“Rumors, Bargains, and Lies”
Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by Michael Vejar
Season 4, Episode 13
Production episode 413
Original air date: May 12, 1997
It was the dawn of the third age… Ivanova, Franklin, Cole, and Allan enter the mess hall, where Sheridan is sitting lost in thought and ignoring all their greetings. Allan congratulates Sheridan on getting the Centauri and Narn to let White Stars patrol their borders, though they all muse on the difficulty of convincing the League of Non-Aligned Worlds to agree to it, even with the two larger nations going for it. Sheridan suddenly bursts out laughing and says he has a plan—not to convince them, but to not convince them. He orders Cole to take three White Stars to Sector 87 and await further orders. A very confused Cole goes off to follow that order.
In hyperspace aboard a White Star, Lennier informs Delenn that fighting has begun on Minbar. The civil war between the Religious and Warrior Castes has begun in earnest. Delenn feels some measure of responsibility as she is the one who broke the Grey Council without regard for the consequences. Lennier points out that Valen prophesied that she would do that, but (a) that was because Sinclair knew it was going to happen, which is the source of all of Valen’s prophecies, and (b) Valen’s prophecy didn’t account for the aftermath because Sinclair’s not around anymore. They rendezvous with several senior members of the Religious Caste on the Takari, and Delenn has invited Neroon to join them as well. Neroon arrives, with a bunch of the Warrior Caste, and everyone looks at each other with suspicion and dread—except for Delenn and Neroon, who meet in private. Once they’ve gone off, the other Religious Caste folks express annoyance at Delenn showing respect to the Warrior Caste.
Both Delenn and Neroon agree that this war is bad for Minbari civilization, though Neroon doesn’t see how they can fix it. Breaking the Grey Council made this inevitable, to his mind, as the Council was all that held the resentments between the two castes in check. Delenn, however, has a plan…
On B5, Mollari is very confused by Sheridan requesting that he not let it be known that the Centauri have allowed the White Stars to patrol their borders. He’s asked the same of G’Kar. When Mollari questions him, he just says, “Trust me.” Then Sheridan encounters the Drazi ambassador, who confronts him about what he’s heard regarding White Stars near Centauri space. Sheridan responds with a very evasive comment that he can neither confirm nor deny.
Upon arriving in CnC, Ivanova reports that Cole has arrived. Sheridan orders Cole to destroy three asteroids, then return to base. A very confused Cole signs off.
The Drazi ambassador pigeonholes Mollari, trying to get him to admit to allowing White Stars to patrol their borders, but Mollari is even more evasive than Sheridan. When the Drazi ambassador gathers some of the other League representatives in the hallway, Franklin approaches them, asking for more blood supplies from them all—he’ll make a formal request through channels, but he wanted to hit them up in person. When asked what it’s for, Franklin unconvincingly says it’s just a precaution in case something happens.
On the Takari, the Religious Caste members are pissed at Delenn meeting in secret with Neroon, and are convinced that she’s capitulating to him. Rather than let this premature surrender stand, they agree to make sure the Takari never reaches Minbar. They are willing to lay down their lives and be martyrs to their cause. They gather a container of toxic gases from the fuel system and hook it up to the environmental controls to gas the ship. They’ll all die and the Takari will drift in hyperspace, lost forever, thus keeping Delenn from betraying them.
On B5, Sheridan tells Ivanova to announce on her next Voice of the Resistance broadcast that there is nothing happening in the sector Cole was just in. Ivanova is concerned about lying when the whole point of Voice of the Resistance is to tell the truth. But Sherian points out that she is telling the truth. Nothing is, in fact, happening in that sector. So she does so, and this sends the Drazi, Brakiri, Gaim, and other ambassadors into an absolute tizzy. Now they’re convinced that something’s going on that Sheridan and the Centauri know about and they’re keeping it from the League.
On the Takari, Neroon is attacked by one of his people, also apparently convinced that Neroon betrayed them to Delenn. Meantime, the Religious Caste members have planted their poison bomb, also convinced that Delenn has betrayed them to Neroon. But when Delenn orders Neroon to be cared for and his attacker to be confined with copies of the sacred scrolls, she explains that she and Neroon are trying to find a way to make peace and stop the war together through cooperation. The Religious Caste members are appalled as they realize they have completely misunderstood Delenn. But there’s also no way to stop the poison.
Unless, of course, someone in a filtration mask goes in and risks his life to retrieve the canister—which Lennier does. He collapses after handing the canister back to the other caste members.
Neroon orders Lennier taken care of by his physicians. He tells Delenn that he is starting to understand why Dukhat took her on as his protégé. Delenn then checks on Lennier, who describes the situation as a malfunction in the fuel system, not mentioning the canister or the poison at all. After she leaves, the Religious Caste members ask why he covered for them. Lennier explains that Delenn sees the world as better than it actually is, and he would rather live in her world than allow her to realize how bad the real one is. He would rather she think the Religious Caste is united and not populated with distrusting morons.
The League ambassadors have decided to ask for Sheridan’s help directly—but not because of this invisible new threat, as they don’t want to overplay their hand. So instead they cite the rumored Drakh raids and ask for Sheridan’s protection there. Sheridan objects, but then recalcitrantly, reluctantly agrees to provide that support.
Ivanova’s next Voice of the Resistance report includes the announcement of a mutual defense treaty between B5 and the League, and also addresses rumors of war and strife on Minbar, and asks if anyone has any mor information to provide it.
Neroon sneaks off the Takari and contacts the head of the Warrior Caste, Shakiri, saying that he knows the Religious Caste’s plans now, and they will be easily defeated.
Get the hell out of our galaxy! Sheridan knows he’ll never convince the League to let him use the White Stars to patrol, but he can manipulate events so that they’ll ask him.
Ivanova is God. At one point, Ivanova checks Sheridan’s coffee to make sure there isn’t anything untoward in it that is causing his weird-ass behavior.
If you value your lives, be somewhere else. The tensions between the Warrior and Religious Castes have boiled over into civil war, and we see how virulent that hatred is in the acts of those supporting Delenn and Neroon, which are singularly un-supportive…
In the glorious days of the Centauri Republic… Mollari doesn’t allow his confusion regarding Sheridan’s motives stop him from throwing himself into the role of denier to the Drazi ambassador with both feet. Mollari also mentions aspect of humanity he doesn’t understand including the Winchester Mystery House, country music, and the comedy team of Rebo and Zooty.
Welcome aboard. We’ve got two recurring characters back in John Vickery, back from “Grey 17 is Missing” as Neroon, and Ron Campbell, back from “The Long Night” as the Drazi ambassador. Campbell will be back in “Meditations on the Abyss,” while Vickery will return next time in “Moments of Transition.”
In addition, the two religious caste members—who are inexplicably never named—are played by Chard Haywood and the great Guy Siner (who is probably best known for playing Lieutenant Gruber in ’Allo ’Allo).
Trivial matters. Delenn previously saw Lennier close to death in “Convictions.” Neroon tried to wrest leadership of the Rangers from Delenn in “Grey 17 is Missing.” Sheridan asked the Centauri and Narn to allow White Star ships to patrol their space in “Conflicts of Interest,” though that they accepted isn’t established until the top of this episode.
This episode has the first reference to the comedy duo of Rebo and Zooty, who will be mentioned several more times before finally appearing in the fifth season’s “Day of the Dead,” played by Penn & Teller.
The echoes of all of our conversations.
“I’ve questioned your judgment, your wisdom, your temperament—but never your loyalty.”
“Was that a compliment?”
“After a fashion.”
“Then you trust me?”
“After a fashion.”
—Delenn and Neroon bantering.
The name of the place is Babylon 5. “I did it for her, I did not do it for you.” My biggest problem with the B5 portion of this week’s episode is best summarized by my wife’s reaction when watching it: “Is Sheridan possessed by an alien entity or something in this episode?”
The basic idea of Sheridan manipulating the League into asking for the help that Sheridan wants to give them is a good one. But the execution is problematic only insofar as this cackling manipulator who speaks in riddles and obfuscation bears absolutely no resemblance to the John Sheridan we’ve been watching for two-and-a-half seasons now. There’s been nothing prior to this to suggest this level of keeping things close to the vest, and nothing after this to suggest that it’s a change in his personality. Indeed, this is nothing like the shift in Sheridan’s personality that we’ve been seeing all season since his return from Z’ha’dum. If I didn’t know better, I might think that there was a new writer who didn’t quite get the character writing him this time around.
But I do know better, as we’re right in the midst of J. Michael Straczynski’s insane marathon of writing every single damn episode, which makes the choice even more bizarre.
It also continues the rather tiresome infantilization of the Drazi and other League species—or, if you prefer, the paternalistic portrayal of humans toward the Drazi. It left a bad taste in my mouth in “The Geometry of Shadows,” and we do it again here, as the Drazi ambassador is played like a two-dollar banjo. It’s played for laughs, but I can’t bring myself to be amused by it. The League ambassadors just come across as idiots here, and manipulating idiots just make our nominal heroes seem unnecessarily cruel. Though I will credit that the worst outcome for Sheridan’s plan would be that the League ambassadors didn’t react at all, in which case Sheridan has wasted everyone’s time, but there would be no (direct) bad consequences.
The Minbari civil war is much more interesting. It’s always a joy to see John Vickery’s Neroon, and the scenes between him and Mira Furlan’s Delenn just sparkle. Guy Siner and Chard Haywood are equally fine as the Religious Caste jackasses, and Bill Mumy absolutely steals the show as a Lennier whom you underestimate at your peril.
It’s also only the first half of the plot, to be finished next time, and I’ll have a lot more to say about this particular storyline in a week’s time.
Next week: “Moments of Transition”
The whole time I was watching this I didn’t remember it at all, until Lennier retrieved the poison. I remembered that scene and the sick bay scene. Thinking back, I hardly remember the Minbari civil war plot.
I don’t for a moment think Neroon is going to betray Delenn, but we’ll see.
yeah, I also think that Neroon is more tricky than just trying to trick Delenn, I expect that he’s actually trying to make her plan work and that’s why he left.
I think there’s an attempt at a parallel between Sheridan and Delenn playing things (too) close to the vest, but it doesn’t really work. If things had gone correctably wrong for Sheridan as they did for Delenn, with Ivanova quietly saving the day, it would have been clearer, though too obvious. At the very least, Sheridan could have let Ivanova in on the larger scheme. It sure felt like Franklin knew something, given the way he played his part.
The B5 plot is definitely messy. I remember thinking, during first run, that Sheridan was acting wildly out of character. It’s clearly meant to be played for laughs, as we’re supposed to think he’s a genius for manipulating the League, but it comes across very badly. Surely there was a better way to achieve the same goals.
The Minbari Civil War plot thread is a bit better, with Neroon always being a welcome addition to the mix and Lennier coming in clutch. All that said, one can tell that the Minbari Civil War is being rushed and deeply compressed. Compare this to the time and attention given to the Centauri/Narn earlier in the season, and it just doesn’t compare, even though the changes to Minbari society have been a long-gestating subplot. Allegedly, this is where JMS cut out a lot of material to shift things around, and it shows. (Even more so in the next episode, IIRC.)
All the diplomacy plot needed was one of the ambassadors to clock it and still agree. “I see what you’re doing. Good idea. I’ll play along.” Then it’s two equally equipped sides who get the importance of optics, not a manipulator and an idiot.
Correction: Sheridan sent Marcus to Sector 87, while he told Ivanova to report that nothing happened in Sector 83 by 9 by 12. The whole point was that he chose a sector at random, one where Ivanova could truthfully say nothing had happened, but in a way to make the League suspect something had.
I don’t think it’s out of character for Sheridan to employ a strategem like this; after all, when we first met him back in season 2, he was secretly working for General Hague, and he’s been leading the crew in a conspiracy against Clark ever since he came clean with them. So employing devious strategems and manipulations is entirely consistent with his character. The part I find implausible is that he didn’t tell the rest of the crew what he was doing. There was no reason for him to hide his intentions from them; if anything, they would’ve been better able to serve his scheme if they’d fully understood what the goal was, so this is not a case where Sun Tzu’s “To fool your enemy, first fool your allies” would be useful advice. It was just a narrative trick JMS employed to keep the audience in the dark, with no in-universe reason for it. And it didn’t even work at keeping the audience in the dark, since it was pretty obvious all along that Sheridan was using reverse psychology.
Meanwhile, I found it strange that Neroon apparently didn’t get any treatment for his head wound, which just seemed to get worse and more livid hours after the attack. You’d think he’d at least have a bandage over it. It’s one thing for warriors to bear their scars with pride, but you’d think they’d have the sense to avoid swelling or infection.
I thought I made this clear, but my issue wasn’t with Sheridan’s actions as such, but the execution of it. It was the way he was behaving that was out of character — not what he did, but how he did it.
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
But wasn’t that the point, though? Doing things “in character,” the way he normally operated, was getting him nowhere, so he deliberately chose to employ an uncharacteristic strategy.
yes, the strategy to try to trick them would fit his character. the way he handles the crew and the way he treats all those independent world representatives as complete morons are the things that are out of character. Also it’s a bit insulting that the script also treats all those League folks like idiots…
I agree. Sheridan has been shown using deception in the past. In fact, most of his significant military strategies involve some form of ruse or deception. Destroying the Black Star during the Earth-Minbari war involved luring it in to a trapped asteroid field with a fake distress signal. He was willing to elaborately deceive Anna when they went to Z’ha’dum, withholding that he knew she was installed in a Shadow vessel and passing off leaving the White Star in orbit as a favor to their hosts rather than as a tactical advantage. Luring the Shadows to Coriana VI with false information (and willing to sacrifice a White Star and its crew to make that information seem more authentic).
I think a more accurate question is to ask when doesn’t Sheridan use deception and manipulation?
I dunno…people were saying that B5 is struggling in season 1, but then after it becomes great. Well…it had its peaks over the previous seasons, but season 4 is an absolute mess so far. since the super-easy resolution of the biggest war of the universe, we get worse episodes than the ones in S1 and this is no exception. The only thing i really liked about it was to see Lieutenant Gruber as a Minbari, I did not expect that. :D
Sheridan behaves terribly both as a person and as a diplomat and while i never liked him, now it’s even worse and really not fitting him.
The Minbari plot is slightly better, but trying to kill everyone BEFORE at least, you know, ASKING Delenn what her plan is? or maybe she could have shared it with some of the people of her own cast, so that they don’t run on blind trust?
But it was a nice twist at the end that Naroon left the ship, that at least made curious about the next episode.
If we judge the episode by the context of JMS taking the path of least resistance to get the script out, we could agree the Sheridan plot feels a bit wonky because it’s certainly not light on oversimplified caricature behavior from both Sheridan and the Drazi.
But in-universe? To me at least, Sheridan’s actions make a good deal of sense. After four seasons, we can all agree on one thing: the League of Non-Aligned Worlds is a certifiable mess of people that never agree on anything and are ready to pounce and block (and complain) any movement made by Sheridan or any of the other big powers. And a very realistic imitation of real-world councils – just look at every political impasse involving NATO and UN resolutions over the past 40 years. Sheridan is a career military and son of a diplomat. He knows his strengths and weaknesses, and he knows arguing with the League is a fool’s errand. He already spent that capital getting them together to fight the Shadows twice. And it took a resurrection the second time to bring them together again.
You could make the point the station’s CO was being manipulative as a flaw if it were still Sinclair in charge. With Sheridan, he’s acting very much in-character.
What I do agree is JMS is overworked to the point it’s reflecting in the scripts. No one will find nuance here, that’s for sure. What makes this plot work as well as it does is Boxleitner’s performance. He’s having immense amounts of fun with this cat-and-mouse poker game.
Always glad to see Neroon, and this episode is a major step in his understanding of Delenn and where she stands regarding their people. The fact that he betrays them at the end should feel like a cop-out, but Vickery’s expression doesn’t hide the truth: he’s not comfortable doing this. His duel with Marcus last season had already made a dent in his pride, realizing humans could be more brave and act more Minbari than himself. And now, having seen civil war, plus Lennier’s near-sacrifice and deception to protect Delenn’s heart and innocence, he can’t go back to the irascible warmonger hawk he once was. I still have issues with the lack of buildup to the civil war, but at least we’re getting some compelling scenes out of it.
For me, it wasn’t so much that Sheridan was being manipulative. It was the goofiness. JMS admits in the script books that he didn’t see a lot of opportunity for comedy for the rest of the season’s run, so he used this scenario to push that angle. And to me, you can see how forced it is. Sheridan could have done exactly the same things, with a bit more seriousness, and I think a lot of the criticism would be set aside.
A few weeks ago, Keith made a comparison between Babylon 5 and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine with the episodes “Into The Fire” and “Sacrifice Of Angels”
For me, the bigger comparison between the two is this episode and “In The Pale Moonlight.” And to me, “ITPM” wins on every level.
When alone and Sheridan exclaims his “YES!” I was disgusted with this character. He was Proud of himself that his plan to trick The League worked and he got his way. There was no remorse at all about his underhandedness in his manipulation and he was no better than JR Ewing in his prime.
Meanwhile, we watch a tour de force performance by Avery Brooks in one of his finest hours on the series as everything Sisko believes in as a Starfleet officer is swept away bit by bit throughout the episode as he tries to get the Romulans into the war against the Dominion. It also helped that Andrew Robinson was also at the top of his game as Garak, doing additional (and very dark) manipulations and plotting to get the final results.
And unlike “YES!” we got two very powerful lines: “And all it cost was the life of one Romulan senator, one criminal, and the self-respect of one Starfleet officer. I don’t know about you, but I’d call that a bargain.” and “A guilty conscience is a small price to pay for the safety of the Alpha Quadrant. So I will learn to live with it… Because I can live with it… I can live with it… Computer – erase that entire personal log.”
So while I can watch “ITPM” anytime and every time, I can skip “Rumors, Bargains and Lies” forever.
Comparing one of the best episodes of one show and a middling-at-best episode of another seems like it’s predetermining the result.
Sheridan’s compromises come up later in S4 and S5 is packed with them. In fact, I’d argue the way in S5 that the Brakiri and Drazi maneuver around ISA President Sheridan is the counterpoint to this episode. The comedy Drazi aren’t so funny in S5.
I think you just made me realize what was bugging me about the episode. It was too clean. It was too easy. The Sheridan side of the story just fills like 90’s sitcom plot. Whatever risk his plan had wasn’t felt in the story so you never have any worry about the outcome especially when you have to Minbari side that has out an out sabotage ticking bomb to contrast it.
My memory of this show papered over a lot of this but watching again I really am feeling like JMS not sharing the load is a problem. The amount of good idea’s on paper but poor execution is just stacking up for me. Maybe poor is to harsh. Messy? Chunks of episodes feel shallow and first drafty.
I kind of see your point, but the difference is that Sheridan’s strategy here didn’t get anyone killed. Technically he didn’t even lie, or ask anyone besides Londo (and maybe G’Kar) to lie. He just did a few essentially harmless things — had the White Stars fire on some asteroids, had Ivanova say truthfully that nothing happened in an empty sector, had Franklin request fresh blood supplies just in case — and relied on the League’s kneejerk mistrust toward him to fill in the blanks.
They always said in the TV show Hustle that you can’t con an honest person. The mark of a good con is that the hustler does as little as possible and lets the mark fill in the gaps with their own imagination, their own greed or fears or deceptiveness. In a sense, Sheridan didn’t con the League, he just created the opportunity for them to con themselves, to fill in the lack of information with their own paranoid assumptions.
Also, Sisko and Garak’s actions in “Pale Moonlight” were about convincing the Romulans to enter the Dominion War, a choice that would have required considerable sacrifice and loss for them and that they therefore had good reason to resist (though of course their losses would have been greater in the long term, which was what Sisko wanted to convince them of). Here, Sheridan wanted to convince the League to do the opposite, to allow the White Stars to protect them, but they resisted out of pride and mistrust. Okay, it was condescending and manipulative, but manipulation is a common enough part of politics and diplomacy. It wasn’t a noble thing Sheridan did, but it was minor compared to what Sisko had to live with.
The theme here is about how the two “great big heroes” of the Shadow War who have proved themselves repeatedly have a hard time getting anyone to trust them. Delenn just blithely proceeds, where Sheridan says “if I say not to jump they’ll be bouncing off the ceiling” and opts to use that distrust to his advantage. I agree that comparing Sheridan’s maneuverings to Sisko (though it’s mostly Garrick) is oranges to apples.
There is a contrast here: Sheridan’s team all think he’s crazy but unlike the League, they do trust and back his play; Delenn has only one person (Lennier) in a comparable situation.
I’d say the biggest flaws with this episode involve it being unable to explain what either Delenn or Sheridan are up to: Delenn rarely explains what she’s planning, but Sheridan seems to be letting off some steam and pranking Ivanova as much as he is getting a diplomatic breakthrough.
I was right there with your wife in wondering whether Sheridan was possessed. Playing things close to the vest is one thing. Acting like a clown is another. It certainly didn’t seem integral to his plan. The Minbari plot was better, mainly because of Mira Furlan’s acting, which is always on point, and it was also nice to see Lennier get another heroic moment, one that felt more in-character than his macho turn in “Ceremonies of Light and Dark.” I wasn’t crazy about his little speech at the end, though, where he talked about protecting Delenn from the truth. Sheridan and company weren’t the only ones behaving in a paternalistic fashion in this episode.
JMS’ comments (quoted on the Lurker’s Guide page) say that it was “fun” for him to write Sheridan this way. I can see how, in the midst of his “insane marathon” (a characterization I can get behind), it might have made sense for him to play games to keep himself amused. Also, wasn’t he having stress-induced health issues around that time, or am I misremembering?
Regardless of the reasons, I always find the initial scene of Sheridan acting like a literal madman in the mess hall off-putting. The rest of the plan to get the League on board makes sense, although I agree that the portrayal of the League ambassadors is extremely patronizing.
John Vickery saves the episode because Neroon improves every episode he is in. I particularly appreciate the fact that, even now when I know what is coming, the ambiguity of Neroon’s abrupt departure at the end still works dramatically for me.
The “Religious Caste jackasses” (also a characterization I can get behind) are… fine, but it’s kind of hard for me to really believe that those nebbishes would actually be willing to die for a cause.