Farscape/Recap/S02/E14 Beware of Dog

Season 2, Episode 14:

Beware Of Dog
Aeryn finds John playing chess with himself and juggling with a metal ball in the way we saw Scorpius doing towards the end of the first season. She heard him talking to himself, but he insists he's fine.

The Moya crew have been purchasing supplies in a system so isolated and boring that the writers can't be bothered to give it a name. However, they have heard dark rumours that food from the area can be infested with parasites: one ship with 200 people aboard got infected and all that the salvagers found were empty cocoons. D'Argo and Chiana have been investigating further, and come back with a weird-looking, horned biped with big ears called a Vorc, which is supposed to hunt and kill parasites. It pees on D'Argo and runs away into the corridors.

Meanwhile Rygel has been wandering in the cargo bay and is startled by something.

Crichton is wandering the corridors playing a form of croquet to pass the time. He sees a frightening-looking, fanged and clawed goblin-like creature through the door in Rygel's quarters. He shoots at it, but when he bursts in to the quarters it has vanished.

Zhaan is sorting the food in the galley when she and Chiana are stalked by something that turns out to be the Vorc. She and Chiana try to trap it ineffectually before Aeryn comes in and grabs it by the throat. The Vorc bites her belly and runs away again.

Pilot and Aeryn suspect that John may have imagined the creature. John sees it again and chases it into the cargo bay, where he nearly shoots Rygel.

Aeryn finds the Vorc in her quarters, where it has crapped on the floor, refuses to get off her bed, and then starts humping her leg. It runs away again and Aeryn rants to the others that the parasites are fictitious and made up to con them into buying a worthless Vorc.

In the cargo bay, Rygel and Chiana are attacked by the goblin-creature. D'Argo comes to the rescue but is attacked and collapses. John rushes in to find Rygel tending to D'Argo, who suddenly goes into convulsions. Once he is moved to the medical bay, Zhaan diagnoses some kind of infection.

John and Aeryn, hunting the monster, find the Vorc. They decide to try to see if it can track the monster. Zhaan contacts them to say that D'Argo is suffering from some kind of unknown venom. As John and Pilot set the DRDs to search, she tells them that the monster must be captured alive if she is to be able to derive an antivenom for D'Argo. Suddenly, John sees Scorpius's face in the comms clamshell, threatening him "You'll never see it coming, John".

D'Argo has been set up in Moya's neural cluster to get as much air as possible, with Chiana tending him. Rygel comes to see them, and unconvincingly denies that he's afraid to be alone.

Aeryn is carrying the Vorc on her back, but it gets a scent and runs away. Suddenly Pilot announces that the DRDs have found the monster just above where D'Argo is. Chiana sees it in the corridor and shoots at it. John tells her off and insists that it has to be taken alive. Pilot then detects the monster in Command. John has another vision of Scorpius. He and Aeryn find the Vorc in Command, but it suddenly sheds its skin to become the monster. They knock it out with gas bombs.

Zhaan reports that she can find no trace of any kind of venom in the monster. Chiana is talking to D'Argo and blames herself for bringing the Vorc on board, but D'Argo insists that he did so equally.

John suggests that maybe the Vorc isn't the real threat and that it's hunting the real threat. Aeryn remembers that the Vorc also bit her, and that she isn't poisoned. John gets the crazy idea of injecting the Vorc with translator microbes to try to communicate with it. The Vorc initially can't talk but reacts when Aeryn suggests killing it. Pilot pipes up that thanks to his link with Moya he is used to non-verbal communication. The Vorc keeps repeating "friend", warns of danger, and demands to be freed to destroy the danger. John agrees but threatens to shoot it if it tries anything.

Rygel appears frightened by the whole situation. The Vorc mutates into the monster again and runs off into the passageways. Rygel finds himself confronted by the Vorc-monster in the cargo bay. John and Aeryn tell him that it's after the parasite, not him, but he and the Vorc struggle and he is left severely injured. The Vorc disappears again.

D'Argo is barely conscious and apparently dying. He begs the others to find his son.

John and Aeryn are hunting the Vorc, which they now believe is a threat again. John has another vision of Scorpius and nearly shoots Aeryn aiming at the image. The Vorc shows itself and they chase it, despite the probability that it's leading them into a trap. They chase the Vorc into the cargo bay and shoot it, but find a cocoon that it may have been trying to show them.

In the medical bay, Rygel horrifically starts decomposing into insects. In the cargo bay, John and Aeryn open the cocoon and find the real Rygel, who must have been overpowered right at the start of the episode. John threatens him to try to make sure that he's the real Rygel and he farts helium. The fake Rygel attacks Zhaan. John and Aeryn get back to the medical bay in time to shoot it, and it falls apart into a swarm of scuttling insects, which John freezes with fire extinguishing gas.

Zhaan manages to derive an antivenom for D'Argo, and Rygel is outraged that nobody noticed he was being impersonated. John and Aeryn tend the dying Vorc and apologise to it.

John and Aeryn play chess together and she challenges him about nearly shooting her. John admits that he's been seeing Scorpius and hearing Scorpius's voice intimately talking to him. Aeryn asks him why he didn't kill Scorpius on the Royal Planet and John says "something inside" stopped him. Aeryn tells him to say if he needs help and he says that he'll talk as much as she does to him. He insists "I'm not gonna lose my mind, it's the last thing I've got left". Aeryn leaves and we see Scorpius opposite the chess board from John. He taunts John with "You'll never see it coming, John. When the trap closes, it will be too late." John checkmates him and Scorpius, smirking, says that he wasn't talking about the chess game.

Tropes present in this episode include:

 * All Webbed Up
 * Bare Your Midriff: Yeah, the Vorc biting Aeryn on the stomach was just an excuse to show even more of Claudia Black's midriff than usual this season.
 * Horned Humanoid
 * The Mole
 * Ordered Apology: Aeryn's incredibly insincere apology when John orders her to say sorry for threatening to kill the Vorc.
 * Orifice Invasion: According to Rygel, what the insects did to him before cocooning him. Yuk.
 * Pet the Dog: Rygel tending the injured D'Argo appears to be this the first time of viewing, but it's actually the parasite poisoning him.
 * Shape Shifter Baggage: The Vorc's monstrous form is human-sized, much larger than it's "cute" form.
 * Small Annoying Creature
 * Tomato Surprise
 * Trap Is the Only Option
 * Urine Trouble
 * The Worm That Walks
 * You Are Who You Eat