Season 2, Episode 3: “Taking the Stone”
** out of *****
“Lately, do I seem…a little crazy to you?”
“What do you mean, ‘lately’?”
Chiana learns that her brother Nerri has died and, to deal with her grief, hooks up with a bunch of irritating constantly-baked teenagers with terrible hair who live on a graveyard planet. Also, Rygel’s new look haunts him (literally), and it would’ve gotten away with it, too, if it weren’t for those meddling kids and their Luxan.
While I like Chiana, this episode is one of my least favorite of the season. It’s just…boring. The Rygel subplot is a bit incidental and doesn’t really go anywhere, even when it tries to give D’Argo and Zhaan something to do on the side. The drama on the planet is dull. The little bit with Chiana’s suicidal tendencies and Aeryn’s understanding is occasionally interesting[1], but there’s too much story gristle around that meat for it to redeem the episode.
It’s a shame that Crichton didn’t turn around at the start when Chiana told him she needed to talk. Edgley plays Chiana’s pain really well, and Crichton being too absorbed in his own task to see that makes me feel for her all the more. Plus, if he’d just seen that something was wrong at that point, this whole episode might have been avoided.
Crichton continues to be very protective of his crewmates. Heck, he’s willing to play Mushroom Roulette[2] just to get some information that MIGHT help Chiana. He’s a more extreme personality than he used to be, and is beginning to notice his own instabilities…
Last line:
“Let’s get out of this dead place.”
Other Comments:
So where are the pre-teens? These kids are obviously procreating.
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[1] Aeryn clearly has more experience with people dealing with grief than Crichton does.
[2] With a one-in-four chance of dying, no less.
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