Twenty years ago I was active on the Tormented Space forum - mostly visited by former BBC forum members who sought refuge elsewhere when the BBC closed the forum after Farscape got cancelled. It still exists today but the last post dates back 15 years or so. Regardless its, my or Farscape age, I still consider Farscape to be among the best, if not the best, SF series on TV.
One of the things discussed about this particular episode (a lot more exhaustive than the discussion above) was: Who killed Salis?
To celebrate my 1000th post on this board and to revive (if possible) Farscape, I reworked the review I wrote back then regarding this episode. This is the point where the series really got going.
+++ WARNING: This post contains loads and loads of spoilers.
Durka Returns or The Cold Case of Salis’ Murder
"Because we spent over 100 cycles making sure."
Let’s get the bad stuff out of the way first and start this review with the most absurd line from this episode, perhaps even the entire season. The Nebari have the resources, patience and – apparently - the drive to spent 100 cycles per patient for subjecting them to Mind Cleansing. They reserve this special treatment not only for people of their own species or worlds, but for anyone they encounter with 'flaws in their personality' And who (on Moya) has none?
When Salis suggested that Zhaan would benefit from a ‘character adjustment’, her response was silent but unequivocally enough. “My point exactly,” observed Salis. Is this why Zhaan killed him?
One hundred cycles. Did the writers actually mean solar-cycles, as in years? Early in the series some unity’s and terms were used somewhat ambiguous. Here it is clearly used to indicate an absurdly long-term treatment, longer than a (Sebacaen) lifespan, to undergo while in cryonic suspension. A treatment to eliminate ‘thought patterns that lead to inappropriate behaviour’, a treatment beyond compare in duration and, as one might expect, effectiveness. Until one meets Rygel, normally an annoying character but, when enraged, an unrestrained tyrant. Salis wants him turned over after his attempt to kill Durka, to be corrected. Surely it was Rygel who killed Salis?
Time to introduce Chiana. She was meant to disappear after one episode, but never left. And that made sense. Her nonconforming attitude made her a perfect addition to the Moya crew, as did her great performance on her first appearance.
There she is, secured in a cell, with a restraint collar around her neck and her hands cuffed at the back. Non-conformists must be very, very dangerous to Nebari’s grey society. She knows that, while outwardly being grey, she can never live up to grey expectations. She is different and fears the radical answer her society has when dealing with such people. Compulsory adaptation. Was it desperation that made her become a murderess?
But first she tries other paths and methods. John Crichton. He seemed responsive to her pleas, but what can he do? Moya and her crew are fugitives. How would they impart amnesty? On moral authority? By what standards? Or, as Salis put it, “Are you now the arbiter of our justice system?”
Crichton is basically tied by hand and feet here and can only watch as Chiana is being punished for her behaviour. Was it this feeling of frustrated powerlessness or the barbaric method of inducing pain to restrain people? Did his subconsciousness perhaps recognize Karen Shaw (ep. 4.12 Kansas) and is he so enamoured by Chiana that Crichton is willing to kill to get her free?
Or was it Aeryn? Maybe D’Argo? It couldn’t be Durka, right, after 100 cycles of unequalled treatment. But everyone seems to think it was Chiana.
She called upon Crichton to use moral authority, assuming he has morals. If so, what is morally acceptable and what is not? Perhaps we are inclined to disregard moral issues when it concerns people we love or know or trust. Is it possible not to be biased?
Rygel tried to kill Durka, his torturer, by throwing a bomb, uncaring for innocent bystanders (Crichton).
In response Crichton threatened to space Rygel. No one objected.
D'Argo had no such qualms either; “If you see Chiana, shoot to kill,” while she was only suspected of having murdered Salis. Aeryn had little trouble going along.
Zhaan had basically threatened Salis, when he made the suggestion she could use a Mental Cleansing.
Everyone, at some point in this episode, was willing to use violence.
Worse even, when you take their histories in consideration.
Zhaan, quiet and zen-like, had killed her lover in a most traitorous way, when intimately engaged in Unity (ep. 1.12 Rhapsody in Blue).
Rygel, as Dominar, had millions of lives on his conscious and done horrifying things.
General Ka D’Argo had seen the battlefield.
And what about Aeryn, while serving as Peacekeeper?
Who on board Moya had the moral high ground to exercise moral authority?
But is was fear for the possible retribution by the Nebari that drove everyone to chase the one person that represented an unknown factor. The unpredictable nonconformist. Unknown and unloved.
Who killed Salis? The episode doesn’t answer this question, because it was beside the point. It was about violence; sometimes justified, sometimes understandable, but mostly objectionable. Chiana’s plea to use moral authority remains unanswered. Any answer would depend on so many factors and changing perspectives that the answer we might give today may not be the same answer we give tomorrow.
The Cold Case of Salis’ Murder remains, intentionally, unsolved*. What it brought us was another fabulous Farscape episode that raises questions to ponder, without moralizing endings. But above all, it introduced Chiana.
* I believe there are several clues that indicate it wasn’t Chiana, but that would require another post. But really, the title gives us the answer: Durka (that monster of the Zelbinion) RETURNS.
