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lurkers-guide


								<!-- 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>