Draal helps the crew attempt to contact more of the First Ones. Sheridan works to hide his conspiracy from the Nightwatch.
####Overview

####Guest Stars

Shari Shattuck as Julie Musante. John Schuck as Draal.
####Lurk

http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/synops/049.html
####Backplot

Morden was directly involved in the assassination of President Santiago, and was in contact with then-Vice President Clark at the time.

There is bad blood of some kind between the Vorlons and at least some of the First Ones.

G’Kar’s operatives have told him something of the Rangers, though they don’t know the whole story. He suspects Delenn is involved somehow.

The Ministry of Peace is planning to purge a number of high-level officials from the Earth government on charges of sedition, immoral conduct, and espionage. It has gained even wider powers recently, including the ability to investigate people based on past associations.
####Unanswered Questions

Why were the First Ones upset at the Vorlons? Could it be related to the reason the Vorlons stayed behind when the other First Ones left?

What did they say to Ivanova?

What does G’Kar want Garibaldi to find out from the Book of G’Quan? The book mentions the Shadows; how detailed is its information?

How did the Machine record the conversation between Clark and Morden? Is it monitoring all communications in a vast region of space, or does it concentrate on Shadow-related conversations?

What impact will the recording have?

Will Musante return to the station? What did she make of Zack’s question? Will she link it to the release of the recording?
####Analysis

The First Ones at Sigma 957 were annoyed at the mention of the Vorlons, suggesting that the two races had a disagreement at some point in the past. Perhaps the Vorlons prevented, intentionally or otherwise, the final defeat of the Shadows in the previous war. It could also have something to do with the Vorlons’ manipulation of younger races ([[The Fall of Night]].) Perhaps the Vorlons didn’t depart with the other First Ones because they weren’t allowed to do so.

“When it is time, come to this place. Call our name. We will be here.” But what is their name? Does Draal know? Did the recognition code the White Star sent call them by name, or is this an additional hurdle to obtaining help from the Sigma 957 aliens?

The manifestation of the First Ones bore some resemblance to a Native American totem, or an African wood figure. Coincidence, or are the Vorlons far from the only visitors to Earth?

Ivanova was able to extract more information from the Great Machine than any normal human could have, according to Draal, and she managed to find a pretty specific recording in what must have been huge mountains of data (literally!) Is that due to her latent psi ability? What would happen if a full telepath like Lyta were to step into the machine? (See below.)

The Shadows (if that’s what they were) sensed Ivanova’s “presence” at Sigma 957. That implies that the Machine was actually projecting something there rather than passively scanning, and that the projection was tangible enough to provoke Ivanova to comment that the enemy “knows my name,” an odd remark in itself.

There may be something significant in Draal’s use of the term “the enemy” to describe Ivanova’s visitors; he didn’t say “Shadows.” On the other hand, given that she heard the typical Shadow chitter and that the floating lights were in the same pattern as the glowing Shadow eyes seen by Sheridan in Kosh’s vision (“In the Shadow of Z’ha’dum”, and in the season three title sequence) it’s probably safe to assume that she was in fact being observed by the Shadows.

Just how much contact there was between Ivanova and the Shadows wasn’t clear. Did they find out enough about her to know about the conspiracy of light? Did they have a hand in her discovery of the Clark recording? Given their apparent affinity for chaos in the ranks of potential enemies, the release of the recording and the subsequent upheaval on Earth might be exactly what they want.

The fact that Ivanova was able to escape the Shadows by returning to the “path” that connects all living things is perhaps more significant; what does it imply about the Shadows that they’re somehow excluded from that path? Does that have anything to do with their motive in participating in war after war across the millenia?

Presumably the machine was projecting Ivanova’s consciousness out among the stars; her greater-than-expected control over the machine, as mentioned above, suggests that the experience was telepathic in nature. That implies that to sense her, the Shadows must have some telepathic abilities as well; or perhaps they have a machine like Draal’s that can provide the equivalent.

The path might be related to the way telepathy works in the first place; if all life is connected on some level, then perhaps telepaths are simply beings who can make use of those connections. The Shadows’ involvement with Psi Corps ([[Matters of Honor]], among others) suggests that they consider telepaths important; that may relate to their apparent exclusion from the path as noted above. There may also be a reason they chose to use the Narn homeworld as a base in the last war ([[Matters of Honor]]) — the Narn have no telepaths of their own ([[The Gathering]].) A more sinister possibility is that the Shadow occupation is the reason there are no Narn telepaths; perhaps the Shadows eliminated them, leaving the Narn without the genetic code for psi ability. If that’s true, they may be cultivating contacts with the Psi Corps so they have an easy way to do the same to humans when the time comes.

The assignment of a “political officer” to military units is reminiscent of the way in which the Soviet Union maintained control over military units.

Each unit had its own political officer whose job it was to maintain ideological purity. These officers were tolerated at best, and were generally despised and feared.

Another link to Soviet history was Musante’s allusion to purging a number of high officials in a very public and permanent way. This brings to mind the purges experienced by the Soviet Union in the 30s — the great show trials of prominent individuals, the mass purges of the army (which wrought such havoc over the military that, by the time that the Soviets were actively engaged in World War II, most of the experienced officers had been removed, thus weakening the Soviet army to the point where the Germans felt they could easily defeat the Soviets.)

Why would Musante have to be recalled to Earth? Is she the low-level operative she appears to be, or someone more important? Perhaps the Nightwatch is simply short-staffed enough that they need all the manpower they can get to deal with such a potentially damaging situation.

Delenn’s denial of knowledge about the Rangers was an out-and-out lie, not a deception or a mistruth or a careful omission. Whose honor was she protecting, or does that rule no longer apply to her? ([[There All the Honor Lies]]) Perhaps, since her transformation, she no longer feels quite so bound by Minbari tradition; on the other hand, she still seems to cite it regularly.

Zack’s uniform troubles may be a metaphor for his situation; he doesn’t know where he fits in the scheme of things, and is uncomfortable no matter what he does.

Now that Ivanova has made contact with the First Ones at Sigma 957, might the forces of light be able to use the quantium-40 (if there actually is any on the planet) that Catherine Sakai was sent to investigate in [[Mind War]]?
####Notes

The First Ones at Sigma 957 were first seen in the first-season episode [[Mind War]]. Although the existence of the First Ones hadn’t been revealed at that point, G’Kar’s description of this race coincided almost exactly with Delenn’s description of the First Ones, an early piece of foreshadowing.

Julie Musante is named after two fans, Julie Helmer and Mark Musante.

Musante’s Earth-bound ship is the Loki, named for the Norse god of fire and mischief.

The silhouetted figure on the Nightwatch poster on the wall during Musante’s presentation bears a striking resemblance to the figure of Lenin used in Soviet propaganda posters between World Wars I and II.

The same figure also appears to have a raven on its shoulder, reminiscent of Ivanova’s appearance in Sheridan’s dream in [[All Alone in the Night]].

The skeletal spines sticking out of the Sigma 957 aliens’ ship are made of a computer model of a human footbone replicated and arranged in rows; that earned the ship the nickname “the footbone ship” at Foundation Imaging. There are also some triceratops parts used in the model.

Ardwight Chamberlain, who does Kosh’s voice (or rather, the English translation thereof) was also the voice of the First One in this episode. (See jms speaks.)