With Friends Like These (Liars, Guns and Money 2)

Ratings
1.6 (US)
2.75 (UK)

Wayne Pygram...............Scorpius
Paul Goddard...............Stark
Claudia Karvan.............Natira
Jeremy Sims................Rorf
Matt Newton................Jothee
Nicholas Hope..............Akkor
David Franklin.............Lt Braca
John Adam..................Bekhesh
David Wheeler..............Durka
Phillip Hinton.............Voice of Teurac
Thomas Holesgrove..........Teurac
Jo Kerrigan................Rorg
Linal Haft.................Zelkin
David Bowers...............Kurz

Wassup?

Two steps forward, three steps back.

Scorpius beats the crew to the slave auction; now, to recover Jothee, they're going to have to retrace their steps across the entire Uncharted Territories. Meanwhile, their pilfered loot from the Depository has a devastating effect on Moya, and the cure may kill her.

Backstory

D'Argo has not seen Jothee since the night of his wife's murder. He sent Jothee away for his own safety; if he hadn't, his son would probably not have survived the Peacekeeper hatred of interspecies offspring.

Stark stored the information about the slave auction on his console, from which it was probably obtained by Scorpius.

Jothee was being sold in the same lot of slaves as thousands of Baniks.

D'Argo, wracked with guilt over his son's plight, actually considered giving John to Scorpius, in order to save Jothee.

Natira is the one who actually purchased the lot of slaves.

Scorpius sends a Maurauder to retrieve Jothee; the remaining slaves in the lot, he gives to Natira to dispose of as she chooses.

John is convinced that he knows how Scorpius thinks.

Moya and Pilot have been compiling chart data during the crew's voyagers across the Uncharted Territories.

John's plan to kill Scorpius and retrieve Jothee requires:

• Vorcarion blood trackers to find Jothee wherever Scorpius hides him;
• Sheyang to burn through the Depository's defenses;
• Tavleks for their guantlet firepower; and
• Zenetan pirates for their "electrostatic scan" Flax net, to disable any ships giving chase

John still can't keep the name of the Tavleks straight.

Stark insists that Scorpius executed the Banik slaves.

John is now able to initiate conversations with the Scorpius-clone in his mind, something Scorpius apparently did not intend or believe possible.

Scorpius' coolant system has improved considerably since his "initial surgery".

Natira took Scorpius in some cycles ago, when he was, by her description, young and hotheaded. In turn, he claims to have saved her from becoming a trophy on the wall of PK Command.

The entire shipment of "ingots" was actually parasites; not only is Moya infected with metal-eating creatures, but the crew is once again without currency.

Pilot is unable to expel the spiders, and they proved unsusceptible to vacuum exposure.

Teurac says that his ship was destroyed in a swift and unprovoked attack, but doesn't say (and possibly doesn't know) by whom.

Despite the efforts of PK Command, there are a few more interspecies hybrids every year, according to Braca.

Scorpius' mother, a Sebacean, was raped by a Scarran. Scorpius expects Jothee to have a similar hatred of his own father.

Jothee knows that his uncle murdered his mother.

The Vorcarions were hired by the PK to hunt down deserters; when they resigned their commission, a PK termination squad started hunting them.

While Rorf accompanies D'Argo back to Moya, a pregnant Rorg remains hidden in a cave where she plans to give birth.

Moya cannot raise her internal temperature high enough to kill the infestation herself.

There are over 2000 parasites aboard Moya.

Scorpius remembers, recognizes, and appears surprised to see, Stark.

Scorpius' nurse wasn't killed in the explosion of his cooling rod, merely injured.

Natira estimates that it would take the parasites eight solar days to destroy a vessel the size of Moya.

Almost one ninth of Moya's body is afflicted by the parasites. It takes less than nine arns for Moya to absorb the adrexan vapor throughout this area.

Durka has not only survived, but deposed Kcrackic as leader of the Zenetan pirates, and turned them into a military force.

Rygel has overcome his debilitating terror of Durka.

Moya may or may not be able to heal herself of the burns from purging the parasites.

John turned himself over to Scorpius, not just to win Jothee's release, but also to get the tracking chip, and Scorpius, out of his head.

Reactions

Questions

1. Who saved Scorpius? Did he manage to insert the rod himself, or was he saved by Natira, or Braca, or...?
2. Why does Stark call out for John, when he senses the death of the Banik slaves?
3. What's the real story behind Natira and Scorpius? Did she help install his original cooling system?

Observations

1. Gotta love how Scorpius checks the coolant rod before he lets Natira insert it. She also rather casually tosses the used rod aside, and we hear it shatter -- evidently, rods are not recycled.

Bloopers (none)

Annotations

The subtitle comes from the commonly used phrase "With friends like these, who needs enemies?"

John: "Okay, Leatherface. Your turn."
Scorpius: "You never cease to amaze me, John."
John: "Man, that's TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE. That's a classic."

Leatherface is the infamous killer in Tobe Hooper's 1974 cult horror film, THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE.

Translator Microbe Report

Quotables

"Every time I think that there's more to you than a pair of pushed up lumers and and a corset, you disappoint me."
"From you, I'll take that as a compliment."
- Rygel, Chiana

"Forever the optimist."
"Yeah, well, it's a common human trait...[sotto voce] in humans with a death wish..."
- Aeryn Sun, John Crichton

"You're almost there, John, almost there."
"Okay, leatherface, your turn."
"You never cease to amaze me, John."
"Man, that's Texas Chainsaw Massacre -- it's a classic."
"You weren't supposed to be able to initiate a conversation with this neural clone."
"Yeah, kinda sucks having someone inside your head, doesn't it?"
"No matter, the task is almost complete. It wasn't easy; there are vast regions of your brain that are filled with nothing but gibberish."
"That would be high school. Like it or not, Scorpy, I know how you think. We're sharing now. And that's how I'm going to beat you."
"Perhaps you only believe that, because that's what we want you to think."
- Scorpius Clone, John Crichton

"Calm down, you'll have an accident."
"My coolant system has advanced considerably since the original surgery."
- Natira, Scorpius

"He's not a Scarran. You wouldn't waste your hatred on anything else."
"This is why I can't have you around. You know me too well."
"Without me, you'd still be the same angry, hotheaded young creature I took in so many cycles ago."
"Without me, your head -- among other things -- would be a trophy on the wall of Peacekeeper Command."
"See? We were made for each other."
- Natira, Scorpius

"Someone's beaten us to it!"
"But who? Crichton's too...honorable."
"Aeryn's too dull."
"D'Argo's too, mmm..."
"Say it."
"Simple?"
"Yeah, but he's not a thief."
"Somebody is -- we've been robbed."
- Chiana, Rygel

"Our money's alive!"
"You realize what that means?"
"They're eating the ship!"
"Yes, but...we're poor."
- Chiana, Rygel

"Howdy, Bekhesh. Meet Winona."
- John Crichton

"No use?!?" [spits fire]
"I've seen bigger."
"I can do better."
"You'll have to."
- Teurac, Aeryn Sun

"You bought 10,000 slaves just to get me? What do you want?"
"From you, nothing. But your father would give me something I want very much. Pray to your Luxan mystics, that he loves you still."
- Jothee, Scorpius

"And you intended them to destroy my Marauder, kill my crew, killing...me."
"Yes. You wouldn't have respected me, otherwise."
"How commendable. Very fortunate I was robbed."
- Scorpius, Natira

"What about your great reformation?"
"It's easier to reform when you're rich."
- John Crichton, Bekhesh

"The Builders placed our fates in your care, Zhaan. Whatever you decide, we will abide by it."
- Pilot

"We had a truce!"
"When I am finished with you, Dominar, Death himself will pray for you."
"I thought you might say something like that."
- Rygel, Durka

"You know, flossing could help you with that gingivitis. [Bekhesh breathes on him] Whoa."
- John Crichton

"Our money did this?"
"We did this."
- John Crichton, Aeryn Sun

"Scorpius is going to kill Jothee."
"No, he won't."
- Aeryn Sun, John Crichton

"You're being paid to work together."
"That's right. [rolls Durka's head across the floor] And that's what we do to people who don't."
"Good work, Ryg."
"You're here to do a job. Start acting like professionals."
- Chiana, Rygel (to the mercenaries)

"You want the wormhole technology? I want your implant out of my head. So, finally the rift between us is not so great. You do what you gotta do. You win."
"As if there was ever any doubt."
- John Crichton, Scorpius

Comments from Cast & Crew

Pilot, with Sean Masterson (Puppeteer) & Lani Tupu (Voice of Pilot), July 13, 2000

• Moderator: I have to bring back a question from our last chat with Lani.
  Moderator: <optimusp> to <Moderator> Lani. In one sentence, how would
  Moderator: you sum up the last four episodes of the season, w/o giving anything
  Moderator: away?
  Moderator: to which you replied: "He'll hate it."
  Moderator: How about this time around?

  LaniTupu: Let me just say this 19, 20, 21 and 22! LOL
  LaniTupu: You will be blown away

David Kemper, with Richard Manning & Ben Browder ("Bruno"), August 17, 2000

• Moderator: <stargatetravler> to <Moderator>: Now that filming for season 2 is completed which ep would you say was your favorite and which was the most difficult to film? BTW great con in Burbank, you guys ROCKED! Thanks!

  Kemper: Most difficult.
  Kemper: The last 4 -- an arc -- of the season.
  Kemper: More in them than most features.
  Kemper: You watch.
  Kemper: You see.
  Kemper: You smile.
  Kemper: THEN
  Kemper: you bow to Sci-Fi.

• Moderator: <LittleLeviathan> to <Moderator>: To the wonderful David Kemper: Which was the most difficult show to produce?Costly?Time consuming?

  Kemper: Difficult?
  Kemper: "Family Ties" last year.
  Kemper: The last 4 eps this year.
  Kemper: Costly?
  Kemper: All of them.
  Kemper: And that's NOT a flip answer.

Wayne Pygram, September 21, 2000

• Moderator2: <LittleLeviathan> to <Moderator2>: Hi Wayne. What has been the most difficult ep thus far to shoot (acknowledging of course that it might not have happened yet and you might not be able to say why)?
  

  WaynePygram: The final stages of series two became a real continuity challenge for us all as we were working at completing four episodes at once, so on any given day you could be asked to complete scenes from four different story lines. This was doubley difficult for me as I have a habit of throwing my scripts away as soon as I've learned my lines. I think I had better make some adjustments to this technique.
  WaynePygram: I did not know if I was Arthur or Marther... do you comprehend?

David Kemper & Ben Browder, November 12, 2000

• Moderator: Blue_Dragon: what's been the hardest episode to make?

  David Kemper: Whooo. They're all tough. Ben?

  Ben Browder: The next one
  Ben Browder: always the next one

  David Kemper: If pressed, from a script point-of-view, I'd say "Out of Their Minds." From a production point-of-view, I'd say the

  Ben Browder: That was easy...

  David Kemper: huge four-part arc (upcoming) that ends the second season. ga

Anthony Simcoe, May 01, 2001

• ScribLL: Matt Newton did such a wonderful job of mimicking the Luxan 'accent', the cadence and inflections were spot on. Did you work with him on that?

  Anthony_Simcoe: Very definitely. It was the only thing that I wanted Matt to replicate all the other aspects of his character was in his capable hands.

Dave Elsey, July 19, 2001

• Moderator: <GutPageant> to <Moderator>: Did any particular creature or makeup job exceed your expectations?

  DaveE: Yes. Scorpy, I think, just hits the mark. I think what I tried to do with him was create the most evil character that I'd ever seen on TV. He's the grim reaper, he's the Emperer from Star Wars, he's the SS. And Wayne took what I did and took it a stage further.
  DaveE: Also, one of my persona; favourites is Natira. She's cool.
  DaveE: When the writer said that they were going to show Scorpy's girl friend, I just went mad!!
  DaveE: Then when I met Claudia Karvan, and she told me that her one condition for being on the show was that she got to play a creature, everything just clicked into place.

• Moderator: <JennHi> to <Moderator>: What is your absolute favorite creation? And if it's different, what's your favorite in Farscape?

  DaveE: Cool question.
  DaveE: I have many many favourite creatures.
  [...]
  DaveE: As I said before, of my own creations, I'm very fond of Scorpy and Natira.
  DaveE: But there are some characters that I've created this season that you haven't see yet that are going to knock you socks off!!!! I hope.

Farscape Wrap Day Extravaganza, July 26, 2001

• Moderator: <Jup> to <Moderator>: Tim, what's the largest set you've designed/constructed for Farscape?

  TimFerrier: Probably the Shadow Depository at the end of last season. There were a lot of big sets in that Ep.

• Moderator: <Gmmas> to <Moderator>: Tim: did you design that ball like think Crichton was strapped to in Liars, Guns and Money, and was it as uncomfortable as it looked?

  TimFerrier: My regard for Ben Browder grew imeasureably after that experience.
  TimFerrier: Yes, I did design it and yes it was uncomfortable but I personally didn't try it out!!

• Moderator2: <Scaper1984> to <Moderator2>: HI! Tim, what set are you most proud of?

  TimFerrier: The shadow Depository at the end of Season Two. From this season, the Kanvia Office form Ep. 307

• Moderator: <primatebrain> to <Moderator>: Do you know what species Natira is, yet?

  FrooniumRicky: Don't think we ever named her species
  FrooniumRicky: Maybe we should have a contest ;)

• Moderator: <WITGOB> to <Moderator>: Froon - Will natira come back at any stage?
  Moderator: <Dallascaper> to <Moderator>: Was Natira wearing some kind of body armor or was she naked?

  FrooniumRicky: Well, I'd sure like to see her again
  FrooniumRicky: Claudia Karvan, btw, is doing a series here in Oz
  FrooniumRicky: called "The Secret Life of Us"
  FrooniumRicky: sort of an Oz version of Sex in the City, kind of
  FrooniumRicky: as for body armor... well, I think that was all "Natira", myself
  FrooniumRicky: rather like a turtle shell
  FrooniumRicky: I'll get a can opener and let you know