Contents: Overview - Backplot - Questions - Analysis - Notes - JMS

Overview

Sheridan's forces make their final strike. Marcus weighs a vital decision. J. Patrick McCormack as General Lefcourt. Marjorie Monaghan as Number One. Carolyn Seymour as Senator Crosby.

P5 Rating: 9.27

Production number: 420
Original air week: October 13, 1997

Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by John Copeland

An episodic soundtrack is available.

Warning: This episode resolves several major plot threads. Think twice before reading on if you haven't seen the episode.

Plot Points

• Sheridan's plan for the frozen telepaths ("Ship of Tears") was to smuggle them onto as many Earth warships as possible and activate them. The telepaths would wake up and merge with the ships' computer systems, making the ships unable to maneuver or attack and thus removing the need for Sheridan's forces to destroy them. The plan succeeded in disabling the better part of the Earth fleet at the Mars colony.
• Sheridan's forces have arrived at Earth, prompting President Clark to commit suicide rather than face capture or trial. A member of the Earth Senate, apparently friendly to Sheridan, has at least temporarily filled in the power vacuum.
• Marcus has used the alien healing machine ("The Quality of Mercy") to give his life to Ivanova, apparently dying in the process.

Unanswered Questions

• What happened to the telepaths on the destroyers?
• Was Bester's lover Carolyn ("Ship of Tears") among the telepaths used against the destroyers? Did she survive?
• What was meant by "The ascension of the ordinary man" on Clark's suicide note? (See Analysis)
• Did Clark have a vice president? Will he or she become the new head of the Earth Alliance, and if so, will Earth continue the policies of the Clark administration?

Analysis

• When General Lefcourt addressed the fleet at Mars, he didn't bother repeating Clark's propaganda about Sheridan's forces being under alien influence. That could be a sign that few people in Earthforce really believed it anyway, so there was little point maintaining the pretext. Or it could have been a result of his knowledge of Sheridan; that might lead him to believe that Sheridan would take up arms against Clark of his own free will.

• Both Sheridan and Lefcourt were in charge of Omega-class destroyers, and they both displaced the destroyers' usual captains.

• The device Franklin placed on Lyta was most likely the one he mentioned developing in "The Exercise of Vital Powers." He claimed to be working on a repeater to help broadcast her thought patterns.

• The formation of the assault team on Mars was planned oddly; all the top-ranking people were together in a single group (Garibaldi, Number One, Lyta, and Franklin,) which would have been disastrous if they'd failed to take over the outpost. However, it's not an arrangement without merit: Franklin and Lyta obviously had to be together for him to hook her up to the device, and Number One probably wanted to keep an eye on both Garibaldi and Lyta.

• After her bad treatment at the hands of Sheridan and company, treatment which forced her to reassociate herself with the Psi Corps ("The Exercise of Vital Powers,") Lyta was surprisingly willing to put herself on the line yet again. Has her arrangement with Bester made her comfortable enough to set aside her past annoyance with Sheridan and the B5 crew, or does she simply believe so strongly in the cause that she's willing to disregard personal considerations?

• Marcus viewed several log entries from Franklin. The first referred to the death of Cailyn, Franklin's lover in "Walkabout."

  The second might have referred to Marcus' recovery from his fight with Neroon in "Grey 17 Is Missing," although at that time Franklin was on walkabout and thus couldn't have recorded the log entry -- a possible gaffe. It couldn't have referred to any event before "Ceremonies of Light and Dark," since Franklin was wearing his Army of Light uniform.

  The third, of course, was in reference to the use of the alien healing machine on Garibaldi in "Revelations." Franklin's flashback recounted "Revelations" as well.

  These log entries paralleled Marcus' own dilemma. The first dealt with the death of a woman Franklin cared about. The second (assuming it truly referred to "Grey 17 Is Missing") was the last time Marcus was willing to give up his life for a woman he cared for, namely Delenn. And the third message was a warning about the consequences of what Marcus was contemplating.

• The phrase on Clark's suicide note ("The ascension of the ordinary man") is a cipher, but it might have some discernable meaning. The theme of death leading to ascension is common in religion; perhaps the "ordinary man" referred to the innocent civilians who'd be killed by the defense platforms, and Clark believed they'd ascend to heaven.

  There's also an echo of Cartagia's belief that his involvement with the Shadows would allow him to ascend to godhood; though Cartagia's belief was rooted in Centauri religion (other emperors had been elevated to godhood, as noted by Vir in "Chrysalis") it's possible Clark believed the same was true of himself.

  It's also possible that "ordinary" referred to non-telepaths: by scouring Earth's surface, a mundane was determining the fate of his evolutionary superiors, thus ascending above them.

• How did the Senator know so quickly what Clark had done, and how much damage the particle beams could cause Earth? One possible answer to the second question is that the potential danger to Earth might have been discussed in the Senate, for example while debating funding of the defense platforms. And perhaps the control panels on Clark's desk made it obvious that he'd turned the defense platforms against Earth, though the implication is that she guessed his plan simply from the words "scorched earth."

• It's odd that the Agamemnon was the only ship available to destroy the last defense platform, since only moments earlier it was in the midst of a swarm of other friendly vessels. Obviously this was a matter of artistic license, but why couldn't one of the Minbari cruisers, for example, have fired a beam weapon at the platform from a distance?

• Now that Sheridan's forces have removed Earth's defenses to a large extent -- the orbital platforms are all gone, many ships have been destroyed, and the advanced destroyer group is no more -- an aggressive alien government, perhaps the Drakh ("Lines of Communication") might consider this an ideal time to try to attack Earth or some of its colonies. Sheridan may have to station some of the White Star fleet and/or the League ships at Earth to help make up for the damage his campaign has done and ensure Earth's security.

• On the other hand, after Earth has had a chance to build up its forces again, it may be far in advance of the rest of the galaxy, even the Minbari. Assuming Sheridan relinquishes command of his fleet to Earthgov now that Clark is out of the picture, Earth will have both Vorlon and Shadow technology at its disposal. Given that some progress has obviously been made in integrating Shadow technology into Earth's ("Between the Darkness and the Light") it's not implausible that the Vorlon technology in the White Stars -- not to mention their Minbari components -- could be analyzed by the same researchers. Will the Minbari stand for that if it's attempted? How much do they value their current technological edge over the other major races?

• The parallel between Greek myth and Sheridan's command of the Agamemnon has further resonance here, especially the variant in which Agamemnon's daughter Iphigenia is saved from death by Artemis. Marcus, a self-described virgin ("The Summoning") has brought Ivanova back from the dead (assuming the alien device does in fact successfully revive her.) What parallel, if any, there will be with the rest of the myth -- Iphigenia living the rest of her life in a distant temple, far from her family -- remains to be seen.

Notes

• The design of the rocket launching from Mars just before and after the opening credits may be a visual homage to the DC-X, a prototype of a reusable lightweight space vehicle. DC-X performed eight test flights between 1993 and 1995.

• Effects glitch: One of the destroyers attacked by the White Stars at Mars was the Nemesis. Unfortunately, the Nemesis defected to Sheridan's side in "No Surrender, No Retreat." Of course, it could have been one of the fake defectors ("Between the Darkness and the Light") and gone back to Clark's side after gathering information about the rebel fleet.

• Effects glitch: When the fleet first approaches Earth, it's daytime in east Africa, Asia, and the Indian Ocean. But when the Agamemnon is about to ram the defense platform, North America is in sunlight.

• Clark's suicide and note are similar to a scene in the film "Dr. Strangelove." In the movie, a base commander launches a nuclear strike against the Soviet Union. As troops try to break in to capture him and get the abort code, he shoots himself. They discover on his desk a sheet of paper with mad ramblings and a number of circled letters.

  And of course, many real despots in history have committed suicide rather than be captured by the enemy, such as Adolf Hitler.

jms speaks

• The episode seemed rushed.
  Okay, one general response here...people are seeing rush where in many cases there is NOT a rush. Look, pay attention here: WE'RE IN THE FOURTH ACT OF THE EARTH CYCLE. Like the fourth act of an episode, you have to really start cranking. You want it to be at white-heat once you hit the ground.

  What's in Endgame, and most of Between... was always going to be there, with or without a 5th season. I made my trims in the period PRIOR TO these episodes, for the most part.

  This is the culmination of something we've been building now for three years, and I'm going to make it as damned fast-paced as I can.

  So don't go into this assuming it was rushed...it's *fast*, and that's the difference here.

  People complain when we do character stories that the arc isn't moving fast enough...people complain that it's moving too fast when the arc is in full gear...sombody get a concensus going here, okay?

• How did you fit so much into one hour?
  It's one of those things I don't know if I can explain adequately, or sensibly. A lot of it is totally instinctive, I don't sit down and think about it, I just do it. But to dissect...part of it is the intensity of the scenes, I think. Strong emotion extends time, stretches it; if you've ever been in a major traumatic situation, a few minutes can seem like hours. The more you can put your character into a situation of intense emotions, and create those same emotions in the viewer, you will in effect slow down perceived time. Also, there's the matter of context here. If you've set something up in prior episodes, in something like "Endgame" there's no set-up which means exposition and chews up time; you go right for the high point in the story bell-curve, and you stay there. So the part you're used to seeing take only a few minutes at the end of an episode becomes almost the entirety of the episode; same result.

• What is Earth Standard Time? GMT?
  Yes, EST = GMT.

  And this episode wasn't rushed; it's what you do when you're bringing any story to its climax. It's like watching Aliens, going away before the last 20 minutes, coming back and saying, "Well, it moved awfully fast." It has to, you're in the big moment. No, there isn't time for everything, there is NEVER time for everything, there's always stuff we might want to see...but what's in Endgame is what was always going to be in Endgame. If I'd known there would be a 5th season at the time, I still would've written it exactly the way it was written.

  The collapsing was done for the most part *long* before we ever got to this part of the season.

  It's just fast because that's what you need to do at this point.

• A hideous amount of rendering power and time went into that episode, and the result is all there on-screen. The only bigger CGI feast is in the prequel, which is approximately 21% EFX, most of it pure CGI and composites.

• The Mars surface effects looked different.
  Actually, most of the prior mars shots were done by an outside contractor, who's been doing such shots for the history of the show. NDEI's boys wanted a chance to do them, and did so.

  They're not bad...we still need to improve a bit on the movements, and the camera still moves a bit too fast, which gives it that computer-y feel...but overall, not bad.

  How long did those shots take to render?
  Quite a lot, I understand.

• Has Mars' air pressure been increased so pressure suits are no longer needed?
  My feeling is that there's been some small terraforming, which has helped a little, but there's still a long way to go.

• One thing we've noted is that there's been some minor terraforming on Mars over the 175 or so years we've been there. It's still a hostile climate, but not as bad as it is right now.

• Shouldn't moving around the surface of Mars look odd due to its lower gravity? Or has its gravity been increased somehow?
  No, there was no change to the gravity...what should we see to show that the gravity was still less? Someone like Garibaldi is still going to weight about 75 pounds, so he's not about to go around floating or bouncing, that's pretty solid. I don't see many 13-year-olds walking around like they're on the moon....

• "If you had time to spare in the episode (ho ho), you might have suggested the different ratio of inertial mass to weight by having character's feet skid out from under them when stopping, bouncing off walls while turning corners, overbalancing on turns, or catching things they had dropped two seconds after dropping them. Maybe tossing a CGI grenade."

  Except, of course, this would've looked awfully silly on camera.

  BTW, remember that Number One and Garibaldi, as well as Lyta, have experience with living on Mars, so they would automatically compensate.

• Wouldn't the ship's quartermaster notice a frozen telepath arriving?
  In something like this, you don't move unless you have the main quartermaster at the Mars base ON YOUR SIDE. You stuff it all into cargo loaders and crates, and ship it up. Have you ever seen military shipments? I looked into this, and security for big crates like this is done *at the point of shipping*.

• "What was needed was at least talk of a major Mars resistance attack occuring at the same time to draw off the security."

  There was. Go back to the scene on the Apollo when the first word of attacks comes in...it says specifically that they're hitting a number of places *including* a White Star hitting that particular base.

• How did Marcus contact B5 through the jammers?
  Because Marcus sent the signal to B5 before the fleet jumped into hyperspace, leaving Mars, toward Earth. We in hyperspace for the result, the search being concluded based on what was downloaded.

• Why didn't Sheridan send another ship after Marcus?
  You don't send a ship away to chase one person when you're going into a battle. You don't KNOW what ships you are and aren't going to need. In theory you took everything you had because you thought you needed it. Yeah, Marcus was a friend, but a lot of friends would die this day. You think he would put Marcus's situation ahead of the fleet? Isolate one ship and risk it to go after him? Ever been in the military? You talk about it, but what you propose doesn't make sense. Would Patton have sent back a tank because somebody fell behind? No.

• Garibaldi's betrayal didn't have any lasting consequences.
  You're right in terms of what Garibaldi did and didn't do, and we've avoided the ultimate repercussions in other places for other things (he said vaguely, not wanting to post spoilers)...but you can only do that so far, and if you go further you start cheating. You also remove the dramatic impact of the actions of your characters if they do not have consequences.

  Why did Marcus have to do what he did?
  In this case, it ties very much into this character's background...and would, in another universe in which CC decided to stay, have spun out into some rather interesting developments.

• "Well, unless its a coincidence, the "circled doodled message left by madman after he commits suicide" is VERY similar to what happens in Dr. Strangelove. Again, maybe its JMS's homage to Kubrick (like the "2001" style spacesuit that appeared in a second or third season episode, I forget which, of B5)."

  Just to clarify this....

  Re: the note...the script as written calls only for the finding of a note with the words "scorched earth" on it. It was John Copeland's idea to do the note as shown, and yes, he's said quite openly over on AOL that it was his nod to Strangelove. (John directed that episode.)

  Re: the suit...that wasn't an intentional 2001 nod...we went to Modern Props to get a space suit for Babylon Squared, and the only one they had on hand that would work for us was one left-over from 2010, which I asked the folks in costume to change as much as possible...though it was pretty much what it was regardless. So that one wasn't intentional.

• What did Sheridan mean by "ramming speed?"
  You are in a space ship, in a vacuum, heading toward target X. You understand that it takes time to transfer energy and movement toward another plane, so you go at X-speed toward that object if you want the option of applying thrusters and angling away from the object before you slam into it.

  If, on the other hand, you *want* to hit the object, and you have no interest in holding back your thrusters to allow you to diverge from the target in the amount of space remaining between you and it, you proceed at Y speed, with your thrusters putting out their maximum amount of fuel.

  Y = ramming speed.

• "...the symmetry and symbolism in how you structured that final battle. The story of Babylon 5 basically started with the Minbari fleet coming to Earth to destroy it at the Battle of the Line. To have the Minbari fleet return to Earth, not to destroy humanity, but to save it, especially along side Earth fighters and capital ships was stunning."

  Noticed that little touch, did you....?

  What goes around, comes around.

• How did the Apollo monitor Sheridan's situation if communications were being jammed?
  The jammers are set up to cut off communication OUTSIDE MARS ORBIT. That's what was said, that the jammers cut in once they were past Mars (for security purposes). The same thing was said in Lines Of..., where Franklin was having a hard time getting word to B5 *past the Mars jammers*. Further, if all communications were cut off in Hyperspace, inside Mars orbit, then you couldn't have had ship-to-ship communications to tell Sheridan ABOUT Marcus, could you?

• Lefcourt does not think that his job is to set policy or overthrow presidents. The military executes orders that emanate from the head of the government, through the chain of command. Once that chain of command was changed, the orders were no longer valid.

• Why wasn't Clark allowed to present his point of view, even at the end?
  I tried to do it through his lieutenants and plenepotentiaries (hope I spelled that right, I'm too tired to get the dictionary down). ISN gives you his point of view, ditto for Nightwatch, MiniPax, others. I think if I had him just saying it out loud, it would diminish him much the way that repeated exposure to the shadow vessels gradually removed their mystery and menace. Less is more.

• About the return of the old ISN anchor
  "I've been thinking about the rapidity of her return to ISN. I agree that there wasn't time to break her out of prison and get her old dressing room back for the morning news"

  When the Soviet Union fell, and the prison doors were thrown open, a number of reporters who had fallen out of favor with the Party and were sitting in cells walked out, went across the street, and went on the air within a matter of hours.

  Humans are resilient and determined sorts.

Last update: November 12, 1998