Franklin is surprisingly good at I Spy, Ivanova is learning the fine art of strong-arming smugglers, and things go woo-hoo in the night. 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. Smuggler Serenader
Ivanova has her most active episode in a good while this week and, although it is the B plot, I couldn’t get enough of it. From her telling Sheridan to take a vacation by relieving him of duty and shooing him away to attempting to transform the smugglers from peddlers of vice and iniquity to ones bringing life-saving supplies and provisions, she shows her chops as a leader and I kinda wish we had gotten a chance to see her as the Captain full time. This may still happen, as we have more than a season and a half to go, but I suspect she will always be the second in command.
Part of why this doesn’t bother me so much is that her most compelling plots have come from her learning what it means to be a high ranking official and, honestly, she doesn’t have the best temperament for the high stress of being the ultimate answerer of all ship questions. She’s got the brains, the attitude, and the organizational skills but her interpersonal interactions have always been her weak point. We see that in how, as of now at least, her deal with the smugglers hasn’t been taken up. I suspect more of them are into it than they let on but the big creeper who caps off the scene is currently representing the state of those negotiations.
Still, I love moments when she gets to shine and I think JMS has fun getting to let go during these scenes, as we can see through Ivanova’s sharp but playful dialog throughout. It also provides a wonderful contrast to Sheridan this week who is, shall we say, not doing such a great job of showing that he’s got the right temperament for the job.
2. Say Goodbye to Garibaldi
Raise your hands if you think Homefront/Earth Gov is pulling the strings behind the militia approaching Garibaldi because that’s my going theory. It could very easily be part of Psi-Corps’ whole brainwashing to destabilize B5’’s command too but it feels a little too…violent for their brand of CIA-esque psyops. Anyway, I bring this up here because G-D DAMMIT SHERIDAN you just pushed him right into their arms with your bullshit bravado.
It’s been a while since I really felt like Sheridan was being a real ding-dong. I thought maybe he’d grown out of it, but it looks like that was just wishful thinking. It’s nice that we got him to realize his mistake with Garibaldi but he just seems unable to take that last step to check his ego at the door and listen to what he has to say. Now, Garibaldi is in no way innocent in this whole endeavor, what with him airing all his grievances to Dan Randall, walking spin doctor, who Garibaldi had to know was selling them a crock of shit when he said he just wanted to get his opinions. He had to know, on some level, that his misgivings would be used in their most unflattering light and that it would piss Sheridan off because it felt like an attack rather than concern from a friend.
It’s good drama! Doesn’t mean I don’t want to slap both of them, Sheridan especially for not just asking Garibaldi what was bothering him, sitting down and acknowledging his feelings. It’s scary to see Garibaldi fall in with this group that wants to assassinate Sheridan and it’s even scarier to see how this parallels a person’s descent into conspiracy theories and increasingly hostile reactions to the world when they feel alienated. He’ll ultimately rebel, I suspect, but until he does, this is going to be a painful story to follow.
3. I’ve Loved These Shan-Falls
I feel for Delenn here. Imagine, if you will, you’re Jewish and you’re trying to explain to someone what a Passover Seder is and how it works. You have to explain that there are 15 (14 if you count Motzi and Matza as one,) 10 (or 9) of which have to be done before one can eat; that there are services that precede the meal that aren’t part of those 15 steps (Maariv), and two that follow the meal that are part of them (Birkat Hamazon, or Barech in this case, and Hallel) and that there are blessings all throughout but NOT during the second step, which is very important. That’s not even getting into the opening of the door for a drunk ghost and the frantic hunt for a piece of burnt flavorless cracker so that you can officially end the meal and get started on the aforementioned services and singing of the goat song, among others.
Continued belowThat’s the vibe I got from Delenn as she tried to explain how many ceremonies and rituals there are for their courtship and how off guard he was caught when the full nature of the Shan-Fall was revealed. In a culture with so many rituals and customs and blessings (there is, quite literally, a blessing for everything in Judaism,) it can be pretty disorienting for someone who did not grow up with it. I laughed very hard at the whole thing but because I identified with Delenn over Sheridan, when I suspect the reverse is true for most of the audience. This isn’t a bad thing. It just meant I approached the episode with a slightly different lens.
I mean, I also laughed because for Sheridan, sex is an intimate, personal act while for Delenn, at least in the Shan-Fall, it is both that AND a meaningful communal experience, though not in an orgy sense, and this conflict made for a great culture class. It also gave us my favorite Lennier scene in a while. But I was also touched by Sheridan’s willingness to be uncomfortable in order to partake in something that is very important to Delenn. He has shown this willingness before but getting a reminder every so often helps to keep their relationship feeling real and healthy.
4. You’re My Home
OK. OK. OK. I was not expecting to actually get a bunch of scenes of Franklin and Marcus in transit to Mars but I am so, SO happy we did. I mentioned last week in “Atonement” that Biggs & Carter have fantastic on-screen chemistry but I did not expect the show to cheekily canonize that by having them pretend to be husbands. Yes, that’s right. We got an episode that allowed these two to be an old married couple and they absolutely fucking nailed it.
I feel like this could have easily been a fraught gag but instead it simply reframed the humor and barbs we were already getting. The humor of the situation comes not from a homophobic space, of two men being married, which is what I would’ve expected from most shows of this era, and instead from these two specific men being forced to pretend to be in a relationship, specifically the honeymoon. Franklin is already at his wits end with Marcus, absolutely drained by the guy who seems to have boundless road trip energy, and now he has to pretend to be in a relationship with the guy.
Marcus takes it all in stride and has fun ribbing him and though this is ultimately a minor part of the episode, I really enjoyed watching the two work off each other. It was great in all parts of the episode but they were clearly having a lot of fun in that one scene where Marcus gets to tease him about how his mother wouldn’t stop bothering them about when their wedding would be. Richard Biggs has the biggest smile and so does Jason Carter and it’s just so wholesome to watch.
Especially because once they’re underground, things get real bad, real fast.
5. Captain Jack
While Marcus & Franklin’s interaction with the Martian resistance goes about as well as expected – that is, poorly – what’s really striking is that it only goes badly because of influences that aren’t Earth Gov; it was an enemy from within! It turns out that the affable, eccentric liaison Marcus & Franklin who gives them their fake IDs is a traitor. Well…kinda. It turns out that Jack had been implanted with a control alien and was sabotaging the Resistance for a while.
I appreciate that rather than going full The Thing levels of paranoia, we only find out that something is wrong at the same moment as others, and right before they take the alien out. I also really appreciate how we are given the same clues as Franklin & Marcus and the Resistance members as to Jack’s situation. It helps keep the focus on the distrust between the factions rather than on the interference of a third party, though it did come at the expense of Jack.
Continued belowI was starting to grow to like Captain Jack! He was fun, he had a sad backstory, and he felt human. I was rooting for him. Instead, now I’m crying for him after his tragic end. JMS really twisted the knife with his end while also giving us a chilling fact we didn’t know: the creatures always come back. The stakes are rising and the mysteries are only getting deeper. Let’s hope they can be solved before someone else is infected.
That about does it for now. Join me again in a week for our mid-season episode that’s not a finale, focuses on building bridges, and will likely end rather poorly for at least one of our parties on the station where everything changed in the year of destruction and rebirth.
This is Elias. Signing out.
Best Line of the Night:
Sheridan: “There isn’t a chance of me winning this argument.”
Ivanova: “None. I never give up when I’m right.”
