#the quality of mercy

[madmensideblog]

Every Episode of Mad Men The Quality of Mercy — Season 6, Episode 12 dir. Phil Abraham

"I'm sure your father's given you a beer." "My father's never given me anything."

[greenapricot]

(x)

[thethirdromana]

The Quality of Mercy!

So this was very much not the sort of episode I was expecting at this point. We've just had 3 episodes with enormous consequences, and it's the second-to-last episode of the season, but this feels much more like a mid-season episode.

It also feels like it's taken a very sharp turn to the dystopian, as we learn that Babylon 5 has both an even more fucked-up justice system than I realised, and woefully inadequate medical capacity.

Franklin isn't even allowed to use his paid Medlab work to subsidise a free clinic Downbelow? He's supposed to just... let people die?

(Not that it makes any difference to the central dilemma, but does this mean that back in Believers, when he operated on those parents' kid against their wishes, they also got billed for it?)

And then we get to the justice system, which a) still has the death penalty and b) has as an alternative penalty, death of personality followed by lifetime slavery? So the plan was for Karl Edward Mueller to be a slave for the rest of his life but not even be able to remember what he did to deserve it?

And this is happening because Babylon 5 - in effect a city of 250,000 people - wasn't built with enough jail cells??

And even though they have telepaths, evidence from telepathy is inadmissible, so no one can even prove their innocence that way?

Well, that's utterly horrific. I hope at least the person in charge of policing on Babylon 5 is level-headed, slow to anger and conscious of the power vested in them?

No, wait, it's Garibaldi who thinks his instinct that the guy is a mass murderer should be enough to shove him out into space.

I really wasn't expecting this to be so bleak. And I can't tell how much of this is supposed to be dystopian and how much is supposed to be a normal level of bad, filtered through being written in the USA in the 90s.

At least the delightful Lennier and Londo storyline offers a bit of light relief.

[nonstandardrepertoire]

four scenes down, two to go 😤

[speakingparts]

Mono no aware (物の哀れ) An inflatable sex doll suddenly develops human feelings one day.

eye: Air Doll (空気人形, Kūki Ningyō), Hirokazu Koreeda ear: Max Richter, The Quality of Mercy

[fanficrocks]

Oh these two… Hathaway is looking at Lewis like “you do know that I can’t stand by and watch you suffer, right?”

[ashleywritesstuff]

I was very happy to be invited back to A Dream Given Form to chat Babylon 5 episode 1x19 "The Quality of Mercy." Give it a listen!

[startrekuniverse]

SNW || TOS

[greenapricot]

(x)

[nonstandardrepertoire]

i can be trusted with 20th-century compositional techniques :) :) :)

[eternal-auditor]

A common thing Beel will do on a deserted island, inspired by @/r0-boat recent poll

I just imagine him disappearing one day and then returning the next morning like this. Says he went to look around, then wanted to catch some fish for you, but ended up wrestling the whole ass shark because he craved its meat all of a sudden

And he ended up losing his only set of briefs in the process

[pharawee]

—SPARE ME YOUR MERCY · การุณยฆาต · 28 November 2024

[obamerzslop]

Caine and his fat ass

[iamhisgloriouspurpose]

Sometimes, you go back and re-read an old favorite, and it's even better (and more angsty) than the first time you read it.

His enemies can hunt him, they can put him in a cage. But Loki will not break.

*Okay, I made a series out of this. The series is called “Lost Son”.  You all happy now?!

[startrekuniverse]

STRANGE NEW WORLDS