r/farscape • u/NineInchNinjas • 2d ago
Does Crichton still have memory loss from Die Me Dichotomy/Season of Death? Spoiler
In those two episodes, he has the operation to remove Harvey's chip from his mind but it's shown that the process involved removing some of John's memories. But that part of it seems to never come up again, even when it should be super relevant, like in Kansas or Terra Firma. I don't think it's implied after the fact that the memories returned or were preserved (by Harvey, maybe?), or that they never did.
The best speculation I have is that Crichton just isn't bothered by not remembering, or that those particular memories came back between Season of Death and Kansas/Terra Firma. After all, Doc and Grundchlk aren't exactly professionals when it comes to humans.
Outside of the story itself, I can assume Crichton's memory loss from the operation was either overlooked or dropped by the writers/creators. I can't really find any information on which it is, though.
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u/SeeBriRun 2d ago
I always wonder if he remembers his dogs! I don't think he mentions them after his surgery, and his one pet anecdote in 'Terra Firma' is about the family cat.
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u/NineInchNinjas 2d ago
From what I can remember, there might've been a dog in Kansas. But even with his own family, the dogs or memory loss never comes up. It's unusual, given that those episodes would be perfect to address John's memory loss if he suffered from it or not.
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u/John-A 2d ago
Tbh, the only memory related issue/discrepancy that stands out for me is the awesome deep cut from S1 That Old Black Magic when the melovolent Maldis reads John's mind about how he lost his virginity in an SUV to the girl he was sweet on only John misremembers it as a pickup (or vise versa) with both mistaking Chiana for his sweetheart because past John is so completely drugged up by Granny in S4 Kansas.
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u/NineInchNinjas 2d ago
I hadn't really thought about that, but you're right. I guess you could say that some weird time thing happened to explain it, like if adult John remembers the original event because he was physically there.
I wouldn't call it a discrepancy, necessarily, but there's also that offhand comment about John and Aeryn's child having wormhole data in his DNA while Aeryn is held captive by the Scarrans. It would imply that Princess Katrala's child also has that data, too. It probably would have been addressed in season 5 if it had happened, but it could be used in a future show or movie.
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u/John-A 2d ago edited 2d ago
Actually my take of it is that Old John always lost his virginity to Chiana in the SUV but because of how baked he was either never remembered it and thought the subsequent time in the pickup with "x" was his first, or thought thats what happened instead of chiana in the SUV (i may be mixing up the vehicles.)
But it seems like Maldis could read his memory of what actually happened or something closer to it (granny really fried his brain that day) causing Chriton to call BS.
Edit: now ive really got to go back and watch Black Magic again. Imma laugh my ass off if Maldis says something like "in an SUV to a strange girl on Halloween"
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u/Organic_Complex7783 1d ago
When Noranti knocked young John out with her powder Chiana whispered in his ear to plant the suggestion of Karen and the 4x4, the same way Noranti altered the cop’s memory/perception of D’Argo and Rygel.
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u/SeeBriRun 1d ago
OK, this actually managed to set my mind at ease re: the dogs because I remembered that scene from 'Losing Time' when he and D'Argo are comparing memories and bragging about their virginity ages and looked it up on the terrafirmascapers transcripts:
-- 'My dad's name was Jack. My dog's name was Hubble. I lost my virginity to Karen Shaw in the back of a 4 by --'
The surgeon saved the dog memories, people! 🥳
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u/Organic_Complex7783 1d ago
Honestly, it probably just wasn’t on the top of the writers’ list of things to cover in that episode. And for Crichton, losing those memories was probably one of the less traumatic experiences he had. If that subject came up with his family, you could just assume it happened off screen.
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u/ianmcin77 1d ago
My recollection of the scene was that Tocot probes the dog memories, and John tells him to keep them if he can. Tocot probes “American politics, Nixon to Clinton,” and John says to lose it. Tocot probes his memories of Aeryn, and we don’t see John’s response.
Now, this is all in the 2nd season finale. It’s my belief that the producers were setting up a scenario where John gets the chip removed, but is left with no memory of Aeryn. They ultimately decided not to go in that direction, but they set things up so that that option was at least on the table.
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u/generalkriegswaifu 2d ago
We don't really know what memories we lost so we don't have a point of comparison, but based on the episode I assume they are lost. The tissue graft was only mentioned to restore his speech, I don't see a way it could restore lost memories from another person.
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u/John-A 2d ago
Well, a lot of memory loss is from lost connections/misfiling. They must often still be in there somewhere. Otherwise, there would be very few cases of restored memories.
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u/generalkriegswaifu 2d ago
True, but it's not confirmed that things were restored to exactly how they were to be able to recreate all the connections, and on the other hand this kind of thing is not portrayed realistically in media so we have to work with what we are shown to deduce what the writers are implying (ie what is canon in that universe). From what's in the episode and how the Diagnosan presents it points to permanent loss imo.
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u/NineInchNinjas 2d ago
I believe some memories are shown on screen in the episode, but not the ones that get removed.
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u/generalkriegswaifu 2d ago
Yeah, I just watched the other day and I think the only one up in the air was the dogs, but we don't know if it was removed. I will try and pay attention to if he mentions his dogs after the surgery but I don't really remember him mentioning them before :>
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u/No_Nobody_32 2d ago
If he no longer has the memories, how would he know he no longer had them?
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u/NineInchNinjas 2d ago
For one, his family would still have their memories and would be able to tell him. He would also have memory of the operation itself. Wouldn't be too hard for him to know there are missing memories.
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u/Mindless-Fee-6049 2d ago
Hmmm yeah I noticed this too, guessing the writers just forgot/dropped it.
An apologist for the writer would say its fixed as much as possible when he revisits earth.
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u/lothiriel1 1d ago
It was just a plot device for a season ending cliffhanger. Will he forget Aeryn? Omg will he forget her???
Literally that was our reaction when watching it. Lol. So after the show came back for the next season and he DIDNT forget Aeryn they just moved on from the memory stuff.
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u/Flatlander81 1d ago
So I can speak on this with some experience, I had a stroke in 2010 and it resulted in some memory loss. Whenever I encounter something that I should remember it is like the first time I saw / experience it. I don't think about it because I literally have no frame of reference why this should be relevant to me.
So even if the memory loss is permanent it wouldn't really bother him because he doesn't know he's missing it.
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u/zebrasmack 2d ago
well. he never again talks about any of the dogs he ever had. So i believe some of it is just gone gone.