Babylon 5: Spider in the Web
May 13, 2018 6:36 PM - Season 2, Episode 6 - Subscribe

A negotiation between Futurecorp and the Provisional Martian Government is derailed by the assassination of the Futurecorp Representative... and Talia is next on the hit list. "You threw one [telepath] out a third-story window on Io." "There was an ample pool beneath the window!"

-Taro Isagi, of Futurecorp, is meeting with Amanda Carter. EarthGov is suspicious that Taro is trying to fund a new Martian rebellion (from s1); he's really a 'progressive change' kinda guy, selling Martian resources to alien governments to turn Mars, over the next decade, into a self-sufficient colony. Carter likes the plan, but is hesitant as compromises please no one.
-...but then after the first round of negotiations, Taro is killed by some dude screaming "Free Mars!" Talia scans the dude and sees his own death, which is... unusual. After the scan, he wanders off in a haze instead of killing Talia. Talia also notes that he was effectively emotionless, unlike every other Free Mars terrorist she's scanned.
-There's also a subplot about Earthgov trying to make Sheridan spy on the negotiations, which is immediately rendered moot by the murder.
-Horn is getting creepy high-tech instructions from some offsite person or persons named "Control." Control tells Horn to kill Talia. Meanwhile, "Thirteen", in the San Diego Wasteland, is also interfacing with Control...
-Horn tries to kill Talia and fails, because Talia triggers something in his memory--what did they do to him?
-Garibaldi puts Talia under protective custody.
-We learn that telepathic kids are raised by PsiCorps--she never saw her parents again, and five-year-olds are assigned to older students (in Talia's case, a lovely lass named "Abby") in a Big Sister-type arrangement. Once the kids turn six, the mentor is reassigned to another five-year-old. This is warmly remembered by Talia but is incredibly creepy.
-The murderer is IDed as the presumed-dead terrorist Abel Horn. Sheridan's buddy was killed by one of Horn's bombs, so Now It's Personal(TM).
-Horn remembers his romantic past with Amanda Carter, secret Free Mars terrorist, and tries to force her to smuggle him to Mars and/or find Talia to 'fix him'. His programming reverts when she refuses, and he attacks her.
-Sheridan and Talia figure out that Horn is likely a product of the Lazarus experiments of the 2230s: a near-death person is telepathically rewired (with the telepath forcing the 'patient' to focus on the moment of his or her death) as an AI takes over control of almost all of their mind. These soldiers are programmable.
-Carter is forced to call Talia into Horn's trap. She scans him, and realizes that PsiCorps--and some aliens--are implicated in Horn's reprogramming.
-Talia is taken hostage. Sheridan and Garibaldi almost break through Horn's programming, but fail. He initiates a self-destruct, destroying all of Sheridan's evidence.
-Talia tells no one of PsiCorps' involvement in Horn's reprogramming.
-Turns out Sheridan is a big conspiracy theorist and has been chasing 'Bureau 13' for years. He thinks Horn might have been a key to let him in.
-The PsiCop in Horn's flashback is officially listed as dead--and Talia seems to recognize her...
-Ivanova thinks Talia is "interesting."
posted by flibbertigibbet (2 comments total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
One thing I noticed on rewatching this is how bad Garibaldi is at his job. Four officers to escort Talia to the meeting, but they just let her walk in without a search and don’t hear the cyber zombie screaming his head off.

Also way more guest star power than I remember. Adrienne Barbeau? James Shigeta?! Jessica Walter?!? An embarrassment of riches.
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 12:02 AM on February 1, 2021


Garibaldi is ALWAYS bad at his job, it's his defining feature. This episode didn't really have a B-plot, except that Sheridan is also a big slacker and lets Ivanovna do all the hard parts of his job while he waxes poetic about First Contact.
posted by rikschell at 8:21 PM on September 2, 2023


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