The Wheel of Fire

Reviewed by Lady Keela Shanri

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This was a fairly complex episode, but I think it can basically be broken down into the following plot-threads: Lyta's dangerous powers, Garibaldi doing various things, Sheridan and Delenn's little family, and, last but not least, G'Kar and his followers. At the end, most if not all of these tie together.
Let's start with the Lyta one. This is the one I disagree with the most. First of all, sure, that scene with Sheridan putting a gun to her head and saying that she's not the ONLY person who's been "touched by a Vorlon" was dramatic, as was Captain "One Punch" Lochley laying her out flat on her back, but haven't either of these people heard of the phrase "police brutality"?! Sheesh! The thing with her making the other people tap their fingers was strange, but scary. And since when did Lyta become such a cold-blooded little snot? Sure, yes, I know, she's mad and she's got a right to be mad, BUT...
Later on, we see her in prison, in a straitjacket! Then Mr. Garibaldi comes to see her...but for WHY, we'll need to visit his plotline next.
Garibaldi is drunk, again, and almost misses a meeting. When he gets in there, he can barely stand up and mixes up the Minbari with the Centauri (not easy to do) in his report. Sheridan notices he is drunk and calls him on the carpet. Then they have a talk in his office in which he tells Garibaldi that he is not mad, just disappointed. Garibaldi thinks that's even WORSE than mad; he can't stand the idea of Sheridan being disappointed in him. Sheridan says that he isn't disappointed in HIM, but in himself, for not having realised what was going on earlier. Garibaldi is not fired, no. But since this drinking has very definitely messed up his ability to do his job (does falling asleep at the switch and basically causing the Alliance/Centauri war to start ring any bells?), Garibaldi will now be suspended. Until...as long as it takes.
Deeply depressed, Garibaldi goes back to his quarters and starts...you guessed it...drinking again! Until Captain Lochley, of all people, comes in. Then they have a very touching conversation, in which we learn more about Lochley's background, she shows that she is really not such a bad person after all, and Tracy Scoggins gives a pretty good acting performance. She (Lochley) keeps talking to Garibaldi whether he wants her to or not, even though he throws a glass against the wall and also runs out of the room (it's HIS quarters!) And finally, she admits that she understands what he's going through because...she used to be the same way. She's also a recovering addict.
See, her father was an alchoholic. Why? Because what he REALLY wanted to be was an artist, and he was evidently quite good at it. But because everyone expected him to be in the military, he did that, and then had to stop painting. And it was killing him..."one drink at a time." Being career military--like Lochley herself is now--he thought that you always had to keep your feelings buttoned up. So he did so, and turned to drink as an excuse to loose control. Since kids of alchoholics often grow up to be alchoholics themselves...that's what happened to Elizabeth. She ran away from home and, with her friend Zoe that we met in "Day of the Dead", she got hooked on EVERYTHING. Not only drinking, but tons of different drugs as well. Then Zoe died, and Lochley forced herself out of it.
When she is done with this speech, Garibaldi just stands there in stunned silence. Suddenly, he no longer has a snappy comeback...
Truly, a great scene. I LIKE Lochley, dangit! Why does everyone hate her so much? (Besides the--FALSE--"she replaced Ivanova!" thing, I mean...)
Anyway, later on, Lochley gives Garibaldi a little MORE help, whether he wants it or not...she calls Lise in his name and says that he needs her. "Nothing like a good woman around to help keep you on the straight and narrow!" or something like that, she says, as she walks away with a mischeivous smile. Lise tells him that he should come back to Mars with her (which is actually not such a bad idea; it would be less stressfull than B5 and it's stress, more or less, that's driving him to drink) and help her run Edgars Industries. "There's a lot of stuff there, Michael. Some I don't understand. Some...I don't WANT to understand." (Hey, the last time we heard THAT was when the Regent was talking to Londo right before Centauri Prime got bombed back to the stone age! sniff. Earlier in this episode, someone, I forget who, also quoted that line about "no choice at all." What is with this, everyone suddenly finding the little dude so quotable after he's dead? I swear, if Franklin starts decorating Medlab in pastels, I'm outta here. But no, seriously, I'm sure that line-echo/parallell was quite intentional.) Then she says something about how he can't get back at the things that are REALLY bothering him (Bester's mindblock--or was it Lochley that said that, in the earlier scene? Well, SOMEone said it!) and Garibaldi suddenly gets an idea. "Wait a minute." he says, and goes off to "kill two birds with one stone."
What is he going to do? He's meeting with Lyta, in her cell. And thus their plotlines tie together. He wants her to take out Bester's mindblock. She'll do that, and also set up a fake deal with Edgars Industries (and I forget what the fake deal was; this was the part of the episode that confused me a bit) to cover the real deal: Garibaldi has to promise to use his money to help her telepaths and hurt Psi Corps--get back at Bester by tearing apart the thing he loves most. Why not just take out the block so I can kill him directly? "Because it's a GREAT motivator!" says Lyta, eyes gleaming. "You have to go along with my deal, because I'm the ONLY chance you have of EVER gettin' rid of it." Yikes! When did she turn so NASTY? Well, a couple of episodes ago, actually, but who's counting...
If this wasn't scary enough, Garibaldi then pins Lyta down and asks her, flat out--what DID the Vorlons do to her?
It's even worse than we thought. If telepaths are weapons, well...then...she's basically the DOOMSDAY weapon. The Bomb. The one you use when the smaller ones don't work anymore, when you've got no more choice.
Then she turns around and says, "Pleased to meet you, Mr. Garibaldi", while making her eyes glow all creepy...shudder!
Off to G'Kar's plotline. It seems that his followers have gone TOTALLY nuts. They all have pictures, icons, signs, etc of him and when he raises his hands to address them--they all bow! G'Kar is rather disturbed by this but does not know what to do. Franklin, who is, after all, probably about the most religious out of all the Human characters, stops by to tell him what the Narn government had said. It seems half of them want G'Kar to come straight home and run the planet, the other half want permission to rule in his name. (Among other things, they think that his prescence on Centauri Prime sort of "blessed" their mission and let them attack without any retailiation. NO! Sniff...) G'Kar does not want EITHER of these things, but just to be himself. So, after hearing a so-called "private" conversation that Lochley and Sheridan were having about what to do with Lyta, with the door wide open (?!) he tells them that he may have a solution to both their problems--he and Lyta can go "explore the galaxy" together. I'm not sure what exactly makes him think that Lyta will agree to that so soon...maybe because they can look for suitable planets for her telepaths along the way? I dunno. (Oh, and Garibaldi has 2 years to put together a force that can defeat the Psi Corps--then, if he's done well enough, Lyta will take the block out. I should have put that earlier but I'm too lazy to go back and fix it now.)
And that almost wraps it up--alMOST. There's still one little thing left. Delenn comes in yelling about those "BAHSTARDS!" (her accent, you see), the Narns, who are making her political life in the Alliance very difficult by refusing to do something or the other, I frankly forget what. I was too busy going, "Um, exCUSE me, why are the Narns and the Drazi still even IN the Alliance, huh? Shouldn't they be punished at least a LITTLE bit--like, oh, I don't know, getting kicked out maybe?--for their blatant and extreme disobedience of the PRESIDENT'S direct orders?!! ARGH!!" I cannot BELIEVE that while Centauri Prime is burning, the "bahstards" who did it are getting off scot-free! But to get back to Delenn--after Franklin offers to "get the gun" (Sheridan said that the next time someone acted irrational, he wanted to be shot) she passes out!
Why? Oh, nothing, no big deal, really.
She's just PREGNANT, that's all...

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