The ending of “Watchmen” makes an appearance, the holy grail is hunted, and the history of the Babylon stations are unveiled. Welcome my friends. This is the story of the last of the Babylon stations. The year is 2258. The name of the place is Babylon 5.
Spoilers ahead.
1. Gotta Break ‘Em All
It’s been a while since the other Babylon stations have been mentioned outside of the intro. It’s also the first time we’ve heard that something bad happened to all the rest of the stations. Based on the intro and the way B5 was discussed in-show, it’s very easy to assume that all the others had their air locks shuttered by an increasingly antagonistic Earth Central. Thomas aka Jinxo sets us straight on that front – there was nothing planned about B5 being the last of the Babylon stations.
It’s such a fascinating choice, to have this character be our focal point for the episode instead of any of the other main cast members. Garibaldi and Sinclair get plenty of screen time in the B-plot, which by the mid-point of the episode merges with the A-plot, but they’re incidental. The true driving force of the episode is Jinxo, be it for his knowledge and conviction that he is the curse of the Babylon stations or for him being hunted down by Discount Second-String Ant-Man and the Wasp Villain.
The episode is all the better for this focus shift.
2. Little Encounter Suit of Horrors
Obviously, it wasn’t Ambassador Kosh. It was too dramatic, too convenient and wildly out of character for him to appear in the depths helping the lurker mind crush people. It’s easy to see through it and if you didn’t, it was almost incidental, like it was meant to just kind of niggle at the back of your mind until more evidence came into play. What was in the encounter suit, though, was the real question and when it was revealed. . .OH BOY was that a trip.
It’s hard to pick just one moment about the monster of the week to talk about because everything about it is hilarious. It’s essentially an Orange Space Squid Audrey II that is willed to stop attacking by a man on a quixotic quest for an item that he know probably doesn’t exist, or doesn’t exist anymore, and yet continues to search. This utter insanity is compounded by its voice, which is like a child begging for food, and Londo’s reaction of pure terror when he learns of its possible presence on board. Perhaps that’s all I need to say. It was an utterly ridiculous monster, with CGI to match, and the inclusion of it as a foil to the ultra-serious plotline of the Holy Grail hunt (yes, I know the irony there) makes it all the more comical.
3. Ask and You Shall Receive
I complained last week that the episode felt unfocused and boring and, obviously my kvetching didn’t influence the season as it’s, ya know, almost 25 years old, but I like to think that my words helped because “Grail” is a much, MUCH better episode. Jinxo, despite taking a little time to get used to, is great to follow along with and acts as a bridge connecting the prophecy from “Signs and Portents” to here. Aldus is calm, collected and a philosophy that you cannot wait to hear more of. The return of Lennier and Delenn, albeit briefly, is very much welcomed and again, space squid and a terrified Londo.
Perhaps my favorite part of the episode that’s unconnected to the main plots is the first court case we see. It took me a little bit to figure out what was going on, as we’re just dropped into the case with a man telling a story about lights in the sky and probes. Which, nowadays seems weird, but when you’ve got aliens running around a ship, it’s no longer as farfetched an idea. . .at least not for the same reasons.
But THEN, we get the punch line, which is that someone from Earth is suing a Grey Alien for abducting his great grandfather and ruining his life! And then, when the Alien goes to defend itself, it’s obviously in an alien language but there’s no one there to translate it. I’m. . .I’m baffled as to why this scene was here, but it made my day. Maybe it was to establish the judge’s personality and the presence of a court for non-ambassadorial issues, which is all we’ve seen up to this point. Regardless, it was a welcome diversion and its placement at the start was the right one.
Continued below4. In Brightest Day, In Blackest Night
I’ve kind of danced around the information Jinxo gives us, though not on purpose. It just didn’t fit above. He imparts to us that three of the Babylon stations exploded before they were completed and the final one just kind of, folded out of existence, mysteriously. Babylon 5 isn’t the last of the stations because of a shifting political landscape or because the others failed but instead it’s because this was their fifth attempt at crafting the station. Also, hearing this story brings an added level of tension because of the prediction of B5 going boom back in “Signs and Portents.” The question, what if this is that moment, is always there, always waiting. Ivanova knows this. So should we.
5. Aldus and the Last Crusade
Superstition is a powerful thing and so is the weight of the guilt that can be born from it. Yet superstition can also alleviate the pains. It’s no surprise the writers chose to have Aldus’ search occur in this episode. Both are on a journey to find peace, one so that he can atone for a misbegotten belief that he is the cause of the deaths of all those on the previous stations, and the other to find meaning in a life that has lost it. They provide for each other what they each needed, an heir to the search and a way to move on. It’s no surprise that by the end Jinxo once again goes by Thomas.
That about does it for now. Join me again next week for antique motorcycles, an interrogation of Patton proportions and Ivanova’s best episode yet on the station that wraps humans and aliens in two million, five hundred thousand tons of spinning metal . . . all alone in the night. This is Elias. Signing out.
Best Line of the Night:
Ivanova: “No boom today. Boom tomorrow. There’s always a boom tomorrow.”
