This is another of my Top Ten favorite B5 episodes. It's wonderfully done. Brad Douriff proves he can play something ohher than a total psycho nutball whack job crazy guy.
This is one of my top 5 favorite, and probably always will be. Don't ask me for nits, I was too busy catching sybolism and crying to notice any. ;)
Great moment: At the end, when Sheridan learns something new about forgiveness.
In the end, Brother Edward's killer is mind wiped and joins the order. But there's a problem with this. In The Quality of Mercy, we're told that when a killer is mind wiped, a telepath scans him both before and after to make sure that the new personality sets in properly. However, Talia Winters got sent back to Earth for dissection and as far as I can tell, Psi Corps never sent out a new telepath.
I was under the impressions that the killer was sent to Earth, mindwiped there, and returned to B5. Although I can't explain why, I didn't think B5 had the capability to mindwipe someone. Is there a line in "Quality of Mercy" about the condemned man being sent back to Earth?
Even better, why was the guy sent back to B5??? Of all the places in the universe why send him back to the scene of his crime?? Wasn't the idea to give him a "fresh start?"
Apparently B5 does have the capacity to mindwipe a criminal. In the episode with the alien healing device (I'm assuming that was 'Quality of Mercy', but I'm not sure), Franklin was going to perform a mindwipe.
Franklin wasn't at all happy about performing the process, and it seems a bit rough giving him that responsibility, especially given the number of murderers on B5. I would have expected a specialised facility to perform the task.
Adam, the guy was back/stayed on B5 specifically because the head monk requested him.
By coincidence, I rewatched this episode the other day, and yes, I cried when Brother Edward died.
Merat, that doesn't wash. In The Quality of Mercy, when they're talking about what to do with the killer, they dismiss the idea of sending him to a prison on Earth because it would be tough to justify the expense of doing that to The Folks Back HomeTM.
Ok, I guess I remembered it wrong. Not all that surprising.
Ruminations
- Brad Douriff plays a role similar to his roles in Star Trek Voyager and in LOTR. The guy who does unspeakable evil and then is repentent at the end, before he dies...
- What was Brother Edward's little thing he made? At first I thought it was an animal, but after looking again, it doesn't look like one.
- Brother Malcolm has the Anakin Skywalker pony tail from Star Wars Ep 2...
Was he repentant at the end of LOTR? I thought he was just sorry he'd been found out, rather than sorry he'd done something evil. He's played too many psychos for me, I loved his performance in "The X-Files" but it got a bit wearing after "Alien 4".
Perhaps Brother Edwards carved a Tuglywuggle from the planet Ce'ranX134? :-)
Well, in LOTR, he looks like he's feeling guilt when Theodin told him to be rid of Saruman, that he was once a man of Rohan. While not exactly repentent, he does give indications that he acknowledges that what he did was wrong. He shows signs that he wishes he could take it back. Of course I'm speaking after he's atop the tower, but before the time Saruman smacks him.
Yes, I guess we miss the final ironical twist of his stabbing Saruman. "I feel really bad about this, I know, I'll make things better by killing someone".