Garibaldi really needs to get off YouTube, the Vorlons discover “Crawling” & MCR, and Londo learns just how far principles go when you’ve thrown in with monsters. Welcome my friends. This is the story of the last of the Babylon stations. The year is 2261. The place: Babylon 5.
Spoilers ahead.
1. It’s Not Paranoia If They’re Out to Get You
Garibaldi, Garibaldi, Garibaldi. What are we gonna do with you? You’re clearly right that there’s something up with Lorien & Sheridan, and that everyone seems to be treating him with a reverence that is sweeping away any uncomfortable questions, but you’re not doing so hot yourself. Two things can be true at once, you know. You disappeared under mysterious circumstances in the wake of a Shadow vessel whereas Sheridan clearly had gone to meet his doom.
I kid but I like this development for Garibaldi. We know, as the audience, something is majorly wrong with Garibaldi, even as he pretends he’s fine, but no one else even has a hint of it beyond “he seems more snippy than usual.” How this will develop over the next few episodes is going to be interesting. Will he continue to be more and more irate & paranoid? Will Sheridan confide in him, thereby alleviating the worries? Or will their relationship become even more strained? Considering Sheridan sent him and a few men to get their butts handed to them by Nu Kosh without telling them why, I think the latter is far more likely.
Garibaldi’s woes aren’t over, despite being rescued – fitting, considering his history thus far – and that’s a great place to have him.
2. Bringing a Machete to the Operating Table
It’s out in the open now. The Vorlons are on the warpath, completely destroying worlds that have even remotely been touched by the Shadows, civilians be damned. This was a very quick change from last season, where the Vorlons were literally the only thing holding this force together by sheer virtue of their mysterious power. If this were a lesser show, a change like this would feel unearned and rather fast, but Babylon 5 and Straczynski have managed to make it all feel natural in its suddenness.
The Vorlons have always been aloof and mysterious, their motives and motions difficult to parse on the best of days. With Kosh, it was clear that that obtuseness was, ultimately, for the best; that actions were being taken in the name of peace and protecting life. It was, if not warm, at least understanding in its crypticness that the people he was talking to were deserving of respect. Nu Kosh is not, and the growing unease in Lyta viewed by the crew as well as the cruelty with which he treated her clues us in that something is very, very wrong and that this rot is spreading quickly.
The vast majority of Kosh & the Vorlons’ actions were secret because the Shadows were not open about their war yet and because they did not want the Shadows to know that they were prepping to defeat them. Now that it’s all out in the open, the leadership being kept in the dark is worrying, and once we found out what was being kept, that worry turned to pure dread because we know exactly what the Vorlons are capable of when they put their minds to something. The first couple minutes of the episode show exactly what they’re capable of when they let their morals go by the wayside.
It is a terrible thing to behold. It is an even more terrible thing to know that it is only the beginning.
3. ULTIMATE POWER
Nu Kosh, too, is terrifying to behold. They really upped the villainous nature of his design and that was on full display in “Falling Towards Apotheosis.” I’m a sucker for a good dark room lit by sparks and limited, low lighting so every scene with Nu Kosh is pure gold. What a presence! The production crew outdid themselves with it all, despite the return of the weakest part of Babylon 5: interpersonal fight scenes. The best fights in the show are either deeply imbued with personal stakes or are making a greater point. This one is more practical than those, and more complicated, which means the camp factor goes up for a scene that has to remain very tense and serious.
Continued below
Look, you have a spirit creature in an Emperor Palpatine suit (years before the prequels, mind you) fighting a bunch of pew pew laser guns, trapped in a CGI field of lightning which eventually morphs into a late 90s TV-budget Stand fight between the piece of Kosh stuck in Sheridan & Nu Kosh in order to expel him from the station. It’s a ridiculous premise set against the deadly serious backdrop of a paternalistic & increasingly puritanical military empire raising worlds without regard for life in order to defeat an authoritarian empire who uses others like toothpicks and has zero regards for anyone other than themselves. It’s funny because the two tones come into conflict, despite the underlying tension being solid & remaining throughout.
I was genuinely worried that Lyta was going to be found out before they made it to the ambush space. They sold me on the stakes at play and the desperate nature of the plan, even as Lyta’s ridiculous neck gills & not 100% convincing acting and the awkward nature of trying to navigate the sets was front and center. I remained worried, even throughout the fight, in ways that modern shows just absolutely fail to capture even with their superior CGI monsters, though one could argue they use them far worse. It’s a skill to thread tension throughout a fight, in spite of the technical limitations, and though I think this is not a particularly strong fight, it did its job to the best of its abilities.
4. What’s A Few Billion Centauri to a God?
Every time we cut back to Londo & Cartagia, I shudder. You never know what to expect, other than the worst. Cartagia is dangerous and unpredictable and deeply, deeply egotistical, a fact that is not lost on Londo as he tries to save his people from Cartagia AND the Shadows. It’s strange being on Londo’s side again after two seasons of watching him fall farther and farther down. While I’d like to think he has finally learned his lesson, I suspect he will succumb at some point to the power that is likely in his future and will make the wrong decisions again. It is in his nature to, when the chips are down, to pick the wrong path not because he is evil but because he is flawed.
He is selfish and prejudiced. He cares about his friends and his people. He cannot square being a proud Centauri with recognizing the humanity, for lack of a better term, of the Narn and their suffering at his hands, both directly and indirectly. He is ambitious and distrustful all while knowing that he’d truly be happy without that ambition. He is also a Saint in contrast to Cartagia.
We learn that the Vorlons are on their way to Centauri Prime and will arrive in 7 days. Instead of chasing the Shadows off or doing as they’re told to defend the planet, Cartagia is going to let it all burn as a sacrifice to his own twisted sense of self-importance. Londo uses this moment to put his plan in action by having G’Kar’s trial be made public and on Narn. It’s an excellent scene and I love how it’s all done via political manipulations.
It also leads to another scene that’s just heartbreaking, and also explains how G’Kar lost his eye in the future vision we saw in “War Without End, Part 2”. It is telling that G’Kar did not scream as the episode closed out. It is also telling that Londo’s own disgust with Cartagia and disorientation allowed it to be taken out.
5. Hi Dying. I’m Delenn
So…turns out that Sheridan is not, exactly, 100% better. I mentioned in “Whatever Happened to Mr. Garibaldi?” that Sheridan’s dying and resurrection was a great way to address what happened to him but what I didn’t realize was that Sheridan died, died. This isn’t a full rebirth. No, he’s kinda walking around on borrowed time and requires Lorien to be nearby in case he’s ever knocked out too much. Again, that’s an excellent story decision because it introduces consequences and tensions while still allowing for the miraculous.
Continued belowSheridan’s revival is now tinged with sadness as we know that it has a time limit of 20 years MAX. It could be less. In fact, it almost certainly will be less if the flash-forward is to be believed. Delenn is, correctly, heartbroken but then we also get a very heartwarming scene of Sheridan proposing to her. Their romance is one I have loved seeing develop and even though the show continually reminds us that it’s going to always have major trials and tribulations, I hold out hope that it’ll end alright.
Even if it doesn’t, there will always be more good than bad. That’s the way of most things, I think.
That about does it for now. Join me again in a week for the trial of G’Kar, the fight against the Vorlons, and, perhaps, some more of Marcus’ wonderful banter on the station where everything changed in the year of destruction and rebirth.
This is Elias. Signing out.
Best Line of the Night:
Franklin: “Come on. The captain vouched for him. Said he saved his life.”
Garibaldi: “I thought he died on Z’Ha’Dum.”
Franklin: “Yeah, well, after that part.”
