Season 4, Episode 19:
We're So Screwed, part 1: Fetal Attraction
The crew arrive at a space station on the border of Scarran space, in order to get the beacons necessary to proceed further into Scarran territory. They arrive in groups: Sikozu first in a transport pod, so that she can blend in with the other Kalish; Crichton, Scorpius, Chiana and Rygel are next in Moya, pretending to be a crew of spies under Scorpius' command, on their way to report in to their Scarran spymasters; and D'Argo and Noranti, hanging back in Lo'La in case they're needed. Upon arrival, they realise that the transport with Aeryn aboard is also docked at the station, but weapons are prohibited and anyone found carrying one is killed by the automatic defences, meaning an armed rescue is out of the question. Worse, the transport is scheduled to leave within the arn. It's Rygel who comes up with the solution: he fakes the symptoms of a contagious disease, and the Kalish in charge of the station places it on temporary lockdown, forbidding any transports from leaving. Medical scans aren't able to confirm the presence of the disease and the Kalish are preparing to lift the lockdown, but when Noranti shows up in response to a general broadcast for medical personnel or healers, she gets a positive response on the medical scans by actually giving Rygel the disease.
As Noranti works to find a cure for the disease before it infects anyone else, the rest of the crew try to get access to the Scarran transport. Crichton pretends to have a Sebacean-only cure for the disease in order to seduce the Sebacean nurse and get aboard the transport to prove that Aeryn's onboard. Meanwhile, the Scarran officer is worried enough about the disease that he decides to transfer Aeryn's pregnancy to another mother that's less likely to get sick — and he chooses Chiana. After Charrids board Moya via the docking bay and capture Chiana, the rest of the crew accelerate their plans in order to rescue them both. While Scorpius distracts the Scarran officer, Sikozu hacks the station computers to initiate a power shutdown, giving Crichton and D'Argo a window to get across the station with their weapons, board the Scarran transport and grab Aeryn and Chiana. They fight their way back to Moya and blast off, but Scorpius is caught by the Scarran officer and gets left behind while the others escape.
Aeryn is back aboard, the baby is fine, and everything seems great for Crichton... until Harvey wakes up. Rather than being removed, Harvey was actually upgraded with utter loyalty to Scorpius, the ability to communicate with his master and an updated directive to seek out and send to Scorpius all the wormhole knowledge in Crichton's mind. If Crichton wants to keep wormhole technology out of Scarran hands, he has no choice but to go back and rescue Scorpius...
Tropes present in this episode include:
- Back from the Dead: Parodied by having Harvey 2.0 act like a vampire rising from a coffin.
- Big "NO!": Crichton just before his scene with Harvey 2.0.
- Break the Cutie: Aeryn has been thoroughly broken by her time in Scarran captivity.
- Brick Joke: Crichton nicknamed Scorpius "Nosferatu" in their first meeting, so in his Imagine Spot he Looks Like Orlok.
- Exact Words: How Crichton beats Jenek's heat probe. Asked why he sneaked aboard the ship, Crichton says he was looking for an attractive Sebacean female. It's the why he avoids saying.
- Foreshadowing: Sikozu uses a heat blast to disable a control panel and is evasive about how she did it. Part 3 will explain this.
- Freak Out: Crichton manages to sneak into Jenek's ship. He tries to release Aeryn, but she thinks he's just a hallucination and begins panicking.
- Imagine Spot: Harvey 2.0 rises from his coffin in a scratchy B&W vampire movie, with Orlok fingernails and a phony Transylvanian accent—through he reverts to his previous Harvey voice when Crichton tries to slam the coffin lid on him.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: The preparation for extracting the fetus from Aeryn involves four metal rods being jammed into her stomach.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Noranti regrets being responsible for the deaths of others.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Rygel once had Hynerian dermaphollica. To ensure the quarantine gambit works, Noranti reactivates the dormant virus, and it spreads throughout the station. While Nebari and Scarrans are immune, everyone else isn't—meaning Rygel and them are all at risk.
- No One Gets Left Behind: Subverted. Everyone but Sikozu is perfectly content to abandon Scorpius to the Scarrans. Unfortunately, Harvey 2.0 appears to tell Crichton that they'll torture wormhole knowledge out of Scorpius if he's not rescued.
- The Schlub Pub Seduction Deduction: Gender-inverted and justified; Crichton cites Fantastic Racism as the reason he wants to sleep with an older and unattractive woman—Vreena is the only Sebacean available. However she bluntly refuses until he throws in a cure for Hynerian dermaphollica (it helps that she has to take the 'cure' to her medical bay to check that it's genuine, which is where she has Aeryn prisoner). When he's captured after assaulting Vreena and trying to free Aeryn, Crichton just says he thought Aeryn was sexier so he'd rather frell her instead.
- Pet the Dog:Noranti: I must seek forgiveness from the Divine Eternal.
Rygel: I can't help you there, but I can extend you my forgiveness. - To Be Continued: "You have to go back for Scorpius! Tell her, John! Tell her! You must rescue Scorpius. TELL HER!"
