First off, I have to complain about the DVD episode menu. I’ve noticed this for other discs, but this disc was particularly bad for spoilers. Check out the still they chose to represent this particular episode, for example! I kept looking for that scene throughout the episode, and it turns out it was in the very last scene. Couldn’t they have chosen some other still?
Cool how the Vorlon ship sort of belched out Lyta. What did she see on the Vorlon homeworld that she can’t talk about? What was that weird Poltergeist-like light exchange she did with Kosh at the end? How does this cause her suddenly perfect health? Why is Lyta so confident that Kosh would be able to protect her if the Psi-Corps came after her? Don’t tell me.
Jeff and I were positive we had seen Brad Dourif (the mind-wiped monk) before. It was only later that I discovered that he was Grima in LOTR and the doctor in Deadwood.
When Londo tries to blackmail Lyta into sharing intel about the Vorlon homeworld, she reminds him that she’s not bound by the Psi-Corps rules anymore, and comes back with a pretty nasty threat of her own.
*Shudder* Good thing Lyta’s on B5’s side.
I think.
Don’t tell me.
Lyta: I’m not with the Corps anymore. That means I am not bound by their rules. So if someone where to turn me in, I’d find him, and before they took me, I’d plant a nightmare deep in his mind, where no else could find or remove it. And that person would spend every night for the rest of his life screaming!
Interesting to find out more about Minbari philosophy. I like the analogy that Lennier gives when describing a soul, that it’s more like looking at sunlight on a wall — it’s not the wall that shines, but something else. Also, that the universe is conscious, and that we are all the universe.
I also found Lennier’s brief explanation of Valen interesting, that “he came out of nowhere.” Came out of nowhere?? Hmm…sounds like a mystery needing to solved to me. Who was Valen, really? And where DID he come from? Don’t tell me.
The episode raises some intriguing issues with the whole mind-wiping punishment. Kind of creepy at the end, when the man who murdered Brother Edward is himself mindwiped into another eerily peaceful monk.
An aside: I miss Vir! I still can’t believe they sent him away. 
Next episode: Voices of Authority.
[For those who comment below: As the title of my blog indicates, I'm watching B5 for the very first time so PLEASE refrain from posting plot/character spoilers/hints about upcoming episodes, or including links to pages with spoilers (unless you warn readers that they contain spoilers). More info about spoilers here. Thanks so much! - Debbie]
7 comments ↓
JMS comments on his own outlook
Q: “The themes of faith and forgiveness were worthy of a theologian. Are you sure there isn’t something you’d like to tell us?”
A: Never shoot pool at a place called Pop’s. Never eat food at a place called Mom’s. The difference between horses and humans is that they’re too smart to be on what *we’ll* do.
And I have lost people. Too many people. Lost them to chance, violence, brutality beyond belief; I’ve seen all the senseless, ignoble acts of “god’s noblest creature.” And I am incapable of forgiving. My feelings are with G’Kar, hand sliced open, saying of the drops of blood flowing from that open wound, “How do you apologize to them?” “I can’t.” “Then I cannot forgive.”
As an atheist, I believe that all life is unspeakably precious, because it’s only here for a brief moment, a flare against the dark, and then it’s gone forever. No afterlives, no second chances, no backsies. So there can be nothing crueler than the abuse, destruction or wanton taking of a life. It is a crime no less than burning the Mona Lisa, for there is always just one of each.
So I cannot forgive. Which makes the notion of writing a character who CAN forgive momentarily attractive… because it allows me to explore in great detail something of which I am utterly incapable. I cannot fly, so I would write of birds and starships and kites; I cannot play an instrument, so I would write of composers and dancers; and I cannot forgive, so I would write of priests and monks and minbari….
Another snippet: in Lyta’s picture above, if you think she’s trying desperately not to laugh, you’re right. They did that sliding forward physically, with the actress kneeling on a trolley, and by the time they finally got a usable take she’d fallen over so many times…
Brad Dourif also played “the murderer” in episodes of
ST: Voyager and the X-Files. He was the mentat Peter
deVries (?) in the original Dune movie. Doing that famous scene: It is by the beans of Java, that thoughts
acquire speed, the hands acquire shaking… it is by caffeine alone I set my mind in motion.
Don’t watch The Intro to Season Three on the first disk special features, it is actually a recap of what viewers seen in S3, as told by JMS. Good, I take it you are now watching the preview before the episode. The previews are all to often good at showing clips from the last bits of the episode, were you really only want what will draw you into watching the whole episode. Yes, S3E4 screenshot was over spoiler-ly. When I first seen this episode, via my VHS recording, it stopped recording in the middle of that scene, and I didn’t know how much more there was to it.
Overall though, it seems that the Season 3 DVDs are better transfers than S1 & S2–cleaner video transfer is what I am thinking of.
Another Centari telepath. This time male, but like the profitess of the emperor’s see’ers, seemed to be able to project something into Edward’s head, but also seemed to be used more like Earth telepaths to unblock the old memories.
What became of the co-conspiritor’s in Brother Edward’s murder?
Speculation: Was another character also ‘Passing Through Gethsemane’ in this episode?
Good thing Brother Edward’s bag was found with the recorder. Now, if someone had listened to Delenn and Lennier talking, it could have been sold to ISN or The Midnight Star for a good price, as we know hearing them is rare. Or the Ministry of Information probably would have chopped their words into something else.
The DVDs are a mess of spoilers, sadly. Avoid all extras and try not to look at menus and packaging. That really the only thing you can do short of having someone who’s already seen the show queue it up for you.
Such a great show really deserved better DVD sets.
Lyta is a favorite character for me. From the beginning, I loved her eyes. Somewhere along the way, JMS commented in the newsgroups that he, too, liked her eyes, and deliberately used them in his story-telling. I wasn’t surprised to learn that.
Speaking of eyes — Husband noticed that a number of the women on Bab5 have extremely large eyes.