lurkers-guide/guide/075

<!-- TITLE Atonement -->

<h2><a name="OV">Overview</a></h2>

<blockquote><cite>
Delenn is recalled to Minbar to resolve a problem concerning her relationship
with Sheridan, and must finally face up to her role in the Earth-Minbari War.
Sheridan sends Marcus and Franklin to Mars on a secret mission.
</cite>

<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Carpenter,+Brian">Brian Carpenter</a> as <a href="/lurk/ftp/Pictures/Characters/callenn.jpg">Callenn</a>.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Schone,+Reiner">Reiner Schone</a> as Dukhat.
</blockquote>

<pre><a href="/lurk/p5/intro.html">P5 Rating</a>: <a href="/lurk/p5/075">8.55</a>

Production number: 409
Original air week: February 24, 1997
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0000DGBEY/thelurkersguidet">DVD release date</a>: January 6, 2004

Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by Tony Dow
</pre>

<p>
<hr size=3>

<h2><a name="BP">Plot Points</a></h2>
<ul>

   <li>@@@856745633 After the last Shadow War, Valen, who was still genetically
	partially human
	(<a href="061.html">"War Without End, Part Two,"</a>)
	had children.  The children, fearing persecution because they weren't
	pure Minbari, fled Minbar until after Valen's death.  They returned
	and had children of their own, spreading human genes through the
	Minbari population to the present day.

   <li>@@@856745633 Valen's body was never found after his death.

   <li>@@@856745633 Delenn is a descendant of Valen, and as such had some
	human DNA even before her transformation in
	<a href="022.html">"Chrysalis."</a>

   <li>@@@856745991 The Grey Council elected not to make contact with humans,
	who they heard about through the Centauri.  When the Grey Council's
	cruiser came upon the human convoy some time later
	(<a href="057.html">"A Late Delivery from Avalon"</a>)
	only Delenn, who had researched humans in the meantime, knew which race
	they belonged to.  Dukhat realized that the Minbari practice of
	approaching with gun ports open could be dangerous, but before his
	order to close them could be carried out, the Earth ships attacked.

   <li>@@@856745633 Enraged over the death of Dukhat, Delenn gave the order
	that started the Earth-Minbari War.  She was later unable to stop it
	from proceeding.

   <li>@@@856745633 The Triluminaries used by the Grey Council were
	made specifically for Sinclair.  They activate in the presence of
	Sinclair/Valen's DNA.
	They were made on Epsilon 3 and brought back in time by Sinclair
	(<a href="061.html">"War Without End, Part Two."</a>)

   <li>@@@856979209 Franklin has given G'Kar a prosthetic eye, which can see
	and transmit images to G'Kar's brain even when it's not in its socket.

</ul>

<h2><a name="UQ">Unanswered Questions</a></h2>
<ul>

   <li>@@@856745633 Why was Valen's body never found?  Is he perhaps still
	alive or in suspended animation?

   <li>@@@856809066 In
	<a href="020.html">"Babylon Squared,"</a>
	Delenn was given a triluminary and told there were still two left.
	Why was Sinclair given three of them, when only one was required to
	operate the chrysalis machine?
	(<a href="022.html">"Chrysalis,"</a>
	<a href="061.html">"War Without End, Part Two"</a>)

   <li>@@@856809127 Did Delenn maintain the secret of Valen's human DNA,
	allowing Callenn to cover up for her as he suggested?

   <li>@@@857554159 Exactly what is the dreaming?  Does it have a will of its
	own, or does it simply stimulate the dreamer's subconscious?

   <li>@@@856979209 How far can G'Kar's eye transmit?  Is it useful for
	spying purposes?

</ul>

<h2><a name="AN">Analysis</a></h2>
<ul>

   <li>@@@856745633 Callenn said the number of Minbari with traces of human
	DNA were beyond measure.  A rough estimate can be made, however.  If
	Minbari couples have, on average, two children, and have children at
	age fifty (since Minbari have longer lifespans than humans, a longer
	delay between generations is plausible) then in a thousand years,
	there would be twenty generations of Valen's descendants, the most
	recent numbering about 1,000,000.  That estimate assumes no
	interbreeding among his descendants, and a variation in the number
	of children of the first few generations could greatly alter the number.
	Still, it's a useful discussion point.

	<p>
	1,000,000 probably works out to a tiny fraction of the Minbari
	population, which, it's not unreasonable to assume, is many billions
	of people spread across various worlds despite Lennier's claim
	(<a href="023.html">"Points of Departure"</a>)
	that Minbari population has been on the decline for some time.

	<p>
	On the other hand, if Valen's descendants
	were markedly more prolific than average Minbari, e.g. with a 30-year
	generation time rather than a 50-year one (and both numbers are
	pure conjecture!) there'd have been 33 generations, with 8,600,000,000
	in the most recent, in which case the term "countless" would easily
	apply.  Obviously interbreeding, very probable in a population that
	size, would reduce the number markedly.

	<p>
	Either way, a substantial percentage of the Minbari population most
	likely still has pure Minbari genes.  This is supported by Dukhat's
	reaction to the triluminary glowing when Delenn touched it; if Valen's
	progeny were in fact a large percentage of the population, presumably
	previous Grey Council members would have triggered the triluminary.

<p>
   <li>@@@857892773 Callenn's horror at the prospect of human DNA mingling
	with Minbari genes parallels the newscast in
	<a href="074.html">"The Illusion of Truth,"</a>
	which attempted to suggest that Delenn and Sheridan wanted to
	introduce Minbari genes into humans.  In fact, just the opposite has
	occurred.

<p>
   <li>@@@857586065 David, Delenn and Sheridan's son
	(<a href="061.html">"War Without End, Part Two"</a>)
	will be a direct descendant of all three of The One.

<P>
   <li>@@@877199700 Dukhat's conversation with Delenn is echoed years later
	when Lennier arrives on Babylon 5
	(<a href="005.html">"The Parliament of Dreams"</a>)
	and she tells him the same thing Dukhat told her: "I cannot have an
	aide who will not look up.  You will be forever walking into things."

	<p>
	In
	<a href="079.html">"Rumors, Bargains, and Lies,"</a>
	Delenn said she'd been training Lennier as Dukhat trained her.
	Delenn eventually succeeded Dukhat as leader of the Minbari, both in
	this episode and in
	<a href="020.html">"Babylon Squared,"</a>
	though she turned the position down in both cases.  Will the parallel
	between Lennier and Delenn in her youth continue into the future?  Is
	Lennier destined to a prominent place in Minbari society?

<p>
   <li>@@@865624085 Dukhat said he could override the Council's decision
	to avoid contacting the humans.  What is the relationship between the
	Council and the leader?  Do they simply serve as an advisory body,
	with the final decisions ultimately made by the leader?

<p>
   <li>@@@857586446 Lennier's pledge to Delenn, to be by her side through
	fire, storm, darkness, and death, echoes the pledge of the Nine to
	the One in the Minbari ceremony in
	<a href="005.html">"The Parliament of Dreams."</a>

<p>
   <li>@@@865732097 Delenn feels responsible for the Earth-Minbari War.  Her
	father committed suicide, heartbroken over the war
	(<a href="063.html">"Grey 17 Is Missing."</a>)
	Does Delenn thus feel personally responsible for her father's death?

<p>
   <li>@@@857335050 Why did Dukhat suspect Delenn was descended from Valen?
	With so many descendants, he couldn't have followed Valen's entire
	bloodline, even assuming it was all documented.  Perhaps he simply
	researched the heritage of all the acolytes working with the Grey
	Council.

<p>
   <li>@@@875586691 Delenn's childhood vision
	(<a href="040.html">"Confessions and Lamentations,"</a>)
	in which a figure appeared to her in a temple and said he wouldn't
	allow "any of my little ones" to come to harm there, takes on new
	significance now.  If the figure was some kind of manifestation of
	Valen, "little ones" might have referred to his descendants, and
	the vision might have been Delenn's first clue that she was
	somehow related to him.  If so, the vision was probably a powerful
	motivating force for her, perhaps even the source of her belief in
	her own destiny.

	<p>
	If Delenn told Dukhat about the vision, or he found out about it
	some other way, that might explain his suspicion that she was a
	descendant of Valen.

<p>
   <li>@@@857335050 Did Dukhat know Valen was part human?  Callenn was aware
	of it; was it common knowledge among the Grey Council after Sinclair
	was interrogated and the triluminary indicated his relation to Valen?
	(<a href="008.html">"And the Sky Full of Stars"</a>)

<p>
   <li>@@@857890134 Do Valen's descendants have distinguishing features?
	Perhaps the presence of human DNA explains why a small number of
	Minbari men have facial hair, e.g. Dukhat, Draal
	(<a href="018.html">"A Voice in the Wilderness"</a>)
	and Kalain
	(<a href="023.html">"Points of Departure."</a>)

<p>
   <li>@@@857326883 In
	<a href="002.html">"Soul Hunter,"</a>
	the soul hunter recalls that the Minbari made a wall of bodies to stop
	Dukhat's soul from being taken.  Although soul hunters appeared as the
	battle began, no attempt to stop them was shown, and Delenn was
	seeminly unaware of them as Dukhat lay dying in her arms.  Perhaps the
	soul hunter was speaking metaphorically; there were so many Minbari
	dead that their ability to sense death didn't lead them to Dukhat in
	particular.  However, since the soul hunter recognized Delenn years
	later, he must have arrived at Dukhat at some point, perhaps after she
	ordered the attack on the humans.

<p>
   <li>@@@857889258 Zack's discomfort with his new uniform mirrors his
	discomfort with the Earthforce uniform in
	<a href="049.html">"Voices of Authority."</a>

<p>
   <li>@@@857325791 G'Kar is wearing rags around his eye in the flashforward
	in
	<a href="061.html">"War Without End, Part Two."</a>
	Where was his eye?  Destroyed or discarded, or simply recharging or
	sending him images from somewhere else?

<p>
   <li>@@@857325791 Ivanova is likely still the leader of half the Drazi
	on Babylon 5.  She wore the green leader's sash to the party.
	Presumably the fact that all the formerly green Drazi are now wearing
	purple
	(<a href="025.html">"The Geometry of Shadows"</a>)
	didn't cause any problems.

</ul>

<h2><a name="NO">Notes</a></h2>
<ul>

   <li>@@@857326883 One of the heavy cruisers in the Prometheus convoy is the
	Hyperion
	(<a href="019.html">"A Voice in the Wilderness, Part Two."</a>)
	The name can be seen briefly on the side of the ship in one scene.
	According to coproducer George Johnsen, that was intentional, not
	just an accidental reuse of a computer model,
	implying the Hyperion escaped from the Minbari counterattack on the
	Earth base.

   <li>@@@900954390 More than five days may have elapsed between the first
	scene, Zack's fitting, and the second, the arrival of Callenn and his
	entourage.
	(<A href="112.html#chron">"Thirdspace"</a>)

   <li>@@@856981120 <a name="NO.0g">A slight inaccuracy:</a>
	The ship carrying Franklin and
	Marcus is shown to have zero gravity.  But the exterior shot shows its
	engines firing.  The resulting acceleration (in the vacuum of space,
	any thrust will result in acceleration) would have pushed all the
	objects in the cargo hold toward one of the walls.  Of course, it's
	possible the engines were glowing but not actually in use; perhaps
	they were in some sort of standby mode.

   <li>@@@857891914 Continuity glitch: During the conference scene with
	Sheridan, Franklin, and Marcus, Franklin is reading over his documents
	with the folder flat on Sheridan's desk.  When the view shifts to show
	all three characters, Franklin is holding the folder.

   <li>@@@875231634 The tune sung by Marcus is
	<a href="http://math.idbsu.edu/gas/pirates/html/p13.html">"I Am the Very
	Model of a Modern Major General,"</a>
	from
	<a href="http://math.boisestate.edu/gas/pirates/html/p13.html">"The
	Pirates of Penzance"</a>
	by Gilbert and Sullivan.  Marcus misquotes the song slightly: he
	says, "quote the facts historical," when the original lyrics are,
	"quote the fights historical."

   <li>@@@857376446 Delenn's family name, Mir, may be a reference to Mira
	Furlan's first name.

   <li>@@@859361670 Sheridan's line about his true face being mashed up
	against a pillow and drooling was based on a 
	rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated message commenting on
	<a href="065.html">"Shadow Dancing,"</a>
	where the Minbari ritual was first introduced.

</ul>

<h2><a name="JS">jms speaks</a></h2>
<ul>

<p>
   <li>@@@857554603 <em>Did Dukhat come out the way you imagined him?</em><br>
	Yeah, that's pretty close to how
	I saw him in my head.  Definitely a bigger than life fellow.

<p>
   <li>@@@857685549 When I introduce a new character, I just kinda see a
	sense of the character in my head, an outline...if you take off your
	glasses, and you're nearsighted, that will give you some sense of it. 
	When an actor comes in and hits it, the character goes into sharp focus.

<p>
   <li>@@@850297586 <em>Will Delenn appear in flashbacks with her pre-chrysalis
	appearance?</em><br>
	Yes, Mira got into the original year-one makeup.  It's
	funny...when I walked out onto the set, and saw her in that prosthetic,
	the first words that came out of my mouth were, "It's *you*!  I haven't
	seen you in almost three years, how've you been?"

	<p>
	I don't think Mira quite knew what to make of me.

<p>
   <li>@@@855996679 Actually, though the tougher Delenn is in flashbacks in 2
	weeks [referring to this episode], the foreground/contemporary story
	has her very tough, and very
	smart. Basically, the next mini-arc sequence focuses a LOT on
	Delenn...she has many facets, and while part of that is the
	relationship, there's steel there as well, and we're going to explore
	that.  As she at one point comments to Sheridan, "I appreciate that you
	have come to care for what I have become... but never forget who I am,
	or what I can do."

	<p>
	After this arc of hers, nobody's ever going to make that
	mistake.

<p>
   <li>@@@857376321 <em>How could Dukhat override the Grey Council, if he was
	simply a member?</em><br>
	There's the One, and the Nine...when Dukhat was alive, there
	were 9 grey council members and him as the head of it, making ten. 
	(Look at the picture and count the number of people.)  1 and 9.

	<p>
	Valen called together the Grey Council, formed the first one;
	until then the castes had been in constant competition.  He wanted to
	operate outside of that a bit, so he made sure he was not one of the
	Nine.  That tradition has continued.

<p>
   <li>@@@857547292 <em>But when he introduced Delenn, there was an empty
	spotlight.</em><br>
	No, if you keep watching Dukhat comes in, followed by Delenn,
	through the opening (the empty spot) and then another Minbari comes in
	to fill that spot.

	<p>
	(Sudden thought...I have to check to see if we *used* that shot
	or if it was just in dailies...but if you count the Minbari there at
	the end of the scene, you'll find the count is correct.)

<p>
   <li>@@@857328008 Calenn was not Delenn's brother; the grey councilor speaks
	of brothers in the generic sense.

	<p>
	Draal, in his first appearance, also had a small beard.

<p>
   <li>@@@857554509 Other Minbari have had facial hair; including Draal
	v1.0 and Kalain in "Points of Departure."  It's certainly not common,
	though.

<p>
   <li>@@@857547292 <em>Who were the other ships at the battle?</em><br>
	Those were Soul Hunters, who in the first season we learned
	showed up to attempt to grab Dukhat's soul...they were prevented from
	successfully boarding the ship by the Minbari, who threw up a wall of
	bodies to stop them (which is why there were few around with Delenn and
	Dukhat; Soul Hunters are a pretty advanced sort, the terror of Minbari,
	and it took a lot to stop them). After Dukhat died, Delenn went down
	and joined in, confronting them about this.

<p>
   <li>@@@857554776 Others in the Council died, as was noted when the one
	says, "Our brothers?"  "Dead," Delenn says.  So there were others.

<p>
   <li>@@@864693044 <em>Won't Sheridan be upset when he finds out Delenn
	ordered the war?</em><br>
	"Listen, honey, while you were out I went to the store and I
	bought some new candles, you know how we're always running out, and
	Lennier took the cat in to be cleaned, and oh, did I mention I was
	directly responsible for the deaths of two hundred and fifty thousand
	of your best friends and fellow officers?  Pass the sugar."

	<p>
	She'll never tell him.

	<p>
	Because it's over...what would be the point, except to ruin what
	they have now.

<p>
   <li>@@@864693194 The reality is...in war, one does what one does.
	Afterward, as we heal, we try to forget what we did, and what they did.
	He killed as many Minbari as he could; she was on the Grey Council that
	directed the war.  One doesn't go into it.

<p>
   <li>@@@857889979 <em>Why didn't Sinclair leave Dukhat a message warning
	him about meeting the humans?</em><br>
	He could have left Dukhat a message...but tampering in the
	future is VERY chancy business, and could even make things worse, for
	all we know.

<p>
   <li>@@@857889418 <em>Did the triluminary sense Sinclair?</em><br>
	Yeah, we showed it glowing when Sinclair was catpured.  Since
	it happened with Valen, they assumed it was because he had a Minbari
	soul, maybe Valen reborn.

<p>
   <li>@@@864692860 Dukhat was not descended from Valen; yes, the Grey Council
	now knows who Sinclair was; and general knowledge of what happened
	would certainly have an upsetting effect on Minbari society, so they
	will continue to keep it indefinitely back-roomed....

<p>
   <li>@@@859454397 Some Minbari on the Grey Council think that Sinclair opened
	up the "soul door," for lack of a better term, and Delenn's actions can
	be seen as a kind of back-fire, closing the door again.  Ain't
	necessarily what's true, but what they believe.

	<p>
	And yes, they would've had Delenn remain childless, but would be
	allowed to marry a Minbari.  And, again, it's a matter of marrying a
	non-Minbari with or WITHOUT kids...it's a very inflammatory sort of
	thing from a cultural perspective.

<p>
   <li>@@@857376321 <em>Did Delenn's human DNA allow her to undergo the
	transformation?  Will this be important in the future?</em><br>
	Yeah, the human DNA definitely helped...and overall, this isn't
	so much the arc as the overall story and history.  It's filling out the
	world.

<p>
   <li>@@@857547292 <em>Is it a coincidence that Delenn's family name is
	Russian for "peace?"</em><br>
	Yeah, there's that, and it nicely intersects with the fact that
	Delenn is portrayed by MIRa Furlan.  It's kind of a bank shot.

<p>
   <li>@@@857554225 Mir is her family; you are generally born into a caste
	unless you at some point decide that the calling of your heart is
	elsewhere, at which point you enter training for that other caste (with
	the permission of your caste leaders) until such time as it's finalized
	that that's what you want, at which time you're assigned to a clan
	within that caste.  If you choose to stay in the caste you're born
	into, you automatically are in your familiy's clan.

<p>
   <li>@@@865731956 Lennier is religious caste; and all members of a given
	clan belong to one caste.

	<p>
	There are, for instance, no religious caste members of the Star
	Riders (military caste) clan.

	<p>
	<em>This seems to be contradicted by
	<a href="036.html">"There All the Honor Lies,"</a>
	in which Levell, a warrior, was a member of Lennier's clan.</em>

<p>
   <li>@@@857554509 <em>How does the dreaming know whose memories to probe?
	Is it whoever drinks the drug first?</em><br>
	I think the order or dominance of the drug is probably
	determined by the contents of the script....

<p>
   <li>@@@856981247 "My question is, since we can see that the ship's engine
	is running, why aren't all of the objects in the hold laying against
	the bulkhead as a result of the ship's movement?  Aside from that, it
	was a pretty neat effects shot."

	<p>
	Because it's accurate; it's the same reason you don't see everything
	slammed up against the back wall of the shuttle even though it's
	circling the earth at thousands of miles per hour.

	<p>
	<em>Ed. note: This is wrong; that effect does occur on the shuttle
	when its maneuvering thrusters fire, which is why shuttle crews lock
	everything down during maneuvers.  See
	<a href="#NO.0g">Notes.</a></em>

<p>
   <li>@@@857325171 The ship with Marcus and Franklin *wasn't* spinning...
	hence, no gravity.

<p>
   <li>@@@857327683 <em>Coproducer George Johnsen</em><br>
	Re: your comment that the Hyperion was more likely a re-used computer
	model.  All of the models used in the show are stored "nameless" with a
	link to the naming/numbering file that has to be activated to add the
	name to the ship to avoid this kind of problem.  (Instigated when it
	happened on an earlier episode).  The ship in the picture is the
	Hyperion 'cuz Joe wanted it that way.

<p>
   <li>@@@857554509 There was the Prometheus, which was there; and others,
	including the Amundsen.  The one you saw, which looks a bit like the
	Aggy but without the rotating section, is another, smaller class of
	destroyer also seen, I believe, in [Severed] "Dreams."

<p>
   <li>@@@874689595 <em>How did the Earth ships hit the Minbari ships, if
	human targeting systems can't lock on?  Why weren't Franklin and
	Marcus floating?</em><br>
	They targeted visually, it was close enough to do so.

	<p>
	A hit with full guns of a major destroyer and accompanying
	ships will kill damn near any single ship that does not have some kind
	of defensive screen going (fighers or counter-lasers or missiles or the
	like).

	<p>
	The fightes were launched in main while on approach.

	<p>
	Franklin and Marcus *were* strapped in, which if you look more
	closely you can see.

<p>
   <li>@@@857889979 <em>In your comments on
	<a href="061.html">"War Without End, Part Two,"</a>
	you said Valen had no children.  Is your message right, or is the
	episode?</em><br>
	What airs is considered canon; in 15 years, nobody's gonna be
	hauling these messages around.  But the show will still be on the air. 
	If it airs, it's canon.

	<p>
	And in another one of those posts, I did mention that on just a
	couple of small occasions, I have fibbed when asked major story arc
	questions to protect future storylines from being deflated....

<p>
   <li>@@@862818943 If you check the archives, when people said, "But what
	about the relationship between Sinclair and Delenn we see?" (and this
	is back a long time ago), I said that there is a relationship there,
	yes, but it isn't what you think it is.  Now we see what it was.

<p>
   <li>@@@859316095 <em>Minbari society doesn't seem to have been affected
	much by the loss of the Grey Council.</em><br>
	The problems caused by the breakup of the Grey Council
	will form a major part of the story arc about mid-season.

<p>
   <li>@@@860558543 <em>Was the song Jason Carter's idea?</em><br>
	The song was in the script; Jason then had to learn it.

<p>
   <li>@@@865288657 <em>What was involved in using the song in the end
	credits?</em><br>
	Nothing, really...we just grabbed one of the audio bits from the
	day's filming and dropped it in.

</ul>