FarscapeWeekly Farscape Throne for a Loss episode review

Throne for a Loss
Season 1, episode 4

Another planet-side episode, but this time the featured aliens are a grotesque band of displaced soldiers, the Tavleks. Rygel believes he will be negotiating with them to move some cargo, but instead he is kidnapped and held for ransom. Apparently the Tavleks bought Rygel's bluster about his status as Dominar of the Hynerian Empire. During the kidnapping, a young Tavlek is subdued and remains on Moya while Rygel is brought down to the planet. This sets in motion the secondary storyline, between Zhaan and the Tavlek boy, Kyr.

The Tavleks wear a gauntlet which injects the user with some sort of drug that enhances their abilities. Zhaan quickly determines that it is addictive, and since they have removed Kyr's gauntlet, he is going through withdrawal. Zhaan uses her own blood (curiously milky-white) to formulate an antidote for Kyr, which she delivers with a kiss. There is a strong undercurrent of sexuality in her manner, which surfaces from time to time. There is a typical Zhaan scene in which she drops her robe and asks, "Is nudity taboo in your culture?" Kyr mocks her constantly, and she perseveres, trying to get the boy to see what life could be like outside of his militaristic, drug-addicted existence, another manifestation of the "You can be more" theme. Zhaan struggles to accept the fact that Kyr does not want to change, and ultimately he returns to the planet and immediately redons his gauntlet.

Meanwhile, Rygel is imprisoned along with a key component of Moya's navigational system which looks like a giant ruby. Without the synaptic processor, Moya's orbit rapidly begins to decay, and so a rescue mission is launched. D'Argo had already worn the gauntlet on Moya with disastrous consequences. The gauntlet exaggerated all his belligerant tendencies, and he declared himself "in command" and started spewing orders. They had to knock him out entirely to remove the thing. Planetside, Rygel has been chatting up his cellmate, ruler of the Consortium of Trau. Rygel convinces him that he can get the Hynerian Empire to join the Consortium, and the alien agrees to pay Rygel's ransom. Rygel tries to escape and a Tavlek guard murders him by crushing his windpipe, but the Consortium ruler revives him.

D'Argo, Aeryn, and John are attempting a rescue. Aeryn puts on the gauntlet and immediately goes into commando-mode. She takes out a small group of Tavleks but manages to learn the location of the encampment. They make their way there, but Aeryn has been wearing the gauntlet for far too long. D'Argo tongue-stings her so they can get it off her. John and D'Argo go in to try and locate Rygel, and find that he has been moved. They are discovered on their way out, and Aeryn provides covering fire for them (with D'Argo's qualta blade) to get to safety. D'Argo is shot, and this is where we learn about Luxan's peculiar weakness. If a Luxan is wounded. the blood becomes toxic. The wound must be "worked" (pounded, smacked, kneaded) until "the blood runs clear," or the Luxan will die of blood poisoning. Once out of the encampment, the three realize they must go after Rygel before they can move him off-planet. D'Argo is wounded, and Aeryn is exhausted, but she stays with D'Argo, beating him mercilessly to clear the wound. "I'm going to die," D'Argo declares. "Yes," Aeryn says, holding up her hand dripping with a clear fluid, "but not today." D'Argo's other great line in this episode, when complimented on his qualta blade, "Nice weapon," was "I request you bury me with it."

With D'Argo and Aeryn ministering to each other, John puts on the gauntlet and is amusingly transformed into a hyper-caffeinated boy scout. The big dumb grin on his face is a pleasure to see, and he easily covers the ground he needs to, and reaches the Tavlek contingent before they can get Rygel aboard their craft. There is a bit of gunplay, but then John's gauntlet runs out of juice and he's left to bargain with his wits. First he tries lying about Rygel being sick or insane, but finally he cops to the truth that Rygel is worthless... they Hynerian Empire cares nothing for its deposed dominar, and the Tavleks aren't going to squeeze a dime out of them. Bekhesh, the Tavlek leader, is so stunned by the fact that Crichton told him the truth that he actually lets them both go -- especially after Kyr, still aboard Moya, confirms the fact they have no wealth of any kind aboard. Why waste ammunition killing them when they posed no threat?

All in all, this was a solid episode but not spectacular. There was a bit of character development. We see Aeryn and D'Argo converging as warriors, and respecting each other in that domain. Crichton got to use his wits to save Rygel, and also debuted in this episode any number of Rygel nicknames, from "Sparky" to "Spanky" to "Fluffy,". This trend has continued, we've got dozens of them now. Most heart-wrenching was Zhaan's attempt to "save" the young Tavlek from the cruelties of his existence. He didn't want to be saved, and rejected everything she tried to give him. The end cap scene is of Zhaan, just having witnessed a re-gauntletted Kyr, quietly saying to herself, "No sermons." It is advice well given.

There were few lapses in this episode, the chief one being we had no idea who these Tavlek people are, or why they should want to kidnap Rygel. The SciFi.Com website does provide more information, but again, relying on the web to convey background material isn't optimal. Continuing the anti-militaristic tendencies, the Tavleks themselves are hideous, grotesque by our standards. Yet Kyr is completely unappreciative of Zhaan's beauty, or at least he pretends to be. I regret that more Tavlek backstory could not have been included in the actual episode. It would have made them less two-dimensional, more sympathetic. As it is, even the Zhaan-Kyr subplot does little to demonstrate that the Tavleks as a people have any depth or complexity. They come close to being a typical ugly, evil adversary, and Farscape is capable of doing much better than that.