Divided Loyalties

From The Great Machine

Episode Title: Divided Loyalties
Episode Number: S2E20
Original Air Date: October 11, 1995
DVD Release Date: April 29, 2003
Writer: J. Michael Straczynski
Director: Jesus Trevino
Guest Stars: Patricia Tallman, Andrea Thompson

1 Preview
2 Synopsis
- 2.1 Main Plot
3 See Also
4 Characters
- 4.1 Season 2 Cast

[edit] Preview

Lyta Alexander returns to Babylon 5 with a startling revelation.

[edit] Synopsis

Spoiler warning: Plot, character development, or ending details follow.

A ship drifts through the jumpgate near Babylon 5, and must be towed in since it has sustained heavy battle damage. Its one occupant turns out to be Lyta Alexander, the commercial telepath originally assigned to B5 until her contact with Ambassador Kosh left her disoriented and possibly mentally unstable.

Having fled Psi Corps and joined the Mars Resistance, Lyta has learned of a sleeper spy aboard the station - someone who, thanks to a telepathically implanted personality that can't be detected even on a deep mind-scan, is reporting back to Psi Corps and probably to the engineers of President Santiago's assassination as well.

Sheridan initially dismisses Lyta's warning until an unknown assailant tries to kill her, neatly corroborating her story that the implanted personality will do or say anything to protect itself.

Lyta has the key to unlock the secret of who carries the personality known only as "Control" - a password which, when transmitted directly by telepathy, will reveal the secondary personality at the cost of destroying the "real" one.

Ivanova balks at the prospect of being scanned, reluctantly revealing to Sheridan that she is a latent telepath who has evaded detection by Psi Corps for years. The command staff agrees to Lyta's telepathic probe, and one by one they turn up free of any Psi Corps influence. And then Lyta has the opportunity to scan Talia... (Attrib: B5 LogBook [1])

[edit] Main Plot

Someone aboard the station isn't who he or she appears to be. Said person, presumably in or close to the command staff, has an unknown, finely crafted and buried alternate personality, courtesy of the Psi Corps. Once triggered by a telepathically transmitted code-word, the Psi Corps personality will take over, completely subsuming the person's 'real' personality, and presumably become an agent-provocateur for the Psi Corps.

Lyta Alexander, freshly escaped from Psi Corps, and on the run, brings warning of this alleged intrusion, and claims to have the password -- if only the B5 command staff will allow her to use it to telepathically test everyone in an attempt to discover the plant.