Season 4, Episode 12:
Kansas
Aeryn, D'Argo, Chiana and Noranti arrive in orbit around Earth in Lo'La, having followed Crichton's signal through the wormhole. They save Crichton from running out of oxygen and head down to the planet, only to discover that the wormhole has brought them back in time — it's 1986. Worse, history has changed and Crichton's father Jack is now set to command the Challenger space shuttle mission. The crew have to Set Right What Once Went Wrong and ensure that Jack doesn't go on the mission and the timeline stays intact.
Meanwhile, in the Uncharted Territories, a Peacekeeper Marauder — with Grayza and Braca onboard — approaches Moya while only Pilot, Scorpius and Sikozu are aboard. They can't run or Starburst because they might not be able to find their way back to the wormhole. Scorpius suggests letting Grayza board, believing that if she sees that Crichton is no longer on the ship, she'll leave them alone. They board, along with 30 Peacekeepers, and start a tier-to-tier search for Crichton. Sikozu and Scorpius hide from the Peacekeepers, but while Braca is alone, he's cornered by Scorpius... and the licking commences. Braca, it transpires, has been loyal to Scorpius and spying on Grayza the entire time. Grayza is planning a peace initiative with the Scarrans, something that Scorpius believes will result in the Peacekeepers' destruction, and he orders Braca to remain with Grayza and continue spying. Once Grayza concludes that Crichton isn't aboard, she and the rest of the Peacekeepers leave — but unbeknownst to anyone, she leaves a predatory creature aboard, with instructions to hunt down Crichton should he return.
On Earth, Crichton and the others succeed in putting history back on track and leave the planet in Lo'La. They head to the coordinates of a rendezvous point in orbit where Moya is supposed to be waiting, but she's not there, even though Pilot comes in and claims to be in the right spot. When he checks the transmissions from the planet, Pilot realises what's happened: when she came through the wormhole, Moya arrived in 2003. Lo'La follows Moya's comm transmission through the wormhole and arrives in 2003, and when they board Moya, there's a welcoming committee waiting for them: Jack Crichton and three IASA officials. Suspecting a trap, Crichton draws his pistol on Jack...
Tropes present in this episode include:
- '80s Hair: Crichton's sister Olivia sports a very '80s side-ponytail.
- Alien Catnip: Turns out Hynerians get a major buzz from eating sugar. Rygel immediately becomes addicted and demands more, eventually resorting to scaring some local kids so they'll drop their trick-or-treat buckets for him.Rygel: Crichton, how illegal is this dren?!
- Batman Gambit: To keep Jack from going on the mission, the crew make it look like the younger Crichton needs to be rescued from a house fire. Crichton reasons that the resulting recovery will get Jack to refuse to leave. It works, if with some major bumps along the way.
- Bratty Teenage Son: Young John Crichton, who gets called out more than once about how resentful he is. His older self can only agree, and while he's under the effect of Noranti's powder tells him to lighten up a bit.
- Brick Joke: Remember John when Chiana offered you sex in the Season One finale, and you told her to pass it on to someone who needed it? No-one needs it more than a Hormone-Addled Teenager who's still a virgin!
- Call-Back: Crichton mentioned losing his virginity to a girl called Karen Shaw back in "That Old Black Magic" and again in "Losing Time". This episode reveals that it was actually Chiana who he assumed was Karen in a Halloween costume.
- Cliffhanger Copout: Zigzagged. The most immediate problem (Crichton stranded in Earth's orbit with minimal oxygen) is resolved very quickly, but then he learns they've traveled back in time and have to fix the resulting ripple before it's too late.
- Close-Enough Timeline: To get history back on track, the crew create a situation where the younger Crichton needs to be rescued and Jack then refuses to leave his side. They succeed, but the local sheriff is left remembering his experiences with aliens.
- Continuity Nod: When met face to face with his dad at the end of the episode, Crichton pulls out his gun and asks his dad a question:Jack: What's wrong John?Crichton: (slowly) Was it a bass? Or a trout?
- Didn't See That Coming: "Welcome home, Son."
- Dramatic Irony: "The joke is, I wanna go up there, too, someday."
- Fanservice: Chiana shows off her legs and white panties when she enters the passenger side of Young John's vehicle by crawling across the hood. Understandably, Young John has no objection to this.
- Flipping the Bird: The photographs in the house the crew squat in show the previous occupants doing this. Chiana and D'Argo assume it's some sort of Earth greeting and start doing it to people they meet in the street.
- Follow in My Footsteps: For all the yelling and angst, the younger Crichton admits to "Karen" that he wants to follow in Jack's footsteps.
- For Halloween, I Am Going as Myself: Chiana is able to walk around without hiding her grey skin and Young Crichton assumes it's just part of "Karen"'s Halloween costume. Aeryn tells the Sheriff that D'Argo's wearing a mask but it takes some "assistance" from Noranti for him to buy it.
- Halloween Episode: The 1986 scenes take place around and on Halloween, allowing Chiana to walk around in public. Rygel also scares trick-or-treaters out of their candy (with Crichton noting he did it several times off-screen).
- Hearing Voices: When Crichton turns invisible, he's told to use this to advantage so he pays his mother a visit and warns her about the house fire. Leslie Crichton believes the warning and rushes off to save her son before John can also warn her not to delay getting checked for cancer.
- "Hey, You!" Haymaker: Played straight. Crichton is talking to Kim (the girlfriend of his younger self) when Chiana appears out the window of the pickup truck, says "Hey!" and then punches Kim unconscious when she turns to look. Crichton is not happy.
- I Can't Believe It's Not Heroin!: Rygel gets some candy and goes nuts for it. He assumes it's illegal and later scares trick-or-treaters to get the sweets when Crichton stops buying for him.
- I Hate Past Me: Crichton is annoyed that his younger self is such a hothead, always getting into arguments with family.
- Inhuman Eye Concealers: Noranti takes to hiding her Third Eye with a bandanna so none of the locals will know she's actually an alien.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Whenever humans enter the Moya crew's Earth hideout, Aeryn explains that Rygel a "Kermit toy". The disguise isn't that far-fetched since both are Muppets.
- Learnt English from Watching Television: To be fair Aeryn has been trying to learn English for some time, but she seems to pick it up a lot faster after watching Sesame Street.
- Mars Wants Chocolate: Rygel quickly gets addicted to candy so much he steals some from trick-or-treaters. That's right Rygel takes candy from babes.
- Missing Mom: In 1986, Crichton's mother Leslie is still alive. During their interactions, he struggles with trying to get history back on track and warning her of her fate.
- No Endor Holocaust: Jack Crichton's life is saved, but that only means that Commander Dick Scobee
takes his place and dies along with the rest of the Challenger crew. - Oh, Crap!:
- Chiana when she realizes the car she got into belongs to Crichton's younger self.
- Crichton when he learns his father has become captain of the Challenger mission.
- Pet the Dog:Crichton: You read the cards.
Leslie: I know it's silly. Everybody thinks it is, especially my son.
Crichton: It's not. He's wrong. - Race Against the Clock: Jack will be leaving for the mission in a matter of days.
- The Reveal:
- Karen Shaw was mentioned previously in a couple episodes as the girl Crichton lost his virginity to. Turns out "Karen" was a time-displaced Chiana.
- Scorpius' mole aboard the Command Carrier? Braca, natch.
- Scary Black Man: When Noranti drugs a cop to see D'Argo as human, this is what he sees instead of an unmade-up Anthony Simcoe. This may be either an implication about the cop's racism, or a joke about the frequency with which Proud Warrior Race Guys are played by black actors in other shows.
- Set Right What Once Went Wrong: Because of Crichton's time travel, Jack becomes a member of the doomed Challenger crew. Crichton and the crew have to make sure Jack doesn't leave home in order to preserve the timeline.
- Shout-Out:
- Given that they never visit Kansas, the episode title is clearly another The Wizard of Oz reference.
- As the sheriff tells his story about the aliens, he's being watched by two federal agents.
- Aeryn watches a Sesame Street segment featuring Kermit the Frog. Specifically, the one where he sings the alphabet song with a girl and she keeps butting in with "Cookie Monster!"
- When the younger Crichton is temporarily "dead" the older Crichton starts fading out hand-first like Marty McFly and gripes, "I'm Casper the frickin' joke."
- Show Some Leg: Chiana offers to keep Young John busy while Noranti whips up a serum. Anticipating Older John's objection, she just says, "No questions asked." She then takes him to the garage and has sex with him in the back of a truck.
- So Proud of You: "Lieutenant—I mean, Captain... well-done."
- Sure, Let's Go with That: Young John mishears Chiana as "Karen" because she's turned his car radio up full volume while fiddling with the controls. Then she exclaims "Shi-aw!" on finding the cigarette lighter. John assumes her name is Karen Shaw and she doesn't bother correcting him.
- Stable Time Loop: Noranti uses her magic powder to make Young John forget everything that happened, but Chiana whispers in his ear, "Except for Karen Shaw, in the 4-wheel drive", explaining how Crichton remembered those details, but not Chiana (presumably the hazy recollection was put down to booze).
- Stripperiffic: Aeryn's ridiculously revealing hippie-girl costume.
- Time-Travelers Are Spies: When Older Crichton turns up knowing details of their family, his younger self assumes he's a government spook doing a security check.
- Wham Shot: The party banner reading "Congratulations to the Challenger's new Captain."
- What Year Is This?: D'Argo finds a radio signal that mentions President Reagan, telling John he's arrived too early in the timeline.
