Farscape/Recap/S04/E20 We're So Screwed: Hot to Katratzi

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
< Farscape‎ | Recap‎ | S04


Season 4, Episode 20:

We're So Screwed, part 2: Hot to Katratzi

As Commandant Grayza of the Peacekeepers and Emperor Staleek of the Scarrans meet to work out their peace agreement, Crichton, Aeryn, D'Argo, Chiana, Rygel, Sikozu and Noranti arrive at Katratzi in Lo'La with a "plan": they're going to ignite the already-tenuous relationship between the Kalish and the Charrids into a full-on civil war, and use the chaos to escape with Scorpius. As cover, Crichton claims that he's willing to sell the wormhole technology to whoever's willing to pay the most and can guarentee the freedom of Moya and her crew, and for protection, he constructs a small thermonuclear bomb attached to a lifesigns montitors, so that if he dies or even goes outside the optimum range of readings, the bomb will go off and likely kill everyone on the base.

Rygel meets with the Charrids and plants the suggestion that the Scarrans are planning to break their alliance, while Sikozu makes contact with the Kalish underground resistance movement, and it's revealed that she's actually a bioloid. Crichton and Aeryn meet with Staleek [1] and Grayza, who are each willing to deal, but Scarran War Minister Ahkna believes the bomb is a bluff and that Crichton has come for Scorpius. Scorpius is being tortured by Ahkna for his knowledge about wormholes, but he's tight-lipped and knows that he'll die before giving any information. Ahkna has a backup plan: Stark, who is present, willing to torture Scorpius and able to take the knowledge from Scorpius should he die. However, it transpires that Scorpius is playing along with a ruse that Ahkna isn't aware of, and when Scorpius gets a moment alone with Staleek, it's revealed that Scorpius has (seemingly) been serving the Scarran Empire as a spy for the past ten cycles.

To keep everyone distracted, Crichton gives the Scarrans the location of a wormhole as a "demonstration" and when a Stryker is sent to investigate, it gets too close and is destroyed. Meanwhile, Sikozu discovers a way to trigger the riot: deep within the asteroid base, there is a cavern full of strange flowers that has the highest level of security. If the crew can get access, the Scarrans will look for someone to blame, the Charrids and Kalish will accuse one another and start fighting. After checking that Scorpius is indeed on the base, Crichton and Aeryn use a stolen access code to get into the flower chamber, and when the Scarrans catch them, they claim the lift was down to the chamber was simply left unattended. Accusations fly between the Kalish and the Charrids, and then the fighting starts. In the chaos, Crichton and Aeryn rescue Scorpius and everyone heads to where Lo'La is docked. For once, the plan is going smooth... until at the last moment, when Scorpius turns on Crichton and summons the Charrid guards. Shocked and angry, Crichton's lifesigns start going haywire and the nuclear bomb starts to beep ominously...