Contents: Overview - Backplot - Questions - Analysis - Notes - JMS

Overview

Without Sheridan's knowledge, Delenn sends Lennier on a mission to try to figure out the source of the raids. Martin Cast as Findell. Richard Ynigues as Montoya.

P5 Rating: 8.21

Production number: 515
Original air date: May 27, 1998
DVD release date: April 13, 2004

Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by Mike Vejar

Plot Points

• Delenn has sent Lennier to train on a White Star. Unbeknownst to its captain, he's secretly on the lookout for evidence of Centauri involvement with the raids on Alliance ships.
• Franklin, like many Narns on the station, is reading G'Kar's book and finds it impressive.
• Londo has selected Vir to be the next Centauri Ambassador to Babylon 5 (and thus presumably to the Alliance.)
• The Drazi suspect that the Centauri are involved in the attacks on the cargo ships. They've attempted to bug Londo's quarters at least once.

Unanswered Questions

• Did Sheridan notice Delenn's extended absence during the night, or did he go back to sleep until she returned?

Analysis

• How did the Drazi find out about the Centauri involvement? Or are they just lucky guessers? Since Londo isn't aware of what's going on, they couldn't have found out from him, even if they had successfully bugged his quarters at some point.

• Londo was correct about Vir not being ready to be the ambassador: Vir is thought of as weak and ineffectual by the other races, as demonstrated by the Drazi merchant. Though Londo's comment to Zack was probably at least partially in jest, a little confrontation may well be necessary before people will take Vir seriously enough to make him an effective ambassador.

• G'Kar used an analogy of a light shining on a wall to describe how people perceive God. Lennier used a similar analogy in "Passing Through Gethsemane" when he described the Minbari conception of the soul to Brother Edward.

• Lennier cautioned Findell about joining the Anla'shok for the wrong reasons -- but it's arguable that that's exactly what Lennier himself has done, since one of his goals is to impress Delenn (he said as much in "The Very Long Night of Londo Mollari.") That may hold the key to his eventual betrayal of the Rangers as predicted by Morden ("Day of the Dead.") If faced with a choice of serving Delenn directly or serving the Anla'shok, he might well choose the former, especially if the choice involved a significant threat to Delenn. Such an eventuality appears to be foreshadowed here in the conversation between Delenn and Lennier.

  Findell's reasons for joining are very close to Marcus': the death of a family member and the desire to carry on that person's work.

• Garibaldi's drunkenness won't remain a secret for long if he's as careless as he was in ordering the pizza; the staff of Fresh Air now potentially knows about his return to the bottle. Whether that information will make it to anyone who knows Garibaldi personally, of course, remains to be seen. It's possible that the Fresh Air staff doesn't consider it out of the ordinary to deliver food to a drunk off-duty crewmember.

• Eavesdropping figured in both storylines: the Drazi bug in Londo's quarters and Captain Montoya listening in on Lennier's communications.

  Franklin's installation of G'Kar's eye suggests another possible instance of eavesdropping. The eye has a long range, so it's possible someone might pick up its signals from a distance. Perhaps that's how the Drazi found out about the Centauri -- if G'Kar read a document on the subject they might have picked up the image from his eye.

  If that's indeed happening, G'Kar may discover it and decide the eye isn't worth the risk. That could explain why he's missing it in the future ("War Without End part 2.")

Notes

• G'Kar's old artificial eye has been replaced with one of his natural color.
• G'Kar intended his book to be published after his death.
• The coffee stain in the book was first mentioned in "No Compromises."
• Narn: What is truth? And what is God?
  G'Kar: Truth is... a river.
  Narn: And what is God?
  G'Kar: God is the mouth of the river.
• White Stars carry Minbari fighters.
• Minbari fighters carry about 6 hours and 40 minutes of air (Lennier and Findell had an hour of air at 15% capacity.)
• The Fresh Air restaurant delivers pizza.
• While Londo is away, Vir eats at McBari's, a fast-food restaurant in Brown Sector (symbol: golden headbones.) As he puts it, "It tastes so good going down. Coming back up, it's not so good."

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Last update: May 27, 2024