S4-Interrogator-Sympathetic?

[**DONOTDELETE**]

I have watched the episode, "Intersections In Real Time" several times and have begun wondering whether or not the interrogator in this particular episode was secretly sympathetic to Sheridan. While he certainly didn't help Sheridan escape or lessen the severity of the punishments inflicted on Sheridan throughout the episode, he seemed concerned and maybe even a little desperate about what might happen to Sheridan if he didn't confess, especially right before Sheridan was taken away to the other interrogation room. Also, during the course of the interrogation, he didn't lie to Sheridan and, as a matter of fact, told him point-blankly, that even if he did confess, he would eventually be killed when it was convenient for Clark and his people to do so. It's possible that a lot of the things that were said during the course of interrogation were for show only or were only being done because he felt that it was "his job" even though that doesn't justify those kind of actions under any kind of circumstances. It could, of course, have been a "good-cop, bad-cop" attempt to get him to confess to his "crimes." But sometimes I wonder if he was really totally unsympathetic to Sheridan and his cause but was afraid of standing up to Clark and his regime and felt safer just "doing his job." What does everybody else think?

 

[Quagmire]

Not a snowball's chance in hell.

Attempting to force the prisoner to bond with the interrigator is a common torture tactic. Even if he was doing his job out of fear of Clark, doubtfull for that particular job, it in no way excuses what he did. He tortured people for a living. He was good enough at it that he was called in to torture Sheridan, their most prized captive. This man did not take up his job recently or reluctantly. The fact that you were duped just goes to show how good he was at his job. Imagine being with him for a week and pumped full of drugs. How long would you hold out?

 

[Recoil]

<blockquote><font class="small">Quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Doctor Gonzo:
<font color=yellow>Not a snowball's chance in hell.

Attempting to force the prisoner to bond with the interrigator is a common torture tactic. Even if he was doing his job out of fear of Clark, doubtfull for that particular job, it in no way excuses what he did. He tortured people for a living. He was good enough at it that he was called in to torture Sheridan, their most prized captive. This man did not take up his job recently or reluctantly. The fact that you were duped just goes to show how good he was at his job. Imagine being with him for a week and pumped full of drugs. How long would you hold out?</font color=yellow><hr></blockquote>
Exactly. He was trying to warp his sense of right and wrong first. A LOT of the elements of that interrorgation were extremely realistic and some very good techniques were used in it. DG is spot on with this one, and as he said, the fact you were duped just goes to show what a good job was done with that episode. That is one of my favorite episodes of the series. Extremely well done, and very different.

 

[**DONOTDELETE**]

In my opinion the episode was quite excellent. An insight into some aspects of totalitarian regimes from a point of view located in the future.

-----

I would say the interrogator was concerned about his own head. After all, he was given a top-level assignment. The kind of a chance he might get once in a lifetime. To torture and break someone who *does* matter. Someone who is definitely not going to break easy.

If he were to fail such an assignment, president Clark might wish to detach his head from his body. Much earlier than doing the same to Sheridan. After all, another interrogator might succeed in breaking him.

------

That said, the aforementioned post by Doctor Gonzo also applies. It is certainly wise for an interrogator to appear concerned for a prisoners well-being. If sufficiently drugged, some people might actually buy it. If historical examples are to be trusted, it is common during torture to extract information gradually.

First, an interrogator tries to get the prisoner to speak. To say anything at all. Then to say something apparently harmless, but still contrary to his/her principles. While making sure he/she faces no sharp moral borders and starts to cooperate. The example with night, morning or lunchtime was a good one. While various "techniques" wear down the person's mind and body, interrogators will proceed towards important questions.

The idea is simple: after your senses have become clouded and you *have* started cooperating on simple matters, it is much easier to get you to cooperate on imporant matters. Firstly because you might no longer distinguish important from irrelevant. Secondly because you have already started. As with any other kind of blackmail, yielding will only lead to another demand.

-------

One can speculate that only a block sufficiently deep below concious thought can stop someone from accidentally saying/signing something in a drugged state. In the Centauri trilogy, Virs consipiracy was saved by assistance from technomages - people who knew sentient minds better than some telepaths and any torturers. Sheridan however seemed to fade back into awareness when he imagined Delenn. It might suggest that some of the people and principles he was asked to compromise had become close on both conscious and subconscious levels, making compromise rather impossible.

As for Clark wanting a public confession, well such things cannot be made in a semi-conscious state. Hence unless they, in some miraculous way, could have succeeded in proving Sheridan that ending the Shadow wars and supporting Delenn was wrong... the hope of him doing that would have been rather dim. Clarks last hope was pressuring Sheridan with his father's safety, but even that hope was dim.

<font color=yellow>Enough of rambling. In my opinion the episode was well done. Unconventional, yes. But well done.</font color=yellow>

 

[jnk5y]

so the only way to not crack is to say and do nothing?

 

[**DONOTDELETE**]

In theory at least.

Unfortunately in reality, simple answers are few and far between. History has shown that sometimes, people yield when they should not. Given that the profession of interrogator/torturer exists, we must conclude people yield often often enough to make it viable, and many are ready to exploit this.

And sometimes people believe in their cause, proving that one person can defeat the system. In reality, everything depends on which opponents meet, how important the matter is. It comes down to what is at stake. Whether after facing every imaginable method of pressure, people still believe that their cause is just and worth the trouble.

It is a model of cost versus benefit, one dependent on situation and values. If you know nothing, you can rest easy and tell everything. If you know everything and the information if crucial, it can be wise to resist - no matter the cost.

Sheridan was not in an enviable position. But not the worst possible position. He knew that in the end, things would go his way. That the resistance could move without him, having the support of many worlds. That it was strong enough to remove ten president Clarks. He was confident that time was working for him. Now if Vir would have got caught with all the names of his associates, that would have been a truly unenviable position. Because his only assurance was a rather dubious prophesy of him becoming emperor after Londo.

 

[RW7427]

I do not like this episode. If someone was to ask me if there are any episodes that I do not like, this one would top my list.

I don't think that interrogator is sympathetic to Sheridan at all. Then again, I don't think he is being paid to be. I think that he is doing exactly what he was being paid to do, and that is to try and break Sheridan's will, and he isn't given any room to be sympathetic with him.

 

[A_Ranger]

A Sheridan lover hating an episode starring Sheridan. Imagine that! /ubbthreads/images/icons/tongue.gif

 

[RW7427]

Yeah, cause that dude isn't very nice to him! /ubbthreads/images/icons/mad.gif /ubbthreads/images/icons/tongue.gif

 

[Kribu]

Not being nice is kind of the point in torturing someone. /ubbthreads/images/icons/wink.gif

Funny, Intersections... is one of the best S4 episodes, and one of the best-made episodes of the whole series IMHO (note: it's not among those favourites of mine that I would want to watch over and over again; then again, I don't do that with any of the eps). Probably because it's all about torturing Sheridan. /ubbthreads/images/icons/tongue.gif

 

[Jade Jaguar]

Many of us may have the will to resist forever -- except that torture, over time, weakens us physically, thus diminishing our mental capacity to resist. So, if the torture is intense enough, and persistant enough, it is only a matter of time until anyone will break.

Sheridan's torturer, like many, pretended sympathy, pretended to be concerned about his interests, but only to get what he wanted out of him.

 

[A_Ranger]

Kribu, I thought you didn't like Sheridan. So wouldn't you want to watch this episode over and over, to see him get tortured over and over /ubbthreads/images/icons/tongue.gif

 

[Kribu]

I am tempted. /ubbthreads/images/icons/grin.gif But it would still mean having to watch nothing but Sheridan over and over again, so no. /ubbthreads/images/icons/grin.gif

Seriously though, I think there's about 2-3 eps I've watched three times, all the rest I've watched just once or twice (most of them). Maybe once the DVDs are out, I can start watching some stuff more often, right now I don't want to wear out myself (getting sick of it) or the tapes because of all the fast-forwarding I'd have to do. /ubbthreads/images/icons/wink.gif

 

[superbob]

I must admit whoever did their homework did it damn well. The technique in this episode was excellent. He kept appealing to Sheridans sense of right and wrong and when that didn't work they took it to extremes to break him and when everybody thought this was the end the whole process started from scratch. Sheridan may have lasted another round but a third one would have broken him . Well thats what I reckon. Suffice to say that nobody was on sheridans side in that room, not even the Drazi, even he had me going for a sec!

 

[Recoil]

<blockquote><font class="small">Quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by superbob:
<font color=yellow>I must admit whoever did their homework did it damn well. The technique in this episode was excellent. He kept appealing to Sheridans sense of right and wrong and when that didn't work they took it to extremes to break him and when everybody thought this was the end the whole process started from scratch. Sheridan may have lasted another round but a third one would have broken him . Well thats what I reckon. Suffice to say that nobody was on sheridans side in that room, not even the Drazi, even he had me going for a sec!</font color=yellow><hr></blockquote>
He wasnt only appealing to his sense of right and wrong, but he was trying to re-define it. To trick him into seeing things differently. To eventually make him lose his sense of right and wrong. An example of this was him getting him to say its lunch so he could eat, even if he knew it was morning. And that during the Minbari War the truth was they are the enemy. Now the truth is they are his friends. That the truth is fluid and subject to interpretation. He was trying to confuse and distract him so he could be manipulated.

IMO the first interrortators role was exactly as it appeared. He was never in danger from his superiors. He was doing exactly as he was supposed to be doing. Acting. Playing a role. He was merely the stage 1 guy, and Ill bet there were others that took over again and again. It was a planned cycle.

 

[RW7427]

It doesn't surprise me that Kribu would watch this episode just to see Sheridan being tortured. /ubbthreads/images/icons/rolleyes.gif I don't watch the episode earlier in season 4 where Cartagia has G'Kar whipped just so that I can see him being tortured. I happen to like G'Kar. /ubbthreads/images/icons/tongue.gif

I am currently watching the eps in order from "Midnight on the Firing Line" all the way to "Sleeping in Light". Right now I am almost to "Intersections". Since I do not like it, I am considering skipping over it.

 

[A_M_Swallow]

<blockquote><font class="small">Quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Recoil:
[yellow {snip}
IMO the first interrortators role was exactly as it appeared. He was never in danger from his superiors. He was doing exactly as he was supposed to be doing. Acting. Playing a role. He was merely the stage 1 guy, and Ill bet there were others that took over again and again. It was a planned cycle.</font color=yellow><hr></blockquote>

The interrogator had two dangers -
1. Failing to break Sheridan.
2. Killing Sheridan. Clarke wanted a puppet rather than a martyr.

 

[Recoil]

<blockquote><font class="small">Quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by A_M_Swallow:
<font color=yellow>The interrogator had two dangers -
1. Failing to break Sheridan.
2. Killing Sheridan. Clarke wanted a puppet rather than a martyr.</font color=yellow><hr></blockquote>
I dont think it was his job personally to break him, just to get him softened up. Like I said, they probably had a couple of guys just like him (we know from the end of the show they at least had one other) as they advanced Sheridan down the process.

But yea, if they screwed up and he died, there would be hell to pay.

 

[superbob]

Thats why I say the research was excellent, any pleb can torture somebody, but manipulation, now there's an art. Sheridan proved to be a tough cookie (would have been interesting to see him converted and reprogrammed, kinda like garibaldi).

 

[Bab5nutz]

Re: S4-Interrogator-Sympathetic

Sheridan's interrogation is typical of that used by secret police all over the world. It's a variation on the "good cop/bad cop" routine. Except that in this case, they have one guy who plays both roles. Here, the interrogator seems to be almost the parent of a parent who is relunctantly punishing their child for "their own good" - the "parent" in this case, being the state. The "child" must not only be punished but made to recongise the enormity of their "crime", and repent. Otherwise, it might encourage other "children" to disobey their "parents". {why doesn't this forum have a thingy for italics anymore?] Okay, a wee bit fanciful maybe. But quite often torturers will be brutal one minute, and seemingly sympathetic the next. It throws the subject off guard, and can often wear them down in a way that unremitting brutality would not.
Sebastian, the inquisitor in "Comes the Inquisitor", uses a similar tecnnique on Delenn in that ep. One minute, he' torturing her, telling her she's no good, worthless, arrogant. Then, he stops the torture, and asks her almost sadly as to why she doesn't just make it easy on herself, and admit her faults. Then the whole ordeal will end. That ep always makes my skin crawl when I see it - I can't watch it too often.
And it's not often that something I watch does that.
By the way, did anyone figure out who Sebastian really was at the start of the show. without having heard anythng about it beforehand. When I frst saw CTI, as soon as I heard the date 1888, I thought "What! They gotta be kidding!" Anyone else think that?