1.20 - The Hidden Memory
(Part 2)

While the crew attempts to rescue John from the Gammak base, Moya goes into labor. But Moya's offspring seems to be anything but normal and Scorpius is not ready to let John go easily.

This is a trifle different, don't you think? My progeny were tiny. Tiny and handsome. Like their father! - Dominar Rygel XVI

I know you're living on a stolen Leviathan with escaped prisoners. And I know that the Leviathan is pregnant. - Scorpius
You know who the daddy is? - John Crichton

Your oath means nothing to me. You made sure of that. You destroyed everything. I lost everything because of you. And you know what I learned when I was away from you? Everything I lost isn't worth a damn. And I don't want to go back to your past. - Aeryn Sun

Moya is lurching more than normal and Rygel is wanting to Starburst away from the planet but Pilot tells him that Moya has gone into full labor and they have no maneuver capability at all. They may not even be able to maintain orbit. He says Moya is scared and Zhaan points out that that is normal during childbirth but Pilot corrects her, saying Moya is scared because something seems to be wrong with the baby; it is not a normal Leviathan.

Aeryn regains consciousness and thanks everyone for saving her. She again asks where John is and the rest of the crew finally admit that he is a Peacekeeper prisoner and still on the Gammak base. She asks why they haven't tried to rescue him and D'Argo points out that none of them can infiltrate the base. Aeryn says she can and, though Zhaan protests, gets up.

Back on the base, John is still in the Aurora Chair. Scorpius tells him to stop blocking them and John insists that he isn't blocking information on wormholes. Niem increases power and John passes out.

John is back in his cell and is awakened by a beeping noise. He sees Stark doing something around the door and asks about it. Stark dodges the question for a bit but finally admits that he is not really insane, he just pretends to be so that the Peacekeepers will leave him alone. He has managed to construct a small device that he is trying to use to open the lock on the door but John laughs, saying that it will never work. Stark suddenly panics, realizing that the Peacekeepers can find out about the device the next time they put John in the Chair but John assures him that he will block it.

One of Moya's transport pods launches and heads towards the base. Aeryn, D'Argo and Zhaan are on board and comment that the scanner hole that Gilina created to let Chiana escape is apparently still in place since nothing is locking onto them. Aeryn keeps having problems with her hands shaking but continues to insist that she will be all right. They land the pod on the top of the base.

Gilina manages to contact John in his cell again. She says Chiana got away but doesn't know if she got back to Moya in time. John asks her if she can keep the Peacekeepers off of him for a while and she says that she will try. Stark asks who she is and John tells him that now both of them have a secret to keep.

On Moya, Pilot says that it may be best to try to get the baby out as fast as possible and suggests flushing the birth channel with coolant. Chiana tells him to try. Rygel starts to panic and Chiana is surprised when he reveals he has fathered hundreds of children. Chiana says his experience should be useful but he admits that he was never there at an actual birth.
"Besides." he says. "This is a trifle different, don't you think? My progeny were tiny. Tiny and handsome. Like their father!"

Back in the base, several technicians are doing work on the Aurora Chair. Gilina appears and offers to help one of the techs. He accepts and she takes over from him, replacing a component in the chair with one she has brought with her. After she finishes the technicians report they are done and Scorpius asks Crais to come with him.

John is in his cell and Gilina contacts him again. She tells him the next time he is in the Chair to remember the time they kissed on the Zelbinion. He protests but she insists.

Scorpius and Crais arrive and Stark tries to delay them but Crais simply knocks Stark aside. Scorpius tells John that that is what he is trying to protect him from and they drag John back to the Chair.

In the Chair, John thinks of the kiss on the Zelbinion and the memory appears on the screen but abruptly changes to show John kissing another woman on what seems to be Crais' Command Carrier. On the screen, Crais appears and thanks John for the wormhole information, saying it will let him rise to ranks in the Peacekeepers that he normally would not have been able to because of his heritage.

Crais denies that the memory is real but Scorpius says that it is impossible to make up memories in the Chair. John asks Crais if the game is up and tells Scorpius that he gave Crais wormhole information in exchange for his life.

Scorpius starts asking Crais about the memory. Crais admits that part of the memory is correct, such as his being from a farming commune and being conscripted by the Peacekeepers at an early age, but denies knowing any wormhole information. Scorpius orders John to be taken back to his cell and orders Crais to be put into the Chair.

Back on the surface, D'Argo and Zhaan are placing explosives. Aeryn finds a access shaft and climbs down into the base. Her hand is still shaking but she tells it to stop and climbs down.

John is back in his cell and telling Stark what happened in the Chair. He attempts to stand and get to the door but collapses. Stark pulls him over and places John's head in his lap. He then removes the mask which is covering half his face to reveal that the right side of his face is nothing but a glowing light. The light shines on John and relaxes him.

John asks what happened and Stark tells him that he has given him a few thoughts. He explains that he is a Bantk and that his people have always been used as slaves because it is felt that they have no emotions. He says that they do have emotions but keep them hidden, just as they are able to hide their thoughts. He has thoughts that the Chair will never be able to reveal and that is why Scorpius is keeping him.

Crais is in the chair and we see scenes of John protesting his innocence in the death of Crais' brother and of Crais being taken away from his father by the Peacekeepers. Niem reports that Crais is hiding something and Scorpius tells her to continue.

Aeryn is walking through the base with no one paying any particular attention to her. She finds Gilina's quarters and talks to her. She thanks Gilina for saving her life and asks where John is. Gilina tells her where John is being held and says Scorpius thinks he is hiding information about wormholes from him but he isn't.

Aeryn asks her what John is hiding.
"Me." Gilina tells her. "He's protecting me. But, as soon as Scorpius finds out he knows nothing about wormholes, he'll... he'll kill him!"

Aeryn goes down to John's cell with Heskon. She claims to be from Crais' Command Carrier and says that they detected a magnetic pulse from the cell. Heskon insists that there is nothing but his detector beeps. Surprised, he enters the cell.

Using the detector, he finds the device Stark was using to try to open the door. Stark thinks John has betrayed him and attacks him but stops when Aeryn hits Heskon from behind and knocks him out. He asks John who she is.
"That," says John. "is the radiant Aeryn Sun."
Stark looks at him in surprise. "How many Peacekeepers do you know on this base?"

With Crais still in the Chair, Scorpius sees Crais' memory of the time he killed Lt. Teeg. Niem says that this was the memory that Crais was trying to hide and that he has no memories of wormholes. Before Scorpius can react, he gets the message that John has escaped. He and Niem leave, leaving Crais still in the Chair.

Aeryn, John, Stark and Gilina make it to the access shaft but Niem appears with several Peacekeepers. Stark makes it up the shaft but the others are forced to hide in a crawlspace below the floor. Niem leaves and Gilina tells them that the shaft has been sealed and they will need to get the ident chip from a ranking Peacekeeper officer in order to get in. Aeryn tells them to wait and leaves to try and find a chip.

Back on Moya, Pilot suddenly announces that Moya will have to equalize pressure with her environment in order for the birth to continue. This means that she will have to open herself to vacuum. His Den is pressurized but Chiana and Rygel will have to get into a safe location. The only place they can get to in time is a pressurized tank in the cargo bay that is barely big enough for the two of them. Chiana is annoyed because Rygel seems to be taking advantage of the situation to become a bit too friendly with her and because he is farting helium due to being nervous at being in an enclosed space.

Aeryn finds her way into the room with the Aurora Chair and finds Crais still strapped into it. Crais orders her to release him and she asks if that is so he can kill her like he did Lt. Teeg. He doesn't recognize her at first, until she reminds him that she is "irreversibly contaminated". He then tries to order her to release him and reminds her of her oath as a Peacekeeper. She reminds him she is no longer a Peacekeeper.
"Your oath means nothing to me." she tells him. "You made sure of that. You destroyed everything. I lost everything because of you."
He continues to protest, but she leans closer to him and continues. "And you know what I learned when I was away from you? Everything I lost isn't worth a damn. And I don't want to go back to your past."

She sees his ident chip and takes it. Crais yells that he will track her down and kill her but she replies that she will give him his life and make him watch it. She turns the Aurora Chair on full power and leaves, Crais' screams echoing behind her.

Still hiding under the floor, John is wondering where Aeryn is. Gilina suddenly asks him if he wants to be with her or with Aeryn. John tries to avoid the question but Gilina insists. She will be giving everything up if she leaves with John and has to know if he is in love with her or with Aeryn.

John is saved from having to answer by the arrival of Aeryn. John takes the ident chip and heads for the access shaft. Aeryn and Gilina are about to follow when Gilina stops Aeryn. She asks if she is in love with John and if John is in love with her, because John won't tell her.

Aeryn avoids the question and instead tells her that she will be killed if she stays behind. Gilina, hurt, says she can't go with them and runs off.

Aeryn catches up with John who asks where Gilina is. She tells him that she decided to stay behind and John accuses her of saying something but Aeryn insists that it was her own decision. Several Peacekeepers show up and Aeryn and John have to run for the surface.

The Peacekeepers pass and Gilina steps out and looks after them.

Back on Moya, Pilot announces that Moya is repressurized and that they can exit the tank, much to Chiana's relief. He also says that something is wrong, that the baby is still caught in Moya's external vents and can't free itself. He shows an image of the baby to Chiana and Rygel, who are stunned. The baby is covered in weapons.

Pilot realizes that when D'Argo broke the Peacekeeper shield which caused Moya's pregnancy the material released must have contained the DNA for weaponry, which no Leviathan has ever had. Moya was not designed to give birth to such a child and it is stuck and, panicking, it is starting to charge its weapons.

Chiana asks Pilot to force an atmosphere into the vent so she can enter and try to free the baby. He does so and she runs off.

Aeryn and John arrive at the surface and are reunited with the others. Hordes of Peacekeepers arrive seconds later and a firefight breaks out. Stark asks John what he was keeping from Scorpius and John replies that it was only the time he kissed a girl. They both laugh and Stark says he was hiding the memory of a place he saw as a child.
"Must've been one hell of a place." says John.

On Moya, Chiana is in the shaft attempting to cut the baby free but is unable to do so. She suggests to Pilot that Moya tell the baby to fire a low level blast from its weapons to try to free itself. She barely gets out of the shaft in time but the baby manages to free itself. Pilot reports that all of them are all right.

John and Stark plant a fire bomb and when it detonates they run off under its cover. They are about to escape when John is grabbed by Scorpius. Scorpius is surprised in turn when Gilina steps out carrying a pulse rifle. John yells for her to shoot but she hesitates and Scorpius shoots her instead then runs off. D'Argo yells that they have to go and John picks up Gilina and they run for the pod. The transport pod leaves and we see Scorpius standing amidst the remains of the battle.

Most of the crew is gathered on Command on Moya. Pilot tells them that Gilina scrambled the base's scanner data before she left and that even the Command Carrier will be unable to track them. Which is fortunate, as they are unable to Starburst.

The crew is paying little attention to him. They are staring out the viewscreen as the baby flies by, weapons visible and in distinctive Peacekeeper colors.

Down in one of the cabins, Gilina is lying in bed. John kneels beside it and Stark and Zhaan stand nearby. John tells her that she will be fine but she tells him not to lie to her anymore. Stark holds his hand over her and says he is giving her a memory of a place. She says it is beautiful and it seems to relax her. Stark and Zhaan leave, leaving John alone with Gilina.

John ask Gilina why she came back for him and she says that Aeryn was right, the Peacekeepers would have discovered that she had been helping John and would have come for her. She also says they would have discovered that she was in love with him.

"Do you think" she asks "that if things had been different... that you could've loved me?"
"Yeah." he tell her.
"Kiss me." she says. "One more time..."

They share one last kiss and Gilina dies. John remains sitting beside her bed.

John and Gilina's kiss occurred in PK Tech Girl.

Crais declared Aeryn "irreversibly contaminated" in Premiere.

Aeryn has on many occasions talked about the loss she has felt as a result of being kicked out of the Peacekeepers, most notably in PK Tech Girl, Till the Blood Runs Clear and DNA Mad Scientist.

When John and Crais are in the Aurora Chair we see images from most, if not all of the episodes this season. However, key scenes between John and Crais and the scenes between Crais and his father are from That Old Black Magic. This is also the episode in which Crais killed Lt. Teeg.

What will Scorpius do now?

Scorpius now knows that Crais deliberately ignored the order to return and that he killed Lt. Teeg. What will he do with this information? Who else knows besides Scorpius and Niem?

There are many questions around Moya's offspring. What are it's capabilities? And, will it's loyalties be with Moya and her crew or with the Peacekeepers who created him?

There is a saying everyone has probably heard before. "It's only fun until someone gets hurt."

Well, it isn't fun anymore.

There's lots of stuff happening in this episode, so let's see what we have.

We'll start with Moya's baby. OK, who is surprised to find out that baby Moya is a warship? We should have thought of it. After all, the Peacekeepers were somehow responsible for the baby as it was after D'Argo broke the Peacekeeper shield that the pregnancy occurred. We should have realized that the Peacekeepers would have been trying to create an armed Leviathan. Of course, Moya is no longer under Peacekeeper control but we still do not know where the baby's loyalties lie. The Peacekeepers were able to give it weapons, who knows what else they may have given it.

Aeryn really comes into her own in this episode and her best scene is when she encounters Crais in the Aurora Chair. All season she has mentioned how she feels about the life she has lost by being kicked out of the Peacekeepers. In PK Tech Girl she tells Gilina "I hope you can only ever imagine how horrible it is to never return to the life that you love." Compare that with her line to Crais in this episode. "(Y)ou know what I learned when I was away from you? Everything I lost isn't worth a damn. And I don't want to go back to your past."

That scene was just about perfect. It clearly shows how far Aeryn has come in this season. When he first convinces Aeryn to come with him, John tells her "You can be more." Aeryn has become more. Yes, she has lost her life with the Peacekeepers but she has found a new life with her new family on Moya and her new life is far better than she ever could have imagined.

When she leaves Crais, she says she will show him his life and turns the Chair on full. She now knows what the life of a Peacekeeper is really like and she wants Crais to suffer by seeing that life. She punishes him with what she once wanted to return to. The life she loved has become a thing to punish her enemy with.

It should also be noted that when she first encountered Gilina back in PK Tech Girl she encouraged Gilina to stay in her old life. Here, she encourages her to join them on Moya. True, she is trying to protect Gilina from what she knows will happen but she is also trying to help Gilina the way John helped her. She now thinks her new life will be better than the one Gilina will be leaving behind.

Gilina does eventually listen to her but it is almost too late. You really have to feel sorry for Gilina. She gets caught up in something she isn't prepared for and it ends up killing her. She tried to all at once make the same transition that Aeryn took all season to make and her momentary hesitation did her in.

When Gilina first met John back in PK Tech Girl the two of them had an instant connection. They said goodbye then and John has since developed his relationship with Aeryn. But Gilina has apparently not met anyone in the meantime and, when John suddenly appears again, she seems to be ready to start things up again where they left off.

She starts to suspect last episode when John does not return her kiss and rushes off to help Aeryn. Chiana tells her that John loves her but it is obvious that she does not totally believe her. Still, she clings to the hope that it is true and continues to try to help John, getting herself deeper and deeper into what is happening.

It is only near the end, when she tries to talk to John and he avoids her, that she finally begins to accept that she has lost him. When Aeryn also avoids the question she knows for certain. She runs away but also realizes that she has gone too far to be able to return to her old life.

Notice that all through both episodes she has been willing to do anything for John and has done it as soon as possible. There was always a sense of urgency in what she was doing. Then, when she has the gun on Scorpius and John yells for her to shoot, she hesitates. She knows that John no longer loves her at this point and her motivation is gone. She has thrown away her life in the Peacekeepers but no longer has the life with John that she thought she was heading for. She has literally lost everything and only winds up with a final kiss and a promise of what might have been.

If you want to be literary about it, you can say that Gilina represents the death of innocence. There is her actual death but this also applies to John. Gilina dies directly because of his actions. You can argue that it is his plan for handling the Peacekeeper Marauder in A Bug's Life that led to Aeryn being stabbed. That in turn led to his entering the Gammak base which lead to Gilina's involvement. And her involvement in turn lead to her death.

John has gone from lost Earthman who couldn't even figure out how to open a door to, in many ways, the leader of the crew on Moya. Notice that everyone has been following his lead for the past few episodes? Well, now John has learned the cost of his leadership. Someone got hurt. Someone died. And it isn't fun anymore.

A note also has to be made of the symmetry in this episode. We have a birth and a death. An old enemy has his world crash down around him (Crais) while a new enemy steps to the forefront (Scorpius). Balance is maintained.

The Hidden Memory, along with Nerve makes a truly incredible episode and is probably one of the best of the season. But don't watch it if you are new to Farscape. Watch a few other episodes then come back to this one. It will be worth the wait.