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"The Mathematics of Tears" - Episode #112 (spoilers below!) (Click here for review)

In the first scene Dylan is once again angry about a crewman (in this case Trance) taking a couple of weeks off for a "vacation". He is convinced this shows a lack of dedication to their mission and makes them unreliable. In discussing this with Beka he finds she sees nothing wrong with this, infuriating him further.

Later Beka gets into Dylan's good graces by mentioning Gerentex's leads on other derelict High Guard ships. They follow up on these and shortly are looking for the Pax Magellanic, the predecessor and 'elder sister' ship to Rommie. Harper is not too happy with this since others who looked for this ship have generally mysteriously disappeared.

They do succeed in finding the "Pax" near the shattered remains of a planet and Dylan, Beka, and Rommie board her, only to be attacked by automated defense systems. These are disabled as they soon meet the original crew commanded by Lieutenant Jill Pearce (Monika Schnarre). Jill explains that the planet was destroyed by the Nietzscheans, most of the crew killed and some side effect has kept the rest young, although a disabled Slipstream drive kept them in the system. Tyr later disputes this, saying that there is no trace of the radiation left behind by the only Nietzschean weapon capable of such destruction. However, Rev Bem's analysis of the crew's DNA finds that they are indeed over 300 years old!

Dylan is happy to be in a crewed High Guard ship, receiving attention and respect. When Rommie attempts to contact the Magellanic's AI via a virtual reality interface she finds the AI "unbalanced".

Over dinner Dylan invites Jill (who he wants to promote to captain) to join in his mission. She appears eager to do this, as well as attracted to Dylan, though her advances are not reciprocated.

Meanwhile Rommie gets more information in the VR environment and finding Dylan with Jill tells him that it was Jill who actually destroyed the planet. Jill explains she lied to avoid a painful memory of obeying Captain Warrick's order to bring down 'friendly fire' (which started a chain reaction) to avoid capture and interrogation.

Later Harper and the chief engineer ('Dutch') manage to get into the sealed off slipstream drive, only to find it gone and apparently ejected. Dutch attempts to kill Harper, but is stopped by Beka, who along with Harper find themselves fighting and fleeing from an enraged crew. As they approach Dylan and Jill the entire crew stops in place, since they are androids who have been disabled by an android diagnostic program Harper triggered. Shortly they hear from Rev Bem that no "Jill Pearce" was ever part of the crew.

Realizing that Jill is actually "the ship made flesh" Dylan wants to erase her, but Rommie argues that this would kill her 'sister'. Both of them enter VR and through Jill's memories they witness a passionate affair with Warrick (who had wanted or programmed her to be emotional). When Warrick ordered her to self-destruct she instead destroyed the planet and crew. Lonely now Jill used her DNA files to create android versions of part of the crew. In the present she continues to send these androids after the Andromeda crew to kill them, while Wagner plays in the background.

Tyr comes aboard and like a one man army disposes of most of the androids, assisted by Beka. He later says that fighting while listening to Wagner (an opera about the Flying Dutchman?), was the most fun he's had in months!

Dylan now insists Jill must be erased and reprogrammed, but she says that with the Commonwealth gone this is irrelevant. However, Dylan says that even though Tarn Vedra may be gone, the principle remain.

Now back on the Andromeda they are fired upon as Rommie begs her sister to stop. When they minimally return fire the Pax Magellanic lowers her defenses and is destroyed. Jill gave up her life like the captain's lover in "The Flying Dutchman" and Rev Bem prays for her to find peace.

Later Dylan tells Beka he knows now who he can depend on (his crew!). Meanwhile Rommie with Rev Bem weeps, finding what the tear ducts Harper built were for. She says it's dangerous to love because "it can drive you crazy".

Synopsis 02/09/01 by Larry Kramer       Updated 10/26/01

© 2001 Larry Kramer (See Copyright Disclaimer)