The Paragon of Animals


You know, I think that’s another episode I didn’t rewatch after I originally saw it until this time. Not because of finding it objectionable, there just seemed to be no particular reason luring me before now.

G’Kar’s writerly efforts, complete with endless rewrites even after everyone has signed the Declaration of Principles, are just the most relatable thing ever from a writer pov, and I bet JMS felt very meta about those scenes. :) Mind you, letting G’Kara recite (most of) that text only enhances the contrast to Byron, who gets to recite from Hamlet in the same episode with, err, less of an emotional effect.

As if to illustrate both Byron’s and Lyta’s point about mundanes seeing telepaths not as human in the same way but primarily as weapons, though, you have both Garibaldi and Sheridan concluding that it’s just a great idea to make those telepaths Sheridan has just granted asylum to sing for their supper via spying on the Alliance’s behalf against every Earth law re: telepaths. On a station still ruled by EarthGov. Without, of course, Sheridan even once considering to doing the political thing of lobbying EarthGov to change said laws. Not to mention that neither Sheridan nor Garibaldi seem to consider that once you’ve declared privacy laws are for suckers and told the telepaths to go ahead and spy, they might listen to some things you DON’T want them to hear.

It’s a good episode for telepath world building and Lyta and (not even present) Bester in partIcular, though, as we get to see the effect being telepathically linked to a dying man has on Lyta - who says this is her second time of doing this -, and hear her story about how this affects telepaths, and that Psi Corps rumor has it Bester did this (scanning the dying) far too often and that “a part of him, the best part of him, never came back”. (Interesting that Lyta implies here Bester had a best part to begin with.) (I’m doing Trick or Treat for the first time this year and intend to ask someone to do something with this prompt.) Why did he do this, what was he looking for? The Psi Corps (book) trilogy, of course, offers an answer, but if we go with “only tv canon is canon”, it’s an open question and invites speculation.

Byron isn’t wrong about Lyta having been conditioned to blindly follow authorities all her life - Psi Corps, then the Vorlons - , and you could add in each case she went through some cruel disillusionment when she did start to question said authorities. There are two quite different red threads through Lyta’s life as presented in this show: a rebellious one, and one which seeks an authority to put in a pedestal to follow.

The case of the week, aka the Drazi revealed as having sponsored state terrorism raiders, feels oddly s1 like, despite being used as an illustration as to why everyone should committ themselves to Alliance principles and why there needs to be a military which if some members go against that promise is able to enforce said principles. Methinks JMS thought the problem with the UN forces is that they didn’t/couldn’t do anything in cases like say, Rwanda, where a genocide happened right in front of them and wanted to show his Utopia UN was different. Also, of course, it’s a Chekovian gun established, given, err, later events.



Strange Relations

In which Bester is back, as seriously everone should have known he would be, and Sheridan creating the situation in the first place, then dumping it on Lochley by telling her to solve it, with him having made zero plans of how to deal with said entirely predictable situation, never ceases to frustrate me. As it wouldn’t if only the show would acknowledge it as a screw up and as part of Sheridan’s learning steps as President. On the bright side, Lochley has some excellent scenes throughout the episode, with Sheridan and Garibaldi both. The mixture of calm competence and snark is one of the reasons why I like Lochley; also, I think the episode shows in a good way she’s written as her own person here, because I can’t imagine Ivanova in any of those scenes doing the same thing had she been Captain of B5. (Starting with having tea with Bester.)

This is the episode which reveals Sheridan and Lochley used to be married for all of three months back at the academy. It’s only not really soap operatic because the show doesn’t do an “exes who still have UST” storyline with them (in fact goes so much out of its way to keep relations between them formal, with Lochley calling Sheridan “Sir” all the time, that I suspect JMS wanted to avoid just that accusation), and does look like the last minute addition to the tale it was, but: the show had already done “Sheridan and female commander knew each other from before the show as working colleaguies” with Sheridan and Ivanova, didn’t, I guess, want to repeaat it but did need a shorthand on why Sheridan would know that this particular officer who didn’t turn against Clark would not backstab him.

I remember some joker back in the day pointed out that Sheridan’s three wives actually represent the three Minbari castes (Delenn = religious, Lochley = warrior, Anna = worker), though qualifying Anna as a worker just because she was an archaeologist is stretching it.

Lyta falling for Byron as quickly as she does: would be improved by the actor being, well, different, but is believable given Lyta’s backstory so far, see earlier review. Even Byron, as Zack observes, being the martyr type - and declaring himself a pacifist - fits, considering the decidedly non pacifist Vorlons have let her down, and her powers keep expanding due to their modifications which makes her afraid of herself. Byron is the last time Lyta basically outsources her conscience to someone she feels she can admire, but because of the increasing “romantic” overtones in their scenes together (this is the episode with the Willow speech, Great Maker), it comes across as creepy rather than shippable.

Otoh: this is also the episode where Delenn reveals herself to be a Londo/G’Kar shipper by talking G’Kar into becoming Londo’s bodyguard. (You also have to love the brief dialogue between her and Londo later when Delenn first gives Londo the same spiel about the powerful symbolism of this. Londo: “Symbolism. Did you try that line on G’Kar?” Delenn: “Yes.” Londo: “And he bought it?” Delenn: “Completely.”) Given Delenn is a firm believer of mortal enemies hooking up as a way to unite two former warring people, I leave you to draw your own conclusions. Also, as I used to say to Hobsonphile back in the day, JMS doesn’t leave out a single slash trope with these two, does he? Stay tuned for: Bodyguards need to sleep in the same room, the sequel…




The other episodes