Season 2, Episode 8 – Dream a Little Dream
In an episode that takes the form of flashback, Zhaan, imprisoned on the planet Litigara and lost in feelings of guilt and despair, is unable and unwilling to defend herself from the accusations of corrupt Litigarans. As such, Chiana and Rygel must take the law into their own hands (literally?) to prove Zhaan’s innocence and undermine a political conspiracy. This plot makes evident the self-conscious use of language by the characters to construct various notions of truth.
Back in Mind the Baby, Season 2 begins with Zhaan obsessively rededicated to her faith, ignoring Chiana and Rygel to meditate and pray. She does have time, though, to make small talk with her hallucinations of John, D’Argo, who she believes are dead. Zhaan appears to be off-kilter. However, when the whole crew reunites Zhaan hints at the difficulties of their time apart but doesn’t get too deep into it .The viewer and seemingly John, Aeryn, and D’Argo remain ignorant of those events. And while Zhaan sees more centered and with it than she did in that first episode, she still seems a bit nutty. In fact, she has seemed on the edge and a bit erratic since Rhapsody in Blue if not That Old Black Magic. The odd thing about that is if she has been a bit off kilter and such since then, that means that only seven episodes where she was sort of the level calm level headed shaman that she at times seems to be and often the crew wants and needs her to be.
Here, in Dream a Little Dream, we are provided with further insight into how Zhaan understands her role on Moya. Yet, the episode’s attention language suggests that perhaps Zhaan isn’t being completely honest about all that she feels or all that she has experienced. The plot begins with Zhaan and John stuck on one of the Moya’s transport pods, safe but adrift. Needing to waste some time while they wait for Moya, Zhaan decides she is going to tell John about the events that occurred when he, D’Argo, and Aeryn were separated from Moya. The significance of course is that the story is told from Zhaan’s perspective. She even asks John if Chiana or Rygel said anything about their visit to Litigara. John reports that they told him to ask her. John does by asking if it is something she doesn’t want to talk about. Zhaan responds that it is “something I don’t want to remember.” Since the episode is presented as a flashback, implicitly narrated by Zhaan, it might be possible to ask whether she actually does remember or share the whole experience. Ultimately, her story portrays the power and futility of language and it’s always precarious relationship to truth.
As Zhaan’s story unfolds many early scenes call attention to language. Zhaan, Chiana, and Rygel are in a bar questions people about the whereabouts of the other members of the crew. Visually frustrated by the inability to find the rest of the crew, Zhaan turns to a drunk Rygel and scolds him for being “dren-faced.” The combination of actual languages depicts the playfulness of language as well as its function to make the audience feel like an insider in the Farscape universe. A scene later, Moya and Pilot contact Zhaan and insist that it is time for the search to end. Zhaan argues that they need to stay a bit longer. Pilot explains that Moya “demands” that they return to the ship. Pilot and Moya rarely if ever demand or command. Zhaan is taken aback and repeats the word as she tries to figure out what they mean. At the same time avoiding the reality that the rest of the crew are not on the planet. As Rygel and Chiana try understand Litigaran law they discuss its finer points with a bartender. They express tremendous confusion with the language and disdain if not wonder? At the volumes of books that Litigaran’s have on the law. The bartender explains that as more and more people joined the litigative workforce, the law needed to increase in amount and complexity to justify the increased workforce.
Alternatively, some scenes specifically emphasize the ambivalent nature of language. For instance, when Zhaan is imprisoned, she begs her lawyer to “listen to her.” The lawyer moves closer to the bars and Zhaan grabs and chokes him, demanding to be freed. Then, alone in her cell, her hallucination of John comes near her and she cries for it to leave, yet as it sits close to her, she rests her head on his shoulder and admits her fear and lack of faith in Rygel and Chiana. These two scenes depict the ambivalent power of language. On one hand, Zhaan implores the lawyer for understanding only to attack him, and on the other, her cries of anger belie her feelings of guilt and fear.
Even more emphatically the ever shifting relationship between perspective, power, language, and meaning occurs when Rygel and Chiana call upon the Litigarans’ ancient and most holy tradition of the “Stick of Truth”… I mean “Light of Truth” (not the South Park RPG). The Light of Truth is, though, literally a stick that, when agreed upon by a judicial body, becomes the representation of the value that the Litigarans’ hold most dear. Of course the irony for Rygel and Chiana is that they need to lie about the stick of… “Light of Truth” to trick Ja Rhumann, the head of the conspiracy, into admitting the truth.
Returning to the present time, Zhaan finishes her story. John touches her nose to prove that he is real. Zhaan explains that she intensified her spiritual training because her experience on Litigara left her feeling vulnerable and insufficient as a member of the crew. She states that the crew wants more out of her. John attempts to console her by snarking, “Screw `em Zhaany! You’re a 10th level Pa’u. You get to 11, we get a TV ministry.” Zhaan smiles, “If I may be honest John, most of the time I have no idea what you’re saying.” John confesses he doesn’t either. More significant than the snark is the relationship between John and Zhaan, one that seems to transcend a trust in language.
The Litigaran trust in the law seems to be a trust in an objective understanding of language. Yet, it is the conspiracist ability to interpret and set up the ambiguity of language that allows them to use Zhaan as a patsy. At the same time, Rygel and Chiana’s ability to interpret and exploit the language of the law enables them to save Zhaan. Trust in the law seems second to the power of relationships, relationships that are essential to Zhaan’s well-being and identity. Moreover, this depiction of Zhaan’s difficulty to reconcile the loss of the crew members told through a focus on language, truth and trust reveals that Zhaan may have told John the truth, but she might not be telling him the whole story
“Talking, talking. Spinning a web of words, pale walls of dreams, between myself and all I see.”
Grendel ~ John Gardner
Unrealized Realities 