People are asking favors of the B5 command staff, both Psi-Cop Bester and potential ally G’Kar. Who will get their wish?
A-Plot: Bester arrives at the station with information, attitude, and an offer to help Our Heroes in the fight against the Shadows. He’s aware of alien forces infiltrating EarthGov and the Psi Corps, and want to put a stop to it. To that end, he knows where a Shadow convoy carrying weapon components can be intercepted.
After much debate, the B5 command staff decide to follow up on his info, and the White Star, along with Bester, intercepts a transport ship escorted by Shadow fighters. They defeat the Shadows, but then a big Shadow ship shows up — then flees.
The cargo vessel, as it turns out, is full of telepaths, “blips,” folk who refused sleeper drugs but also to join the Corps. They appear to have been taken by the Shadows as potential pilots for their vessels — including (coincidentally) the first one awakened, Bester’s lover and (pregnant) mother to his child.
While this plotline is most driven toward learning more about the Shadows and their plotting, it’s also a marvelous opportunity to flesh out Bester as, not just an obnoxious telepath bigot who would just as soon see B5 go down in flames as piss on the fire (though he clearly, delightfully remains that), but also a person with human feelings and a potential ally against the Shadows and the Clark administration. “It’s the only promise I ever made that means a damn to me,” he says about his commitment to protect Caroline, and you believe it, even if it shows a remarkable compartmentalization of his life.
Actually, that’s a point I can’t emphasize enough, to both Joe Straczynski and actor Walter Koenig’s credit: this is not some big redemption, or a “hey, when you peel back this outer layer, you can see I’m really not that bad a guy, so maybe we can be friends.” sort of thing. Bester remains an out-and-out teep bigot, with clear (though often just out of provocation) contempt for the rest of humanity.
BESTER: We’re not expendable; mundanes are.
GARIBALDI: That would be us.
BESTER: Got it in one, Garibaldi.
He believes in his people, their (and especially his) superiority and value over all other humans, and will do whatever he can to make sure they are safe and (as the best step in that direction), in charge. In this episode, he doesn’t become more “human” by giving up that sense of superiority, but by letting us see that you can be a smug, savage bigot, but also be a nice (or at least tragic) person in another context. We saw something similar with Vir and Lyndisty (and Londo) last week; this week emphasizes it for Earthers, too. Villains can be humans, and humans can be villains; it sounds simple, but it’s a truth too often ignored on TV, including too many previous episodes of B5, where the various conspirators, thugs, assassins, investigators, and rabble-rousers from Earth have been mostly one-dimensional maniacs and villains. Bester may be a villain and even maniacal in some ways (though never ranting, and always calculatingly polite or impolite), but he’s not simply one-dimensional in it — and, in a pinch like this, “Your war is now my war” is something Our Heroes can make use of.
(That Bester is also a victim of the Psi Corps setup is worth noting as well: a loveless, arranged marriage, with his true lover in a re-education camp and, then, whisked off in secret by the Shadows; one almost feels sorry for him, especially in his ignorance that the system he’s fighting for is so problematic. Almost.)
I always joke about Morden being the most loved villain on B5, but every time I see a Bester episode, Walter Koenig changes my mind. His self-confidence, simmering anger, hidden humanity, pointed disrespect and “trolling” nature, all wrapped up in one, neat, black-garbed package, lend him both menace and sympathy. Morden is, ultimately, a danger because of who backs him (as we eventually see demonstrated); Bester is a danger because of who he is.
B-Plot: The A-plot takes up most of the show, but there’s an important B-plot as well. G’Kar is once again insisting on being let into the Great Conspiracy, having more than done what he told Sheridan he’d do. Sheridan and Delenn are reluctant, but realize it’s necessary. The main problem is explaining to G’Kar how long they’ve known about the Shadows, and how, basically, the Narn homeworld was left out to dry for the Centauri assault.
When I first watched this, it was an amazingly painful scene, Delenn confessing her sins and asking for G’Kar’s understanding. On rewatch, it’s a much more mixed bag because it’s full of key lies and excuses. She didn’t stay silent when G’Kar reported about the Shadows at Z’ha’dum (in “Revelations“) because of the Grey Council, but because Kosh advised it and they were not yet ready to move. There’s no reason to think that Shadows would have killed everyone on Narn, on their own or at the behest of the Centauri. Delenn is essentially manipulating the truth, again, to make herself marginally guilty but still justified in her actions.
G’Kar, for his part, acknowledges that had he known the truth at the time, he would have killed Delenn, but he’s recently had revelations about saving billions at the cost of millions (“Some must be sacrificed if all are to be saved”). That those “revelations” were, themselves, manipulated by Kosh in “Dust to Dust” should be kept in mind.
Yeah, one wonders if Delenn consulted with Kosh before this particular discussion.
DELENN: You have come a long way, G’Kar — further than I could have guessed. Sheridan’s promise binds me as well as it does him. We will take you into the Council, G’Kar. And some day, when all of this is over, perhaps you will find it in your heart to forgive me.
G’KAR: Perhaps — but not today.
(It struck me, in watching, an interesting contrast to Delenn and G’Kar’s first scene together in her quarters, during the pilot episode. Then he was seeking her support and alliance, now she’s hoping he’ll accept the justice of her cause; then he used his knowledge of her Grey Council membership to manipulate her, now she uses it as an excuse; then she struck him down with fortunately-retconned ring-based tech, now she sheds a tear; then she was in charge, now, for this encounter, he is. Funny world, ennit?)
And they’re just in time for Garibaldi — who, by God, has been sifting through the Book of G’Quon (don’t thump it!) for clues about the Shadows, and who’s figured out a biggie. We’ve already learned that Narn had telepaths once upon a time, but they were wiped out a thousand years ago, apparently during the Shadow occupation of their world. Nobody, apparently, has put two and two together before, but the Book of G’Quon makes it (painfully) clear the wiping out was done by the Shadows — and that G’Quon and the few remaining telepaths then drove the Shadows out.
The Shadows are vulnerable to telepathy. That’s why they fled the White Star — because Bester was on board. That’s why they’re trying to use teeps to pilot their vessels, as a defense against that.
SHERIDAN: We have a weapon. My God, people, we have a weapon.
IVANOVA: I just hope it’s in time, because we’re gonna need it. We just got a report. The Shadows have just started attacking Brakiri space, openly. They’re not hiding any more. They’re finally on the move.
Yikes!
Meanwhile: ISN is back on the air! Yay! It’s full of raw, sunshine-faced propaganda for the Clark administration! Boo!
Overall: “Ship of Tears” doesn’t get all the credit it should in the B5 realm, possibly because the next few eps are so gob-smackingly big. But it marks the end of the “middle” of this season. The adjustments from the Revolution have been finished, B5 has established treaties and gone on a war footing, allies are lined up — and now war has come upon them all.
Despite having a cool White Star, and having learned about telepaths as a possible weapon, it’s not at all clear that the alliance under the Babylon Treaty is at all capable of fighting off the Shadows. That’s an issue that’s going to be dealt with sooner than expected, and with unanticipated results.
Most Dramatic Moment: Delenn and G’Kar have their little talk.
Most Amusing Moment: Garibaldi, out of emphasis, pounds his fist on Narn Scripture. G’Kar winces. “Do not thump the book of G’Quon.” (Runner-up: Bester’s badinage with Ivanova, complete with a slap to the face and a quote from “A Cask of Amontillado.”)
Most Arc-ish Moment: The revelation about the Shadow vulnerability to telepaths. It’s not the most dramatic (and, in context, is immediately superseded by Ivanova’s announcement), but it’s the most noteworthy thing that happens here (beyond G’Kar’s induction and Bester’s alliance, of course).
Overall Rating: 4.0 / 5 — Good characterization, good arciness, good stuff. (Rating History)
NOTE: Is it “G’Quon” or “G’Quan”? The B5 Wiki spells it G’Quan; the Lurker’s Guide generally spells it both ways, but prefering G’Quan. However, the old rastb5 posts there by Joe spell it both ways. Looking it up in the Babylon 5 script book for this episode, Joe spells it G’Quon, so that’s what I’m going to use.
Other Resources for this episode:
Next episode: “Interludes and Examinations,” or perhaps we should call it, “Whatever Happened to Ambassador Kosh?” And everything starts to change again.
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