An old friend returns to the show, we learn a bit more about the Minbari religion, and we’re asked to consider when justice ends and revenge begins. Welcome my friends. This is the story of the last of the Babylon stations. The year is 2260. The name of the place is Babylon 5.
Spoilers ahead.
1. From Vorlon Space
Lyta Alexander is back, and it looks like she’s here to stay this time, though perhaps not in a major capacity as she’s not in the title credits. For those just joining the series. . .well, you’re probably very confused but Lyta Alexander was the telepath from the pilot episode who was replaced by the character Talia Winters, who left in last season’s “Divided Loyalties”. After that episode, Lyta disappeared to follow her dreams into Vorlon space. She’s back after having been to the Vorlons’ home planet which is NUTS.
As the episode makes very clear, no one and nothing, save for Ambassador Kosh and other Vorlons we’ve never seen, comes back from Vorlon space, let alone the home planet. Yet here she is and, what’s more, she’s been miraculously healed from not only her ordeal getting to the home planet but also all previous injuries and congenital problems. That’s big. The weirdness doesn’t stop there but I’ve summarized enough.
Let’s talk Lyta.
I was harsh on Lyta’s character in “Divided Loyalties”, again, through no fault of the actress, which makes my impression of her in “Passing Through Gethsemane” a wonder. I had no problems with Lyta and even found myself engrossed in the mysteries surrounding her. She no longer felt out of place or constantly like she was going to bolt into rabbit hole. It’s clear JMS has a better grasp on how to use the character and the actress is a bit more comfortable in the role.
Also, the manifestation of her personality and stress is different because of story reasons so. . .there’s that.
Moreover, she gets a bunch of great scenes throughout the episode. My favorite has to be the one where Londo corners her after getting off an elevator and she delivers that chilling line about nightmares.
I’ve still got goosebumps.
2. Kosh by Encounter Suit Light
I’m reserving an entire thought for that final scene of the episode because, uh, what the fuck was that? I know the point was to be a WTF moment and to establish just how weird Lyta’s relationship with the Vorlons is but I am afeared. I have a lot of ideas about what could be possibly going on but the important bit of knowledge this gives us is 1) there’s something special about the Vorlons beyond them looking like whatever angelic being each culture believes in and 2) Lyta being around as the diplomatic attache that the Vorlons never had is more complicated than it at first seems.
My initial thought on this light vomiting was that Lyta is being infused with Vorlon energy, which is the same stuff that powers the ships and what not. But then as I thought more about it, I wonder if this is actually how the Vorlon’s communicate telepathically. Like, is this how Lyta is informing Kosh of the goings-on on the ship? I dunno. Whatever the case is, it’s pretty strange and I know we’re not getting an answer anytime soon. Oh, and she has gills in this scene????
3. Brother: Theo
I hoped that we would see the monks again but I didn’t expect it to be so soon or for them to feature in the A-plot. I’m glad they do, however, because we get to see a different side of Babylon 5 as well as learning more about aspects of the Minbari we’d never really get with the other characters. None of the CNC members have a reason to get into religious conversations with Lennier or Delenn and I sincerely doubt they sit around playing chess against each other. It also helps make the ship feel lived in and expansive rather than reductive.
I’ve touched on this a lot and I think many modern shows could take a note from Babylon 5 in how it builds its world and makes sure that incidental characters leave an impression such that, when they reappear, we are excited and don’t go, “Wait. Who are you again?” It’s like David Corwyn, the technician who works with Ivanovna in CNC. In “Divided Loyalties,” he’s got a more major role than usual but it’s still fairly minor, just conversing with Ivanova and Sheridan. However, he’s always in the background of those scenes and that builds a presence that makes it feel like a real-ass command center rather than a set.
Continued belowBrother Theo got a larger introductory role, sure, but he’s still not an “important” character and it would be easy to let him disappear. But he doesn’t and his reappearance carries weight and significance. Also, is the actor Hungarian? Because he reminds me of my former Rabbi, of blessed memory.
4. Phantom Personality
I’m really interested to see an in-universe discussion about the Death of Personality as punishment. It was brought up at the start of the episode and I figured that was going to be the central question, but really it was just to give the background for when Brother Edward starts to have the mental blocks broken. But I’m really curious to know what characters think about it! We’ve been shown why the Psy-Corps is not to be trusted due to, you know, being a fascistic extra-legal organization and this being pushed by them as more humane gets me questioning whether or not that is strictly true or if it’s the same “more humane” argument as current lethal injection methods.
Sure, it’s more humane in that they’re not screaming but they’re paralyzed and sedated first. We don’t know shit about whether or not they’re actually suffering. Now, one might argue that doesn’t matter but that’s a different conversation, one that Garibaldi would gladly have with me. In fact, the conversation he starts is just as interesting and plays into the theme of the episode: what is justice and what is the purpose of punishment?
Because, for Garibaldi, punishment is justice. Whether that’s eye for an eye, which Delenn sounds rejects, or something more lenient that retains the flagellatory aspects, to find justice is to punish. But the Death of Personality, in the ideal conception, is a form of justice as construction. To transform the offender into a force for positivity and rebuilding. Of course, there are more ideas that sit between and beyond these two but within the episode, these are the two represented and questioned.
Well, there is one more idea at play.
5. Doom Patrols
Forgiveness is a tricky thing. It cannot be demanded or expected, because if it is, then it is usually unearned. Forgiveness is an inherently selfish action because to forgive is an act of release on the forgiver’s part. It lightens the weight on their shoulders rather than on the one being forgiven. Yet, it is also a selfless action, because forgiving someone for their mistakes, for the harm they have caused, for the pain and horrors they have wrought, it can be a balm on a guilty conscience.
It is a difficult thing to forgive, when the crime is so great and the harm so terrible that nothing but death and blood feels right.
“Passing Through Gethsemane” is a very Christian episode. I say this partly because Brother Edwards literally is a Christian monk and the title comes from a story about Jesus but also because forgiveness is approached through this light as well. Sin can always be forgiven in the eyes of God but what does that mean, that God forgives? Does that mean that forgiveness is what is needed for absolution? Jesus forgives his captors, his executioners. Is this the noble and correct end?
I don’t know if I agree with that. For me, as a Jewish person, forgiveness is not the end result but a step along the path of T’shuvah. To ask for forgiveness is to say that one has done the work to right a wrong and to change such that the wrong is never done by them again and is asking the person they have wronged to bear witness to this change. It can still be rejected and even if forgiveness is given, that does not mean that a relationship is repaired. A cut rope can be cauterized so that it does not fray any more but it is no longer connectable. And sometimes, that forgiveness can never be asked of the one that was wronged, for to do so would cause more damage.
That is not the question at play here. Here, there is the interplay of destructive revenge and how grief can twist a person into becoming the one they railed against. How by believing that Edward got off “easy” and then dredging up the former memories in order to kill him, they robbed the world not of an unrepentant killer but of a changed man doing real good, destroying the same potential he did. It’s also why Garibaldi talked about the death penalty early on.
Continued belowI understand that this episode is not a perfect analogy to real change in people, as Edward was literally reprogrammed to be good and selfless, but the underlying idea is strong and should be considered by anyone with a binary view of what “criminality” is. For when you kill one person, it is as if you are killing the whole world and when you save one person, it is as if you have save it.
That about does it for now. Join me again in a week for political advisors, the Draal and potentially some more details on the age of the Shadow War on the station that, in the year of the Shadow War, became something greater.
This is Elias. Signing out.
Best Line of the Night:
Londo: “Lyta Alexander, as I live and breathe.”
Lyta: “I suggest you remove you hand, Ambassador, or you won’t be doing either for much longer.”
