"Revelations" discussion

[ruuger]

This is the discussion post for the episodes 2X02, "Revelations". Spoilers for the whole of the series, including the spin-offs and tie-ins, are allowed here so newbies beware.

Summary:
Franklin uses the alien healing device to save Garibaldi, G'Kar tries to warn the Council about the Shadows, Delenn emerges from the chrysalis, and Sheridan is forced to face his past.

Extra reading:

The article for "Revelations" at Lurker's Guide.

Comments

[ruuger]

are there non-human doctors on B5?

There was the markab doctor in "Confessions and Lamentations" but I can't remember any others.

[widsidh.livejournal.com]

I'd expect to at leastt eh diplomatic staff having their own medical arrangements. MedLab belongs to Earthforce, apparently open to all, but essentially a human and military facility.
It is what we usually see because we are viewing the story primarily through the eyes of mmbers of the human military (one of whom runs it!).

[vjs2259.livejournal.com]

It is interesting that they didn't pull in other doctors (assuming they are there) when the plague in Confessions.

[4thofeleven.livejournal.com]

Dear god the morphing figures on the season two dvd menu are creeping me out… Seeing Garibaldi suddenly folding in upon himself and shrinking into Bester is just plain disturbing. Anyway…

I have to say, I found this episode a little dull. This sort of arc episodes that are mainly just setting things up for later episodes are always going to struggle to be interesting the second time around, and here… I don’t know, it just seemed a little… laid back for an episode with so much going on. When you’re watching the first time, of course, that’s not an issue, since you’re still recovering from “Chrysalis”, and this is a fun episode to watch with first-time viewers. By myself though, it was a little dull.

So here’s a question – how long do you think has passed since the last episode? Sheridan seems pretty settled in now, and Dr. Franklin refers to acquiring the healing device ‘last year’, which is an odd way to phrase things if we’re still only a few weeks into January of the new year… On the Lurker’s Guide, JMS claims the platform in the teaser is cleaning up debris from the Trigati’s destruction, but it feels to me like this episode has to take place weeks after “Points of Departure”. If nothing else, it must have taken G’Kar a while to return to Narn, outfit an expedition, and investigate multiple rim worlds before returning to B5.

Question: What language is “Z’ha’dum”? Word of JMS is that it’s Minbari, hence the Zha syllable, same as in “Entil’Zha”. But G’kar uses the name too, and presumably would use G’Quan’s name for the world, not the Minbari term. So is Z’ha’dum actually the Shadow’s own name for the world… or was there limited contact between G’Quan and Valen’s Minbari in the last Shadow war?

I’ve mentioned this before, but the early episodes make a big deal about setting up the Psi-Corps as the secret puppet masters of the Earth Alliance. Now, later episodes would indicate that while high-ups in the Corps were allied with Clark, they certainly weren’t running the show. I had considered earlier that this was intentional misdirection, but I’d forgotten how blatant this episode was in hinting that the Psi-Corps were behind everything – hints that don’t really make that much sense in hindsight. So, was there a plot change? Was Bester originally meant to be just a straight-up villain?

Fun stuff – I like the way that the episode does give you all the information you need – that the Icarus was lost out on the rim, that Anna was going to be investigating ruins of a race nobody’s ever heard of – but doesn’t put them together, so a first time viewer could be forgiven for completely failing to make the connection with G’Kar’s story.

Minor notes:

- Seriously though, who the hell names a ship the “Icarus”? Who willingly serves on a ship with that sort of name?

- I always forget just how terrible the second Na’toth was. Real, real shame – takes so much away from the scene in G’kar’s quarters for it not to be the proper Na’toth. It’s weird just how bad the second actress was – she was a perfectly acceptable Klingon on Deep Space Nine...

[ruuger]

According to the chronology book, this episode takes place January 14th, and Sheridan has been on the station for about a week.

[kitoky.livejournal.com]

And didn't Ivanova's voice over mention that it's been a week since President Santiago's assassination?

[4thofeleven.livejournal.com]

"Points of Departure" is explicitly set January 8, so a week after the assassination - "Chrysalis" was set on New Year's Eve. But there's nothing that ties "Revelations" to a specific date... I understand that officially, it's meant to take place soon after "Departure", but it just feels to me like more time has passed between the two than passed between "Chrysalis" and "Departure".

[widsidh.livejournal.com]

Seriously though, who the hell names a ship the “Icarus”? Who willingly serves on a ship with that sort of name?

Someone without the vestiges of a classical education?

You'd think that archaeologists at least still lean that kind of stuff, though...

[vjs2259.livejournal.com]

Perhap the Narn use Minbari space maps, hence the name; or the Minbari name is the only one known on the maps. I imagine there's a lot of overlap; everyone doesn't name everything themselves. The Narn, I believe, were one of the last races into space.

I like the various meanings of Z'ha'dum; the broken future, the end of the future, where the future ends...

[kathrid.livejournal.com]

It's worth pointing out that conspiracy members often require ways of identifying other members in public without giving the game away (at least in fiction they do). This will usually involve specific phrases to be said during introductions, or music to be played/sung/whistled at convenient moments, and sometimes ritual farewells - just in case. If the Psi-Corps is working for Clark's conspiracy then they will use the same signals as conventional agents. Since B5 staff have only encountered two conspirators, the connection is obvious, but misleading (as it is probably meant to be: Psi-Corps makes a good human shield for the real problem, because no-one trusts telepaths).

You can see a similar, albeit more secretive, version of this in Hunter, Prey later this season, when Sheridan sees a pre-arranged signal to meet with an anti-Clark agent and then there is an active confirmation signal when he arrives.

[utah-yoda.livejournal.com]

They say that Bruce Boxleitner had no idea who Sherdan's love interest was going to be, in fact he thought it was going to be Ivanova. Somehow, his reaction to seeing Delenn for the first time is still perfect. I love it. Talking to his sister later, he gets his goofy grin for the first time, the one he gets every time Delenn is around for at least the next two seasons.

[vjs2259.livejournal.com]

I love that grin.

[vjs2259.livejournal.com]

Liked it better this time around, but G'Kar steals the show. *shivers*

[utah-yoda.livejournal.com]

I can't believe that Andreas Katsulas wasn't a better known actor. He was amazing, truly fantastic. I still can't believe how much emotion he can show and how much he can affect an audience wearing that costume and a mask.

[widsidh.livejournal.com]

goes to show that sadly, being good sometimes isn't enough in Hollywood...

I am under the impression that there is a lot of luck involved, and he may well not have been too keen on the star circus himself (?)

[imhilien.livejournal.com]

My two cents...

- Morden is starting to look at home on the station... this is worrying! When Londo jokingly says, 'why don't you blow up the entire Narn homeworld' (sp?), I get the chills when Morden almost reprovingly says one step at a time. (eep!)

- When G'kar has real reason to believe the Shadows are back, he wishes for the main races to join and fight back, even the Centauri, which is kudos for G'kar. Despite hating the Centauri, I think he feels they don't deserve to be wiped out by the Shadows (then again, if there's going to be any wiping out of the Centauri, he might prefer the Narn to be the only ones doing it).

- When Londo has concrete reason to suspect at the end that Morden and his associates are really, really bad news for the whole galaxy, he still lets Morden know of G'kar's plan to scout out Z'ha'Dum. Oh dear... another step towards the dark side.

- It was good that Sheridan was able to find some closure for the death of his wife... of course, I didn't realise at the first viewing that said wifey was going to Z'ha'Dum on her (last) trip.
Eep.

- Sheridan has only been in charge of B5 for a short time, and already he's having to think about dealing with a threat to the whole galaxy. Also too, that President Clark is not on the side of angels, and might not have been for a while. It's like a Dilbert cartoon, only worse...

- As for the New!Delenn appearing... I agree with other posters in that I love Sheridan's first reaction to her. Yes, I'm sappy. ^_^

poor Garibaldi

[utah-yoda.livejournal.com]

Imagine waking up, finding out you were shot by your second, and your CO and good friend left without saying goodbye. Garibaldi really puts up with a lot during the course of the show. I wonder if this was the beginning of the problems between him and Sheridan, however unconscious.