Strange Relations

Overview

Bester arrives to try to retrieve the refugee telepaths. Garibaldi confronts Lochley. Delenn chooses a bodyguard for Londo. Robin Atkin Downes as Byron. Walter Koenig as Bester.

P5 Rating: 7.84

Production number: 507
Original air date: February 25, 1998
DVD release date: April 13, 2004

Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by John C. Flinn III

Plot Points

@@@888480810 Lochley and Sheridan were married for a brief time many years ago. The relationship ended quickly because both of them wanted to be in control all the time. But it's thanks to their time together that Sheridan knows he can trust her even though she was on the other side in the civil war.
@@@888480810 Lochley was stationed on an outpost on which a rogue telepath murdered two crewmen. Bester and his people arrived and tracked down the rogue, saving the lives of additional people under Lochley's command.
@@@888480810 Many of Byron's people have been the subjects of Psi Corps medical experiments, and don't trust doctors.
@@@888481016 Lyta appears to have genuinely joined Byron's cause. The two of them appear to be developing either a close friendship or romantic attraction.
@@@888480810 G'Kar is now working as Londo's bodyguard. He accepted the assignment largely to see the looks on the faces of the Centauri royal court when a Narn is present at important state functions and the like.
@@@888480810 Londo is the second Mollari to become Emperor. Londo says his ancestor's life ended badly.
@@@888480810 The Centauri Regent's health is failing; Londo will soon spend much of his time shuttling back and forth between B5 and Centauri Prime.
@@@888480810 Franklin has been given a new assignment, to thoroughly catalog any diseases of various races which might be able to cross species. His new duties will take him away from Babylon 5 to visit the homeworlds of Alliance member races.

Unanswered Questions

@@@888480810 Who tried to assassinate Londo?
@@@888480810 Do the Regent's health problems have anything to do with the Keeper on his neck ("Epiphanies?")
@@@888480810 Is there actually a quarantine regulation as Lochley claimed? If not, how did she get her lie past Bester? If so, did Franklin invent it on her behalf, implying that he has the authority to issue medical regulations on his own?

Analysis

@@@888480810 Lyta's power has limits, though even she doesn't know exactly what they are. Could she have held off all of Bester's men? Is she telekinetic, or was she simply activating nerve endings as Bester speculated?
@@@889635224 What's the significance of Lyta removing her Psi Corps badge as she joined Byron's song? Is she officially resigning her fake Corps membership ("Moments of Transition?") If so, does that mean that the entire contract with Bester is canceled, or just that she's giving up the benefits of supposed Corps membership? Will she be considered a rogue when Bester returns in sixty days? Or did she just remove it to be polite and avoid offending the others?
@@@890010985 Lyta has all the makings of a cult member: she feels abandoned by the world, she appears to have a need to follow someone (be it Kosh or Sheridan or Byron,) and she's used to complying with others' demands without question (as Byron pointed out in "The Paragon of Animals.") Byron's group appears very much like a cult: a small group of people who feel they're different than everyone else (in this case, of course, they are) and a charismatic leader who's willing to sacrifice himself for his cause and to give personal attention to each of his people. He's even holding out the hope of a promised land in the form of B5 (and eventually a homeworld.)
@@@888480810 Byron's people have a sixty-day reprieve, at least until Bester either decides Lochley was lying or that he's waited long enough. If Byron's people aren't allowed to leave the station before then, what will they do when the sixty days are up? That deadline may be what sparks the hostage situation shown in "The Deconstruction of Falling Stars," if indeed Byron's people (or some non-pacifist faction of his group) were the ones holding Garibaldi hostage.
Zack described Byron as a martyr. If that's literally true -- if he is indeed fated to die for his cause (and he does appear to be willing to do so) -- then his death might also incite his followers to violence. Of course, his death and the expiration of the sixty-day grace period aren't necessarily separate events; Bester's people are willing to injure him at the very least.
@@@888480810 What medical experiments did Byron's people undergo? Lyta said many of them don't trust doctors as a result, but as telepaths who don't block out normals' thoughts, wouldn't they be able to sense Franklin's good intentions?
@@@889502663 What did Bester mean when he commented that Byron knew all about turning against someone? What history do Bester and Byron share? Perhaps Byron was once a Psi Cop, which would be consistent with the level of psi ability he's displayed in the past (appearing in front of Lochley in "No Compromises," putting Bo in the Starfury pilot's mind in "A View from the Gallery.")
@@@888522924 Psi Corps' hold on the colonist telepaths, according to Lochley, is due to their status as Earth Alliance citizens. Can they switch citizenships? Does Mars fall under Corps jurisdiction, for example? If not, there must be other races willing to grant citizenship to telepaths, either for free or for the right price. The Narn, for instance, would probably welcome them with open arms. Presumably Sheridan, in his position as President, could ask one of the Alliance member races to take the telepaths in as asylum-seekers.
@@@888507739 Now that G'Kar is Londo's bodyguard, who will represent the Narn on the Alliance advisory council? Does G'Kar retain his position as ambassador? If not, isn't appointment as Londo's bodyguard a rather substantial demotion?
For that matter, who will represent the Centauri while Londo is away and after he's crowned? Vir?
@@@890011912 Franklin has experience with at least one cross-species disease: the Drafa plague that wiped out the Markab ("Confessions and Lamentations") crossed over to the Pak'ma'ra.
@@@890012383 How have Lochley and Sheridan kept their past marriage a secret? Are marriage records not public information? It seems odd that, for example, ISN wouldn't have turned up anything in even a cursory investigation of Lochley's background (they would presumably have reported on her appointment, given B5's high profile.) Maybe divorce under Earth Alliance law can result in all official records of the marriage being erased -- which would still leave unofficial ones, of course.
@@@890012169 As Lochley mentioned to Garibaldi, Sheridan has had three wives (Londo is still one up on him.) Sheridan's wives mirror the Minbari caste system: Lochley was a warrior, Anna a worker, and Delenn a religious caste member.

Notes

@@@888480810 Corwin reported Ms. Connoly's estimate for clearing the cargo backlog. Connoly appeared in "By Any Means Necessary" and is the head of the dockworkers' guild on the station.
@@@888480810 Lochley has a phoenix on her flight helmet.
@@@888480810 The Descartes joke Bester was telling Lochley is an old one, a play on "I think, therefore I am" -- I think not, therefore I'm not. The joke was told by Neal Barrett, Jr. when he was toastmaster at the 1997 Hugo Awards Ceremony, at which JMS received a Hugo award for "Severed Dreams." (It predates that ceremony, though.)

jms speaks

@@@884632658 The astute will notice a slight change in the main title music starting with 507. I was down sick when they had to do the main title mix, and couldn't get into it. When we had to modify some voice stuff for 507, I went in and pulled out all the music stems and rebalanced stuff to bring out the themes more, which kind of got buried a little in places. All the same individual pieces are there, but in different perspectives.
@@@888605187 Was the song at the end a traditional tune?
No, I came up with that song for the episode, and designed it to sound like any of a zillion other such songs out there, so it'd sound familiar.