Arthur is alive and well and looking rather spry for a 2 millennia old Brit, meteor storms are apparently a big problem for the space post office, and there’s some treaty negotiations I guess. Welcome my friends. This is the story of the last of the Babylon stations. The year is 2260. The name of the place is Babylon 5.
Spoilers ahead.
1. You Don’t Fuck with the Post Office
First up. Fuck Homeland Security. That has nothing to do with the episode or this point in particular but, well, they’re basically the worst and as a department has only existed since the aftermath of 9/11.
Anyway, I wanted to talk about the Post Office. You don’t fuck with the post office. You may not like them. You may gripe and complain but no one will argue it is not a necessary good and serves a vital, indispensable role in our society. Well, almost everyone believes that. Garibaldi certainly falls into the former category, frustrated that his final package from Earth, all his food goodies, are being held for three times the price because, while the mail doesn’t stop, B5 is now technically no longer domestic and treated as hostile. Whoops!
Emmett, the postal worker, is a joy. Hamming it up at every moment like he’s the king of the world or something. It’s always fun when Garibaldi is frustrated at silly, little things. I dunno why but watching Jerry Doyle put on his “I’m gonna slug this punk in a second” look gets me every time. That and the lengths he’s willing to go to get his package without paying the full price. As his subordinate reminds him, the Post Office is scary and you don’t want to get on their bad side.
You don’t fuck with the Post Office, DeJoy. You don’t fuck with it.
2. Knight I Ask You A Question?
G’Kar is now a Sir. Who would’ve thought?
It’s been a while since Andreas has been allowed to relax and let loose as G’Kar considering, well, you know, the whole Centauri oppression and his exile and all. That’s all pretty taxing on the psyche and while he did have his epiphany a while back, and came out a more calm and jovial person, it’s not quite the same as him jumping into a fight to join “King Arthur” like he was a side-character in a movie about knights and castles and the romanticized version of feudal Britain or getting absolutely sloshed afterwards.
It is very funny though.
It’s also rather touching. This is a point I’ve made mention of before but the quality of Straczynski’s writing here that most appeals to me is the way he blends campy silliness and deep emotional connections. G’Kar and “Arthur” get on like nutella on breakfast foods and while it’s easy to write off the first few interactions as all in jest, meant to make us laugh at the ridiculousness of “Arthur” knighting someone he just met in a single brawl, helped along by G’Kar being utterly trashed and talking about how satisfying the thump was.
Yet by the end, their separation is meaningful and heartfelt and I got the bond. I got G’Kar’s soft spoken reverence for “Arthur” and his vision of a better system. They didn’t need a big explanatory scene or even a ton of scenes between the two. The couple we got were substantial enough and deep enough that the human/narn connections shone through. The arc was short and sweet and like a nutella crepe, oh so satisfying.
3. Trade Negosi-Negoshee-Negotia-Talks
Half the cast pronounces “negotiations” as “negoseeashons” and I am very confused as to why this is the pronunciation chosen. I was giggling every time, mind you, but the question remained. That is about the most interesting bit of the entire C-plot. JMS must have known what George Lucas did not: trade negotiations are only meaningful if you give them clear meaning and skimp on the details for the audience. Were this the A-plot, I would have checked out rather fast.
That’s not a knock on JMS’ writing — I think he could’ve written an engaging story there — just that there’s only so much one can do with these kinds of minutia before all but the super hard core fans fall asleep or change the channel. Making it the C-plot retains the continuity, establishes a central challenge for the new Babylon 5, namely security and their relationships with the non-aligned worlds, and sets up new dynamics to be played with without having to dramatize the arguments and manufacture tension. The boring part is done off screen without trivializing the importance of it to the world at large.
Continued belowNot every bit of B5’s day to day is interesting but it is all important to making the place solid and real.
4. Do No Harm
Dr. Franklin and Marcus’s friendship is not something I would have necessarily expected but it’s welcomed nonetheless. Biggs & Carter play off each other beautifully, making the gentle ribbing and then deeply serious conversations engrossing to listen to and watch. The central question wedged between the two of them this week is whether or not the truth of one’s identity is healing or harming. This is similar to the dilemma of Brother Edwards from “Passing Through Gethsemane”. Was he better off without the memories of his past? Does his past negate his present person? And, most importantly, if he has no sense or memory of that past, does that make him the same person or a new one?
These questions are less applicable to “Arthur” because while the delusion he has couched himself in is a new person, the person he is underneath remains the same. He is still racked with guilt over how a battle in the past went. He is fighting to overcome that guilt over what his actions wrought. He is still a good man fighting for goodness. And yet, he is delusional, believing himself to be King Arthur reborn, or potentially stolen by the Vorlons, and has twisted the story enough such that it was not his action but rather his command that caused the problems.
Dr. Franklin is right in that he needs help and that his delusion is not, necessarily, healthy, but Marcus is also right in that making him remember by confronting him with the truth would break him farther. There is a reason he is repressing and misrepresenting his past actions and current goals. It’s like throwing open the stable doors to get a horse when all you’ve heard behind it is thumping and rattling. Sure, you’ve got a pretty good idea the horse you need is in there but there’s no way to know if it is safely secured, calm or if it’ll burst through, trampling the opener as soon as it’s opened.
Franklin wanted to do good but, as is his flaw, he was too stuck in his head to see what was needed rather than what he thought should be done.
5. The Truth, Revealed
For two and a half seasons, Babylon 5 has referenced and talked about the Earth-Minbari war. The central mystery of why the Minbari surrendered after being on the verge of victory powered the first season while tensions over the war itself was woven into the second. Until now, there wasn’t a lot of talk about why the war began. We knew it was started after an Earth vessel fired on a Minbari one during first contact, killing the military leader Dukat. The rest of the details are fuzzy.
Well, now we know what started it and wow, that’s some tragic shit right there. “Arthur,” it turns out, was a gunner on the spaceship Prometheus, as well as a survivor of the Battle of the Line. He was given orders to shoot the ship because they arrived with their gun ports open, which was taken as a sign of hostilities when it was meant as a show of respect and peace. He shot, a shot born from a misunderstanding born from fear, kicking off the Earth-Minbari war and the battle that claimed the lives of thousands with only a few hundred survivors.
That guilt had been eating away at him and so he used a legend he was familiar with to craft a narrative, a quest, to help him focus his actions and distance himself from the guilt until such a time as he could create the reconciliation he needed. Fear is a powerful force and at the heart of many wars. JMS has never shied away from painting war and fighting as brutal and ugly and often needless, even when it is necessary. He continues to do that with McIntyre, “Arthur’s” real name, and how poor communication and an unfounded fear of an other that began the war. Not all fights are senseless, not all wars avoidable, the product of confusion. But the ones that are must be avoided at all costs, and that the intentions of those who wish to begin a war must be interrogated if that is to happen.
Continued belowThat about does it for now. Join me again in a week for the continued rise of fascism on Earth, the Shadows continuing to do. . .something and diplomacy at its uneasiest on the station that, in the year of the Shadow War, became something greater.
This is Elias. Signing out.
Best Line of the Night:
Marcus: You know, I used to think it was awful that life was so unfair. Then I thought, wouldn’t it be much worse if life were fair and all the terrible things that happened to us come because we actually deserve them.
So now I take great comfort in the general hostility and unfairness of the universe.
