Babylon 5 Rewatch: A Day in the Strife/ Passing through Gethsemane

[selenak]

A Day in the Strife

I had misremembered Ta'Lon as the replacement envoy arriving in this episode, not at the bodyguard of the (not!) replacement envoy, so now I'm wondering whether we ever see Na'far again, whether I had forgotten this as well. Anyway, I appreciate that Na'Far isn't presented as evil, or cowardly, because "collaboration is of the devil and anyone not ready to die and have their family die for the Resistance right now is just a traitor" is an easy stance to take when it's not your families on the line. Also the scene with Na'far and Londo is competing with another scene this season where I think Londo hits moral rock bottom (he does so here in general terms here, and in the other scene later this season in personal terms), and the only consoling thing about this is that JMS wisely put it in s3 once you've hit rock bottom and still have two seasons of character development ahead, there's no way but up. The actor playing Na'Far is terrific in this scene, and next time people ask me about favored one shot characters not Timov on this show again, I'll bring him up. Though my general not-Timov choice for one shot character on B5 is in the next episode.

Another thing I can't remember is whether back in the day I was afraid Vir was written out of the show at the end of this episode, which, given Talia's departure and before her Sinclair's, and Na'Toth's unexplained absence (we wouldn't find out what became of Na'Toth until s5, aka when JMS could persuade Julie Caitlin Brown, Na'Toth 1.0., back into Narn make-up), could have been the case for all we knew then. However, I think the fact Vir and Stephen Furst got promoted into the opening credits as a regular this season was something of a hint to younger me that Vir leaving for Minbar did not equal Vir leaving the show. Mind you, Londo arranging for Vir's promotion to ambassador at Minbar is a very ic thing to do at this point - on one level, he does it to spare Vir, on another, he's quite literally trying to send his conscience away. Rewatching two episodes a week means s1 isn't that for away, and thus it did strike me that the favour Londo is calling in from Delenn in order to get Vir the job on Minbar is the one she owes him from his helping her in A Voice in the Wilderness, at a point when neither of them could have imagined where they'd be one and a half years later. More about Londo and Delenn later this season when we get to a certain request of hers. It's a good choice, too, since this is just about the one kind of favour she can now grant him with a good conscience.

Lastly: two of my less liked B5 things make an appearance in this episode. One is the beginning of Stephen Franklin's stim addiction arc. I mean, it's not that I can argue with the general logic - it's something that is more likely to happen to an overworked, understaffed dedicated doctor than not, and also it makes sense for Garibaldi the alcoholic to spot the warning signs almost immediately and draw the correct conclusion. But that's just it - with Franklin, it feels like "he's a doctor, so his arc is that he gets addicted to stims", whereas Garibaldi's alcoholism is an important trait but not the only defining one, and his development isn't all about that.

The other thing is that JMS at times - thankfully not often, but at times - does this sledgehammer thing where he has a character talk about how great either Sheridan or Delenn or both are. In this case, Garibaldli's little speech of having looked up Sheridan's file, seen what a master tactician Sheridan is and having concluded he's the one guy to get everyone through the impending trials alive, that "we need a soldier now, not a diplomat". This to me doesn't really feel like Garibaldi the character speaking but JMS telling the audience "look, in case some of you are still doubting Sheridan, he's cool, and here's why!" This in combination with Sheridan winning a machismo contest with the annoying transport guy in the opening scene does make me feel annoyed, not filled with admiration. (Though I'm fine with Sheridan at this point of the show, and even at times aw'ing. Just not when the script does stuff like tihs.)



Passing through Gethsemane

Aka the one where JMS revisits the "death of personality" + serial killer storyelements from s1 and comes up with a very different result. Also, Lyta's back. Brother Edward is probably my favourite non-Timov one episode character on this show, and I think my favourite Brad Dourif performance. (No offense, Ensign Suder from Voyager and Grima Wormtongue in Lord of the Rings.) Precisely because Dourif plays villains so often. I also appreciate that the show delivers one final twist to ensure we're not that comfortable in our moral certainty, via letting Sheridan, who has liked Brother Edward, make that statement about forgiveness and then promptly find himself in the reverse position when being faced with Edward's killer, newly mindwiped and given another community serving personalty. And human/audience sympathy works like that. If we'd gotten forty minutes of Charles the serial killer and five minutes of Edward, we'd feel differently, but we get to meet Edward first and at length, and only catch a few glimpses of Charles' gruesome murders. (Sidenote: most, though not all, fall and redemption stories keep the fall to a minimum, or just a few flashbacks, if audience sympathy and belief in the redemption is the final goal.) So both audience and Sheridan are sure to be caught wrong footed when re-meeting "Brother Malcolm" in the final scene.

There's also the theological and ethical aspect: Edward's question as to how he can meaningfully atone when he can't remember his crimes is answered by Theo's statement that God remembers - and thus is in a position to forgive - but that only works if you share Theo's belief. One could also ask: given that both Edward and "Malcolm" at the end have been explicitly "programmed" with the wish to serve humanity, which would limit their free will, are their good choices even truly their own? And yet, Edward, as presented in this episode, comes across as a complete personality, not someone acting merely as he's been conditioned to. The banter at the start with Ivanova as they observe the chess match between Brother Theo and Sheridan, his curiosity about Minbari beliefs, his ability to create art, all this isn't the result of a general "you must serve the community" mandate implanted in him. And thus, his final choice - not to flee, but to face the families of Charles' victims and let them torture and kill him - does feel like it was his choice, not something he had to do due to how his personality was constructed.

Incidentally, that the B5verse can destroy personalities and implant new ones remains one of the most creepy aspects of it, and not just when it happens to regulars like Talia.

Which brings me to the telepath of the episode. Lyta's return from Vorlon space has our heroes react welcoming, but also self-confessedly creeped out. Which on the one hand is understable, given that the last human who hung out with the Vorlons they met was Jack the Ripper, but on the other sets a difference to how everyone interacted with Talia from the start. The audience also figures out pretty quickly that Lyta's new relationship with the Vorlons is about more than enlightenment since Dr. Franklin tells us she's been physically modified, with minor deficiencies like not enough iron in her blood eliminated, and in her last scene we see she's now able to breathe in a Vorlon-style environment. I don't think the first time I saw the scene I had figured out quite what it was I saw - I thought it was something like mental sex, and only in later episodes where it's mentioned by her in dialogue realized that Kosh had been using Lyta's body as a transport vehicle for the "short trip" and was getting back into his encounter suite - though I do still think there's an intentional sexual aspect there as well. That Lyta fled from Psi Corps, which isn't above trying to modify its telepaths to suit its needs, to the Vorlons, who promptly modify her to suit their needs, is a pointed irony that didn't sink in yet the first time I saw this. Though I did think that last scene was both creepy and fascinating at the same time.

Another thing: if Talia for her two seasons had been consistently dressed in a vaguely 1940s film noir fashion, Lyta in both of her post pilot appearances - and in their majority of her appearances later - is dressed in black. Which is, of course, exactly what her enemies the Psi Cops wear. The show was always very intentional with its costuming, see also Londo going from the purple s1 suit to the black one he's currently sporting -, but in the case of Lyta, the irony of her dressing choices didn't hit me until s5.

The other episodes

Comments

[sovay]

Brother Edward is probably my favourite non-Timov one episode character on this show, and I think my favourite Brad Dourif performance.

He was my introduction to Brad Dourif and therefore no small contributor to how much I love the actor.

[selenak]

Come to think of it, Brother Edward may have been the first time I saw Brad Dourif, too, at least consciously.

[beatrice_otter]

Oh, man, Gethsemane, that is an awesome episode for all the reasons you bring up. It's one of the eps I remember most clearly from when I was first watching them as a teen in the 90s.

[selenak]

It's still one of my favourites, and has aged really well.

[cahn]

"Strife": I thought it was interesting how G'Kar not going was juxtaposed with Vir going. And also I loved that G'Kar *did* agree to go, because he wanted the best thing for his people.

the favour Londo is calling in from Delenn in order to get Vir the job on Minbar is the one she owes him from his helping her in A Voice in the Wilderness, at a point when neither of them could have imagined where they'd be one and a half years later.

Ohhhhh! Of course! I couldn't remember where it was from.

I haaaaate addiction arcs. I think I hate them all. I'm trying to think of one that I like, and so far have not been able to think of one. I don't mind Garibaldi's alcoholism, because it's low-key.

"Gethsemane" was interesting because I kept going off-balance because it seems obvious to me that once you do a mind-wipe, the former person is gone. Erased. No longer there. There's now a person with the same genetic structure, but it's a different person! The same way that identical twins aren't the same person even though they're identical genetically! And yet exactly no one in this episode seemed to think that way. Garibaldi was all "yeah, they should definitely kill the criminals rather than mind-wipe," and I was like... essentially... it's pretty similar?? ... and, well, just everyone seemed to take for granted that, say, Charles and Edward were the same person, whereas I sort of took it for granted that they were completely different people. Like, to me it doesn't even make sense to think about the question of forgiving Malcolm, because Malcolm wasn't the person who killed Edward. (That it might be very hard to be around Malcolm, yes, that makes complete sense! But it makes about as much sense to me to forgive him as it would to forgive an identical twin of someone who committed a murder.)

(No offense, Ensign Suder from Voyager and Grima Wormtongue in Lord of the Rings.)

Oh wow, this explains why I kept being "why does Edward strike me as totally slimy even though he has done nothing to deserve my thinking that?"

One could also ask: given that both Edward and "Malcolm" at the end have been explicitly "programmed" with the wish to serve humanity, which would limit their free will, are their good choices even truly their own?

I guess that's a question that could be asked of anyone, though? (I still need to reply to your East of Eden post -- agh! -- but that book was important to me not least because it was the first place I came across the idea that one could be born without the wish to serve humanity (Cathy/Kate) -- which also sort of meant that in a way she chose, but also in a way she didn't -- she didn't choose to be born without a conscience.)

Which brings me to the telepath of the episode.

Okay, also! I was not just creeped out by the Vorlon parts (which were creepy, and which I vaguely also thought was something like mental sex) but also by the part where:

Centauri telepath: Haha, Psi Corps has a rule they can't mess with me. Because that would be super unethical!
Garibaldi: puts hood over Centauri telepath's head??
Our Heroes: AHAHAHA WELP guess what we have here! A non-Psi Corps telepath!
Lyta: probes Centauri telepath in way that frankly seems rather invasive
Me: Seems... VERY NOT legit, actually!
Our Heroes: seem to have no trouble with this at all??

ETA: Oh, another thing! I really liked that Zack had to stop Sheridan from going after Malcolm (and the narrative was clearly not on Sheridan's side, same person or not same person). It sort of helped to counterpoint the "look how macho Sheridan is!" bit at the beginning of "Strife."

[selenak]

I haaaaate addiction arcs

Hard same. BTW, Franklin's actor, Richard Biggs, said in the convention in Munich I saw him at that he wasn't keen on it, either, not because addiction isn't interesting to play but because he was never quite sure how far gone Franklin was supposed to be - sometimes the script called for him to show signs, in other episodes (usually where he played a minor part) Franklin behaved perfectly normally. Anyway, it's his subplot for the season, and then it's over. jesuswasbatman once voiced the theory, apropos Star Trek shows, that because Leonord McCoy had been such a huge and beloved presence on TOS, subsequent Trek shows felt they had to make one of the main characters the doctor - but without figuring out first what to do with him/her, whether a doctor needs to be a part of the regulars, or their personality. It may have been the case in JMS' subconscious, too, because at times I feel that Franklin gets this default stories, i.e. he's the doctor, ergo he gets addicted. This said, Franklin also has some excellent scenes.

it seems obvious to me that once you do a mind-wipe, the former person is gone. Erased. No longer there.

Let me remind you of your hope that Talia is still there somewhere inside of Control.

...But going by all the on screen evidence we have, the second post mind wipe personalities seem to be separate beings, yes. I think it's a bit like in Buffy and Angel where the question as to whether a vampire with a soul counts as a separate being from the same vampire without a soul, and how guilty the former is for the deeds of the later, is treated differently by the characters at different points throughout the shows.

Re: you (not) recognising actors - I don't know whether you've realised, but Louis Turenne, who plays Brother Theo, was the original Draal in s1. (Like some of the other actors, the alien makeup was too much for him, but he did like working on the show, so JMS wrote this other role for him and recast Draal.)

Incidentally, Edward naming Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, experiencing fear and the wish to have this cup taken away, but staying to face death regardless, as the defining moment for his faith has an obvious plot relevance, but I also thought that it showed JMS' ability to write religious people in a thoughtful, interesting manner.

Me: Seems... VERY NOT legit, actually!
Our Heroes: seem to have no trouble with this at all??

I dare say they would have if someone did it to them. Psi Corps sucks, but there are reasons why all these rules were invented in the first place. It also says something about our heroes own' changing under the pressure. Remember last season, when Talia refused to scan Morden without his consent, Sheridan had to trick her to be anywhere near him, she slapped him and he as well as Franklin agreed he deserved that?

I'm looking forward to your comments next weekend, when Bester comes back. (The episode in question, Dust to Dust is one of my all time B5 favourites because it unites something that usually happens in separate episodes - there's a Londo-G'Kar-Vir plot line, and a Bester plot line in the same ep. Both are excellent.) Back to this week: I also think that this being a Centauri telepath matters, in that I somehow doubt Sheridan and Garibaldi would have pulled that stunt with a Minbari telepath who afterwards would have complained to Delenn. But the Centauri standing on the station is for obvious reasons not a good one right now, and while that shouldn't impact civil rights questions, alas it does.

Oh, another thing! I really liked that Zack had to stop Sheridan from going after Malcolm (and the narrative was clearly not on Sheridan's side, same person or not same person). It sort of helped to counterpoint the "look how macho Sheridan is!" bit at the beginning of "Strife."

That's true, and btw is also a narrative signal that Zack, Night Watch membership notwithstanding, still has an ethical compass inside.

[cahn]

BTW, Franklin's actor, Richard Biggs, said in the convention in Munich I saw him at that he wasn't keen on it, either, not because addiction isn't interesting to play but because he was never quite sure how far gone Franklin was supposed to be - sometimes the script called for him to show signs, in other episodes (usually where he played a minor part) Franklin behaved perfectly normally.

Ha, that's an interesting perspective, and I can totally see that, for an actor -- I can see the addiction part being interesting to play, but not when it was so inconsistent.

Let me remind you of your hope that Talia is still there somewhere inside of Control.

I waaaaant her to be there! But I have reluctantly accepted that I just need an AU :P :)

Re: you (not) recognising actors - I don't know whether you've realised, but Louis Turenne, who plays Brother Theo, was the original Draal in s1.

Nooooo it is a safe bet that I will never recognize an actor unless I've been explicitly told about it, unless it's someone I already had on my radar in a major way. That's really cool! And I really like Brother Theo :) (I also liked Draal 1.0 better than Draal 2.0.)

Incidentally, Edward naming Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, experiencing fear and the wish to have this cup taken away, but staying to face death regardless, as the defining moment for his faith has an obvious plot relevance, but I also thought that it showed JMS' ability to write religious people in a thoughtful, interesting manner.

YES. I forgot to mention this, but I thought this as well while watching.

Remember last season, when Talia refused to scan Morden without his consent, Sheridan had to trick her to be anywhere near him, she slapped him and he as well as Franklin agreed he deserved that?

Oh right, I forgot that!

I'm looking forward to your comments next weekend

:D I ended up being unexpectedly busy this week, so there is a chance I may not have watched the whole thing by the weekend, but probably shortly thereafter, at least...

[redfiona99]

I think Sheridan's visceral reaction to meeting Brother Malcolm is such a good way to do it, because it must have been tempting to have your hero not react like that but it makes him more human (and the sheer revulsion - good work by the actor).

Brother Theo's lack of reaction is fascinating - he's very much in the lineage of Father Brown, Father Mulcahey et al. of people who walk the walk as well as talking the talk.

[selenak]

Well, to be fair, we didn't see how Brother Theo initially reacted when told the news. He already knew about Malcolm when introducing him to Sheridan and had had time to adjust whatever initial visceral reaction he may or may not have felt. However, clearly he volunteered to work with Malcolm to begin with - there's no way he'd be given Malcolm as a monk otherwise -, and that is indeed walking the walk, and practicing what he preaches.

Agreed re: Sheridan!

[watervole]

I love Brother Theo. He's not just a generic monk. He has a sense of humour, and a keen wit, as well as belief and strong ethics.

[watervole]

Must admit that I never saw Lyta and Kosh as a sexual thing, and still don't.