{"id":51215,"date":"2015-05-21T13:43:49","date_gmt":"2015-05-21T19:43:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/?p=51215"},"modified":"2015-05-21T13:50:23","modified_gmt":"2015-05-21T19:50:23","slug":"b5-rewatch-4x10-racing-mars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/05\/21\/b5-rewatch-4x10-racing-mars.html","title":{"rendered":"B5 Rewatch: 4\u00d710 “Racing Mars”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Life’s been busy. Really busy. And with so much very good genre TV on these days, it’s take a while to start getting back to the B5 Rewatch … but here we go!<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Garibaldi<\/a>
Garibaldi meets some new friends who share his concerns over Sheridan.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With this episode, the B5\u00a0begins opening up a new front, both in terms of the story and in terms of the setting of the series. The title stays the same, but the tableau definitely grows in size. The only problem is that there’s not a lot of\u00a0there<\/em> there — the episode trundles along without any big reveals or even much of a story. Just like Franklin and Marcus, we travel from points A to B, with just a few moments to amuse us along the way.<\/p>\n

A-Plot<\/strong>: Marcus and Franklin continue “on the Road to Mars,” though not without first making unxpected\u00a0contact with Captain Jack (no, not that<\/em> Captain Jack<\/a>) (nor\u00a0that\u00a0<\/em>Captain Jack<\/a>), their entre to the Mars Underground. They learn that the Mars Colony knows next to nothing about B5 since the news embargo and EarthGov propaganda started, and haven’t heard anything about the Shadow War.<\/p>\n

The Underground are not sanguine about accepting Marcus and Franklin at face value, especially with rumors of assassination squads being sent in “from the outer sectors.” Things go from bad to worse when their DNA doesn’t match up the way it’s supposed to. Things get weird when Captain Jack tries to assassinate the Underground leader, “Number One,” only to be foiled by Franklin; a shot by Marcus hits some sort of weird alien thingie that was on Jack’s back, but Jack flees.<\/p>\n

Examining the critter (which appears to be one of the\u00a0Keepers we’ve seen on Centauri Prime), Franklin determines that it might have been controlling Jack, and realizes that Jack’s been hinting at stuff in his conversation with them. They contact him by communicator, but after he explains that he was being controlled, the creature is still embedded with him and will take him over again. He suicides with a thermal grenade on the transport tube just as it starts to regrow.<\/p>\n

Franklin ends up going on a date with Number One as they await the other Underground leaders gathering in a few days.<\/p>\n

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B-Plot<\/strong>: Ivanova stages a small coup to kick Sheridan out of his office and get him to take some PTO. Sheridan, at loose ends, finds that pretty much all the TV channels from home are embargoed except for that defaming\u00a0interview that Garibaldi give a few eps ago (“The Illusion of Truth<\/a>“). He tracks Garibaldi down and they end up in a confrontation, between Sheridan’s self-righteousness and Garibaldi’s paranoia. Sheridan sees the former Security Chief’s actions as undermining their cause, while Garibaldi sees Sheridan having abandoned the cause to build a cult of personality around himself. Sheridan storms off, to the apparent interest of three shadowy individuals.<\/p>\n

Those three engage with Garibaldi later on, presenting themselves as others who are concerned about Sheridan as he is. Garibaldi’s no fink, but they are persuasive in convincing him that Sheridan really is a threat to the people and values Garibaldi holds dear.<\/p>\n

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Sheridan tries to reconcile later with Garibaldi, but when an alien throws herself at Sheridan’s feet, Garibaldi gets rough with her, and, in the ensuing confrontation, whallops Sheridan in the jaw. Sheridan stops Security from arresting him, but warns Garibaldi that next time he’ll fight back.<\/p>\n

Garibaldi goes back to the folk who talked with him earlier, convinced that Sheridan has lost it — that he has to be stopped for his own good.<\/p>\n

GARIBALDI: I think he’s lost it.\u00a0He’s started to believe the things everybody’s been saying about him, bought\u00a0into this hero worship thing. It’s become about him, not what we’ve been saying, not what we’ve been fighting for. If he could see straight, he’d see it to, he’d agree with me. In the end, we’ll\u00a0lose everything we’ve been working for because of one man.<\/p>\n

WADE: That’s what happens when the man begins to matter more than the cause. Are you with us?<\/p>\n

GARIBALDI: I won’t hurt him.<\/p>\n

WADE: We won’t. Just\u00a0give him to us, when we tell you to. We’ll see to it that he gets the help that he needs. Are you with us?<\/p>\n

GARIBALDI: [After a moment]<\/em> I’m with you.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Meanwhile<\/strong>: Ivanova addresses the problems of supply shortages by suborning black marketeers and smugglers, using both carrots and sticks. Rather than smuggling weapons and drugs, B5 will pay to have them smuggle in machine parts, food, and other needed supplies (but no drugs, weapons, or other naughty things). In return, B5 will\u00a0keep them maintained and in operating order — and overlook any past\u00a0illegal activities.<\/p>\n

IVANOVA: We’ll upgrade your data systems and supercharge your engines. If they have an accident, we’ll repair them. And your ships will have accidents sooner or later.<\/p>\n

SMUGGLER #1: My pilots don’t have accidents.<\/p>\n

IVANOVA: They will. I’ll see to it.<\/p>\n

SMUGGLER #1: You wouldn’t dare.<\/p>\n

IVANOVA: I’ve got a 200 megawatt pulse cannon on the forward cargo bay that says otherwise. Suffice it to say that the odds of you having such an accident are greatly reduced once you sign with us.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Delenn springs another courtship ritual on Sheridan, who’s just about ritualled out — until he learns it’s about discovering their sexual compatibility. He shows up at her quarters later — only to discover that this particular ritual is witnesses \/ chaperones. Outside the door of her bedroom, at least.<\/p>\n