The Path of Sorrows

Overview

The discovery of a mysterious alien causes the crew to reflect on significant events in their lives. 
Production number: 109
Original air date: June 30, 1999
DVD release date: December 7, 2004

Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by Mike Vejar

Plot Points

  • @@@931198143 Gideon was an ensign on the Cerberus ten years earlier when it was attacked by an alien ship, possibly a Shadow vessel. The ship was destroyed while he was in the middle of a spacewalk to survey some hull damage. Shortly after the Shadow ship withdrew, the technomage fleet arrived and he was rescued by Galen. After he returned to Earth, his story was met with skepticism by his superiors.

  • @@@931198143 At one point, Gideon won a device called an "apocalypse box" in a poker game. The box's previous owner killed himself immediately after losing it, though apparently more to escape the box's influence than because he was upset about losing it.

  • @@@931198143 Galen and Isabelle ("The Well of Forever") were injured and stranded on a planet after being betrayed by three other technomages. She died as he comforted her. Thereafter, Galen refused to believe in any kind of higher purpose or design in the universe, since it would imply that someone decided that Isabelle deserved to die.

  • @@@931198143 Matheson was working at a secret Psi Corps base during the Telepath War. He was asked to administer sleeper drugs to a captured rogue telepath. The rogue convinced him to look at the Corps in a less forgiving light; he ended up betraying his masters and unwittingly helping the rogues destroy the Psi Corps base.

Unanswered Questions

  • @@@931198143 Who did Galen apologize to, and for what?
  • @@@931198143 What were the circumstances of Dureena's previous failure, and who died as a result?
  • @@@931198143 Who and what was the alien in the orb?
  • @@@931198143 Who attacked the Cerberus? The Shadows? Given that Earth was allied with them during the Shadow War, why would they attack an Earth Alliance ship?
  • @@@931198143 Was it just a coincidence that the technomage fleet appeared in precisely the same location as the attack on the Cerberus?
  • @@@931198143 What was the apocalypse box? Where did it come from? What happened to it?
  • @@@931198143 Who betrayed Galen and Isabelle? Why? What precisely did they do?
  • @@@931198143 Was the message to Galen genuine, or did the alien cause it to be sent?

Analysis

  • @@@931198143 Since Matheson has been deep-scanned on at least one occasion ("The Well of Forever") it's possible that his role in the Corps base's destruction is known to at least a few other people. Have there been any repercussions, or does the fact that it was wartime (and, more to the point, that the Corps was apparently on the losing side of the war) mean he wasn't officially held accountable?
  • @@@936001489 The word "apocalypse" has two meanings. The commonly-used one is a cataclysm, generally involving the destruction of life on a large scale. But the word also means "a prophetic revelation." Which sense applies to the box remains to be seen.

Notes

  • @@@931198143 Matheson's psi ability is stronger than P2, though how much higher isn't clear.
  • @@@931457216 Galen's reason for refusing to believe in a larger design echoes a comment by Marcus. He told Dr. Franklin that he preferred to think that things didn't happen for a reason, since otherwise it would mean that people deserved it when bad things happened to them.

jms speaks

  • @@@931198143 This one is a favorite of mine as well. It was one of the scripts written while we were still shooting the first 5, before TNT got into the process. When that happened, they made it clear that they *hated* this story, felt that nobody would be interested in all this backstory...and asked for it all to be taken out, let them run into this alien and make him an evil character, an emotional vampire who drives them insane.

    This was one of the first scripts where I dug in my heels bigtime and refused to do what they asked. I knew it would be powerful; they thought it would be utterly uninteresting. They were wrong.

  • @@@931198143 What was the ship that attacked the Cerberus?
    That remains to be revealed.

  • @@@931198143 Was Lyta supposed to be in this episode?
    Yeah, Lyta would've been in that ep but Pat was on a movie at the time.

  • @@@931198143 Re: the Matheson scene...that one was cut back by about 40% because the episode ran long. (That sometimes happens on dialogue- intensive episodes.) The original version had it go over a longer period of time, and showed him coming over gradually. It is a bit abrupt as it is now, though I still think it plays.

  • @@@931198143 Why didn't the rogue have a beacon that sent out a continuous signal?
    A device that small would run out of power if it were on all the time, and might be detected. My feeling was that it was switched off and had to be removed to power it up, then the telepathic signal would activate the beacon and bring in the troops. You'd have a two-stage process to a) avoid detection, and b) ensure that if it *were* found it couldn't be used by anyone else to stage a trap.

  • @@@931198449 "I'm very curious where Joe's going with Galen's character."

    Actually, Galen has quite a secret he's carrying around with him. It formed the basis of scripts 114 ("To the Ends of the Earth") and 116 ("End of the Line," which would've been the cliffhanger). It's also a major element of the coming technomage novels. There's a very small reference to it in the episode airing this week, when Galen mentions that he and someone else have been "betrayed by our own kind."

    It also ties into why they were in such a rush to get the hell out of known space during the shadow war.