Recap / Farscape S 03 E 22 Dog With Two Bones

Season 3, Episode 22:

Dog With Two Bones

As Moya travels to a Leviathan graveyard to scatter Talyn's remains, the crew begins to fragment and scatter off to their new life paths. Crichton tries to imagine a life in which he can have Earth and Aeryn and comes to the realisation that he'll have to choose which is more important. However, Aeryn is still grieving the death of her Crichton and has trouble bringing herself to accept the situation as it stands. At a crossroads, they choose to let fate decide and flip a coin — the result is tails, and Aeryn leaves in her Prowler.

Crichton decides to leave Moya as well and use his wormhole knowledge to find Earth. As he waits in a module for a wormhole to open, the whisperings of Moya's newest crewmember, Noranti, make him realise exactly what's affecting Aeryn's behaviour: she's pregnant. Resolving to find her, Crichton turns his module around and heads back to Moya, only to witness the Leviathan getting sucked into a wormhole and disappearing, leaving Crichton alone in his module, in deep space with a finite supply of oxygen...

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Tropes present in this episode include:

• A Lady on Each Arm: Go D'Argo!
• Ax-Crazy: The other Leviathan has gone insane after the enslavement and death of her children, has killed her own Pilot and other Leviathans, and attacks Moya to stop her from burying Talyn. Eventually Moya decides this is crossing the Moral Event Horizon and asks their help in killing her.
• Be Careful What You Wish For
  Crichton: When I was a kid I dreamed of outer space. And then I got here, I dream of Earth. Lately none of my dreams work.
• Berserk Button: The rogue Leviathan despises anything related to the Peacekeepers due to what they did to her children.
• Break the Cutie: Chiana in particular is devastated by Talyn's death. Crichton reasons it's because she was basically midwife for Talyn's birth.
• Breaking the Fellowship: Following up on the prior episode, everyone is intending to pursue their various goals. Once the rogue Leviathan is dead, everyone begins to depart.
• Children Are Innocent: In one of the cutaways, D'Argo is shown to be a good friend of a couple of human children who don't treat him any differently despite his alien appearance.
• Cliffhanger: The crew go their separate ways, Moya gets sucked down a wormhole, and Crichton is left stranded in deep space in his module.
  Crichton: You have got to be kidding me.
• Cutting Back to Reality: During Crichton's hallucinogenic visions, the action cuts between his activities in the hallucination and what he's actually doing: in one case, he imagines himself dancing with Aeryn at his wedding, when he's really dancing with Noranti; in another case, the sudden arrival of Peacekeepers at the wedding results in him drawing his pistol and shooting at inanimate objects in the real world.
• Due to the Dead / Burial in Space: The intention is to deposit Talyn's remains in the Leviathans' sacred burial space. D'Argo also remarks surprise that Crais sacrificed himself.
  • During the burial Chiana attempts to deliver a eulogy but in her grief stumbles over her words. Rygel steps in and delivers a sweet tribute to Talyn.
    Rygel: Talyn was special. A joy to his mother and a credit to his species - both of them. With fondness we lay Talyn - offspring of Moya - to rest in his Sacred Ground.
• Friendship Moment: While sitting in his module, Crichton recalls a few goodbyes.
  D'Argo: Anything positive I do with the rest of my life will be because of you. Take care, my friend.
  Chiana: You better not forget me. You better not ever forget that I love you.
  Rygel: Of all the lesser species, I admit I've grown to like yours the best.
• Heads or Tails?: Crichton and Aeryn agree to leave their fate to a coin toss. If he wins they leave Moya together, if she wins he stays behind. We don't see the coin land but Aeryn leaves Crichton behind, indicating that he lost the toss.
• "Hell, Yes!" Moment: Except for Crichton, the crew is openly in favor of Moya's desire to kill the rogue Leviathan.
• Imagine Spot: These recur throughout the episode, showing what things might look like if the crew joined Crichton on Earth.
• It's Personal: The Peacekeepers enslaved three of the rogue Leviathan's offspring. She rams Moya for trying to deposit Talyn's remains in the sacred space and starves her own Pilot for trying to put a stop to this.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Though initially willing to cut their losses on depositing Talyn's remains, Rygel delivers a rather respectful and dignified eulogy for him.
• Killed Mid-Sentence: Crichton's father is shot in the head just as he's proposing a toast to Mr & Mrs Crichton.
• Love Confession: Aeryn and Crichton both say that they love each other but there's too much baggage for them to be together right now.
• Mama Bear: Moya is determined that Talyn will be laid to rest in the sacred burial grounds. She breaks her usual pacifism by asking the crew to kill the rogue Leviathan that's trying to stop that from happening. The rogue Leviathan itself is this to an Ax-Crazy degree. Her grief over the deaths of her offspring have led to her murdering anyone who disagrees with her.
• Meaningful Echo: A dying Aeryn says, "Don't you worry about me, I've never felt better."
• Mundane Utility:
  • Aeryn needs a piece of metal melted but there's no power for the blowtorch, so she snaps one of Jool's fingers so her scream will melt it instead.
  • D'Argo uses a blast from his Qualta Blade for fishing.
• My Girl Is a Slut: Averted; Crichton is disturbed by Chiana sleeping with all his friends and his dad.
  Chiana: Hey, I spent some time with the boys. Think I know who the best man is.

• No Name Given: The Old Woman is referred to as just that. It'll be three episodes into Season 4 before we learn her name (Uta-Noranti-Pralatong).
• Not Listening to Me, Are You?: John is distracted due to the various Imagine Spots he's having.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: After the rogue Leviathan goes too far, Pilot relays the normally peaceful Moya's request to the crew: "Kill the rogue Leviathan."
• Pet the Dog: Harvey reveals to Crichton the memory that the Old Woman hid from him.
• Ramming Always Works: The rogue Leviathan's default attack, which Moya has to use as well.
• Remember the New Guy?: Played with. Everyone acts as if Noranti has every right to be there because they all assume she had joined another crew member since they are splitting up. It turns out she really just popped up after stowing aboard and none of them have seen her before.
• Ship Tease: Chiana to Crichton. "I would love you...to come with me."
  • And later: "You better not forget me. You better not ever forget how I love you."
• Sick and Wrong: John's reaction to Chiana snogging his father.

• Surrogate Soliloquy: Chiana delivers a speech to Moya that starts out appearing to be talking her out of burying Talyn in the sacred grounds, but eventually turns into Chiana telling her to do "whatever you frelling want to do" and to hell with the rogue Leviathan.
• Two Roads Before You: Crichton can have Earth or Aeryn, not both.
• Too Much Information
  Crichton: I thought you said this thing only responds to your DNA.
  D'Argo: That's why I covered all the controls in—
  Crichton: Woooah! That's why I'm wearing gloves.
• Twisted Echo Cut: Between Crichton's imagine spots and what's happening on Moya.
• Wave-Motion Gun: A single blast from D'Argo's ship is enough to obliterate the rogue Leviathan.
  Crichton: Very effective.
• Wedding Smashers: John's imagined wedding to Aeryn ends with Scorpius and a squad of Peacekeeprs storming the reception and shooting everyone.
• Wham Line: "Aeryn is with child."
• Widowed at the Wedding: Crichton's hallucinations end with Scorpius' mooks killing everyone at his wedding except Crichton.
• With Friends Like These...
  Aeryn: Can you melt that?
  Jool: How, there's no power?
  (Aeryn twists Jool's finger until she screams)
• You Can't Go Home Again: Crichton fears his friends would be miserable on Earth and that the Peacekeepers would follow.
• You Can't Fight Fate: Aeryn argues that if she and Crichton are meant to be together, they'll meet again. Crichton argues that her running away is not fate and proposes a coin toss. He loses.