Episode 062 – Comes the Inquisitor
Delenn and G’Kar both have to prove themselves. Jan joins us to question episode 2×21 – “Comes the Inquisitor”.
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Tags: a babylon 5 introcast, comes the inquisitor, downbelow, episode 2x21
January 29th, 2015 at 3:17 pm
[Spoilers for The Fall of Night]
Keffer? Noooooooo!
S2 is a little odd in that it has three season finales: The Long Twilight Struggle (which is your classic big-story finale); Comes the Inquisitor (a small-story “coda” finale, like the end of S4 Buffy), and then The Fall of Night – which would seem like a bigger story, if one hadn’t just seen TLTS.
What TFoN does have, I think, is the feel of a prologue to season three. It’s the show that sets the seal on what’s been obvious for a while: we’ve in effect been watching the adventures of army officers in Weimar Germany, and now it’s 1933.
I’ll be curious to hear what the ambassadors think about that. God knows JMS doesn’t handle the theme of incipient fascism subtly. But at the time of first broadcast, it really did feel like something new and different on American SF TV to present the viewer with such a flawed future. I’ve wondered about the possible influence of Blake’s 7.
December 30th, 2015 at 2:48 pm
Honestly I feel like the ambassadors kind of missed the point in this episode. They go on and on about how sacrifice for one’s loved ones isn’t really something hard to find, but that wasn’t the point. The point was Delenn’s response, “THIS is my cause. LIFE! One life or a billion, it’s all the same.” THAT is what passed the test. That and the admittance that if she falls another will take her place. The willingness to sacrifice herself for a single life, no fame, no glory, assured that someone will pick up where she left off. The fact that in this case it was Sheridan was incidental.
And even after the comment about it possibly being more for Delenn’s benefit the ambassadors are kind of dismissive, like “well who does he think he is?” Well look at what has happened to Delenn throughout the season. Stripped of power, ostracized by her own people, attacked by Humans, and just in general beaten down for the entire year. The idea that she needs a confidence boost does not feel out of place, and as you’ve now seen (since you are in season 4 as I write this) her strength and confidence increases by an order of magnitude in season 3 after she has talked down the inquisitor. “I am not afraid” she says at the end.