Slow but some nice character work. Interestingly enough only secondary characters appear in this episode.
Franklin's side of the episode was unfortunately rather boring and average. Variations of this storyline have been used many times before outside of B5. The only really worthy note of the story worth pointing out would be the similarity of the Hyach and Hyach-doh genocide to the growing Mundane/Telepath conflict on the human worlds. Also the climax with Franklin not forgiving the Hyach felt in character to me as he respected the wishes of the Hyach despite his views (compared to his opposite reaction in "Believers").
The thread between Lyta and Zach brings up some interesting questions as well as further developing their relationship. Zach feels he is trying to keep Lyta out trouble (much like Garibaldi did with Zach and Nightwatch). Unfortunately its hard to tell how much his jelousy of Byron is coloring his thinking in this situation, which Lyta appropriately calls Zach on. Still Zach does have a point, while Byron is calling himself a "freedom fighter" in a sense, his people are pursueing terrorist tactics in his name. Byron's cry of freedom for telepaths is dangerous to the mundanes since a lot of telepaths do feel surperior to mundanes and do encourage violence, like the small fracture group in this episode. Byron is sort of a Martin Luther, giving freedom of belief to the telepath themselves, causing the usual individual thinking splits in ideas. As telepaths do have an advantage over mundanes, the ones who propogate violence are truly dangerous. Unfortunately Zach's jelousy destroys any chance to point out this fact to Lyta, who actually becomes more involved as she sees her old friends trying tell her what to do (like usual mundanes).
As stated above, Zach's "hounding" probably greatly quickened the pace of Lyta's already developing relationship with Byron. The more she sticks up for Byron, the more she becomes closer to him and the telepath colony. By the end of the episode she is disgusted even with Zach, who was probably her closest "mundane" friend causing her to fall back fully on the charismatic Byron. Byron's standoff with the mundanes at the beginning of the episode that sparks the later violence only provse how much of a important a figure he is to many telepaths. The situation with the mundanes also pointly centers the martyr-syndrome Byron appears to possess by proving he would be willing sacrifice himself for his cause. To me part of Lyta's interest was the the appeal of Byron to any telepath (who have constantly been discriminated against). Between the appeal of Byron, Lyta's friend's turning their backs, and Lyta's identification with Byron's problems (much like she had last season), Lyta eventually becomes involved both physically and mentally with Byron.
I had mixed feelings on the sex scene itself. I felt it was a bit too explicit, but the need to show Lyta's "transformation" during the act was understanable as it is a big turning point for the storyline.
The scenes projecting from Lyta were interesting. While they only complement what we already know of Vorlons their creation of telepaths, its still eerie to be reminded, yet again, how manipulated the Vorlons truly were during their final years in the galaxy.
While I can understand Byron being angry about how the Vorlon's manipulated the telepath's, I'm not sure the Alliance directly owes them anything the size of a planet. Yes Sheridan used telepath's during the war, but they were paid and given the option to join. Still the attempt by Bryon to find anyone to blame is understandable. Byron believed much of what Bester did, the difference is Bester believes in violence and Byron does not. For Byron to find out that Telepath's aren't special, but designed to be what they are for mundanes crushes much of his purpose. Also, I think his view of a debt from the Alliance is an attempt to rationalize and fit his goals, to the new situation caused by Lyta's information. If Byron doesn't react then the group will react seperately and fracture (as seen in this episode episode). So Byron's trying to justify his orginal claims and keep the group from exploding in the wake of damaging information.
A few more things while I did like the character of Peter the group hug was too much. Also I like the way the telepaths toyed with the mundane by using mental violence instead of physical. Finally, the picture of the Hyach-doh did look amazingly like Zanthras, makes you wonder....
While the Franklin plot was nothing very exceptional, the telepath plot (which was featured more) had a good deal of character development boosting this episode's score.
Rating: 8.0
Next Week: Londo Visits Centauri Prime while the Telepath Situation becomes Urgent
