What Was Lost, Part 2: Resurrection

What Was Lost, Part 2: Resurrection
Written by Justin Monjo
Directed by Rowan Woods

Original Airdate: June 21, 2002

Plot: Crichton is rescued by Oo-nii, but only to be interrogated about the location of the Darnez Probes. After being rescued by D'Argo and Sikozu, a plan is hatched to free Moya's crew from the PeaceKeepers and allow them to escape in D'Argo's ship--a plan that involves the final fate of Elack. Review

Warning: There is no magic way to reverse the effects of the SPOILERS that you are about to read for the latest episode of Farscape, "What Was Lost, Part 2: Resurrection." If you've not yet seen the episode and want to go in unaware of the twists, turns and plot developments, please turn back now...

In short: Considered as a whole, the plot makes a lot more sense.

Last week, I came away from Farscape having enjoyed it, but being a bit confused. Of course, we only had half the story and, so, it's hard to really make any definitive judgments about it. Now that we've seen the concluding part, I'm happy to say that, overall, the storyline made a lot more sense and a lot of the things that were introduced last week suddenly had a huge relevance to the plot this week.

One of the most intriguing things that the series has brought up of late is the idea of just how powerful the perception of power can be. And Grayza is certainly this personified. She wants to have power over everyone and everything--to the point that she has a gland implanted to give her power over men. Everything we saw of Grayza here was all about her obtaining and keeping power over all the events unfolding around her. We heard back in "Wolf in Sheep's Clothing" that the PeaceKeepers were getting a bad reputation because they couldn't put a stop a Leviathan full of escaped prisoners. Grayza seemed a bit put-off by this and everything we saw here continued to show that.

She seduced Crichton for a number of reasons. The first would have to be that she wanted to find out the information he had that made him so valuable to Crais, Scorpius and Scarrans. Next, she wanted to have power over him to hold over Scorpius--we saw this last week when she seduced Crichton in full-view of Scorpius. She wants Scorpius to know that she has broken Richton in ways that he never could or would. Finally, you get the feeling that she wants to keep Cricthon close because of the power that he might have, being the only man in the Uncharted Territories who really understands wormholes and their power.

It's interesting, then, to see that Crichton completely turns her lust for power and control on its head. Cricthon ends up getting away, resisting her lures and escaping again into the Uncharted Territories. He first turns her own game on her--tying her up to the bed and then walking off, resisting the hold she thought she had over him. Then, he and rest of Moya's crew send her off on a wild goose chase through the Uncharted Territories following nothing more than a beacon while they slip back to the planet. The scene at the end with Grazya telling Braca that if she even hears a whisper of the crew or anyone making fun of her, that there will be hell to pay for him was deeply telling. I think that Crichton and company have found a weakness her--Grayza's vanity and sense of identity. I only hope that we get to see them continue to exploit this in their encounters with her in the future.

Meanwhile, we have a lot of other things going on. There are apparently several sides who have a vested interest in the technology on the planet and whether or not it should be uncovered. And to see all these sides playing out against each other with Richton basically caught in the middle was interesting. I can only imagine the Society Against Cruelty To Crichton had to declare a state of emergency after the physical and psychological beating our hero took over the past two episodes. He was like a ping-pong ball, bounced around and back and forth between conflicting interests. From Granny's powder visions to the Oo-nii's slamming him around to having to snort a bug to get away from Grayza, the poor guy went through a hell of lot--and that doesn't even count two underwater battles--one to get Winona back. I seriously hope the guy gets a vacation of sorts in the next episode or two, but this being Farscape I don't think that is going to be highly likely.

In the end, the planet is restored not out of some longing for power or to a desire to see the past restored, but out of a sense of survival. This is pretty much in keeping with the Moya crew's philosophy--they aren't exactly the most nobly motivated crew out there, but they do do things to survive. Nine times out of ten, it's the "right" thing to do and ends up being noble...but let's face it, Crichton and company didn't spend a lot of time debating the issue of what reversing the field might do to the planet and the universe. They were just thinking about their own survival and making it off the planet to continue fighting and running--or in Crichton's case to continue his quest to find Aeryn.

And I guess we've said our farewells to Jool. If you'd told me a year ago that we'd be rid of Jool in a year, I might have been happy about it. But the character was starting to grow on me. At this point, I consider the character one of Farscape's more wasted characters since she had a lot of potential, but it was never as developed. We were getting some hints at there being more to Jool than we originally thought, but it seems as though those might not be developed, which is a shame. But this is Farscape and characters have this odd way of turning up when you least expect them (and sometimes without expiation--Stark, anyone?), so I haven't lost all hope for her of yet.

Her final scene with D'Argo worked fairy well, though it was pretty much what I expected--a final apology for the sins committed in part one. I know that since it's apparent Jool is leaving, you'd like her to go under good terms with most of the crew, but this scene felt too forced to me.

So, that's about it for now, except a few small things...

--How many ways can you "kill" Scorpius before he actually dies? Man, this is getting brutal.

--So, was Sikozu's betrayal really part of D'Argo's plan or was she trying to play both sides against each other to get the best deal for her....it might explain why the bad guys from "Cricthon Kicks" were so unhappy with her and why she has to flee. I am hoping for some great stuff from this character.

--Having Elam sacrifice himself to save the Moya crew was nicely done-and also in a good Farscape tradition of having the plan never come off just exactly right. (You'd almost expect the crew to stop expecting things to go their way and plan for this in the plans!) Well, that's about it for now. Overall, "What Was Lost, Part 2" did a good job of taking the threads from part one and sewed them up rather well. I think there may be some major fall-out from this one as season four continues.

My rating: 8.0 (out of 10.0)

Next up: Trapped in a lava filled cave and hunted by mercenaries...sounds like a typical day for the Moya crew.

"There's always a point to running."

--Crichton