In the Shadow of Za'Ha'Dum
Reviewed by Lady Keela Shanri
Click HERE, HERE, or HERE to see pictures from the episode.
SPOILER WARNING FOR UP TO THE EARLY FOURTH SEASON!!!
Well. Whoah. Okay, we've had our bit of fun ("There All the Honor Lies"), we've had our bit of experimentation ("And Now For a Word"), NOW it's time to get that ol' arc cranking again.
BIG time.
As an episode, this one is quite good but it's even better, watching it with knowledge of things to come. But even if I HAD just seen it cold, I probably would have been able to feel the cold fingers of foreshadowing, and I mean foreSHADOWing, crawling up and down my spine...
What? Where was I? Oh, yes, the episode. As a whole, it was very good. Very very DARK. But my favourite part--probably just about everyone's favourite part--was the following seemingly light-hearted, funny moment:
Morden: If the advancement of the Centauri Republic means nothing to you, what does? What do you want?
Vir: I'd like to live just long enough to be there when they cut your head off and stick it on a pike--as a warning to the next ten generations that some favours come with too high a price. I'd look into your lifeless eyes, and I'd wave, just like this" (twiddles fingers in a cutesy, sarcastic way--look at the picture on the bottom of my main page to see what I mean). "Can you and your associates arrange that for me, Mr. Morden?"
Don't mess with Vir...
What can I say? This episode sets things up for the third and early fourth seasons in a BIG way. First of all, we get to see "Nightwatch" being founded. Yeah, you have to report it if anyone ever says ANYTHING against President Clark or EarthGov's current whackoid policies. Can we say, "Big Brother", boys, girls, and hermaphrodites? THOUGHT POLICE!
And did anyone else notice that that Nightwatch armband looks a LOT like a NAZI armband....? (Especially when Pierce Macabee, the main Nightwatch dude, wore one on his BROWN suit...)
And then we have all the big revelations with the Shadows and First Ones. Whoah boy.
For one thing, in this episode we get to see a rather darker side of Sheridan, as he is perfectly willing to let someone ROT in a cell with NO charges just to satisfy his obsession about what really happened to his wife. I mean, yeah, sure, he's got a right to be upset, and Morden IS a really slick character, but STILL...
And we also see him just outright using Talia, against her will. She was right to smack him!
Other important arc points include Zack Allen being given a position of large responsibility in Security after Garibaldi--temporarily, THIS TIME--resigns. Foreshadowing the fourth season on, when Garibaldi REALLY resigns from Security and Zack REALLY becomes the Chief of Security--permanently. It may seem like an isolated incident here, and you're thinking, "Oh, of course, they'd never REALLY have a main character just up and resign in the middle of the show!"
Wanna BET?
And, in a scene that my IDIOTIC, FRAGGING, @#$#$# V.C.R. ATE, we see not only humble little Vir standing up to big, imposing Sheridan, but also have it revealed, out loud, to someone outside the Centauri that Morden is working for their government...and evidently has DIPLOMATIC IMMUNITY?!
Talk about scary...
This is also the first time we hear mention, outright, of Franklin using stims to keep himself awake longer than normal hours...
And we also get some of the mystery surrounding Delenn's change cleared up. We still do not know HOW she changed into a half-Human form, but now it seems we do know quite a bit more about the "why". See, 1,000 years ago, there was a great war with the Shadows. And it was only because the Younger Races, including the Minbari, were able to join together in an alliance that they were able to defeat them. That, AND they had a whole lot of First Ones on their side.
Now, with all the first ones gone except the Vorlons, the Younger Races will need that alliance more than ever! So when Delenn asked her question of Kosh in "Chrysalis" which is now revealed to be "Have the Shadows returned to Za'Ha'Dum?" and Kosh's answer was "Yes", that convinced Delenn that she needed to take DRASTIC measures to make SURE an alliance was formed. Even if it meant making her own BODY into a physical bridge between the Minbari and the Humans...She was thinking about it before, as peace between the two races was very important to her (or it was ever since she became a diplomat!) But when she got Kosh's answer, she knew she HAD to do it...
Well, I may be completely wrong, but that's MY theory anyway.
But mainly, this episode is about Mr. Morden, who has "The Shadows on his side". This marks the first time that Sheridan actually gets to SEE Shadows, as we find out that they ARE visible in certain frequencies. Evidently telepaths can pick them up too! We learn more about the story of the Icarus. How the "ancient civilisation nobody's even heard about" was actually on the planet ZA'HA'DUM--yes, the same planet G'Kar has been warning them about all season! Sheridan hopes that if Mr. Morden was left alive, then maybe his Anna was too.
Well, she is...kinda...and kinda not...and you are NOT going to LIKE the answer once you hear it, Johnny-boy!
Sheridan gets to actually SEE a Shadow, that is to say a Shadow-PERSON, as opposed to one of those funky spider ships, and we first hear the story of The First Ones and that great battle a thousand years ago. And...we first find out that the VORLONS are a member of The First Ones! They and the Shadows are the only ones left, after all the others went Beyond the Rim...
And, most chilling of all, we get to hear the words, the ACTUAL WORDS, spoken by Kosh. One of the most famous lines of the entire show, EVER:
"If you go to Za'Ha'Dum, you will die."
But do they ever LISTEN to the Vorlon? Nooooooo....
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