Anton Checkov’s evil, telepathic multiversal doppelganger returns, Sherridan tries to stick it to The Man, despite technically being The Man, and the legacy of Ironheart — no, not her — becomes clear. Welcome my friends. This is the story of the last of the Babylon stations. The year is 2259. The name of the place is Babylon 5.
Spoilers ahead.
1. Physician, Protect Thyself
Of all the main characters in B5, I never would have pegged Garibaldi to be the one coordinating the smuggling of telepathic individuals onto, and out of, B5. I mean, why would he? — What’s that? He’s not? But he’s the obvious twist leader. It can’t be Sherridan, he’s too new. Maybe Talia? Now THAT’D be a twist. Ivanova is too obvious. So that just leaves. . .
Keffer, of course! I knew there was a reason they kept him around. Wait, it’s Dr. Franklin? Really? I mean, sure that makes sense. And it does explain the clinic we saw him running back in “The Quality of Mercy and it fits in with his hippocratic oath. And, well, it’s a great way of involving Dr. Franklin in the plots that don’t revolve around someone getting hurt, sick, or having a moral quandary related to being hurt or sick.
What I’m saying is, I completely forgot it was Dr. Franklin until he came into the office and was being all cagey with Sheridan. That’s a good twist and the fact that it isn’t played for shock value or surprise, instead allowing us to view the debate between Sheridan and Dr. Franklin over what to do, makes it all the better. The point of that plotline wasn’t “Who’s the insider?,” although it could have easily been that. Rather, it was about the people and their plight, as well as the acts that must be taken to protect the vulnerable from the powerful who act with impunity.
2. Enter the Pungeon
It was a throw-away moment, a small scene meant to push Ivanova’s buttons and to foreshadow her possibly giving in to the bean counters. It wasn’t meant to illuminate much about Sheridan’s character at this moment in time but it speaks volumes. For one, he likes awful, awful, awful jokes. We are Ivanova, rolling our eyes with a groan and no smile. Kieron Gillen level puns these are not (man, that’s twice I’ve referenced his twitter this week.)
But what’s more interesting for me is the first joke and the way it’s set up. At first, it looks like Sheridan is going to share something Delenn shared with him during dinner, considering their conversation about laughter, but instead he shares a pretty tone deaf joke about the Minbari. At the time, this was clearly just meant as an example of an unfunny joke that would get on Ivanova’s nerves but with modern eyes, it’s a bit more complicated. The construction of the joke is reminiscent of a variety of insensitive “jokes” that punch down rather than up. It’s an innocuous variant of it, one that plays on views of their actions as seen from Earth’s perspective, making light of a situation they do not understand, but remains quite similar.
What it shows, though, is that Sheridan still harbors resentment and prejudice, albeit a low, perhaps somewhat unconscious amount, against the Minbari. It’s a small glimpse into the kinds of things he’s willing to make fun of and why he finds them so funny.
It could also show that he loves stupid jokes. Who’s to say.
3. Getting the Bester of Us
Fucking Bester. What a jaggoff.
I said it back in his first appearance, but while I hate Bester, I love the way Walter Koeing portrays him. He brings a calm, callousness to the character that effortlessly exudes cruelty without overdoing it to the point that it becomes unbelievable. That’s about all I had to say about him, other than I absolutely loved him and Garibaldi’s interaction in the security room and the tension between the two of them.
It is interesting to note that this episode is a direct result of “Mind War” and Jason Ironheart’s expanding brain meme. Talia’s first seeds of doubt were planted there and they are beginning to bear fruit. Ironheart’s gift is also what allows her to keep the ruse against Bester. I believe his presence was also what got Dr. Franklin to become a liaison between the underground railroad and the ship and is the reason the whole of the crew is unwilling to help Bester, rather than just Ivanova. It’s a great bit of continuity that keeps the show feeling like a timeline rather than a series of atemporal episodes.
Continued belowBut seriously, Bester sucks and every time he loses, I’m quite happy.
4. Mr. Brightside
I believe there are two romantic subplots that are beginning this week, although I may be mistaken about one of those. The first is between Sheridan and Delenn, under the pretense of a fact gathering mission on Delenn’s part, though it’s a writer-based pretense not a character one.
Obviously, Sheridan is caught off guard by the dinner request and Delenn coming to said dinner in a dress that has a boob window, thanks to her not understanding why the shopkeeper sold her a dress that would “turn heads.” Classic rom-com meet cute set up. It doesn’t go much but there is a connection formed this week and even if it goes nowhere romantic, it remains an important point for both of them in their character arcs.
As for the other, Talia Winter shows up at Susan Ivanova’s door with what appears to be champagne, late at night. She has come to apologize, to open up, and to connect with the one person she trusts more than anyone else on the station. Susan is wearing her silk bathrobe, with a big smile on her face at hearing this, and Talia takes off her gloves, a HUGE sign of intimacy and trust, and also a rejection of the Psi-Corps’ doctrine of separation and isolation.
If that isn’t the start of a deeper connection, possibly a romantic one, I don’t know what is. Much like with the dinner, it is all pretense, with no desire on anyone’s part to begin something other than to connect as two different people and learn about each other. That is where most good relationships, platonic, romantic, and everything in-between and beyond, begin: with connections, conversations and the willingness to care.
What happens next, I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.
5. All that remains is shame in the cycle
I saved this point for the end because it bears repeating, and is the most serious. It was all I could think about.
This show came out in 1994, 25 years ago, and yet many of the events within it feel prescient. I assume they were prescient back when it came out too, as most media reflects the times one lives in. They are also imperfect analogs that do not, or cannot, work as 1 to 1 to reality. Thus, the main focus of this episode, telepaths on the run from a quasi-legal arm of the government created during a time of great fear of the other, that operates with impunity, which has since become, or perhaps always was, a tool for the corrupt and hateful to further their own power and punish those they deem unworthy, retains an element of fantasy in its presentation, resolution, and underpinnings.
However, most of the underlying points still hold-up, perhaps more so in a post-9/11, post-the return of mainstream normalization of fascism across the globe. The world has never been perfect, it has never been all that great. We try, we fight, but more often than not, on a grand scale, we fail to reign in those who wish to do great harm and fail to empower the ones who can truly help. We are awful at repairing the mistakes of the past and see them repeat, again and again. Never quite the same, but always with similar flavors, similar themes, and similar, devastating effects.
It’s what makes Sheridan’s character feel tone deaf in his moralization around the telepaths on the run, even if he is correct that by him knowing, and by it happening on B5, it gives fodder for the vast majority of the hawks in Earth Gov, now empowered by a senate and president who are determined to crack down on their citizenry, to shut them down.
But there is always hope that this time will be different. That by banding together, the corrupt and the power hungry can be turned away and the vulnerable can be sheltered and, eventually, regain the freedom that was so callously stolen from them.
There is hope, if we fight for it.
That about does it for now. Join me again in a week for the most interesting of Centauri politicking (read coup,) a title that does not bode well for Londo, and, perhaps, a political assassination on the station that wraps humans and aliens in two million, five hundred thousand tons of spinning metal . . . all alone in the night.
Continued belowThis is Elias. Signing out.
Best Line of the Night:
Bester: “Would it interest you to know that I’m married, Mr. Garibaldi? That I have a 5-year-old daughter? That on Sundays when I’m back home, | we pack a picnic lunch and go out under the dome on ‘Syria Planum’ and watch the stars come out? Hardly the description of a monster.”
Garibaldi: “Smooth. You’re getting good at this. One of these days I might even be convinced that you’re human.”
