Random Questions…
There is a long post ahead, this is because I have recently watched [i]Lyekka[/i] twice and it is one of the [i]Lexx[/i] episodes I have thoroughly analyzed, and I just can’t say enough about it.
quote:
Originally posted by Sgt. Draino:
Finally Moss’s fantasy reveals to us that the people of Potataho aren’t typical humans at all! They’re grown in the ground (like potatoes) until they reach maturity.
That can’t be true, because the magazine Moss showed the Lexx crew had stylized images of a man, woman, and children just like terran humans (no roots or anything).
quote:
Originally posted by Flamegrape:
I took Moss’s dream to mean that he’s a control freak! That he thinks he knows what’s best for everyone else. He was also mumbling something about “good values”.
That’s also possible.
Captain moss’ exact words in his dream are “Uuh…garden. Garden good. Virtues good. Garden is virtue. Cheer up, son. Garden is value. Home, sweet home, Potataho!” I don’t think he’s so virtuous.
Moss seems to be a traditionalist, wanting stasis, while Science Officer Boosh is an idealist, wanting progress. Flight Officer Bando is an egotist, and his values are less clear.
quote:
Originally posted by Flamegrape:
I thought about [i]2.3 Lyekka[/i] and how different it was from the previous two episodes of series II and how totally different it was from series I. I think it was at this point the show opened up to a new level of goofy humor. (Not to mention the premier of Xev! And Lyekka!)
I wouldn’t say [i]Lyekka[/i] is goofy, and its ethos isn’t exactly typical of season two. The word I would use is oneiric. There is a dream-like quality to the episode that is sometimes whimsical, sometimes disquieting. The dream sequences are done very well, but really the whole episode is kind of like a dream, with the odd lighting, weird camera angles, and things popping up out of nowhere. Plus that haunting music.
There are also a number of peculiar recurring elements. Water (you hear a splash when Lyekka’s pod penetrates the Lexx; you hear another wet sound, like stirring spaghetti, when the pod attaches to the ceiling and the tentacles deploy, when the Lyekka simulacrum first appears she is covered with amniotic liquid until she creates the “clothing” membrane over her body, Xev is covered with slime when she is “born,” Bando’s dream has no background, but there are big droplets of water surrounding the couple, and everything has a rippled reflection on the floor as if it were made of water or quicksilver; Moss’ dream has him watering plant-children; then there’s the Lyekka “watering” scene and 790’s artificial tears), spirals (the ion veil; Lyekka’s outfit; Bando’s fantasy jacket; one of the illustrations in Moss’ magazine; and the Mantrid drone arms after they “eat” Potataho, an effect seen for the first time in this episode), the colors blue and purple (the background in Stan’s dream is light blue but turns dark purple; the background in Bando’s dream is dark purple but turns light blue, Boosh’s dream has a blue light source shining on him from outside the capsule and the back of the capsule is purple, but both colors disappear when Lyekka enters, and of course in Moss’ dream the sky is blue; the big nebula seen in the first scene with the pods is purple, as are the larger nebulae seen just outside the ion veil; some smaller nebulae are light blue; the ion veil is light blue laced with purple when the [i]Eagle 5[/i] exits, but just blue and white when the Lexx enters; a star cluster seen just before the Mantrid scene is enshrouded by a blue haze; I could go on). Could these be intentional symbolic elements? A dictionary of dream interpretation I found after I had a vivid and disquieting dream (about Lyekka!) says that “To see water in your dream, symbolizes your unconscious and your emotional state of mind. Water is the living essence of the psyche and the flow of life energy.” It goes onto say that hearing water represents pondering of one’s thoughts and emotions. Alternately, a spiral supposedly “indicates that some situation in your waking life is spilling out of control.” I remember Joseph Campbell said something about the symbolism of the spiral, but I don’t remember exactly what and I left the book in my dorm (I’m home for spring break, by the way). Blue represents devotion, tranquility, and optimism, and purple represents devotion and compassion, or deception. I don’t know if any of that is valid or if that was something the makers had in mind when they put [i]Lyekka[/i] together, but those elements seem to occur to many times within the single episode to be coincidental.
Oh, and did anyone else notice that those organic structures around Stan’s moth-bed at the beginning look like synapses in the human brain?
And one final thing I noticed: In Stan’s dream, Lyekka is surrounded by a soft glow, like a sort of halo nimbus, which disappears just before she laughs. This seems to be mirrored in the scene in Boosh’s dream where the circular arrangement of lights in the space capsule encircle Lyekka’s head from the angle of the camera’s vision. This may also be continued when the Lyekka simulacrum first appears to Stan, she has light reflecting off her wet hair. And in Bando’s dream there is a strong, unseen source of white light behind Lyekka (the light on Bando is bluish and much duller).
Maybe I’m looking a little too far into this episode.