Farscape
"Look At The Princess, Part 2: I Do, I Think"

Airdate: July 28, 2000

Just when John Crichton thinks he's going to be turned into some sort of Silly Putty version of himself, Prince Clavor's fiancee, Jena, shows up and kicks some serious assassin ass in a manner that just screams Peacekeeper. Yup. She's PK all right and has been assigned to ensure that Clavor never reaches the throne and hands over his planet to the Scarrans. Keeping John alive merely opens up her options a bit more. That and he's all kinds of cute, don't you think?

Don't you just want to tell them to stop resisting each other?

The royals don't consider Prince Clavor really all that dangerous, that is until a big, shiny orb tries to gas John and Princess Katralla. In response, the Empress heeds the for once sage advice of Rygel and puts into motion a plan to pocket John until the ceremony. She entrusts his safety to her personal paladins and ro-NA, the lizard-skinned servant girl who saved the royal couple-to-be. However, it turns out that ro-NA isn't really trustworthy. She's made a deal with Scorpius only neither counted on just how clever John can get when his back is up against the wall. And so our favorite Earthman escapes one trap just to get caught in another. This time it's a marriage trap. Only without a double dose of Hayley Mills.

After suffering several assassination attempts in one day, John is more than ready to see this planet as nothing more than a speck in Moya's rearview mirror only Moya, Pilot, and Zhaan are nowhere to be found. It seems that they are having problems of their own. Big problems.

Having accessed Moya's memories, her makers, The Builders, have discovered that she has the ability to produce gunship offspring. This goes against the strict non-violent tenets of her makers and Kahaynu (anyone else think his last name might be "Reeves"?), one of the gods, insists that she shut down. In doing so, she will lose not only her life, but will cause the death of Pilot as well. To the peace-loving Zhaan, this is an abomination, and although she makes attempt after attempt to reason with Kahaynu and plead for the life of the gentle Leviathan and the gallant Pilot, he ignores her begging.

The stakes are raised for everyone in "I Do, I Think". Poor Moya and the others seem bound for their eternal resting places and Crichton has a hard time just making it to the church alive, much less on time. It's little wonder that he finally just gives up. The man has been fighting for his life, his sanity, and even just a little peace, and getting none of the above. To make matters worse, the woman he loves can't or won't acknowledge that she feels the same way. He literally has nothing left to live for. The life of a protected and pampered Regent, even if it means leaving everything else behind, must be a welcome thought after all he's gone through.

Poor Ben Browder must have fallen asleep the second his head hit the pillow all during the filming of "I Do, I Think". His character shifts between moments of intense fear, anxiety, anger, and even madness within just this single episode. Crichton, and therefore Browder, are put through the ringer and emerge weakened, vulnerable, and amazingly human. His reactions to all of the stimuli he's subjected to by every force that is amassing against him were pitched perfect. Browder's John in a fighter, but like everyone else, he has a breaking point which was finally reached.

I'd like to be the first to volunteer to give John a hug. What? I have to get in line? When did this happen?

-- Linda M. Najera

Farscape airs at 9pm EST, Fridays on The Sci Fi Channel.

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