D'argo attends at the death rituals of a Luxan holy woman, but her last-minute attempt to restore her youth endangers Pilot and Moya.

Quotable Moments

Crichton: D'argo, just because some ancient Luxan doesn't like the feel of yourspleen does not give her the right to call my friend a fraud!

Rygel: What did you see from the outside?    More Stories The SPACE.com Guide to Farscape Farscape - 'Vitas Mortis' (spoilers) Farscape - 'Mind the Baby' Farscape: What Has Gone Before    Multimedia Opening credits sequence    Related Links Farscape Sci-Fi Channel Aeryn: A few gaps in the outer hull and your backside hanging out in space. Rygel: Am I intact? Aeryn: You seem to be all there, but I can't say I looked too closely.

Written by Grant McAloon
Directed by Tony Tilse

Melissa Jaffer -- Nilaam (old)
Anna Lise Phillips -- Nilaam (young)

After a short wait, they are escorted into the presence of Nilaam, an aged holy woman. D'argo introduces himself as "Ka D'argo," and she mutters that he's "rather young for a general."

D'argo is shocked to see the woman -- she is what his people call an "Orican," apparently a venerable figure -- but she orders him to approach. When she tells him she is dying, he offers to attend her.

She plunges her hand into his chest to judge his worthiness. "You are very strong," she decides, "but worthy? No!"

"Vitas Mortis" is more about fear of death than death itself. Despite early hints that we might learn something of the "next realm" after life in the Farscape universe, Nilaam's decision to avoid death dominates the story.

Unfortunately, the conflicts created by her decision are arbitrary, and the story is less interesting than it might have been.

Nilaam's tapping of Moya's energy and Moya's inability to recover from the experience are established by writer fiat. They're premises, not consequences.

There's nothing wrong with that. Writer Grant McAloon makes good use of these premises to set up a situation where D'argo must make a painful choice.

As an emotional story, "Vitas Mortis" works. Anthony Simcoe turns in a gripping performance as D'argo, and he's ably backed up by Ben Browder as the sympathetic Crichton.

But the story is also a little cheap.

D'argo's choice is painful, but not difficult. He's known Nilaam for a few hours, while he's had a year to develop bonds of loyalty and friendship with Moya and her family.

What's right is clear. Nilaam's time is over, and it's not fair for her to take Moya's life to restore her own.

Even Nilaam knows this, and as D'argo correctly points out, she's not evil. She has the power to take Moya's life, but she ultimately chooses not to use it.

In "Vitas Mortis," life and death are ultimately fair. That's comforting -- if a little sad -- but it has nothing to do with the real world.

It doesn't even have much to do with a real tragedy, where the consequences, however deserved, are usually out of proportion to the causes. (Did Hamlet or Oedipus truly deserve what happened to them?)

"Vitas Mortis" is instead a well-executed facsimile of tragedy. Viewers can get out a hanky and enjoy an hour of pretending they've dealt with death.

Does that make this a bad episode? No. But it feels a bit like a cheat.

Farscape will have more to say on the subject of death soon, and "Vitas Mortis" may simply be an opening argument in an ongoing discussion.

Leviathans have a lifespan of roughly three centuries.

Pilot's lifespan is thousand years on his own, but his symbiotic connection with Moya means he will die when she does. He wouldn't have it any other way.

Where do Oricans get their amazing powers?

Distraught over the death of a loved one, Chiana joins a group of nihilistic teenagers on a cemetery planet in "Taking the Stone".