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4x12 - Kansas

J: 500 bottles of beer on the wall, 500 bottles of beer, take one down pass it around...
and later
J: 6 bottles of beer on the wall... (to Moya and crew) Hey, you're early. I've still got a 6 pack.
Darn, and here I thought John was going to be the first person in history to actually finish that horrible song. If you're not familiar with the song, I don't know it's origins, but the song is essentially 4 lines sung over and over and over again each time lowering the number of bottles by one until you get to zero. It's only purpose is to waste time on long road trips.

J: D, I don't know how I did it, but my dad's going up on the Challenger.
D: John, what are you talking about?
J: 1986, the Challenger space shuttle exploded killing everyone on board. My dad wasn't on that flight.
The Challenger Space Shuttle was launched on January 28, 1986. It was a historic flight whose crew represented "a cross-section of the American population" including school teacher Christa McAuliffe. Like many American schoolkids of the time, I was watching the launch and saw the explosion as it happened. You can read more about each of the men and women who lost their lives when the Challenger exploded 73 seconds into take off at the Nasa website.

R: In the scheme of things well...what does it matter if your father flies and dies?
J: My dad got me started in avionics. No dad, no Farscape Project. You stay in Peacekeeper custody, she remains a Nazi, and she ends up on Nebari Prime.
I don't think I need explain who the Nazis were and why John would liken the Peacekeepers to them.

J: We have one piece of luck, tomorrow's Halloween.
N: What's that?
J: Well that's something that means you're going to fit in just fine, Grandma.
As we see a little later, John really should have explained a bit more about Halloween. For those not familiar with it, Halloween occurs each year on October 31st. The modern festival pretty much revolves around kids dressing up in costumes and going from house to house "trick or treating," that is collecting candy from strangers. You can read more about the origins of Halloween at the History Channel.

Chiana is digging through a box of old clothes
J: Are those jeans?!
After wearing leather pants for 4 years (not that we haven't enjoyed watching it), I can't blame John for yearning after jeans. Soft, broken in, completely comfortable jeans, there's nothing like them.

Young John: (to Jack) Yo hero! Read the middle finger.
Hmm, we've seen this clever bit of "sign language" before in Into the Lion's Den II (3x21).

J: Milk! Oh god, milk! (takes a big swig) Oh wow!
Again, like the jeans comment, this isn't really a Crichtonism, but I felt it should be remarked on as something John has missed very much about Earth. He's mentioned missing chocolate and ice cream before, but I can't imagine never again having something as basic as milk.

Kim: Do I know you?
J: I'm Fred, Fred Scarran of the Gainsville Scarrans.

John hands the bottle of milk to Kim
J: Milk? It does a body good.
Hmmmm, yes it does. Oh, whoops, "milk, it does a body good" is one of the ad campaigns run by the Fluid Milk Board here in the US.

D'Argo gets the power back on in the house and the tv comes on blaring Wheel of Fortune.
A: What the frell is that?
R: I have no idea.
Wheel of Fortune is a game show on US television. It was hugely popular in the '80's and still has quite a following (though I prefer Jeopardy myself).

Noranti looks at a photo of the previous residents who are all holding up their middle fingers to the camera.
N: What do you think this means?
C: Must be some kind of a greeting, yeah to friends.
Chiana flips off Noranti
C: Hello, Wrinkles
This is a pretty obvious joke for the writers to make. Even so you can't really blame Chiana, Noranti, and D'Argo from making the mistake. You'd expect people to be waving or giving a thumbs up or anything rather than flipping off the camera.

Still watching television
A: Wheel of Fortune...Wheel! (giggles)
See above for the Wheel of Fortune explanation. I just love this little scene. Aeryn seems so excited that she can read and understand what's going on in English.

Young John: (to his older self) Shove off!
"Shove off" is a slang expression meaning "get out of here" or "leave me alone." It is originally a nautical expression meaning to launch a boat or to put out to sea.

J: I know you helped DK cheat on his SATs.
SAT stands for Scholastic Assessment Test. SATs are a required test for any US high school student planning to attend university. The combined score on the verbal and math sections are taken into consideration along with high school grades and other factors by university admissions officers.

Aeryn is now watching Sesame Street
A: L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S...S, D'Argo, you should pay attention to this...
D: Chiana has already told me a few words. Yes, No, bite me. That's all I need to know.
A: (watching the little girl on Sesame Street struggle with the next letter) This girl is slow.
D'Argo argues with Chiana about going outside while Aeryn continues to watch Sesame Street. We can hear Aeryn commenting on the program in the background.
A: Again with the Cookie Monster!
This is a fun bit of self-reference for Henson & Co. Originally voiced by the late Jim Henson, Kermit is probably the most famous Henson creation of all time. Plus this scene just cracked me up seeing Aeryn completely engrossed by "Sesame Street."

Young John: So, what's your name?
C: Chiana
Young John: Karen?
C: Yeah, Karen (Chiana burns herself on the car's cigarette lighter) Shee-au!
Young John: Karen Shaw, right? The name's John Crichton.
C: Crichton?!
Oh my gosh, I can see where this is leading.

J: Oh man, I like those clothes.
A: I hope this is all right; it's all we could find.
J: You kinda look like Cher.
A: Is that a good thing or a bad thing.
J: It works.
Aeryn's outfit does look a bit like something Cher would have worn on her variety show. She tends to wear considerably less now.

A: How are things going here?
J: Situation normal...it's getting worse
A reference to the term "snafu" which is actually an acronym for "situation normal, all f***ed up"

J: What are you doing?
R: (complete freaking out and trying to carve a pumpkin) Cutting, just cutting. Make them scary you said, scary oooooh
J: Well, somebody got a sugar high. You been stealing candy, Mr. Burroughs?
R: Crichton, how illegal is this dren? You've got to get me more. I don't care what it costs!
OK, so at first I thought this was a Simpsons reference, but then a site fan wrote in a told us that Mr. Burroughs could be a reference to William S. Burroughs, who wrote The Naked Lunch in 1959. John mentioned Naked Lunch in the third season episode Fractures. Mr. Burroughs was well known for his addiction to drugs.

J: What the hell?! Rygel, stop doing that!
R: But I love this, and you won't buy me anymore. I want Kit Kat and M&Ms and Pez and Reeses Pieces. Crichton, please!

C: Is this your first?
Young John nods
C: Is this how you imagined it?
Young John: But not in Betty (his pickup) I always thought it would be in my dad's 4-wheel drive.
Yep, I knew it. See below.

The follwing scene has a couple of what seem to me to be references put in by the writers. They're not actually Crichtonisms, but we're putting them in anyway.
Young John is watching an auto race on tv in the abandoned house. Chiana comes in and gives him Noranti's serum which causes his heart to stop. John starts to fade out of existence as a result.
J: I'm Casper the frickin' joke!
Ben Browder's father and brothers have an auto racing team. Casper, the Friendly Ghost is a cartoon character. Also, when John's younger self stops breathing, and John begins to fade out of existence, I was reminded of the movie "Back To the Future."

Noranti blows the forgetfulness dust in Young Crichton's face
N: Remember nothing
C: Except Karen Shaw in the back of the 4-wheel drive
Okay, so these three scenes weren't really Crichtonisms, but they were an excellent example of continuity and hilariously funny. In episode 1x08, That Old Black Magic, John reveals he lost his virginity in the back of a 4x4 with Karen Shaw. Maldis seems to think it was a minivan, but as we now know, it was in the back of a pickup truck with Chiana. How's that for a time paradox?

D: Why do our plans never work?
J: Murphy's Law
Murphy's Law states that anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.

The trooper Noranti didn't get a chance to dust is sitting in an interrogation room being observed by two people in suits, one tall man with dark hair, and a shorter woman with blonde/red hair.
Trooper: I got no idea why no one else remembers. They left this as a sign, this has got to be a sign or something 'cause nobody human could have made this.
The camera focuses in on the pumpkin revealing it is carved to resemble Scorpius' head. The two "FBI agents" were, I think, a subtle reference to "The X-Files" characters Mulder and Scully. Any why didn't I think of carving a Scorpy jack-o-lantern last Halloween? I guess there's always next year.

Back on Moya, John comes off Lo'La and runs straight into 4 people who look human. One of them looks like his dad.
Jack: Welcome home, son. We've been waiting for you a long time.
John pulls his pulse pistol and trains it on the group.
Jack: What's wrong, son?
J: Was it a bass or a trout?
Bass and trout are two types of fishes. John is refering to the test put to him by the alien pretending to be his dad in the episode A Human Reaction.

To be continued....