Television 

Five Thoughts on Babylon 5‘s “Rumors, Bargains, & Lies”

By | August 23rd, 2021
Posted in Television | % Comments

Sheridan has Zooty fever, Lennier perfects his “shame on you” face, and the League of Non-Aligned Worlds freaks the fuck out over some rocks. 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. What’s Eating John Sheridan?

“Rumors, Bargains, and Lies” begins, as it tends to do, on a cold open that kicks off the A plot of the episode via a very low-key and ridiculous scene. These are the kinds of things that can only be done through TV because they’re kinda inconsequential but help construct the reality of this fictional place. The crew is getting together for breakfast and discussing the latest developments that are bothering them while Sheridan is off in his own world. It’s a bit of an exposition dump/recap for newcomers but it’s done in such a way that I don’t mind.

The best part of the whole thing has to be everyone’s reactions to Sheridan. He’s completely out of it, talking to himself, laughing at nothing, and when he finally yells out that he’s solved it, he shows he was basically not listening to anything they had been saying for the last two minutes before rushing out. Franklin’s worries that this is Sheridan on Delenn withdrawal and Ivanova’s worries that he added some pep powder to his morning coffee got me chuckling even as I realized that Sheridan was about to put into place an absolutely bonkers idea based on the title of the episode.

And somehow it worked! Who says John Sheridan isn’t a diplomat?

2. Noot Noot

Of all the consequential things that happened in this episode, Londo’s questioning of Earth culture has to be the least consequential but it stuck with me throughout the episode. Since coming back to the station, Londo has quietly slipped back into his role as the grumpy old imp whose sharp tongue is a font of witty retorts and zingers. It is a mask, for certain, but it fits his role as a diplomat rather than as a mover & shaker in the royal court or a semi-willing, though conflicted, collaborator with the shadows. We’ve gotten plenty of moments where the mask breaks but usually that’s when G’Kar is around.

Anyway, the moment that got me in “Rumors, Bargains, & Lies” is when he’s talking about not understanding Earth culture. We’re given a couple examples that a contemporary viewer would have a frame of reference of – like him dissing the fact that we name two genres of music “country” and “western” and, you know, he’s got a point – and then he brings up an example of a comedy duo called Rebo & Zooty, which is firmly contemporary to the 23rd century. The interplay between Sheridan and Londo as a result of that last touchstone absolutely got to me. I won’t explain why because it’s better to just accept it as is. And if you won’t, well, all I have to say to you is…

Zooty Zoot Zoot

3. Jumping at Asteroids

The A-plot of “Rumors, Bargains, & Lies” focuses on Sheridan’s plan to get the League of Non-Aligned Worlds to voluntarily join his plan to have the White Star fleet patrol their space for the Drakh and to help be a protective force against Raiders who are taking advantage of everyone being, well, pretty beaten up from the war. If you’ve ever had to convince a room full of people who are very self-interested and short-term minded to cooperate for a long-term goal that doesn’t directly enrich them – think your typical corporate board room or GOP senators (same dif) – you know what I’m talking about.

In this case, the members aren’t really that short sighted, they’re just scared and have their egos and are stuck in survival mode. So…Sheridan uses this to his advantage and, as the title clues us into, uses rumors and small lies to bring them to the bargaining table, thinking that the end result is of their own design. It’s brilliant actually. I especially love how he doesn’t tell anyone what he’s doing but as the viewers, it’s pretty easy to piece together by mid-episode what he’s doing.

Continued below

And the best part? He’s not actually being disingenuous! There really are antagonists out there who want to prey on the vulnerable and the weak who will slip through the cracks of the fractured peace brought about by the Shadow War. They are very good at hiding and, should they gain a foothold, another war will almost certainly break out, and all the signs he’s manufacturing – attacking a couple space rocks, having Ivanova make a very pointed statement about nothing happening around those space rocks, and Franklin asking for blood donations just in case – would be real, just at a far worse time.

There is a case to be made for being skeptical about these kinds of tactics taken by leaders. Far too often, world leaders create pretenses to enter or stay in a war (most notably in recent history Bush and Iraq’s “weapons of mass destruction”) and that is ultimately what Sheridan is doing, though the end goal is not war but agreements to letting their fleet patrol the space between and take specific actions. I think Babylon 5 does a good job of creating a frame where this doesn’t feel manipulative but I can also see how, in a different context, these same actions could be quite sinister.

Such is the case with diplomacy.

4. Shame, Shame, Shame

I’ve always loved the relationships JMS has built between the diplomats and their attaché’s, though we didn’t get much of Na’Toth, and season 4 has only deepened my love of Lennier. He didn’t get to shine so much in the early parts of this season, what with the focus on Londo, but since accompanying Delenn into The Dreaming, he’s had a much larger role. In “Rumors, Bargains, & Lies” he gets to be the hero, the sneaky butler who overhears everyone’s plans, and the guy who chastises the misguided characters who gave into their fear to turn on the protagonist only to realize their mistake when it was almost too late. What a fantastic role for Lennier to play! It also helps that I’m a sucker for any scene where a character gets to sneak around in a duct – last episode being no exception.

See? Great ducts

The part which really got me was when Lennier tells the Minbari who tried to poison the whole shop based on unconfirmed rumors and a whipped up paranoia based on their prejudices that he kept their involvement secret not to save them, but to save Delenn. While I’m not 100% on-board with the protection angle, as I like to think that Delenn had some inkling that the other Religious Caste members on the ship were starting to feel restless and paranoid with Neroon around, Lennier’s point still comes across when he says:

Delenn does not walk in the same world that you and I walk in. She does not see the same world that you and I see. In her world, we are better than we are. We care more than we care. We act towards each other with compassion.

I much prefer her world to that of my own and I will not allow anything to threaten that.

Delenn is not naive but he knows that she views the world with a far more optimistic and loving perspective than he or most people he knows. She sees the world as having more positives than it may actually have and she strives to make that world a reality. For if she were to be disabused of that notion, of that worldview, she may lose the ability to bring it about in spite of the reality of people’s indifference. I know it may sound a little trite but I hope to see the world as Delenn does and, barring that, that I see the world as Lennier does: clear eyed but hopeful that the world could one day be like the dream.

5. Rumors Aren’t Always Wrong

Throughout this episode, we have been following along with how rumors shape our decisions and how people are really bad at disregarding unsubstantiated information. Like, REALLY bad. For much of the runtime, we’re shown the dangers of acting on such information, even when the outcome is a net positive, ex. Sheridan crafting an aura of rumors to get the League to propose working together for mutual protection is still based on faulty inferences and a lack of anything but hearsay. However, at the episode’s end, JMS turns this on its head by having Neroon sneak out of the ship to relay the attack plans of the Religious Caste back to the head of the Warrior Caste.

Continued below

Remember, this was after he and Delenn had spent an episode bonding a little as comrades who wished to avoid a war. After Delenn had stuck up for him and his presence on the ship. After she and Lennier had to fight to defeat the speculation that she, or Neroon, were rolling over and surrendering to the other, an action which would only serve to incense the surrendering side. That’s a huge betrayal and while we never get an explicit “Neroon is keeping secrets” rumor, the sentiment that he could not be trusted remained present.

Neroon represents the third node of the title: Lies. While Sheridan skirts the line of lying – he and Londo conceal information and fabricate situations – Neroon straight up misrepresents himself to Delenn. Yes, rumors swirl around but the misinformation contained within is far less sinister, though no less dangerous, than the disinformation Neroon deals in. We don’t know if he planned any of the paranoia or the attack on himself as a means of getting Delenn’s trust but it isn’t hard to see that as a possibility. Otherwise, he simply took advantage of it.

Regardless of what his plan was and will be, it’s a great last minute twist that’s disheartening but not out of the blue and further supports the dangers of acting without verification. Trust is important but sometimes, a little confirmation is what’s needed to ensure nothing goes wrong.

That about does it for now. Join me again in a week for the fallout of Neroon’s betrayal, more from the voice of the resistance, and telepaths in conversation on the station where everything changed in the year of destruction and rebirth.

This is Elias. Signing out.

Best Line of the Night:

Delenn: “When I was a child, my father used to carry me through the city on his shoulders. I’d never seen such beauty. The city was eternal. Its beauty is eternal.

We heard of the Grey Council, the name was always spoken with awe and reverence. They held our world together. They were the peace promised by Valen. A thousand years of peace among the three castes.

I think of my beautiful city in flames, Lennier. The streets where I walked…the temples…the great crystal spires that sighed music whenever the wind touched them.

I think of it…and I cry, Lennier. And I wonder, did I do this when I broke the Grey Council?”


//TAGS | 2021 Summer TV Binge | Babylon 5

Elias Rosner

Elias is a lover of stories who, when he isn't writing reviews for Mulitversity, is hiding in the stacks of his library. Co-host of Make Mine Multiversity, a Marvel podcast, after winning the no-prize from the former hosts, co-editor of The Webcomics Weekly, and writer of the Worthy column, he can be found on Twitter (for mostly comics stuff) here and has finally updated his profile photo again.

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