lurkers-guide/guide/078

<!-- TITLE Conflicts of Interest -->

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

<blockquote><cite>
Garibaldi takes on a new job.  The resistance's counter-propaganda
broadcasts begin.  Sheridan proposes a plan to protect the Non-Aligned Worlds
from raiders.
</cite>

<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Choate,+Tim">Tim Choate</a> as Zathras.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Gentile,+Denise">Denise Gentile</a> as Lise Hampton.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Schneider,+Mark">Mark Schneider</a> as Wade.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Walker,+Charles">Charles Walker</a> as Ben.
</blockquote>

<pre><a href="/lurk/p5/intro.html">P5 Rating</a>: <a href="/lurk/p5/078">8.04</a>

Production number: 412
Original air week: May 5, 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 David Eagle
</pre>

<p>
<hr size=3>

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

   <li>@@@862814145 Wade and his group still consider Garibaldi expendable.

   <li>@@@862814145 Lise Hampton, Garibaldi's ex-lover
	(<a href="018.html">"A Voice in the Wilderness"</a>)
	divorced her first husband and eventually married one of the richest
	men on Mars, William Edgars.  Among other things, Edgars is the owner
	of the largest medical research center on the planet.

   <li>@@@862814145 Some medical researchers believe that one of the genes
	responsible for telepathy in humans has the potential to mutate into
	some form of communicable disease, lethal to other telepaths.  There
	may be a cure, but there are those on Earth who'd rather the basis
	of the cure be destroyed to rid Earth of telepaths.

   <li>@@@862814854 Sheridan has proposed to assign the Rangers to patrol
	the borders between the various parts of alien-controlled space,
	protecting civilian transports from the Drakh
	(<a href="077.html">"Lines of Communication"</a>)
	and others.

   <li>@@@862814854 The Centauri have had contact with the Drakh in the past,
	but long enough ago that nowadays they're considered little more than
	legends.

   <li>@@@862814145 Zathras had nine brothers, all named Zathras but with
	slightly different intonations.

</ul>

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

   <li>@@@862814145 What exactly was the substance Lise was picking up?

   <li>@@@863201143 Were Wade and Lise and their contact telling the truth about
	the telepath virus, or was the substance something else entirely?

   <li>@@@862814145 Who were the gunmen?  Were they with Psi Corps, or were
	they rogue telepaths?  What did they mean by the phrase, "To the
	future?"  (See
	<a href="#AN.future">Analysis</a>)

   <li>@@@864583160 Why didn't Garibaldi fire at the telepath?

   <li>@@@862817066 Did Wade know about Garibaldi's past association with
	Lise?  Was she part of the test, to see how emotional stress would
	affect his performance?

   <li>@@@862814145 Does William Edgars' job offer conflict with whatever
	plans Wade and his cohorts have for Garibaldi, or is his employment
	just another part of the plan?

   <li>@@@862821469 Why didn't Edgars show Garibaldi his face?

   <li>@@@863076125 What was in the message Lise left for Garibaldi?

   <li>@@@863716541 Why did she send it using her maiden name?

   <li>@@@862817066 Did G'Kar and Londo take Sheridan up on his offer?

</ul>

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

   <li>@@@862814145 If Garibaldi takes the job, will he be working close to
	William Edgars?  That would imply he'll also have frequent contact
	with Lise, which likely wouldn't be easy for either of them.

<p>
   <li>@@@862817234 His consideration of the job offer is at odds with the
	glimpse of his programming, if that's what it was, in
	<a href="074.html">"The Illusion of Truth."</a>
	In that flashback, Garibaldi recalled being drilled over and over
	with the idea that he worked for nobody but his captors.  Of course,
	if Edgars is involved with his captors, that might not be inconsistent.

	<p>@@@865362949 
	It's also possible his captors <em>want</em> to get him close to
	Edgars, and that by taking the job he'd in fact be following their
	implanted orders.

<P>
   <li>@@@863202655 Edgars claimed to have checked up on Garibaldi.  Checked
	up on him how?  Garibaldi himself has said on more than one occasion
	that his past is checkered at best, and his history isn't too closely
	guarded a secret (for example, the Senator knew about him in
	(<a href="000.html">"The Gathering."</a>)
	Maybe Edgars was taking Garibaldi's performance as security chief
	on Babylon 5 into account, or maybe his "checking up" involved talking
	to whoever captured Garibaldi
	(<a href="068.html">"Whatever Happened to Mr. Garibaldi?"</a>)

<p>
   <li>@@@863490143 The Daffy Duck cartoon Garibaldi was watching (1953's
	<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/title-exact?Duck%20Amuck%20%281953%29">"Duck Amuck!"</a>)
	can be
	viewed as a metaphor for his situation; depending on what was done
	to him after his capture
	(<a href="068.html">"Whatever Happened to Mr. Garibaldi?"</a>)
	he may well no longer be in control of his own fate, and is certainly
	being influenced by forces he can't detect.

<p>
   <li>@@@862814145 If the researchers are correct and the human telepathy
	genes can indeed mutate into a lethal virus, what are the parameters?
	Likely it's something that's telepathically transmitted.  For example,
	it might cause a telepath to broadcast noise on whatever medium
	telepaths use to read thoughts.  Telepathic interference can cause
	physical effects (Ben Zayn doubling over in
	<a href="016.html">"Eyes,"</a>
	or Lyta's bloodied eyes in
	<a href="062.html">"Walkabout"</a>)
	so it's not inconceivable that telepathic broadcasts of the right
	type could kill someone attuned to them.

<p>
   <li>@@@862814145 Which begs the question, was this some kind of genetic
	timebomb intentionally implanted by the Vorlons when they modified
	humans to give them telepathic ability
	(<a href="066.html">"Z'ha'dum?"</a>)
	Since the Vorlons, according to Morden, created human telepaths to
	use as weapons against the Shadows, perhaps the Vorlons also put a
	time limit on human telepathy so it wouldn't remain once the upcoming
	conflict with the Shadows was resolved.

	<p>
	That would put a different spin on the disappearance of Narn telepaths
	(<a href="058.html">"Ship of Tears."</a>)
	The Book of G'Quan was probably correct about the Shadows killing
	most of the Narn telepaths.  But maybe the reason the gene never
	resurfaced in the Narn population wasn't that it wasn't strong
	enough, as G'Kar supposed, but that it was only designed to last a
	few generations, and once the previous Shadow War was over, its time
	simply ran out.  Of course, that assumes the Vorlons implanted
	telepathy into the Narn.

<p>
   <li>@@@862956627 The threat isn't limited to Psi Corps; Ivanova's latent
	telepathy makes her vulnerable to any sort of disease that's
	transmitted between telepaths.

<p>
   <li>@@@862814377 The fact that Wade was cooperating with Lise in her effort
	to get the vial into her husband's hands implies that he's at least
	somewhat sympathetic to telepaths, and perhaps to the Psi Corps.
	If he were one of the people who wanted to see all telepaths dead,
	presumably he'd've arranged for the vial to quietly vanish on
	its way to Lise.  That ties into the apparent contradiction mentioned
	above between Garibaldi's programming
	(<a href="074.html">"The Illusion of Truth"</a>)
	and his consideration of Edgars' job offer.

<p>
   <li>@@@865363280 <a name="AN.future">The telepathic assassins' closing
	phrase</a>
	bears some similarity to a description of another telepath: Talia
	Winters in
	<a href="030.html">"A Race Through Dark Places."</a>

	<p>
	<b>Lurker:</b> You tipped the balance.  I felt it when we were joined.
	You're more than you think you are.
	<br>
	<b>Talia:</b> Then what am I?
	<br>
	<b>Lurker:</b> The future.

<p>
   <li>@@@864585035 The last time Garibaldi resigned, even briefly
	(<a href="038.html">"In the Shadow of Z'ha'dum"</a>)
	he offered up his gun, his station ID, and his link.  So did the
	security staff who resigned rather than join Nightwatch in
	<a href="053.html">"Point of No Return."</a>
	Why did Garibaldi keep them this time?  Was he perhaps intending
	to return at some point?

<p>
   <li>@@@862814444 Sheridan said of Garibaldi, "I don't like the company he's
	been keeping."  How does Sheridan know what kind of company Garibaldi
	has been keeping?  Is he having Garibaldi watched?  And is he referring
	specifically to Wade's people?  If so, what does Sheridan know about
	them?

<p>
   <li>@@@862817302 Was there a reason Sheridan kept the lights in his office
	low when he met others there, or was it just a directorial touch?

<p>
   <li>@@@864846643 Franklin commented to Ivanova that Mars was cold.  But in
	<a href="076.html">"Racing Mars,"</a>
	the tunnels where Franklin and Marcus were staying were noted as
	uncomfortably warm.  Significant, or was Franklin simply referring
	to the surface, which is indeed cold?

</ul>

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

   <li>@@@862814145 In
	<a href="020.html">"Babylon Squared,"</a>
	Zathras complained, "Zathras warned, but nobody listens to poor
	Zathras."  In this episode, that's doubly true: even <em>Zathras</em>
	doesn't listen to Zathras.

   <li>@@@864002892 G'Kar's artificial eye is now brown, rather than red like
	his natural one or blue like its initial color
	(<a href="075.html">"Atonement."</a>)

   <li>@@@862814145 The onscreen logo displayed while Garibaldi spoke to
	William Edgars read "EI" (presumably short for "Edgars Industries"
	or some such.)  Underneath, it read, "Mars - Phobos - Deimos."
	Phobos and Deimos are the two moons of Mars.  Presumably this
	implies that there are people living or working on those moons,
	which in fact are little more than large asteroids and would thus
	be attractive for microgravity pharmaceutical research.

   <li>@@@863215545 William Edgars' voice was played by Efrem Zimbalist Jr.

   <li>@@@864585237 The telepaths' PPG blasts penetrated the floor of the air
	duct.  In
	<a href="063.html">"Grey 17 Is Missing,"</a>
	Garibaldi commented that PPGs are used rather than traditional guns
	because they don't penetrate hulls.  Of course, an outer hull is
	likely quite a lot thicker than an air duct wall, and likely made
	of material with a higher melting temperature, so this most likely
	isn't a contradiction.

</ul>

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

<p>
   <li>@@@863023688 BTW, there's another example of a long single take
	coming up soon, on Epsilon 3, which is all I'll specify.  I kinda
	wanted the scene to play itself out, without cutting, and to show just
	how amazingly capable some of our actors can be.  We're talking here
	almost 4 minutes of footage, not one cut in the whole thing, very fast
	dialogue, and not a single muffed line, with the performances working
	wonderfully.  You'll know it when you see it.

<p>
   <li>@@@867048477 Our cast invariably comes in knowing full scenes, and
	can hit them without breaking or blowing a line.  So we have a tendency
	at times to just let the master play out, keeping the intensity, which
	can sometimes be broken by too much cross-editing.  (Note that the
	Zathras/Ivanova scene a few episodes back is *entirely* one shot, four
	minutes.)

<p>
   <li>@@@863716015 Re: Daffy...I knew that cartoon, and had that definitely
	in mind when I wrote the script.  Took some maneuvering to get WB to
	let us use that much of it.

<p>
   <li>@@@862989776 Re: the cartoon...I'm a big WB cartoon fan, and knew that
	one very well, and there were two places where it would've fit with the
	story; the other one, which I almost used, was when you see two Daffy's
	arguing with each other.

	<p>
	Re: the CGI...we've been fairly conventional with the CGI in
	recent seasons, we're trying to get a bit more adventurous.

	<p>
	The Lise flashback material is all exactly as was filmed for
	"Babylon Squared."  I think we used a few more pieces of the original
	footage, but it was all stet.

	<p>
	<em>Why didn't we see what happened to Delenn, since she
	left in the previous episode?</em><br>
	Re: Delenn...these episodes happen close to one another in
	time, so you have to allow travel time for her to get to Minbar.

<p>
   <li>@@@862989776 <em>Lise was the typical "woman in distress."</em><br>
	Re: Lise...well, everybody can't be a fighter; we've had guys
	and the occasional female character who isn't used to being shot at.  I
	daresay I'm not terribly used to being shot at, and someone who's
	mainly a civilian would probably react about that same way.  It's just
	a matter of showing that diversity realistically rather than saying,
	"Okay, let's have a helpless female now."  Having every female (or
	male) hard-nosed and laughing off PPG bursts is as unrealistic as its
	opposite.

<p>
   <li>@@@864028652 <em>Was there anything important in Lise's
	message?</em><br>
	No, nothing you need worry about.

<p>
   <li>@@@863715985 <em>Why didn't Edgars show his face?</em><br>
	As we'll learn shortly, he doesn't want his face seen around.

	<p>
	But we'll see him soon enough.

	<p>
	(And the voice belongs to Efram Zimbalist Jr.)

<p>
   <li>@@@865786929 <em>Did the PPG blasts melt through the air conditioning
	duct wall?</em><br>
	This is substantially correct.  The PPG blast is extremely hot, and will
	melt through the plastic coating and the metal lining inside the tube.
	The entire energy of a PPG will not come through the tube (unless by
	some coincidence the exact same area is hit twice or three times), and I
	believe that this was propoerly portrayed in the sequence.  Even if it
	isn't the entire energy blast, it will hurt like hell and de-mobilize an
	individual meat packet (person) for the bad guys to come get later.

	<p>
	It did take a *very* long time to burn through the bulkhead door to
	allow them access to the hallway, and said door did mildly glow in the
	affected areas prior to melting through.  The station hull is even more
	heat resistant.

	<p>
	George Johnsen<br>
	CoProducer, B5

</ul>