Rygel is selected to conduct trade negotiations with the Tavleks. They kidnap him and hold him for ransom. After all, they believe him to be the supreme ruler of over 600 billion subjects, and they want a payout. Unfortunately for them, Rygel is a deposed king, so none will pay for him. Some of the crew want to rescue him (John Chrichton and the blue priestess), but some others (D'Argo and Aeryn) could care less and are happy to abandon him. Unfortunately for all, he took an essential component of Moya as part of his royal scepter, so he must be rescued. Eventually he is rescued, once the Tavleks are convinced that he is worthless.
We already knew from the pilot episode the backstory of Rygel and his lost throne, but this episode redramathizes it, showing us just how pathetic Rygel's fate really is by comparing him to Jotheb, in the line of succession to the Consortium of Trao (consisting of 10,000 worlds, each with 4 billion inhabitants) --- his ransom will be paid.
We also learn in this episode that when a Luxan is wounded, if his blood runs dark, then the wound is infected, and he must be made to bleed more until his blood runs clear, which means the infection has been expulsed from the body --- or else he will die.
And we are introduced in this episode to the Tavlek gauntlet, which is an arm band that injects drugs into the wearer's system, increasing his (or her) strength, speed, and other physical abilities. Unfortunately, it also increases ferocity, anger, paranoia, and aggression. The only way to remove the gauntlet is by rendering the wearer unconscious or by using up the drug contained within it. And once the gauntlet is off, the wearer finds himself (or herself) extremely weak, depleted, and tired.
Review by noelctBlockedParentSpoilers2022-03-21T22:42:55Z
Our Deconstructing Moya post from 2010
http://farscape.madeoffail.net/episodes/episode-1-04-throne-for-a-loss/
Fresh thoughts:
I've been bringing up the last couple episodes about how Zhaan has been falling into den mother mode, always calming and comforting and guiding. This is the episode that starts breaking her of it. In the last episode, she was comforting and urging John. Here, she's rolling her eyes at the news that he has a plan. The entire plot of her and Kyr the young Tavlek lets us see how strong she is and capable of violence, which further accentuates her peace and control. And the great ending, of her going through all this trouble to free him of his drug dependency, only for him to happily return right to it, is something that you can see takes a toll on her. Outside of the pilot, we're not used to Zhaan's anger, but it's something we'll start seeing more often.
As I said in my review, this is the first episode to start feeling like a more traditional episode of Farscape. D'Argo trying to assume command in a way that highlights how this ensemble has no leader. John striking a truce only after gaining an audience by activating the very weapon he's spent the entire episode avoiding (HEAVY unintentional foreshadowing to the end of Peacekeeper Wars there). Aeryn and D'Argo continue to hate each other even as they're always there to help each other. Rygel finally shows his own self loathing at just how far he's fallen and how hated he is, and he's completely incapable of changing as he just has to get a nasty final dig in on the very people who saved him. John starting to become the "ugly American" who's so frustrated the locals aren't understanding his pop culture references that he doesn't even care that he's getting them wrong half the time himself.
I think the major reason why this feels like a major step in the direction of what this show is tonally becoming is that it was the first written someone who would go on to become a major creative voice on the team. Richard Manning is a veteran of the first three seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and also wrote episodes of ExoSquad, TekWar, and Sliders. He not only goes on to be one of the most prominent writers of Farscape for all four seasons, but just a few episodes after this, he becomes a consulting producer, then bumps up to co-executive producer for season 2, then a full executive producer on seasons 3 and 4.
Alas, this is the second and final episode for director Pino Amenta. Back in "I, ET", I was stuck by the staging of the scene between Aeryn and Dargo in the tree. It was very strangely staged and posed, and yet kinda worked in an odd way. The scene between them in the woods as Aeryn is recovering from her drug crash is very similarly done. There's an artifice to the poses, but it still heightens the characters in a way I like. Maybe a hair too cartoonish in its artifice, but I'm digging it.
Overall, a key episode, even though it's often dismissed as filler. Even beyond the cast, this shows the hardships they face as they have little food, no resources, and no source of income to get out of it. They're criminals nudging around the periphery for scraps.