{"id":44849,"date":"2014-09-03T08:26:21","date_gmt":"2014-09-03T14:26:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/?p=44849"},"modified":"2014-09-07T14:10:13","modified_gmt":"2014-09-07T20:10:13","slug":"b5-rewatch-3x22-zhadum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/09\/03\/b5-rewatch-3x22-zhadum.html","title":{"rendered":"B5 Rewatch: 3×22 “Z’Ha’Dum”"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Tick.<\/a>
Tick. Tock.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It’s the final episode of the season! And, damn, a great way to wrap things up in a huge cliff-hanger to get people to eagerly await Season 4!<\/p>\n

(The irony being that (a) there was a very real probability there would be no S.4 when the episode was filmed, and (b) the episode was held to be run the week before S.4 began. Sigh.)<\/p>\n

A-Plot<\/strong>: Really, that’s almost all of it.<\/p>\n

\"Sheridan<\/a>
Sheridan spends the first third of the episode with this gobsmacked expression on his face.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Anna Sheridan is back, as we saw in the last minute of “Shadow Dancing<\/a>.”And after a flustered Delenn exits, stage left, Anna\u00a0and John have a long talk —\u00a0and Sheridan’s hobby of “collecting secrets” meshes very neatly with Anna’s promise to tell him the full truth behind everything that’s going on … if he just comes with her to Z’Ha’Dum.<\/p>\n

The episode is pretty remarkable in terms of giving the Other Side — the Shadows — an even break in justifying their position. Everything in the ep, at least on the surface, conceivably works to balance against three seasons of pro-Vorlon cheerleading (led by the Minbari). \u00a0We all know Delenn’s been deceiving people and managing information right and left — by her own confession, here, she kept the possibility of Anna being alive away from Sheridan so that he didn’t halloo off to Z’Ha’Dum and, as prophesied, die. \u00a0The Vorlons have obviously been managing things, in terms of only selectively revealing\u00a0their true guises (guises that are deeply manipulative), influencing the Younger Races, keeping secrets, stealing people for their purposes …<\/p>\n

\"Justin,<\/a>
Justin, Morden, and Anna: The Shadow Trio.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Anna eventually “convinces” John to travel to Z’Ha’Dum, where he meets (alongside Anna and Mr. Morden) Justin, “the middle-man,” a leading human rep for the Shadows. And then the three of them make the pitch to Sheridan.<\/p>\n

A million years ago, the first wave of intelligent races were wandering the galaxy and beginning to head out “beyond the Rim” into the broader universe. Two races stayed behind — the Vorlons and the “Shadows” — to “shepherd” the races that were beginning to develop. The Vorlons were order-focused, Lawful, establishing rules, guidelines, directives, covertly and overtly influencing the races in their charge, even down to a genetic level (including fostering telepathy amongst Humans). The Shadows, in contrast, were conflict-focused, Chaotic, forcing natural selection (genetically, socially, technologically) between the galactic races through warfare and other conflict; only the strong survive, but those who survive are stronger.<\/p>\n

\"Justin,<\/a>
Justin, Anna, and Morden — they make a pretty good case, except for being terminally creepy.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

JUSTIN: It\u2019s really simple. You bring two sides together, they fight. A lot of them die. But those who survive are stronger. Smarter. And better.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This dichotomy has led to a Long Game war between the Vorlons and Shadows, the last flare-up being\u00a0a thousand years ago. In the present cycle, Sheridan is the pivot point, the “nexus,” around whom the conflict will rotate. The Vorlons have teed him up to build cooperation between the races, a guided and controlled peace. The Shadows want him to give that up and fight on behalf of humanity \u00fcber alles<\/em>, promoting the development of his own race over the others. (And, if he doesn’t, they’re ready to take out his support network, starting with all those Shadow vessels that appear around B5 …)<\/p>\n

The Shadow’s ideas are all deceptively attractive (just ask Ayn Rand), and even if you don’t buy their position (or means they use to their end) it certainly makes the Vorlon “Father Knows Best” stance quite a bit more questionable as well. And given Sheridan’s sense of betrayal regarding the information Delenn withheld from him, one could even see it being persuasive.<\/p>\n