“Epiphanies”
Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by John C. Flinn III
Season 4, Episode 7
Production episode 407
Original air date: February 10, 1997
It was the dawn of the third age… The Shadow War is over and B5 is having a party. Sheridan and Delenn watch as people dance and celebrate. However, Sheridan is worried about what comes next.
At Psi Corps HQ on Earth, Bester is being briefed by his boss. President Clark has apparently been rattled by something, and he’s targeting B5 for whatever reason. It’s resulted in a major program involving Psi Corps, EarthForce, Nightwatch, and Minipax. When Bester asks why they don’t just have EarthForce take B5 by force, the boss telepath says they tried that and it didn’t work. They need to discredit B5 first.
On Centauri Prime, Mollari prepares to leave for B5. He’s put a lot of noses out of joint with his freeing of Narn and he wants to go offworld for a while until things calm down.
Cartagia didn’t have an heir, and the Centaurum wants to deliberate much more slowly and carefully on who to make the new emperor. They have decided to give the position of Regent to Minister Virini, whose first thought upon assuming the keep-the-throne-warm position is to want to redecorate the throne room in pastels…
On B5, G’Kar is being examined in medlab, where Franklin offers him a prosthetic eye. G’Kar accepts, and is also frustrated by the phantom-limb-syndrome-induced itching in his missing eye.
Garibaldi receives a message in his quarters. It’s a weird test pattern, and after seeing it, Garibaldi deletes the message as well as any record of it. That’s not ominous at all…
Neither is what happens next: Garibaldi starts out a senior staff meeting by resigning. Everyone is stunned and tries to talk him out of it, but he rather sensibly points out that the whole point of the war they just fought was so that they could determine their own fate. Well, he wants to determine his.
Allan is going over procedure with security personnel. Mollari arrives and banters with Allan for a bit before boarding the station. (Weirdly, Mollari—who is now prime minister—doesn’t correct Allan when he calls him “Ambassador.”) Bester then arrives, escorted by two security guards. The Psi Cop says he needs to meet with the senior staff, and he assumes that his usual accommodations in the brig are available?
Allan leaves before anything else weird happens, and as soon as he departs a bunch of Elvis impersonators board the station.
G’Kar visits Garibaldi in his quarters as he’s packing. Garibaldi is scared to death that G’Kar is going to kill him, given that the Narn was captured by the Centauri and his eye ripped out. G’Kar, however, completely surprises Garibaldi by giving him a bear hug. Yes, he lost an eye and was tortured, but his people are free, and it was his search for Garibaldi that caused him to get captured and therefore be in a position to do the deal with Mollari. G’Kar is not angry at all. Garibaldi is grateful, and also more convinced than ever that G’Kar is nuts.
Sheridan promotes Allan to chief of security. Everyone agrees that Garibaldi has been acting weird since his disappearance, but there’s not much they can do about it. Sheridan has Allan fetch Alexander, as they want her telepathic mojo to keep Bester from scanning them.
ISN reports that President Clark has declared that there’s a travel ban to B5, and there’s an EarthForce blockade enforcing it.
Allan arrives at Alexander’s quarters, where she has a bunch of stuff on her bed. With the Vorlons gone, she is no longer beholden to their desire for her to live an ascetic lifestyle. She is, however, struggling with what to put where. When Allan asks her along for the meeting with Bester, Alexander plaintively asks why people only come to see her when they want something. No one just stops by to say hi. Allan says frankly that her connection to the Vorlons freaks people out more than a little bit. Alexander thanks him for the honesty. Allan then offers to come by when things calm down and help her organize her quarters—he’ll even bring pizza.
Mollari and G’Kar come across each other in the Zocalo. G’Kar says that his people are free and Mollari no longer exists in his universe. Pray they never encounter each other again.
Bester meets with Sheridan, Ivanova, Franklin, Allan, and Alexander. Bester objects to the latter’s presence; she’s a blip, so by rights he should arrest her, plus she’s only a P5 and not strong enough to block a scan anyhow. Sheridan tells him to go jump in a lake. Insults sufficiently traded, they get down to business. Having lost the Shadows’ support due to their buggering off, Clark is running scared, fearing what B5 is going to do. So he’s taking the initiative. Phase 1 is the propaganda war. Bester will only reveal Phase 2 if Sheridan takes Bester to Z’ha’dum. The Shadows are gone, but some of their tech may remain behind, and that may provide insight into rescuing Carolyn Sanderson and the other telepaths the Shadows took.
Sheridan agrees, and so Bester explains that Phase 2 is to frame B5 for murder. Some Black Omega ships will be sent to appear to be travelling to B5, be challenged by the blockade, and then destroy the ships running the blockade, claiming to be from B5. It’s lose-lose for B5, as either they’re framed, or they have to stop the Black Omega squad, in which case the blockade will still be there.
At one point, Bester tries to scan the others and is aggressively blocked by Alexander.
Allan goes to Garibaldi to get some codes he needs for his new job, and says that he thinks his erstwhile boss is making a mistake. Garibaldi points out that everyone told him he was making a mistake when he hired Allan. Allan says, “Touché” and leaves with the codes.
Sheridan and Delenn take Bester on a White Star to Z’ha’dum, along with Alexander. Following her block of his scan, Bester tries to convince Alexander to rejoin Psi Corps. She declines.
They arrive at Z’ha’dum only to find a mass exodus, which is quickly followed by the planet blowing up. Bester is devastated, but they all assume that the Shadows’ allies didn’t want people doing exactly what Bester wanted to do: pick over the Shadows’ remains.
Ivanova leads a team of Starfuries to stop the Black Omega ships, which they not only succeed in doing, but make it very obvious that the B5 crew saved the lives of the blockade.
Clark now has a PR nightmare on his hands, as Phase 2 has failed. Allan gives Bester time alone with Sanderson (still in stasis, obviously), where he monologues in exposition to her that he gladly sacrificed the Black Omega fleet in order to try to save her. At that point it becomes clear that Bester not only knew about the attempted frame job, he was in charge of it…
Sheridan goes to Alexander’s quarters where he makes it clear that he’s figured out that the telepath warned the Shadows’ allies on Z’ha’dum that they were coming. Alexander admits to nothing except some glee at the fact that Bester didn’t get what he wanted because he’s a piece of shit. Sheridan agrees that he’s a piece of shit and that in general the captain has no issue with the results of the mission—and understands that she couldn’t share this alleged plan with anyone for fear of Bester learning about it telepathically—but he also makes it clear that she’d better not pull this nonsense again or there’ll be hell to pay.
After Sheridan leaves, Allan shows up with pizza, as promised.
On Centauri Prime, the Regent is preparing for bed, only to find that he has a strange one-eyed creature on his shoulder…
Get the hell out of our galaxy! Sheridan is remarkably self-righteous and cruel to Alexander, even though everything she did helped them out. They fulfilled their promise to Bester without actually helping Bester, Shadow tech can’t fall into the wrong hands now, and Z’ha’dum is gone. But she did it on the down-low—which even he admitted was necessary because of Bester—and that annoyed him, apparently.
Ivanova is God. Ivanova is able to turn Phase 2 into a PR victory for B5 rather than for Clark. Because she’s just that awesome.
The household god of frustration. Garibaldi is obviously not acting like himself, though his resignation and reasons for it make sense on the face of it. At one point, he draws an emoji in the fog of his mirror, but it’s not a smiley face, it’s just a bland expression, with the mouth a straight line across.
If you value your lives, be somewhere else. Delenn points out to Sheridan that he likes it when things are chaotic, as it gives him problems to solve. Calm and peace don’t suit him.
In the glorious days of the Centauri Republic… Mollari jokes with Allan that Cartagia told him that he could only leave Centauri Prime over his dead body. He also says that Allan said he could only come back to B5 over his dead body, but Mollari can, alas, only accommodate so many requests…
Though it take a thousand years, we will be free. G’Kar’s missing eye itches. That’s just got to be annoying…
He also explains to Franklin that he does not wish to lead his people, even though they offered it to him. He has seen what power does and what power costs, and he doesn’t like the ratio.
The Corps is mother, the Corps is father. It’s amusing to note that Bester knows more than his boss about what’s going on. Said boss only knows that Clark is spooked for some reason, while Bester is fully aware, thanks to his clandestine alliance of convenience with B5, of the Shadows’ role in Clark’s ascent.
The Shadowy Vorlons. As promised by Morden before his death, the Shadows have allies. They’re the ones who blow up Z’ha’dum, and they will take acts of vengeance on the Shadows’ behalf.
Looking ahead. Bester mentions that he has an ace in the hole. We’ll learn who and what that is in “The Face of the Enemy.”
And in terms of both looking ahead and behind, we get our chronological first look at a Keeper. One will be attached to Mollari a couple of decades in the future, as we saw in “War Without End, Part 2,” and the process that leads to that starts here with the Regent getting one.
No sex, please, we’re EarthForce. Bester’s love for Sanderson is sufficiently strong that he’s perfectly willing to sacrifice Black Omega—a squadron he formed and recruited everyone for—in order to just have a chance to save her.
Welcome aboard. Back from “Ship of Tears” is Walter Koenig as Bester; he’ll return in “Moments of Transition.” Back from “Into the Fire” is Damian London as the minister who is now the Regent; he’ll return in “In the Kingdom of the Blind.” Victor Lundin is remarkably bland as the Psi Cop boss, Lauren Sanchez is the latest person to play an ISN anchor, and Robert Patteri plays the head of the EarthForce blockade.
Trivial matters. Bester’s alliance of convenience with B5 was formed when the crew promised to help the telepaths captured by the Shadows in “Ship of Tears.”
The psychedelic visual Garibaldi receives is very similar to that used on Abel Horn to activate him as a sleeper agent in “A Spider in the Web.”
The woman dancing with Franklin at the top of the episode is Richard Biggs’ then-fiancée Lori Gebers.
The echoes of all of our conversations.
“Ms. Alexander has no business being here. She’s a blip—by all rights, I should arrest her and take her back with me.”
“Oh, you could do that. And I could nail your head to the table, set fire to it, and feed the remains to the Pak’ma’ra. But it’s an imperfect world, and we never get exactly what we want.”
—Bester and Sheridan leading off their meeting by comparing dick sizes.
The name of the place is Babylon 5. “Trouble will come in its own time, it always does.” Three decades later, one of the things from B5 that has remained embedded in my brain meats is Sheridan’s line to Bester quoted in “The echoes of all our conversations” above. It’s a great line, delivered perfectly by Bruce Boxleitner, and it succinctly summarizes how, well, everyone feels about Bester.
It certainly works better than the other attempts at humor (the “three kings” bit when the Elvis impersonators show up and the Regent’s “pastels!” line both fall completely flat, at least for me). It’s one of two great moments in the episode, the other being the brief confrontation between Mollari and G’Kar in the Zocalo. After spending the episode being his usual bombastic self with both Allan and a Zocalo vendor, Mollari is suddenly completely quiet when facing G’Kar. Peter Jurasik relies instead on facial expressions, going from frightened to resigned to regretful to sad. Meanwhile, Andreas Katsulas’ quiet intensity when telling Mollari he no longer exists in his universe is devastating, especially in contrast to his gleeful exchange with Garibaldi.
This is very much a transitional episode in the most literal sense, as we have the characters recovering from and starting to move on from the Shadow War (and also starting to see some of its consequences), and also get back to the inevitable confrontation between B5 and Earth. The latter has been kind of back-burnered while we’ve dealt with Shadows and Cartagia and other family values, but now it’s back full force.
Watching the episode now, I find myself noticing plot holes I never really focused on before. For one thing, in the penultimate scene, Sheridan speculates about the Shadows’ allies and where they might go. Except he already knows where one of them will go: Centauri Prime. We know he remembers what happened when he popped to the future in “War Without End, Part 2,” because he cited it as his rationale for going to Z’ha’dum in “Z’ha’dum.” So why doesn’t he remember the one-eyed thingie on Emperor Mollari’s shoulder?
Also, Bester showed up on B5 in the midst of a travel ban (he came through customs and everything) right before B5 screwed up the plan that Bester was responsible for implementing. Seems to me that even a not-very-bright Nightwatch employee or fellow Psi Cop might put two and two together there.
And finally, there is absolutely no reason for Mollari to be back on B5 except that it’s a show called Babylon 5 and Peter Jurasik is a main character. He’s the prime minister, for crying out loud, he should be on Centauri Prime running things!
Next week: “The Illusion of Truth”
I don’t find this weird at all. First, I don’t know how many people on B5 will have gotten the news that Mollari was appointed Prime Minister a week before (and certainly not someone at Zack’s level). Besides, Londo still IS the Ambassador to B5.
Mollari can’t possibly be the ambassador to B5 anymore, precisely because he is prime minister. That’s not how that works. The ambassador is someone who reports to the prime minister, they can’t be the same person, as the two jobs have wildly different descriptions and purviews.
Also, changes in governments of super-powers are things that get around. ISN is the only news reporting we actually see, but there’s no way it’s the only one in the galaxy. I find it utterly impossible to credit that the news of Cartagia’s death and Mollari’s appointment as PM didn’t make the news, as it were.
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
Londo’s just removed an insane emperor and saved the planet from destruction. Are you gonna tell him he can’t be both Prime Minister and Ambassador? Did you hear what he did to that Morden guy?
While I get your first point – and agree with it – the snark in me goes “it’s a non-human offworld form of government – the only people that say it doesn’t work that way are the Centauri.” :-D
Regarding your second point – Kim Jong Il was dead for nearly 3 days before North Korea said a word about it – I have no problem believing the Centauri, light years away from B5 and the Earth Alliance could keep a lid on it for a few more days if they wanted to
You’re forgetting something: Cartagia was killed on Narn, and Narn was freed four-and-a-half seconds later. You think the Narn kept quiet about all that?
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
The Narn certainly wouldn’t keep silent about it, but I bet the B5 staff would need to wait for official confirmation from Centauri Prime before ceasing to refer to Mollari as Ambassador.
There is an easier explanation: Zack doesn’t particularly like Londo and could just be playing dumb to try to annoy him. Londo is choosing not to take the bait.
Or, Zack is just being Zack and addressed him as “Ambassador” out of habit.
There’s probably been enough time for that, given that travel time between systems tends to be several days, and given that the comic In Valen’s Name apparently takes place during the early part of this episode and spans several days at least.
Besides, presumably when a state official checks in at a destination, he’d present his credentials and documentation even if he’d been there before. And those credentials would presumably reflect his updated status.
Surprised the Robert Knepper moment here wasn’t Lauren Sanchez as the ISN anchor, given that she’s probably more famous today as Mrs. Jeff Bezos.
Until I read this comment, I had no idea that Sanchez was Bezos’s wife….
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
Sheridan’s opening monologue really sets up expectations for the great, big other shoe of DOOOOM to fall in this episode, but it never really does. Stuff happens and there’s some story, but on the whole it’s surprisingly light.
Garibaldi’s little speech to Zack about everybody telling him not to hire him, and everybody getting one second chance after a big screw-up is essentially about JMS and Jeff Conaway. After Taxi, Conaway had a pretty big substance abuse problem that led to him alienating almost everyone in Hollywood. He’d gotten sort of cleaned up by this time, but his reputation was such that he couldn’t get work. JMS gave him a chance, because Garibaldi’s philosophy on the matter was his own.
“You no longer exist in my universe.” That line has been stuck in my head from the moment I first heard it, all those many years ago. There have been a few times when I was very tempted to deliver that line. (Probably for the best, in retrospect.)
I happen to like the “pastels!” line. The actor’s delivery is a big part of it. I enjoy his performances.
This episode had a lot of potential to be a letdown, but I think it pivots rather nicely from the Shadow War back to the troubles closer to home. Bringing in Bester to do a very Bester thing helps a lot. But I like how much else is going on. The season sometimes slows a bit but never really loses momentum.
I remember being shocked by Garibaldi’s decision. It’s a huge change for the status quo, but reasonable enough that one can almost forget that something unusual prompted it. A lot of the pieces of the puzzle are right there in these episodes early in the season, but just enough context is missing to keep it obscured. I’m of the mind that Garibaldi’s arc is fairly well done, though I know there are wide opinions on that.
I also like how we are seeing Lyta’s dissatisfaction with how she is being treated. She has a legit reason to be upset, and that’s something that will fester for a while yet. Sheridan is a bit of a dick, considering the circumstances. It’s not like Lyta is part of his command structure. He just acts like she is. I wonder if this is supposed to be another sign that he’s changed a bit since coming back from Z’Ha’Dum, but I don’t think he would have reacted differently before. Then again, I’ve never felt like Sheridan was all that different in the first place. At least, it wasn’t a drastic change, unless I’m missing something obvious.
Agree on the “pastels!” line. I’ve been using it with other B5 fans for years, and even have a reaction gif ready to deploy when needed.
Yeah, I don’t see anything wrong with the “pastels” line. It lets us know that Virini’s ambitions are simple and thus he’s a safe person to leave in charge for the time being. Okay, “safe” is relative, but better ineffectuality than military imperialism or genocidal insanity.
“It’s not like Lyta is part of his command structure.”
She agreed to accompany and assist Sheridan on a mission that he commanded. Within the context of that mission, therefore, she was part of his command structure. By agreeing to come along, she consented to obey his authority, or at least to consult him before making any mission-critical decisions, which she did not do.
Sheridan didn’t really offer her a choice, though, did he? He instructed the new head of security, as his first task, to go “escort her” to the meeting with Bester. Zack tried to be nice about it, but his orders didn’t say anything about asking or convincing her. When she does object, he tries to placate her, but there is no real suggestion that he’s going to take no for an answer.
You’re conflating two different things. As you say, the escort was just to the meeting. At the meeting, they discussed Bester’s plan and arrived at a consensus to go through with the mission he proposed. Lyta raised no objection to joining the mission.
Anyway, the fact that Sheridan presumed he could order Lyta to attend the meeting, rather than just asking her, tells us implicitly that she’s already agreed to act as a member of his command structure, even if it’s an informal arrangement. He’s not a martinet, after all. He wouldn’t pull rank on someone he didn’t have legitimate authority over, or who hadn’t agreed to accept his authority.
I don’t think it tells us that at all. I think it tells us that Sheridan, whether consciously or not, doesn’t particularly care what Lyta thinks. Now why might Sheridan treat Lyta differently than he would treat others? Hmm….
Anyway, at the meeting Sheridan specifically notes that there is no consensus, but orders the mission to proceed anyway.
Then, afterwards, he berates a civilian who has repeatedly put her own life at risk for his personal benefit, for making what he admits was probably the right decision in circumstances where he admits no consultation was possible.
You’re right that Lyta has not yet begun to clearly object to his treatment of her. We can even understand why, in Sheridan’s mind, he might think he’s justified. He’s prone to deciding that good ends can justify unpleasant means when faced with tough choices. But he has gone beyond taking her help for granted by this point, and we are supposed to take note of that. As we are supposed to take note of the other changes in Sheridan’s behaviour.
“I don’t think it tells us that at all. I think it tells us that Sheridan, whether consciously or not, doesn’t particularly care what Lyta thinks.”
I think that’s overly harsh. At most, it shows that he takes it for granted that she’s agreed to accept his authority, given that she’s been working on behalf of the crew and/or the “Army of Light” for some time now. He’s just treating her like he’d treat any other subordinate. Perhaps that’s presuming too much given that she’s not officially under his command, but she’s been acting like she is, so he hasn’t had a reason to think otherwise.
As JMS put it, “Lyta doesn’t officially work for Sheridan, but she has nowhere else to go, and is beholden to him just for everyday survival and protection against the Corps. That makes her answerable to him.” Basically she’s a guest in his house, and that means agreeing to live by the house rules, pitch in with the chores when called upon, and not abuse her privileges.
“Anyway, at the meeting Sheridan specifically notes that there is no consensus, but orders the mission to proceed anyway.”
Which is obviously his prerogative, because he’s a military commander and it’s not a democracy. Since Lyta isn’t actually under his command, it was within her rights to refuse, but she chose to go along anyway — presumably because she was already planning to do what she did at Z’ha’dum.
“Then, afterwards, he berates a civilian who has repeatedly put her own life at risk for his personal benefit, for making what he admits was probably the right decision in circumstances where he admits no consultation was possible.”
No situation exists in a vacuum. Since they’d probably be working together again, Sheridan was entitled to make it clear to Lyta that even if operating outside the chain of command and keeping secrets from him was necessary in this case, she shouldn’t make a habit of it going forward. It’s hardly an uncommon trope in fiction, a commander telling a subordinate “I’ll excuse it this time, but don’t let it happen again.”
“He’s just treating her like he’d treat any other subordinate.”
This is the key point of disagreement, I think. He doesn’t treat her the same as any other subordinate, at least not one who has been effectively part of the inner circle. For the others, he may assert authority from time to time, but he also checks in with them; gives them support when they are struggling; solicits their input into decisions; treats them with respect. He never does any of that for Lyta. He has a blind spot for her that prevents him from really seeing her as a person.
“Since they’d probably be working together again, Sheridan was entitled to make it clear to Lyta that even if operating outside the chain of command and keeping secrets from him was necessary in this case, she shouldn’t make a habit of it going forward.”
Sure, but it matters how he does it. When Ivanova or Garibaldi are insubordinate, or verging on it, he doesn’t berate them like that. He tries to understand their concerns and to respond to them. And, more importantly, he also says thank you to them from time to time and values what they bring to the table, so that when he does have to hold them accountable that isn’t the only thing they hear from him. But, again, he treats Lyta differently from everybody else.
I’m not saying he doesn’t have reasons. Nor am I saying it makes him a bad person, just a human with blind spots. JMS is setting up a tragedy here that relies on us having sympathies on both sides.
Christopher, that’s a fair point about this specific mission. You’re right.
I understand that at this point Lyta lives on B5 on Sheridan’s sufferance. But it doesn’t seem like they have a formal standing agreement about her duties. So when she gets dragooned (again?) into sitting in on the initial meeting with Bester she doesn’t protest much. She’s not happy about it (which may add a little pleasure to what Sheridan later sees as her act of (1) insubordination against him and (2) giving Bester the finger).
His ‘sufferance’, as you put it, is that Lyta is a third-party Vorlon-trained (and Vorlon cast-off) psyker that can shut down Bester and is, for all intents and purposes, a displaced person with who has no place to call home, bears no allegiance to any third party, and is allied with nobody but B5. As a later episode points out, she is a Vorlon-crafted Q-ship that can go toe-to-toe with anything less than a Vorlon. And we cannot be certain that she was not made to have the equivalent of a Vorlon’s lifespan, nor that her capabilities are in any manner capped.
And from what we know, Lyta still has to take odd jobs to earn money for room and board. Neither B5 or Sheridan pays her wages.
“It’s not like Lyta is part of his command structure. He just acts like she is.”
I agree Sheridan’s treating her, poorly, as a subordinate. I’d _like_ to think he’s doing it out of distraction or simple thoughtlessness instead of taking advantage of the fact that at the moment, she has zero other options. If she left the station, she’d be on the run from any number of people and factions who don’t wish her well. She knows this, and knows their minds on the topic – literally, if she chooses to.
I wonder what JMS wanted us to think at this point. It’s really not a good look for Sheridan, even if it provides some additional motivation for her character.
It’s an interesting question.
“Garibaldi is scared to death that G’Kar is going to kill him”
Huh? No, why would he think that when he knows G’Kar was the one person who went looking for him? He’s not scared for his life, he’s guilty that G’Kar got captured because of him. He’s afraid G’Kar will blame him for it and be angry, but I doubt it’s to that extent.
There are too many different things going on in this episode for it to really come together for me. It’s largely just reminding us of various plot threads and moving them slightly forward. The two big things are completely unrelated — Garibaldi resigning and the loose end of Z’ha’dum being tied off. With, yet again, the ridiculous conceit of blowing apart the entire mass of a planet with enough force to overcome its gravity permanently, when you could destroy everything on its surface with a tiny fraction of the energy expenditure, or even dissociate it entirely while its own gravity would still hold it together in a molten sphere.
Also, would the Shadows’ allies really abandon and destroy such a valuable base just because one ship with a Vorlon-enhanced telepath aboard was en route? That seems like an absurdly convenient overreaction. Wouldn’t they have just shot down the White Star?
Compounding the issue of how much stuff is going on here is that the DC Comics miniseries In Valen’s Name, written by JMS and Peter David (with David scripting issues 2-3 from JMS’s outline), seems to take place during the episode, at least according to the B5 wiki, since it’s after the war but before Garibaldi resigns, and the wiki assumes that the celebrations at the start of this episode would’ve come immediately after the end of the war. That would mean there’s at least 3-4 days between the celebrations and the rest, which I guess makes sense, since it might take a few days for Bester, G’Kar, and Londo to make it back to the station. The comic involves the crew discovering where Babylon 4 ended up after the war and finding a record of events from Valen’s life, and dealing with hostile aliens that turned out to be former members of Sinclair/Valen’s wartime coalition but were kicked out for being too warlike.
Victor Lundin, by the way, played Kor’s lieutenant in Star Trek: “Errand of Mercy,” so it’s interesting to see him sharing a scene with Walter Koenig, though they weren’t on Trek at the same time. He was also Friday in Robinson Crusoe on Mars. And I agree, he was remarkably dull here.
My impression was that the Shadows left behind a doomsday-type device, which Lyta triggered. The Shadow allies noticed and fled since they wouldn’t know how to stop the countdown.
Concur. Sheridan says that Lyta’s signal was strong enough to “set off the destruct sequence.” I’m not sure I buy that the Shadows would have a self destruct sequence to eliminate their own main base planet, especially since the reason they were supposedly camped out there was to hang out above Lorien and it would have killed him too had it been engaged earlier, but this silliness is chargeable to them not their allies. Reminds me of when Doctor Who briefly posited that *Earth* would have a self destruct sequence installed by the various powers, which also struck me as nonsensical for similar reasons. Better hope that system never malfunctions and, if actually needed, it works properly the first time since there’s no real way to test it…
Given that the Shadows seemed to have “hacked” Lyta in “Into the Fire,” it seems probable that they left instructions for her to destroy the planet; a devious person might suspect Lorien, who evidently lived on this planet before the Shadows and would have a much different reason to set up some sort of destruct for it.
That’s not a plot hole. Sheridan sacrificed himself at Z’ha’dum and nuked the place to bits under the assumption that that very action would in fact cripple the Shadows and prevent them and any others from wreaking havoc on Centauri Prime. He assumed Centauri Prime would eventually fall as a casualty of war if he hadn’t followed Anna, and instead kept fighting the Shadows like business as usual – as they had been up to that point.
But the recap does bring up an interesting point I never considered before. What if Lyta Alexander hadn’t sent that telepathic warning to the Drakh and the other Shadows’ allies? We know from Morden’s final moments of outrage that Centauri Prime would pay a price for Londo’s decision to bomb Cellini. But part of the reason the Drakh settle on Centauri Prime at all is because Z’ha’dum was blown to bits. Feeling abandoned by the Shadows and now without a home, they needed a world to settle and call their own – hence their decision to occupy Centauri Prime. And they left in a hurry and set off that planet’s core because of Lyta’s advance warning.
So in a way, while I understand Lyta’s frustration and increasing dissatisfaction with the way she’s treated – both due to her telepathy and Vorlon connection – this is one situation where I completely understand the way Sheridan treats her at the end. Lyta, letting her hatred of Bester and the Corps get the better of her – just accelerated the Drakh’s plans tenfold, securing a future catastrophe for 3 billion Centauri.
Yes, the exodus of Z’ha’dum would probably happen eventually, thanks to scaveging expeditions like the one Bester was about to undertake on their planet (the irony of Sheridan’s deal with Bester is that he ends up going along with the plan to help a grave robber, the very type of people he despised – which was also part of the reason he decided to blow up the Markab jumpgate last season).
Plus, Sheridan has very little information from his very brief future experience. Even a strategist as savvy as he is would take a while to connect the dots. He doesn’t even know the Drakh by name at this point.
“Epiphanies” is a nice follow-up to “Into the Fire”. A moment for everyone to catch their breath and plan their next move, with not a lot of forward momentum. I like the opening party – just imagine surviving the Shadow War and find yourself the victor against very ancient beings (and after all the pain and substance abuse last year, Franklin has frankly earned that dance).
I particularly like the way the show is handling Garibaldi at this point. He’s not himself, but at the same time, both his decision to quit Security and his fearful reaction to meeting G’Kar come from a real place. Garibaldi has always had trust issues, born out of a fearful place. And we know from last year’s ceremony just how much that fear is embedded in his core. It’s half the reason he was a drinker to begin with. The mirror scene is a nice subtle nod to the fact that something is not right. But in his essence, Garibaldi’s behavior is essentially Garibaldi’s standing fear and paranoia dialed up to eleven.
And I already feel sorry for the Regent.
” Lyta, letting her hatred of Bester and the Corps get the better of her – just accelerated the Drakh’s plans tenfold, securing a future catastrophe for 3 billion Centauri.”
On the face of it, if the Drakh had not blown their own planet apart they would have been stronger, and in a position to do more damage to Centauri Prime, if that was their main goal.
Bester isn’t a grave robber, though, because the Shadows aren’t dead, they just moved away. So Sheridan would have no reason to see it as desecration to scavenge what they left behind. It’s more like occupying a position abandoned by the enemy. If anything, that’s something the victor in a war is generally assumed to be entitled to do.
Also, yeah, he hoped attacking Z’ha’dum would prevent the future where Centauri Prime fell, but future Londo told him outright that he would win the Shadow War and the Shadows’ former allies would take revenge on Centauri Prime. So now that he sees the Shadows’ former allies fleeing just after he won the war, it is strange that he doesn’t make the connection.
“They will strike against Centauri Prime” in the next 17 years. Why in the world would he suspect that starts immediately and not closer to the vision, if the vision is indeed unchanged?
Similarly, “Londo gets controlled by something organic after becoming Emperor” doesn’t translate into “he gets the Keeper before being crowned.” Postulating perfect knowledge and perfect retention after time travel, with the benefir of our perspective, just doesn’t seem reasonable, especially since we see prophecies of the future changed repeatedly (including as a part of the very mission where Sheridan has his leap forward).
A far more reasonable question: after seeing a fleet of Shadow allies in flight, why not warn everyone about them and maybe try to track them down?
“Why in the world would he suspect that starts immediately and not closer to the vision, if the vision is indeed unchanged?”
Why wouldn’t he? He already knows that the Vorlons and Shadows operated on a timescale of millennia, that they’ve been manipulating Earthgov and Psi Corps for a long time to get things to where they are now. Why would he dismiss the possibility that their allies would do the same?
And even if he doesn’t know they’d go to Centauri Prime first, it’s hard to believe he wouldn’t even consider it as one possibility. A reasonable person would consider every possibility instead of pre-emptively ruling anything out based on assumptions.
“A far more reasonable question: after seeing a fleet of Shadow allies in flight, why not warn everyone about them and maybe try to track them down?”
That is a reasonable question.
I’ve been waiting for the reunion of G’Kar and Garibaldi since the former went on what I still feel is a somewhat inexplicable quest to rescue the latter, so I was pleased that it was a nice scene, even if I’m not sure it was a good idea to point out to the audience how convenient the quest turned out to be (if you can call being captured, tortured, and mutilated a convenience). Still, I enjoyed how it played out. I also enjoyed G’Kar’s encounter with Londo. Apart from that, it was fine. It felt like stuff was happening because it needed to happen, rather than because it made for a super compelling episode (unless you’re really invested in Bester’s love life), but that’s how TV is sometimes.
I’m not sure “love life” is the right phrase when it comes to Bester. It’s interesting that when he told Carolyn he missed her, the only thing he specified missing was having someone he could talk to honestly — which is really more about himself than about her.
The part of this episode that no longer works for me is that there is no reason stopping the Black Omega attack on the blockade should turn into a “PR nightmare” for Clark. There didn’t appear to be any witnesses, other than the blockade pilots and they could easily have been silenced or controlled.
There’s no reason Clark has to acknowledge that anything happened at all. One certainly assumes he’s at least not going to let anyone get their hands on any evidence that could be used to link the attacking ships back to Psi Corps. But, even if anyone found out about the attack, he could easily have claimed that B5 staged the whole thing. The show has already established that Clark has achieved sufficient control over the media that he can say anything he likes at the macro level.
But even that’s not the big problem. The big problem is that facts do not do very much to change a contrary emotional response. Even noting that this show comes from an era where the post-Watergate faith that journalism and facts had power against corruption was stronger than it is today, it seems remarkably naive to imagine that one good deed would be all it would take to counteract 2 years of systematic propaganda.
The PR nightmare was that B5 saved an Earthforce crew from an unknown attacker; a crew sent to blockade B5 because they are so dangerous. This directly contradicts the anti-B5 propaganda he was spreading.
Yes, but my point is that Clark can simply deny that it happened or spin it into his propaganda scheme. Propaganda doesn’t have to be (and usually isn’t) concerned with facts. We’ve already even seen this in the show itself: the truth about Santiago’s assassination got out, but it didn’t really change anything.
And based on our current news cycle and experience, it would not even work as PR coup. As a recent example, Russia continuously sent armed drones into Poland airspace till Poland scrambled NATO planes and shot it down. Then Russia claimed it was accidental error in GPS of drone, while at the same time managed to spin it as offensive and aggressive move by NATO to domestic audience. And those Chinese “weather balloons” that seem to “accidently” float over US bases. Not only China claimed those were malfunctioning innocent t weather balloons, they also managed to lodge a complaint against US in UN, claiming it was aggressive move by US in destroying its technology. And want to be their domestic audience bought it hook line and sinker.
And for that matter, whatever gains they made against the propaganda campaign becomes moot in the very next episode…