Far. Bloody. Scape.

[minxy]

Farscape 3.17 The Choice.

This is going to have to be all about Aeryn. The Loony Tunes ep was all well and good, because I do miss the Moyans when we’re on Talyn, but DID YOU SEE AERYN’S FACE WHEN???? DIDJA???

Is she in mourning on Beldans? She’s seeking spiritual guidance? And I love how protective everyone everyone is of her currently. And WOW, babe, that’s showing a possibly unappreciative boy a lot of leg. But I appreciate it, yes I do. Aaaaaand, what have we here, a little unpredictability from Aeryn? Even with the Previously On, they surprised me with her looking for her father rather than Talyn!John.

OH, oh hello. Now we’re flashing back to the ep where Aeryn and John grew old together. And Aeryn looks just destroyed, and yet fully capable of Beating Your Ass if you mess with her. Daaaaaannnnngggggg.

…Was that Xalax? Hiding in the shadows? Rygel and Stark are sort of the most inept sneaking team ever. But, Stark did spot Xalax. If they’re doing a blood test, how could it be identical with either of her parents? Shouldn’t it match half a set of markers?

Lovely little character moments in between the plot developments. Interesting how Aeryn is seeing everything through sexual filters now.

Oh, she’s calling for him. That’s just… achy. Especially having just learned that the well intentioned father… isn’t so.

Rygel just levitating up the side of the building looking for Aeryn is wonderful.

... I think this scene is where my icon came from. *sniff* Eeep.

Xalax turning on possibly!Talyn is interesting, having a monolog about nearly love and losing it and blaming Aeryn. So chosing Aeryn over Talyn was the choice, eh? Xalax is a messed up soul, yes she is. Interesting many-leveled command for Aeryn to live for her, especially in light of being told to live for Crighton and that not being enough.

Wait, wait… WTF STARK???? They couldn’t give us ONE BLOODY RECOVERY EPISODE???? THEY HAVE TO SEND SOMEONE ELSE AWAY??? I DRAW THE LINE. GIVE ME BACK MY STARK.

Jesus. Everything that Aeryn says is bloody weighty. You have to go now. Jesus. Aeryn in mourning. Now THAT’S an amazing episode. Thank God there’s a commentary; I’m not quite ready to leave this one yet.

Thoughts from the commentary: Now I'm watching the Previously On's again and it's just horribly interesting that Crais was bloody *supposed* to have kill Xalax to begin with, but I guess this way maybe he did buy them the official PK notification that they'd all died. And Xalax gets that much redemption, gets to own her choices, whether they be death or life or revenge or mercy. Still, Aeryn still has to deal with her mother's blood quite literally on her hands.

And how Completely Awesome to listen to Claudia Black talk about this episode for 40 minutes.


Rip my bloody heart out. Go on, don't mind me.

Comments

[50mm.livejournal.com]

*flails*

S3 is so fucking brilliant, and this ep is at the top IMO. CB blows me away.

Just... yeah.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_minxy_/]

Some of the ones that have become the highlights for me were almost painful to watch, but this one was just gorgeous. Such a beautiful, achy goodbye, properly said and properly difficult and properly confusing.

I've never seen 'drunk til sober again' played so convincingly.

[cofax7]

She's so amazing. The SG-1 people have no idea the talent they've wasted the last few years. It makes me crazy.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_minxy_/]

She was talking, on the commentary, about how the writers and directers were under so much time pressure that they welcomed actor input and alterations and gave them tons of room to play. Claudia said they'd commented going to work on other shows that they get really perplexed when actors don't show up with that much on offer.

I think it was the reverse situation on Stargate; the directors have no idea what to do with actors challenging like that and aren't prepared to adjust to them (I'm convinced the original team had that beaten out of them in the early years. Except maybe Chris Judge, who may have the patience of a saint.) It was great for fanfiction *because* it was so underwhelming sometimes. Dear Gods, though, the squandered potential.

[moonshayde.livejournal.com]

S3 is just amazing. So very amazing.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_minxy_/]

I got nothing but a whole lot of yes.

[kazbaby]

Not one of my favorites, but I still find it so beautiful in so many ways on an emotional level. There's been debates on whether that Cyrus really channeled TJohn or if it was in fact MJohn (during Revenging Angel when he flatlined).

My favorite moments though are: when she's re-enacting what happened on the false Earth, Rygel flying up and talking to her, and that whole scene with Crais and Stark in the hallway.


Claudia was definitely at the top of her game here, she makes you really feel Aeryn's grief. (sorry for the baseball reference, I'm watching A League of Their Own.) :)

[kazbaby]

*Cresus not, Cyrus. whoops. :p

[http://users.livejournal.com/_minxy_/]

That is a terribly awesome debate. Talyn!John or Moya!John? And real or a hoax?

It is so beautiful how she plays out mourning in that ache for touch. And the scene in the hallway kills me when she starts talking about closing her eyes very tightly and making it worth it just to *feel* something.

Heck yeah top of her game. I think the sports parlons are very appropriate.

[feather-autant.livejournal.com]

::pets:: I hope to GOD you have the miniseries available. I'm just sayin. I don't think I could have survived the end of the series without it. Hell, it almost killed me even with that.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_minxy_/]

You know, I tried to watch Farscape once before, and left off just as it was getting good, apparently. (This is why it's so helpful to let fans of a show tell you which early episodes were hits and which misses.)

It was seeing the mini that made me love them. And made me susceptible to RW's, or whoever it was's, whiles. Plus I think she gave me a list of episodes that were worth watching from the first season.

So I have been spoiled like no one should be spoiled for a show, but I have to say that I have No Idea how they're going to get there, nor am I any less invested in the shows as I see them, so I think it worked out okay.

[elke-tanzer.livejournal.com]

Ahhhhh, Farscape. *pets it*

[http://users.livejournal.com/_minxy_/]

Owwwwww, Farscape.

[synecdochic]

That scene sitting on the windowsill, flashing back to that S1 episode, except *mirror image* and just. omg.

(and all the haunts of Crichton, in fact, and how she *knows* they're haunts, and she doesn't *care*, because. just.)

[http://users.livejournal.com/_minxy_/]

Oh God, like when she is talking to John about whether it was easy to be all heroic and give her up, but she's smiling and bantering with him, because even that intimacy with a ghost is worth it. GOD.

[bugchicklv.livejournal.com]

Even though I wasn't all that fond of Talyn!John, this ep made me all sad inside. And there were some REALLY good vids done to it. I wish I could remember where they are, but one that sticks out in my mind was done to an Evanescence song (My Immortal?)

*uses appropriate icon*

[http://users.livejournal.com/_minxy_/]

I might have actually seen that one and spoiled myself when I was still convinced that I wouldn't ever resume watching the show. It was recced that hard.

[jenlev.livejournal.com]

:::massive hugs:::

it's really quite something.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_minxy_/]

*cuddles*

[katie-m.livejournal.com]

The Choice drives me crazy, because I want to love it, but I spend the whole time thinking "where did Aeryn get that dress? Since when does Aeryn do wacky makeup when she's in mourning?" And it throws me right out.

Which kills me. I mean, among other things, the dress and the wacky makeup look great, in an Aeryn's-fucked-up kind of way. And, just, so much Aeryn. Sniff.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_minxy_/]

I hate that when something throws you out of a story and you just can't get back in. The make-up worked for me in a purely 'she looks wrung out and put away wet' sense, I didn't look too closely.

More Aeryn is always good, too bad the trappings didn't work for you.

[dvswraatins.livejournal.com]

I haven't watched my DVDs for a long time and I only ever watched this episode twice, but it is so clear in my memory because it just imprints itself on your brain. I love the scene where she imagines Crichton, kissing his shoulder and the part at the end is my favorite, where she leaves him behind. A show is good when an episode still hurts years after you saw it.

I remember I'd watch the show every week, worried how they were going to destroy my sould this time ;-)

And there is so much more good stuff to come.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_minxy_/]

I've yet to watch any episode more than once, and sometimes I need self imposed breaks between. They are powerful stories, but they hurt liek whoa sometimes. I loved that command for him to go away, it echoes what she told Rygel and it's so powerful.

[pellucid.livejournal.com]

I always have to fanwank bits of "The Choice"--the not!Talyn plot, for instance, seems rather pointless--but I can blissfully ignore that in the face of the rest of it being So Damned Amazing. Claudia is just stunning, the flashbacks/memories/visions of John are so painful, and I have mad crazy love for Xhalax and Aeryn and Xhalax together. Probably my number 2 or 3 ep of the whole series.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_minxy_/]

It was a strange underemphasis on why Xhalax did that, but there were a lot of things going on in that scene. Ultimately I have to forgive a show that sacrifices a plot point to character moment occasionally.

This is one of my favorites right now.

[eve11]

The scene that gets me every time is "Was it easy to be a hero?", and how she is here, teasing shade-Crichton about his insistence that he didn't think he was going to die. Because it's so mundane, makes you realize that even if you drag yourself up out of the Big Pit of Mourning, there are so many little things that will just keep on hurting.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_minxy_/]

That easy teasing chemistry is so extraordinary, and it's just amazing that Aeryn will seek that intimacy on such a painful subject. Amazing conversation.

[kernezelda]

Not one of my favorites, but CB is marvelous.

It makes you think of the way Xhalax, Aeryn and John deal with love and grief. Xhalax was destroyed by love and self-hatred. Aeryn betrays Velorek because she doesn't know what she feels, can't cope. She shuts down after John's death, and after seeing what happened to Xhalax because of this overwhelming emotion and need. Yet it's remembrance of his love for Aeryn that revives John in RA. And later...

God, later.

*gives you several boxes of Kleenex for the future*

[cofax7]

::points at Kerne's icon, cooing::

Dunnett icon! Eeee!

[mesascaper.livejournal.com]

Claudia was simply amazing in this episode.
But the end, where she tells John, you have to go now and she had her hair pulled tight and she was back in her PK mode, I was all, but, but, but what about poor Moya John?
Have you watched Fractures yet?

[http://users.livejournal.com/_minxy_/]

Nope, I've stopped her as I'm out of discs and must go out of town for a few days. Hopefully three shiney new DVDs will arrive magically on my doorstep via Netflix whilst I flit around the country.

That reunion, though, knowing the journey that the Talyn crew had been on, and how excited the Moyans were to see them... it was so heartbreaking.

Lovely icon, the sepia tone works really well.