| Farscape episode | |
|---|---|
| “They've Got a Secret” | |
| |
| Episode no. | Season 1 Episode 10 |
| Guest star(s) | Alison Fox (Lo'Laan); Grant Magee (Jothee) |
| Writer(s) | Sally Lapiduss |
| Director | Ian Watson |
| Production no. | 10110 |
| Original airdate | June 25, 1999 (US); February 21, 2000 (UK) |
| Episode chronology | |
| ← Previous | Next → |
| "DNA Mad Scientist" | "Till the Blood Runs Clear" |
An accident leads to the truth about D'Argo's past, and a secret about Moya that she's willing to kill to protect.
Synopsis[]
Aeryn Sun is trying to remove a Peacekeeper communications enhancer, and the rest of the crew are helping with the sweep, attempting to flush out any leftover Peacekeeper systems, since the DRDs are all helping with routine maintenance. Ka D'Argo enters a tunnel and finds some sort of device, and he tries to ask Pilot what to do but his comm. link is garbled. He pulls a wire and suffers a shock, and falls down a chute. He finds another device down there, and tells the others, but he kicks it off when he realises the comm. is still garbled. Some fluid bursts out causing Moya to lose stability and shake, whilst D'Argo falls further down the chute. Pilot manages to locate him, but not on the ship, rather floating in space!
Aeryn collects him, but he's frozen from being out there half an arn. Luxans can survive in space for a quarter of an arn unless they are revived soon after. Moya again shakes as D'Argo awakes, calling Zhaan by the name Lo'Laan. He doesn't remember what happened and falls back unconscious. Pilot says he is receiving odd readings from Moya's system, and Zhaan finds a piece of debris in D'Argo's body. Aeryn and Crichton go to D'Argo's last known location before the accident, when Pilot tells them the DRDs aren't responding, and he himself is clearly in pain. John Crichton notices that the air smells stale, and behind him the DRDs are fixing up the hole that D'Argo fell through. Pilot isn't reading any DRDs in the area, but one turns around and shoots some sort of glue at Aeryn, sticking a hand and foot to the floor.
Zhaan says the scan system is less efficient than usual, but Pilot doesn't respond. Crichton has some debris in his hand, and Zhaan analyses it. Crichton notices that the two pieces of debris are genetically identical and uniform in size, which if they're debris they most certainly shouldn't be. Crichton starts to loosen Aeryn's hand and foot with a substance that Zhaan made, and she manages to get them off. They think Moya has a bio-mechanoid virus implanted by the Peacekeepers, and triggered by D'Argo. Crichton says it could be in the air generators, so they could be breathing it.
Zhaan helps D'Argo back to his room, and he confesses how much he loves her, and sees them together in the future, still calling her Lo'Laan. Zhaan asks who Lo'Laan is, which upsets him. Crichton wonders how Moya's immune system will respond to the virus, and Aeryn tells him it'll start fighting back. She eats something, but it's spoiled; the refrigeration unit is not working. Crichton calls Pilot, who says it's not a malfunction; he's seeing signs of intentional sabotage...
Aeryn goes up to his chamber, telling Crichton and Zhaan that his vitals are extremely low. Every system is out of control, and Moya's showing many chemical surges. She seems to understand many of Pilot's systems (since she was injected with his DNA), and gets them under control. Environmentals are still not functioning, and the air will soon run out.
Rygel tries to take some of D'Argo's possessions, when he wakes up calling him Jothee, and picks him up, hugging him. He thinks he's upset because the others are treating him like an outsider. Rygel says he's upset because he's gone mad. D'Argo says that when Jothee's mother's family first saw him, they despised him. He says he loves his son, and always will.
Zhaan is finding the air is getting staler. Crichton asks her if Moya can function without Pilot, and Zhaan confirms this; Moya is an independent living being, Pilot and the DRDs are merely in her service. Pilot's job is to regulate the environmentals as they are not for Moya's benefit but for any passengers. Aeryn finds out that Pilot's blood has been nutrient starved, and Crichton assumes that the virus has caused this but Zhaan says it's no virus – her test confirms that the particles are no distinct organism, they're a part of Moya, but can't be fragments since they're all uniform in size. Crichton says what D'Argo saw before the accident must be the answer to why the ship has suddenly turned on them all.
They call Rygel, who says D'Argo thinks he's his son, Jothee, and he's out looking for Lo'Laan. Crichton hoes to him and D'Argo says he feels unsteady. He turns and calls Crichton Macton. Crichton asks who Lo'Laan is, and D'Argo says he may despise him for marrying his sister but he shouldn't mock her. D'Argo recognises Crichton as himself, saying he was in a shaft and saw a Peacekeeper shield. He quickly turns again, attacking Crichton as Macton. He asks how Macton dares dishonour his own sister even though she's dead, and breaks down in tears.
Crichton goes to find the shaft, when all the lights in the section go out. He finds the DRDs blocking the passage, so Aeryn tells him of another way through. He again is cornered by the DRDs, who attack him! He yells at Aeryn to shut down the DRDs, so she does. Zhaan, Crichton and Aeryn discuss what to do, as the DRDs are vital Moya's operations. Zhaan asks if the DRDs are affected by what they'd assumed was a virus, but Crichton points out they DRDs totally mechanical – they only do what someone tells them. Aeryn says Pilot is unconscious, and they realise that Moya must be causing all these failures and intentionally stopped Pilot's nutrients so he couldn't help them. This leaves the crew with only one conclusion... Moya is trying to kill them. They go through Moya's diagnostics, but the work is slowed as they are forced to look through printed diagrams as accessing Moya's systems may tip her off to what they're doing. Crichton is trying to find a way to access her higher functions so they can shut down, although it would end up leaving her totally incapable of any independent impulses and there is no guarantee they can be restored.
D'Argo brings Rygel to command, where Zhaan confronts him, but he still calls her Lo'Laan. He says he loves her more all the time, and asks how she could give up everything to be with them. Zhaan asks D'Argo for help since their ship is hurt, but D'Argo says that he destroyed their ship so they could not trace them here. Crichton tells D'Argo to keep his hands of his sister, and says he rejects D'Argo, and their marriage. He says that D'Argo cowers from her memory and is not worthy of her. D'Argo says Lo'Laan's memory burns in his soul. He says she is dead, but he doesn't want to remember. He attacks Crichton saying he killed her to keep her from him. He says he never had the chance to tell Jothee why his mother and him left their world; he had to send Jothee away because he was charged with Lo'Laan's murder. He got Jothee away before he was arrested, praying Macton and the others like him would never find him. He says he cannot be sure he's safe until he sees him again. When Macton arrested him he saw Lo'Laan's dried blood on his hands. Crichton is confused, as he thought that D'Argo was arrested by a Peacekeeper, and D'Argo says it was quite a coup for him. Zhaan realises that if Macton was a Peacekeeper then Lo'Laan was a Sebaecean, D'Argo then produces a hologram that confirms this.
Aeryn is trying to shut down Moya's higher functions. Crichton is on his way to the source of the explosion, but Aeryn reveals that she can't access the higher functions, she can only sever them, which they all agree to do. D'Argo finds he hole, sealed by the DRDs, and kicks it open. Crichton goes down the tunnel and finds another opening, whilst Aeryn begins severing the higher functions. Crichton finds something, and asks Zhaan about Leviathan physiology, because he thinks Moya is pregnant! The particles were a catalyst for the pregnancy, so Moya was actually protecting herself and the foetus. Aeryn then comms through says she's almost done severing Moya's higher functions, and everyone starts screaming at her to stop. Luckily she makes out what they're saying on the garbled comm in time and puts the saw down. Crichton wishes he could tell Moya that what she's doing for her baby is killing Pilot, and them. He then sees the inactive DRDs and realises that as the baby needs them, by turning them off they're killing it. So he gets a confused Aeryn to turn them back on. They go to attack him again, but Crichton takes a chance and tries speaking to Moya through one. Putting his weapon down in its sight, Chricton reassures Moya that they'd never hurt her or her baby – they're happy about her child, but he asks if they have to die for the baby to survive. The DRDs back off, and atmosphere returns.
Crichton asks Pilot how Moya could do this without him knowing. He says he is here to serve her – she can do anything she wants for her, and now her offspring's, survival. Moya needed resources to nourish the foetus after inception. It is now alive and well. He says he has no special knowledge of the Leviathan gestation cycle, so frankly he doesn't know what to expect.
Aeryn goes to see D'Argo, who thanks her for saving his life when he was floating in space. She says he's welcome, and that she didn't know Macton Tal. She then asks to see Lo'Laan. He shows her, and she says she's quite beautiful. He asks if it surprises her that someone like that could love him. She says it's engrained in Peacekeepers from birth to keep the bloodlines pure, so such unions are evil. He asks if she thinks his son is evil, and she says no, because in his eyes she sees D'Argo. She says that no matter what happens she'll never tell anyone about his son.
Memorable quotes[]
- Aeryn: You know, I'm going to track down this cute droid and rip off both his antennae.
- John: Happy place, Aeryn. Goooooo to your happy place.
- John: Is there some kind of "What to Expect When You're Expecting Baby Leviathan" book? Dr. Spock... Mr. Spock...
Aeryn: But you say that you want to go back to this place... Earth. A place that you tell me has so much disease and suffering.
John: Well, you guys don't have chocolate.
Background information[]
- The revelation about Moya's pregnancy was originally going to come out during the final scene of "Premiere". Rockne S. O'Bannon decided to hold it back instead of throwing it away at the end of an episode with a lot of story events. (Farscape: The Illustrated Companion, "Cool Farscape Facts" - Starburst Edition DVD v1.2)
- Ricky Eyres designed the corridors of Moya in ten pieces on wheels so that they could be put together in a number of different configurations. The original drawings allowed for movement in three dimensions, but only two were ever shown. (Farscape: The Illustrated Companion)
- Virginia Hey reported this episode as one of her favorites in the first season, concentrating on the scene where D'Argo reminisced about his wife and child, their first appearance. (Farscape: The Illustrated Companion)
- Ian Watson was brought in to direct the episode because he was a performance based director, and the episode required strong performances from the actors. Matt Carroll selected Watson for these reasons. (Farscape: The Illustrated Companion, "Cool Farscape Facts" - Starburst Edition DVD v1.2)
- D'Argo's backstory was changed in this episode. His original backstory, printed on a Ritterhouse Preview trading card, stated that General D'Raam was jealous of D'Argo and caused his downfall. ("Cool Farscape Facts" - Starburst Edition DVD v1.2)
- Macton Tal is not actually seen in this episode.
- The title of the episode comes from the long-running American game show I've Got a Secret which ran from 1952 into the 1970s. ("Cool Farscape Facts" - Starburst Edition DVD v1.2)
- This episode is Anthony Simcoe's favorite from the first season due to the depth it gave his character. O'Bannon agreed with him, stating, "it brought colors to D'Argo, it launched us into the whole scenario with his son which fueled a lot of the story later on. It gave D'Argo a new vulnerability and a lot of stuff to play with because of that." O'Bannon also praised Simcoe's work saying that he was "perhaps one of the truly unsung heroes of the show because he carries off the stuff he needs to in terms of the straightforward D'Argo stuff, but does it with great aplomb and a twist. Here was a chance for him to bring an entirely different color to D'Argo and make [him] not just a Klingon with tentacles, but something else." ("Cool Farscape Facts" - Starburst Edition DVD v1.2, "Farscape Chronicles" - Starburst Edition DVD v1.2)
- Paul Butterworth recalled that this was the first episode that had a live-action character interacting with 3D special effects. "We shot D'Argo on a gimbal which looked pretty painful for Anthony. I worked up a pre-visualization of what D'Argo would see going down the tunnel, and that was played back on the day in front of Anthony while he was on the gimbal, so he could have a certain reaction to it. [...] His actions were then thrown into the 3D scene that was rendered up for editing, and then we built the whole tunnel." ("Farscape Chronicles" - Starburst Edition DVD v1.2)
Links and references[]
Starring[]
- Ben Browder as John Crichton
- Claudia Black as Aeryn Sun
- Virginia Hey as Zotoh Zhaan
- Anthony Simcoe as Ka D'Argo
Guest cast[]
- Alison Fox as Lo'Laan
- Grant Magee as Jothee
Puppeteers[]
- with
Voice artists[]
- Jonathan Hardy as Rygel
- Lani Tupu as Pilot
References[]
Arn; bio-mechanoid; Carubian plague; chocolate; command; Comms; Communications enhancer; contraceptive shield; control collar; Crais, Bialar; Deep space interna-thermia; DRD; Earth; Hitchcock, Alfred; horse; Jonah and the Whale; Ka Jothee; Luxan; Moya; Paddac beacon; Peacekeeper; Prowler; Sebaecean; Spock; Spock, Benjamin; Tal, Lo'Laan; Tal, Macton; The Birds; What to Expect When You're Expecting; Yosemite Sam
External link[]
- Farscape World Synopsis by Dani Moure