Delenn proves she’s a formidable and capable leader and strategist, Garibaldi learns that some bosses truly are worse than others, and Lyta has one of the worst days of her life. 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. Horrible Bosses
The ability for your boss to call you up at any hour of the day, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, is scary when you think about it in the abstract and downright terrifying in the specific, vitally important, time-sensitive jobs notwithstanding within reason (doctors, EMTs, firefighters, etc.) Yet, this is something we live with on a daily basis nowadays. Sure, it’s always been possible and with each telecommunications leap it becomes easier and easier, but right now, especially with the pandemic work-from-home environment, more people feel this pressure to always be on call acutely.
This is the mindset I brought to the very first scene of “Moments of Transition” as Garibaldi is awoken by Edgars because, and I quote, “I [Edgards] am on call 24 hours a day and I expect the same from everyone who works for me.” That’s some bullshit and he knows it. I half expect this to be a ploy to get Garibaldi to be more pliable in doing whatever Edgars wants so he can get more sleep. Garibaldi is slowly retreating from everyone else, both by his own volition and through strategic pushing, and this kind of work environment is not helping.
I hope Garibaldi realizes, sooner rather than later, that he’s being exploited and used, even though the pay is good. From his irritability at the B5 government and his unfounded distrust of it, as opposed to his founded skepticism and wariness from prior seasons, to whatever the Psi-Corps did to his mind, I don’t see that happening anytime soon
2. Bester Friends in High Places
I feel so bad for Lyta this week. First, she can’t get a job because of bullshit insurance reasons stemming from her not being part of Psi-Corps. Then she’s being kicked out of her quarters because she can’t pay for it now that the Vorlons are gone & she has no steady income (see point #1.) This leads to the horrifying, to me, revelation that she wasn’t hired by the station to work for them, kinda proving a bit of Garibaldi’s point, and Bester’s, about how B5’s leadership is not 100% awesome. Sheridan & Co. are letting her down without even realizing it and I’m a little sad that aspect isn’t delved into. Anyway, Lyta is then given a real shit deal by Bester and she rightly tells him to fuck off. Hooray! She then tries to get a job with Garibaldi, who distrusts telepaths but trusts Lyta and wants to help a friend. Hooray!
You know where this is going, don’t you?
Yeah, Edgars tells Garibaldi to cut her loose or he’s cutting G loose and then she has to take Bester’s deal. And let me lay out what this deal is. Lyta rejoins the Corps in name only – being put on the deep cover list – and therefore is able to get works as a commercial telepath. This, in and of itself, isn’t too bad, though I can see how Bester could use this information to really screw with people’s trust in Lyta, should that deep cover list get out.
What’s bad is that Lyta has to wear the symbol/uniform and the gloves again and what’s WORSE is that she has to sign a power of attorney giving Bester and the Corps the property of her corpse when she dies. There’s a caveat in there about how it’s null and void if she dies by anything other than natural causes but come on, it’s Bester and the deeply troubling extra-legal Psi-Corps. These people make CIA, Stazi & KGB plots look quaint. The ending scenes with Lyta silently fighting with Garibaldi in the distance and then crying in front of her mirror in the uniform were heartbreaking. I’m afraid for her and I hope she gets to give Bester his comeuppance.
Continued below
3. Eating My Words
Welp! I probably should have seen this coming but I, too, it seems, gave into rumors. I had assumed that because Neroon had snuck away in the middle of the night, that he had betrayed Delenn and, I mean, he did but as part of a ruse to end the war without shedding more blood. I had an inkling that something was up with Neroon again whenever he talked to Shakiri but I assumed that was his conscience fighting back against his decision, rather than him feeling Shakiri out.
I’m honestly glad I was wrong about Neroon because it meant that Delenn was right about him AND that she recognized the reality of the civil war that was brewing. For one, she knew that Neroon was not the speaker for the Warrior Caste in the way that Delenn is for the Religious Caste. For another, she knew that Shakiri was the problem and could not be reasoned with in the same way Neroon could; there was no moral duty or heart to appeal to. Instead, she knew that they had to trick him and make a point so strong, no one could argue against it.
Shakiri wouldn’t believe the information or the surrender were it not for 1) his big ass ego and 2) Neroon pretending to have gotten a leg up on those “naive Religious Caste members.” By appealing to the former via the latter, they could maneuver him into a place of their choosing and bring the war to an end without having to sacrifice more lives. Or, well, more lives than were lost in the siege. That’s going to haunt Delenn for sure.
4. Trial By Skybeam
So how did they end the war? By Skybeam, of course! Almost 15 years to the day before The Avengers popularized its use as a final battle signifier, “Moments of Transition” brought the venerable tradition to the small screen. It’s a little more complicated than that, obviously, but that was all I could think about when the roof opened and a bright blue light that everyone seemed afraid of blasted down into the middle of the room. I mean, if you can’t decide the fate of an entire planet without a big blue light from the sky, what’s even the point?
What actually happened, though, is far more interesting than the beam itself. Shakiri’s whole deal is he thinks “might makes right” and that warriors should do what warriors do and that’s fight and conquer and whatnot. He’s a strongman who has created a rosy picture of an idealized past where the Warriors ruled and violence was always the answer. It’s pretty easy to see how this parallels the disaffections of right wing Americans and white supremacists, though JMS was speaking more broadly to the animating forces beneath those groups. “Moments of Transition” spares no time in eviscerating his worldview but what is so effective is how it chooses to do so.
Delenn roots her arguments in tradition, arguing against Shakiri’s interpretations and refuting them in order to preserve a way of ruling that is just rather than strong. She shames Shakiri in front of the whole of Minbar not only for this but, through an impassioned speech, also how easy it is for a leader to start a war because they do not have to fight it. They are not the ones with their lives on the line. Finally, she says fine, you wanted to go back to the way things were? Then we will settle this like the way things were, wherein the leaders of the warring clans would step into the circle and whoever was more dedicated to their cause would die for it. It’s a powerful moment because it reveals Shakiri for who he truly is and how, in contrast with Delenn, he is not a true leader.
Now some might argue this, especially today, feels naïve. People are surprisingly willing to absolve their leaders of abhorrent and hypocritical behavior, especially when one creates an image of an iconoclast built upon contradictions. Thankfully, these are not humans but instead Minbari and so things work differently. Moreover, the image Shakiri constructed of himself is rooted in a consistent appeal to tradition AND is refuted by the well-respected Neroon, who is willing to lay down his life to save Delenn and declare her correct. I like to think that, rather than naïve, this indicates JMS’s inherent optimism about our ability to fight against the forces that wish to divide and crush us.
Continued belowWhen you have the right person at the right time for the right reasons, the work is not tainted and can be completed with a positive future in mind. This is why Delenn empowers the Worker Caste, who was trapped between the Religious and Warrior Castes, trodden upon and forgotten by both, on the new Grey Council. It is not easy, it is not clean, but it can be done and it remains important to keep trying.
5. Running Fast & Fast
I’ll likely be saying this a lot for the rest of the season, if I haven’t already said it enough times, but two events in “Moments of Transition” felt like they should’ve been happening at the end of the season rather than the middle: the cliffhanger of President Clark’s forces open firing on refugees and this conclusion to the Minbari Civil War.
For the former, it kinda comes out of nowhere as a next episode tease, a direct escalation rather than a slow one which reaches a boiling point, and would have functioned as the perfect lead-in to, either, a final season battle against Earth Gov OR a season finale battle. It’s got the right kind of gravitas, the right kind of energy behind it, and the right hook. I’m still excited to see it develop but I’ll miss the complications we were developing via the cold war of sorts that was the season 4 status quo with Earth.
For the latter, it feels like we haven’t gotten nearly enough episodes to watch the tensions develop in the same careful way as other plot lines have in the past. This ending could very well have been split across two episodes, allowing for Neroon’s death to have an even greater impact. It feels too neatly wrapped up and too briefly dwelt on. It never really felt as real or deep as the Shadow War or even the war with Earth. Shakiri, the big bad, was introduced and defeated in a single episode! That kinda shows this was truncated more than originally planned. Sure, the war ending before things got bad is a good thing but not getting the chance to really sit with the implications of such a war or its realities is unfortunate. Perhaps I will feel differently after the next couple episodes.
That about does it for now. Join me again in a week for the subtitle of the season, war, and unlikely alliances on the station where everything changed in the year of destruction and rebirth.
This is Elias. Signing out.
Best Line of the Night:
Shakiri: “There are other ways.”
Delenn: “Then you should have explored them before you tore our people apart!”
