In the Shadow of Z'ha'dum
"In the Shadow of Z'ha'dum" is an episode from the second season of the science fiction television series Babylon 5.
Synopsis
Sheridan holds Morden in custody and learns some of what happened to the expedition on which his wife was lost.
Arc significance
- Vir reveals his desire to see Morden beheaded:
| “ |
I'd like to live just long enough to be there when they cut off your head and stick it on a pike as a warning to the next ten generations that some favors come with too high a price. I would look up at your lifeless eyes and wave like this. Can you and your associates arrange that for me, Mr. Morden? |
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- The history of the war between the Shadows and the other races, including the First Ones, is described for the first time.
- This episode establishes Morden's relationship to Anna Sheridan.
- This is the first episode where Franklin states he's taking stims, foreshadowing his future abuse.
- Franklin reveals himself to be a Foundationist, a religion founded just after humans first went into space.
- The first mention of the Nightwatch.
- The Vorlons are revealed as being one of the First Ones.
- Z'ha'dum is revealed to be the home of the Shadows.
- This episode establishes Sheridan's relationship to Delenn.
- The question that Delenn asked in Season 1 to which she was simply given the answer 'yes' was 'Have the Shadows returned to Z'ha'dum'?
Production details
- This episode was originally intended to air after "Knives", rather than before, with Sheridan's hallucination of the Icarus in that episode serving as a reminder to the audience of his wife's fate before more details were revealed in this episode.[1]
Cultural references
- Pierce Maccabee is the regional director of the Ministry of Peace, AKA "Minipax"—a reference to the organization of the same name and nickname—as in Orwell's 1984.
- Sheridan claims that during World War II, Winston Churchill refused to evacuate Coventry before its bombing during the Blitz because it would give away the fact that they had cracked the Enigma code. Churchill supposedly had a haunted look in his eyes as he toured the ruins, knowing that he could have saved the people who were killed, at the cost of endangering the war as a whole (November 14, 1940 and April 8, 1941). The truth is somewhat less clear cut, and there is still some dispute about exactly what was known at the time. It is true that intelligence regarding a Luftwaffe attack at that date had been gathered by the codebreakers at Bletchley Park, however the target was assumed to be London. The true target was only determined on the afternoon immediately preceding the night of the attack, hence a warning could not have been sent without revealing the extent of the Allied codebreaking success.[2] It is possible that more advanced warning and careful planning could have enabled some mitigation of the effects of the bombing, however this idea is speculative at best.
- The name Z'ha'dum can be seen as a homage to Tolkien's Khazad-dûm (Moria) in Middle Earth. Just as Khazad-dûm has been abandoned for centuries (or millienia), and is now inhabited by an ancient evil; so too Z'ha'dum, once the home of a mighty civilization, is now the home of an ancient and deadly evil.
References
External links
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Category:Babylon 5
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| 1994–1995 |
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Category:Babylon 5
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