Æon Flux/The Demiurge

The Demiurge
Season 1, Episode 5
Airdate	September 5, 1995
Production Number	—
Written by	Steve DeJarnatt Peter Chung Michael Ferris John Brancato
Directed by	Howard E. Baker
← 1x04 A Last Time For Everything	1x06 → Reraizure
Æon Flux — Season One

The Demiurge is the fifth episode of the first season of Æon Flux and is the sixteenth episode overall. The Monicans attempt to launch a godlike being into space, while Trevor and the Breens attempt to take it for themselves.

Guest Stars: Adam Paul (Nader), Shawn Cuddy (Celia), Alison Augustin (Additional Voices), Julia Fletcher (Additional Voices), Patrick Stretch (Additional Voices), Drew Neumann (Additional Voices)

Plot Overview

At the launch site, a rocket is in place for liftoff, but before the launch can start, a shootout occurs between a Breen agent and the Monican rebel. They fight and kill one another without the rocket's takeoff. Trevor takes this time to attempt to dismantle it, but is interrupted when Æon and a man named Nader Zenith resume the launch sequence. However, at the last moment, Nader is shot by Trevor. The launch activates, but before it gets off-world, the casing breaks open to reveal the Demiurge. It casts a light on Nader, seemlingly resurrecting him and transforming a small bird near his body. The rocket launches, the Demiurge is gone, but Nader is transformed. Trevor takes him and escapes back to Breen.

Later in Monica, Celia carries out Nader's last wish to destroy a box that is under his bed. But, she can't do it when she sees that it's a living creature inside. Instead, she attempts to sneak into Æon's apartment and capture the bird-god. Unfortunately for her, Æon kicks her out a window as a reflex. She also throws out the box when she finds that she can't open it. She does spy Nader in Breen and infiltrates the country. She discovers Trevor attempting to deliver a god-child from an unusually pregnant Nader.

The god transforms things briefly and disappears. She flees to her apartment where she finds the new Demiurge, fully formed. She and Trevor tussle, but the kind of booby trap she set up in her apartment goes off. It destroys the complex, but saves Celia, at the cost of its own life. Trevor and Æon float off into the distance and Nader and Celia are reunited.

Notes

Opening Blurb

• Æon Flux and the Monican resistance force have captured the Demiurge, a powerful godlike being, and prepare to send it into space to rid the Earth of its influence. The Breens, led by Trevor Goodchild, battle to prevent the launch...

Characters

• Trevor and Æon: Once again, Æon and Trevor exhibit a bizarre attraction to each other, rather than a homicidal loathing. The two perceived that they were the only ones left on their respective sides, and so they gave into their passions instead of going through with their respective missions. The two are no longer attracted to each other by the end of this episode, possibly because of the god's doing.
• Trevor: Trevor has grown weary of the guilt and the responsibility of running the nation of Bregnia, so he's searching for some kind of higher being that will absolve him of his duty.

Trivia

The Show

• The Point: The premise of this episode is that it's the ultimate Æon Flux mission; to assassinate God. The episode details how people view and use religion. It's about how it affects them and how they attempt to use it for their own world. Trevor's point of view is to find a power that could change the world, but Æon's point of view is that she wants to be flawed and she wants to be responsible for her flaws.

Behind the Scenes

• Airdate: This episode was intended to air first, but MTV didn't get it. They felt that the episode was too esoteric and too bizarre to air first. Instead, MTV asked for them to write an episode that showcased Trevor and Æon's relationship, which would become Utopia or Deuteranopia?. They did, however, greenlight the show based on this script.
• Too Many Cooks: MTV hired on several famous writers to help as script doctors because Peter Chung hadn't made a full episode before. However, most of their doctoring work was rewritten by Chung because he felt that their changes (for instance changing references to the Demiurge to "the Avatar") missed the point he was making.
• Original Cut: Originally in Trevor and Æon's first meeting, they were rolling across a mount of dead bodies from the battle. Which means that it would have somehow been weirder.

Allusions and References

• Demiurge: A demiurge is the term used to indicate a religion whose belief system revolves around a deity being responsible for the creation of the universe and the appearance of man. The way that the creator acts is different in each religion, but they all share the skeleton beliefs of the demiurge. This concept was first put forward by Plato.

Quotes

• Trevor: Light in the absence of eyes illuminates nothing. Visible forms are not inherent in the world, but are granted by act of seeing. Though the world and events do exist independent of mind. They obtain of no meaning in themselves. None that the mind is not guilty of imposing on them. I bid my people follow and... like all good equations, they follow. For full endowment of purpose, they do submit. In turn they resign me to a role inhuman, impossible and unaccountable. But I can no longer stand the sleepless nights. I think I am learning to love the Demiurge.

• [Trevor shoots Nader while he's making out with Æon]
  Æon: You bastard, I thought he was dead.
  Trevor: I think he is.

• Trevor: Half of eternity is still eternity.