Season 2, Episode 7
Love Grows
790 sits alone on the bridge, fantasizing about Xev. He intercepts a transmission about a planet named "Orgasmos," where women are desperate for men, but ignores it as boring and doesn't tell Stan or Xev. Stan's sexual desperation leads him back to Xev, who again rejects him. He decides to broadcast a signal advertising his sexual prowess and availability to the "ladies of the universe" and tells the Lexx to inform him if it receives an intelligent signal.
Meanwhile, a crew of space truckers is depositing hazardous "Class-13" material away from the main routes. One of the crew, Rexal, is watching the same "transmission" that 790 intercepted. The lone woman on the crew, Lorca, chastises the men for being "pigs" (to which Rexal replies, "Oink") and, more seriously, for not transporting the hazmat the full regulation distance. She threatens to report the captain, Jebbed, to the appropriate agency, but he laughs and tells her that the agency paid them to do it. He also ignores her warnings about a large object heading toward them; it's the Lexx, which devours their ship, breaching the hazmat containers in the process. A glittery pink substance lands on the workers; first Rexal, then Jebbed, shake uncontrollably before seemingly returning to normal. The three attempt to find a way out of the Lexx's digestive tract.
The Lexx tells Stan that it has encountered an "intelligent signal"— the pornographic film, which Stan mistakes for a real advertisment. Much to 790's amusement, Stan demands that the Lexx follow the coordinates. The Lexx swerves slightly to eat "a snack," then the signal disappears. Lexx complains about digestive distress to Stan; however, Stan is too worried about finding Orgasmos to care. Meanwhile, the freight workers cut their way through one of the Lexx's membranes and escape into a corridor.
Xev visits the cryochamber and attempts to seduce Kai, who proves as disinterested as ever. She shouts that she hates him and leaves the room. Desperate, she goes to the bridge and tells Stan she's ready to "do it" with him. They lie down and begin to undress, only to be interrupted by the freight workers' arrival on the bridge.
Stan shows Lorca how to use the showers; she hints that he doesn't have to leave, but he just wants to find Orgasmos. She evinces skepticism at the existence of any such planet, and has no idea where he could find it.
The crew of the Lexx feeds their guests in the galley. Xev flirts with the men, who compete with one another and with Stan for her attention, while Lorca looks on in disgust. Stan asks the men if they've heard of Orgasmos; with much laughter, they explain that Orgasmos is just a fictional location in a video series. Dejected, Stan wanders back to the bridge. Xev invites Jebbed to her room, ostensibly to check it for cockroaches, and implies that she'll welcome Rexal later.
Lorca meets Stan on the bridge. She tells him that they both deserve more sex than they're getting, and thinks that they should fix the problem by having sex with each other. Suddenly, Stan goes into a twitching fit and faints. He wakes up with his head in Lorca's lap. Lorca offers him a hug to make him feel better, but once she gets a hold of Stan, she declares, "Stan, you tease. I'm going to give you a lot more than a hug!" She's stopped when one of the strange seizures affects her. Stan flees; however, when Lorca's seizure ends, she immediately begins hunting him.
Xev and Jebbed engage in foreplay; Rexal secretly looks on and begins to masturbate. Xev feels something strange and thinks she's gotten overexcited, but when Jebbed touches her crotch, he realizes that she's turned into a man. Then he checks himself, and realizes he's a woman. At the same time, Rexal discovers his own sex swap. The two "women" scream in horror and run away. They run away and wind up on the bridge. Xev experiments with her new parts on her own before pursuing Jebbed and Rexal. Kai follows as she corners them on the bridge.
Xev declares her intention to "get herself some ass," over the protests of the former men, who claim to be "traumatized" and accuse her of "just wanting to use [them] and throw [them] away"; Xev replies, "Maybe, but I'll use you good." Jebbed slaps Xev hard enough to draw blood, which Xev flicks onto 790's eyescreens. The two men run away, chased by Xev.
790 tells Kai that "everyone has had their sex organs reversed!," so Kai has 790 analyze Xev's blood for contaminants. 790 identifies the cause as a man-made virus designed to reverse the infected person's sex. Unfortunately, it also "progressive dementia and total cellular failure." Stan and Xev have around 60 hours before it kills them. Since it could take years for 790 to find a cure, Kai has to round up Stan and Xev and put them in cryostasis. Lexx, who normally only speaks to Stan, asks Kai if Kai finds it attractive; Kai replies that he finds it "beautiful."
Lorca corners Stan in the bathroom. To Stan's horror and Lorca's delight, Stan now has "girl parts." Lorca grabs Stan, who's initially reluctant, but soon begins admiring how "strong" and "sweaty" Lorca is. However, Xev interrupts them, knocks out Lorca, and takes Lorca's place. After the two have brief and unsatisfactory sex, Stan leaves, followed by Xev, who wants Stan to make her/him "something to eat first." Kai finds the two of them and tells them about 790's discovery.
Lorca wakes up and finds Rexal and Jebbed, whom he/she sexually menaces. When Rexal calls Lorca a "pig," Lorca replies, "Oink."
Just as Stan and Xev are about to enter cryostasis, a sparkling blue substance permeates the air, and everyone's genitals return to their original state. Kai deduces that Lexx's immune system produced an antidote. Stan tells Lexx that it is "one remarkable bug"; Lexx surprises him by saying that it loves him, too.
The three guests round a corner in the hall and run into a family of dirty stowaways, led by a father carrying a human femur bone. The guests disappear under the attacking stowaways as the stowaways shriek about their meal.
On the bridge, Stan hears another signal that the Lexx has intercepted, again of women begging for men to fulfill their lusts. He refuses to get fooled again and ignores the signal. It turns out that this transmission is real, and the women are devastated to see the Lexx passing them by.
This episode contains examples of:
- 13 Is Unlucky: According to Lorca, "category-13" cargo is "[t]he worst kind."
- Abhorrent Admirer: Lorca, to Stan.
- All Men Are Perverts: Both the natural men and the temporary men are crass, women-objectifying jerks.
- Bad with the Bone: One of the cannibals at the end brandishes a Stock Femur Bone.
- Brawn Hilda: Lorca is a burly, masculine-faced woman who works on a hazmat freighter.
- Cannibal Clan: Kills off the truckers.
- Erotic Eating: Parodied in the mealtime flirtation between Xev and the male guests, which devolves into repulsive licking and slurping. Lampshaded by Lorca: "I think I'm going to be sick."
- Everything's Better with Sparkles: Both the virus and the antidote sparkle.
- Filth: One subplot involves Stan's belief that a porn flick is an advertisement for a real planet.
- Gender Bender: The virus swaps its victims' sex, although not the rest of their bodies.
- Gender Scoff: Lorca wonders if all men are pigs.
- Hurricane of Puns: The conversation in the food scene contains several Double Entendres.
- Ironic Echo: "Oink."
- It's All About Me: When the Lexx slows down due to a bellyache, Stan rants about how it's not getting him to Orgasmos fast enough.
- Meaningful Name: While "Lorca" is really just a little on the chubby side, the other characters react to her as if she were a whale.
- Mega-Maw Maneuver: The Lexx eats the hazmat freighter.
- No OSHA Compliance: Lorca tries to make the rest of the crew pay attention to commonsense safety procedures, but she's ignored, with disastrous results.
- Only Sane Man: Technically the only sane woman, but Lorca is by far the most sensible person on the hazmat freighter.
- Pointy-Haired Boss: Jebbed is much more interested in bonding with Rexal over porn than in preventing toxic spills.
- Questionable Consent: Any sex that happens under the influence of the virus is this.
- Slut-Shaming: 790 does this to Woman!Stan after Woman!Stan has sex with Man!Xev.
- Sour Prudes: All the temporary women seem to disapprove of sexual license.
- Space Trucker: A crew of them get eaten by the Lexx.
- Synthetic Plague: The sex-swap virus.
- Testosterone Poisoning: Parodied. Man!Xev and Man!Lorca are crude, oversexed, and demeaning to women.
- Too Dumb to Live: Jebbed refuses to take Lorca's scan results of an approaching object seriously until someone confirms it with the naked eye. One wonders why he thinks they have scanners.
- Unsettling Gender-Reveal: Jebbed gets one with Xev, while Stan and Rexal both get them from themselves.
