Plot Synopsis:
With the help of a security officer who has incurred a sizable gambling debt, two unnamed men kidnap Sinclair and hook him up to a virtual reality cybernet. Their goal: to discover what exactly happened to Sinclair at the Battle of the Line ten years ago.
All Sinclair can remember at the beginning of the episode is this: As his fellow pilots were being picked off one by one, he decided to ram a Minbari cruiser in one final act of desperation. Before the point of impact, however, he blacked out. Twenty-four hours later, he came to. By then, the war had ended; the Minbari had surrendered.
Sinclair's principal interrogator - referred to in the script as "Knight Two" - is unsatisfied with Sinclair's official story. In fact, he believes that Sinclair sold Earth out - that Sinclair made some sort of backroom deal with the Minbari. As evidence, he cites the increasing alien presence on Earth. Sinclair emphatically denies that he betrayed Earth - but as the episode progresses, he too begins to doubt his own story.
Finally, under "Knight Two's" aggressive questioning, Sinclair starts to remember snippets from his missing day. He remembers being taken aboard a Minbari cruiser, where he was interrogated and tortured. He remembers that a grey-robed figure scanned him with a strange triangular device. And crucially, he also remembers seeing Delenn.
When these memories come to the surface, Sinclair breaks out of the cybernet, knocks out "Knight Two's" associate, and flees. Because he has been pumped full of psychotropic medication, he is delusional, seeing grey-robed figures everywhere. He eventually ends up in the Zocalo, where he gets into a firefight with security. Ultimately, it is Delenn who manages to talk him down.
After Sinclair has recovered, he goes to Delenn and thanks her for her help. Delenn asks Sinclair if he remembers anything from his experience with the "Knights", and Sinclair lies and says that he does not. When Sinclair leaves, a blind Minbari with a triangular insignia on his forehead tells Delenn that Sinclair must never find out what happened to him at the Battle of the Line - and that if he does find out, he is to be killed.
Overall: 7.2 - A strong story and decent performances make this a "can't miss" episode.
Writing: 8.5
This is one of the first season's most interesting stories - perhaps a little devoid of memorable dialogue, but very interesting nonetheless. One of the keys to writing a good long-term arc - an arc that pulls a viewer in - is the ability to answer some questions in each episode - thereby giving the viewer at least a little satisfaction - while at the same time posing entirely new ones. The writer does this with panache here. A question that was posed in the pilot episode is partially answered here: What happened to Sinclair at the Battle of the Line? What happened during his missing twenty-four hours? We now know that Sinclair was brought aboard a Minbari ship and interrogated by the Grey Council - and that Delenn, as a member of the Grey Council, was present. But in learning this new information, we have stumbled upon other mysteries. For example, what was that triangular device that was used by the Grey Council member to examine Sinclair? What was its significance? And why are the Minbari so determined to conceal what happened before they surrendered - so determined, in fact, that they are willing to kill to maintain their cloak of secrecy? These loose threads make one eager to see more.
Acting: 7
This is Michael O'Hare's strongest performance to date. I wouldn't say his work is feature-worthy here, but we do see far more animation and emotion than we have in previous episodes. I particularly like the scene between "Knight Two" and Sinclair that is highlighted below; I genuinely appreciate O'Hare's choice to remain restrained even though his character is remembering something deeply traumatic. Watch O'Hare's eyes in this moment; you can see, subtly, that his character is struggling to hold it together.
I was less impressed, however, with Christopher Neame ("Knight Two"), who delivered his lines with an affected air that really didn't work for me.
Message: 6
There is one scene about which I have mixed feelings: at one point, Delenn asks Dr. Franklin if he participated in some capacity in the Earth-Minbari War, and Dr. Franklin replies that he did toward the end - that the military ordered him to hand over any information he had managed to gather regarding Minbari genetics and anatomy in order that biological weapons could be developed - a mandate he refused to honor. On the one hand, as a general principal, I don't believe that a physician should be called upon to help develop what amounts to a weapon of mass destruction; that does seem to me to be a violation of a physician's oath. On the other hand, it really bothers me that Franklin's actions in this particular context are presented as unambiguously right - that the fact that the Minbari were bent on annihilating the entire human race was not once acknowledged by Delenn or anyone else. In this particular context, I think a little more angst is appropriate; the viewers have to be made aware that Franklin's sticking to principal had a potential devastating consequence.
Highlights:
KNIGHT TWO: Commander! Commander Sinclair! For the last time, what happened at the Battle of the Line?
SINCLAIR: I was trying to ram the Minbari cruiser. Then something... passed in front of my eyes. I blacked out. The next thing I know, it was twenty four hours later and the war -
KNIGHT TWO: The war was over! The Minbari had surrendered on the eve of their victory. They gave up - just like that. And you expect us to believe that you slept through the whole thing? Your ship was off the screens for twenty four hours. You didn't just black out! Your ship disappeared!
SINCLAIR: The screens malfunctioned. The hearing proved that. Why are you doing all this? The Minbari didn't win at the Line - they surrendered.
KNIGHT TWO: Precisely my point! They surrendered. Why? I think they took one look at our defense and realized what it would cost them to invade Earth. Why risk their lives in a frontal attack when they could attack us from within? But they needed a fifth column - people like you. Look at Earth, Commander: alien civilization, alien migration, aliens buying up real estate by the square mile, alien funding of Babylon 5. What they couldn't take by force they're corrupting inch by inch!
SINCLAIR: What does that have to do with me?
KNIGHT TWO: Nobody wants to die - especially not out there in the cold of space - so you surrendered. They took you aboard their ship, fixed you some milk and cookies, and asked you to work for them - be their eyes, their ears, their voice. You agreed - you and God knows how many other people. And then they let you go.
SINCLAIR: You're insane. I never betrayed Earth!
KNIGHT TWO: How can you be sure? You just said you don't remember. Mitchell - what about Mitchell?
SINCLAIR: That's enough! You talk about the war - you talk about Mitchell and the rest - but you didn't know them! They were my friends. I watched them die one by one. For years afterwards, whenever I saw a Minbari, I had to fight the urge to strangle them with my bare hands. All I could see was Mitchell and the rest... dying. Dying.
KNIGHT TWO: Why?
SINCLAIR: Because we were out numbered and out gunned. You said we could've won, but you weren't there. You didn't see them. When I saw those ships, I... I didn't just see my death. I saw the death of the whole damned human race!
KNIGHT TWO: Then why did they surrender?
SINCLAIR: I don't know! Maybe the universe blinked. Maybe God changed his mind. All I know is that we got a second chance.
SINCLAIR: Personal log entry, 2300: I remember. I was... taken inside a Minbari cruiser... interrogated... tortured. Was that... the Grey Council? Maybe. Maybe. Before they surrendered, they must've wiped my memory... and let me go. And Delenn - what was she doing there? What is it they don't want me to remember?
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