Zocalo: Spoiler-free Discussion of “Walkabout”

Consequences arrive almost immediately after the death of Kosh, as a distraught Lyta Alexander meets the new boss, not the same as the old boss. Meanwhile, Dr. Franklin goes on an appropriative journey. Please discuss “Walkabout” here, but please leave the spoilers in the other place.

8 thoughts on “Zocalo: Spoiler-free Discussion of “Walkabout””

  1. I did not greatly enjoy the Franklin plot here, although only for the implementation, did not need the full song! I do enjoy Franklin’s overall journey in this storyline.

    And I always forget the better half of this episode – the Shadow war plot has been progressing steadily the last few eps and so they blur a little – in great awesomeness.

  2. A point made by Andy Lane in his wonderful “The Babylon File” book: the Vorlon transport makes a detour to have a look at Sheridan and nobody seems to care?

    Plus the new transport is a deeper red. Are they still pretending Kosh isn’t dead at this point?

  3. Oy, the Foundationists. If they existed now (and they kind of do in many sections of the neo-pagan community) would be highly appropriative in our current context. We are still dealing with the issues of Western Colonism on Indigenous peoples. There are some recent development in these cultures recovering, see the Mauri, but as a species we still have a long way to go. In the US and Canada Indiginous tribes are still having to survive policies and outside pressures that seek to destroy them. Only in the last year have some crimes by non-natives on tribal land are now under the jurisdiction of tribal law enforcement. The ignoring of missing or murdered indigenous women in Canada by the Mounties. Australia’s frankly bipolar relationship with the Aborigines (honor them then cut off their water supply). And that doesn’t even touch on South and Central America, Africa, and the rest of Oceania.

    But in the context of the 2200’s? Well the world may be a very different place. If the end of Parliament of Dreams (s1e05) is any indication the process of decolonization and recovery of indigenous cultures is well under way and has been quite successful. In less than 24 hours Sinclair has been able track down and assemble the line of representatives (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAWI2Ue0uDA) of a myriad of faiths, both open and closed. In this context, where indigenous faiths have had a chance to recover, and spread if that assemblage is any indication, so that they would have representation, even on a far flung space station, the damage that we see cultural appropriation doing to cultures in the current era, would not be the same in 2259. Now it is hard enough to keep the languages and traditions of say the Tlingit, Salish and Chinook tribes alive and not jammed together in a melange of North West Coastal tribes. Much less having everything being declared Cherokee or Navaho since that is what we are familiar from with movies and TV. But in the 2200’s the cultures may be strengthened to the point were they are robust enough withstand the effects of appropriation, in the way Christmas can withstand Japan re-contextualizing it as a Valentines’esqe celebration of courtly love. Where you confess your love to your desired partner and stand on a bridge watching the snow fall onto a river (of freeway), with no religious overtones other than choirs and a single star in the sky representing their connection with each other.

  4. Nicely said.

    Walkabout was maybe the fourth episode I watched but the first episode I watched through, and by the end of it I decided I was going to be a B5 fan. I’ve not re-watched it this week (very busy with my first book coming out), but I recall the Franklin Foundationalist story hooking me, as well as the multiple sub-plots, many of which I didn’t get significance of at the time. (This might have been my first Kosh)

    1. ^^^^ I like this.

      I remember a big hook for me was Franklin talking foundationalism, how pieces of his self had walked about through the decisions he’d made. So he’s touching base with these other-selves and if he can, re-integrating them to make himself stronger. The singer sees some of them he’s already gathered and/or carries with him. Yet Franklin in the cafe and the bedroom wants to change her: the clubs she plays in, where she lives, the metazine addiction. In projecting his own selves values onto her, he distracts himself from his own task and looks for completeness in her as part of a new life, and takes on more responsibility (something Franklin’s good damnably at doing). Cailyn seems less fragmented: she’s accepted her forthcoming death, cast aside the complications of returning to Earth and chosen to focus on her singing which makes her very happy. We don’t learn enough about metazine. It probably is a performance enhancer because it lessens the pain and who would begrudge her that?

      The three second closer is interesting. Franklin is walking away, and instead of three of him, there are now eleven fragmented aspects. The storyteller seems to imply that Franklin might have been best to stay with her. Isn’t that interesting? I think so. I certainly think walking away, in light of the things he’s said to Cailyn, and now knows, is a greedy decision. That’s why there are eleven fragments I propose. Also noting that fragmentation is psychological term for disassociation, overload of ego-defense and overstimulated self.

      And of courses Lyta’s walkabout with questions about Kosh, where she talks to Vorlon Kosh 2/Ulkesh, Sheridan and the shadow ships.

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