When Kai accidentally punctures Stan's heart, the Lexx sets course for a medical satellite. One of the crew makes the ultimate sacrifice to stop an evil doctor from stealing the ship.
(Originally aired in the United States on March 24, 2000)
Written by Jeffrey Hirschfield
Directed by Srinivas Krishna
GUEST STARS
Simon Licht -- Doctor Kazzan
Oliver Stern -- Doctor Funz
Barbara Geiger -- Doctor Veezra
WHAT HAPPENED
Zev sings a mournful version of the Brunnen-G war chant.
Stan and 790 try to distract her with love ditties of their own, but they wind up trading insults with one another instead.
Fed up with the bickering, Zev goes to wake
Kai.
Stan insists on opening Kai's cryo pod, but he botches the activation sequence. Kai wakes up, announces "I kill you now in the name of His Divine Shadow," and fires his brace through Stan's heart. (more
spoilers)
ANALYSIS
So much for Zev. It's a shame to see Eva Habermann depart -- Zev was easily the most likeable character on the show, and the subtlety and seductiveness Habermann brought to the role will be hard to match.
From what we've seen so far, Xenia
'Xev' Seeberg's feet don't quite fit Habermann's shoes. Though the characters are radically different, and Seeberg has her own strange appeal, she doesn't seem to be as charming as Habermann.
Zev's death gives actor Brian Downey a chance to bring some uncharacteristic emotional depth to Stanley Tweedle. His anguish is mostly limited to reaction shots, but "Terminal" offered Downey the opportunity to rise above Stan's usual high-strung cowardice and impotent indignation.
Care unit extensive
Although it may be a nod to
alien abduction lore -- or possibly Stanley Kubrick films -- space hospitals like the one seen in "Terminal" are impractical places.
The MedSat facility's operating theater is a cavernous space. The lighting and equipment are isolated in one small, unbounded area, while the rest of the room is cloaked in heavy shadows.
This seems to correspond to what alien abductees have described about their experiences, where extraterrestrial captors have unlimited space at their disposal.
However, this makes very little sense from a design perspective. It's inefficient, especially on a satellite where physical space is at a premium.
UNANSWERED QUESTIONS
How was Zev able to switch back and forth between human and cluster lizard forms?
What will happen to Zev's remains?
Will their shared loss bring Stan and 790 closer?
What is
Mantrid planning to do with all those arms?
BLOWED UP!
Although Stan wanted to add to the tally, the Lexx's swath of destruction in "Terminal" is limited to one small moon. After two sequential episodes, the Lexx has destroyed one planet, one moon and one collapsing star.
The crew seems to have no compunctions about using mass destruction as a negotiating tool. In both "Terminal" and the upcoming rerun of "
Luvliner" they destroy entire planets while negotiating financial arrangements, giving new meaning to the term "gunboat diplomacy."
TUNE IN NEXT WEEK
Reruns continue in "
Luvliner", in which a visit to a space brothel goes awry when criminals kidnap the crew and hijack the Lexx.
What do you think? Send comments to the
author or editor.
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