PK Tech Girl
Written by Nan Hagan
Directed by Tony Tilse
If anyone has read Ramblings, has ever seen me post about this on one of the Farscape mailing lists, or talked to me about this episode, you know my problem with it. Which I will get out of the way first. I admit, I hate Gilina. Absolutely hate her. (And it should be noted that even if I hate a character, that does not say anything about the actor that plays them. I may hate Gilina, but I thought Alyssa-Jane Cook did a wonderful job of playing her.) I know I'm in the minority with this one, but I can't help it. And I wish I could like her, but I don't think that's going to happen anytime soon. I understand how she plays into everything from a shipper point of view, and I actually like the plot. I see that she's there to set up a direct contrast to Aeryn, which she does, in looks, manner and personality. I think that's why I don't like her. By contrasting Aeryn, Gilina comes off as a weak character, which is something I just personally can't stand. Her opinion seems to shift to whatever someone tells her, and she continues to add to the Peacekeeper stereotype that seemed to form. I just can't ignore things like this, and so I can't like her. I have heard that she will be coming back in a future episode, though, and maybe seeing her there I might be able to not be so hostile towards a fictional character.
One thing that Gilina adds to this episode is something I'm all too happy to talk about. Although this is debatable, I stick to my opinion that PK Tech Girl is in fact, the first shippy episode. Aeryn admits to finding John "interesting" upon their first meeting, a revelation that seems to totally knock John off guard. And the tag scene puts kind of a new spin on the relationship, that they do have something in common- Aeryn can't possibly go home, and John knows that it could very well be the same way for him- and that they do understand a little where the other is coming from. So from a shipper point of view, this is definitely one of the big episodes (and look, it's not even written by Justin Monjo!). I just keep my eyes closed when John's kissing Gilina.
We also get another insight into Aeryn here. This is the episode where she gets to play Peacekeeper again, clearly relishing her interrogation of Gilina, giving orders and knowing that John had no place to interfere. For once, she's completely at home in her own world. Of course, she also finds out that because of her actions in Premiere, her entire unit has been demoted to grunt work and will only be reinstated when she dies. Her near-helplessness is obvious as Gilina takes over the situation, and seems to feel left out as she watches Gilina and John restart the defense sheild. She gets called a traitor (only to be defended by John), and when she later tells Gilina what will happen to her if she tells anyone what really happened, it's clear that Aeryn absolutely knows that she will never again be able to go back to her old life. I actually think this might be the first episode where she realizes this.
One thing I wish they'd spent more time on was the Rygel subplot. It was an interesting look into the workings of the character. This was obviously something that deeply affected him, and in my opinion we didn't see enough of this. Not that I want to see Rygel torture, don't get me wrong. But we see a few glimpses of Durka, see Rygel on the Zelbinion a few times, see him find Durka dead and take back his medal, but it was pretty anticlimactic. Although I did like the way things were set up, with Rygel's flashbacks, and Durka definitely is a creepy bad guy.
All in all, I liked this one. Yes, Gilina was a downside to me, but she wasn't enough to take away from the entire episode. I liked seeing D'Argo bluffing against the Sheyangs. I liked everything I've already mentioned. I still do my little ShipperSqueal at parts. So for this one, I have to give... (drumroll please)...
GRADE: A-