lurkers-guide/guide/107

<!-- TITLE Wheel of Fire -->

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

<blockquote><cite>
Lochley and Garibaldi discover they have some shared history.  A confrontation
with Lyta leads to a startling revelation.
</cite>

<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Gentile,+Denise">Denise Gentile</a> as Lise.
</blockquote>

<pre><a href="/lurk/p5/intro.html">P5 Rating</a>: <a href="/lurk/p5/107">8.58</a>

Production number: 520
Original air date: November 4, 1998 (US)
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00019071C/thelurkersguidet">DVD release date</a>: April 13, 2004

Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by Janet Greek
</pre>

<p>
<hr size=3>

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

   <li>@@@910251188 Sheridan has placed Garibaldi on suspension until he takes
	care of his drinking problem.  Sheridan suspected Garibaldi had started
	drinking again, but hoped he was wrong.

   <li>@@@910251188 The Narn government is desperate to get G'Kar back.
	According to Franklin, half of Kha'ri want him to return to become
	leader, while the other half want him to return to give them his
	blessing to lead on his behalf.  They have threatened to boycott
	Babylon 5 unless he returns home.  G'Kar, though, has no desire to
	return; he's certain he'd become the focus of a cult of personality
	that would drown out the message he's trying to spread.

   <li>@@@910251188 There have been a dozen attacks on Psi-Corps facilities
	in the past month.  In every case, the attackers left behind a message:
	"Remember Byron."  Earth officials have traced the money trail back to
	Babylon 5, and more precisely to Lyta.

   <li>@@@910251188 Lochley's father was an alcoholic, and she became the same
	thing; she ran away from home and became a drug addict until someone
	close to her died
	(<a href="096.html">"Day of the Dead"</a>).
	Now she, like Garibaldi before his relapse, never touches alcohol.

   <li>@@@910251188 Lyta's powers have been growing dramatically; now she's
	capable of controlling a large roomful of people.  Sheridan, however,
	is immune to her influence, since he has also been touched by the
	Vorlons.

   <li>@@@910251188 Delenn is pregnant.

   <li>@@@910251188 Lochley, concerned about Garibaldi's condition, has
	called Lise to Babylon 5 on his behalf.  She has convinced Garibaldi
	to give up his post on Babylon 5 and return home to Mars with her to
	help run Edgars Industries as her husband.

   <li>@@@910251188 Lyta has been arrested, but Garibaldi plans to get a
	senator who owes favors to Edgars Industries to intercede on her behalf.
	That's part of a larger deal between the two of them.  Lyta knows she
	isn't qualified to hide the funds she's getting from the Narn
	(<a href="103.html">"Darkness Ascending"</a>)
	so Garibaldi will do it for her under cover of Edgars Industries.
	He'll maintain two funds: a token public fund to help telepaths in
	need, and the real fund, which he'll use to hurt the Corps and help
	Lyta assemble a force she can use against them.  After two years, if
	Lyta is satisfied with his progress, she will remove his inhibition
	against harming Bester
	(<a href="099.html">"Phoenix Rising"</a>).

   <li>@@@910251188 Lyta has come to believe that her telepathic enhancements
	are a form of doomsday weapon built by the Vorlons, something they'd
	use when they'd run out of other weapons against the Shadows.

   <li>@@@910251188 Since neither of them can remain on the station without
	causing trouble, and neither of them can go home without attracting
	huge amounts of unwanted attention, G'Kar has offered to take Lyta
	along as a traveling companion as he visits alien worlds.

</ul>

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

   <li>@@@910291887 How much of Lochley's history does Sheridan know, given
	that she was recovered when he married her?

   <li>@@@910291887 Is Delenn's baby the son she referred to in the cell
	on Centauri Prime
	(<a href="061.html">"War Without End"</a>)?

   <li>@@@910251188 How did Garibaldi find out about the deal between Lyta
	and G'Kar?  Has he been tracing the same money flows the Earthgov
	investigators have?

   <li>@@@910293580 Where will G'Kar and Lyta go?  Could she return to
	the Vorlon homeworld with him?

   <li>@@@910729924 Who will replace G'Kar on the Alliance advisory board?

</ul>

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

<p>
   <li>@@@910469027 If Sheridan really did suspect that Garibaldi had started
	drinking again, why did he entrust him with delicate intelligence
	duties such as monitoring the Rangers' messages during the Centauri
	blockade?  Granted, Sheridan didn't <em>want</em> to believe Garibaldi
	had relapsed, but given that he knew one slipup on the Alliance's
	part might lead to a shooting war, why did he risk the lives of
	billions of people?

<p>
   <li>@@@910291887 Is Sheridan immune to telepathic influence in general?
	For example, can he be scanned?  If not, that might explain why Clark's
	people tried to brainwash him with drugs and interrogators
	(<a href="084.html">"Intersections in Real Time"</a>)
	without employing any telepaths (visibly, at least) to either help the
	procedure along or sense how well it was working.

	<p>@@@910729880 
	One question is how much of Sheridan's seeming immunity is due to his
	contact with Kosh as opposed to his contact with Lorien.  He's carrying
	part of Lorien now, the part Lorien gave up to keep him alive after
	the battle with Kosh
	(<a href="070.html">"Falling Toward Apotheosis"</a>).
	It's likely that Lorien is resistant or immune to Vorlon telepathic
	influence.

	<p>@@@911070201 
	If Sheridan really is immune to telepathic scans for whatever reason,
	it'd explain his seemingly odd behavior in
	<a href="070.html">"Falling Toward Apotheosis,"</a>
	in which he kept his plan secret from Garibaldi and others for fear
	Kosh would read it from them, but was apparently unconcerned that he
	himself would be scanned.

<p>
   <li>@@@910293580 Sheridan can justifiably be pretty confident that Delenn
	can carry a child to term; she mentioned a son during his flashforward
	in
	<a href="061.html">"War Without End."</a>
	But of course, he has no way of knowing whether she was referring to
	the baby she's carrying now, or whether that future is set in stone.

<p>
   <li>@@@910730175 Lochley commented to Garibaldi that he couldn't hurt
	the people who hurt him, people like Bester.  How does she know
	Garibaldi can't hurt Bester?  Is she aware of the neural block, or is
	she simply assuming that Bester is too well-protected or distant for 
	Garibaldi to have any hope of striking at him?

<p>
   <li>@@@910293580 Parallels between Garibaldi's situation and Franklin's
	stim abuse: Both were in denial about the effect it was having on their
	job performance.  Both wanted to control or fix everything, but couldn't
	and turned to drugs as that became apparent.  Both took leaves from
	their jobs to deal with their problems.  Franklin had to "meet himself,"
	which he did, while Sheridan said Garibaldi's fight was with himself.
	Both turned to women to seek help: Cailyn the singer in Franklin's case
	(<a href="062.html">"Walkabout"</a>)
	and Lise in Garibaldi's.

<p>
   <li>@@@910251188 Garibaldi's neural block doesn't prevent him from trying
	to remove it.  Perhaps this is just a sign of Bester's overconfidence;
	he might have assumed that nobody would be capable of removing it, so
	it wouldn't matter if Garibaldi tried.  Why he wouldn't have realized
	Lyta might be capable isn't clear, since he was familiar enough with
	her enhanced abilities to want her body for research after her death
	(<a href="080.html">"Moments of Transition"</a>).

	<p>
	He didn't learn about her enhanced abilities until after Garibaldi's
	kidnapping, though, and it's possible that planting an additional
	mental block would have required more extensive contact than he had
	with Garibaldi after Garibaldi's return.

<p>
   <li>@@@910251188 Garibaldi's initial offer required that Lyta leave Babylon
	5.  Why?  Obviously Lochley and the rest of the crew don't want her
	around, and it may be that Garibaldi was simply looking out for the
	station's interests.

<p>
   <li>@@@910251188 Will Lyta's removal of Garibaldi's inhibition help spark
	the Telepath War?  She implied that she'd wait two years to make use
	of whatever forces Garibaldi assembled for her.  With the two of them
	going after the Corps full force at that point, a full-fledged war
	could well be the result.

<p>
   <li>@@@910342555 Lyta told Garibaldi she couldn't undo an addiction.
	Does that mean, for example, that a person who undergoes death of
	personality
	(<a href="021.html">"The Quality of Mercy"</a>)
	would retain whatever addictions existed under the original
	personality?  Or did she really mean she couldn't undo an addiction
	without seriously altering other aspects of someone's personality?

<p>
   <li>@@@910342086 By sponsoring acts of violence, Lyta has arguably betrayed
	Byron's philosophy in the name of carrying out his work.  How does she
	reconcile the situation in her mind?

<p>
   <li>@@@910251188 How powerful can Lyta become?  Will she transform into a
	being similar to Ironheart
	(<a href="006.html">"Mind War"</a>)
	if her abilities extend far enough?  She's arguably already more
	powerful than a Vorlon; she's able to control a large group of people
	and still carry on a conversation, while the second Kosh did nothing
	of the sort while he was being killed
	(<a href="070.html">"Falling Toward Apotheosis"</a>).
	Of course, Kosh <em>was</em> being attacked, which might have been
	enough of a distraction to prevent him from taking control of his
	assailants.

<p>
   <li>@@@910475572 Garibaldi has been exposed to Lyta's enchanced powers in
	the past: his dream in
	<a href="103.html">"Darkness Ascending,"</a>
	in which she told him she'd decided to stop hiding what the Vorlons
	did to her.

<p>
   <li>@@@910341324 Lyta said that in a war, you make one or two big weapons.
	Did the Vorlons make more than one, or is Lyta the only one?  If there's
	another, what or who is it?

<p>
   <li>@@@910475744 Lyta's description of herself as one of the Vorlons'
	big weapons echoes Franklin's comments about weapons remaining after the
	end of a war
	(<a href="106.html">"The Fall of Centauri Prime"</a>).

<p>
   <li>@@@910251405 G'Kar and Lyta are in the same position Londo was in
	<a href="106.html">"The Fall of Centauri Prime"</a>
	-- all the power they could ever want, and no choices.

<p>
   <li>@@@910251823 G'Kar's idea is similar to the Minbari tradition of "going
	to the sea"
	(<a href="018.html">"A Voice in the Wilderness"</a>):
	travelling among the stars in the hopes of finding one's calling.
	The difference, of course, is that both G'Kar and Lyta believe they
	already know what their callings are, but G'Kar thinks he can only
	achieve his goal by leaving home behind.

<p>
   <li>@@@910469306 G'Kar has been touched by Vorlons too, in the form of his
	brief but highly influential contact with Kosh in
	<a href="050.html">"Dust to Dust."</a>
	Did that contact confer any resistance to Lyta's abilities?  Probably
	not anything close to Sheridan's, but he may well be a better choice
	to accompany her off the station than he realizes.

</ul>

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

   <li>@@@910251405 G'Kar mentioned turning down leadership of the Narn.
	That was in
	<a href="071.html">"The Long Night,"</a>
	after Londo withdrew Centauri forces from the Narn homeworld.

<p>
   <li>@@@889493140 The title may be a reference to Shakespeare's "King Lear,"
	<a href="http://the-tech.mit.edu/Shakespeare/Tragedy/kinglear/kinglear.4.7.html">act 4, scene 7:</a>

	<blockquote>
	You do me wrong to take me out o' the grave:<br>
	Thou art a soul in bliss; but I am bound<br>
	Upon a wheel of fire, that mine own tears <br>
	Do scald like molten lead.
	</blockquote>

	<p>
	The quote is from King Lear as he lies sick on his bed, his response
	to attempts to save his life.  That might apply to Garibaldi's
	situation in this episode.

	<p>
	Another possible reference is to Greek mythology (and in fact, the
	Shakespeare quote might itself be a reference to the myth.) Ixion, son
	of the god Ares, tried to seduce Zeus's wife Hera.  As punishment, Zeus
	bound Ixion on a fiery wheel, which rolled unceasingly through the air.

	<p>
	Finally, in Tolkein's "The Lord of the Rings" (specifically "The Return
	of the King") the One Ring is likened to a wheel of fire.  If that's
	the source of the title, the reference might be to Lyta's powers.

</ul>

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

   <li>@@@910475351 The wheel of fire visually has spokes proceeding out
	from a central flame; the center burns outward.  And several of the
	fires smoldering lately have done that; with Byron it was a literal
	flame that has now gone out along the spokes and had substantial
	repercussions, with more to come years down the road.

	<p>
	It's also a Shakespeare quote, "I am bound upon a wheel of fire,
	that mine own tears do scald like molten lead."  Which tends to
	describe Londo's situation as well.  (King Lear)

<p>
   <li>@@@910468703 <em>Doesn't Sheridan remember what he saw and heard
	during his flashforward in
	<a href="061.html">"War Without End?"</a></em><br>
	Y'know, this discussion kinda baffles me to some extent.

	<p>
	For starters, Sheridan was only in the future briefly; he was
	being beaten and was confused and not sure how much of it was real; he
	doesn't know if his going to Z'ha'dum *changed* any of that
	future...the events he did see were 20 years down the road, and
	there's no way for him to know (as we know, the audience) what
	connects to what...he sees only destruction, and that could have
	happened two weeks before (there's no rule that says a capital city
	can be bombed only once)...no way to know if the keeper may have been
	implanted days or months before.  To try and impose a quick
	understanding of events 20 years down the road on things happening
	right now, without knowing the context, would be madness...you don't
	need a keeper to start a war, or half our own leaders here would have
	had keepers on them.

	<p>
	As for Delenn...yes, he heard her talk about their son, but at the
	same time, again, that's 20 years down the road.  Their son could be
	any age, so the news that she's pregnant will still be a shock
	whenever it comes; you may know that you're planning to have kids,
	that the doctor says its possible, but when you actually hear the
	news, it's a stunner every time.

	<p>
	His question is a natural one...he doesn't know if the kid in the
	future had to be taken out of utero to be sustained until it came full
	term, doesn't know if extreme measures had to be taken...his question
	is a sensible and justifiable one.

	<p>
	People are assuming that what *they* know as the audience, Sheridan
	knows, which he does not...and assuming that he knows everything that
	is to come, or what it means, or how it happens, or in what context,
	which he does not.

	<p>
	His memory is not faulty.

</ul>