####Overview

Bester finds himself at odds with others within the Psi Corps and seeks Sheridan’s help, offering information about the Shadows in return. G’Kar presses for admission to the conspiracy of light.
####Guest Stars

Walter Koenig as Bester. Joan McMurtrey as Carolyn.
####Lurk

http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/synops/058.html
####Backplot

Telepaths who refuse to take sleeper drugs to suppress their abilities, or to join the Psi Corps, are sent to reeducation camps, one of which is on Mars. The Corps refers to them informally as “blips.”

The Shadows killed most of the Narn telepaths a thousand years ago. They were driven off by G’Quan and the remaining telepaths.

Telepaths can disrupt the link between Shadow ships and their non-telepathic pilots. The Shadows have thus been infiltrating Psi Corps, taking control of it from inside to prevent it from being used as a weapon against them. They are also capturing rogue human telepaths and altering them with cybernetic implants, possibly with the intent of using them as telepath-proof pilots.

Telepaths can locate ships by focusing on the occupants’ thought patterns. Their range is greatly expanded in hyperspace. Psi Corps kept

that a secret to prevent the Earth military from putting its members on the front lines.

Psi Cops are trained to pilot all the latest Earth Alliance vessels.
####Unanswered Questions

Were Franklin and Bester able to save Carolyn?

Are the rest of the telepaths still in cryonic suspension and on B5? Where were they taken, if not?

How much more does Bester know about the Shadows and their involvement with the Corps?

Who were the aliens in Carolyn’s flashback and on the bridge of the cargo ship?

Was Carolyn telekinetic, or did her modifications give her that ability? If the latter, are the Shadows telekinetic too?
####Analysis

Delenn still isn’t being completely open with G’Kar — she neglected to tell him about Kosh’s involvement, for instance. Perhaps she knows of Kosh’s manipulation of G’Kar ([[Dust to Dust]]) and doesn’t want the illusion shattered.

Even someone as highly ranked as Bester isn’t immune from the Corps’ rules about arranged marriages. On the other hand, given his obvious sense of genetic superiority, he may feel it’s his duty to the future of the human race to help breed a better telepath.

The mere presence of Bester stopped the Shadow warship from attacking the White Star (assuming it didn’t stop to avoid risking damage to the “weapons components.”) Was that because it couldn’t get close enough to attack without Bester interfering with its pilot’s bond? In any case, the effect is consistent with Talia’s experience in “In the Shadow of Z’ha’dum”, in which she was able to sense, even see, the Shadows without consciously probing for them.

A telepath who consciously chooses to disrupt a Shadow ship might be even more dangerous to them, though that isn’t clear.

Is there a reason the Shadows are choosing human telepaths in particular? Sheridan speculated that “they’re using humans to pilot their ships.” Is that universally true, or are humans simply one of a large number of races being used for that purpose? Would, for instance, a Centauri telepath be any good against a Shadow ship with a human pilot? The events on Narn suggest that telepathy’s effect on the Shadows isn’t race-specific.

If telepathy is a weapon against the Shadows, Sheridan may want to stock up on Dust ([[Dust to Dust]].) And given that the Psi Corps produces the stuff, Bester may be able to arrange that.

The Shadows may also be looking for telepaths for use as hyperspace trackers; presumably they know about the scanning abilities revealed by Bester.

Is detecting other ships in hyperspace something peculiar to human telepaths? If not, do other races use telepaths for that purpose? It seems odd that the ability would remain a secret for so long if all races with telepaths can use them to scout in hyperspace. On the other hand, each race who’s discovered the effect might consider it a military advantage and thus keep it under wraps.

Did Bester find out about Ivanova when she slapped him? Physical contact intensifies psi ability (established as early as [[The Gathering]]) but the slap was probably too brief to be of any use. However, he did take care to make her angry, which, as she herself has observed ([[Dust to Dust]]) makes scans much easier.

Does Ivanova’s latent telepathy provide any protection against attack by a Shadow ship? Ivanova has only encountered a Shadow ship once, in [[Matters of Honor]], and it fired at the White Star — but it didn’t hit the White Star. Perhaps Sheridan was wrong about why the Shadows missed. On the other hand, given the behavior of the Shadow ship in this episode, it’s unlikely the ship in the previous encounter would have pursued the White Star like it did. (See jms speaks)

As the only major race without telepaths, the Narn may be in for even more bloodshed and loss; they will be unable to protect themselves from the Shadows as they were (barely) able to before.

The cybernetic implants were perhaps put in place at the Mars facility destroyed by Garibaldi and Sinclair in comic #8, “Silent Enemies.” If so, it implies that the Corps, or some component of it, was abetting the Shadows in their quest to make human telepaths useless as weapons. However, the presence of the unidentified aliens, both on the cargo ship and in Carolyn’s flashback, strongly suggests that the operation was performed elsewhere, or without the Corps’ assistance.

Carolyn’s entanglement is slightly reminiscent of Draal’s attachment to the Great Machine in Epsilon 3 ([[Voices of Authority]].) When she said that telepaths prevent her from “hearing the machine,” was she talking about Shadow ships, or something similar to Epsilon 3? The Machine does seem to be affected by telepathy; witness Ivanova’s ability to pull extra information out of it when she was there.

What effect will Carolyn’s modifications have on her unborn child, assuming the Shadows’ agents allowed it to live?

The White Star can no longer be considered even remotely secret now that Bester has been allowed to wander around the bridge. Even if he truly opposes the Shadows, his primary motives might prompt him to tell others about the ship.

Bester is presumably still safely in his position at the Psi Corps; even if he’s unable to get any Corps telepaths to help combat the Shadows, he’ll likely be able to arrange for Franklin’s underground railroad to continue its work unmolested, providing the army of light with a supply of telepaths with which to man its ships.

His discovery of the Shadows and their involvement with the Corps, though, indicates that he’s not above unauthorized scans of his own people if it suits his purposes. Presumably he’s very careful to only scan people he’s confident won’t be able to sense him; or he scans them on some other pretense and they’re unable to tell that he’s pulling Shadow information from their heads too.

Bester claimed he last saw Carolyn four weeks earlier, but never elaborated on what happened to her after that. Was she spirited off on official pretenses, or did the Shadows or their agents kidnap her out of the middle of a Psi Corps installation on Mars?

Bester’s entrance into the army of light bears similarity to Marcus’ and Sheridan’s. All three vowed to fight on the side of light after a loved one was killed or taken by the Shadows.

Now that G’Kar is a full member of the war council, perhaps he’ll save Garibaldi the trouble of poring slowly through the Book of G’Quan for clues and will tell the others everything his people know about the Shadows and how to defeat them.
####Notes

The title may be a reference to the Trail of Tears, the forced march of thousands of American Indians away from their ancestral lands onto government-apportioned reservations half a continent away.

Vorlons also dislike telepaths, according to Garibaldi in [[Deathwalker]].

Bester quotes from Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado.”