FarscapeWeekly Farscape Eat Me episode review

Eat Me
Season 3, episode 6

Continuing the recent trend of dark episodes, "Eat Me" brings us new lows of depravity in the Uncharted Territories. Crichton, D'Argo, Chiana, and Jool are cruising in a transport pod when all systems begin to fail. Their only hope of survival is to board a derelict leviathan, still wearing a Peacekeeper control collar. Against D'Argo's angry protests, they land the pod in the hangar bay. It is immediately obvious that something horrible has happened here, but Crichton and D'Argo nonetheless take off to find the spare parts they need to make the necessary repairs, leaving Chiana and Jool to guard the pod.

The leviathan is not abandoned, despite its advancing decay. There are groups of feral cannibal humanoids, whom we later learn are the remnants of the original Peacekeeper staff. These wild creatures aren't the real threat, though. That would be Kaarvok, the insane uber-criminal, best described as a cross between Hannibal Lecter and Nosferatu. Kaarvok has the ability to "twin" people, resulting in two "equal and original" individuals. This is useful because Kaarvok survives by sucking out one of the twin's brains, leaving the other for future twinning and dining opportunities. Unfortunately, the twinning process is not without side effects; the former Peacekeepers have all been twinned too often, which explains their current state of devolution.

The horrific nature of this episode cannot be understated. The decaying leviathan, the animalistic former Peacekeepers, and Kaarvok's feeding methods are the stuff of which nightmares are made. For me the most chilling moment was when the Pilot, stumbling to speak clearly to Crichton through his pain and fear, describes why the residents would cut off his arms and then allow them to regenerate, only to cut them off again. "Because, because, because... they are eating me!" he screams. The tortured Pilot was some of the most amazingly powerful work by the Creature Shop we have seen to date.

We get a minor respite from the utter bleakness of the derelict leviathan in the few scenes with Aeryn, Stark, and Rygel back on Moya, but it's not much. Without warning, Moya starbursts to follow a distress signal from Talyn. He has taken heavy damage, and Aeryn finds Crais unconscious in Talyn's command. Over Rygel's objections, Aeryn brings Crais over to Moya, and they rig a tow line from Moya to Talyn so that they can get him some help. We have yet to find out who it was that attacked Talyn, and how they were able to inflict so much damage. Frictions run high between Aeryn and Rygel, who advocates killing Crais, ditching Talyn and starbursting away to safety. Stark remains curiously neutral but counsels Rygel against "absconding" just yet.

The dynamic among the characters chez Kaarvok is directly reflective of the creepiness of their surroundings. Everyone is jumpy and paranoid, operating much too close to the edge. Crichton and D'Argo argue for no good reason, and break the cardinal rule of horror movies: never split up. Chiana disregards Crichton's orders to guard the transport and goes off on her own, leaving a close-to-hysterical Jool behind to fend for herself. Gigi Edgely gives the best performance of the episode reacting to witnessing the grisly death of her "twin" who is subsequently eaten by the former Peacekeepers. Similarly, Jool's meltdown and botched suicide attempt rang true. But Ben Browder's over-the-top performance in the big confrontation scene fell flat; it seemed he was only going through the motions. Much better were the completely wordless reactions of the twin Crichtons when the "second edition" squeaks through the hangar bay doors at the last second, and says exactly the same thing to Jool as the first one did.

While it wasn't labelled as such, this episode is clearly a cliffhanger, with more than enough questions left unanswered. Will Crais survive? Can Talyn be repaired? Who attacked them? Those are the easy questions. The big question is, of course, What do we do with two Crichtons? They are both, as Kaarvok described, "equal and original", a concept that was powerfully demonstrated as the two men face off in a continuous game of "rock, paper, scissors." Over and over again, they both throw the same thing. They keep on throwing the same thing, too, because they think exactly the same way...because they are the same person. This is lightyears from the basic Star Trek "transporter malfunction" scenario; there are no obvious or easy solutions.

This was a difficult episode to watch for many reasons. Many viewers may be repulsed by the grotesque setting and horrifying guest characters. The relentless negativity and dark themes are beginning to wear. But perhaps the most unsettling aspect of this episode is where it leaves us. I do not think I have ever had my expectations so completely blown out of the water as they were by the end of this episode. I literally have no idea where the writers are taking us with this plot twist. I find that aspect of this episode quite honestly delightful. That such a pleasant surprise was delivered in such a dreary package takes a bit of the shine off it, though. As with all the multi-episode stories, I'm going to reserve judgement on this one until after it has played out in its entirety.