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_Contents:_ [9]Overview - [10]Backplot - [11]Questions - [12]Analysis
- [13]Notes - [14]JMS
_________________________________________________________________
Overview
Garibaldi is captured by the Mars Resistance. Ivanova's fleet
clashes with Clark's forces. A plan to free Sheridan is launched.
[15]Marjorie Monaghan as Number One.
[16]P5 Rating: [17]8.84
Production number: 419
Original air week: October 6, 1997
Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by David Eagle
_________________________________________________________________
Plot Points
* With the help of a deep scan by Lyta, who is able to break past
blocks put in place by P12 telepaths, Garibaldi has convinced
Franklin and the others that Bester manipulated him into betraying
his fellow officers.
* Garibaldi, Franklin, and Lyta have freed Sheridan.
* Londo and G'Kar have convinced the League of Non-Aligned Worlds to
join the fight against Clark and help Sheridan, who came to their
aid against the Shadows. Sheridan's fleet now contains Narn and
Centauri warships, among others.
* Not all the so-called defectors to the rebel fleet have really
betrayed Earth; there are some spies who have been feeding
information about fleet movement back to Earth.
* Earth has been adapting Shadow technology for use in its own
ships. The resulting vessels are capable of putting up a strong
fight against White Star-class ships.
* Ivanova was mortally injured during a clash with a fleet of
Shadow-enhanced Earth ships. Minbari physicians estimate she has
no more than a week left.
* At Ivanova's request, Sheridan has assumed command of the
Agamemnon once again.
Unanswered Questions
* What other Shadow technology has Earth adapted?
* What impact has Sheridan's interrogation had on his psyche?
* How badly was the White Star fleet damaged by the battle?
* Did Garibaldi and the others leave Mars with Sheridan?
Analysis
* G'Kar's feeling of debt to Sheridan is obvious: Sheridan gave him
sanctuary ([18]"The Long, Twilight Struggle") and aided the Narn
during their war with the Centauri ([19]"Acts of Sacrifice" and
[20]"The Fall of Night," among others.) It's less clear why Londo
would be willing to put his people on the line to the same extent.
Londo, at least from his perspective, took care of the Centauri
Republic's Shadow "problem" on his own, without Sheridan's
intervention ([21]"Into the Fire.") While he may since have
learned of Sheridan's role in sparing Centauri Prime from
destruction by the Vorlon planet-killer, he never worked closely
with Sheridan as G'Kar did.
One possibility is that Londo feels he has to repay Sheridan for
telling him of the approach of the Vorlons ([22]"Falling Toward
Apotheosis.") Londo did tell Sheridan he owed him a favor in
return.
Or it may be a simple matter of redemption: Londo certainly
realizes that he helped the Shadows, and he may feel he needs to
make up for his past misdeeds. In [23]"No Surrender, No Retreat,"
Londo told G'Kar that he wanted to help the humans because they'd
been friends, and he'd been ignoring his friends too long.
* G'Kar praised humanity as a bridge that has allowed the other
races to work together. That's the same argument Londo made to him
in [24]"No Surrender, No Retreat." Delenn has expressed the same
sentiment as well, e.g. in [25]"And Now For a Word" with her
closing remark about humans building communities.
* The League's unanimous vote ran counter to Sheridan's request that
they stay out of Earth's civil war ([26]"No Surrender, No
Retreat.") Upon his return, however, he didn't seem to object to
the presence of the alien vessels; has he changed his mind about
the need to credibly deny that his campaign is due to alien
influence?
* Just how powerful is Lyta? She has set off planetary defense
systems from light-years away ([27]"Epiphanies,") is able to
easily slide past defenses put in place by the Psi Corps' most
talented members, and can project detailed memories into the minds
of others. There must be limits to her ability; Kosh was able to
block her out ([28]"Falling Toward Apotheosis.") But she appears
to be light-years ahead of any other human telepath since Jason
Ironheart ([29]"Mind War.")
* Lyta appeared startled when Garibaldi mentioned the conspiracy
against the Psi Corps. Did she pull the details out of his mind,
and if so, is the knowledge useful to her in any way?
* Why did Number One believe the images Lyta sent to her? Given
Number One's distrust of telepaths, wouldn't she suspect that Lyta
was feeding her fictitious images? Of course, it's possible she
believed it because Lyta also transmitted the belief that the
images were legitimate.
On the other hand, it's strange that Number One's people were also
convinced immediately; given the resistance's innate distrust of
telepaths, why weren't they suspicious of her immediate reversal
of attitude after Lyta apparently did something to her mind?
* How much does Ivanova know about Marcus' feelings for her? When he
walked into the sleeping chamber, he didn't think she suspected --
hence his "You will never know" comment -- but clearly she
suspects _something_ now that she knows what he said to her
earlier ([30]"Shadow Dancing.")
* How was Earth able to adapt Shadow technology so quickly, given
that it's millions of years more advanced and apparently has a
completely dissimilar basis (living matter as opposed to steel and
wires?) Did Clark's people, or maybe the Psi Corps, receive
technical assistance from the Shadows at some point?
Earth's weapons researchers weren't completely new to the concept
of living weapons; the confiscated Ikarran artifact in
[31]"Infection" was in their hands for nearly four years. It's
possible that studying that artifact, which presumably was a less
advanced form of organic technology than that used by the Shadows,
gave them the context they needed to begin to understand Shadow
artifacts. The ships on Mars and Ganymede ([32]"Messages from
Earth") would have provided chances for experimentation, if brief
ones.
* Was Sheridan's father freed too, or is he still being held? The
interrogator implied that Clark's forces still had him. Even
without Garibaldi's help, Sheridan's father can presumably still
be used as leverage against Sheridan.
* Sheridan was in a rather confused mental state when he was
rescued. Will his interrogation have any lasting effect on his
psyche? Many people would be scarred for life from such an
experience. On the other hand, Sheridan has already been through a
rough time -- death -- and after that, the rest may seem minor in
comparison.
* Why did Ivanova ask Sheridan to lead the final battle from the
bridge of the Agamemnon? Symbolism, most likely, since she
expressed concern about it earlier. But clearly, he'd be safer on
the bridge of one of the White Star ships, Ivanova's injury
notwithstanding. She must be aware that her request puts the
integrity of the fleet -- which depends on Sheridan himself as a
symbol, every bit as much as it depends on the participation of
Earth ships -- in greater jeopardy.
The symbolism aspect is the most likely explanation; a fleet led
by an Earth warship will be harder for Clark to explain away as
mere alien interference.
It's also possible, given the discovery that not all the defecting
ships are loyal to Sheridan, that Ivanova wanted Sheridan on the
bridge of the Agamemnon to ensure that its captain couldn't betray
the rebel cause.
* Sheridan's use of the Agamemnon after Ivanova's fall has symbolic
meaning on another level: Agamemnon was the commander of the Greek
forces during the Trojan War, and he sacrificed his daughter
Iphigenia to ensure fair wind for his ships. Ivanova, while
obviously not Sheridan's daughter, sacrificed herself to ensure
that the fleet would make it to Mars.
In Euripides' version of the Greek myth, Iphigenia was switched
with a hind (a deer) at the last minute by Artemis, who among
other things was the goddess of virgins. Iphigenia lived
thereafter in a distant country as the high priestess in one of
Artemis' temples. The [33]"Endgame" page has more on that.
* Garibaldi doesn't have very good luck with his back, between the
knifing in this episode and the gunshot in [34]"Chrysalis." An
additional irony is that he was stabbed in the back while helping
rescue Sheridan, who he stabbed in the back in a metaphorical
sense.
Notes
* Earthforce is expanding the underground Mars tunnel system,
leading to instability in the existing tunnels.
* Ivanova has eidetic memory (photographic memory or perfect recall,
as it's more commonly known.)
* The VR machine used to interrogate Sheridan is similar to the
machine used to interrogate Sinclair in [35]"And the Sky Full of
Stars."
* After Franklin finishes sewing up Garibaldi's wound, the team
proceeds down the tunnel. Part of a discarded newspaper is visible
in the background, including the headline "TIAGO" and "TED" on the
next line. The headline is probably "Santiago Elected," the same
newspaper headline visible in [36]"Grey 17 Is Missing."
* The Damocles, which Ivanova's fleet fought at the beginning of the
episode, is named after a figure in Greek mythology. As told by
Cicero, Damocles was a courtier under Dionysius of Syracuse, who
had risen to power by violence. He envied what he imagined to be
his ruler's pampered and carefree life, so Dionysius decided to
let Damocles experience what his life was really like. In the
midst of a sumptuous banquet, Damocles discovered that a sword was
suspended by a horsehair over his head, ready to drop at any
moment. Dionysius said he felt the same anxiety every day,
surrounded by enemies waiting to take his life at the first sign
of weakness.
* The title most likely refers to the mantra recited by Delenn and
others upon entering the Grey Council: "I am Grey. I stand between
the candle and the star. We are Grey. We stand between the
darkness and the light." ([37]"Babylon Squared," among others.) It
may also refer to a transition from darkness to light; Sheridan's
return certainly qualifies.
jms speaks
* It's a nice, quiet little episode.
Well, at least, in comparison to what's coming....
* _Was this episode filmed after Claudia Christian decided to leave?_
Negative. We'd finished all S4 shooting at the time this occured.
_Were new scenes shot and edited in?_
Negative.
* _Was there a scene missing between Sheridan shooting the guard and
his arrival on the Minbari ship?_
Yes, there was a small scene that got cut for time.
Good catch.
* The Garibaldi material through the map sequence with Number One
was originally in "Intersections." It got shunted over to 419 when
418 ran 7-8 minutes long, and 419 ran 8 minutes short.
* _During the interrogation, the female interrogator said, "Put a
bullet in his head." But Earth uses PPGs now, not bullets._
Nope. We've established (in Grey 17 is Missing, for instance) that
guns are still used on Earth and elsewhere; but in a space
station, you don't want a slug-thrower because it tends to a)
ricochet a lot off metal walls, or b) cut through something vital
that would breach the hull potentially.
* _About Ivanova's eidetic memory_
She's a latent telepath. About a P1. As has been established on
the show in the past. That gives her a slight edge in many areas.
Also, an eidetic memory does not equal facility with language. I
have a somewhat eidetic memory. I can usually remember visuals and
things said to me with extreme clarity. (Unless I'm in convention
mode at the time, at which point all bets are off.) But I have a
real problem with learning languages, which involves not just
memorization, but *translation,* which is a skill, a knack that
some others have and some don't. (Spanish rolled off me, but for
some reason I have a knack for German, though my vocabulary's gone
all to hell.)
* "These new EA ships with Shadow tech...Are they susceptible to
telepaths like the shadow vessels were?"
Negative...they don't have living beings as CPUs, they're still
working at adapting the basic tech, the other stuff is still a bit
advanced.
"By the way, the EA adaptation to the shadow tech is accurately
done. Keep the basic Omega design and modify where needed."
Got it in one.
* The Advanced destroyer group was still somewhat in the works when
they hauled it out to go after the fleet. They'd been expecting
mainly to go after other Earth ships (as was noted in the
episode), and didn't count on exclusively being confronted by
Whitestars. Still, there were a lot of them here, and they did a
lot of damage by sheer force of numbers.
Corwin would be running the station in everyone's absence.
* _About Ivanova's speech_
Yeah, it was a bit over the top, deliberately so.
I put it in the category of a boxer who's going up against an
opponent who may be well matched...and wants to psych the other
person out.
If you look at "Give me liberty or give me death!" or similar
statements, made to rally support or make a point, they're
generally bigger than life, a bit over the top. That's so we can
know where the top is so we can climb up there ourselves.
* "If we want to be logical here, it really seems improbable that a
White Star could run into a piece of debris. Ok, the pilot
(Marcus) wasn't paying attention, they were at high speeds and
visability was poor."
Well, if you want to go back and listen to what's being said in
the episode, Marcus calls out that the navigational system was
damaged, and they were trying to repair when the big chunk of
debris hit them. They couldn't get out of the way for that reason.
* Some have complained about the rescue, arguing that they wanted to
see a big battle. (To which answer #1 is wait 7 days.) They wanted
to see the fleet smack Mars and free him in a big battle.
Well, if you do that, you can kiss goodbye any chance of the fleet
then doing what it's SUPPOSED to be doing, which is the liberation
of Earth. While they're tied up and planetbound (on one side) at
Mars, Earth swoops in and knocks them out. You also lose any
possible aspect of surprise.
It *had* to be done quickly, through the back door, rather than
the fleet that some might have been expecting, so it'd look like a
Resistance job, not a Fleet job.
* "Why were there no cameras monitoring Sheridan?"
Torturers rarely videotape their work, thus assuring that it can
never be used against them should things not go their way all the
time. This is kinda pro forma in South America, for instance.
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[44]Last update: December 2, 1997
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