Whilst flying a Transport Pod, Crichton and Aeryn become ensnared in ‘The Flax’, an immobilising net-like weapon under the control of ruthless Zenetan Pirates. An eccentric ex-pirate, Staanz, comes to Moya’s aid before she too is captured, but he is being pursued by the dangerous hunter Kcrackic. After D’Argo abandons them to search a nearby Luxan vessel caught in The Flax, Crichton and Aeryn are faced with a serious problem: they must depressurize the Pod to make repairs, but they have only one space suit – meaning one of them must die.

Synopsis

An episode in which three crew members for once put the welfare of others first.

D’Argo has to choose between getting information which might help him find his son or saving Crichton and Aeryn. At first he opts for the former but just in time he changes his mind, deciding that when he finally finds his son he wants to be able to look him in eye, to have a clean conscience.

Rygel is a big surprise. I was right there with Zhaan assuming the worst and he turns out to have had a rather devious plan in place all along. Sending the Zenetan Pirates off in the wrong direction.

Then there’s Aeryn, putting aside Peacekeeper self preservation rather than letting Crichton die, even if it means they’ve both got a matter of minutes of life support left between them. This ends up with the inevitable ‘we’re going to die so why not’ situation which is broken up by D’Argo’s arrival. A little awkward, but nothing compared to how D’Argo himself feels soon after.

Staanz’s ship is funny, a stinking pile of junk that needs serious percussive maintenance to keep it going, and Staanz herself is a little ripe. Yes you read that right, she’s female and takes a shine to D’Argo. That was such an unexpected little twist and an excellent punchline.

Naturally at the end Crichton and Aeryn agree that ‘it’ was just a heat of the moment thing which meant nothing, not totally negating what happened but setting the relationship clock back a little.