Bester returns, Vir visits (YAY!), G’Kar experiments with Dust and (psychically) beats up Londo.
SO happy to see Vir back on B5. STAY, Vir! Don’t go back to Minbar!
Ministry of Peace gets scarier. Good for Sheridan re: standing up to them but I predict a slapdown soon.
Sounds as if Vir has adjusted to his Minbari assignment very well.
Meanwhile Franklin’s stim addiction has clearly affected his personality, making him irritable and impatient.
I found the scene where Ivanova is about to blow up Bester a bit artificial. Her monologuing just before she says “Fire,” for example. But she’s obviously still way afraid of Psi-Corps, and of being scanned. I’m dying to know how the whole “latent telepath” thing plays out. Don’t tell me.
Great idea to use Minbari telepaths to shield against Bester before he’s given that Sleeper drug. I was surprised that Bester agreed to take the drug.
From Bester’s comments (the reference to “dissection”), I take it that Talia Winters is DEAD??? Don’t tell me.
I find Bester’s character intriguing. He always seemed like pure evil in earlier episodes but in this episode he sometimes seemed to genuinely be sincere. Not that it makes his methods justifiable, but it made me think different about the Psi Corps for the first time. Was Bester telling the truth when he claims that Psi Corps has saved humans from destruction more than once? When he says that the Psi Corps is sometimes the only thing between humans and “the abyss”? Don’t tell me.
Looks like the conflict is heating up between the Centauri and the Drasi.
So touching to see Vir still try to defend Londo, trying to convince Delenn to let Londo visit Minbar, saying that it would do him good. Lennier says there’s nothing anyone can do to help Londo at this point, but Vir disagrees. “You don’t know him like I do,” Vir insists. “Someday he’ll surprise you.”
I love Vir. But then G’Kar beats him up! Londo deserved it, but not Vir!!
Fascinating to get a glimpse inside Londo’s head courtesy G’Kar’s mental probe, esp. how he got assigned to B5.
And HOLY COW, now G’Kar knows about Morden’s involvement and that Londo was at the center of the whole Narn destruction.
Then that whole bizarre dream sequence of G’Kar’s that seemed to be controlled by Kosh, I assume.
Who is the Narn above? Please only tell me if I’ve seen him before in another episode and therefore should know him. Though because of the appearance of G’Kar’s father in the dream, I’m also assuming that everyone who speaks to G’Kar in his dream is actually the same person: Kosh.
Makes me even more curious about the Vorlons. Who ARE they, really? What are their motivations? Don’t tell me.
Wow, Londo is in poor shape after his encounter with the Dust-affected G’Kar, isn’t he? It’ll be interesting to see if/how Londo is changed by this experience.
I was surprised that G’Kar only received a 60 day sentence in the brig.
Vir mentions to Londo that he has to leave right away because Centauri Prime wants him back on Minbar for some special ceremony. I’m curious to know what that ceremony is, of course! Don’t tell me.
Interesting to find out that Dust was developed by the Psi Corps in hopes of developing telepaths in the Narn population.
So my question: I notice G’Kar’s eyes are no longer back, so the Dust must have worn off. Does this mean he’s no longer a telepath? Wouldn’t Bester want to have him tested, knowing the situation? Or perhaps G’Kar’s latent telepathy WILL start growing now?
Don’t tell me.
Next episode: Exogenesis.
[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]
11 comments ↓
One of JMS’s comments on this episode is that he deliberately gave Bester a victory over an clearly dangerous criminal gang in order to maintain his credibility as an antagonist and to show that, as bad as his actions sometimes were, his goals (well, some of them) were valid.
The comment about Talia could be true, or it could be Bester jerking their chains.
Re: Talia - the German dubbing speaks if “vivisection” which is in meaning quite identical to the English word.
You know, I can see this exercise having a significant effect on your speech patterns. I imagine you greeting someone at a con. “Hi, how are you doing? Don’t tell me.”
*ducks and runs*
We’re not gonna tell you.
But if you like Vir, next ep (iirc) is gonna thrill ya.
The Narns in G’kar’s dream are G’Quan (the author of the holy book), G’lan (the “angel” from “Fall of the Night”) and G’kar’s father.
One of the things which has always impressed me about this series is the character development over time. Very well done. G’Kar and Londo being a prime example. B5 is as much their story as it is about Sheridan or the Shadow war. And this is a pivotal episode in their relationship. More I cannot/will not say. If you (or anyone reading this blog) likes the kind of plot/character development demonstrated by B5, I would suggest reading “Stealing Fire From The Gods” by James Bonnet. It’s not an example, it’s a book for writers wanting to understand archetypal themes, characters, and stories.
One of the nice things about B5 is that JMS gets that villains don’t sit in their lairs cackling over their evilness. They think they’re good people, or at least no worse than everything else. Bester truly believes that he’s working for the good of humanity in general and all telepaths in specific. He believes he’s doing the right thing. That’s the scary part about him.
Oh, I like this episode a lot, though you’ll see me saying that about any episode with intense and dramatic G’Kar or Londo character development and this episode has a bunch of both. So revealing, so heart-rending, just one of those episodes that is both brutal and beautiful at the same time. And, yeah, Vir just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time! (though the end scenes between him and Londo are moving, too)
Just a tad of JMS trivia about Vir’s shirt:
Re: the coat of welcoming…here’s a little tidbit…we had to make up an entire alphabet for most of our major races (and I’ve been gradually building up a dictionary here and there for languages). So they came and asked if they could embroider something in Minbari on the shirt Vir’s wearing when he comes back. I said sure. Did I have anything in mind? No, not really.
So I’m on the set that day, and I see the embroidered shirt, and I ask what these five letters spell, since I don’t offhand read Minbari yet. He looked up at me and smiled. “It spells out ALOHA.”
We have a very demented crew.
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JMS on the sentence:
Actually, just to clarify the legalese, the judge sentenced him to *no less* than 60 days; that’s the minimum, it could be more.
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I rewatched this episode and the current episode of Battlestar Galactica tonight. Interesting that some things seemed to be common in both of them.
Uh, I think Dust was developed for humans only; to try to get a stable telepath from the latent human population they didn’t see that Narn’s or other allien races would be trying it.
We see Minbari telepaths, I think for the first time. They appear to have talents much like Earth telepaths…read thoughts, send thoughts, recognize and block probes. I don’t recall seeing if the four in the room could link to combine their powers. The four looked like they had religous cast bone crests.
Fan Speculation: Maybe the now extint Narn telepaths were more like these Minbari or Earth telepaths as far as recognizeable talents go, which would prompt G’Kar to want genetic material from an Earth telepath and never seemed to get any (by kidnapping, killing) from Centari telepaths. The Centari telepaths seem to be able to image project somewhat easily. Our Vorlon, Kosh, can image project, but it seems both he and receptor have to be ready.
On the storytelling: Notice again, here at the start of Season 3, we see a lot of extras around the station to remind us that it is indeed well populated.