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Vince Gilligan Breaks Down the Meaning Behind Pluribus’ Strange Title
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Vince Gilligan Breaks Down the Meaning Behind Pluribus’ Strange Title

News Pluribus Vince Gilligan Breaks Down the Meaning Behind Pluribus’ Strange Title Though the show’s title has roots in American history, Gilligan insists Pluribus isn’t entirely about the United States. By Matthew Byrd | Published on November 10, 2025 Photo: Apple TV Comment 0 Share New Share Photo: Apple TV Thankfully, it seems like people are starting to realize that Vince Gilligan’s new Apple TV series Pluribus is one of the best new shows of the year (and possibly quite a few other years). It’s odd that a new Vince Gilligan show wasn’t automatically the most anticipated new series of 2025, but Pluribus’ somewhat slow rollout can partially be attributed to the desire to keep as many details about the series secret for as long as possible. The fact is that we knew very little about the show ahead of its release date. It’s a strategy that’s good for maintaining the purity of the actual viewing experience, though it arguably ensured Pluribus would become something of a word of mouth sensation. The mysteries of Pluribus extended to the meaning of the show’s title. It’s an unusual name to say the least and one that prompted many theories leading to the series’ debut. It’s also a title that gave Gilligan quite a few headaches. “This was the single hardest thing I’ve ever created, to title,” Gilligan said in an interview with Techradar. “It took years to come up with this title. Breaking Bad came easily, Better Call Saul came even quicker, and El Camino, that wasn’t hard either.” According to Gilligan, the writing team started kicking around the title Pluribus “pretty early on.” Gilligan at least softly rejected the name each time until he relented a couple of years in and decided to embrace the odd title. “Now that it’s out in the world,” says Gilligan, “It seems to me like, yeah, ‘Why was that so hard?'” That’s fine, but what the hell does Pluribus actually mean? “It’s a tip of the hat to the unofficial motto of America, ‘E pluribus unum’,” Gilligan explains. “It means ‘Out of many, one’.” To be fair, that has long been the most popular theory about the show’s name. Not only is it the most literal translation of Pluribus’ meaning, but it makes sense within the thematic context of the sci-fi series. In Pluribus, Carol is one of only a handful of humans in the world unaffected by a bizarre event that has turned most other people into mere parts of a collective consciousness. However, Gilligan says you really shouldn’t read too much into the United States’ historical association with that phrase. “But the show is not intended to be just American,” Gillgan clarifies. “I really want this to be a show for the whole world, and I liked the idea of out of many, one, in reference to the democracy of the United States, but also out of many people from all around the world, one.” Without getting into spoilers, Pluribus certainly explores the idea that Carol is… unique in her views on the world, even among those who lived through the global event without losing their individuality (such as it is). Interestingly, Gilligan has had to clarify a few things during his extended press tour regarding what Pluribus is and isn’t. He told The Ringer its timing with the COVID-19 pandemic is merely a production delay coincidence, and he’s insisted that it’s not entirely a show about how the adoption of generative AI technology will affect culture (though he’s made it clear he is not a fan of said technology). Instead, Gilligan sees Pluribus as a different kind of apocalyptic show that tries to find a ray of hope at the end of everything. So… ok, it’s a little about America, but not entirely, you know? [end-mark] The post Vince Gilligan Breaks Down the Meaning Behind <i>Pluribus</i>’ Strange Title appeared first on Reactor.

Predator: Badlands‘ Ending Doesn’t Necessarily Set Up a Sequel, Says   Director Dan Trachtenberg
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Predator: Badlands‘ Ending Doesn’t Necessarily Set Up a Sequel, Says Director Dan Trachtenberg

News Predator: Badlands Predator: Badlands‘ Ending Doesn’t Necessarily Set Up a Sequel, Says Director Dan Trachtenberg “There’s many open doors to walk through next, that’s for sure…” By Vanessa Armstrong | Published on November 10, 2025 Credit: 20th Century Studios Comment 0 Share New Share Credit: 20th Century Studios Warning: This post contains spoilers for the ending of Predator: Badlands. Dan Trachtenberg’s Predator: Badlands premiered last weekend to commercial and critical acclaim. Now, spoilery interviews with the director are hitting the internet. In them, Trachtenberg explains where that surprise twist at the very end came from and what it means (or doesn’t mean) for the franchise. Predator: Badlands differs from the movies before it in that the protagonist of the film is a Predator (or Yautja, as they call themselves) named Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi). After Dek’s brother saves him from his father’s order to murder him, Dek ends up on a planet where the reported predator of all predators lives. He seeks to kill it and at least temporarily teams up with an android (Elle Fanning) and a little killing machine of an alien named Bud, and the plot unfolds from there. I’m not going to spoil the entire film, so I’ll fast forward to the end, where Dek, who has truly been fighting against his family all along, ends up killing his father and finding a newfound family. The last few minutes, however, see a Yautja spaceship enter the scene, and Dek says his mom is on board. The reveal is surprising, not only because it establishes that not all of Dek’s family is dead, but also because it confirms that female Yautja exist, which we have never seen on screen. Screenshot: 20th Century Studios In an interview with Variety, Trachtenberg explains why he wanted to tease Dek’s mom at the end. “What I love about that ending is that it works as a final twist on the story that we’ve just been seeing, but also sets up an expectation for something that I think is pretty groovy,” he said. “If I were to go forward, I don’t think that would be the whole reason, but that would be a very cool element to include.” He added, “What’s so great is we now have all these interesting characters, and who knows what the next one is? I didn’t know the next one was going to be Killer of Killers or Dek’s story, and then it ended up we were doing both at the same time. There’s many open doors to walk through next, that’s for sure…. It can all go out the door once we start putting pen to paper on stuff, but I’ve looked as far as I could to feel comfortable about what I’m doing. Every movie is a complete thought, not that much unlike the early Marvel stuff before the first Avengers movie, where it’s like, those are great movies, and lo and behold, we’re actually setting up that things could come together in a delicious way. But they weren’t like, ‘See how everything’s interconnected like crazy all of a sudden!’ So I’m trying to learn that lesson and make sure that any of these movies that we do are awesome ideas for movies on their own.” Implicit in that “before the first Avengers” comment is the apparent desire to not follow the format of post-Avengers Marvel Cinematic Universe films, where sometimes those connections seemed forced and inserted at the cost of the story. Trachtenberg understandably seems to want to avoid that, meaning that what happens next in the Predator universe, including whether Trachtenberg will even make another film in the franchise, is still anyone’s guess. [end-mark] The post <i>Predator: Badlands</i>‘ Ending Doesn’t Necessarily Set Up a Sequel, Says Director Dan Trachtenberg appeared first on Reactor.

Predator: Badlands Gives Us a New Type of Predator Story
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Predator: Badlands Gives Us a New Type of Predator Story

Movies & TV Predator: Badlands Predator: Badlands Gives Us a New Type of Predator Story A Predator makes a JOKE in this movie, people. By Leah Schnelbach | Published on November 10, 2025 Credit: 20th Century Studios Comment 0 Share New Share Credit: 20th Century Studios I never expected a Predator movie to be a buddy comedy? But to be fair, I also never expected a Predator movie to become a touching found family narrative. Predator: Badlands is both; the world is full of wonders. But before I frighten you away rest assured that Predator: Badlands is also a kick-ass action movie. The fight scenes are clever and fun, sometimes riffing on Predators past, other times striking off in their own directions, and while the story beats are a little familiar, I found myself surprisingly involved in this tale of a runt predator and his new bff, the top half of an android. Our main characters get just enough depth and backstory for us to care about them without the film bogging itself down in exposition. The film was written by Patrick Aison and directed by Dan Trachtenberg, who developed the story together as they did with Prey. Actually this film is a great companion piece to Prey, and much like that film, it makes me excited for where the Predator franchise might go next. I’ll stay spoiler-light, in case you haven’t seen it yet, but we open with a young Yautja (Predator) fighting his larger brother. We think this is just a sparring match, and eventually they fight to a standstill, and Kwei, the larger brother, says that Dek  needs to travel to choose a beast to hunt in order to prove himself to the family. Obviously this is analogous to Naru needing to do her hunting test in Prey—except where the rest of the village really wanted Naru to accept her role, train as a healer, and stop trying to fight all the time, here Dek has to fight, and win, if he’s going to be a true Yautja. As Kwei scrolls through planets and their biggest beasts, Dek notices the mighty Kalisk of the “death planet” Genna. He’ll do that one. But then Kwei tells him that it’s too big, and even their father fears it. Well then: “Father says I am the weakest, I will kill the strongest.” It seems like a good plan until Father arrives. Apparently Kwei was not sent to test his brother and send him off on his hunt. He was sent to kill him. As Kwei battles their dad to protect him, he manages to send a remote command to his ship, and sends Dek hurtling off toward Genna. And from there we’re in a very fast-paced Predator film, because Genna is a planet-sized Florida, and everything wants to kill you. Every plant, every animal, every bug. Caterpillars? Deadly! Adorable little ferret lizard things? Deadly! Cacti? Extra deadly. It’s while trying to survive the cacti that he meets Thia, an android—or at least, the head and torso of an android—who’s been abandoned in a vulture nest. Credit: 20th Century Studios She’s a relentless upbeat science nerd, part of an all-synth crew sent by… oh no… Weyland Yutani, on their usual mission: venture to the farthest reaches of space, find the most dangerous fucking creature you can, and bring it back to earth for no discernible fucking reason. Thia has been programmed to be sensitive to emotion (she thinks to make her a better scientist, but most likely to make her identify which animals W-Y can best exploit) so in Alien franchise terms she’s more Andy than David8. This was her first time in the field, until the Kalisk put an abrupt end to it. Dek grudgingly allows her to come with him, and they discover that she can be his backpack while he runs. Along the way they pick up another lone being, giant-eyed monkey creature that Thia names Bud, and they all head off, Dek wanting to hunt the Kalisk, Thia wanting to reunite with her android counterpart, Tessa (and, if at all possible, her legs). Obviously, anytime Weyland-Yutani is involved, things are going to get complicated, but I enjoyed the various reversals of fortune and betrayals even if they were a bit familiar. The things I really loved, however, was watching Dek learn to work with the planet of Genna and its flora and fauna, rather than seeing it as an adversary to conquer. Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi is fantastic as Dek. He wrings a shocking amount of emotion out of a creature that pop culture has been telling us is an emotionless killing machine for four decades. And Elle Fanning is delightful in her dual role, just as bubbly and hilarious as Thia as she is chilling as Tessa. The film has a surprising amount of humor, but I never thought it got too quippy or light—the perils of Genna and the presence of Weyland Yutani fend that off. The Yautja language was created by Britton Watkins, a linguist who trained with Paul Frommer, the person responsible for Na’vi language. Credit: 20th Century Studios I’m pleased that they’ve expanded the Predator mythos enough that we can have so many different kinds of stories. We can watch ridiculous Alien versus Predator adventures, or throw Adrien Brody and Walton Goggins into a Predator game preserve; we can have a gorily animated battle royale, or dive into the story of a young woman creating her own role in a society that underestimates her. Now we have a Predator movie from a young Predator’s point of view—a Predator who is, by his people’s standards, a runt and a disappointment, but who still lives and acts as a Predator. If you dropped Dek into the original movie he’d probably still beat most of the humans. I’m hoping we get a musical next! And best of all: the movie doesn’t force Dek to change too much. He’s still a killing machine, he’s just a slightly less isolated killing machine. His values are still his values, but he learns to expand what he thinks of as an acceptable clan, and being flexible and learning from his environment make him an even better, and deadlier, Predator.[end-mark] The post <em>Predator: Badlands</em> Gives Us a New Type of Predator Story appeared first on Reactor.

The Running Man Final Trailer Gives Ben Richards a Team and A Lot of Dynamite
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The Running Man Final Trailer Gives Ben Richards a Team and A Lot of Dynamite

News The Running Man The Running Man Final Trailer Gives Ben Richards a Team and A Lot of Dynamite Edgar Wright’s adaptation of the Richard Bachman book hits theaters later this week. By Vanessa Armstrong | Published on November 10, 2025 Credit: Ross Ferguson/Paramount Pictures Comment 0 Share New Share Credit: Ross Ferguson/Paramount Pictures There’s a new, quite violent Running Man trailer out today, and in it we get a few more details about the film’s scope and plot. The clip is short—less than a minute long!—but it sets up the fact that Glen Powell’s Ben Richards has a team helping him survive and win the deadly (and televised) competition where assassins across the globe aim to kill him within 30 days. If they fail and he survives, he’ll be awarded a billion dollars. Here’s the full synopsis, which offers the basic premise: In a near-future society, The Running Man is the top-rated show on television—a deadly competition where contestants, known as Runners, must survive 30 days while being hunted by professional assassins, with every move broadcast to a bloodthirsty public and each day bringing a greater cash reward. Desperate to save his sick daughter, working-class Ben Richards (Powell) is convinced by the show’s charming but ruthless producer, Dan Killian (Josh Brolin), to enter the game as a last resort. But Ben’s defiance, instincts, and grit turn him into an unexpected fan favorite—and a threat to the entire system. As ratings skyrocket, so does the danger, and Ben must outwit not just the Hunters, but a nation addicted to watching him fall. The rub, of course, is that no one survives because the game is rigged. Powell’s Ben Richards, however, appears to have some help in the form of actors Michael Cera, William H. Macy, and probably others. How their characters will keep Ben alive remains to be seen, though today’s trailer also shows Ben Richards traveling quite a bit during the competition, which suggests that staying on the move may be the best way for him to survive. Maybe? The good news is we’ll get to see how Edgar Wright’s adaptation of Richard Bachman’s (aka Stephen King’s) novel pans out very soon! The Running Man premieres in theaters on November 14, 2025. Check out the final trailer below. [end-mark] The post <i>The Running Man</i> Final Trailer Gives Ben Richards a Team and A Lot of Dynamite appeared first on Reactor.

Babylon 5 Rewatch: “Racing Mars”
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Babylon 5 Rewatch: “Racing Mars”

Column Babylon 5 Rewatch Babylon 5 Rewatch: “Racing Mars” Marcus and Franklin meet their liaison to the Mars resistance, while Sheridan confronts Garibaldi about his attitude. By Keith R.A. DeCandido | Published on November 10, 2025 Credit: Warner Bros. Television Comment 0 Share New Share Credit: Warner Bros. Television “Racing Mars”Written by J. Michael StraczynskiDirected by Jesus TreviñoSeason 4, Episode 10Production episode 410Original air date: April 21, 1997 It was the dawn of the third age… Ivanova meets with Sheridan to discuss their supply issues. With EarthGov’s quarantine in effect, and the punishment for violating it by any human being brutal, even black market sources are steering clear. Ivanova says she’s already working on a solution, which she’s been doing on her own to give Sheridan deniability. She then relieves Sheridan of command on medical grounds, as he hasn’t taken any personal time in nine months, during which he’s died, been resurrected, and fought a war, and maybe he should take a break before the inevitable showdown with Earth. Franklin and Cole are in the cargo hold of a a liner heading toward Mars, with Cole making Franklin batshit with his game of “I Spy.” Cole then discovers someone sneaking about. He calls himself Captain Jack, and he claims to be the brother of the ship’s captain, who lets him hitch a ride periodically. He also offers superior food to their meal-bar rations: Insta-Heats, which actually taste and smell good. Cole insists they not only not take them, but keep their distance from Captain Jack, as they’re to make no contact with anyone until they meet their Mars Resistance liaison. Eventually, however, Jack reveals that he’s the liaison, uttering the appropriate code phrase. He didn’t identify himself right away out of a sense of caution. He gives them the identicards they’ll need on Mars—they’re for a couple, Jim Fennerman and Daniel Lane. Sheridan tries to relax by watching TV, but all the Earth channels have been blacked out except for ISN. He puts that on, only to see a rerun of Dan Randall’s hit piece. After watching Garibaldi’s evisceration of Sheridan, the captain decides to confront his erstwhile chief of security. Garibaldi makes no apology for his words—and isn’t freedom of speech what they were supposed to be fighting for? Sheridan counters that they’re having enough trouble with Clark’s propaganda war without Garibaldi giving him ammunition for his side. Their discussion gets very heated, with both sides yelling, and Sheridan making it clear that he won’t tolerate Garibaldi endangering the station. Credit: Warner Bros. Television Some very skeevy-looking guys observe this, led by a guy named Wade. Later they approach Garibaldi with an offer to help deal with Sheridan, though they frame it as “helping” the captain. Captain Jack takes Cole and Franklin on a tube across Mars. Jack says they’ve heard all kinds of outlandish stories about B5, including that they’d abandoned Mars. Franklin assures them that they haven’t abandoned them, they’ve just been busy fighting a war—Jack has no idea what he’s talking about. He’d heard rumors about a war, but nothing he really believed. Cole is rather annoyed to learn that he’s finally a war hero and nobody seems to know about it… Ivanova meets with four smugglers, who haven’t been operating much around B5 lately. They explain that EarthGov’s penalties for doing business anywhere near B5 are too harsh to risk. Plus, Nightwatch has made gun-running damn near impossible. Ivanova offers them a deal: bring legit supplies—food, medicine, and so on—to B5 and they’ll have the protection of B5’s starfuries when they’re in the general vicinity and have full access to B5’s repair facilities for their ships. Captain Jack leads Cole and Franklin down some underground corridors belonging to abandoned mines. They’re met at gunpoint by members of the Mars Resistance, led by someone identified only as “Number Two.” The communiqué from B5 was fragmentary, and they also have news of a hit squad coming for them, so they’re playing everything safe. They ask for Cole and Franklin’s real identicards, and they’ll verify those against their DNA profile to make sure they’re really Marcus Cole and Stephen Franklin. While they wait, Captain Jack shows Franklin a picture of his daughter, complete with her address on the back of it, which he says is there because he sometimes forgets it. He also insists on keeping his coat on, despite how hot it is in the tunnels. Delenn approaches Sheridan in the Zen garden, where he’s stewing about the confrontation with Garibaldi. To his horror, she has yet another Minbari ritual that prospective couples must undergo, though he relents when he finds out that it’s to spend a night discovering each others’ pleasures. Wah-hey! Number Two returns along with Number One: the identicards show that they aren’t Cole and Franklin. However, before anything else can happen, Captain Jack shakily raises a PPG and aims it at Number One. Franklin tackles her to the ground, which saves her life, while Cole manages to shoot Jack in the shoulder, which knocks an alien creature off it. Jack runs away, dropping the real identicards on the ground. The resistance folks capture the alien, which is now dead, and Franklin examines it. It’s a parasite, with fibres that wrap around the nervous system. Jack probably was being controlled. In retrospect, he dropped hints that something was odd, and also provided a method of notifying his next of kin with the picture of his daughter. Credit: Warner Bros. Television Number One tries contacting him via his comm headset, which he still has. He’s in a tube, and he’s stolen a grenade. Number One tries to convince him that it’s over, the alien parasite is dead, but Jack says that it’ll just grow back. So he blows himself up with a grenade. Sheridan tries to mend fences with Garibaldi, and the talk is almost reasonable until an alien woman practically genuflects before Sheridan. Garibaldi loses his temper, violently grabbing the woman and saying he’s not a messiah or a religious figure, he’s just a person. Sheridan urges Garibaldi to let go of her, as he’s hurting her. Garibaldi asks if Sheridan likes this adulation, oblivious to the physical harm he’s causing. Sheridan puts a hand on Garibaldi’s shoulder to get him to leave her alone, and Garibaldi decks him. Sheridan calls off security, which is more than happy to arrest their former boss for assaulting their current CO, but Sheridan says this one’s free. Next time, he’ll knock Garibaldi’s block off. After Sheridan walks off, Garibaldi is visibly pissed at himself. Sheridan goes to Delenn’s quarters for the pleasure ritual, only to be rather appalled to find a crowded room. There are a mess of Minbari—including Lennier—present as witnesses, apparently. Delenn drags a reluctant Sheridan into the bedroom. Number One tells Cole and Franklin that the resistance leaders are all going to gather, but it’ll take a couple of days. In the meantime, they’ve made a reservation at the Red Planet Hotel in the names of their assumed identities: it’s the honeymoon suite. Garibaldi meets with Wade, saying he’s in, that Sheridan has gotten out of control. But he won’t hurt him. Wade assures with a hilarious lack of conviction that they just want to help Sheridan, no really, honest.    Get the hell out of our galaxy! Sheridan spends his enforced vacation trying really hard to make nice with Garibaldi, also trying really hard to deal with having his sexual preferences displayed for many Minbari to see. He doesn’t do so great with either… Ivanova is God. Ivanova pitch to the smugglers is a clever mix of enticing—protection and repairs—and enlightened self-interest—they’d only be smuggling nice things—and also threats—she makes it clear that their ships will need those free repairs if they step out of line. Her pitch is sufficiently successful that one of the smugglers propositions her. The household god of frustration. It’s obvious that Garibaldi is being manipulated in some way. His body language and facial expressions make it clear that his initial response in the immediate aftermath of his second confrontation with Sheridan is regret and self-directed anger at how badly he’s screwed up. But the next time we see him, he’s telling Wade how dangerous Sheridan is, which is a completely different response, and at odds with reality. If you value your lives, be somewhere else. Minbari really do have a ritual for every damn thing… We live for the one, we die for the one. Cole gets to show off his badassery twice, once when he finds and captures Captain Jack in the cargo hold, and again when he takes out his guard before shooting the Keeper off Jack’s shoulder. The Shadowy Vorlons. We see another Keeper like the one that attached itself to the Centauri Regent (and Mollari in the future) on Captain Jack, and it’s apparently trying to break the Mars Resistance. This is in keeping with the Shadows’ allies still trying to help Clark out. Credit: Warner Bros. Television No sex, please, we’re EarthForce. The morning after the pleasure ritual, Lennier and Sheridan encounter each other in a transport tube. Lennier looks at Sheridan questioningly and asks, “‘Woo-hoo!’?” Sheridan just looks embarrassed. Also there’s some very obvious chemistry between Franklin and Number One… Welcome aboard. Donovan Scott plays Captain Jack, while Clayton Landey plays Number Two and Geoff Meed and Brian Tahash play the two smugglers with speaking parts. Carrie Dobro—who will later star in A Call to Arms and Crusade as Dureena Nafeel—appears as the Brakiri woman. Enough archive footage from “The Illusion of Truth” is used to give Jeff Griggs another guest star credit as Randall. We also get two new recurring characters. Marjorie Monaghan debuts the role of Number One, while Mark Schneider kicks off the role of Wade. Monaghan will return next time in “Lines of Communications,” while Schneider will be back in “Conflicts of Interest.” Trivial matters. This is the third time we’ve seen a Keeper, following the one on Mollari in the future of “War Without End, Part 2” and the one on the Regent at the end of “Epiphanies.” At one point, Ivanova and the smugglers mention that one of them smuggled in a compound that made Garibaldi bald, providing a plot reason—beyond, “he’s going balder by the nanosecond,” anyhow—why Jerry Doyle started just shaving his head. Garibaldi refers to the pope with a feminine pronoun, a bit that, according to J. Michael Straczynski, resulted in many angry responses from Catholics all over the world. A Pope Bernadette II will be referenced in an episode of Crusade. The echoes of all of our conversations. “Just my luck—first time in my life I’m a war hero, and nobody knows about it! And worst of all, I’m married to you!” “Well, that’s not my idea.” “Oh, you say that now—tell that to your mother. She never stopped calling us about it. ‘So, when’s the big day? I’ve got to pick out patterns. Your father isn’t going to live forever!’ And on and on and on and on.” —Cole taking the piss out of Franklin. Credit: Warner Bros. Television The name of the place is Babylon 5. “And that’s when I killed him, your honor.” I have not been kind to the late Richard Biggs in this rewatch. I have come through this not liking Biggs’ acting much, and especially not liking the character of Franklin. But I recall having fond memories of the Mars Resistance subplot, and while a lot of that is due to my abject love of Marjorie Monaghan, this episode reminded me that a big part of it was the easy chemistry between Biggs and Jason Carter. This chemistry extended to real life, as the pair were close friends all the way to Biggs’ tragic death. And that really helps sell the Mars part of the episode. Which is good, as that part of the plot has two major casting issues—which, luckily, won’t affect the future of the storyline, as this is the only appearance by each. Clayton Landey mistakes snarling for acting in his role as Number Two, and Donovan Scott and his hilariously wandering accent is just a little too precious as Captain Jack. He definitely ranks way behind Sparrow, Harkness, and the guy in the Billy Joel song when it comes to fictional Captain Jacks… I find myself wondering what the plan was for Garibaldi’s betrayal before Michael O’Hare had to leave the show. The Sinclair-Garibaldi friendship was a cornerstone of the first season—indeed, Garibaldi only had his job because the commander was his drinking buddy—and having Garibaldi betray the station would have had much more weight if it was Sinclair he was betraying. But the advantage of it being Sheridan is that the relationship between the two of them was never particularly strong. Yes, they worked together, and generally trusted each other, but the closeness that Garibaldi had with Sinclair has never been there with Sheridan. And so Garibaldi’s turning on him actually has a certain sincerity to it that it wouldn’t have had with Sinclair. Of course, it’s a bit spoiled by the fact that we know that Garibaldi’s being controlled by something or someone. It might have been more effective if we didn’t know that about him, and thought this might be a legitimate character choice. Especially since Garibaldi’s words do have the ring of truth. Since returning from Z’ha’dum, Sheridan has been a lot more high-handed and arrogant. The rest of the episode generally works well. Ivanova’s solution to the supply issue is clever and well handled. Sheridan’s expression of Minbari ritual fatigue hangs a lantern on the rather ridiculous number of rituals that the Minbari seem to have for every damn thing—plus “‘Woo-hoo!’?” still makes me laugh, though that’s primarily due to Bill Mumy’s letter-perfect deadpan. Next week: “Lines of Communication”[end-mark] The post <i>Babylon 5</i> Rewatch: “Racing Mars” appeared first on Reactor.