Sheridan faces an inquisitor from Earthdome.
####Overview

####Guest Stars

Wayne Alexander as Drazi. Raye Birk as William. Bruce Gray as Interrogator.
####Lurk

http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/synops/084.html
####Plot Points

Sheridan continues to be held in an interrogation center, most likely on Mars.

Clark believes Sheridan’s credibility as a war hero is a threat to the credibility of the administration. He wants Sheridan to recant in public to restore the public’s belief that “you can’t beat the system.”

Among the weapons Earth purchased from the Narn during the Earth-Minbari War were paingivers ([[The Parliament of Dreams]].)

The paingivers appear to work as well on humans as they do on Narns.
####Unanswered Questions

Was the interrogation real, or was it all in Sheridan’s mind like the interrogation of Sinclair in [[And the Sky Full of Stars]]?

Was it really morning?

Is Sheridan’s father still being held?
####Analysis

With Ivanova presumably continuing the campaign to retake Earth, it’s interesting that Clark’s people seem intent on breaking Sheridan to the exclusion of trying to interrogate him for information about battle plans or other practical matters. Perhaps they figure that he wouldn’t give up such information until he had gone over to their side anyway, but given the fact that Clark is willing to send Psi Corps units out to scan the general public ([[The Face of the Enemy]]) it’s strange a telepath hasn’t been brought in to pull military information from Sheridan’s head.

In [[The Face of the Enemy]], Ivanova quoted Sheridan as saying, “The person is expendable. The job is not.” The interrogator told Sheridan much the same thing, with one exception: Sheridan himself wasn’t expendable. But that was only true as long as there was the possibility of him performing a different job: communicating to the public that Clark couldn’t be beaten.

The interrogator appeared to have disabled the paingivers after Sheridan’s first exposure to them; on several occasions after that, the two of them were close together but Sheridan wasn’t shocked.

Assuming the images of Delenn weren’t telepathic projections of some kind on her part, Sheridan’s repeated visions of her echoed his experience on Z’ha’dum in [[Whatever Happened to Mr. Garibaldi?]] The knowledge that Delenn is still out there, awaiting his return, is an island of stability Sheridan can cling to.

The interrogator clearly knew of his relationship with Delenn — not a big secret after the ISN report in [[The Illusion of Truth]]. Will the next interrogator realize that Sheridan is using her as an anchor, and try to undermine that directly, e.g. by presenting faked evidence that something has happened to her?

“Room 17” is probably a reference to George Orwell’s “1984,” in which Winston Smith, the protagonist, hears of people taken to Room 101, but has no idea what goes on there.

The interrogator insisted that he was telling Sheridan the truth, but also insisted that the truth is fluid. That means little, if anything, the interrogator told Sheridan can be taken at face value.

The interrogator said he thought his speech about poison was a metaphor for something, but he couldn’t figure out what. In addition to the historical nod (see Notes) the speech can be interpreted as a metaphor for what he was trying to do to Sheridan. First he convinced Sheridan to agree to little lies (the time of day.) After a steady diet of small untruths, the interrogator hoped, Sheridan would become more and more receptive to bigger and bigger lies, until he was ready to swallow anything suggested to him.
####Notes

The interrogator mentioned that Sheridan had been interrogated once before. That referred to [[Comes the Inquisitor]], in which Sheridan was interrogated by Jack the Ripper (played by Wayne Alexander, who played the Drazi in this episode.)

Possible continuity glitch: When the interrogator left the room and the loud voice started repeating its message, Sheridan covered his ears. At the beginning of the next act, when the interrogator returned, Sheridan’s hands were bound to the chair. Of course, it’s possible other people came into the room in the interim and forced him to listen.

The interrogator didn’t get sick from the sandwich, he claimed, because he’d been eating a little poison every day and had built up a resistance. This has historical precedent; for instance, King Mithridates of Pontus, 135-63 BC, who eventually tried to commit suicide by swallowing large quantities of poison but couldn’t kill himself because his resistance was too great.

Perhaps simply by coincidence, this “1984”esque story is the 84th one-hour episode.

Taking numerology to an absurd extreme, add episode 84 to room 17 and you get 101, the mystery room number from “1984.”