D'Argo places Namtar's crystal on the strategy table in command. It means RatMan, for reasons that will become obvious, because the show is an investigation of the morality of science, first and foremost. But, because I'm obnoxious, here's another Sumerian legend: Namtar was the god of disease, of pestilence. He commanded sixty/all diseases, demons for every single part of the body, heart and soul and mind, and he was supplicated for the prevention of illness. In this way, before health insurance, he represented fate, making him a major god, a son of Bêl. And they followed his instructions to the letter, for he had power over the other gods. He was the messenger of Ereshkigal, with whom we've dealt before and will do again. Then in Tibet, a true story of what happens when the PKs take their jobs too seriously, a "Namtar" is a hagiography, like a saint's bio, but the word itself means "complete liberation," and it arrived at this meaning because of the way it told the stories of yogis who attained enlightenment. Sound like anybody we know? Sound like everybody on the show, cruelty or no? (Even unto this: namtars don't necessarily follow strict chronology, by definition, but rather "function as a learning example, that hits the high points of the yogi's spiritual life.") And in this way John becomes more, and Aeryn becomes -- watch -- more, and we become more, in watching and thinking. And loving. Loving them, and us, and you and me, and not taking regular shits on Pilot. Basically.

I do like this episode, don't I? And not the least because of the failures: "I, of course, will return home first," announces Rygel. D'Argo grumbles. "I bartered for the coordinates to this asteroid," Rygel lays it out, "I made the first contact with Namtar, I struck the deal. I go home first." And who steps in but that paragon of unselfishness, that shell of a woman that carries within it all the beauty of Moya and more? "D'Argo and I have already spoken," explains Zhaan, as though it is self-evident. "Whoever's home is the closest, that is where we will travel to first." How about all of you proceed directly to hell instead? Home isn't even what you want. It's not planets you miss, it's people. We have Aeryn here. And John, and Moya, and Pilot. "You two have spoken?" Rygel paranoids. "Without consulting me? What am I, chopped mellet?" And Zhaan, the higher self to which we all aspire: "Of course not. I can stomach chopped mellet." I didn't put her there; she did that herself. All the farther to fall. "Blue-assed bitch," Rygel mutters awesomely, and she begs his pardon: "What did you call me?" You heard him. "A blue-assed bitch!" John smacks him, because come on. He asks if they're paying attention to the coordinates flying across the screen, and D says the inevitable: "We don't have to get all this. Moya is." Oh, is she? Pilot: "...Moya isn't." One hundred spacebucks across PayPal on delivery of that line. Fucking right she isn’t.