Based on the other comments here, I must be the only person who didn't really like it (well, apart from
TGB, of course). I'm a
huge Babylon Five fan but this episode just doesn't work for me, and I find it vastly overated. Maybe it's just my whole revulsion at the very concept of mind-wipes (seriously, Earth Alliance lost any and all claims to being an admirable society back when the concept was introduced), but I just can't find any real moral complexity to it, which annoys me in the context of "Babylon Five", though it's not too unusual for stand-alone episode characters, sadly.
There's just "evil" murderers and "good" mind-wiped people, and the central concept in fact works
against any idea of personal complexity or moral responsibility, in part because it avoids the issue of wider society and social pressures which are intimately linked to personal responsibility (gee, maybe if Earth Alliance respected the integrity of citizens to the point of
not wiping their minds to punish wrongdoing, there might be more respect for others and less murders in the first place. Malcolm's sadistic punishment of Edward was just following the legal system's lead, but that was never brought up). I felt I was being presented with, simply "bad people" or "good people". Might as well have had Edward simply possessed by the essence or memories of another character. And Malcolm is equally "evil", until his revenge-obsessed personality is wiped away and turned passive and "good" only for Sheridan to still hate him despite him being someone new.
. That just left a bad taste in my mouth. I don't want to see our hero radiating hate at a mild-mannered innocent monk, thank you. It was the only moment on the series that I think they really crossed a line with Sheridan. And of course they never laboured the point that the legal system is essentially making a new person only to force them into low-status jobs as "punishment" for what the old personality did despite the very idea being that you
wiped that personality. "Forgiveness is hard" is our lesson?
What is there to forgive?! "Brother Malcolm" hasn't done anything!
The idea just doesn't work for me; how can you have a successful tale about repentance or forgiveness or character growth when the entire idea is to wipe out existing memories and personalities? That's the antithesis of any form of successful moral development. Can you imagine what the series overall would be like if the ongoing Londo-G'Kar plotline involved total personality wipes? Can G'Kar forgive Londo? Well, if we wipe Londo's personality and turn him into a good little monk, only for G'Kar to still be angry, so G'Kar kills Londo only to be turned into a good little monk himelf....okay, I know this is a standalone not an arc, but to me the same rules apply. To me this episode did not explore ideas of forgiveness, personal responsibility, repentance, etc, because it makes use of a story-telling device that renders these things utterly pointless and impossible. Given the undertones of subtlty I often pick up elsewhere in B5, I do wonder if that was part of the point, but if so it miscalculated this time. The whole thing came across as sadistic (as did the Earth Alliance- I mean, what a warped society. Forget Nightwatch and Clark, the
original EA was messed up).
In my view, morality and responsibility and repentence are
shared concepts, and individuals exist as part of a wider whole; to avoid the wider social realities only to focus on the individuals alone guts the situation of any real claim to moral complexity. Without the EA in its entirety coming under scrutiny, the collective responsibilities of all its citizens explored, the idea just doesn't work for me. I suppose what I'm saying is, any issue of responsibility or personal repentance etc involving the mind-wipe
has to confront the manner in which EA is wiping its hands of any and all social responsibility in favour of "bad person" thinking- but the episode is not about that, it's about Brother Edward. Okay, the Minbari religious beliefs Delenn and Lennier describe might offer a subtle opposition to the Earther's way of doing things, but again I think B5 sadly miscalculated this time.
I certainly wouldn't call it a bad episode (I quite like most B5 standalone episodes), but I certainly can't view it in the way most others do, either. It didn't touch upon the ideas that to me should have been the real focus, it struggled with concepts that were undermined by the core concept of mind wipe, it seemed to simply overlook a lot of things that can't be overlooked in a story featuring legal mind-wipes and which is supposedly about forgiveness and moral responsibility, and it came across as simply...warped. Almost disturbing, though not in the way it wanted to be. Maybe it's just my personal issues with mind-wipe, which looms so large and disturbingly it wants to be the central focus, making it difficult for the episode to sit well with me.
Maybe that's the point- I'm used to seeing a great deal of subtle undertones working against the obvious surface details in a B5 plot, but here, while I still essentially see them, something isn't adding up for me. Again, whether that's truly the episode or my own strong feelings getting in the way, I'm not sure.
Am I supposed to believe that this ancient race from billions of years ago is going to fall for the oldest and most played-out trick in the book? If so they're not going to be much help once the war starts, all the Shadows need to do is use the old "Your fly is open" manoeuvre and these guys would fall for it. And they don't even wear pants!
