2018-06-11

alexcat: (excalibur)
[personal profile] alexcat2018-06-11 09:29 am

Recap and Discussion for Crusade Episode 9 - The Path of Sorrows

Recap and discussion of Crusade episode 9 – The Path of Sorrows

The episode in which we learn some background.

At Galen’s urging, they go to a place called the Path of Sorrow. Neither Max nor Dureena could figure out how to get in. Max said it had the same message in 40 languages: “Enter freely through the path of sorrows.”

He makes Dureena cry and uses her tear to open the door. Even though she gets angry, Galen tells her needed an authentic tear.

They find a glass ball with whirling ‘smoke’ inside. When Gideon steps close, he sees the alien that looks a little like a turtle and a vision of his former ship, the Cerberus with some damage and him outside in an EVA suit.
09_alien

They take the orb back to the ship for further study.

And we find out the backstory for 3 of our characters – there are more questions than answers, it would seem.

Gideon goes to visit the orb and he talks to it and it speaks to him telepathically. We see him on the Cerberus and they are taking fire. There is damage and ensign Gideon is sent outside to survey the damage and repair it. We see a shadow type ship come back and begin firing on the ship. The captain prepares to jump and leave Gideon but the shadow ships destroys it. Gideon sends out a distress signal and a fleet of tiny ships comes by and ignores him until on finally comes back and gets him. It is Galen.

Galen drops him off at an Earth base and we see him being interrogated. They pretend they do believe him and tell him the ship had a malfunction and blew up.

Next, Gideon is playing poker and he wins the Apocalypse Box, a box that’s owner says tells you things but it also lies when it suits it. The man who lost the box then goes outside and steps in front of a speeder. As he dies, he tells Gideon that the only way to get away from the box is to die.
09_box09_shadow

Gideon is very emotional and asks the being if it intends to blackmail him. The little alien tells him he is forgiven.

John goes to see the orb and we see young Psi Corp officer Matheson given charge of giving sleepers to a resistance woman while his superiors are at a big meeting with the top members of Psi Corps. We learn that the war is nearly over and the resistance nearly beaten. When he goes into her, she tells him that he’s been lied to and that all the resistance fighters who have been sent to prison are really dead.
09_Resistance

Later that night, John starts checking them out and finds they were all terminated. When he goes in to give her sleepers, he shoots the liquid on her and no in her. She turns on a beacon for her people to bomb the secret Psi Corp facility with many important Psi Corps members there. John escapes.

He tells the alien that he feels guilty for what he did and the alien forgives him.

Galen comes in and he sees him and a wounded Isabelle. We learn that they were betrayed by three other technomages. She tells him he must go on and that she does believe in a plan. She tells him that she will contact him somehow someday and say his name.
09_isabelle

Galen becomes furious and tries to kill the creature when it offers forgiveness. Gideon stops him and decides to send the being back to the planet. He says another traveler might need it as they had. He and John talk and both of them say they have had the first good night’s sleep since the alien offered them forgiveness.

As soon as they leave the alien, another ship comes in and an alien goes in to see the being.

John stops Galen and tells him a message came in for him from somewhere unknown. It had two words… Galen and Love. Galen discounts it and throws it away.

*

Quotes:
Matheson: You like going nowhere at 120 miles an hour?
Galen: Of course. That is man's natural condition.

Gideon: It's easier not to want forgiveness or to expect it. You just keep trying to fix the mistake so you don't have to ask. But you end up trying so hard to atone for one set of mistakes, you overcompensate and make new ones and then you can never break out of the cycle. You just keep going round and round. No way out. Nowhere to go.

Isabelle: Listen to me, Galen, my dearest love... You must learn one day to forgive God for his decisions. I'm sure it would greatly relieve him. If there is a purpose, if there is a design, if there is a way - after I'm gone I will call to you and say your name and send you a message. And you will know I was right, as usual. Kiss me good night.

*

Questions:
1. Was the alien really offering forgiveness or did it live off of guilt and pain? To the person forgiven, does it matter?
2. Did Isabelle send the message?
3. Was the Shadow ship an Earth ship?

Sources:
IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0551025/quotes/?tab=qt&ref_=tt_trv_qu
Lurker’s Guide to Babylon 5: http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/countries/us/guide/504.html
The Babylon Project: http://babylon5.wikia.com/wiki/The_Path_of_Sorrows
Wikiquote: https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Crusade_(TV_series)#The_Path_of_Sorrows
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crusade_(TV_series)
Sadgeezers Cult Scifi Portal: http://sadgeezer.com/Crusade-Season-1-09-The-Path-Sorrows.htm
Cap That: http://www.cap-that.com/
alexcat: (excalibur)
[personal profile] alexcat2018-06-11 10:23 am

Recap and discussion for Crusade episode 10 - Ruling From the Tomb

Recap and discussion for Crusade Episode 10 – Ruling from the Tomb

The Excalibur goes to Mars to a conference on the Plague in which Sarah Chambers is the keynote speaker. Dr. Franklin set this up. Lochley is there to head security but is arguing with Lt Carr, the head of Martian security. Gideon jumps in the middle and as she is assuring Gideon that everything is under control, a man is being murdered.
10_gidloch10_marsdome

Trace Miller is piloting a shuttle with Max and Dureena down to the planet – Max is from Mars. Both men ask to escort Dureena.

While Gideon and Lochley are verbally sparring, Carr calls and reports the murder.

Sarah arrives on mars and meets a nice man named Dr. Lebecque. He speaks to her of faith. She tells him she will put her faith in science to find a cure for the plague. Carr comes for Sarah and takes her to Gideon.
1-_Lebecque

The dead man has the mark of a doomsday cult, Sacred Omega, carved into his body.
10_sacrdomega
Gideon says they’ve sprung up all over since the Drakh Plague was dropped. They take the dead man, Henderson, up to the ship for an autopsy. Trace recognizes him. He says he once worked for the Foundation Church and that Henderson was a healer, both a faith healer and a real doctor. Trace said he almost became a priest but he had a falling out with God. Lochley wants to know more but Trace says it doesn’t have anything to do with the case and Gideon makes her back off.

Lebecque is praying, asking if the butchery was needed and a woman’s voice talks to him. He refers to the voice is Jeanne.

Max runs into Dureena and he gets his wallet lifted. They chase the guy and Dureena has to rescue him. They go to a bar and Max gets into a tiff with another guy.

Lochley is pissed that Gideon wouldn’t let her question Trace further. Gideon says they should look into
Sacred Omega.

Lebecque is praying to Jeanne again.

Gideon asks Lochley to dinner and she says he can come to her quarters.

Max is buying drinks for the man he was arguing with and Trace tries to pick Dureena up. Max and Trace drink.

Lochley has lo mien and Gideon says she’s his new hero… she asks who was his former hero- John Sheridan. She finally tells him she was married to Sheridan.

Lebecque says the bomb they have will destroy the conference center and a mile around it. He says he is afraid of martyrdom and Jeanne tells him he must press on.

Trace gets very drunk and while Max is dancing with Dureena, he leaves and is attacked by the same man who killed Henderson. DNA says it’s the same guy.
10_Dance

Lebecque sets the timer on the bomb.
10_bomb

Max points out to them that Henderson’s killing and Trace’s attack were related so they have Tracew look at photos of the conference goers and he picks out someone else he knows. He says he was a good man and wouldn’t hurt anyone. It is Lebecque though that is an alias.

Gideon has a plan and takes the stage. He tells everyone they only have months and should go home. Jeanne tells Lebecque to let them go.

Security catches them and Gideon shoots Lebecque.

He says Jeanne d’Arc tells him what to do.

Lochley kind of invites Gideon to b5.

Max, Trace Dureena and Sarah are talking about it and Sarah says his juurnal had the words of joan of Arc in it. Max mentions Jesus coming to make peace and men fighting wars over him evewr since.

*

Quotes:
Lochley: Do you believe that there is a supreme being?
Gideon: Aside from John Sheridan?
Gideon: Captain, I have five years to cure the Drakh plague. Do I believe in God? I'll get back to you on that in five years and one day.

Max Eilerson: One man's lunatic is another man's saint or holy martyr. In the words of T.S. Eliot, "Saint and martyr rule from the tomb."

*

Questions:
1. Was Lochley there as a plot device to give Gideon a girlfriend?
2. Why weren’t the attendees vetted more carefully? (This was pre 9/11)
3. Is it possible that whatever drove Trace from the church radicalized Lebecque into becoming a doomsdayer?
4. What did you think of Max and Trace’s ‘testosterone fest’?

*

Sources:
Lurker’s Guide to Babylon 5: http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/countries/us/guide/506.html
IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0551021/quotes/?tab=qt&ref_=tt_trv_qu
Wikiquote: https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Crusade_(TV_series)#The_Path_of_Sorrows
Cap-That: http://www.cap-that.com/b5/crusade/106/