1.11 - Til the Blood Runs Clear

While investigating a proto-wormhole John's Farscape module is damaged, forcing him to land on a nearby planet for repairs. There, they find a wanted beacon for the crew and a pair of bounty hunters capture D'Argo.

Help! Help! A mad Delvian exhibitionist is forcing herself on me visually! - Dominar Rygel XVI

You help me capture the prisoners and we'll split the bounty 70/30. - John Crichton
70/40. - Rorf
80/40. You in or out? - John Crichton

Aeryn and John are in John's Farscape 1 module on a test flight. He has been adding bits of Moya's bio-mechanoid technology to the module and is testing them out. A solar flare occurs and he decides to try to duplicate the manuver he made which resulted in the wormhole appearing. Sure enough, when he does so a wormhole appears. John starts to enter the wormhole but it is unstable and he has to pull out. The module is damaged and leaking plasma and Moya will not let them land because she is afraid the plasma will damage the baby. Pilot suggests that Aeryn and John abandon the module but John refuses. Rygel has contacted a mechanic on the planet below and John lands the module to get repairs, to Aeryn's annoyance.

On Moya, D'Argo and Rygel are angered that they are having to stay and wait for John but the solar flares are having an unusual effect on Zhaan. She is experiencing what Pilot describes as photogasms. She says they need to stay a while and leaves.
"I'll get a mop and bucket." says Rygel.

Aeryn and John arrive on the planet and meet Furlow, the mechanic. She is very interested in the Farscape module because it is so primitive. "Primitive alloys, no hetch drive. This thing belongs in a collection, not in space." She offers to buy it but John tells her it isn't for sale. He tells her that he needs to get back into orbit to study the solar flares but she warns him that they will probably be gone before repairs are done. They briefly discuss the flares before Aeryn gets irritated at wasting time and tells Furlow to get to work. Furlow gives Aeryn and John a set of goggles to protect them from the light from the flares and she and her mechanics start working on the module.

Aeryn and John leave the mechanic's shop and enter the main square of the outpost. Aeryn is still annoyed but John tells her that she should be happy. If he can figure out how to create a wormhole then he will go home and get out of her hair. He offers to take her to Earth with him but she rejects the idea.

At this point a hologram of Crais appears in the middle of the square. Crais identifies himself and announces that he is looking for three escaped prisoners. He names D'Argo, Rygel and Zhaan. He offers a reward for turning them in. The hologram fades away.

John wonders why he and Aeryn were not mentioned in the recording. He decides that Crais wants to kill him himself and Aeryn says she thinks she knows why she wasn't mentioned. She goes to the center of the square and takes the holographic projector.

When she does so she is approached by Rolf and Rorg, a pair of Vorcarian Blood Trackers. They ask if Aeryn is John's female. Aeryn, incensed, says no and Rorg slams her to the ground.

John suddenly charges Rorf and tells him to leave Aeryn alone.
"Then, this female is your mate?" asks Rorf.
John grins. "One of them..."

Rorg lets Aeryn up and John asks who they are and what they want with the fugitives. They admit that they are bounty hunters and John says he and Aeryn are as well. He identifies them as "Butch and Sundance". He tells "Sundance" to take the beacon so no other bounty hunters get any ideas.

Back on Moya D'Argo is getting more and more frustrated. Zhaan is on the Terrace lying naked in the light from the flares and doesn't want to leave. D'Argo decides to go down to the planet in Aeryn's Prowler and drag her and John back to the ship.

Aeryn and John are with Rorf and Rorg in a warehouse and sitting around a campfire. John continues to play the part of a bounty hunter and attempts to scare the blood trackers off. When they won't give up, John offers to cut them in for a percentage and suggests a 70/30 split. Rorf argues with him and they eventually settle on 80/40.

The blood trackers leave but outside say they will only work together "for now". John asks Aeryn why she is going along so well with his pretending to be in charge and she says that since it is working she saw no reason not to. She asks him how he got the idea and he tells her that his father used to raise dogs and how the biggest, baddest dog becomes the Alpha Male. He simply applied the logic to the blood trackers.

Aeryn has been working on the beacon and gets it to display a second hologram. In this one, Crais directly addresses Aeryn. He tells her that she will be allowed to return to the Peacekeepers and retire with a full commission if she turns John, Moya and the others over to Crais. He gives her his word as a Peacekeeper that he will do so.

John comments on how little he trusts Crais and starts to leave to talk to Furlow. He notices Aeryn is still staring at the beacon and, surprised, asks if she is seriously considering Crais' offer.
"I always take him seriously." is her reply.

Meanwhile, D'Argo has landed Aeryn's Prowler and is heading for the outpost. The blood trackers smell him and go to intercept him. He notices Rorf waiting in ambush for him but, when he confronts him, Rorg comes up from behind and stuns him.

Aeryn and John are in Furlow's shop and Furlow is telling John that she has found more problems with his module. She also says she has found evidence that the module has been near a proto-wormhole and John admits he was studying one and that is why he needs to get the module working again.

Furlow expresses an interest in wormholes as well and offers to sell John a used Prowler she has just obtained. John realizes that someone has come down from Moya and runs out, telling Aeryn to stay with the Farscape 1.

Out in the square, John sees Rorf and Rorg leading D'Argo into the warehouse. He follows and tries his alpha male trick on them again. He eventually gets them back under control but not before Rorf has cut one of D'Argo's tentacles. John manages to stop Rorf but then has to make the wound worse so that the blood will flow until it is cleansed. D'Argo recognizes John and starts to get angry but John knocks him out before he can give him away. Once D'Argo's blood runs clear he leaves the warehouse.

Back at Furlow's, Aeryn sees someone dressed as one of the mechanics trying to steal the flight recorder from the Farscape 1. They fight but the thief throws Aeryn into the sunlight without her goggles and Aeryn is blinded. Furlow comes to the rescue and kills the thief before he can kill Aeryn.

On Moya, Rygel is in Command when Zhaan enters. He covers his eyes so he won't have to see her nude but she keeps trying to get him to look at her. Eventually she asks where D'Argo is and Rygel tells her he went down to the planet. Zhaan leaves and goes down to the planet in one of Moya's transport pods.

When she arrives, the two blood trackers sense her and start stalking her. She does something with her hands and they lose her scent. She starts to move towards the outpost again when another solar flare occurs and she falls to the ground in another photogasm. "Not now!" she gasps.

John returns to Furlow's and tells Aeryn about D'Argo. He then finds out that Aeryn is blinded but Furlow assures him that her sight will return. Maybe. He tries to take Aeryn's arm but she shoves him away and yells for him not to help her.
"You can't look after yourself right now." he tells her. "So stop acting like a bad-ass Peacekeeper."
She sighs sadly. "Ex-Peacekeeper, actually."
John leans forward and softly tells her "I know."

D'Argo regains consciousness in the warehouse and manages to pull himself free from where he has been tied up. John enters and he pretends to be still unconscious until John gets close. Then, he jumps up and attacks John.
"You bought it." he tells him. "Good. Now, I can start working on your sensitive appendages."

D'Argo starts chasing John around the warehouse while John tries to explain what is happening. D'Argo accuses John of being so intent on going home that he forgot about everyone else and John reminds him of the time he cut off Pilot's arm. The two continue until D'Argo somewhat calms down. John accuses him of always trying to be the alpha male and D'Argo says that whenever he thinks he can depend on John that John disappoints him.

John finally acknowledges that he and D'Argo can never be friends but suggests that they can at least be allies. D'Argo agrees and they shake hands.

They start to head back to Furlow's when Rorf and Rorg appear and start shooting at them. They duck under cover and John yells for them to stop but they have decided that John has been paid off by the fugitives and keep shooting. John tells D'Argo to run for it but D'Argo won't leave John since they are now allies.

Aeryn leaves Furlow's, still blind, and John runs to help her. She puts the beacon back in place and it projects a hologram of Crais saying that his Command Carrier is leaving the area and the offer of a reward is withdrawn. Hearing this, the blood trackers decide to leave.

Aeryn says she got Furlow to reprogram the beacon. John wants to get back into orbit before the flares are gone but Zhaan appears and says that they are gone. She knows because she is no longer... indisposed. John is depressed. Zhaan says they will find another star with flare activity but John is unconvinced.

D'Argo and Zhaan leave to return to Moya and Aeryn and John return to Furlow's. Furlow gives John the bill which he says he cannot pay. Furlow says she is interested in wormholes and asks for John's data. He tries to give her a copy but she wants the originals so that she will have exclusive access to the data. He finally gives her the data tape and, in a threatening manner, tells her that he will meet her at the end of a wormhole in five years.

He and Aeryn get back in the Farscape 1 and prepare to leave. John asks Aeryn about Crais' offer and she says that he would have honored it, but his idea of retirement would be to induce the Living Death in her. She only listened to it because it was nice for her to be able to pretend for a little bit that she could go back.

Furlow calls after them that if they ever need repairs they know where she is. Her last words are "Hey, you want that thing detailed?"

Moya's baby is revealed in They've Got a Secret.

The prisoners escape from Crais and John first arrives on the scene through a wormhole in Premiere.

We first learn that a Luxan's wounds must bleed until the blood runs clear in Throne for a Loss.

D'Argo helps cut off one of Pilot's arms in DNA Mad Scientist. This is also where John first suggests that Aeryn go back to Earth with him.

The Living Death, the end result of Sebacean Heat Delirium, is described in Exodus from Genesis.

Is it really that easy to create a wormhole?

How did the wanted beacon get to the planet? Has Crais been here or is there another way of spreading wanted information through the Territories? How many other planets have beacons like this one?

Why did the one bounty hunter attempt to steal the flight data recorder from the Farscape 1? Is there someone else interested in wormholes?

What does Furlow want with the wormhole information?

In Premiere the Farscape 1 is carried into orbit by the Space Shuttle. Here, it appears that it can travel to orbit on its own. John didn't seem to think anything of landing it and he and Aeryn were certainly planning to fly back to Moya on it at the end. Does the Farscape 1 have orbital capability on its own? If so, why bother with using the shuttle to lift it to orbit in the first episode?

The ability to land and take off again may be a result of the bio-mechanoid technology John has added to the module. But, if this is the case, why wasn't John planning to test that capability on the test flight? It certainly seemed as if they were not planning on landing until the module was damaged. Had he tested that capability earlier?

Another Farscape 1 inconsistancy. Why is the Farscape 1 cockpit set up for two pilots? John flew it alone for his test flight and it seems odd to have built it with the second seat and not use it.

After a couple of serious episodes Til the Blood Runs Clear is pretty much a straightforward adventure. That's probably good, we needed a break after the last few episodes.

Furlow is a very interesting character. She's almost out of place in a science fiction series, being more of your typical garage mechanic. Of course, most garage mechanics aren't interested in how to create wormholes. She actually fits into the Farscape universe quite well. She seems to be scamming John the entire time ("Yeah, it looks like your plasma condensers need replacing too.") but he is so distracted that he doesn't seem to care. Odd, given that he designed the Farscape 1 himself.

Some more insight into Aeryn here. It seems that she has come to accept that she will never be able to go back to the Peacekeepers. It remains to be seen how this affects her relationships with John and the rest of the crew.

It is also interesting that D'Argo takes John to task for becoming obsessed with finding a way home considering his own behavior in DNA Mad Scientist. This may be explained by John's alpha male comments. John uses this behavior to keep the blood trackers in line for most of the episode but he realizes during the fight with D'Argo that the same sort of thing is going on aboard Moya. Intentionally or not, D'Argo and John have been in a struggle for the "top dog" position on Moya. Now that they have recognized this, they have accepted that they can work together even if they are not necessarily friends. Of course, such recognition is often the first step towards friendship.

John does become somewhat obsessed with the wormhole in this episode. He almost gets the Farscape 1 destroyed by flying into one and apparently forgets that Aeryn is in the module with him for a while. Only belatedly does he realize that he almost shanghaied her along with him. He apparently still has hope that she will someday come to Earth with him but she doesn't seem to be interested in doing so. The fact that he wants her to go, however, implies that John is developing an interest in our ex-Peacekeeper that he hasn't fully revealed to her yet. I do note that Aeryn doesn't seem to be aware of this, probably because of her Peacekeeper background.

Overall, everyone seems to be not working together quite as well as they have been for the past few episodes. This may be related to John's sudden obsession with the wormhole. He is suddenly forgetting the others are not the same as him and not getting along as well as a result. Maybe, if he realizes this, he will understand a bit more why D'Argo, Rygel and Zhaan behaved the way they did in DNA Mad Scientist.

We didn't see much of Rygel or Pilot in this episode and Zhaan was... distracted. Just another... interesting... revelation about her character, I suppose. It was also interesting that Rygel seems to be almost prudish; he certainly didn't seem to like the idea of having a nude Delvian around.

So, overall, not a very deep episode but an entertaining one anyway. John doing his "Butch and Sundance" shtick is worth it alone. An episode worth seeing.