Londo nearly avoids going kablooey, everyone seems to be getting promotions, and Garibaldi isn’t allowed to throw hands against the most deserving character. Booooooo. Welcome my friends. This is the story of the last of the Babylon stations. The year is 2262. The place: Babylon 5.
Spoilers ahead.
1. He Said The Emperor Died Of Natural Causes. Well, Being Assassinated Is Natural Causes For An Emperor.
So I thought Londo almost being assassinated would be a much larger part of the episode. Turns out, it’s the C-plot and we don’t even find out who pulled off the plot. While one part of me really really wants to know more, the other part is really happy not knowing. It’s almost better to have this just be a reality of Londo’s new situation. It almost doesn’t matter who tried to kill him or why. He’s going to be the Emperor. That’s reason enough.
There’s a special ruthlessness to monarchical politics that is easy to forget when it’s not the dominant system across the board. Sure we get glimpses into the reality TV style machinations of the British royal family from time to time (with its serious real-world effects) but not much more. Londo on the other hand is now stepping into a world fundamentally different from Babylon 5 and as we saw last season, it is a world of daggers, poisons, and, apparently, exploding transport ships.
Also, I should mention I feel a little weird about making light of this kind of thing seeing as the former prime minister of Japan was recently assassinated. Yeah.
2. Physician, Promote Thyself
Season 5 is starting to feel like the year after a major life event. The status quo has been irreparably shattered and a new one has yet to settle in. Things and situations are in flux and so people will begin to move on. Schedules will no longer align and what was once a central, tight group is now a decentralized web, with strands breaking or drifting farther and farther from each other.
It’s sad when you think about what is being lost but happy when you see what’s being gained. Lennier has left the station to find himself. Londo is leaving to be Emperor but will not be far from G’Kar. Garibaldi is slinking around and making an ass of himself. Talia is pulling away from everyone and joining Byron’s commune. Sheridan is busier than ever and Delenn along with him. Now we have Franklin potentially moving beyond Medlab to essentially be the Chief Medical Officer of the New Alliance.
Things are changing. It is sad to know it will never be the same. It is sad to lose touch with those who were once close to you. But it’s comforting to know you’ll always have those moments in your memory.
3. Stuck Between A Telepath and a Bester Place
I don’t always agree with Garibaldi. He can be pretty hotheaded and cynical. That said, I felt his reaction to seeing Bester & Lockley yucking it up acutely. I can’t really blame him for flying off the handle and going to deck Bester. I’m glad he got stopped, seeing as that would’ve caused a whole host of incidents, but damn if it wouldn’t have been nice to see him get decked for all the shit he’s pulled.
I feel for Lockley’s position though. As odious as Bester is, she’s meant to be a peacemaker and is bound by the rules just as Sheridan & Sinclair were before her, even if she’s less willing to bend them as far as they did to stymie Bester. You can see her struggling even if she doesn’t have the same moral imperative to fight as hard as possible as soon as possible. It’s an interesting contrast to Sheridan and especially Sinclair.
What I like most, actually, is Lockley’s inevitable conversation with Garibaldi about the whole thing. It’s honest and open and is meant to build bridges rather than burn them. It’s a great scene and gets to the heart of the character, why she was a good pick for the position and also where her shortcomings may be.
Continued belowShe’s a rule-follower, for all the baggage that brings. Whether it’s a handbag or a steamer trunk we’ll just have to wait and see.
4. The Thing About Secrets Is That They Are Usually Best Kept By Just One Person
Byron and Lockley both have secrets. Byron’s seem to be a lot worse than Lockley’s, perhaps because I’m reading into them a bit more. We don’t learn about his in “Strange Relations” but we do learn that he and Bester have history and that Bester really has it out for him. Why? I’m curious and I hope Lyta starts to unravel it in between singing sessions that are both sweet and kinda unsettling. I’m just not feeling their romance, OK?
As for Lockley, turns out I was right about her marriage to Sheridan. The devil, though, is in the details. It was a three month marriage that ended about as tumultuously as it started. It adds a bit more depth to her and Sheridan while characterizing their younger selves and giving us a new lens through which to view their inevitable conflicts. It also gave Garibaldi a good laugh. That’s a win of a plot in my book.
5. But In Cynicism And General World Weariness, Which Is A Sort Of Carbon Dating Of The Personality, He Was About Seven Thousand Years Old.
Can we stop to appreciate G’Kar slowly talking himself into being Londo’s bodyguard? Delenn set him up but he got there all on his own. I know it was just a way for Straczynski to keep the two together because they make such a wonderful duo but it also makes story sense! G’Kar has a strong sense of duty and an even stronger sense of irony and being able to be a Narn in the Centauri court, as hostile a place as it is, is just too tempting.
Londo’s reaction to the whole thing, of resigned acceptance with the slightest hidden hint of happiness, is also bang on. I know the narrative might be getting more fractured from here on out but it’s moments like these that make it all worth it.
That about does it for now. Join me again in a week for telepathic tension, Franklin the detective, and a whole lot of secrets on the station where Londo considered the elimination of the Narn homeworld.
This is Elias. Signing out.
Best Line of the Night:
Lockley: “And thank Delenn for the idea. I gotta go ruin somebody’s day.”
