Some have speculated that this refers to Justin, who meets Sheridan in
“Z’ha’dum” and refers to himself as “a middle man.” And I’ve since noted that
in one sense, yes, the description fits. That was one of the things I considered
when writing this scene, but not the only thing. Images and dreams have more
than one meaning. Other fans have decided that the man in-between is Sinclair,
or Kosh, or Morden, and those interpretations are as valid as anything else in
terms of what each viewer takes away from the scene. Art, I think, is what
happens in the distance between the observer and that which is observed.
Interpretation is half the job. So if any of those options are what people wish to
interpret, then for them that interpretation is valid.
But in terms of the author’s original intent…what I meant and what I was
thinking about when I wrote it…while there was the Justin aspect, which is the
easiest to explain in a quick internet note or on a convention platform…the truth
is that, knowing what was coming up in the story years down the road, for me the
man in-between…is Sheridan himself.
Again…look at the scene. He’s looking up at himself, both here and in
“Sleeping in Light.” Consider the following exchange between Lorien and
Sheridan in “Whatever Happened to Mr. Garibaldi?” (Emphases mine.)
LORIEN
If you did not hit bottom, then you are
still falling, and all of this is a dream.
(beat)
Unless…you're in-between.
SHERIDAN
Between what?
LORIEN
Between moments. When we are born, we
are allocated a finite number of
seconds. Each tick of the clock slices
off a piece of us. Tick, a possibility
for joy is gone; tock, a careless word
ends one path, opens another. Tick,
tock, tick, tock, always running out of
time. Yours is almost used up. You're
between seconds, lost in the infinite
possibilities between tick and tock;
tick, you're alive, tock…well, it was a
good life, but a short one.
And then, from later in the same episode:
SHERIDAN
The others need me --
LORIEN
They need what you can be when you are
no longer afraid. When you are no
longer looking for reasons to live, but
can simply be.
SHERIDAN
I can't.
LORIEN
Then I cannot help you, and you will
be caught forever in-between. You
must let go. Surrender yourself to
death. The death of flesh, the
death of fear. Step into the abyss
and let go.
At the risk of being trite…the Sheridan that he is one day going to become
is looking for him, waiting for him on the other side of his decisions.
