Eating Pattern

Come back, Giggerota, all is forgiven......

"The point of the game is that there's always another point...
       The points become dots; the dots become a line...
       The line is part of a bigger circle - the circle of life..."
       "My mind is full of things - but I can't remember... The circle is complete.."

Eating Pattern has a wonderful oh gross OUT!! factor to it. I mean, a satellite worm that is passed to you via a kiss, that chews its way through flesh and muscle, attaches itself to your brain, and turns you into the physical equivalent of Norway's entry to the Eurovision Song Contest? That exists on minced and apparently irradiated bits of your companions (or even yourself, if you're desperate enough to play - and lose - 'the game'.....)? Where the highlight of your day is to have said worm regurgitate Pattern into a hole in the ground? And you thought herpes - or the fantasy dance scene in SuperNova - was bad...? What planet have you been living on?

Let's explore a little.....

We already knew that the Lexx eats. It's good to find out that the crew's food supply, not to mention their capacity for peregrination, depends on the Lexx being able to feed (lots of scope there for crises!). I'm surprised Lexx ran out of food quite so soon - no, come to think of it, I'm not surprised. After all, Giggerota was stuck in its 'stomach' for some time, and we know what sort of appetites she had..... (Actually, I have to sympathise with the Lexx. Watching it crash-land on Klaagya reminded me of me before my first coffee of morning.....)

Klaagya itself is a response to those awkward little problems of disposal most humanoid-dominant worlds face when they reach a certain level of what I suppose I must call 'development'. It's a case of the old "out of sight, out of mind - and definitely out of olfactory range!" syndrome, with little thought for the poor folk who have to get rid of the crap. And as usual it tends to always be the little people who suffer most in a war. And a trade war at that! Makes our supermarket wars look just a little bit tame by comparison..... But why would anyone ever think that infecting a 'secondary resource planet' was a good idea - unless it was done just for the hell of it. I suppose that's why. After all, this is the Dark Zone.

And what interesting people you meet there! Poor old Snik, so hopeful, so hopeless - Coozunk (is this the ultimate definition of 'wiry hair'?) and of course, Commander (sorry, King) Bog. What a superb character! What glorious complexity! What a wonderful atonement for Salute of the Jugger!.....

But where are all the Klaagyan women?

Of course, it is possible that not many women would have been living on Klaagya anyway - I know I wouldn't want to - but I think we have to assume there were some! After all, Wist was there... I can think of three possibilities. (No doubt others will come up with more.....)
       Firstly, the queen killed off the competition. (Well, it happens all the time in nature.) Secondly, the women of Klaagya were all meek and downtrodden and went willingly into the Pattern Machine. (An unlikely scenario, I feel.) Thirdly, the women were bloody angry when they found that all the men now cared about was drinking Pattern, and even more furious about being sentenced to becoming Pattern themselves - and were simply beaten into a pulp.....

And Wist is left. Ah, Wist..... Wist is lovely. She's the first female we have seen that Stan responds to with gentleness (but then again, she's the first female that hasn't tried to have him emasculated, brainless or ripped open for his liver!) There's something very childlike, wistful and endearing about Wist. Even that strange little pinafore she's wearing when she first meets Kai looks like something a child would wear. She somehow invites protection and an innocent response to what she says - even when she invites a man to kiss her, it's more like an adolescent testing fragile, newly discovered powers over the opposite sex.

Not exactly what I'd expect of an alien predator queen. In fact, nothing at all like what I would expect of an alien predator queen. No, sorry, I can't see Wist as any kind of alien, predatory or otherwise.... She's far too sweet. She doesn't have the charisma or presence for such a role.....

I have cudgelled my brains (yes, even the ones I keep in reserve in my wardrobe) in an attempt to pin down exactly why I find Eating Pattern so unconvincing and disappointing. After all, on the face of it it raises a number of interesting insights into and facts about both the Dark Zone and our anti-heroes...
       It may be because the whole episode seems to depend on a combination of unlikely (more so than usual, I mean) coincidences. The queen 'just happened' to know that Zev was in the complex (Wist didn't). Wist 'just happened' along in time to save Stan (but wasn't aware that the Lexx has landed on Klaagya. Personally, if something the size of Manhattan crash-lands near my settlement with an earth-rumbling thud, I'd expect someone to notice something, even if the queen's communication with the satellite worms is only one-way....). And then Stan, suspicious, distrustful Stan, cheerfully tells Wist all about himself and the Lexx as soon as she asks.....

Everyone is acting out of character. Initially, Zev's understated expression of shock and disbelief at the discovery that Kai was dead-dead was beautifully delineated. So why, just a short while later, was she smiling and teasing Stan? I know different people have different ways of dealing with grief, and I know she's having problems with the physical side of her transformation, but this simply left me cold. (I would also have expected a slightly more rapturous response to finding him not only alive-dead, but un-infected - regardless of the circumstances at the time.) And then to watch Kai's disembodied head instruct Bog in the making of a disgusting excuse for a roux....

Kai? The last of the Brunnen-G? The tragic figure who has had to watch both his own homeworld and the planet of his ancestors be destroyed? Who has suffered over and over again, physically, mentally and emotionally? Who is due to die in just a few days time?

Sorry guys - not funny. Not even gross. Just very, very sad.....

As far as I'm concerned, in entertainment terms Eating Pattern is a lot of fun - but only if you're prepared to suspend all disbelief, ignore the inconsistencies of characterisation, and accept the whole thing at face value. Nothing wrong with that. I just find it extremely dissatisfying, given the fine storylines, glorious characters and overall internal coherence of the other three films.

I can't decide whether I've simply missed something so blatantly obvious that the foregoing is going to make me look like a complete moron when some kind reader takes me aside and patiently beats the truth into me; whether I'm taking the whole thing too seriously; or whether I am actually right and the whole episode is flawed, illogical and erratic. I hope it's the first option, I really do.....

So why the quote at the beginning of this analysis? I'm hoping that these words are the key to this episode - and possibly to the series. Kai's expression while Bog was speaking them was intense, preoccupied and - at least it seemed so to me! - intended to be significant. Memories, their loss, their retrieval, and the cyclic nature of time seem to be seminal concepts in Lexx - The Dark Zone Stories, underlying themes that surface time and time again. They may never be resolved. I'm not sure if they ever can be resolved. But they certainly need to be raised every now and again, just to remind people that the universe isn't quite as simple as it may at first appear.

And I must add - and not because I'm trying to avoid a virtual mugging! - that my personal dislike of this episode does not detract from my admiration for Lexx as a whole. After all, no one can be perfect all the time. (And, yes, you can quote me!)

Questions That Should Probably Be Left Unasked!

How did the Lexx find Klaagya?

Bog appears to be very much a country boy at heart: Zev is "milk and cookies", he likes riding ponies, and asks Wist if they can "go fishing....". How did such a person end up on a garbage planet?

Why does Stan hate garbage so much? What dark episodes are there in his past that have produced such a reaction? Or was he simply on protein bank disposal duty for a while...? [see Bug.)

Why don't Stan and Zev eat one of the moths? There are plenty of them, and there must be enough meat on just one of them to keep the average human going for at least a few months! (Yes, OK, I know the Divine Predecessor's brains were chosen for their gross-out factor, but it's still a valid question!)