Season 3, Episode 49: Voices of Authority

B5 gets a new political officer, Ivanova recruits a First One with Draal’s help, and Zach is lured by the Dark Side.

Yay, Marcus is in this episode! I still wish Vir was back, but Marcus certainly helps me cope with Vir withdrawal.

The term “First Ones” immediately made me think of “The First” in Buffy.

Draal: “It will be fun. Assuming you’re not vaporized, dissected or killed in a number of supremely horrible ways. Exciting, isn’t it?”

Draal is growing on me. I like his somewhat wonky sense of humor, especially when expressed in that “voice of doom.”

Draal (to Ivanova, after her nervous blathering about surprises): “I like you! You’re trouble.”

Ivanova: “Why, thank you. That’s the nicest thing anyone’s said to me in days.”

It looks as if Delenn’s and Sheridan’s secret meetings are not-so-secret, doesn’t it? G’Kar is getting curious, and Zach is getting resentful. It’ll be interesting to see what happens when Earthforce (and Psi Corps) find out.

Masanti: “Captain, you’re a good man: a leader, a soldier. You understand that sometimes before you can deal with a problem, you redefine it.”

Julie Masanti (sp?) is an interesting new character as the “Political Officer.” Her acting seems a touch overdone to me, BUT it works. Malicious Earthforce nastiness wrapped up in a sugary, prettily-wrapped package.

Ivanova: “Anything else you need?”
Sheridan: “A glass of whiskey, a gun and two bullets.”

She’s not a good judge of character, though, is she? Sheridan would never fall for this sort of lame seduction attempt.

Ivanova: “Good luck, Captain. I think you’re about to go where everyone’s gone before.”

Heh. Ivanova does get the best lines, doesn’t she?

Though Marcus gets some good ones in this episode as well.

Ivanova (about the First Ones): “At least it tells us they understand our language. They’re just not willing to speak to us yet.”

Marcus: “Who knew they were French?”

The Ministry Of Peace is becoming more Big Brother-ish by the episode. Masanti mentions that “certain government figures” were going to be taken down in the coming months, and that there were going to be “minor and temporary abridgements” to freedom of speech statutes to keep Earth “idealogically pure”. Scary!

It looks like Zach is letting himself be lured over to the Dark Side. I hadn’t expected that.

“Whatever you do,” says Draal to Ivanova as she’s getting into the Matrix, “Don’t stray from the Path!”

Uh-uh, I thought. Ivanova’s SO going to stray from the Path.

Hey, I hadn’t noticed that Ivanova had those cute freckles!

I’ll bet Marcus has noticed.

Cool how the Matrix lets Ivanova find the First Ones by just thinking about them, taking her to Sigma 957.

But then “the Enemy” finds her. Who’s “the Enemy,” exactly? Is this a race we’ve encountered before? Are these the beings behind the Shadow ships? But I thought those were the spider-things. Or are the spider-things their underlings? How does they know Ivanova’s name? Don’t tell me.

And then she sees a clip of the past, when the Vice-President Clark talks to Morden about arranging the assassination. Whoa! I guess it’s pretty clear what Clark told Morden in answer to the question, “What do you want?”

Draal says that Ivanova shouldn’t have been able to do this. AHA! Obviously, her latent telepathic abilities are a factor here. Can’t wait to find out more about what else Ivanova can do. Don’t tell me.

The First Ones have a cool ship!

I do think it was a bit weird how Ivanova got the First One to become their ally by playing on their resentment of the Vorlons. I would have thought that a race so old and with so much experience wouldn’t fall for this kind of manipulation.

But heck, I’m not complaining too hard — the exchange (esp. Ivanova’s “Yeah. Whatever.”) was pretty amusing.

G’Kar gives the Book Of G’Kua (sp?) to Garibaldi in an effort to help. Interesting…what’s in the book that G’Kar thinks will be of use? Will Garibaldi learn Narn? Don’t tell me.

More and more sticks of dynamite are being thrown on the pile. Still…wondering who’s going to throw on the match.

Next episode: Dust to Dust.

[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]