"The Excercise of Vital Powers" discussion

[ruuger]

This is the discussion post for the episode 4X16, "The Excercise of Vital Powers". Spoilers for the whole of the series, including the spin-offs and tie-ins, are allowed here so newbies beware.

Summary:
Garibaldi meets with William Edgars and Franklin asks Lyta's help in communicating with the frozen telepaths.

Extra reading:
The article for "The Excercise of Vital Powers" at The Lurker's Guide.

Comments

[selenak.livejournal.com]

This episode's main claim to fame, if you're a Centauriphile like myself, is that it is the one JMS wrote an entire fake script for to prank the actors, the fake script containing the Londo/G'Kar hook-up. Before rewatching. Tongue not entirely in cheek comment: I wish they'd filmed that one.

More seriously: actually, this episode is better than I remember. The weakness is that I think JMS is going for a Gilda vibe with Edgars, Lise and Garibaldi, and none of the three fits for the roles assigned. But as far as minor villains go, Edgars is actually a good one, plausibly motivated from his pov, and JMS adds a touch that makes the telepath experimenting more, not less chilling, Edgars showing - in his mind - compassion by ordering to "put them down" instead of letting them suffer through the experiments he himself ordered. It's the kind of thing that makes Edgars both more believable and frightening than, say, the xenophobia-ranting what's his name Ivanova used to date in an s1 episode.

Also, the paralleling of this plot with the B5 one where Sheridan comes clean about how he intends to use the frozen telepaths to Franklin is effective. Mind you, I could have done without Franklin's "when he came back from Z'ha'dum, everyone talked about how different Sheridan was, but I couldn't see it, until now" line, because that's retconning within the same season - NOBODY talked about how different Sheridan was, except Garibaldi, which was an important plot point back then. Anyway: Sheridan intending to sacrifice the telepaths for the greater good, Edgars doing and intending to do the same - the emotional difference is that the audience trusts Sheridan, being the hero of the show, to do this really to free Earth and not to grab power for himself, whereas Edgars, being a minor villain within a single season, is more likely to go after power for his own sake. Presumably most of the telepaths who die in either's cause would not care that much about this difference.

Back when we rewatched s1 I thought they basically dropped the "Psi Corps is in bed with Clark and actually pulls Clark's strings" insinuations after ca. the middle of s2, but actually we get a wrap up of that particular subplot here, via Edgars, which is neat, continuity wise, and the retrospective explanation he gives - Clark using telepaths out of paranoia and gives the Corps more and more power - even works with what he doesn't mention - Clark simultanously handing over Psi Corps telepaths to the Shadows as canon fodder. Presumably Clark thought this way they'd cancel each other out and be both useful to him.

Rare blood disease: only relevant if you've read the novels, specifically the Psi Corps trilogy, but I thought, ah, that's where Greg Reyes got this plot point from.

[4thofeleven.livejournal.com]

Of course, amusingly, the reclusive Edgars seems pretty unlikely to try and seize power publically, while Sheridan... does not exactly fade from public life after liberating Earth.

[alexcat.livejournal.com]

I could never buy that Lise Hampton loved Edgars. What utter crap. She might have loved his money and the security it gave her and her kid but him, nah, just don't see it. He's such a braggart and a cold fish... what's to love?

This was probably one of my least favorite episodes, period.

[kungfuwaynewho.livejournal.com]

I hated Lise and Edgars. This was a tough string of episodes to get through; I may or may not have occasionally fast-forwarded some of these Mars scenes.

[4thofeleven.livejournal.com]

You know, I mentioned this before, but if Lise had actually been portrayed as marrying Edgars for the money, I’d have probably liked her a lot more – at least she’d have shown some initiative at some point in her life. As it is – she’s like a giant void in the plot. There’s meant to be tension between her and Garibaldi, there’s meant to be issues between Garibaldi and Edgars over her, but since she’s got no discernable personality and never does anything, it never quite works the way it’s meant to.

I don’t know, maybe the whole Garibaldi storyline is meant to be a bit emotionally flat to reflect his state of mind – if so, it doesn’t quite work.

Incidentally, what was the point of concealing Edgars’ face up until now? It kind of stretches credibility that such a powerful man would have no public presence whatsoever, and Edgars never really gives the impression of being a Howard Huges-esque recluse.

I do like that Sheridan and Edgars don’t just mirror each other in their willingness to sacrifice telepaths for the ‘greater good’ – they also both like to ramble on about orange juice.

Noticing again just how out of the information loop Lyta is – she was apparently unaware of the cryo-telepaths, or that they were recovered from the Shadows.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

There’s meant to be tension between her and Garibaldi, there’s meant to be issues between Garibaldi and Edgars over her, but since she’s got no discernable personality and never does anything, it never quite works the way it’s meant to.

That's what I meant with the "I think JMS is intending a Gilda homage here, but it so doesn't work" comment. For a Gilda triangle, you need a vibrant female character. Homoerotic tension between the two men doesn't hurt, either, but is optional. :)

Concealing Edgars' face: I wonder whether we were meant to wonder whether he was really either Clark himself or Bester before the reveal?

I do like that Sheridan and Edgars don’t just mirror each other in their willingness to sacrifice telepaths for the ‘greater good’ – they also both like to ramble on about orange juice.

True.:) Soulmates, I tell you.

[nhpw.livejournal.com]

I wasn't a fan of the Lise/Edgars storyline, but I will cut JMS some slack. At some point mid-season 4, he was being told "OK, wrap everything up in a bow, this is it, for real." And he probably had some, "Oh shit" moments - I don't care what he says. There had to have been at least a little scrambling and panic behind the scenes. And then he probably sat down and said, "Here is where I want each character to end up, and now instead of 1.5 seasons, I now have half a season to get them there" - and it made it easier to tie out Garibaldi's storyline if he could bring Lise back into the picture without changing very much of what he already had planned. And a lightbulb went on and he said "Oh! She could totally be married to that Edgars guy, and then I'll just off him like I was already planning to." And then we're back to - JMS is a smidge weird and awkward about writing romance, he should've gotten a female's POV sometimes.

I do have a problem with Franklin's little "I can't believe Sheridan's doing this" monologue. It's OK in and of itself, but then it goes NOWHERE. Franklin has this little epiphany - "Dear God, this is a really cold and horrible thing to do" - and then he just does it anyway. We kind of see, down the road ("Rising Star" in the conversation with Bester), Sheridan expressing some regrets about what he did, but Franklin never really does. He's a doctor. I'd think of all people, he'd deal with some demons over his role in the telepath plot.

All in all not a terrible episode, but not one of my favorites either. Plus we all know what it leads into, so it gets kind of hard to watch around this point.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

I do have a problem with Franklin's little "I can't believe Sheridan's doing this" monologue. It's OK in and of itself, but then it goes NOWHERE. Franklin has this little epiphany - "Dear God, this is a really cold and horrible thing to do" - and then he just does it anyway. We kind of see, down the road ("Rising Star" in the conversation with Bester), Sheridan expressing some regrets about what he did, but Franklin never really does. He's a doctor. I'd think of all people, he'd deal with some demons over his role in the telepath plot.

Great point. I think it would have spiced up the telepath plotline in the first half of s5 considerably if Byron & Co. (or preferably other telepaths, but let's stick with what we have) would have turned against Sheridan after finding out what he did, and if Franklin instead of having a random episode about a genocide involving two alien races nobody heard of before or after would confront his own involvement instead. This is the same man who refused to hand over his data on the Minbari in a war where the Minbari nearly wiped out Earth because he took his Hippocratic Oath that seriously, after all.

[kathrid.livejournal.com]

One of the few things I think the series really misses is a proper view of the inner workings of the Clark regime. In this and the next few episodes we get a brief glimpse of various players, but nowhere near enough to get a coherent view, which is a shame.

At Z'ha'dum Sheridan is told that the Shadows think humans have great promise. This may well be a lie, the same tale told to all the worlds the Shadows have corrupted, but it could easily be true. After all, one reason humans can build communities out of very different peoples is because we've done it internally. Our internal differences are so strong we've had to build the government around them (ie. democratise it), not impose rules from the top. Not many of the other races seem to have done this.

The Shadows could easily see this as a strength; that we continue to challange ourselves as well as the other races. All they need to do is make this internal and external conflict more dangerous and they get their ideal image of how a race improves itself.

In these few episodes we can see that the Clark regime is hardly the united face it likes to present through ISN. It's a pit of vipers all struggling to gain power through intrigue, spying, betrayal and assassination. Although Bester and the Corps are on the brink of a major victory, we can see how close they came to total defeat. More time to play this through, and maybe examine other factions in EarthGov would have been great and shown just why the Shadows thought so highly of Clark's government as to help him acquire working Shadowtech (do you really think they got hold of it without the Shadows knowing?).