I’m listening to the podcast-I saw the show back when it aired, now I’m sharing it with my 14yo 9th grader. Re: Rygel assaulting Chiana during Talyn’s birth, that was NOT the first instance on screen! During “Durka Returns”, the first time Salis checks her restraints through the cell bars, he checks her handcuffs, and then gropes her. Which is what inspires her to say she’d make it worth his while to let her go. Salis is, to my mind, not so free of deviance as he’d like us to believe he, and most Nebari, are. Not if he’s groping his prisoner’s @$$ like that, when she can’t do anything to stop him. It’s quick, and easy to miss what he’s doing because of her dark cloak. But it’s definitely there. I’m guessing that in her experience, she expects that kind of assault, so she says nothing. It’s only after she joins Moya’s crew that she protests when Rygel tries something. I’m not sure he goes as far as Salis-just enough to annoy her, not because he wants to take further advantage of the cramped circumstances-but that’s just my opinion.

We call Ben Mendelsohn "Mendo" down here and he was already a well established actor in Australia by the time he did this episode of Farscape! If anything it was quite the pull for this series to get him on but I'm glad to see him play a total freak.

Ding dong!

Thank you for having me on Sara! Had a really great time talking about this remarkable film with you 🏳‍🌈🌈

Appreciate the shout out, Josh! I’ll see you and Sara for “I Yensch, You Yensch”! 😉

How to greatly improve a Friday morning (after listening to the news and feeling depressed)! Great discussion, friends. Loved the reflections on hair and clothing changes as expressions of mourning or other upheavals and radical changes in life. Made me ponder how the collective trauma of COVID lockdowns and enforced interruption to 'normal' capitalist productivity-obsessed society was reflected in changes in clothing, makeup and hair. Wearing mire comfortable clothes, letting hair grow longer, embracing the grey etc - not exactly a choice as access to hairdressers was restricted - but when lockdowns were lifted and people stopped having to work from home, some made the choice to put the professional armour back on as they got back to work, choosing to get hair cut and coloured, back on with the heels, the bras, the smart clothes, the makeup - but others have chosen to make permanent changes in working practices and work/life balance, often reflected in a greater freedom of expression in how they dress or wear their hair... Sorry, bit of a tangent perhaps, but that's where my mind went during your discussion. I loved Aeryn's look in this episode with the long dress and long loose hair, and it was painful (though understandable) to see her choose to re-embrace the peacekeeper soldier look at the end. By the way, I wonder which of the several/many choices in the episode is 'The Choice' of the title. One obvious answer is revealed near the end of the episode: the order presented as a choice to Xhalax years before to kill either Talyn or Aeryn.... And are Xhalax's final words to Aeryn: 'You live... for me' a statement or a command? And how does that impact on Aeryn's choice at the end?

You guys are the best gift the Almighty Algorithm has given me recently. Subd N Belld ⭐

Thanks for having me on your show, Sara. Always a pleasure!!

I'm a little late to the party, but I enjoy the discussion and Farscape.

As to the filler debate, I have 2 words "Pillar filler." So many beautiful ideas were introduced because they needed to fill a couple minutes

"Wove, twue wove" But more seriously, and to bring it back to Star Trek, the episode reminded me of Frame of Mind. Aliens are trying to get info out of Riker's memory and the rest of the crew shows up as facets of his personality

Sufferin' succotash, that was fun! Now I want to go right back and (re)re-watch the episode and laugh some more. Which I will do alongside your reaction video, so I can enjoy you both laughing too!

I feel like I’ve stumbled upon something

I think vacuums and sewing machines have similar motors. They're often repaired at the same places

So you're saying that the fact that Gonzo was always my favorite (more from Muppet Babies, but still) should have told me something 🤔

I’m really glad I wore my bi pride plaid for this review, appropriate for pride month 😋

Hadn't heard of this one. Your summary made it sound very funny... But i think I'll give it a miss!

Blindly Subd N Belld ⭐ ... 💗

I think my favorite moment (aside from the obvious) is Stark saying "I have no prayer for that" after the Dreadnought is destroyed. The writers and actor do a great job, particularly in this episode, of having Stark provide the comedic relief, so when he drops those serious lines it's like a gut punch.

Great episode Sara, Josh, & Jessie!!

Is there a chance that John really was making up the whole crazy story as an excuse?

I usually have to listen on my commute but there is no way I'm doing this first time without visuals!

...or don't...

This ep isn't included on Prime for whatever reason 😢

Sara, please don't ever say "masculinity soup" again 😅

It's always the last mission. I kept waiting for one of the slave/indentured aliens to say they were too old for this sh*t.

I fully admit I might be projecting, but I read an internal conflict in Xhalax Sun. I felt that she wanted Aeryn to kill her. Not only would it have saved Xhalax from having to kill her daughter, but she would have been proud

Resist the mist!

I really love this episode; the shot at the end, where Scorpius has the flower from where his mother's ship landed always reminds me of the small line that Harvey says in Wait for the Wheel: "why is it always the gentle ones that pay the price for everyone else's ambition?" It's so interesting to see a character who has experienced this kind of ambition firsthand and will still commit horrible acts to achieve his own! Definitely one of my top 3 episodes as an incurable Scorpius fan

My favorite part of this episode is probably the neural clone of John. I'm very curious how much of John is in the neural clone, he has many of John's best and worst qualities; he's deeply compassionate, stubborn, impatient, and curious. He also lacks some of the unhinged energy that John was exhibiting closer to the end of last season (when the chip was removed). This doesn't feel like a third John (equal and original) but it also feels like more than a digital copy, almost like the chip tap into the core of who John Crichton is and created an idealized version of him. Second place goes to Braca's pleased little smile when Scorpius told him that his recent performance had been exemplary. We're not gonna talk about why.

If Heaven only has a stairway I ain’t going ♿️

There's a ton of Trek where characters agree to be possessed, only to have the possesor then refuse to leave. This reminded me of TOS's Return to Tomorrow and TNG's (unfortunately named) The Schizoid Man

Zhan is definitely a blue Siamese cat!

I always thought one of the unexplored potential threads in this episode was the parallel between Chiana and the child energy rider. They both come from repressive societies with an emphasis on conformity that see those who deviate from approved strictures as being diseased and in need of violent correction. It would be interesting if that was why the child rider chose Chiana or why we had some narrative throwbacks to Durka Returns. This could have been a great Chiana episode and I'm kinda bummed we missed out.

Enjoying listening to this episode, but my British brain cannot distinguish between the way you all pronounce 'writer' and 'rider', which leads to some weird sounding sentences until I work out which one you mean!

It’s such a shocking moment when we discover the wounds inflicted on Crais by Talyn. Talyn is a pretty scary character.

Something I really loved about this episode was how determined Stark was to save everyone. Stark's never been shy about how much he hates Crais, just last season Stark tried to throw Crais under the bus in "The Ugly Truth". He also has reason to resent Aeryn and John because of the loss of Zhaan, but he really reached down that puppet's esophagus and dangled himself in front of a boodong to get his crew back. Above and beyond behavior.

The horniest unicorn I know is the drag queen Cheddar Gorgeous. Crais The Horny Unicorn? Or horny rhino maybe

This episode feels very self-aware to me and the cast are like a distilled version of themselves, it's just pure Farscape shenanigans. To me, that's what makes the episode so much fun, even if the plot is a little lacking, the characters are strong enough to carry the show.

Did anyone else have the song Pugsley sings in Addams Family Values in their head the whole time?

There's an episode of Listen Up A@holes where Lani and Joshua have a very amusing conversation about Giant Size Man Thing 😹

This one was rough. I had to pause it a few times because I try not to cry at work. Every single person is Habibi!

Great episode! Lovely to see Ren as a guest :)

Could not agree more with the discussion of why m/m fanfic has a fundamentally different power dynamic than m/f generally. I'm nonbinary, and that definitely factors into what pairings connect for me. John/Aeryn are part of a relatively small number of mixed-gender potential couples that I find really engaging, and I think you nailed why. I'd never noticed the blocking, and the combination of your three perspectives brought together a really interesting enhancement to how I think of this, thanks!

I think Jessie was how I found you too!

So many things I want to say, but need to save for later eps! So, instead, have a comment for the algorithm.

I just found this, and I'm so excited! Farscape is one of my favorite series of all time (we currently have a cat named D'Argo)

Farscape queer coding their villains has never bothered me much since they also queer code their protagonists. That being said the act out joke about making babies was gross and unnecessary, much like the rest of that scene. I do love the episode (I'm a big horror fan) but as Sara said, there's an asterisk. (Also hi Oddnon, welcome and thank you for your wonderful comments!) TW: Suicide Possible spoiler hints for upcoming episodes I don't know if I'd call it my favorite part, but a moment which I never really clocked before but is now living in my head from this episode is John telling Kaarvok "I can arrange my own death", after he's rigged Rovhu to starburst and explode. He clearly wasn't planing on going anywhere until he heard D'Argo calling for him. This being followed by the two Johns facing off with a pulse pistol on the table between them once again waiting to see if they're going to end John Crichton's life is making me rethink future episodes.

All the cultures flashing past reminded me a lot of the TNG ep Contagion. I died when it froze on The 3 Stooges to indicate Earth 😹

Thank you so much Sara & Josh for having me on your show! I had a great time :)