Between the Darkness and the Light

Infobox Television episode
Title = Between the Darkness and the Light
Series = Babylon 5


Caption =
Season = 4
Episode = 19
Airdate = 6 October 1997
Production = 419
Writer = J. Michael Straczynski
Director = David Eagle
Guests = Marc Gomes (Eisensen)
Bruce Gray (Interrogator)
Marjorie Monaghan (Number One)
David Purdham (Captain James)
Musetta Vander (Felicia)
Episode list = List of "Babylon 5" episodes
Prev = Intersections in Real Time
Next = Endgame

"Between the Darkness and the Light" is an episode from the fourth season of the science-fiction television series "Babylon 5".

ynopsis

The episode begins with Sheridan believing that he is sitting in his quarters on Babylon 5, having a meal with Dr. Stephen Franklin. Franklin is asking how he managed to escape from the prison on Mars where he was being tortured. Franklin goes on to ask Sheridan for details about the resistance, which strikes Sheridan as odd since Franklin was present for the fighting on Mars and elsewhere. It turns out that in reality, Sheridan is still in his prison cell on Mars - the interrogators are using drugs to alter his mind in an attempt to get vital information from him about the resistance forces next move.

Meanwhile, Michael Garibaldi is taken prisoner by the Mars Resistance. Feeling that Garibaldi's betrayal of Sheridan may have doomed the cause for Martian independence, Number One - the leader of the Mars Resistance - wants to kill Garibaldi, and offers to let Stephen Franklin do the job. But when Garibaldi pleads for his life and says that he has an excuse for why he turned Sheridan over to forces loyal to President Clark, Franklin decides to not kill him but to hear him out. Garibaldi then tries to convince Franklin and the others that PsiCop Alfred Bester had manipulated him, but no one believes him. Seeing Lyta Alexander, a telepath, Garibaldi sees an opportunity to convince everyone that he had been manipulated by Bester. Dr. Franklin forces Number One to allow Lyta to scan Garibaldi's mind, and Lyta is able to convince everyone that Garibaldi was telling the truth. Garibaldi is freed and begins working on a plan to rescue Sheridan.

With Sheridan in prison and being tortured, the resistance fleet is now under the command of Commander Ivanova, Sheridan's second-in-command on Babylon 5. She has kept up the offensive started by Sheridan, and her fleet continues to win battle after battle against Earth forces still loyal to President Clark. They also continue to receive defectors from Earthforce as well. After defeating one group of loyalist vessels, Ivanova learns from one of the prisoners that President Morgan Clark has assembled an elite group of advanced starships to ambush Ivanova's fleet. She decides that the White Star warships are the most capable of handling this threat, and so she leaves the resistance fleet under the command of Sheridan's old warship, the "Agamemnon", and leads a force of White Stars to the sector of space where Clark's advanced warships are supposed to be located.

Having been made into the hero of the hour by ISN, Garibaldi learns where Sheridan is being held. He, Dr. Franklin, and Alexander manage to infiltrate the prison where Sheridan is being held. Garibaldi is stabbed in the process with Franklin stitching him up. They make their way to Sheridan's cell by telling the guards that they are there to "walk Sheridan around the block several times" - essentially they are going to torture him some more. The guards allow them into Sheridan's cell, where they find him drugged. Dr. Franklin helps Sheridan to walk, and they take him back to the prison entrance. The suddenly-suspicious guards try to stop the group from leaving, but Garibaldi and his party kill the guards. Sheridan - still drugged and enraged at his treatment - empties a PPG into one of the guards before leaving with the others.

Ivanova's fleet engages the advanced loyalist starships, which are Omega class destroyers which had been merged with Shadow technology. These destroyers have been equipped with improved weapons and Shadow-technology hulls. In the ensuing battle the advanced destroyers put up a strong fight, but are all ultimately destroyed by the White Stars, which are smaller but faster and much more maneuverable than the lumbering destroyers. However, many of the White Stars are themselves destroyed or heavily damaged in the fight. Among them is Ivanova's flagship, which is nearly destroyed when it is struck by a large piece of debris from an advanced destroyer. Ivanova is critically injured in the collision, and Marcus Cole carries her limp body away from the wrecked bridge.

Sheridan arrives back at the fleet. He and Delenn have a reunion on board the Minbari flagship. They go to see Ivanova, who has been paralyzed, and who has only a few days left to live. Ivanova is at peace, and tells Sheridan not to carry any guilt around for what happened to her. As a final request, she asks Sheridan to command the final battles for Earth and Mars from the bridge of the "EAS Agamemnon", his old warship. With the permission of Captain James, Sheridan takes command of the "Agamemnon", and puts the resistance fleet on course for Mars.

In a secondary plotline, Delenn, the Minbari Ambassador to Babylon 5 and Sheridan's lover, hears from her aide Lennier that Ambassdor Londo Mollari of the Centauri is holding a closed session of the Babylon 5 council. Fearing the worst, she goes to the meeting and learns from Londo, his aide Vir Cotto, and Narn Ambassdor G'Kar that the entire council has voted to supply warships to the resistance fleet to help rescue Sheridan and liberate Earth from President Clark's fascist regime. Delenn was not invited to the meeting because her presence would make it appear that the Council was voting to support her personal attempt to save her lover, not as a gesture of real support. For the first time, Narn and Centauri vessels will be serving side-by-side in the same cause.

Arc significance

* The Mars resistance captures Garibaldi and he convinces them that Sheridan's betrayal was not his doing
* Clark's forces have retrofitted some Omega-class destroyers with Shadow technology and are preparing to ambush Sheridan's fleet.
* Garibaldi, Franklin and Lyta rescue Sheridan.
* Ivanova is gravely wounded fighting the Shadow-enhanced destroyers.
* The Centauri and Narn are flying side-by-side in Sheridan's fleet.

Production details

Quotes

Outside Sheridan's cell: Garibaldi: Maybe you saw me on ISN. Guard: I don't watch TV. It's a cultural wasteland full of inappropriate metaphors and an unrealistic portrayal of life created by the liberal media elite.

External links