lurkers-guide/guide/bak/059

<!-- TITLE Interludes and Examinations -->

<h2><a name="OV">Overview</a></h2>

<blockquote><cite>
Sheridan tries to rally support for his cause as direct confrontations with
the Shadows begin in earnest.  Friction increases between Londo and Morden.
</cite>

<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Wasser,+Ed">Ed Wasser</a> as Morden.
Jonathan Chapman as Brakiri.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Balgobin,+Jennifer">Jennifer Balgobin</a> as Dr. Hobbs.
</blockquote>

<pre>Production number: 315
Original air week: May 6, 1996

Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by Jesus Trevino
</pre>

<strong>Note: this episode is more momentous than most.  Think twice before
proceeding to the spoilers; it's worth seeing unawares.</strong>

<p>
<hr size=3>

<h2><a name="BP">Backplot</a></h2>
<ul>

   <li> During the last war with the Shadows, a thousand years ago, they did
	roughly what they're doing this time, seemingly attacking at random
	in the form of quick strikes.  The intent may be simply to keep the
	major powers off guard, so they never know when the next attack will
	occur.

   <li> Vorlon ships are linked closely to their individual owners.

</ul>

<h2><a name="UQ">Unanswered Questions</a></h2>
<ul>

   <li> Who will replace Franklin as head of medlab?

   <li> Why did the Shadows wait until the Vorlon attack to move against Kosh?
	They could presumably have done it at any time.  (See
	<a href="#AN.kosh">Analysis</a>)

   <li> Do the Shadows know that the Vorlon attack was just a one-time thing,
	or do they now believe that the Vorlons are on the march?  How will
	that affect their strategy, if at all?

   <li> How did Delenn know there wouldn't be a body?

   <li> What was the flash of energy that coursed through the station after
	the fight was over?

   <li> Does Lyta know about Kosh?  How will she react when she finds out?

</ul>

<h2><a name="AN">Analysis</a></h2>
<ul>

   <li> Londo's new pact with Morden may foreshadow the loss of his second
	chance for redemption
	(<a href="053.html">"Point of No Return."</a>)
	With Londo's poison coursing through his veins, Refa certainly qualifies
	as "the one who is already dead," and now Londo has vowed to kill him.
	Along similar lines, Kosh qualifies now too; Londo may attempt to kill
	Kosh's replacement, not realizing it's another Vorlon entirely.

   <li> Londo played right into Morden's hands.  Morden was obviously
	responsible for Adira's death (he paid off one of the ship's crew,
	and he found out about her arrival from the Zocalo vendor) and it's
	unlikely Refa even knew about her, much less participated in her
	poisoning.  But any such protest on Refa's part will likely fall
	on deaf ears if Londo speaks to him.

   <li> On the other hand, it's also possible that Londo is attempting to
	fool Morden.  Certainly Londo knows that Morden is up to no good --
	their conversation in the hallway, and Londo's glare when he talks
	about people who deserve to die -- are evidence of that.  Maybe he's
	playing along with Morden in an attempt to trip up the Shadows' plans.
	The same hallway conversation offers evidence to the contrary, though;
	even then, Londo felt he had already been through worse than Morden's
	associates could dish out, and with Adira's death, that's probably
	only intensified.

   <li> "The galaxy can burn.  I no longer care," says Londo.  This echoes the
	conversation between Emperor Turhan and Kosh in
	<a href="031.html">"The Coming of Shadows:"</a>
	"How will this end?"  "In fire."

   <li> Londo promised to pluck the Shadows' eye out if it turned toward the
	Centauri homeworld.  Foreshadowing, perhaps, for whatever happens
	to G'Kar's eye in Londo's dream
	(<a href="031.html">"The Coming of Shadows."</a>)

   <li> What <em>do</em> the Shadows want?  Delenn seems to know more than
	she's telling.  Morden's keen interest in the Centauri's continued
	aggression may provide a clue, but it's ambiguous at best.  If they
	simply want a constant state of chaos in the galaxy, their current
	strategy will eventually backfire; there won't be anyone
	left to carry on fighting.

   <li> <a name="AN.kosh">The fact that the Shadows attacked Kosh</a>
	immediately after the Vorlon victory over the Shadow fleet smacks of
	the notion that there was a deal of some sort between the two races:
	the Vorlons stay out of the fighting, and the Shadows leave them
	alone.  If that's true, one sobering interpretation is that both
	races consider the war something of a game.

   <li> Along similar lines, Kosh told Sheridan that the Vorlons didn't want
	to attack because "it is not our time."  What did he mean by that?
	What constitutes the Vorlons' time?  Kosh also mentioned that the
	Vorlons were few in number, and were still preparing.  Are their
	preparations simply a matter of boosting their manpower?

   <li> The Vorlons still use conventional jump points rather than the faster
	hyperspace entry and exit technique employed by the Shadows.  Is that
	a conscious decision on their part, or does it imply that the Shadows
	are more technologically advanced in at least some respects?

   <li> Even in his last moments, Kosh still chose to hide behind disguises and
	symbolism, appearing as Sheridan's father rather than himself.  Or
	maybe it's not by choice after all; maybe all he can do is communicate
	with people in terms they already understand, though his recreation of
	the Icarus expedition in
	<a href="038.html">"In the Shadow of Z'ha'dum"</a>
	suggests otherwise.

   <li> How long has Kosh known what was going to happen to him?  He implies
	here that Sheridan will die on Z'ha'dum because he won't have Kosh's
	help ("You said that if I went to Z'ha'dum I would die."  "Yes, now.")
	Did he know why that would be when he first warned Sheridan in
	<a href="038.html">"In the Shadow of Z'ha'dum?"</a>
	Were his lessons for Sheridan, teaching the latter to fight legends,
	meant to provide Sheridan with the confidence to disobey Kosh's wishes
	when the time was right?

   <li> There is something of a thematic link between Kosh's expectation of
	death and the story of Jesus played out by Brother Edward in
	<a href="048.html">"Passing Through Gethsemane."</a>
	Kosh knew what was coming, perhaps knew he <em>could</em> avoid it for
	a little while, but also believed it would be the wrong thing to do.
	So he waited in his quarters to face his executioners.  Of course,
	Edward didn't try to fight his killers off, so the parallel isn't
	exact.

   <li> Kosh's death was instantly known to the Vorlons, which suggests that
	all the Vorlons are linked together in some fundamental way.  Perhaps
	the killing of Kosh, then, was less a blow against him personally than
	a slap in the face of the Vorlons as a whole.

   <li> If Kosh knew what was going to happen, why did he remain in his
	quarters, easily found?  Perhaps he believed that the Shadows would
	go after Delenn or Sheridan in that case, and he considers them more
	valuable than himself.

   <li> Why can't Kosh's replacement continue Sheridan's education and assist
	him at Z'ha'dum as Kosh would have?  Presumably there was nothing
	special about Kosh from the Vorlons' point of view.  Or maybe the
	Vorlons are so few in number that Kosh was the only one among them
	who's able to provide whatever assistance he had in mind.

   <li> This episode was full of power surges and drains: the one noted by
	the C&amp;C tech when Kosh and Sheridan were arguing, the lights
	dimming when Morden confronted Londo, the battle between Kosh and
	the Shadows, and whatever happened when Kosh died.  Perhaps someone
	will put two and two together and have security promptly investigate
	any odd power level changes.

   <li> What is Earth's official reaction now that open hostilities with the
	Shadows have broken out?  Has Sheridan usurped Earth's official
	relationships with all the alien governments he's recruited into his
	alliance?  The Shadows certainly have their fingers in at least some
	aspects of the Earth Alliance, but they don't have total control yet;
	there must be some people in the Earth government advocating taking
	up arms against the Shadows.

</ul>

<h2><a name="NO">Notes</a></h2>

<h2><a name="JS">jms speaks</a></h2>
<ul>

   <li> Script 15 is entitled "Interludes and Examinations," and has a plot
	turn I hadn't seen coming, but which fits perfectly into the arc; I
	think you're going to be stunned.  (I was.)

<p>
   <li> "Just wondering if we would see the First Ones from Sigma 957 this
	season, since there are supposed to be some direct confrontations
	between the Army of Light and the Shadows?"

	<p>
	No.  It isn't their time yet.

<p>
   <li> Let me answer this way...whenever I'm going to unveil something
	on the show, I begin to point to it in upcoming episodes.  I've begun
	pointing to the question of what the shadows want, and why they're
	doing it.  So, logically, I'm now going to have to follow up on
	that....

<p>
   <li> In general, you always know when I'm going to
	start answering a question, because I begin to point at it in episodes;
	I'm now beginning to point to the shadows and ask, "What do THEY want?"

	<p>
	The answer is coming.

<p>
   <li> It wasn't my idea.  It was Kosh's idea.  It was his pulling me that way
	that led to it.  "Trust me," he said.  I followed.

	<p>
	And yeah, it does hurt.  Pat Tallman was devastated at the screening. 
	Even my own crew wouldn't talk to me for a day or so after the script
	came out.

	<p>
	Which is when I knew it was the right thing to do.

<p>
   <li> Yeah, that's <em>[Kosh's death]</em>
	the story turn that surprised even me.  (And, of course,
	I can't wait for the folks who'll say it was over a contract dispute
	with the actor....)

<p>
   <li>@@@831919210 <em>The mentor always dies in heroic sagas.</em><br>
	I think Kosh sort of "hit the wall" when he saw that Sheridan wasn't
	going to go away; I think finally he was ashamed, and recognized his
	fear, and in a sense the air went out of him, and he reconciled himself
	to what had to be.

	<P>
	You're right about the mentor; sooner or later, the mentor has to
	step aside (or fall by the wayside) for the others to grow into the
	hero's journey.  Originally this was slated to happen a bit later...I
	think, on some level, I was reluctant to do it, because to write this
	kind of stuff you have to *feel* it yourself, and I think I was
	avoiding that as much as Kosh was avoiding his fate.  I didn't want
	to go through writing that.  So I kept putting it off.  I knew it
	*had* to be done...but not yet....

	<P>
	And that's when, for lack of a better explanation, Kosh stepped up
	and began to pull me in that direction in the script.  It was time.
	His passing shouldn't be frittered away or minimized; it should
	happen at the right moment, and this was that moment.  It's almost
	impossible to describe this to a non-writer, but the character, this
	fictional construct, was simply determined to have his way, and that
	was the end of it.  I kept trying to dance away in the script, to go
	back into safer waters...but each time was pulled back in this
	direction, until finally I had to admit that yes, this was the right
	time, and the right way, to do this.

	<P>
	And Kosh fell.

	<P>
	But what finally convinced me was the realization that this was not
	only right for now, but right for *later*...though you won't know
	what that means for a while yet.

<p>
   <li> The Kosh stuff, his scene with Sheridan, and his
	passing, is very moving.  I showed it at Marcon this weekend in Ohio,
	and many folks, including Patricia Talman -- who hadn't seen it yet --
	were in tears at that. That, to me, is the moment when you know you've
	done something, when you can make people *feel* something.  Not just a
	plot exercise, but you hit down deep where it hurts, or can make
	someone laugh.  It's all about touching emotion...or what's the point?

<p>
   <li> "JMS, why did you edit out the scene where the Ranger follows Morden and
	ends up being killed by the Shadows?  Don't you think fans of the show
	would rather see that than the scene in the bar where Garibaldi asks for
	info on Franklin's blood from the other doctor?  When you edit the show
	please keep in mind what the fans would what to see.  Rangers and
	Shadows fighting is much more exciting than a unimportant scene that
	could have been left out easily."

	<p>
	Because it was important to set up what Garibaldi wanted, where it was,
	and how he was going to gain access.  It had to show his concern for
	Franklin, the moral ambiguity in asking for this, the betrayal we see on
	Franklin's face, the difficulty in Dr. Hobbs dealing with his request. 
	The ranger scene was a brief piece that was really unconnected to the
	rest of the story, had no setup elsewhere or payoff, was only a brief
	piece of action.  I needed the time to establish the character and plot
	information in the Garibaldi scene.

	<p>
	And when you cite what "the fans" want to see, bear in mind that there
	ain't no such critter.  There's what *you* like, but *you're* not the
	entirety of the fans.  Some fans thought "Avalon" was one of the best of
	the series to date; others thought it was just a character piece and
	wanted more action and arc and called it a "waste."  Some people when
	they read a novel read for the action, then when they come to a few
	pages that establish the look of the forest, or some character
	background, jump ahead a few pages to where the action starts up
	again.  Some do just the opposite.

	<p>
	My obligation, first and foremost, is to the story, and to tell that
	story as best I can.  If I start trying to second guess what *The Fans*
	want, when there is no ready concensus, when there ain't no such
	thing, when different fans want different things, it'll just get
	watered down and wander around lost.  

<p>
   <li> <em>Why don't they keep Morden off the station?</em><br>
	They would do so, but since the fall from Earth, as Susan
	mentioned, they've had to hire guards who may not be above bribes, as
	we saw in the teaser.  And Morden is good at covering his footsteps.

<p>
   <li> The "crystals" were diamonds, he was bribing various people to
	let him in and otherwise do things for him.  And yes, Delenn's holding
	back some information still, and Kosh was outnumbered.

<p>
   <li> <em>About Sheridan's confrontation with Kosh</em><br>
	I don't think Sinclair would've handled that
	scene in the same way; it needed someone who'd go toe to toe with
	something very old and dark and dangerous in his way.  He had to get
	under Kosh's "skin," as it were. Needle and outrage and upset him until
	he got through...whatever the cost.

<p>
   <li> Bruce did a great job in that scene; there's a touch of
	madness in it, which is quite understandable.  As for the Rangers, they
	get a new, added role later this season.

<p>
   <li> <em>Why didn't Kosh leave?</em><br>
	Because I think, on some level, Kosh knew it was inevitable; a
	price had to be paid.  In a way, Lincoln had the same feelings...why
	was he to live when so many had died?  In a way, he knew he wouldn't
	live much longer. Also, it would mean running...and the Vorlons don't
	run.  If he fled, another would pay the price...and that also wouldn't
	be right.

<p>
   <li> He knew a price had to be paid, and if it wasn't him,
	it'd be someone else.  Because he knew there was no getting around it. 
	He's too prideful to run.

	<p>
	Remember Gethsemane....

<p>
   <li> Kosh fought and fought hard.  And he did not go down easily...and one
	might say that yes, he did not go down alone...but not entirely in the
	way you're thinking.

<p>
   <li> <em>Why is Londo still on the station?  Why do they let him stay?</em>
	<br>
	B5 is still a place of considerable commerce, access to lots and
	lots of other races and diplomats...it serves Londo's purposes for now,
	and there are probably lots of Centauri back home who would prefer he
	stay here.  As for the rest...better the devil you know than the devil
	you don't.  At least on B5 they can keep somewhat of an eye on him.

</ul>