2.07
Soul Mates
I don’t care what other people say, but when I get a profile of you from the side and you look like a caveman with a Jay Leno type jaw line, then no, you aren’t hot Mariel, in any way. Personally, if I’m in Psi Corps and they are arranging a marriage with someone like Talia I’m never complaining, but it could be some ugly chick like what happened to Londo. Is Talia really worth the chance that you could get an uggo as well, sure, why not. Finally, it must be hard for Keith Szarabajka to get work where he’s not the bad guy. His voice is just not a good guy voice, and I’ve never seen him in anything where hew wasn’t the bad guy.
Written By: Peter David
Directed By: John C. Flinn III
Bare Essentials:
A Plot - It’s the 30th anniversary of Londo’s Ascension Day and as a present the Emperor has allowed him to divorce two of his three wives. In a preemptive strike one of his wives, Mariel, decides to try and kill him with a booby trapped Centauri artifact. Another wife Timov supplies the blood that allows Londo to survive the attack, but will only do so if Londo is not told of her gift. Londo decides to keep Timov as his wife because she is loyal and also tells him where he stands, and as such he divorces Mariel and Daggair.
B Plot - Talia Winters’ former husband Matt Stoner has arrived on station. He has come to take Talia away with the promise that he can remove her Psi ability and allow her to lead a normal life. Turns out he’s just working for Psi Corps and wants to bring her back so that they can be mated again and possibly produce someone else with the empath powers that he possesses. Garibaldi realizes this and stops Stoner before he can leave with Talia.
C Plot - Delenn is having difficulty with the physical aspects of being human and enlists Commander Ivanova to help her learn how to handle herself.
More Arc, Less Arch:
Talia’s growing sense of unease with the Psi Corps has been built up over a number of episodes. It will culminate in A Race Through Dark Places but will be twisted around in Divided Loyalties.
The Minbari and their views on souls have been well represented in episodes like Soul Hunter and Points Of Departure. The subject is also tackled somewhat in the episodes And The Sky Full Of Stars, War Without End, Pt. 2 and the movie In The Beginning as well as for a tiny bit in the novel To Dream In The City Of Sorrows.
Who Are You? What Do Yo… Hey, I’m Asking The Questions Here!:
What exactly is the relationship between Mariel and G’Kar?
Just who exactly was in on the plot to kill Londo?
Idiosyncratic Musings:
It’s not a moral play or a philosophical meaning in any way, but the main issue of Soul Mates appears to be the person responsible for Londo’s attempted murder. I think it’s fairly obvious that Mariel was in on it, G’Kar even tells us as such. But, the issue then comes down to who was aiding her in the attempt. Stoner appears to be in on it, but that is highly questionable. What ties if any does he ever show towards Mariel or anyone Centauri, or even G’Kar for that matter? He doesn’t and his inclusion in the attempt would be tenuous at best, and that leaves his bringing the statue to be a coincidence. The only person left is G’Kar, and while his ties would be hard to prove I do also believe he is on it. If nothing else he either previously had a relationship with Mariel of some sort, or when she found out what Londo’s intentions were she went to G’Kar for possible aid against his hated nemesis. If that is the case then it’s entirely possible that G’Kar knew about the statue and its true purpose and alerted Mariel to what the statue could do. Outside of Stoner not being involved and Mariel definitely being involved it’s still a very gray topic in my mind with many different possible scenarios.
Londo chooses Timov and at first that may seem like an odd choice and one that doesn’t make that much sense. But, in actuality it makes perfect sense. Mariel just tried to kill him, and Londo knows this. Daggair is scheming and could care less about him. Timov speaks her mind to him all the time, and while she doesn’t have feelings for him she is loyal to him and would not waver in that loyalty. Timov was the smart and the correct choice, especially for a marriage that is pure political show.
A small point is the last line from Delenn, the one that reveals she is going through the human female menstrual cycle and therefore could have a human/Minbari child. This does raise all kinds of questions, such as her right to have said child, would it be natural, would there be any complications for her in the birthing process, etc.. Personally, my view on any matter like this is that outside of abortion, it’s the woman’s body and she can do whatever she wants. So, as long as she’s not doing something like ending the child’s life while still in the womb, and I don’t mean for medical reasons, she can do or have whatever she wants. But, this also brings into play the issue of the child and how it would interact with the rest of society, but that’s more of an issue for a later season.
I See What You Did There:
Londo’s three wives are Daggair, Timov and Mariel, but by the end of the episode only Timov remains.
Talia was married to another telepath, Matt Stoner, but that marriage was annulled when he left the Corps.
Stoner is an empath, meaning he has the ability to control the emotions of others. It’s unclear if he’s the only one or if there are more like him.
Say It Again Mac:
Londo, “Either in medlab or in hell. Either way the décor needs work.”
Londo again, “How odd. And I didn’t even know we were married.”
Funny exchange,
G’Kar, “If I were married to Londo Mollari I’d be concerned.”
Mariel, “G’Kar, if you were married to Londo Mollari, we’d all be concerned.”
Delenn, “Well, now that you mention it…Do you have any idea why I suddenly started getting these odd cramps?”
It’s Your Cultural Imperative:
Minbari do not bathe, they use a chemical compound that strips away the outer layer of the skin. This process is supposed to represent being born anew each day. The Minbari don’t sweat either, rather they exude some sort of fluid while they are asleep.
In their first year at the Psi Corps academy new students are assigned a senior trainee to supervise them. The Psi Corps also arranges marriages between their members based on how compatible they are genetically and how powerful their potential offspring would be.
Maybe its just coincidence, but when Talia is talking to Sheridan about her marriage there is a statue in the 20th century Earth exhibit that looks exactly like a larger version of the Centauri artifact that Londo receives from Mariel.
Londo is celebrating the 30th anniversary of his Ascension Day. It’s never made quite clear what that day entails, but it appears to me that it may either signify passage to adulthood or into politics. The actual celebration is a lot like the religious ceremony we saw from the Centauri in The Parliament Of Dreams. Except for Ascension Day is all in Londo’s honor and the guests must be bare foot.
The Markab are observing a day of high fasting. But, even the Markab who observe it try to cheat and obtain food and when they are caught by the priests this usually results in a small fight of some sort.
The Minbari believe that some souls are naturally attracted to each other and therefore lifetime after lifetime the same souls continue to run into each other.
On various former Centauri occupied Narn colonies there are numerous booby traps designed to react specifically to Centauri DNA or molecular structure.
Centauri blood is very hard to synthesize.
I Think This Might Be Based On Something:
Timov’s father is Algul, which is Arabic for demon. Due to his comic background it is possible that Algul is a slight reference to Batman’s eternal nemesis Ras Al-Ghul.
Timov is of course, vomit spelled backwards.
You Look Mighty Familiar:
Keith Szarabajka, Matt Stoner, played Teero in the Star Trek: Voyager episode Repression. He also played Anthony Tipet in the episode Via Negativa of X-Files. He was Dan Lubetkin for a couple of Roswell episodes. He was Damrus for the Star Trek: Enterprise episode Rogue Planet. His most memorable genre role would be that of surrogate father to Connor and immortal enemy of Angelus for a series of episodes of Angel.
Carel Struycken, the Trader, played Mr. Homn for a series of Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes. He was also the Giant for a bunch of Twin Peaks episodes. His biggest role was that of Lurch in Addams Family, Addams Family Values and Addams Family Reunion. However, he was also in the dreadful Ewoks: The Battle For Endor as Erak.
Lois Nettleton, Daggair, played the Ghost’s erstwhile girlfriend, Belle Crocker in the episode Ghost In The Machine of The Flash.
Jane Carr, Timov, portrayed Mary Reed on the Star Trek: Enterprise episode Silent Enemy. I most remember her for a trio of appearances she had on the always hilarious Curb Your Enthusiasm as the character of Fran Metzgar.
Casting Ahead:
The character of Mariel will not be seen again on the show, but she will be an important figure in The Legions Of Fire trilogy.
David L. Crowley is back once again as Officer Lou Welch.
That Wasn’t Supposed To Happen:
Mariel, Timov and Daggair look nothing like the three wives we saw in a picture that Londo had of them in The War Prayer.
The door to Londo’s quarters remains open long after Vir and Timov have entered to allow for Daggair to have a dramatic entrance through an open door. Later, when Garibaldi leaves the interrogation room that door also stays open to allow for Sheridan to leave the room dramatically a few seconds later. Later, when Timov comes to medlab to decide to give her blood to Londo the medlab door is magically open already to allow her silent dramatic entrance. All three instances shouldn’t happen since as we have seen many times the doors on B5 close right after someone enters/exits and don’t stay open waiting for someone else to pass through at a later time.
It’s been established that Psi Corps has total control over their members, and it will be further established that when they tell you to marry someone for the genetic offspring, you marry them. There was no need for Stoner to have to trick Talia into coming back, at this point she is still loyal to the Corps and because of that all they would have to do is tell her that she will marry Stoner again. Whether or not she would comply is a different matter, but the process of getting her to marry Stoner should have been more straight forward and it is pretty big continuity gaffe as is.
Another problem with Stoner secreting Talia away is that it doesn’t work at all when you take Divided Loyalties into account. If she does actually have a secondary personality then all Psi Corps would have to do is activate that and bring her back to be with Stoner. The counter argument that they wanted her to stay as a mole on B5 more than to mate with Stoner also doesn’t work because whether they activated her secondary personality or not they did send Stoner to try and get her to come back.
The Ombuds Have Decided:
Soul Mates is a humorous, touching and insightful episode. Peter Jurasik is spot on with his performance, providing both levity and gravitas when it is needed. Luckily, Jane Carr is equal to the task as Timov and stands up to Jurasik’s performance throughout and delivers strong work of her own. Soul Mates excels in two areas, humor and character. The humor in Londo’s plot not only serves to make you laugh, but it also helps to hide much of the character reveal happening with Londo so that it doesn’t feel heavy handed or forced. Londo’s character shines brightly in Soul Mates as all his pettiness, regret, insecurity and finally conscience is put on display for all to see. The Delenn/Ivanova subplot also helps add to the humor aspect of Soul Mates as well as revealing slight factors behind Delenn’s character in a very subtle way. Unfortunately, Soul Mates does contain a rather lackluster Talia plot that is ridiculed with logic leaps in its resolution and hampered by too much machismo, bravado and a strong moment for the female in the climax that feels false. But, the main Londo plot and the small Delenn plot are strong enough that the weakness of the rest of the story doesn’t drag the episode down all that much.
The plot between Delenn and Ivanova was a small thing, but it was a very funny thing and it was also quite realistic. On most shows the minor technicalities of someone undergoing the major change that Delenn’s character went through would have been glossed over or never explored at all. Babylon 5 looks at those minor aspects and explores them, in humorous fashion, helping to make Delenn’s transformation all the more real.
The entire resolution to the Stoner situation doesn’t make much sense. When the experiment turned him into an empath Psi Corps wouldn’t let him go as they would want to replicate the results of said experiment. They also wouldn’t have to go through some charade of officially letting him go while unofficially keeping him in house because they’re Psi Corps. The outside world doesn’t know much about their inner workings and they would have no problem keeping someone like Stoner’s secret from the outside world without the tiring charade. Then it’s topped off with the idea that Stoner had to trick Talia into returning with him. That was a continuity hole, and look above in That Wasn’t Supposed To Happen for the full scoop on that. The entire ruse to get Talia to leave with him is forced and doesn’t make sense because of how it works against continuity and because of that the entire plot doesn’t make much sense or work. It’s also not needed, we’ve already had one ex-lover of Talia’s show up on station, Ironheart in Mind War, with new powers and cause trouble, so the entire plot seems rehashed.
As I stated above the performance from Jane Carr was a thing of beauty. She stood toe to toe with Peter Jurasik and was quick and vicious with every barb that came from her lips. While the dialogue was witty on its own, her delivery is what sold the dialogue. Without her sardonic sense of delivery and timing I don’t think the episode would have been anywhere near what it was. Most importantly, in the one moment where it was required that she wasn’t funny, vicious or strong she was able to be vulnerable and hurt. A bravo performance from a heck of an actress, and one of the few times where a guest star can actually keep up with Peter Jurasik.
Rating:
84/100
B
Soul Mates is all over with, although I didn’t see any soul mates within. Next up is A Race Through Dark Places and more Talia, we’re in the middle of a Taliapalooza.
Cheers,
Bill
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