Group Watch: Confessions and Lamentations

[SmileOfTheShadow]

Alright...Markab got a nasty illness, everyone's dying. Tragic, but the Markab haven't had too much of a presence other than some background stuff in the show before this, so it's hard to feel too deeply for them. Interesting thought about the plague that wipes everyone out though...related to the Drakh?

Delenn and Sheridan share a traditional Minbari meal together. Cute and funny moments with all the meditation and ritual with our Captain. '

Franklin's dabblin' in some drugs.

Keffer subplot. Yawn.

I'm not sure what to dicuss with this episode because I honestly got up and started cleaning up around the house while watching it. Didn't really grip me. At the end there are some nice Sheridan/Delenn moments and tension's really starting to mount between the two. Very nicely built up relationship that doesn't feel forced or happen overnight or take way too long to develop and never resolve between two leads like a lot of other shows out there.

[Jan]

I was fond of Dr. Lazarenn and sorry to see him die.

One thing really struck me the last time I watched this one. Delenn's touch to Sheridan's face when she tells him that she'll see him in a place where no shadows fall is a mirror of Sheridan's touch to Delenn's face in Sleeping in Light.

Jan

[SmileOfTheShadow]

I was fond of Dr. Lazarenn and sorry to see him die.

One thing really struck me the last time I watched this one. Delenn's touch to Sheridan's face when she tells him that she'll see him in a place where no shadows fall is a mirror of Sheridan's touch to Delenn's face in Sleeping in Light.

Jan

Ooh, thanks, I may have missed that one because I haven't watched Sleeping In Light in a long time (because it makes me cry dammit!). Do you think that one's intentional?

[Babylon5fan07]

I also liked Dr. Lazarenn. For me this episode was important due to the fact it doesn't matter whether your a Markab or Human..seeing any race completely be wiped out because of a disease is absolutely horrible. The fact that JMS put on an episode that was parallel to our own near demise when we had the black plague. If we didn't stop the black plague from spreading and stopped it when we did none of us may not be speaking about or Babylon 5 would ever be created. I think this episode shows us that we have to be careful and be grateful for what we have because one small disease can easily grow to a point of becoming something more serious. Unless anyone has Native American backgrounds..vast majority of us have originally come from Europe and/or United Kingdom somewhere. Just thinking about how the black plague nearly killed every last person on Europe just scares the heck out of me and that's why I completely am sad about this episode.

Oviously at the end of the episode seeing just Delenn and Lenier walking out alone without one single Markab especially the little girl just completely saddens me. And of course Delenn and Sheridan relationship here more than any episode really starts to take off. And of course little by little more and more each episode throughout the next season or so.

Franklin on Stims also very pivotal for upcoming episodes.

That's about it for me on this episode.

Alex

[Macbeth]

As one of the "old" timers who watched very episode first run and who grew up on shall we say formulaic sci-fi and television (I was >30 when B5 premiered. I watched all of Galactica 1980 and I still have the scars) This was another of the ground breaking episodes that B5 was delivering.

An entire race is threatened with extinction *yawn*. The valiant doctor races against time to come up with a cure *yawn*. The little girl Markab is reunited with her mother *yawn*. The other doctor, (the Markab "humanized" for our benefit) sacrifices himself with a poignant death to create the cure hmmm, but still *yawn*. Now humans and other races are threatened giving it immediacy to our central exposed characters *yawn*.

Our valiant doctor comes up with the miracle cure that with one injection fixes everything as we approach the end of the episode *yawn*. The valiant doctor is not in time and an entire race including the cute little girl dies - WTF!!!! Holy crap did I just see that!! That was a trout to the head!!

This is a bold show that is prepared to do the hard things. This added significant credibility to the growing consensus that this was a waaaaay different show than anything on television. I continue to beat this drum that B5 was groundbreaking in so many ways. There is no realigning of the deflector thing or rerouting of the thing through the plasma thing, or delivering the vaccination that saves everything in the last minute.

Wow.

[RMcD]

Our valiant doctor comes up with the miracle cure that with one injection fixes everything as we approach the end of the episode *yawn*. The valiant doctor is not in time and an entire race including the cute little girl dies - WTF!!!! Holy crap did I just see that!! That was a trout to the head!!

That was how I felt about it as well. This one, and Believers, with which it shares a lot of similarities, both looked superficially like episodes of TNG, with child actors and miracle technological cures, but the endings packed a massive punch because they were so unconventional for the time. It really underlined that B5 took place in a dark and scary universe in which doing the right thing didn't always lead to a better outcome, and random mass tragedies did occasionally occur.

[SmileOfTheShadow]

As one of the "old" timers who watched very episode first run and who grew up on shall we say formulaic sci-fi and television (I was >30 when B5 premiered. I watched all of Galactica 1980 and I still have the scars) This was another of the ground breaking episodes that B5 was delivering.

An entire race is threatened with extinction *yawn*. The valiant doctor races against time to come up with a cure *yawn*. The little girl Markab is reunited with her mother *yawn*. The other doctor, (the Markab "humanized" for our benefit) sacrifices himself with a poignant death to create the cure hmmm, but still *yawn*. Now humans and other races are threatened giving it immediacy to our central exposed characters *yawn*.

Our valiant doctor comes up with the miracle cure that with one injection fixes everything as we approach the end of the episode *yawn*. The valiant doctor is not in time and an entire race including the cute little girl dies - WTF!!!! Holy crap did I just see that!! That was a trout to the head!!

This is a bold show that is prepared to do the hard things. This added significant credibility to the growing consensus that this was a waaaaay different show than anything on television. I continue to beat this drum that B5 was groundbreaking in so many ways. There is no realigning of the deflector thing or rerouting of the thing through the plasma thing, or delivering the vaccination that saves everything in the last minute.

Wow.

That's a really good analysis. That's true. Trek especially has soooo many episodes with that exact plot line, but B5 does the risky thing and have it be too late and everyone die. No one is safe in the B5 universe.

Every episode my girlfriend asks a question "Oh no...they're not going to kill so and so..are they?"

Because you never know with this show. Love it.

[moreorless]

As one of the "old" timers who watched very episode first run and who grew up on shall we say formulaic sci-fi and television (I was >30 when B5 premiered. I watched all of Galactica 1980 and I still have the scars) This was another of the ground breaking episodes that B5 was delivering.

An entire race is threatened with extinction *yawn*. The valiant doctor races against time to come up with a cure *yawn*. The little girl Markab is reunited with her mother *yawn*. The other doctor, (the Markab "humanized" for our benefit) sacrifices himself with a poignant death to create the cure hmmm, but still *yawn*. Now humans and other races are threatened giving it immediacy to our central exposed characters *yawn*.

Our valiant doctor comes up with the miracle cure that with one injection fixes everything as we approach the end of the episode *yawn*. The valiant doctor is not in time and an entire race including the cute little girl dies - WTF!!!! Holy crap did I just see that!! That was a trout to the head!!

This is a bold show that is prepared to do the hard things. This added significant credibility to the growing consensus that this was a waaaaay different show than anything on television. I continue to beat this drum that B5 was groundbreaking in so many ways. There is no realigning of the deflector thing or rerouting of the thing through the plasma thing, or delivering the vaccination that saves everything in the last minute.

Wow.

Indeed I remember In the Shadow of Zha,Ha,Dum and Confessions one after the other was a real shock to the system at the time, was easy to believe that anything to happen after that.

I wouldnt say this episode was a Twlight Zone style "but the real monster IS MAN!" twist though. You got the sense that there wouldnt be a happy ending well in advance IMHO with tone of Lazarenn and Franklins conversations.

Really good performance by Jim Norton as Lazarenn too IMHO, he didnt get much dramatic time as the judge but both here and in G'Kars visions he was exellent.

[BabylonRebel]

I'm not sure if they said in the episode - but what happend to the airborne virus? the Markab, and possibly some Pak'ma'ra, are dead but the virus is still there in Babylon 5's air recycling system. And a virus left to mutate in a closed environment could be dangerous. Not just to the Pak'ma'ra and survivng Markab, but to anybody.

[Garibaldi's Hair]

It really underlined that B5 took place in a dark and scary universe in which doing the right thing didn't always lead to a better outcome ...

And sometimes even to question whether we know what the right thing is, and how often that can be subjective.

[Radhil]

I'm not sure if they said in the episode - but what happend to the airborne virus? the Markab, and possibly some Pak'ma'ra, are dead but the virus is still there in Babylon 5's air recycling system. And a virus left to mutate in a closed environment could be dangerous. Not just to the Pak'ma'ra and survivng Markab, but to anybody.

Franklin mentioned this as a serious issue, and it was never expanded upon. I would think, however, that once he figured out how the virus worked and attacked that it would be possible to figure out a filter to lower the threat level. You'd never be able to completely decontaminate the station - no magical Trek energy fields for maintenance and such - but they certainly would have worked at reducing to an acceptable level of risk. After all, if all that's left is a couple of samples wedged between two levels, who will it ever infect?

[Jan]

I'm not sure if they said in the episode - but what happend to the airborne virus? the Markab, and possibly some Pak'ma'ra, are dead but the virus is still there in Babylon 5's air recycling system. And a virus left to mutate in a closed environment could be dangerous. Not just to the Pak'ma'ra and survivng Markab, but to anybody.

It was in the episode, or at least we're left to assume that what Franklin says was correct. First he tells how the disease is confined to races which use specialized cells to manufacture the chemicals used in neural relays (yellow cells in Markabs, green cells in pak'ma'ra. Then he continues:

We can't destroy the disease, but we [U]can[U] artificially stimulate yellow and green cell production by a series of regular injections. Gradually, those getting the injections will produce stronger cells that are capable of withstanding the disease.

Jan

[FuryPilot]

I'm not sure if they said in the episode - but what happend to the airborne virus? the Markab, and possibly some Pak'ma'ra, are dead but the virus is still there in Babylon 5's air recycling system. And a virus left to mutate in a closed environment could be dangerous. Not just to the Pak'ma'ra and survivng Markab, but to anybody.

Generally speaking, once all the Markab were gone (and presumably the Pak'ma'ra innoculated) there were no more hosts for the virus to grow (and mutate) in.

FP

[Dipper]

There is a difference between an infection and symptoms caused because of it. It was said that some special cells in were responsible for synaptic transmission in the Markab and the Pak'ma'ra and when infected the virus would interfere with the normal cell function of those cells (not word to word, but the intent of it). In humans the synaptic transmission occurs at the end of an axon, from which neurosecretory granules are released with the neuraltransmitter (ACh, norepinephrine, glutamate etc.) and beside the synaptic cleft is a specialised cells (oligodendrosytes in CNS and astrocytes in PNS) that serve numeral functions ensuring the correct function of the synaptic transmission. If these cells were infected by the virus, it doesn't necessarily disturb the cell function, but could mutate there in course of time.

A bit long preface, but the point of this was that, I woud've not taken the risk of mutation with just leaving the virus circulating there. The least that should've been done was to continue research for a general vaccine against that virus and it's closest mutations.

-Dip

[RMcD]

A bit long preface, but the point of this was that, I woud've not taken the risk of mutation with just leaving the virus circulating there. The least that should've been done was to continue research for a general vaccine against that virus and it's closest mutations.

Presumably there must have been some serious effort to decontaminate the station (or maybe just a serious cover-up). For one thing, if I was a Pak'ma'ra, I think I'd have second thoughts about visiting a place known to be infested with a virus that's fatal to my species and just wiped out another. I think Franklin even pointed out to Lazarren that the disease could go dormant for years and then come back at you out of nowhere.

Hey! I think I just realised what the machine Bo and Mack are running over the hallways is for!