows the required details, but Jack throws in a trick response to see if he'll trip up.
-->'''Jack''': You caught the biggest damn bass I'd ever seen.

** While saying their goodbyes, Zhaan reminds Crichton that they share a psychic connection from sharing Unity in "[[Recap/FarscapeS01E12RhapsodyInBlue Rhapsody in Blue]]".
** John hands back the good luck charm that his father gave him in the premiere, noting that while it might not have brought him luck, it did save his ass (by distracting the Peacekeeper guards so he could snatch a pulse pistol off them).
** Also from "Premiere", D'Argo mentions his vow not to be taken prisoner again.
* ChekhovsGunman: After his arrival, Crichton briefly encounters a man and woman on the beach. The morning after hiding out with Aeryn, he bumps into both of them in a marketplace and begins to realize what's really going on.
* ContinuityNod: Crichton attempts to make good on [[Recap/FarscapeS01E09DNAMadScientist his previous offer]] to bring Aeryn to Earth with him. She refuses.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: Aeryn notes that not even the Peacekeepers would be so low as to poison Rygel to kill him, just to open him up for study.
* FadeToWhite: John after flying down the wormhole. He wakes up still inside Farscape One, having crashlanded on a beach in Sydney Harbour. There's another flash of white when Ancient-Jack reveals his true self.
* FirstGrayHair: Crichton records a message to his father mentioning that he's found his first gray hair. He doesn't get too long to dwell on it but it's clear the thought of growing old in space is unsettling.

** Crichton complains that the magazines in the military base he's confined in are seven months old. At the time he puts this down to the overly paranoid authorities not wanting him to know anything that's happened since he left Earth, but he later sees the magazines being sold ''outside'' the base are seven months out of date as well.
** After a scene where it's made clear that Jack doesn't understand what Aeryn is saying in her own language, she says something in Sebacean and he responds, "Thank you", causing her to give Jack a puzzled look. It seems like Jack just guessed the right response until TheReveal.

* GilliganCut: The episode opens with Crichton saying how nice and quiet it is. Cut to Zhaan arguing with Chiana about stealing stuff from her quarters.
* HumansAreBastards:
-->'''"Jack":''' It also led us to a familiar conclusion.\\
'''Crichton:''' Which was?\\
'''"Jack":''' That the highest life form on the planet is also the most destructive. Your humans would kill us.
* HumansAreSpecial: Downplayed. Humans as a race fare badly in the simulation, but "Jack" compliments Crichton for figuring out the deception, saying most others don't manage to.
* HumansAreTheRealMonsters: Crichton obviously thinks so after they found alien life and [[TheyWouldCutYouUp killed it for study]]. Ironically this scene turns out to be based on his own fears.
* IfYouDieICallYourStuff: Before John sets off into the wormhole he tells Rygel that if he doesn't come back... [[BaitAndSwitchComment he wants Aeryn to have his stuff]]. Rygel is left spluttering in protest before realising that John is trolling him (which he finds ActuallyPrettyFunny).

* JerkassHasAPoint: Wilson is right to be paranoid about alien microbes in Crichton's head, or that he might be a disguised alien infiltrator, [[spoiler:given what the Nebari and Scarrans are later shown to be capable of.]]

* RealityHasNoSubtitles: Zigzagged; when the crew of Moya explain why they went after Crichton, they are TheUnintelligible for the listening humans, but subtitles are shown initially. Then if John Crichton is talking to them in the humans' presence, he speaks English but they continue to be untranslated, without subtitles. If no humans are present except Crichton, the TranslatorMicrobes work for the audience as usual.
* RedundantRescue: John is determined to save his friends after Rygel's death. He enters the base and walks past a sentry standing in the shadows, but then he finds the unconscious body of the real sentry, whereupon Aeryn walks up behind John and puts the sentry's [=M16=] rifle to John's head. John assures her he's still on her side, but they discover that D'Argo has [[YouAreTooLate already been shipped off]] [[ReleasedToElsewhere to a military base in Utah]].
* RelationshipUpgrade: Subverted -- it's made clear that John and Aeryn have sex in this episode, [[PreClimaxClimax fearing that they might die]], but when they don't it doesn't mark a long-term deepening of their relationship. The original US broadcast even left the relevant scenes out.
* RemonstratingWithAGun: John draws a gun on Aeryn and everyone else on a public street once he realises that everything he's seeing is an illusion.
* RiddleForTheAges: Was Aeryn in on the Ancients' deception of Crichton from the start? At one point she has a discussion in Sebacean with "Jack" that is left conspicuously untranslated. At any rate, the slight consent issues that would be raised if this were true might be why John and Aeryn having sex in this ep rarely gets brought up again.

* SomethingOnlyTheyWouldSay: "Jack" asks John to tell him details about his childhood to prove that he's the real John Crichton. Of course, it eventually turns out ''Jack'' is the impostor and only knows these things because his people scanned John's memory.
* SpottingTheThread: After escaping with Aeryn, John sees the same woman he saw when he first arrived in Australia, and also realises she's a girl he knew in school. The man running the newstand is the same guy he saw at the beach with Jack, and would you believe it he knows him from his past as well, not to mention that all the magazines he's selling are also seven months out of date. Then he realises that everything and everyone he's seen since coming back to Earth is something or someone he remembers from his past.
* SufficientlyAdvancedAlien: Zig Zagged. The Ancients have the tech to make a detailed false world from John's memories, as well as full mastery of wormholes. However, they are few in number at the moment, so they need to replenish and recover. They also only have enough power left to transport what's left of their race one last time, so they have to be this pragmatic in their actions.

* TransformationDiscretionShot: The finale features the [[SufficientlyAdvancedAlien Ancient]] who's been impersonating Jack Crichton reverting to his true form so that he can have a heart-to-heart with John Crichton in person; however, the transformation is hidden by a flash of light, with Jack being fully human in one shot and an insectoid alien created by the Jim Henson Creature Shop in the next.
* TranslatorMicrobes: One of Wilson's concerns about Crichton is how he has "foreign microbes" that human scientists have no context for. Evidently Crichton did explain what they do, as a sequence sees him being told to explain what a Ghanaian man is saying to him in the Fante language. According to Crichton, this is actually the twelfth guy they've had him translate, so he feels they really should've gotten the point by now.

* WhatMeasureIsANonHuman: The running theme of the episode. After Rygel "dies", D'Argo bitterly asks John whether he or Aeryn will be next, obviously believing that Aeryn being a HumanAlien will be spared. The whole trip was a test by the Ancients to determine if their species would be welcomed on Earth. They conclude, and Crichton agrees, that they probably won't be.
* WideEyedIdealist: "Jack" notes Earth could've been a welcoming place to the Ancients had more humans been like Crichton.

* BeingWatched: After being confined by Wilson and Cobb, John is surprised that his father convinced them to let him out. Jack points out a [[SpiesInAVan nearby van]], a woman [[ObligatoryEarpieceTouch fiddling with her hair]] and a couple of others, then shows (and destroys) a HiddenWire that Wilson has made him wear.

Through sheer happenstance, Moya discovers a wormhole and Crichton sees Earth at the other end. He flies down the wormhole in his module and crashes in Australia, but the homecoming is less than welcoming. The government is suspicious and wants to know everything about Crichton's time on Moya, and even Jack, his own father, seems distant. Things get worse when Aeryn, D'Argo and Rygel arrive in a transport pod and are locked in quarantine, something Aeryn says even the Peacekeepers would never do.

* WondrousLadiesRoom: Used as a plot point! Upon realising that everything and everyone he sees is drawn from his memories of Earth John kicks open the door to the pool hall's Ladies Room as it's somewhere he's never been and thus has no reference for them to use. Behind the door is a giant, swirling vortex of orange-brown energy. It's every bit as weird as it sounds.

* FadeToWhite: John after flying down the wormhole. He wakes up still inside Farscape One, having crashlanded on a beach in Sydney Harbour.

* SpottingTheThread: After escaping with Aeryn, John sees the same woman he saw when he first arrived in Australia, and also realises she's a girl he knew in school. The man running the newstand is the same guy he saw at the beach with Jack, and would you believe it he knows him from his past as well, not to mention that all the magazines he's selling are also seven months out of date. Then he realises that ''everyone'' he's met since coming back to Earth is someone from his past.

* RealityHasNoSubtitles: Zigzagged; when the crew of Moya explain why they went after Crichton, they are TheUnintelligible for the listening humans, through subtitles are shown initially. Then if John Crichton is talking to them in the humans' presence, [[BilingualDialogue he speaks English but they continue to be untranslated to the audience]]. If no humans are present except Crichton, the TranslatorMicrobes work for the audience as usual.

* RealityHasNoSubtitles: Zigzagged; when the crew of Moya explain why they went after Crichton, they are TheUnintelligible for the listening humans, through subtitles are shown initially. Then if John Crichton is talking to them in the humans' presence, [[BilingualDialogue he speaks English but they continue to be untranslated to the audience]], if no humans are present except Crichton, the TranslatorMicrobes work for the audience as usual.
* RedundantRescue: John is determined to save his friends after Rygel's death. He enters the base and walks past a sentry standing in the shadows, but then he finds the unconscious body of the real sentry, whereupon Aeryn walks up behind John and puts the sentry's [=M16=] rifle to John's head. John assures her he's on her side, but they discover that D'Argo has already been ReleasedToElsewhere.

* IfYouDieICallYourStuff: Before John sets off into the wormhole he tells Rygel that if he doesn't come back... [[BaitAndSwitchComment he wants Aeryn to have his stuff]]. Rygel is left spluttering in protest as John walks away.

** Crichton complains that the magazines in his cell are all seven months old. At the time he puts this down to the overly paranoid authorities not wanting him to know anything that's happened since he left, but he later sees the magazines being sold ''outside'' the base are seven months out of date as well.

** Crichton complains that the magazines in his cell are all seven months old. At the time he puts this down to the overly paranoid authorities not wanting him to know anything that's happened since he left. Likewise Cobb is unable to tell him who won the Super Bowl, though as he's Australian he has no reason to be interested in American sports, as is pointed out.

* SheCleansUpNicely: Aeryn does a SexyShirtSwitch the morning after sleeping with John, but his clothes are much too big for her so John puts her in a form-fitting floral dress instead.

* EmpathicEnvironment: When he first gets to Earth, John lands on an ocean beach and takes joy in the blue cloudless sky. When they're hiding out in the safehouse after Rygel is killed and D'Argo taken away to an unknown fate, the sky is overcast and thunder rumbles ominously. Aeryn however finds the storm beautiful.

* ArtisticLicenseMilitary: The Australian military personnel are wearing army greens, which had long been replaced by "Auscam" disruptive pattern camouflage.

* CreatorCameo: the men in the public toilet are played by director Rowan Woods, designer Ricky Eyres, and Anthony Simcoe (D'Argo) with no make-up.

* RealityHasNoSubtitles: Whenever humans are shown listening to the aliens talk, they are TheUnintelligible (though subtitles are shown initially). If Crichton is talking to them in the humans' presence, [[BilingualDialogue he speaks English but they continue to be untranslated to the audience]], if no humans are present except Crichton, the TranslatorMicrobes work for the audience as usual.

* RealityHasNoSubtitles: Whenever humans are shown listening to the aliens talk, they are TheUnintelligible. If Crichton is talking to them in the humans' presence, [[BilingualDialogue he speaks English but they continue to be untranslated to the audience]], if no humans are present except Crichton, the TranslatorMicrobes work for the audience as usual.

* RedundantRescue: John is determined to save his friends after Rygel's death. He enters the base and walks past a sentry standing in the shadows, but then he finds the unconscious body of the real sentry, whereupon Aeryn walks up behind John and puts the sentry's [=M16=] rifle to John's head, demanding he state which side he's on.

* YouALLLookFamiliar: Invoked. The Ancients recreated everything from John's memory, so the phony Earth is full of various people he's met throughout his life. People he's worked directly with (like Wilson and Cobb) fulfill the same functions, but casual acquaintances make up the various extras (such as the newsstand guy being an old neighbor).