B5 Watchthrough: Legacies

[ariela]

 

For some reason when I imported this episode from the DVD, the sound was messed up, so I'll just summarize the important parts instead. It's what would be a pretty good episode, maybe even a watch-in-full episode since both the A-story and the B-story contain a lot of worldbuilding, but the teenage actress guest starring engages in high-school drama club style acting and it makes the B-story hard to watch. 

The biggest arc element from this is the introduction of Neroon, who will be a recurring antagonist. 

Synopsis:

A Minbari delegation arrives on Babylon 5 bearing the body of a dead Minbari war leader, Branmer, so that the station's Minbari residents can pay their respects. He engineered the Battle of the Line, so needless to say, the Earthforce members aren't feeling too warm and fuzzy about this. The Minbari warship bearing the body approaches Babylon 5 with their gunports open, which causes some alarm (given that human ignorance about Minbari ships with open gunports was the tragic misunderstanding that started the war in the first place, you'd think the staff would be briefed about it but they freak out instead. Delenn arrives in time to explain, but relations between the Warrior Caste Minbari accompanying the body, especially the leader, Neroon, and the station command staff are, to put it mildly, frosty. 

We learn that while the war was conducted by the Warrior Caste, the Religious Caste considered it a holy war and supported it. Then Branmer's body disappears and it looks like we're about to get the Second Earth-Minbari War. It turns out that Delenn and other members of the Religious Caste stole Branmer's body because he was originally Religious Caste and she wanted to ensure his wishes for the disposal of his body were respected. She uses her status as a member of the Grey Council to force Neroon to drop the matter.

The B-story involves a teenage girl who suddenly collapses after being caught stealing in the Zocalo (Babylon 5's marketplace). It turns out she's a telepath whose abilities just became active. When she regains consciousness, Talia prepares to send her back to PsiCorps, but Ivanova insists she should have a choice in her future. After hearing the proposals of various factions, she decides to go to Minbar, where she can use her abilities to help people and be an honored member of society rather than live under the constraints of PsiCorps. 

I find it interesting that the Minbari are willing to offer alien telepaths the same honored place in their society they offer Minbari telepaths--it raises the question of why telepaths who don't want to join the Corps so often seem without recourse other than to keep running. Alisa can't be the only one who cropped up without their knowledge.

Deep dive:

• Rowan Kaiser's analysis and review at the AV Club.
• Lurker's Guide episode page.

Main takeaways:

• The Minbari Religious Caste seems to hold power over the Warrior Caste.
• Minbari can switch castes.
• There are no Narn telepaths, but the Narn are trying to breed some.
• While many telepaths are born with their abilities active, some are "latent telepaths" who have the potential to be telepaths but aren't able to use their abilities. Latent telepaths often switch to being telepaths during puberty, and the experience can be difficult and even harmful. 
• On Minbar, telepaths aren't paid for their services, but the rest of the population provides food and clothing and other needs for them. (Given that it sounds like they largely serve their people through the religious caste, it sounds a bit like the Levite priesthood in ancient Israel, which wasn't allowed to have their own lands and was supported by the other tribes.) The Minbari consider such service a calling, which raises the question of what happens if you're a Minbari telepath who doesn't want to serve.
• While Sinclair may have what seems like a close, genuine, and mutually respectful relationship with Delenn, he and the other Earthforce personnel on the station still aren't exactly over the war.