Boomtown

[Duke] "You are a small-minded, self-centred, vindictive, perfectly evil human being."

[Fifi] "That's harsh."

[Duke] "But also true. Which is why I like you."

Revelations galore in this episode, from the fact that Kai can't swim, because his decarbonised body can't float (so falling down to Water really wasn't such a good idea, perhaps...) to the fact that there is no such thing as an irrevocable and final death on Fire...

Despite their initially obvious differences, there are parallels between the two worlds. The inhabitants of both live in tower-like cities: on Water these all appear to have one distinct and individual character or function, which seems to be reflected by their names: in Gametown, the playing of games was the primary function; in Boomtown, it's sensuality and sex. (It remains to be seen whether the same holds true for Fire.) Leaving aside for one moment the mystery of how the cities came to be built in the first place (with the exception of May, the inhabitants don't seem to me to be capable of making their own beds, let alone building their own cities! And just where did the construction materials come from anyway?), how did they come to be function-specific? They also give the impression of being quite isolated, regardless of May's statement that she hears of anything of any moment happening onworld...
       Hmmm..... On the subject of the cities... Given that the twin planet system is to all intents and purposes physically impossible, might the two worlds have originally been much further apart, and only pulled into their present configuration by some disaster - something along the lines of an asteroid hit on Fire, perhaps, knocking the planet out its original orbit and severely damaging the biosphere, leading to the loss of all the water. (There must have been water there in the first instance for life to have evolved... If indeed it did evolve there.)
       I think what's bothering me is the dichotomy between the amazingly sophisticated constructions and their current primitive level of technology (and yes, I am taking into account the degree of sophistication of which relatively undeveloped peoples, such as the Romans and Egyptians on earth, were capable.) Travel is accomplished by balloon on Fire (so far we haven't seen any equivalent device for Water: I'd expect them to use water-borne vehicles, but perhaps they also use balloons); the weapons on both planets are simple: bows, crossbows and - on Fire - crude but highly effective bombs; Fire's cities are kept going by using human effort rather than the geothermal energy that should be abundant given the nature of the planet.
       Or perhaps Fire was used by Water as some sort of penal planet. I somehow doubt we'll ever know...

Boomtown - the 'non-stop sex city' - is the scene of the revelation of another piece of the puzzle: the absence of children. Not only are they absent; Bunny doesn't even understand what the word means...
       And the parallels with Luvliner continue. Poor Xev - she's having real problems with the males in this planetary system. First 790 no longer loves her, then Prince is first killed, then turns out to be not what she expected. And now, when all she wants to do is enjoy a thoroughly good screw, she ends up with a pretty hunk who wants to take things sloooow... Her attitude and expressions are definitely and delightfully childlike in this episode, a rather appealing side of her that hasn't been apparent before.
       As for the actual activities in Boomtown - I wasn't overly impressed. It all seemed a little farcical, a tad OTT, to me. Stan finds you can have too much of a good thing, Bunny has fixed her attentions on Kai (which as we all know is a waste of time), while Xev - Xev is interrupted close to the crucial moment. By a living Kai. Interesting...
       No, I'm not convinced. There's something strange going on here, especially in the light of the conversation in Duketown on Fire...

Prince - unsurprisingly - has a rival, Duke, who has taken on Fifi as his second in command, and who intends to take over the rulership of Fire...

[Duke] "Forever and forever he has ground me beneath his heel. Finally I have a chance to grind him back."
       "Alive he is no threat. Dead, he will come back to haunt us..."
       "If you think that Prince returns favours, you have him confused with something good."

The sheer tension and double entendres in these scenes almost physically hurts. And Prince does not come over as a particularly nice person. Nevertheless we learn a few important facts:
             The average human wouldn't enjoy living on Fire.
              On Fire, death can be a very good thing.
              It's unwise to trust Prince. Possibly irresistible, but nevertheless unwise...
              In this planetary system, death appears to be a (necessary?) prelude to life...

May shoots Prince - again - allowing him (to Duke's extreme annoyance) to reincarnate (the inference is this will happen almost immediately, and elsewhere. But it also appears that only the 'older souls' fully understand the consequences of death. The youngsters Fifi and Bunny certainly don't comprehend what will happen to them when they die/are killed...)
       It's easy to empathise with Fifi's "What am I missing?": this is all somewhat obscure.... In this system, it appears that "life after death" (not reincarnation as it is generally understood) is the way the population - of both worlds - is maintained...
       And the boundaries between life and death and everything in between are becoming ever more debatable...

Wondering Allowed

So the 'H' in Stanley H Tweedle stands for Human? Ah well.....

I do like the contrast between the living Kai and the dead one! The living Kai seems vibrant and vital, more so than the more sombre, driven young Brunnen-G of Brigadoom. I wonder if Kai was like this when he was young and alive on Brunnis 2, before the advent of the Divine Order?

Prince reacts, physically , to the falling of his tower. Is he bonded to it in some way?

"A tree doth fall..." And when has Duke ever seen a tree?

It should be possible, I suppose, for Kai to sink to the seabed and simply walk to land along the bottom. Assuming there was some land to walk to, of course. There doesn't actually seem to be any land on Water: the natives live in floating cities. And surely the Lexx had sufficient viewscreen magnification to show that. So had Kai pinpointed a city to which to fall before he dropped? Back

And by inference, and on Fifi's somewhat flimsy evidence, not on Water either: we'll get to that later... Back

The dictionary definition of Boomtown is one that has a) grown rapidly or b) is experiencing sudden prosperity. This Boomtown may be named for some definition of 'boom' with which I am not familiar... Back

Prince, of Duke: - "he is a flea, a pretender, a nothing! I rule this planet. I always have and I always will. I will destroy Duke - then I will destroy Water..."