Chrysalis question...possible spoilers

[Sinclair]

I just finished watching Chrysalis and started thinking about something. When Jack shot Garibaldi, why would he not make sure he was dead? He was uncovering a huge conspiracy and if he lived then there was the possibility that it would be uncovered, which it obviously eventually was. Maybe he thought he did kill him, but he didn't even check. It just seems to me that with something so big going on, Jack wouldn't want to leave any clues behind as to his involvement in it all, but he did take a risk when he killed Devereaux and the other guys. One of the security guys kind of caught him on that one by noticing the cold ppg. Jack just seemed kind of careless to me.

 

[channe]

We've seen that when there is PPG fire somewhere on B5, security teams are on that place pretty fast. I'd be thinking that Jack would want to be outta there before anybody noticed.

Other than that, I can't think of a thing...

 

[Loadhan]

Maybe Jack was careless. Garabaldi wasn't suppose to discover what was up so I don't think Jack planned ever attacking him. B5 was still (at this point) not considered very important by many in Earth - especially by the bigot Clarke. A secret assassination made-to-look-like-an-accident by blowing up Earth Force One had to have some serious planning by highly trained people (possibly hired by Mr. Morden); Clarke probably didn't have the resources to place expert agents on a place like B5 even if part of the plan went down there.

Not to be a bit off topic, though, but why was Clake even on Santiago's ship (so he had to fake an illness to leave early)? That seems too much of a security risk anyway to me.

 

[dragon69]

Perhaps Jack shooting Deveroux and co., and subsequently being caught out with regard to the cold PPG was not such a careless thing. After all, not doing anything at all could lead to suspicion, i.e. looking like you were trying to keep a low profile is as dangerous as covering up what you did.

By killing those men, and drawing suspicion to himself in the way he did, in a way made him look as though he was so shocked by Garibaldi's shooting that he decided to take on those he suspected of doing it. He made it look as though Deveroux was responsible for Garibaldi's attack, and thus felt he was justified in approaching them. He may have 'misjudged' the situation, by prematurely shooting them, out of rage for possibly shooting his boss.

 

[ShagThoth]

Very cunning.

 

[jnk5y]

In the US i don't think the Pres and Vice every fly on the same plane. If i was head of security for those two blokes i'd definitely give them separate ships just in case. Jack had no reason to suspect that Garibaldi could have seen him since he came from behind. Got rid of the other guys so they couldn't talk and looked gallant doing it. Was second in command for a year or more without getting caught is pretty good. I'd say jack was a great spy/assasin

 

[KoshFan]

As I recall, JMS said something about the ship problem. EarthForce One is really big, and Earth is still recovering from the Minbari War. So basically, they can't afford a duplicate ship. (Also a point here -- B5 was routinely underfunded, and was only finished with Minbari support. Stations 1, 2, and 3 weren't finished, so the funds probably carried over one to the next without too much overrun.)

Also, notice the security put on it. EarthForce One always has Starfury escorts, so basically any direct attack will have to involve a capital ship (which would make it really, really obvious who was attacking). Our own Air Force One is almost never escorted so closely. Furthermore, remember the massive security that was put into place before EarthForce One arrived at B5. Basically, I suspect that the only reason EarthForce One was destroyed was because Clark wanted it to be... although with Shadow help, who knows?

 

[Galahad]

Jack may have been under last minute orders to stop Garibaldi blowing the lid off of the Assassination plot. It may be, that the whole operation was deemed so water tight, that when a chink in the conspiracy's armour was exposed, something had to be done at a moments notice. If Garibaldi had gone unimpeded, he might have got word to Sinclair sooner and helped prevent the death of Santiago. I was thinking though, the fact that Deveraux and co. had unmarked PPG's which were Earth Force secret service issue, would draw unwanted attention to the Government's involvement in some way surely?

 

[KoshFan]

The unmarked PPGs would draw attention to the government... but there it would end. Being unmarked there would be no way to trace them any further. So the only evidence would be that there was a faction in the government who wanted the President dead; there would be no evidence of who these people were. Useful for Clark, no? Can't be traced to him, but fake up a little evidence and it can be used against any of his political opponents.

 

[A_M_Swallow]

Do not assume that the guns being without serial numbers has a special meaning. The intelligence men may simply have used their ordinary guns. Being an intelligence organisation, none of their guns had serial numbers.

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

Jack shoots Garibaldi as the Chief is on his way to warn Sinclair and possibly the President of what is about to happen. Once he's down, Garibaldi ceases to be an immediate threat. It is possible, even probable, that the conspirators on the station have other work to do in support of the plot, and don't have time to trouble themselves with Garibaldi. They leave him to die where he lays.

Later, after the President is dead, Jack learns that Garibaldi has made it to MedLab and may be able to talk. At this point it becomes necessary to kill Devereaux and his thugs, who would not otherwise have been connected with Garibaldi's shooting.

I'm not sure why everybody assumes that Devereaux and his men are carrying unregistered PPGs at that point, by the way, or even assuming that the gun Jack "finds" on Devereaux's body is actually his. According to Jack's account only Devereaux pulls a gun on him. He fires in self-defense and presumably shoots the other two in the act reaching for something - a justifiable shooting under the circumstances. It isn't certain that they were even armed. Certainly Jack would want to point suspicion away from the intelligence services, however, so he'd be much smarter to plant stolen, traceable, PPGs on the mens' bodies. Surely such things are not hard for a security officer to come across in downbelow. I'm sure Jack realized what a mistake it was for Devereaux to have an untraceable weapon on him when Garibaldi took him in earlier. Why compound that error? Instead he gets his fellow security officers to join him in covering up his execution of the three men responsible for wounding their chief, perhaps mortally, and no one suspects a thing. With Devereaux and company dead, and the assassination designed to look like an accident (as Jack surely knew it would be) there is no trail to follow. And he'll be doing the investigation himself anyway, whether or not Garibaldi gets past the immediate crisis.

Regards,

Joe