Farscape (TV Series) Die Me, Dichotomy (2000) User Reviews

A bleak end to the second series

[Tweekums · 9/10 · 1 July 2012]

With Moya badly damaged and Crichton on the brink of insanity due to Scorpius' chip the crew Tocot; a Diagnosian who may be able to cure them... for a price. He starts work on Moya but John is fast losing the battle for his mind with 'Harvey'. It eventually gets to the point that he hurts Rygel, Aeryn and Zhaan before leaving in his module. When he departs he tries to contact Scorpius. Aeryn pursues him in her prowler but after a chase he manages to force her to eject over a frozen lake. Shortly afterwards John regains control of himself but it looks as if it is too late to help Aeryn. He manages to get back to Tocot's facility and the doctor starts to undo the damage caused by the chip; it might be too late though as Scorpius arrives leaving John in a very bad way as the episode ends with the words '... to be continued'.

This was a great end to the second season that left me looking forward to the third! As the episode opened it looked as if things were going to get better as Moya and Crichton were going to be cured. Tocot and his assistant came across as rather mercenary but so long as they got paid they'd do what they could to help. Tocot made an interesting character; he is a doctor capable of healing almost anybody but his own sensitivity to germs means he must wear a mask as the slightest contamination would kill him. I didn't expect John to lose control to such an extent that he could do serious harm to his friends. Ben Browder did a fine job portraying Crichton; both as his normal self and in 'Scorpius make-up' when he totally loses control to the chip. Aeryn's pursuit of Crichton through the frozen canyons was fairly spectacular as was her ejection into the frozen lake; this led to one of the most emotional scenes in the series so far as the crew said their farewell's to her.

John is at the end of his rope as is Moya when they arrive at the ice planet of Tocot The Diagnostician and his grotesque negotiator, Grunchlick.

[mayanscaper · 10/10 · 8 July 2017]

Die Me Dichotomy is the perfect double entendres title for this harrowing extreme cliffhanger to the second season of Farscape. David Kemper, Executive Producer and writer of this episode that sees Harvey finally take over John Crichton body and soul despite the efforts of Aeryn and the crew to help him stop the madness. It sees Ben Browder play a distraught John who can't even pull the trigger of his pulse pistol to end his misery plus who has Wayne Pygram's unique speech patterns and walk so down that they had to step back from the full Scorpius costume when a British fan magazine published Ben's photo rather than Wayne's for the episode.

Aeryn seeks to stop the now comprised John from Calling Scorpius while down in the Neurocluster and even declares her love for the first time to who she thinks is John, who bashes her head in and then licks her face as Scorpius did to show affection to Natira on the Hidden Depositary. Even Zhaan is deceived by Harvey/John and releases him after being attacked when she thought she was dealing with John. Harvey had him strictly under control as they began an atmospheric dog fight (thought up by fellow show runners Ricky Manning) which lead to the ultimate defeat of Aeryn who had to bale from her failing prowler over an icy lake. Harvey's torture of John continues as he allows John release only to watch Aeryn drown as he called out amidst the pained screams of Moya's crew. Aeryn cried out to John that she hoped he remembered what she said in the neurocluster, but of course he didn't.

Claudia had a shock when getting ready for this dramatic scene when David Kemper climbed the very tall scaffolding that Claudia was to leap from just to tell her how proud he was of her performance this season. This slightly freaked Claudia out because Australian producers never appear on set during filming and certainly never chase an actress up on to the heights. Claudia made the high leap into a very muddy pool of water where visibility was difficult. She indicated she wanted rescuing when her arm lowered. It was a risky highly dramatic scene to film with Ben's anguished performance as counterpoint to Claudia's frantically trying to save herself. In the end, John was recaptured and put in chains as a precaution during an emotionally strong funeral scene with gorgeous Gregorian chants and Zhaan officiating as priestess.

Rygel gave his prize belt of state and D'Argo gave his Qualta blade as Aeryn was laid to rest. David Kemper trusted Ben so much that he told him that the scene would be left without words to play and only an indication to Props that D'Argo should carry a knife. Ben did the fairy tale thing and cut a lock of Aeryn's hair but almost looked like he would slit his wrists in grief.

The scene left me speechless between the highly emotional goodbyes in the foreground and especially Ben's face and eyes vs What was going on in the background between Jothee and Chiana which was setting up the start of Season 3 called Season of Death.

The shocking cliffhanger occurs as Tocot promises to make John normal but is seemingly killed by Scorpious in revenge which leaves John strapped to the operating table mute and beyond angry as Scorpius walks away with the chip condemning John to a life of horror.

The To Be Continued label appears on the screen over John's incoherent screams. Never has there been a more harrowing ending and months to wait until Ricky Manning's script for the first episode of Season 3, Sons and Lovers.

Die Me Dichotomy deserves awards for writing, directing and Ben Browder's acting. It was a superior ending to a strong season where Farscape became its unique self.

Best episode of the series

[Prometheus-101 · 10/10 · 8 June 2022]

I remember when this firecracker of a season finale originally aired in the UK, just before Christmas 2000. I was blown away, and still am more than 20 years later.

Season 2 had already given us such a strong collection of episodes, developing the John/Aeryn romance, the Scorpius neural chip arc, and the bond between the characters. It all seems to lead inevitably to a showdown like Die Me Dichotomy, but the episode manages to be more than the sum of its parts, bringing all these elements together into something really special. The agony of Aeryn's death, made all the more brutal because it's at the hands of the man she's only just admitted to loving, is a real gut punch of a moment and storytelling at its finest. The acting is superb from all the cast and sells the emotion of this moment and the aftermath brilliantly. And the epsiode isn't even over at that point. We have the double cliffhanger of John being left with his brains hanging out on an operating table, robbed of his powers of speech and knowing he's responsible for the death of the woman he loved. It's powerful, heartbreaking stuff, all the more so because there really wasn't any certainty about what was coming next. My memories of the time were of a really long wait for season 3, during which we didn't know whether Aeryn was dead dead or just sci-fi dead. What a climax to a great season 2.

I've rewatched the episode more times than I can count over the years and it still holds up. It is paced brilliantly, so engrossing that I'm always caught by surprise at how quickly we get to the final moments. Farscape would have many great moments and episodes after DMD, but for me this was the high point of the whole series. This is not just television sci-fi, but dramatic storytelling in general at its absolute best. My highest recommendation.

Scorpy storyline is getting tedious

[stellansson · 4/10 · 29 May 2020]

I enjoy this show, even though it's a bit old, but they have really dragged this S&M character Scorpius out too long, and looking at the cast it seems like we have to live with this character through most of the series (Over 60 episodes). It would be refreshing if a new villan could appear. I'm just really bored with the insufferable speeches. Get on with it already. Sadly to say, that if the next two seasons are going to be dominated by this leather clad Darth Vader wannabe, I'm going to stop watching. Sad but true. Like I said, this is a good show with good actors, but the villans must change. Stargate (in all its incarnations) did this well. They kept some old villans but introduced new threats all the time to keep interest up. I'll give Farscape a chance in season three, but if it's all Scorpy, I'm done.