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Misunderstandings

© Losthiriel

Another thought involves a religious allusion: Then the Centauri sent a battle cruiser to blockade Babylon 5. Sheridan finds a way to call their bluff, and is ready to talk with them, but a Narn cruiser comes in and takes out the Centauri, but not with out getting damaged itself. When it tried to form a jump point, it explodes.

The first two times the Narn survive and the Centauri die. This last time, both die. Both are sacrificed for the war, to prove a point - for the Narn to say I did it first, and then become martyrs. Just like JMS uses symbols of Christianity in other episodes, perhaps this is not an accident. The third one, of both Centauri and Narn, is the sacrifice, like a Jesus figure, because it included both races. Both suffered this time instead of only one side. Now, what will they do with that suffering?

Another allusion to the Jesus figure is G'Kar describing his father's death at the hands of the Centauri to the ISN reporter on the station.

"My family lived in G'kamizad, one of the larger cities on Narn. My father... served in a Centauri household during the last years of the rebellion. I was barely a pouchling at the time. My mother was ill, unable to escape through the underground, so we all stayed. It was a difficult time--we were striking deep into Centauri resources. Things were tense. One day, my father spilled a cup of hot jala on the mistress of the house, and...and she had him killed. They took him out, tied his hands together, and hung him from a Jalwa tree for three days. I came to him the last night against my mother's orders, and he looked down at me. He said he was proud and to go and fight and...be all the things he never was. Then he died. The next morning I ran away and killed my first Centauri."(Lurkers Guide)

To me this is another reference to Jesus and suffering. With two such references in the same episode, I do not think it is coincidence, and I think we are supposed to get feelings of sacrifice, pain, and suffering. The other underlying hidden meaning though, is to wait for the joy of redemption - it will come. Not now, but later, after the suffering.

Anyway, two thoughts to ponder. More Londo next time!