BPP Crusade 104 – The Path of Sorrows

The Babylon Project Podcast

In this episode, your hosts agree this felt like the usual B5 episode we’ve come to love. We also find the crew of the Excalibur on what appears to be a legitimate mission focused on finding a cure for the Drakh plague: a relatively unknown world that also happens to be a place of healing.

Upon arrival, the team finds a strange alien apparently entombed in a vessel, that has the ability to grant forgiveness and therefore a release from the emotional burden carried by others. We then see this creature begin to heal members of the crew by interacting with them one at a time. First Captain Gideon wrestles with the loss of his entire ship and crew when he was a new officer. He survived because he was outside the ship when it was lost and was picked up by a Technomage ship—Galen’s ship. Here we also get the backstory of when Galen and Gideon first met. We see some subsequent trauma (and drama), but ultimately the issue Gideon needs to be forgiven for comes to the surface—at a minimum he seems to be suffering from survivor’s guilt. Through the mental link he has with the creature, he is told he’s forgiven.

Next, Matheson has his encounter with the creature. In his past, and during the rise of the Resistance in the Babylon 5 series, he was a young Psi Corps employee (but not a Psi Cop) and the custodian for a Psi Corps prisoner being held for interrogation. The prisoner (a leader in the Resistance) convinces him that she’s being held unjustly, and that once the Psi Corps gets what they want from her, she’ll be killed. The Resistance was gaining traction and the Corps was desperate to find a way to curtail their progress. In the end, he helps the prisoner and we learn Matheson was a wild card in the Resistance’s ultimate ability to beat the Psi Corps. We also learn she’s carrying a beacon, allowing the Resistance to successfully find and attack the Psi Corps base. Matheson had never told anyone about this betrayal; the mysterious creature frees him and tells him he’s forgiven.

Galen is next to face the creature. Galen’s pain was a bit different. The love of his life is wounded and ultimately dies, leaving Galen alone. As she departs, she tells him that the universe has a purpose and that one day he will need to learn to forgive God for his decisions. She also promises him that if there is a way after she’s gone, she’ll call to Galen, say his name and send him a message. Rather than embracing the encouragement of his dying friend, the loss drove Galen to a deep anger toward God and a denial that there is any real, meaningful purpose in the universe. Unlike with Gideon and Matheson, Gideon isn’t in need of forgiveness; he needs to forgive.

As the episode wraps up, a message arrives for Galen. This is particularly interesting since no one other than the crew of Excalibur knows Galen is onboard the ship. The computer says it didn’t come from any specific location: just “out there.” The message was simple. It contained his name and the word LOVE. Galen denies this is possible as we’re reminded of the words Isabelle spoke to him, “If there is a purpose, if there is a design, if there is a way after I’m gone, I will call to you and say your name, and send you a message. And you will know I was right.”

The planet provided healing, but not the kind Earth needs to cure the plague. Even so, Gideon and Matheson received the healing they needed. Sadly, it remains to be seen if Galen will ever be healed.

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