Home » Film & TV » Babylon 5 » To Live or to Die: Who Are You? What Do You Want? - Page 2

To Live or to Die: Who Are You? What Do You Want? - Page 2

© Losthiriel

He gets up and starts walking again, once more ashamed of himself and who he has become. Then he comes upon a fight - two men are beating up another man. When Franklin tries to intervene he is stabbed and all run away, leaving Franklin in a secluded area by himself, and bleeding heavily.

He tries shouting for a while, but no one can hear him. He is truly alone, and dying. While laying there he says how stupid what he did was. Then when someone agrees with him, he looks up to find himself staring at himself. This Franklin is clean-cut and looks like the doctor he once was. He says, "You said you had to keep walking until you met yourself. Well, here I am. So, if we're gonna talk, let's talk. Only, I don't think you have enough time."

The clean-cut Franklin is taunting the dying Franklin, asking him what does he have to live for? (This question is a foreshadowing of the same question that Sheridan is asked by Lorien.) Apparently that is what galvanizes Franklin to do something about his situation, to finally take charge of his life and make the decision to live. He wants to do it over again; he wants another chance. So he managed to haul himself up a ladder and into the middle of Downbelow, where he is rushed to Medlab.

Franklin admits to Garibaldi that he found what he needed, "a short, sharp kick to the head", and that when he found himself, he did not like himself very much.

He is offered his old job back and takes it right away. At this point he can answer two very important questions: Who are you? Dr. Stephen Franklin, someone who does not have to do more, but has to do better, and without drugs. He says, "he can define himself by what he is and not what he isn't. Sheridan asks what that is. "I'm alive," Franklin tells him. "Everything else is negotiable."" And What do you want? He wants a second chance to do things in his life the right way. He missed out on so many things in life because he always looked at himself in terms of who he was not, and now he wants to change that. He will live life in terms of who he is, and what he wants.

The copyright of the article To Live or to Die: Who Are You? What Do You Want? - Page 2 in Babylon 5 is owned by Losthiriel. Permission to republish To Live or to Die: Who Are You? What Do You Want? - Page 2 in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.