Story: Divided Loyalties
Written By: J. Michael Straczynski
Season: 2
Lyta, the telepath assigned to Babylon 5 in the pilot and replaced by Talia when the series proper began, return to the station with info on a possible traitor on board. The traitor would be a sleeper agent, someone who doesn’t even know they are a spy, hiding behind a false persona. Lyta can expose this traitor by telepathically sending a password which would uncover the traitor and expose them. So it becomes fairly important to Sheridan and his command crew that they find out who this spy is, seeing as they’ve been secretly plotting against the government together.
Of course this is problematic for longtime telepath hater Ivanova. An interesting aspect of this episode is that there is an implied romantic/sexual relationship between Talia and Ivanova. They’ve gone from Ivanova having total distrust of telepaths and Talia, to them becoming slow friends to them seemingly sharing a bed. It is interesting, and I kind of wish all the implied stuff was slightly more explicit. Like there is this bad cut where it seems like they were gonna kiss and then it cuts away and they are slightly further apart. I suspect there was some nervousness on the part of the production team. Not that Straczynski would ever admit that, he acts as if everything is intentional.
In the end it is exposed that Talia was the sleeper spy, because the actress wanted out of the show because she’d disappear for weeks at a time. I can’t say I blame her. Straczynski claims it was because she felt she had to be the center of any episode she was in, and demanded such, and theres probably a little truth to that, but I’m sure it is frustrating as an actor to be credited as a main character but go several weeks without appearing in a script at all. Like not even a small scene. That’s the issue with this show. I get dropping a character every now and then ftom an episode, but Trek would at least throw a scene to a character who isn’t needed for any given episode (rather than just drop them completely for 5 episodes in a row).
So Talia gets exposed and leaves the station. Lyta leaves as well, but I understand she has a recurring role for a while before becoming a regular again. That’s nice, I actually like that actress better than Andrea Thompson. More likable, less cold, more charismatic. It actually made sense in the end that Talia was essentially a false persona...explains why she seemed so cold. Her “real” personality at the end of this episode was much more fun to watch.
Speaking of that final scene it brings me back to the Ivanova/Talia implied relationship. I don’t think it had to be super explicit, and I get that this was made in a time when that was a tough taboo to break, but I actually think the final scene with Talia and Ivanova would have been all the more powerful had the full nature of their relationship been explored or stated.
Fine episode, closed the door on Talia, who unfortunately had just become interesting. By “just become” I mean 12 episodes ago, because that’s when we really last saw her (with the exception a few fleeting appearances). Gee..why’d that actress want out of the show?
NEXT TIME: The Return of Draal
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