Recap / Farscape S 03 E 02 Suns And Lovers

Season 3, Episode 2:

Suns and Lovers

The crew stops at a commerce station, hoping to pick up supplies and find information on a planet they can take Zhaan to so she can heal from her injuries. While Crichton drowns his sorrows and exposits to a bored bartender, Aeryn goes shopping for some bare necessities, and Chiana and Jothee share an illicit tryst while D'Argo is elsewhere. The station is struck by a massive space storm which tears it apart, causing hundreds of deaths and entangling Moya in the wreckage. The crew works to disentangle Moya and work to rescue any survivors on the station.

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Tropes present in this episode include:

• The Bartender: A drunk Crichton pours out his troubles to a spiderlike bartender with a Slavic accent called Moordil. Who doesn't understand a word that he's rambling on about, as Crichton quickly realises.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Yes, that is Pilot, friendly smart guy, laughing maniacally as he launches someone into the vacuum of space.
• Covert Pervert: The episode opens on Rygel using the comms to spy on Chiana having sex with Jothee.
• Commitment Issues: It turns out this is the reason Chiana decided to have an affair with Jothee—after she learned D'Argo was planning to propose marriage to her and have them all go live on a farm together, she was terrified of being trapped in such a life and believed D'Argo wouldn't take no for an answer. So she did the only thing she could think of to make him hate her.
• Cutting the Knot: When Borlik attaches to a bulkhead in order to destroy Moya, Crichton calmly walks out, closes the door, and lets Pilot detach the bulkhead and eject it into space.
• Damage Control: The crew must disentangle Moya from the station's wreckage before another storm hits. Things are further complicated when they realize there are survivors trapped elsewhere in the station.
• Driven to Suicide: D'Argo goes out to disentangle Moya from the wreckage, and takes no care for his own safety after discovering what Chiana and Jothee have done.
• Evil Laugh: Pilot before Borlik is killed.
• Floorboard Failure: Aeryn falls through a weak spot in the floor at possibly the most awkward moment she could have picked.
• Harmful to Minors: The nursery full of children. Their parents are most likely dead.
• Heroic Sacrifice: D'Argo. John is able to rescue him in time, despite D'Argo's intentions.
• Indian Burial Ground: The three commerce stations were built in the birthplaces of the local gods, or so it's said. Two of the stations have been destroyed, and it's believed that a religious cult is behind it.
• Ironic Echo Cut: Crichton points out that Chiana might just say no to D'Argo's wedding proposal.
  D'Argo: (smiling) How could she say no?
  (Smash Cut to Chiana moaning as Jothee pleasures her) NO! No...no...no more...
• Loose Lips: John exposits at length about his recent troubles and exploits, but clams up when the station security asks if he's John Crichton. They proceed to go through the list of things the Peace Keepers have accused him of, including the destruction of a Gammak Base, raiding a Shadow Depository, and raping, pillaging, and popping eyeballs. John suddenly interjects that there was no raping, minimal pillaging, and someone else did the eyeball popping.
• Making Love in All the Wrong Places: As D'Argo is a Luxan and hates the cold, Chiana and Jothee have sex in a freezer for cryogenically frozen bodies. Jothee points out that he's half-Luxan, so hates the cold as well; plus, the bodies are freaking him out. Later, Aeryn suggests to Crichton that they resolve their Unresolved Sexual Tension while crawling through a filtration vent in a wrecked space station that's in the process of breaking up. Just as Aeryn is unzipping her top to show she's not wearing a bra, the floor collapses under her.
• Mission Control: Moordil, the bartender, helps Aeryn and John find a way to the nursery, but he dies of his injuries just before they get there.
• The Mole: Borlik is actually the one responsible for the station's destruction.
• The Nose Knows: Chiana tells Jothee to bathe to get rid of her scent before D'Argo picks it up with his enhanced Luxan senses. she notes that Jothee can smell it too, just not as well due to his being only half Luxan. It's left ambiguous as to whether D'Argo picked up the scent anyway or if their shifty behavior tipped him off.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Chiana, when see looks out a window and sees a trapped kid frantically waving for help from a window in the station.
  • Borlik upon realizing that the bulkhead she is attached to is detachable.
• Pulling the Thread: D'Argo doesn't immediately suspect that Chiana is cheating on him, but picks up on some weird details in what he is told before putting it all together.
• Shoot Out the Lock: The hatch to the nursery is locked shut. Aeryn has no idea if it will work, but she has no time to try anything else. She seems genuinely surprised when it works perfectly.
• Shout-Out: Debatable. When the Backstory of the three commerce stations is related, and you learn that two of them have been destroyed and the third one is possibly doomed, you can't help but think of Babylon 5 (in that case, it was three stations destroyed, one gone missing, and the last one a popular topic of betting pools.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: After Borlik escapes the cryopod and magnetizes herself to Moya instead, she proudly boasts she's outwitted the crew and can't be stopped. John simply walks away.
  John: Oh, uh, you win. We lose. You-you outsmarted us. But that door you're stuck to? It's detachable.
• Sinking Ship Scenario: The station has been all but destroyed, most of the remaining survivors are aboard Moya, in the station's bar, or trapped in the nursery.
• Smug Snake: Borlik.
• Themed Tattoos: D'Argo proudly shows off the union tattoos which he and Chiana will burn into their skin when they get married. On finding out about Jothee's betrayal, D'Argo angrily scalds him with the tattoo instead.
• Thrown Out the Airlock: Borlik attaches herself to one of Moya's outer wall panels and gloats that she'll summon the storm right to the ship. John tells her the panel's detachable and gives Pilot the okay to have Moya cut it loose, throwing Borlik out into space.
• Too Annoyed to Be Afraid: Ends with the magnetic terrorist Borlik attaching herself to the interior of Moya, intending to stay there until the storm she was attracting destroys them all. Crichton is clearly too sick and tired of Borlik to even appear mildly alarmed, and sarcastically applauds her on outsmarting them... but then informs her that the surface she's currently attached to is a detachable airlock door. He then storms off, ordering Pilot to "suck this bitch out!" as he departs.
• Toplessness from the Back: Chiana has sex with Jothee in the reverse cowgirl position, avoiding the need for a Modesty Bedsheet.
• Unresolved Sexual Tension: Discussed by Aeryn and John. Aeryn is inclined to resolve it, but John is hesitant.
• You Just Told Me: When D'Argo catches Jothee and Chiana together yet again, and questions a strange smell (that isn't the body-wash they used before to get rid of evidence of their lovemaking), Chiana's guilty conscience leads to her lying poorly and then finally confessing the truth. Only after the damage is done and D'Argo is stalking away in a cold fury does he pause to note that he realized the smell he'd detected was something else entirely, from some malfunctioning equipment, making the confession All for Nothing. Played with, however, in that D'Argo was clearly suspicious and may have been withholding his realization precisely to provoke a confession.