Recap / Farscape S 04 E 18 Prayer

Season 4, Episode 18:

Prayer

Crichton and Scorpius travel to the unrealized reality where he heard Sikozu!Stark mention "Katratzi". Knowing that there isn't much time until Crais attacks, they track down Sikozu!Stark and ask about Katratzi. He doesn't know anything about it, but mentions that he can remember the thoughts of people he's crossed over while crossing someone else over. Scorpius leaves and comes back, comes back with Noranti!Rygel and executes him so that he can be crossed over, but Sikozu!Stark can't do it: in this universe, he needs to "love the soul" to cross it over. Realising what needs to happen, Crichton and Scorpius find Aeryn!Chiana and bring her to Sikozu!Stark, but Crichton can't bring himself to kill her. Scorpius can. As Sikozu!Stark crosses Aeryn!Chiana over, he starts to remember:

Sikozu!Stark: Seat of Scarran power. Small. Fortified. It's dangerous. Disguises its presence by mirroring the orbit of one of the moons of Trilask.

Scorpius knows the planet and he leaves with Crichton, who still can't quite believe what they've done. They return to Moya and she Starbursts away before they can get caught by a Peacekeeper command carrier.

Meanwhile, Aeryn is being transported to Katratzi on a Scarran freighter. En route, she is interrogated by a Scarran officer and a Sebacean woman working for him. Upon finding out that Aeryn is pregnant, they question her using the Scarran heat probe to try and find out whether the father is Crichton. She resists for as long as she can, but is eventually forced to confess that it's Crichton's baby. During this, Aeryn is desperate enough to turn to prayer, hoping that a deity of Sebacean legend named Djancaz-Bru will help Crichton to find her. However, by the end, she's become desperate:

Aeryn: Now, Djancaz-Bru, you haven't listened and you haven't helped. And I'm running out of time. So I'm going to forget about you. I am now willing to make a deal with anyone, with anything to save my child. Not because I can... but because I have to.

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Tropes present in this episode include:

• Bad Guys Do the Dirty Work: When Crichton has to kill the merged Chiana-Aeryn.
  Crichton: No... no, I can't.
  Scorpius: (sigh) I can. [Shoots her with John's gun.]
• Bond One-Liner: "Good. Then I orphan no-one."
• Cold-Blooded Torture / Mind Rape
• Death of a Child: The Scarrans will kill infants if they aren't useful
• God Is Evil/Jerkass Gods:
  Sebaceans once had a god called Djancaz-Bru. Six worlds prayed to her. They built her temples, conquered planets in her name. And one day she rose up and destroyed all six worlds. And as the last warrior was dying, he said, "We gave you everything. Why did you destroy us?" And she looked down upon him and she whispered: "Because I can".
• Neck Snap
• Prayer Is a Last Resort: As the title would suggest.
• Properly Paranoid: Aeryn
• Shoot the Dog: Scorpius kills alternate Chiana.
• The Mole: The other pregnant prisoner.
• Truth Serum: In increasingly intense doses.
  Nurse: Would you lie to me.
  Aeryn: No. I'm not lying. I wouldn't!
  (more serum is injected)
  Aeryn: Yes, of course I'd lie to you, you stupid bitch.