The Worlds of Farscape
Page 8
D’ARGO: You did what you thought was right.
CRICHTON: I did what I knew was wrong. The future Crichton—kind of makes you wonder if that’s where we’re headed.
D’ARGO: It’s only one possible genetic path.
CRICHTON: Yeah, but it’s possible. That’s the problem.
The fracturing of Crichton is revealed in several more ways which challenge the conceptions of good and evil in the series. The crazed Kaarvok “twins” Crichton in the episode “Eat Me” (3.6), furthering the fracturing motif of Crichton. The Twinning is described as creating a duplicate—an identical being indistinguishable from the original. In fact, Crichton wears different colored t-shirts to distinguish the twins for the audience, leaving an arbitrary feeling that we can only recognize the Crichtons by the clothes they wear. The lack of stable identity haunts Crichton as one twin leaves on Talyn with Aeryn in Season Three. The Crichton on Talyn consummates his love for Aeryn and fathers a child with her, while the Crichton on Moya rages jealously against the “him” on Talyn. The writers of Farscape did a fine job of literalizing the psychic turmoil in Crichton.
Aeryn Sun: Searching for Redemption
Aeryn Sun, skillfully played by Claudia Black, is a Peacekeeper. The Sebaceans that populate the Peacekeeper forces can be viewed as a soulless, tyrannical, hierarchical, and genetically pure race. It would be easy for viewers to see the Peacekeepers as a Farscape version of the Nazis; their black uniforms and rigidly militaristic social structure lends itself to this interpretation. In the first scene where we meet Aeryn Sun (“Premiere” 1.1), she is dressed in battle armor that disguises her gender and adds to the menace of the scene. Crichton is clearly intimidated by her armor until she removes her helmet, and he is confronted by the beautiful Aeryn. He quickly realizes that she is dangerous as she throws him to the floor. Since humans and Sebaceans look almost identical, Officer Sun mistakes Crichton for a renegade or captured Peacekeeper soldier.
In trying to escape Moya, Aeryn and Crichton seek out a Peacekeeper regiment. But Aeryn’s involvement with Crichton and the criminals aboard Moya leave her branded as “irreversibly contaminated” by her commanding officer, Commander Crais (“Premiere” 1.1). This proclamation will fundamentally change how Aeryn views herself over the course of the series. Throughout the series, Aeryn often tells the crew, “I am a Peacekeeper,” yet this is not exactly correct. She was a Peacekeeper. Aeryn’s inability to really know herself leads her to self-reflect on her judgments of good and evil.
At the beginning of the series, Aeryn is portrayed as a closed-emotion soldier. To the viewers and the crew of Moya, she is just a Peacekeeper soldier, born and bred to the cause. However, once Crais has effectively exiled her from the Peacekeepers, she loses the core of her values. Aeryn’s past is explored in future episodes that slowly show Aeryn as a vastly more complicated character, one who embraced Peacekeeper values so strongly because she did not fully believe in them. This frustrated ego is a determining factor, according to Koehn, of our ability to discern good and evil. Aeryn says as much when she encounters her mother, Xhalax, in the episode “Relativity” (3.10).
My corruption began the moment I was conceived. Don’t you see my independence comes from you anyway? I grew up wanting to be just like a woman I’d only seen once. I am a part of you that wanted to be a rebel... I am your child.
Aeryn’s past is slowly revealed in a mosaic of episodes over the course of the series.2 The composite is nothing like the view we have in the premiere episode. Peacekeepers are selectively bred and anonymously parented. They are taught to bond with their units and breed when they are selected and with whom. Aeryn fails at the “Peacekeeper way.” Confronted with her mother’s admonition that she would hunt Aeryn down and kill her, Aeryn is unable to reciprocate the need to kill her mother. As a Peacekeeper, Aeryn should not have hesitated to kill Xhalax. From a Peacekeeper perspective, Aeryn is contaminated, evil. Accused of contamination by contact with Crichton, Aeryn is unrepentant of her growing love for him. She is cast further adrift in knowing who she is when she tells Crichton, “All my ties to them [the Peacekeepers] are completely severed” (“Relativity”).
Aeryn shows the potential for good in the series as she further distances herself from the Peacekeepers. As the series progresses, we find out that Aeryn was once in love with a fellow Peacekeeper, just like her mother. And yet, just like her mother, Aeryn has the ability to do great harm. In “The Way We Weren’t” (2.5), Aeryn helps kill a defenseless pilot aboard Moya three cycles before events in the series begin. Aeryn tells Chiana, “Yes, I was a Peacekeeper, and things were different then.” Aeryn reveals that she was torn between beliefs for a long time before she arrived on Moya. She tells Crichton about a Peacekeeper with whom she was in love named Velorek. Much like Crichton, he saw the beauty and potential in Aeryn. He even echoed Crichton’s assessment of Aeryn when he told her, “you could be so much more [than a Peacekeeper commando].” Aeryn is shown to be a lot like Xhalax in this episode. She falls in love, yet she betrays Velorek to Crais for promotion to prowler pilot. Aeryn finds it difficult to be both loving woman and Peacekeeper; she has been bred and brainwashed to believe the Peacekeeper ways. This episode helps explain why she is simultaneously loving and distant to Crichton.
By the time of The Peacekeeper Wars, Aeryn is pregnant and embracing motherhood in a way she could not anticipate. Aeryn has protected her unborn child from the Scarrans (“Prayer” 4.18 and “We’re So Screwed Part I: Fetal Attraction” 4.19), and she has come to terms with the lack of mothering she received with the Peacekeepers. In fact, Aeryn instructs the DRDs on Moya to construct the wormhole device to John’s specifications, so her child can grow up in peace. She is willing to destroy thousands of Peacekeepers and Scarrans for the sake of her child.
Aeryn’s search for self shows her capacity for doing both good and evil. Her upbringing as a Peacekeeper, her relationship with her mother, her love affairs with Velorek and both Crichtons, her irreversible contamination, and her belief in motherhood, pull her in conflicting directions and cause her to be both terrible and beneficent. At the end of The Peacekeeper Wars, Aeryn is no longer conflicted. She has put her past behind her; she has helped secure peace in the galaxy, and she is a loving wife and mother. Her moral conundrums are quieted, and she has gained redemption through her son, D’Argo Sun Crichton—a child she can love openly.
Scorpius: Caught Between Two Worlds
When we see Scorpius, we see an amalgamation of stereotypes of the “bad guy.” He wears a menacing black suit; he is emaciated to the point of being skeletal; his voice is low and raspy. He is built as a menacing figure by our conventions of people who are evil. But there is another interpretation of Scorpius’ character. Scorpius is a Sebacean-Scarran hybrid. He has the unique perspective of knowing what the Scarrans are capable of. Scorpius must wear his black suit because of his unique physiology; it is a crutch to a man who suffers. Scarrans prefer heat whereas Sebaceans are bred to endure the cold of space, and heat slowly kills them. His biology is literally an enemy to him. His shriveled look is merely the byproduct of his parentage.
Scorpius is the antagonist in the series to be sure, but he acts to do good. Scorpius is a Peacekeeper, and his first goal is to protect the Alliance planets from threats. Scorpius has intimate knowledge of Scarran psychology, and he knows the threat posed by them. He pursues Crichton for the wormhole technology, not to be evil, but to save the Peacekeepers. Scorpius confides in Crichton that the Peacekeepers will lose a direct conflict with the Scarrans, so he has to obtain the wormhole weapon to save the Peacekeepers.
In the episode “Incubator” (3.11), Scorpius inserts Crichton’s neural chip into his own brain in an attempt to solve the wormhole equations that are eluding him. Rather than attacking and torturing Crichton’s neural clone, as Scorpius did to the real Crichton in “Nerve” (1.19) and “The Hidden Memory” (1.20), Scorpius reasons with neural Crichton by showing him why he is seeking the
wormhole device. This is perhaps the finest episode at showing how Scorpius’ misplaced quest for self causes him to do evil.
Scorpius reveals that he is a Scarran-Sebacean hybrid who was raised by a Scarran named Tauza. His hybrid physiology is almost incompatible with itself, and he was born in Sebacean heat delirium. The Scarrans view Scorpius as weak and want him to overcome his infirmities. Tauza complains that if Scorpius claims his Scarran ancestry, then he “cannot be weak.” Further, we glimpse the Scarran view of the Peacekeepers: “Sebaceans are a deficient breed.” Scorpius tells Crichton that his earliest memory is “pain.” As viewers, we see and sympathize with Scorpius as Tauza tortures the poor misshapen boy. Scorpius is torn between two worlds. He cannot please his Scarran keepers, and he is not racially pure enough for the Peacekeepers. Scorpius escapes his Scarran captors and enlists with the Peacekeepers where he finds a place for himself. As Koehn points out, the Wisdom Tradition views “evil as the pain and frustration we unwittingly inflict upon ourselves as we adopt ever more perverse strategies to escape our unhappy selves” (64). This is clearly the case with Scorpius. As he tries to determine who he is, he is constantly torn and fractured by his bi-racial birth. When Scorpius seeks out the Peacekeepers, he is interviewed by Captain Molayne:
SCORPIUS: I was taught that I’m the product of a forced birthing between a Peacekeeper male and a Scarran female. I believe this to be false. I want to know the truth.
CAPTAIN MOLAYNE: Why? So you can find out who you are?
SCORPIUS: To find out who I should be.
With his unique ability to detect lies, we find that the Peacekeepers do not lie to him, and he discovers that his mother was a Sebacean female captured and bred in an experimental program by the Scarrans to “find out if Sebacean genetics” could serve them. This unfortunate revelation is a clear motivation for Scorpius’ character.
When Scorpius tells neural Crichton that he was recaptured by the Scarrans while searching for the answers to his past, Tauza reminds Scorpius, “You are Scarran, or you are nothing.” But Scorpius’ genetic deficiencies lead the Scarrans to believe that all Peacekeepers are weak. In the climactic scene of the episode, Scorpius tells John,
SCORPIUS: I have shared these memories for a reason—to show you what Scarrans are like.
CRICHTON: Preaching to the choir Scorpy, I’ve got no love for Scarrans.
SCORPIUS: Then help us! Scarrans far outnumber the Peacekeepers. Without superior weaponry, we will be crushed.
CRICHTON: You want to kill them; they want to kill you. I do not see a hell of a lot of difference.
SCORPIUS: You let me finish, and I’ll show you the difference.
Scorpius then reveals that the Scarrans wish to “eradicate” the Sebacean race. Scorpius’ will to save the Peacekeepers is his prime motivation for pursuing the wormhole technology. Scorpius is unique in his knowledge and understanding of the Scarran threat. The Peacekeepers have been in power too long and have grown a bit complacent; therefore, they do not see the Scarrans as the real threat they pose. As Scorpius admits to John, however, not only does he want to save the Peacekeepers, he wants revenge.
Scorpius’ admonition of revenge is a powerful indicator that he does not truly know and accept who he is. His hatred of the Scarrans is enormous, and some of this is clearly directed at his Scarran heritage. When Scorpius is allowed to join the Peacekeepers, he must first gain an exemption to the “purity” requirement. Scorpius is viewed as an “Other,” an outsider among both his races. This quest for self leads Scorpius to do much evil in the name of good. His inability to truly accept his heritage is the hurdle he must overcome. Ultimately, Scorpius is a pitiable man who cannot escape his tortured upbringing. Only in the ending of The Peacekeepers Wars is Scorpius’ drive rewarded. He begs Crichton, begs him with “a cherry on top,” to launch the wormhole weapon. Using the knowledge of the Ancients, John constructs and launches the wormhole weapon, destroying the Scarran fleet. Scorpius is horrified at the result; not only is the Scarran fleet destroyed, but so are the Peacekeepers. As the wormhole continues to grow, Scorpius mutters, “This is insane, Crichton.” In that single moment, Scorpius has exercised self-reflection, true self-reflection, and he realizes that his quest for vengeance was ultimately self-destructive. In the resulting peace accord, we see a Scorpius smug and almost smiling, pleased with the idea of a safe galaxy. In a sense, Scorpius is made whole by proving to the Scarrans his Peacekeeper side was not weak and to the Peacekeepers that he was correct in his pursuit of the wormhole weapon—but at a terrible, terrible cost.
Crichton, Scorpius, and the Shadow-Self3
One way of viewing the complex relationship between Crichton’s and Scorpius’ neural clones is that they are, to borrow the Jungian term, Shadow selves. Ursula K. Le Guin tackles the use of the Shadow self in her essay, “The Child and the Shadow,” where she discusses the use of the Shadow figure in Science Fiction and Fantasy literature. This Shadow, as defined by Le Guin, is
the man [that] is all that is civilized—learned, kindly, idealistic, decent. The shadow is all that gets suppressed in the process of becoming a decent, civilized adult. The shadow is the man’s thwarted selfishness, his unadmitted desires, the swearwords he never spoke, the murders he didn’t commit. The shadow is the dark side of his soul, the unadmitted, the inadmissible [60].
Scorpius plays this role well in the series. When Scorpius captures Crichton and tortures him in the Aurora Chair (“Nerve” 1.19 and “The Hidden Memory” 1.20), he places a neural chip in Crichton’s brain to steal the Ancients’ technology for the wormhole device. This allows a simulacrum of Scorpius to root around in Crichton’s thoughts, looking for the secrets Crichton has suppressed. He is Crichton’s shadow self. He is the nagging voice in Crichton’s head that begs him to build and use the wormhole weapon against the Scarrans. He is the dark part of Crichton’s thoughts that will break down his moral compass even further than Crichton is willing.
This is not to say that the relationship is completely destructive; the Scorpius shadow saves Crichton’s life in the episode “Won’t Get Fooled Again” (2.15), after he is captured by the Scarrans. At times the Scorpius shadow is both tormentor, as in “Beware of Dog” (2.14) or counselor as in “Self-Inflicted Wounds Part I: Could’a, Would’a, Should’a” (3.3). The relationship between Crichton and Scorpius as the shadow is complex. Jung defines the complexities of these dealings: “The shadow is a moral problem that challenges the whole ego-personality, for no one can become conscious of the shadow without considerable moral effort” (145). John is conscious of Scorpius, so we can assume he is making a moral effort. He will not divulge the wormhole technology no matter the means of persuasion that the Scorpius shadow will try. Jung also contends that
closer examination of the dark characteristics—that is, the inferiorities constituting the shadow—reveals that they have an emotional nature, a kind of autonomy, and accordingly an obsessive or, better, possessive quality [145].
This describes the relationship between Crichton and the Scorpius shadow well, I think. Scorpius is driven to delve into Crichton’s mind, and several times in the series the neural clone tells Crichton, “You will never be rid of me.” The Scorpius shadow works well in the framework of fractured identity working towards evil, in Koehn’s paradigm. If we view Scorpius as a part of John’s psyche, a frustrated part of his desires, then we can further see both his psychological crisis of having the wormhole knowledge, as well as his literalized fracturing of himself, as discussed above. The overall effect on the series shows the viewer the constant psychological tension with which Crichton lives.
According to Le Guin, the only way to defeat the shadow is to turn and confront it (70). John Crichton refuses to do this. He may argue and even fight with the Scorpius shadow, but ultimately he is running and hiding from the wormhole knowledge with the shadow ever in pursuit. In The Peacekeeper Wars, Crichton finally confronts the shadow and uses the wormhole technology. This a
cceptance allows him to face his fear and destroy the shadow. In the final moments of the mini-series, Crichton watches the neural clone slowly die and fade away. It is interesting to note that the dying shadow is no longer wearing the black suit but a muted white-washed version that looks much less menacing. John has faced the shadow and defeated him—only then does he wake up from his coma to greet his child.