I bought the idea that original John was just duplicated, and that there were two original Johns, who had the same memories, life experiences, physcial and mental makeup and everything. For me, the fact that they both survived the episode just proved that they were both 'real'.
But despite that, I still came to see Moya John as the real one, and Talyn John as the copy, due to my preferences. I was kind of bored of John/Aeryn by this point, and while I still sort of rooted for them, I wasn't really invested and tended to find more in John's interactions with other characters. I even enjoyed the bit of flirtation he had with Sikozu (a character I really liked. I may be the only one who did) in the first few episodes of season 4.
Anyway, so I thought Moya John was the real one, because I was more invested in his plight, as the guy left behind on Moya, being grumpy and sulky with D'Argo, Chiana and Jool. Talyn John got all that he wanted, by finally getting together with Aeryn, and by being blissfully happy in... was it Meltdown? Perhaps part of it was, as RadiantAerynSun says, because I knew somewhere that Talyn John was going to bite it, so subconsciously marked him off as temporary anyway.
But I really enjoyed the Moya episodes more. Losing Time and Scratch and Sniff were two completely loopy episodes that really summed up what the show was about, for me. And I frelling loved Avenging Angel, the Loony Tunes episode. In comparison, I found the Talyn episodes a bit dull and a bit too cookie cutter scifi.
On another John Crichton related topic, I have to say, this character must have had one of the most extreme, convoluted and yet satisfying character arcs in all of science fiction television (and probably most other types of television too). Remember what he was like in the pilot? The goofy, beige flightsuit wearing goober who was goggling at everything and was just generally lost and helpless? Then think about him as the black leather wearing badass, capable of getting two great, warlike civilisations to stand down and shut up. Then think of everything that happened in between. Amazing stuff.
Edited April 4, 2014 by Danny FranksncG1vNJzZmien6fCrr%2BNqamipZWptq6x0WeaqKVfqbyxtcJobG5xZ2Kzor7SnJipnV2csq%2Bx0ZqjZpyZqLC2v9Kipqdn