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When one looks in the box, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the cat.

Reactor

What Was Lost II: Resurrection
Written by Justin Monjo, directed by Rowan Woods
Season 4, episode 3

1st UK Transmission Date: 14 October 2002
1st US Transmission Date: 21 June 2002

Guest Cast: Raelee Hill (Sikozu), Tammy MacIntosh (Jool), Melissa Jaffer (Old woman), Rebecca Riggs (Grayza), David Franklin (Braca), Steve Le Marquand (Oo-Nii), Elizabeth Alexander (Vella), Kim De Lury (Tarnat), Dinah Shearing (Voice of Elack’s Pilot)

Synopsis: Noranti tries to kill John by making him jump off the cliff. Given that she threw him off the same cliff in the last episode and he was fine, it’s unclear why she thought the second time would be a charm. Anyway, he’s fine.

Farscape, What Was Lost II: Resurrection, Crichton

D’Argo and Sikozu come up with a plan to get Elack to crash into the PK Marauders while they escape in Lo’la. John returns to Grayza and ‘distracts’ her for a couple of hours while they prepare. Grayza has Scorpy executed and buried to prove to John that she’s not working for him. Elack sacrifices herself to destroy all but one of the marauders and everyone escapes. D’Argo fires a probe that lures Grayza away.

Our heroes return to the planet, recover the darnaz probes and restore the planet’s health, dealing with Oo-Nii on the way. (Oo-Nii was working with Vella to find the probes and sell them to collect a bounty, but we don’t find out from whom.) The missing temple and its priests re-appear and Jool stays behind on the planet with them.

Buck Rogers Redux: John’s the only one who has a purpose—to find Aeryn.

Farscape, What Was Lost II: Resurrection, D'Argo, Jool

I Was A Teenage Luxan: D’Argo teams up with Sikozu, travels to Elack to enlist her help, then returns the planet and jeopardises the whole plan by leaving Lo’la and going for a walk to knock out a few Peacekeepers just for a laugh. I kind of wish he’d felt able to stay with Jool on the planet—I think he’d have been happy there.

Buckwheat the Sixteenth: Rygel doesn’t trust Sikozu an inch, but persuades Elack to sacrifice herself to save the others.

Jool In the Crown: Jool plays the hardass when Sikozu wanders into the cell, but she’s just not up to the task. When the priests are recovered she decides to stay and help them catch up on 12,000 cycles of history. She tries to persuade the others to stay, but nobody will. She apologises to D’Argo, plants a smacker on him, and leaves the show.

Farscape, What Was Lost II: Resurrection, Jool, Chiana, Sikozu

A Ship, A Living Ship!: Elack agrees to die to save them, but Pilot is so dotty they start their descent early, nearly scuppering the whole plan.

Grandma, we love you: When everyone leaves in Lo’la they haven’t got Noranti aboard. They only return because Lo’la is damaged—which kind of indicates they were happy to leave her to die. She was wrong about Vella wanting the probes, so her telepathy, or whatever it is, is far from foolproof.

Nosferatu in leather: Shot, but not fatally, then buried alive. Scorpy surely is dead this time. Right…?

Farscape, What Was Lost II: Resurrection, Sikozu, Scorpius, Grayza, Braca

Bobblehead: Sikozu teams up with D’Argo and devises the plan to rescue the others, putting herself in great danger to pull it off. Unfortunately her plan involves convincing Grayza she’s betrayed them, and since they don’t trust her, they believe it. She nearly dies but is saved by Scorpy, who gives her Special Directorate code that convinces Grayza she’s a PK agent.

Captain Lickspittle: He shoots Scorpius without hesitation. What a scumbag!

Farscape, What Was Lost II: Resurrection, Grayza, Braca

Servalan Redux: Grayza has been implanted with a gland to produce Hepel Oil, a kind of super smelly viagra. The person being influenced can’t smell it, but to everybody else it produces a foul stench so strong that even a prolonged dip in the ocean doesn’t diminish it. It’s unclear whether she got the gland because she was a Delos concubine, or whether she sought them out and had it implanted for her own ends. It’s an irreversible implantation and dramatically reduces lifespan.

She says she is focused on finding out why the Scarrans want Crichton, but she already knows it’s because of wormholes, so maybe it’s just her excuse for tying him up. John accuses her of being Scorpius’ ‘whore,’ so she has Scorpy executed. She’s so convinced of her power over John that she allows him to tie her up for a bit of light S&M, which makes her the single dumbest villain ever.

Farscape, What Was Lost II: Resurrection, Crichton, Grayza

Alien Encounters: Humans and Interions are definitely linked or related somehow. Grayza seems to think they’re related to Sebaceans too.

Stats: John explains that wormholes are always there, but at right angles to our reality. If he can create the right conditions, they turn and appear. But he’s forgotten how to make them appear, again. Or at least, that what he tells Grayza. A motra is just over half a metra.

Blooper: Oo-Nii is touching John when Chi shoots him with the carver, so John should have been turned to water too—or Oo-Nii should have been turned human.

Farscape, What Was Lost II: Resurrection, Crichton, Jool

The Verdict:  A far better episode than the first because things actually happen, our heroes have obstacles to overcome, peril to survive and escapes to make. But it still feels less than the sum of it parts, certain plot points are left frustratingly unresolved, some things seem to happen for no readily apparent reason, and halfway through the episode the show suddenly hits its lowest ever point as John suddenly starts calling everybody a whore.

Is this the most offensive moment in Farscape ever? The double whammy of whores, both coming from the mouth of our hero within a few moments of each other, are deeply unpleasant. Why abandon tralk at this point and substitute it for a word that carries so much misogynistic contempt? I was left feeling deeply uneasy and actually kind of disgusted that nobody, from producer to actor, raised a red flag.

Farscape, What Was Lost II: Resurrection, Chiana, Sikozu, Jool

Meanwhile, sexy time with Grayza is just bizarre, and not in a good way. That she allows John to tie her up is beyond belief, and renders the character laughably stupid.

Following two abysmal episodes this at least does some things right, but the inescapable whiff of misogyny in this episode and its predecessor makes this, for me, the lowest and most regrettable point in the whole of Farscape.

Best forgotten, let’s move on.

Farscape, What Was Lost II: Resurrection, Crichton, Jool, Sikozu, Noranti, D'Argo, Chiana


Scott K. Andrews has written episode guides, magazine articles, film and book reviews, comics, audio plays for Big Finish, far too many blogs, some poems you will never read, and three novels for Abaddon. He is, patently, absurd.

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