Into the Lion's Den, Part 2: Wolf in Sheep's Clothing

Into the Lion's Den, Part 2: Wolf in Sheep's Clothing
Written by Rockne S. O'Bannon
Directed by Ian Watson

Original Airdate: April 19, 2002

Plot:With Scorpius threatening to destroy Earth unless Crichton unlocks the secrets of wormholes for him, Crichton and the rest of Moya's crew come up with a desperate plan to stop Scorpius--destroying the command carrier.

Review

Warning: There are SPOILERS hiding in here like a "Wolf in Sheep's Clothing" for the latest episode of Farscape. If you've not yet seen it and want to go in unaware of the plot twists and turns (and I'll be honest--it's more fun to NOT know what's coming for this one), I strongly suggest you turn back now...

In short: Nicely done.

I have to admit that as a long-time fan of modern Star Trek, I am always wary of multiple part episodes. For the most part, Trek is infamous for having brilliant episodes to set-up the premise, a good cliffhanger and then not always delivering on the promise of part one with the follow-up episodes. And if you watch X-Files, this problem can be even more apparent.

But as cynical as I can be about multi-part stories on those shows, there are other shows out there that have shown me time and again that you can have part two be just as good if not better than part one. Buffy the Vampire and Angel are just two examples of such shows. And the third one is Farscape.

Which I suppose shouldn't really be all that shocking. Because outside of Buffy, Farscape is doing a wonderful job of telling the best long-term and consistently arc storyline on TV today.

Of course, having the second half of an two-part story be good when you have Farscape's equivalent of the 400-pound gorilla writing it can't hurt. Outside of David Kemper's offerings, I have to admit that the ones I look most forward to are those by series' creator, Rockne O'Bannon. After taking a year off in season two, I'm glad to see that O'Bannon has returned to the Uncharted Territories and delivered yet another great episode of Farscape.

And for just an hour of television, O'Bannon sure knows how to pack it full and to keep the twists and turns coming.

"Wolf in Sheep's Clothing" was a solid hour of television and it did what it needed to do--resolved a couple of long term plotlines and brought some new and interesting twists to bear.

One long term plotline it brought to an end was the storyline of our favorite, insane PeaceKeeper commander, Crais. Crais has come a long way since the obsessed commander of season one and to his storyline come to an end with such a selfless sacrifice as we saw here was a nice coda. I admit that I'm going to miss Lani Tupu at Crais. There was just something so distinctive about Crais's voice and his line delivery that I always enjoyed watching and hearing. But to see Crais go out with a bang was nicely done.

And it was interesting that Crais had to come back to all that he had left to realize what he'd lost. Certainly we got to see Crais wrapping up his life in many ways. He quickly sees through the deception of his former lover trying to get back in his good graces, he realizes he can't go back to the PeaceKeepers, he realizes that his fate is tie to Talyn and, finally, he gets his revenge on Scorpius. You can't help but think that Crais found some sense of justice in the fact that Scorpius was rapidly being maneuvered into the same desperate corner that he found himself in two years ago. Crais's final speech to the entire crew of the Command Carrier worked well and it was nice to hear him get a final swan-song before he sacrificed himself and Tayln to save not only Moya's crew but also the universe.

That said, I hate to sit here and say "I told you so," but......

I was pretty proud to have called that Talyn would somehow figure into the escape and destruction of the Command Carrier. OK, yes I predicted that his weapons weren't really dead and he's blast his way out, but I wasn't too far off. I loved the idea of Talyn being a Trojan Horse and helping to bring about the end of the wormhole project without killing off the entire (mostly) innocent crew of the Command Carrier. All of that worked and it was nice to see Tayln get a noble death and for him to go out fighting the good fight.

As for the wormhole project, it certainly upped the ante this week. Seeing Crichton try to stay one step ahead of Scorpius was nicely done--esp. as Crichton realizes that he must get more and more outrageous to try and stop him. Crichton's sense of utter calm about blowing up the Command Carrier was haunting as was how easily he tricked Scorpius by distracting him with the wormhole. Also, the final few scenes with Tosko and putting him into the Aurora Chair to erase his memory was superbly done. I had honestly wondered why they'd re-shown Nerve and Hidden Memory as part of the essential Farscape way back when (I mean other than their being brilliant episodes) and it shows through here. We needed to be reminded of what the Aurora chair could do--oh and they introduce us to the idea that Crichton knows something about wormholes too. :-)

But even though Crichton has stopped the wormhole project and been successful in the short term, there have to be long-term consequences to the actions he's taken here. Just because both Crichtons have stopped both races from getting wormhole technology and using it as a weapon doesn't mean they're going to forget about it. Also, as we heard last week, the Peace Keepers are having problems maintaining their authority due to Moya's crew constant escapes and exploits. I can't wait to see what happens when the universe learns that the legendary Cricthon and company went onto a Command Carrier and destroyed it. If you think they had problems before, you ain't seen nothing yet...

Also, there were some strong hints that we are going to see more of Grayza. I'm all for it, though I'm not sure I'm ready for Scorpius to be gone. Yes, one plotline has ended for him and I was honestly worried at the end he'd become the new Crais and go with Crichton. But I guess I'm just prejudiced since I like the work that Wayne Pygram does and I'd hate to see it all come to an end. But again, it has to be something interesting to for Scorpius to do--not just bringing him back time and again because all the fans love him so much.

So, as the penultimate episode of season three "Wolf in Sheep's Clothing" was a solid entry and it left me ready for next week's season finale.

Well, except for one thing...

I found the coda a bit disjointed. Yes, we'd got hints that everyone wanted to go home all year, but it seemed rather abrupt that everyone has suddenly decided to leave and go home. I know that Scorpius had provided the Moya crew with information to go home and he has made them diplomats, so they're beyond the reach of Peace Keeper authority, but the idea that suddenly we'd all go home seemed a bit abrupt. Maybe I missed some scenes in there, but overall I found the idea a bit abrupt--almost as if O'Bannon and Kemper were working hard to set up the events of the season finale and to give us some type of cliffhanger next week.

And I still stand by my call that Scorpius gave the Moya crew exactly what they wanted to hear and the information might prove to be wrong...or at the very least, skewed in such a way to sound better than it actually is.

I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

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

--I figured for a long time that Aeryn's friend would go with them at the end. Never saw that gruesome little death coming....though it was shocking to see someone we've got a bit of connection with get the bullet.

--The music was superb. Guy Gross keeps upping the ante for great incidental music.

--The visuals--how do they get such great visuals on their budget?!?

--Anyone else think that as Crichton climbs into his pod that he was going to take Scorpius with him?

--The scene with the water running down the stairs was nicely done.

So, all-in-all, a nice follow-up to part one and it certainly set up some good wrinkles for season four.

My rating: 9.5 (out of 10.0)

Next up: Will the crew split up and go home?