{"id":6989,"date":"2018-09-24T13:00:01","date_gmt":"2018-09-24T20:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/?p=6989"},"modified":"2018-09-20T17:08:35","modified_gmt":"2018-09-21T00:08:35","slug":"mark-watches-babylon-5-s01e02-soul-hunter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2018\/09\/mark-watches-babylon-5-s01e02-soul-hunter\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Watches ‘Babylon 5’: S01E02 – Soul Hunter"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the second episode of the first season of Babylon 5<\/i>, a mysterious and controversial figure arrives aboard the station. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch Babylon 5<\/i>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I HAVE QUESTIONS, LET\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S GO.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Show<\/b><\/p>\n

This really feels like the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153start\u00e2\u20ac\u009d of Babylon 5<\/i> for me. I got to watch the first film and the premiere in last week\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s batch, but now is the time when I get to settle in to see what this show is going to try to do. I am not sure of that yet, which is to be expected; I am barely<\/i> at the beginning of it. Tonally, this feels very serious; visually, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a lot darker than most things I watch, both literally and figuratively. Seriously, like two episodes in and we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re talking about the nature of death and the existence of souls. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still a hint of serialization going on here, and I think<\/i> that all the weird stuff around Sinclair and the Minbari is related to his patch of missing time at the end of the war. Which evokes determinism, fate, free will… all in a tiny subplot in an episode about something else. At its heart, though, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Soul Hunter\u00e2\u20ac\u009d introduces some important Minbari mythology while giving us a solid (but not groundbreaking) science fiction story.<\/p>\n

The Victim<\/b><\/p>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll get to some of the meatier stuff later, but there was one element to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Soul Hunter\u00e2\u20ac\u009d that was striking to me. The unnamed Soul Hunter in this episode later confirms the stories Delenn heard: that Soul Hunters only seek out \u00e2\u20ac\u0153special\u00e2\u20ac\u009d souls, people worthy of being \u00e2\u20ac\u0153saved.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d We watch this happen in an unnerving sequence in which a man, caught cheating, is chased and then stabbed to death. (Slight nitpick: the man gets stabbed in the stomach, but then later, in the Medlab, his injury is in his chest?) The Soul Hunter basically narrates the man\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s death WHILE Dr. Franklin is working on him. IT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S A LOT. Now, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not told why<\/i> this specific soul is so important to this specific Soul Hunter, and I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t actually feel the need<\/i> to know either. I can just accept that the Soul Hunter found something interesting in that person.<\/p>\n

I was, however, far more intrigued by the fact that this episode highly suggested that there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an underbelly to Babylon 5<\/i>, and that on the ship, this is some sort of lower class. The victim is dressed to look as if he lives in poverty, ragged clothes and all. So… how does<\/i> money work in this universe? If we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re looking at something akin to capitalism in our world, then what other aspect will crop up in this show? The atmosphere on the Babylon 5<\/i> station felt more rough around the edges than I expected, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m curious if this will pop up in future episodes.<\/p>\n

Dr. Franklin<\/b><\/p>\n

Ah, so here\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s my answer to Dr. Kyle\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s unexplained disappearance! He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s off to work for the newly elected president, and in his place, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Dr. Franklin. (Who, I will not lie, is a bit of a babe.) I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m fascinated by the fact that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s posited as the skeptic throughout this episode. It seems obvious on the surface; he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a medical doctor, and thus, he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not going to believe in the more mystical shit that he hears over the course of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Soul Hunter.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d But I am usually interested by skeptics in speculative fiction narratives. Clearly, the world is not that small around<\/i> Dr. Franklin. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s seen innumerable alien races; he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s probably seen them do weird shit, too. So why the skepticism on top<\/i> of that? Why is he resistant to the idea that there are souls that Soul Hunters can take and then \u00e2\u20ac\u0153keep\u00e2\u20ac\u009d alive? At the same time, he was very<\/i> intrigued by what he had heard that Sinclair has witnessed, so it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not like he isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t willing to expand his knowledge of the universe.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Still, VERY INTERESTING.<\/p>\n

Soul Hunters<\/b><\/p>\n

Babylon 5<\/i> is not necessarily making this easy for me, but I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want that to seem like I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m complaining. I know some<\/i> of the Minbari\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s history and mythology, but \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Soul Hunter\u00e2\u20ac\u009d introduces a part of their culture\/reality that felt new and vital. We learn here that Minbari souls basically join with others and more or less \u00e2\u20ac\u0153reincarnate\u00e2\u20ac\u009d into a new Minbari down the line. That one element helps explain why Delenn is so completely and utterly horrified by the Soul Hunter. Even if these beings are<\/i> preserving souls\u00e2\u20ac\u201dand I have no reason to believe they aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t\u00e2\u20ac\u201dtheir act prevents the Minbari from growing. From continuing their species. From having that being\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s knowledge in the spiritual pool, so to speak. Initially, I read \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Soul Hunter\u00e2\u20ac\u009d as a clash between truth and fiction, but by the end of the episode, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d changed my mind. I assumed that perhaps the Minbari had a flawed take on the Soul Hunters and that the Soul Hunters maybe weren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t doing as they said they were doing, that a fundamental misunderstanding was at the heart of this.<\/p>\n

That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not the case, though. There are two groups here\u00e2\u20ac\u201dthe Soul Hunters and the Minbari\u00e2\u20ac\u201dwhose interests are completely at odds with one another. Given what we see in the climax and the final moments of this episode, we know the Soul Hunters really could<\/i> preserve souls and talk to them. We know that Delenn released a Minbari soul as well. Thus, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m partial to believing that Delenn and the Minbari were wronged here, even if the Soul Hunters meant well. They were preserving Minbari souls, despite that Minbari souls needed to move on and join the other deceased Minbari.<\/p>\n

Of course, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m ignoring the greater injustice, which is that the specific Soul Hunter in this episode was killing people just to get to their souls. Why? Because a long time ago, Delenn and other Minbari stopped that Soul Hunter from taking the soul of Dukhat, some great military leader. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t understand Dukhat\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s importance, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not sure I am supposed to yet, but the motivation is there: the Soul Hunter didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to lose another opportunity again. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s real<\/i> fucked up, especially since the Soul Hunter is so nonchalant about ripping souls from bodies. But it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s wild to me that this act unearths something else<\/i>: Delenn is not quite who she says she is. Another thing I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get: why being Satai is a big deal. I figure that has to do with Sinclair being \u00e2\u20ac\u0153chosen\u00e2\u20ac\u009d for… something? So, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s possibly some huge manipulation going on here that Sinclair and the other humans are unaware of?<\/p>\n

THIS SHOW IS ALREADY FULL OF MYSTERIES, WHAT IS IT DOING TO ME.<\/p>\n

The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Soul Hunter\u00e2\u20ac\u009d can be downloaded here for $0.99<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n

– My YA contemporary debut, ANGER IS A GIFT<\/a>, is now out in the world!\u00c2\u00a0<\/strong>If you’d like to stay up-to-date on all announcements regarding my books, sign up for my newsletter<\/a>! DO IT.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"