Recap / Farscape S 03 E 07 Thanks For Sharing

Season 3, Episode 7:

Thanks for Sharing

Moya and Talyn recuperate in orbit about a politically tumultuous planet where they must negotiate with its xenophobic inhabitants for chromextin vital to their living ships' repair. When one of the planet's leaders is nearly assassinated while meeting with one of the Crichtons, the other Crichton undergoes a potentially fatal lie detector test in order to aid in the negotiations. When the crew discovers that a Peacekeeper retrieval squad is coming for Talyn, the ships and the crew are forced to separate and head off into different parts of the Uncharted Territories: Crais, Aeryn, Stark, Rygel and one of the Crichtons aboard Talyn, and D'Argo, Chiana, Jool and the other Crichton aboard Moya.

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Tropes present in this episode include:

• Anyone Can Die: The most prominent guest stars (Tolven, Sarova, and their father Pralanoth) are all dead by the end of the episode.
• Appeal to Force:
  • The Sovereign of Kanvia refuses to do business with the notorious crew of Moya, but reopens negotiations after Talyn flies down to his palace and aims a BFG at it (though he doesn't actually agree to the trade until he's convinced Crichton just wants to buy the chromextin and leave).
  • Averted when Chiana suggests they just steal what they're after. As the sources of chromextin are distributed across the planet, D'Argo points out that it would take ten robberies to get it all (through Chiana doesn't see the problem with that).
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Black-Crichton runs off with Aeryn, Wynona, and their notebook and pen. D'Argo says that at least the black leather jacket was left behind, but Green-Crichton points out that's only because he was wearing it!
• Banned from Argo: Or banned thanks to D'Argo. Partly for roughing up his son, but more likely because they're notorious criminals who want a Mineral MacGuffin which is better known for being used for weaponry than medicine, Pralanoth gives them an arn to get off the planet and leave orbit before he resorts to force. Rygel is willing to comply, only to find that D'Argo and Chiana have immobilised the transport pod while they find another source.
• Big Brother Is Watching You: Aeryn's mother revealing to her daughter that she was conceived through an unauthorised love match was caught on a Peacekeeper surveillance camera placed inside the children's dormitory. The recording had been added to both Aeryn and her mother's files. Of her father, Crais says that Tayln couldn't find any mention of him.
• Brandishment Bluff: Tolven orders concussion missiles fired to destroy Moya and Talyn or drive them away from the planet, but they can't flee the Space Clouds as there's a Peacekeeper Retrieval Squad looking for them. So the two Crichton's decide to Take a Third Option—take Talyn down and point its gun at the biggest government building they can find, even though Talyn is in no state to charge its weapons. Tolven is willing to call their bluff, but fortunately his father isn't and orders their Air Defense to stand down.
• Breaking the Fellowship: The crew is forced to split up at the end of the episode. The next ten episodes alternate between each group (save a two-parter for the Talyn group) before reuniting in "Fractures".
• Bullying a Dragon: Tolven goes out of his way to harass Moya’s crew in spite of (and in fact because of) their reputation. Predictably, he gets himself killed.
• Call-Back:
  • Crichton references the last time he was duplicated.
  • The recording of Xhalax depicts the meeting that Aeryn once described.
  • While bluffing the leadership, one of the Crichtons notes how Talyn previously destroyed a Shadow Depository.
  • "Can Moya filter out the poison, like she did when Aeryn was sick?"
• Captain Obvious: As D'Argo enters with Black-Crichton in a Bridal Carry, he has no time for Jool pointing out that the guy is bleeding.
• Chekhov's Gun: We get several shots of the strannat in its tank before it's first used halfway through the episode.
• Color-Coded Characters: Aeryn gives one Crichton a black shirt and the other green so everyone can tell them apart.
• Come Alone: Black-Crichton is understandably suspicious when Sarova wants to meet him in private after the bar has closed. He secretly brings Chiana and D'Argo for backup, but the Colarta does an Air Vent Infiltration and shoves a binary goo bomb inside.
• Continuity Nod:
  • Crais is shocked to see Aeryn. He departed in "Season of Death" before finding out that Zhaan had resurrected her.
  • The sedative used to poison Talyn is chlorium from "I, E.T."
• Cyberpunk with a Chance of Rain: As befits the noir atmosphere, there's lots of rain and Dramatic Thunder from those nelvastatic clouds.
• Declaration of Protection: Aeryn thinks it can't be a coincidence that her mother was assigned to the Retrieval Squad, and assumes those who did so are hoping to divide her loyalties. However Aeryn makes it clear that she will protect Talyn even if it means killing her mother.
• Demonic Head Shake: The Corlata mercenary does this while changing back to its default form.
• Establishing Character Moment: Tolven's involves him waiting impatiently for entire seconds for someone to remove his cloak, then going on to fondle Chiana without invitation under the assumption that she's a prostitute.
• Exact Words:
  • John Crichton did have a secret meeting with Sarova; it just depends on which John Crichton you're talking about.
  • Sarova appears to be bluffing when she challenges her brother to use the strannat on her (her father intervenes to stop this idea) but The Reveal implies that the Corlata might have been trying to pull the same Exact Words trick that Green-Crichton did.
• Facehugger: Played with when Tolven's thugs haul Black-Crichton over to the aquarium and the strannat leaps from the water and clutches his face, through it quickly moves to perch on top of his head.
• Facial Dialogue: While watching the recording, Aeryn instinctively nods in response to her mother's question "Do you understand?" mirroring the nod she gave as a child.
• Facial Horror: "Sarova" turning back into the Colarta involves "her" face distorting horrifically.
• Fight Magnet: While beating up the guys that were harassing Chiana, D'Argo mutters, "Every frelling planet."
• Food as Bribe: Jool is grouchy because she's hungry, there's nothing sweet to eat on the ship, and she's stuck looking after Crais. Green-John wants her to put aside this to do a tissue analysis to prove which one of them is the 'real' John Crichton.
  Jool: And I why should I do your selfish and unnecessary work?
  Crichton: Because I know where Rygel stashes his womilyn cake...and it's sweeter than the sweet thang, sweet thang.
• Foreshadowing: The Crichton that is gravely injured is the one who ultimately dies later in the season.
• Genre Savvy: After hanging around Crichton for so long, D'Argo knows exactly how to respond.
  Crichton: (holding a pulse pistol to Tolven's head) You know who your Daddy is—who's your Daddy? D'Argo tell him who his Daddy is!
  D'Argo: I'm your daddy!
• Good is Not Nice: Despite Green-Crichton having just saved his life with a blood transfusion, Black-Crichton makes sure to join Aeryn on Talyn, guessing correctly that she intends to starburst Talyn as far away from Moya as possible. This of course would mean that he keeps Aeryn to himself.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: Things aren't helped by word of our anti-heroes having preceded them.
  Tolven: Father, these are known criminals. The path of destruction they leave is—
  Rygel: Don't believe those myths. You know how rumors get started.
  Pralanoth: Then you deny your reputation.
  Rygel: I deny its relevance.
• Honey Pot: Sarova (wearing thigh-high stockings revealed by a nice slit up her skirt when she straddles him) tries to seduce Crichton to make him see her side of things. An explosion proves a Moment Killer.
• Hypno Pendulum: Stark and Crichton are trying to repair Talyn when Stark starts panicking that the Living Ship is dying. Crichton waves a gadget back and forth in front of his face.
  Crichton: Work...now...freak...later...Work...now...freak...later...
  Stark: (following it with his single eye) Yes...that's it...
  Crichton: Good.
  Stark: How much later? (concussion missiles explode outside the hull)
• Incredibly Obvious Bomb: Averted; the Colarta shoves a lump of red goo through the air vent, followed by a lump of blue goo. The two lumps crawl across the floor and, just when the audience is assuming it's some kind of nasty assimilation stuff, they meet up and go boom.
• Internal Reveal: Crais learns that Aeryn is alive again.
• Is It Something You Eat?: Crichton insists on calling the strannat a "lobster".
  Crichton: WHOA! HOHOHO! HEY! LOOK AT THE SUCKERS ON THAT BOY! Damn! In some parts of the universe this thing would be considered GOOD EATIN'!
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Played for laughs after Green-Crichton discovers Black-Crichton ran off with Aeryn.
  Green-Crichton: He just better be taking care of her.
  D'Argo: (smirk) Oh, I'm sure he's taking care of her.
  Green-Crichton: You know what I mean!
• I Was Never Here: After the bomb goes off, a wounded Sarova tells D'Argo and Chiana to get Crichton out of there as their meeting never took place. They grab him and rush off, leaving her vulnerable when the Colarta comes to finish her off and take her place.
• Kill and Replace: After setting off the bomb, the Colarta moves in to finish off Sarova and take her form.
• Living Lie Detector: The strannat, an aquatic alien that fulfills this purpose for the local ruler. It's placed on the person's head and will remain calm if it hears the truth, but it snarls if it hears a lie and eventually stabs the person in the forehead if the lies persist.
• Love Triangle: Not only Aeryn with two John Crichton's, but Crais doesn't look happy on seeing she's brought one of them onto Talyn when he's planning to run away with her.
• Meaningful Echo: Crais says to Aeryn that her mother is a mindless Peacekeeper thug like they both were once upon a time, "but you can give her a chance to be something more than that", a Call-Back to the "You can be more" comment that Crichton made to Aeryn in the premiere episode.
• Medication Tampering: The stimulant delivered to Talyn turns out to have been laced with a sedative.
• Mighty Roar: The Colarta does this after killing the guy that stumbled onto his transformation.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Right after being told they need the approval of the notoriously xenophobic Security Director to buy any chromextin, D'Argo beats up a guy who's hassling Chiana...who happens to be the Security Director.
• Noir Episode: The plot, characters and perpetually rain-lashed city all refer to the genre.
• No Biochemical Barriers: Jool gets angry when D'Argo thinks she can give Black-Crichton a blood transfusion just because they are "similar species". Fortunately, there's a literally identical blood-donor available.
• No Endor Holocaust: Pralanoth unified the planet under his rule but with both him and his chosen successors dead, Kanvia will likely fragment again as Sarova predicted.
• No Sympathy: Crichton suggests severing Crais's neural link (killing him in the process) in the hope that it will cure Tayln. Stark gives an evil giggle and says he already tried that (unfortunately Talyn nearly died instead). Then when Crais wakes up and tries to throttle Jool (admittedly he doesn't know her) she responds by jamming a huge frelling syringe into his leg.
  Jool: There, I woke him up. (yanks out needle, causing Crais to moan in agony) Now I hope he drops dead.
• Not Me This Time:
  • Lampshaded when Tolven starts becoming a nuisance. Foreseeing the inevitable Bar Brawl, Chiana mutters to herself that she wasn't the one who started the trouble.
  • After waking up on Moya and being questioned, Crais insists that he and Talyn were not the aggressors.
  • Black-Crichton naturally blames Tolven for the bomb and the attempt to poison Talyn and is surprised when the stannart verifies that he's blameless (of those acts at least). The other Crichton however sees Aeryn packing and realises she's guessed the real culprit is the Peacekeeper Retrieval Squad. He makes sure to join her on board Talyn while his rival for her affections is busy down on the planet grilling Tolven.
• "Not So Different" Remark
  • Crais says that Aeryn's mother is a mindless assassin, just like they used to be when they were both Peacekeepers.
  • When Green-Crichton is raging about the other Crichton taking off with Aeryn and leaving him behind, D'Argo points out he'd have done exactly the same thing if he'd had the opportunity.
• Not What It Looks Like: A waitress hands Crichton a dildo-like device. Crichton wants to know if this is a proposition. Chiana takes it off his hands and twists it into a mouth and earpiece, as it's actually a telephone.
• Odd Couple: After Stark and Rygel discover they'll have to share quarters on Talyn, Stark goes into his "My side, your side!" routine. Rygel can only mutter wearily, "Don't start..."
• Oh, Crap!: Rygel, upon learning the guy at the bar that D'Argo just beat up is the planet's security director.
• One-Steve Limit: Averted when Crichton is introduced to the planetary rulers, "Rinic, Rinic and Rinic" (though only due to local naming convention which puts the family name first).
• Open Heart Dentistry: Jool is roped into various medical tasks because she's taken the required courses, but as usual has no practical experience. Eventually even she flatly states she can't do what they're asking.
• Painful Transformation: "Sarova" screams during the transformation back into the mercenary tracker. Given the Facial Horror and convulsing, this was to be expected.
• Pain to the Ass: Crichton is alarmed when Jool, wielding some long and sinister Cow Tools, tells him to turn and drop his pants. Turns out she wants a skin sample that hasn't been exposed to sunlight. When Crichton tries to quibble, she yanks out the sample while his back is turned.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: Tolven hates outworlders and is introduced aggressively hitting on Chiana and treating her like a prostitute.
• Precrime Arrest: The question that actually kills Tolven is whether he intends to break his oath to his family (to co-rule with his sister after their father's death).
• The Reveal:
  • The reason Talyn was adrift in the previous episode is revealed to be because of a Peacekeeper Retrieval Squad commanded by Aeryn's mother.
  • It wasn't Sarova in the scenes after the bomb went off; it was a mercenary tracker working for the Retrieval Squad who had taken her form.
• Revenge Before Reason: Tolven is visibly outraged by D'Argo smacking him around in a bar full of people. When forced to retreat, he makes it clear this isn't over. His later hostility towards the crew is clearly more out of settling a personal score than the planet's security, but it ultimately leads to his death.
• Rhetorical Question Blunder: Played for drama. Green-Crichton forces the strannat onto Tolven's head to make him confess to spiking the chromextin, and is surprised when it doesn't react. When Tolven says that he opposed the sale but complied with his father's order, Crichton replies in Sarcasm Mode: "Ain't you just the good and loyal son" and the strannat does react to that.
• Run or Die: With missiles coming up from the planet below and a Peacekeeper Retrieval Squad lurking above, Crais convinces Talyn to break their umbilical and starburst away to give Moya a chance to do likewise. It's Just in Time too, as the Retrieval Squad flies through the space they just occupied.
• A Rotten Time to Revert: Having managed to force Moya off Kanvia and back into space, the Corlata reverts to his true form in a horrific sequence... only for a pedestrian to walk in on his hiding place at exactly the wrong time. The fully reverted Corlata is able to kill the witness before the alarm can be sounded, but with all the chaos that's already been stirred up on the planet, he has to make a hasty exit in the company of his commander before anyone finds the body.
• Self-Deprecation: One Crichton refers to his identical twin as "an ugly loudmouthed son-of-a-bitch."
• Shapeshifter Default Form: The Corlata mercenary's actual form is crimson red and reptilian.
• Ship Tease: Crais is noticeably moved on seeing that Aeryn is still alive and tries to convince her to run away with him (under the pretext that he needs Aeryn to deter her mother from attacking Talyn). There's even a Suggestive Collision involving the two, though it's not emphasized. When Crais sees she's brought Black-Crichton onto Talyn with her, it wipes the smile from his face.
• Shout-Out:
  • The disabled Pralanoth and his manipulative daughter Sarova are Expies of General Sternwood and his daughter Carmen from The Big Sleep.
  • Crichton, while naming various alien villains, namedrops the Skeksis. May not be a surprise, since both Farscape and Dark Crystal were produced by Henson Company. It doubles as a Call-Back to "Out of their Minds," as the Halosians bore a strong resemblance to the Skeksis.
  • He also mentions the "Alien Nation reject" from "My Three Crichtons".
  • Crichton presents his Verbal Business Card as "John Crichton, Wizard of Oz."
  • When Tolven demands the truth, Crichton can't resist quoting A Few Good Men.
• Sibling Rivalry: Sarova versus Tolven, though not without reason. Their father made them promise to be co-rulers after his death, but Sarova thinks that Tolven won't stick to this deal...which is why she wants papa to make her the sole ruler. Tolven of course knows this and acts accordingly.
• Synchronization: We get Five-Second Foreshadowing of the Medication Tampering when Crais starts looking ill, before going into convulsions and shouting that he's being poisoned.
• Stealth in Space: Moya hides them in the nelvastatic cloud cover around the planet so they can work on curing Talyn while hidden from the Retrieval Squad. When Tolven tries to shoot them down, Air Defense can't pinpoint their location, so he tries to flush them out with concussive missiles instead (presumably there's still enough atmosphere that high for them to work).
• There Are No Coincidences: Aeryn suspects that Peacekeeper command knew of her involvement with Talyn and selected her mother to command the squad for this reason.
• Throwing Off the Disability: The bombing puts Sarova in a wheelchair, but when her father refuses to launch missiles on Moya and Talyn as they depart, she rips out his breathing tube, leaps out of her wheelchair and crushes the larynx of his bodyguard, then strolls over to the comm and gives the order herself.
• Too Dumb to Live: Tolven would rather lie about being loyal to his father than admit the truth. It gets him killed.
• Transformation Horror: When the Corlata's disguise is no longer needed, it changes back in a truly horrific manner.
• The Triple:
  • Green-Crichton completes his self-interrogation via the strannat with a Sublime Rhyme. "Cross my heart, smack me dead, stick a lobster on my head!"
  • "Crais, I want you to find the fattest target you can: government house, missile site, McDonald's..."
• Twin Switch: The Crichton in the black shirt is saved after the explosion, but he's too weak and injured to continue dealing with the planet's leadership. The Crichton in the green shirt fills in, which helps discredit Tolven's claims as Crichton is not injured and can honestly say he never had a secret meeting with Sarova.
• Underestimating Badassery: Tolven is so smug and confident that he thinks he can get away with sucker-punching a Luxan. Not only does D'Argo block the hit; he effortlessly pummels Tolven for good measure.
• Wham Line: Aeryn quickly guesses that her mother has been assigned to the Peacekeeper Retrieval Squad hunting Talyn, but Crais informs her that she's actually commanding it.
• Wham Shot: "Sarova" morphing into the mercenary tracker.
• What You Are in the Dark: The Crichton in the black shirt is gravely injured in the explosion. The Crichton in the green shirt agrees to give him a transfusion, despite how much easier him dying would make his own life.
• Worst Aid:
  Crichton: "Don't pull it out!" (screams as Chiana yanks shrapnel out of his leg)
• You Can't Handle the Parody: The joke doesn't work if they haven't heard of Jack Nicholson.
  Crichton: I want an apology.
  Tolven: I want the truth.
  Crichton: You can't handle the... never mind.
• You Have Failed Me: The Corlata mercenary expects this since the crew was still able to partly heal Talyn and escape. Xhalax averts it, just telling the Corlata to get moving.