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Babylon 5 - 'Shadow Dancing'


By Scott O'Callaghan
posted: 04:58 pm ET
05 January 2001

Delenn gets the Non-Aligned Worlds to help out in space. Back home, Franklin gets his butt served to him, courtesy of a knife. He meets himself. And then Delenn meets Sheridan’s wife, Anna.

(Originally aired October 21, 1996)

Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by Kim Friedman

GUEST STARS

Shirley Prestia -- Barbara Cooper
Melissa Gilbert -- Anna Sheridan

You might remember Melissa Gilbert as little Laura Ingalls from Little House on the Prairi, now all grown up and married to Bruce Boxleitner, who of course plays onscreen husband John Sheridan.

WATCH OUT FOR

* Incomplete credits. Neither character in the initial credits bears a last name, a tactic that hides the fact that the "Anna" Melissa Gilbert plays as Anna Sheridan. Fans might have suspected this, but remember that actress Beth Toussaint originated the role of Anna Sheridan.

* A snowglobe in plain sight, both when Delenn enters Sheridan’s quarters early in the episode and again when she leaves. The image echoes her vision in "War Without End (Part Two)".

ANALYSIS

What with Sheridan's victory, Franklin's near-death and Ivanova and Marcus on the front lines, this episode is tense enough before the stinger, but those last few minutes with Anna Sheridan steal the show.

All she gets here is two lines, but they’re enough. Jaws drop. The audience is in shock. Anna Sheridan is back.

What’s worse is that she comes back just as Delenn and Sheridan are becoming intimate. It’s intimacy in an almost courtly fashion. Delenn is not there for the nookie. She watches Sheridan sleep-- a contrast to Ivanova’s comically frustrated attempt at sleep aboard the White Star -- and will continue to do so for two more days.

Anna’s return disrupts this growing intimacy. Anna is a reminder of everything that was. While Delenn might be Sheridan’s future, Anna is his past, a past everyone had thought long gone and forgotten.

But Anna Sheridan is back.

What the self says

Franklin’s walk-about subplot pays off nicely in this episode. Dying on the floor in Downbelow, Franklin does meet himself, and that self is not very nice.

He’s not nice, but he’s got a lot to say. He deconstructs Franklin’s behavior, ripping into the dying doctor. It’s insight of the clearest order. It’s life-changing stuff.

Franklin will never be the same.

He will savor the moments. He will stop running away. He’s ready to join the fight, really in it now and not half-heartedly trying to keep up. The stims have allowed him to do more, but now he must do better.

With the fighting escalating, there’s a great deal of work for a doctor to do. There are lives to save. Many lives.

COMING UP NEXT

"Z’ha’dum"

Michael disappears.
John must go to Z’ha’dum.
He jumps. He jumps now.

 

Related Stories:

The Name of the Place: SPACE.com's Babylon 5 Nexus

Babylon 5 - 'And the Rock Cried Out, No Hiding Place'

Babylon 5 - 'Grey 17 Is Missing'

Babylon 5 - 'Walkabout'

 

 

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