Sneaky JMS

Recently after watching the episode "Convictions" in the beginning of Season Three I reviewed the Lurker's Guide material. I discovered the answer to a little thing that has niggled at my subconsious concerning the last episode of Season Two. At the beginning of "The Fall of Night" a man and woman are having an argument just before Sheridan walks into the scene. Given how tight the storyline of any episode is lines are not handed out without purpose. Why include this lover/marital spat and then not come back to it? Well, it turns out that Carlson in "Convictions" bears a remarkable resemblance with the unnamed man in "Fall of Night." I checked the scene in "Fall of Night" frame by frame. Take away the eyeglasses and scraggly whiskers in "Convictions" and it's the same guy. While "Fall of Night" does not list the actors of that brief scene in the credits, the comment Carlson makes in "Convictions" about his wife leaving him certainly seems to connect to the previous episode and close the dramatic loop. JMS is definitely sneaky in his manner of introducing seemingly inconsequential detail, but the overall story is richer for it.

QMCO5

Holy shit! It could be the same guy, or at least close enough for script purposes.

Well, it turns out that Carlson in "Convictions" bears a remarkable resemblance with the unnamed man in "Fall of Night." I checked the scene in "Fall of Night" frame by frame. Take away the eyeglasses and scraggly whiskers in "Convictions" and it's the same guy. While "Fall of Night" does not list the actors of that brief scene in the credits, the comment Carlson makes in "Convictions" about his wife leaving him certainly seems to connect to the previous episode and close the dramatic loop. JMS is definitely sneaky in his manner of introducing seemingly inconsequential detail, but the overall story is richer for it.

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Very interesting, and I admit that I was intrigued, especially when I found that the scene you mentioned wasn't in the script. According to Garibaldi when he checked the Station records, Carlson had only just been hired onto the station on January 11, 2260. It's never actually disclosed when he arrived so it could be that he was on the station for Fall of Night.

The only quibble I have is that it seemed that the sequence of events that drove Carlson off the edge was his wife leaving, losing his job, then his apartment. Doesn't seem that could happen in so short a time.

Jan

If it did happen so quickly, the sheer speed might have been a contributing factor to his insanity. But didn't he start blowing stuff up on another colony before he came to B5?

Garibaldi's mention of a date in reference to Carlson was connected with his hiring. He may have been job hunting in "Fall of Night," but relationship problems sidetracked him.

Carlson had probably been a wacko for a long time, which his wife finally had enough of. A relationship crisis or an psychological crisis may seem sudden, because of how outsiders perceive it, but such events almost always have built over a long time.

QMCO5