Season 1, Episode 4
Giga Shadow
The episode begins with a montage narrated by the Time Prophet. She recalls the meeting where she told Kai of his destiny as the last Brunnen-G, and describes events ongoing in the Light Universe. The Divine Order instituted a "Cleansing" to support a "Rebirth." The Cleansing was the human sacrifice of the League's population: "Billions of souls from thousands of worlds fed into the greedy belly of the Cluster." Some of the victims came willingly, others not. Even the Divine Order's priests brawled over whether or not they should kill themselves. The Time Prophet has another concern: She cannot see past the Rebirth, and suspects that it will mean the end of life itself.
On the Lexx, Zev and Stan argue over Kai's protoblood supply: Zev wants to return to the Light Universe to look for it, while Stan wants to avoid both the fractal core and the Divine Order. Upset, Zev visits the cryochamber to look at Kai, whose pod spontaneously opens. Kai explains that the pod opened because it is damaged and that, without it, he will soon use up his remaining protoblood. He intends to sing "Yo Way Yo" until that happens.
Back in the Light Universe, a pair of mercenaries named Feppo and Smoor summon holograms of their past sexual conquests. When Feppo asks Smoor who was his all-time favorite, Smoor pulls up an image of Feppo stripping a terrified Stanley Tweedle: "His squeals! Will I ever again know such sweet music?"
Zev tries to get Kai's support for her scheme, but Kai calls himself "an undead abomination, a parody of life," and denies any interest in prolonging his animation. Neither does he wish her and Stan to put themselves at risk. Zev sees little risk, since His Divine Shadow is dead. Kai tells her that His Shadow is alive: When Kai sliced the top off his head, the brain had already been removed. Further, Kai doesn't even know the source of his protoblood, only that it was fed to him via a tube in a room with thousands of other Divine Assassins.
Stan visits the Divine Predessors. He thinks they should work on developing a dialogue. They not only disagree, but pull out his memories of Feppo and Smoor and sing a song about his nightmares. Discouraged, Stan shuffles out of the Predecessors' hall.
Kai sees a pink, organic-looking structure quaking in an alcove of the cryochamber. He examines it and finds a Cluster lizard hatching from its egg.
Stan showers, while singing a song about his supposed virility and his lust for Zev. Unbeknownst to him, Zev is lurking behind the shower curtains. She turns off the water and reveals herself, then threatens to eat his brain if he doesn't take her back to the Cluster.
The scream of another Cluster lizard interrupts them. Kai has appeared, holding his new pet, the infant from the egg. Stan and Zev want to kill it, to Kai's shock. He describes it as "a baby" and offers to let Zev name it. She dubs it "Squish," since that's what she'll do to it if it comes near her. The lizard tries to eat Kai's brain, but he gently prevents it from doing so. Stan realizes that it thinks Kai is its mother. It tries to attack Stan, who looks at it with an expression of sudden anticipation.
Cut to Stanley waving Squish, at arm's length, in the directions of various Divine Predecessors. He forces them to sing a humiliating paean to Stan's superiority over them, after which he declares: "Gentlemen, I believe that we are finally developing a dialogue."
Zev still hopes to learn more about protoblood, so she and Kai attempt to recover any memories he has about it. They feed protoblood from him into a screen that shows events from his vast store of memories, which includes all the memories of those killed by the Divine Shadow who killed him. They see the Time Prophet discussing her fear of the Rebirth, and find out that protoblood comes from something called "the Giga," although no one in Kai's memories knows what the Giga is. Kai begins repeating a phrase: "The Giga is the end and it the beginning." A sudden spasm throws him across the room, breaking his connection to the screen.
Zev stalks Stan on the bridge, predator-style. She bites a large cockroach in two and tells him that it tastes "meaty, but not as meaty as you will," but her nerve breaks and she starts crying, a process she doesn't understand.
Later, Stan can't quit hearing Zev's pleas to go back to the Cluster. He tells an ecstatic Zev that he's changed his mind. She and Kai come to the bridge, and the Lexx passes through the fractal core. Kai experiences a brief bout of paralysis that he diagnoses as "protoblood failure."
Stan takes the Lexx within moth-riding distance of the Cluster. Zev, Kai, and 790 plan to ride down to the surface, while Stan remains on the Lexx. Zev reminds Stan that she'll call Stan, not the other way around, because they don't want any signals being tracked back to the Lexx. 790 has a different opinion, and suggests that Stan meet up with some old friends: Feppo and Smoor, whose faces appear on his eye-screens. Kai asks Stan to "mind Squish," but Squish hitches a ride on the moth's exterior instead.
Zev and Kai find the Cluster's atmosphere strangely empty of inhabited vessels. Derelict ships drift around them, and automated messages from checkpoints declare the locations "cleansed," sometimes with images of gruesome death. They land near the top of the temple. The bodies of the priests who died in the brawl lie on the floor, and a strange goo drips from a hole in the ceiling.
Stan asks the Lexx about its abilities. It turns out that the Lexx can sift through material that he swallows, rather than having to digest it all, and can broadcast a message on any frequency or all frequency, as its captain orders. Stan has the Lexx broadcast a defiant message about how he's no longer just a traitor, but the captain of the Lexx, and ready for anyone who wants to challenge him. Feppo and Smoor get the message on their "favorite frequency" and make plans to intercept Stan.
At the temple, the last Divine Shadow's brain had fell from its pedestal and broken during the priests' fight. It says that the evil part of its brain was destroyed by the fall, leaving only its poet side. It asks Kai to kill it, which Zev enthusiastically encourages, and offers to read Zev a sonnet, which she rejects. Squish rolls up and tries to eat His Shadow; Kai stops it, and it settles for the chunk of brain that had fallen away. Kai himself destroys the brain by squeezing it, and absorbs its memories (a yellow light) along with an amorphous blackness. His Shadow "knew nothing of the Giga," so Kai and Zev decide to search the assassins' room next.
Stan receives a distress call from a beautiful woman struggling to breathe in an improbably erotic manner. He gets her coordinates and heads toward her in a moth. When he arrives, he finds Feppo (covered with electrodes that altered his appearance in the distress call) and Smoor waiting for him.
On the temple platform, some of the goo drips into the mouth of a dead priest, who wakes up. He investigates the brain, and some of the blackness enters him. Horrified, he attempts to kill himself. When repeated stabbing has no effect, he jumps off the platform and lands near Zev and Kai. He introduces himself as Yottskry; he can feel His Shadow's presence inside him and begs to be destroyed. The goo on the platform is protoblood, leaking from one of the Giga's orifices. Kai collapses in protoblood failure, gasping that Zev must call Stan and have him blow up the Cluster. Yottskry reveals that they are inside the Giga and that the brain is its weakness. He climbs into one of the Giga's orifices in hopes that he can kill it, but His Shadow's will overpowers Yottskry's own.
Feppo and Smoor have captured Stan, dressed him in red rubber briefs, and chained him to the furniture. Zev calls Stan's squawker, only to be intercepted by Feppo, who describes his planned tortures and orders Stan to "squeal for the people!" Zev tries to get protoblood to Kai. She sucks some of it off the floor into a tube, but the door leading to Kai's level is closing quickly, and the planet is shaking: She won't be able to reach Kai. Using a Cluster lizard scream, she draws the attention of Squish, gives it the tube, and throws it through the closing gap.
She collects more protoblood in a couple of vials, but is attacked by another resurrected priest before she can reach the moth. The priest breaks one of the vials. Zev runs back to the moth, and she and 790 lift off.
Squish survives its fall, swims to Kai, and puts the tube in his mouth. Kai wakes up, picks up Squish, and finds the orifice that Yottskry used. "What's your favorite food?" he asks Squish. Inside a tunnel, His Shadow's essence paralyzes Kai.
Zev discovers the source of the earthquakes— a large portion of the planet is the Giga, which turns out to be a giant insect, and it's breaking free. 790 tells her that their oxygen will be gone soon, and Zev will die, but that he "will use that time to compose an epic poem" about her. He comforts her by beginning the poem, which she appreciates. She decides to call Stan and apologize to him, if he can hear her.
To her surprise, Stan not only can hear her, he answers her, and tells her to get out of the way so he can get a clear shot. The Lexx comes into view. Zev and 790 fly back to the Lexx, and Stan orders the Lexx to blow up the Cluster. Although the blast succeeds in destroying the planet, the Giga itself appears merely angered by their attack.
Expelled during the Giga's motions, Squish and Kai float in space. Kai tells Squish to go and destroy the brain. Squish "swims" through space to re-enter the Giga. 790 spots Kai on the viewscreen and reluctantly informs Zev. Stan and Zev pick up Kai.
Kai explains that the Giga's long period of dormancy has let it grow too powerful for even the Lexx's weapons. However, they do have a chance to escape: Because the Giga is bigger than the Lexx, it cannot follow them through the fractal core. They try to reach the core, with the Giga in pursuit.
The Lexx reaches the fractal core and enters the Dark Zone. Unfortunately, they are not safe: The Giga sends a tendril after them. It roots itself in the ship and and the black Essence begins chasing the crew. Meanwhile, Squish works its way to the Giga's brain.
The Essence reveals that the line of Divine Shadows is really a series of hosts for a survivor of the Insect Civilization, and the Divine Order was a cover for its agenda. Just as it prepares to kill the crew, it flails in alarm, thanks to Squish, who has begun eating its brain. The Essence disperses, while the Giga loses its ability to navigate and gets sucked into the core. The Giga explodes, along with Squish; Squish's ghost chatters proudly at the site of the explosion.
With the crisis over, the crew gathers on the bridge to eat and watch Stan's exploits with Feppo and Smoor. Stan knew that he was entering a trap, but he had already laid a trap of his own: The Lexx was under orders to eat Feppo and Smoor's ship, strain Stan out of, and spit the mercenaries out in a bubble. A cut reveals that they landed on a planet inhabited by a human-eating giant.
Zev wonders what the crew should do now. Kai says that, given the Divine Order's destruction and his new supply of protoblood, he's amending his previous suggestion that Stan and Zev find a new home I Worship His Shadow. Now, he thinks that they should all find a home. Zev kisses him and hugs his head to her chest. Unnoticed, a black cloud appears and disappears in his eyes.
Tropes present in this episode include:
- Action Pet: Being a Cluster lizard, Squish is fast, aggressive, and capable of surviving everything from a hundred-foot fall to hard vacuum.
- After the End: Not for everyone, but the dominant civilization of the Light Universe has fallen, billions of people have been killed, and the Cluster is covered with abandoned ships, empty checkpoints, and silent streets.
- Alien Landmass: A continent-sized expanse of large squares, used as cover by the Giga.
- Apocalypse Wow: Easily contains the season's most detailed and dramatic destruction.
- Arch-Enemy: The Giga sees Kai this way, due to both the prophecy and the Brunnen-G's role in the Insect Wars.
- Batman Gambit: Stan's trap for Feppo and Smoor is based on his knowledge that they won't pass up the chance to torture him.
- Black Comedy Rape: Stan really does not match Feppo and Smoor's usual type.
- Camp Gay: Feppo wears garish makeup and a corset, giggles like a schoolgirl, displays stereotypically-feminine body language, is in a male/male relationship, and lives in a ship filled with bright décor.
- Captured on Purpose: Part of Stan's revenge scheme.
- Chekhov's Gun: Early on in "Gigashadow" Stanley asks the Lexx if it can sift things out of what it eats. Later, it rescues Stanley by eating the ship he's on.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Squish.
- Cliffhanger: Ends with Kai still possessed by the Insect Essence.
- Cosy Catastrophe: Feppo and Smoor, and presumably the other guests at the massage parlor, are completely unconcerned by the obliteration of 20,000 planets.
- Creepy Cockroach: Stan is pretty freaked-out by Zev's choice of snacks. It gets worse when she reveals that it's an appetizer for him.
- Demonic Possession: Happens to all of His Shadow's human hosts. The final scene reveals that Kai is now possessed as well.
- Depraved Homosexual: Feppo and Smoor.
- Evil Gloating: The Giga Shadow does this after it boards the Lexx.
- Evil Tower of Ominousness: The Divine Predecessors reside in a massive, black tower prone to lightning-esque flashes of malicious spirits.
- Excessive Evil Eyeshadow: Feppo. Bonus points for also having only one eyebrow and one half of a mustache.
- Exit, Pursued by a Bear: Feppo and Smoor get spat out of the Lexx in a bubble, which crashes on a planet inhabited by a giant who calls them "tasty."
- Fan Disservice: Stan appears in various stages of undress.
- Floating Mask: The "shadow" part of the Giga Shadow takes this form, complete with Glowing Eyes of Doom, to talk to the crew.
- Food End: Stan and Zev eat while watching the Lexx's video of Feppo and Smoor.
- Galactic Conqueror: The Giga is at least this, if not a Dimension Lord.
- Giggling Villain: Feppo and Smoor can barely talk for their gleeful laughing.
- Go Back to the Source: The season finale brings the crew back to a major setting from the première.
- Go-Go Enslavement: Feppo and Smoor force Stan to wear red rubber briefs.
- Gorn: The people being turned into bug food in the opening montage, and the Predecessors splattering all over the place when His Shadow decides he doesn't need them anymore.
- Greater-Scope Villain: Turns out the Divine Order was a front for the Giga, and it wants to kill all humans in the Light Universe, not "just" to bolster its power by massacring dissidents.
- Gunship Rescue: Stan and the Lexx show up in the nick of time to rescue the rest of the crew.
- Human Sacrifice: On a scale of billions.
- Kick the Dog: 790 suggests that Stan meet up with "old friends" in the Light Zone, and displays Feppo and Smoor on his eye-screens.
- The Divine Predecessors improvise a whole song to taunt Stan about his rape and torture by Feppo and Smoor.
- Kill All Humans: The Giga's agenda.
- Kiss Me, I'm Virtual: Feppo keeps provocative holographic images of his past sexual conquests.
- Mega-Maw Maneuver: The Lexx eats Feppo and Smoor's ship.
- Mental Picture Projector: Zev and Kai use one to find out if his mind contains any protoblood-related information.
- Monster Clown: The clown-faced executioner/meatgrinder on the Cluster.
- Monster Organ Trafficking: Kai finds out that his "protoblood" is secreted by the Insect.
- Mauve Shirt: Squish and Yottskry both die by the end of the episode.
- Of Corsets Funny: Feppo is a plump, middle-aged man who wears a leather corset with no shirt.
- Our Spirits Are Different: The Insect Essence can divide itself into multiple parts, each of which take the form of a black cloud that possesses humans, while the the Insect's body is still alive.
- Pay Evil unto Evil: A mild example occurs when Stan makes the Predecessors sing a song about their worthlessness, in retaliation for their previously mocking his rape by Feppo and Smoor.
- Zev sees no reason for mercy to His Shadow's damaged brain. She urges Kai to kill Him for His crimes.
- Private Military Contractors: Feppo and Smoor are "sub-nebulae" mercenaries.
- Punch! Punch! Punch! Uh Oh...: Zev stabs a priest several times in quick succession before he looks up, breaks the knife, and smiles.
- Rape as Backstory: The mercenaries tortured Stan by raping him.
- Reptiles Are Abhorrent: Played with. Stan and Zev want to kill Squish, which makes sense, considering that Cluster lizards' fondness for human brains is legendary. However, Kai regards Squish as "a baby," and it plays a crucial role in the climactic battle against the Giga.
- Shower Scene: Zev and Kai both interrupt Stan in the shower, for different reasons.
- Space Is Noisy: The Insect's angry roar, and Squish's victorious chattering.
- The fact that Kai's voice travels might be justified by his proximity (on the wrong side) to a leaking airlock, but how does 790 plan to deliver his "epic poem" for 999 years after Zev's moth runs out of air? While would still be a non-breathable atmosphere inside the moth for some time, the moth is mortal, in close proximity to high-velocity shrapnel, and very near to "a large, angry insect," so it's likely to remain sealed for long.
- Stuff Blowing Up: Depicted much closer-up and for much longer than in most episodes.
- Sentient Phlebotinum: Protoblood comes from the Giga's body.
- Team Pet: Subverted. Kai is the only member of the crew who likes Squish.
- Telepathy: The Divine Predecessors can access the memories of people near them. Naturally, they use this ability to torment Stan.
- Torture for Fun and Information: Feppo and Smoor enjoy their job.
- To Serve Man: The humans sacrificed in the Cleansing are mechanically processed into food for the Giga.
- Squish eats at least one human brain, possibly more. Zev also threatens to eat Stan's brain. It's a Cluster lizard thing.
- Unholy Matrimony: Despite being ruthless mercenaries and torturers, Feppo and Smoor are quite affectionate and trusting with one another.
- Unusual Euphemism: "The pipefitter" and "the taskmaster," for men who fit a couple of Feppo's different fetishes.
- "What Now?" Ending: Zev asks what happens now.
- Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: The Gigashadow talks too much for its own good.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: The Divine Predecessors think the Giga Shadow's arrival heralds their "time of rejoicing." The Giga informs them that it no longer needs them, then blows them all up.
