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Five Thoughts on Babylon 5‘s “The Wheel of Fire”

By | October 12th, 2022
Posted in Television | % Comments

Lyta cuts a deal, Delenn has a surprise for us and G’Kar comes to terms with his new life. 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. Garibaldi Off the Top

Welp, it finally happened. Garibaldi’s drinking was finally discovered by Sheridan and he’s been put on indefinite leave. I was fully expecting it to resolve in an explosive way, either through Zach spilling the beans or someone like Franklin or Sheridan finding out by accident after another major misstep by G.

What we got instead was a lot better. Not only did Sheridan suspect it due to Garibaldi’s behavioral changes, it seems that the others did too and they just needed to confirm it. This leads to two excellent exchanges between Garibaldi & Sheridan and Garibaldi & Lochley.

I love both sets of scenes for two very different reasons. The former is an example of the steller character work Straczynski’s does and the moving performances by Doyle & Boxleitner. You feel the weight of their history, the good along with the bad, and the guilt Sheridan feels for not noticing sooner and, tellingly, for not having cultivated the kind of friendship where Garibaldi feels like he can be honest about his problems. It’s not the direction things usually go and it’s refreshing to see, even as it remains heartbreaking.

As for his conversation with Lochley, it created a nice moment of unity between the two characters who have been at odds for much of the season. It also gave Lochley the opportunity to wreck Garibaldi’s shit, breaking through his anger and defensiveness. It was so nice getting to see her trade barbs and come out on top while remaining serious and genuine.

Even though I knew where things were going with her previous substance abuse problems, her confession still came as a surprise because Lochley isn’t vulnerable very often. It had to take a lot to open up to Garibaldi in this way and he recognizes that, apologizing, which is something that he rarely does. It’s a turning point for him, helped out by Lochley being the ultimate wingwoman and bringing Lise back to the station so Garibaldi won’t be alone as he tries to get back on the wagon, no matter how long it takes.

2. Delenn Swears

Delenn doesn’t get a lot to do in this episode besides doing what she does best and showing Sheridan when his emotions are misplaced or he needs a different view on things. I’m a little sad we don’t get as much Delenn anymore but that’s OK because we still get plenty of excellent scenes with her in them, even when all she does is get exceptionally angry, faint, and then is discovered to be pregnant.

Mira Furlan wasn't able to get angry too often so this was very fun

Yup! You read that right. Who else was wondering when that aspect of “War Without End, Part 2” would finally show up? I’m sure it’ll be interesting to see how JMS handles that over the course of the next three episodes. Will it be all background? Will it be more actively incorporated into the plot? Is there even enough time to fully explore this development or was this episode enough?

My gut says this was enough. I think they did all the heavy lifting here. No need to develop it more. The love between Sheridan and Delenn is reinforced perfectly and the show’s established enough about the stakes to let things fade into the background for the rest of the season without it feeling like it was forgotten. Considering how many episodes remain, that may be where things go and I’m OK with that.

3. The Very Best of G’Kar

G’Kar finally comes back to safety from the terrifying Royal Court on Centauri Prime to discover that he has been transformed into an icon and an idol: the exact thing he has never wanted from his life or his teachings. It’s a hard thing to have happen! I don’t want to take away from that aspect when I say I’m glad we opened on the gag of Lochley wanting to see G’Kar’s face when he learned that he had not been forgotten and had instead been, essentially, defied.

Continued below

What a great tone setting move for the episode, even if most of the episode, and that plot, is far more serious.

I gotta say: this may be my favorite of the plots in this episode. G’Kar’s struggle to be a teacher when what everyone wants is an idol, one who gives answers they can read what they want into rather than ones they can use that are harder to practice is compelling. Add to that with a more and more fanatical base who wants him to actually be in power and G’Kar is feeling more lost and alone than ever before. Thankfully he’s snapped out of it by Franklin’s pep talk, which is more of a philosophical quandary, which gets him to consider alternatives to the options he is being given and the problems being created in his name.

That’s a big deal if you really think about it. G’Kar has spent most of his time on the show acting for the sake of others, be it his homeworld, his people, or, most recently, Londo. This is the first real life-altering action he’s taking for himself and himself alone. OK, yes, it’s also for stability on Narn and to not turn B5 into a pilgrimage site but his decision to leave B5 and travel around the galaxy is for his own edification and growth. That’s not nothing.

G’Quanspeed G’Kar. G’Quanspeed.

4. Strange Glow

Lyta’s terrifying eyes are back! Run! Run for the hills! They SEE YOUR SOUL.

I wish that was an exaggeration

Lyta is scary this week. If you thought her personality change was just to be more serious and driven, think again. She’s downright terrifying in her display of powers and her conversations with Garibaldi. Like, her being arrested is absolute BS because fuck the Psi-Corps but at the same time, she’s willing to mind-control an entire deck of people and is showing a greater disconnection with the rest of the world. It creates a sense of unease and distrust, one which manifests itself in the confrontation on the Zocalo. It almost makes Sheridan’s intense scene with her and Lochley decking Lyta feel justified. Almost.

I’m not sure how I feel about Lyta’s pseudo-heel turn. I’m glad she’s getting a more active role and turning into the resistance leader for telepaths I thought she’d be at the start of the season but I also wish we had more time to explore her change to be more ruthless, more threatening and more, well, “dark.” It’s not that it’s cheap or unearned or even sudden, it’s just too compressed thus far. I’d have liked a longer build and more opportunities to dig into how everyone feels about her changes and how she feels about others.

I think her time with Byron was supposed to accomplish this but instead it was more about her love for Byron than her radicalization and transformation and alienation from the rest of the main cast. It’s a shame but even when opportunities like this are lost, Babylon 5 makes up for it in the end. Much as I’m conflicted about Lyta, I can say with confidence that I’m glad this path was taken for her because damn if she doesn’t make for excellent character drama.

5. Heavy Events

This was an unexpectedly quiet episode, all things considered. Very few big changes occurred and while there were a number of arcs that came to a head, little is actually resolved in this episode. Compare that with “The Fall of Centauri Prime” which had major implications for Londo and the Alliance. Normally I’d say it makes sense to follow up something that big with something a bit more low key. However, there are only four more episodes in the season counting this one. It feels like we should at least be following up directly on all the implications of the attack on Centauri Prime and Londo’s new Emperorship.

Well, my gut says that’s what should be happening. I’m actually really glad we aren’t getting that. Why? Well, because that’s not the story that remains for the show.

Babylon 5 is, at its core, a space show that depicts what it feels like to live in its world, lulls and all. Life doesn’t jump from huge event to huge event with nothing in-between. It has breaks, fits and starts, and events that feel important in the moment but aren’t and vice versa. And here we are, in one of the breaks, unsure if this is simply a lull or the start of something new. It is messy, much like reality, and uncertain, with resolutions needed and handing threads remaining.

Continued below

Yet it is clearly an ending of sorts. Throughout the episode, and even the last few, characters have been leaving B5 or setting plans to leave, be it temporarily or permanently. It’s sad. There’s a feeling of loss that is impossible to communicate effectively because of how ethereal it is. Like a tiny electric current in the atmosphere. One can sense it, is affected by it, but cannot do anything about it.

It’s a bit like the final week of senior year. We’re in a new status quo after a major flurry of activity but there’s still more to do before we can truly move into that next chapter. Finality is in the air; we can all feel it, and our actions are shaped by that feeling. There’s even a small desire to resist the change, even as we have to acknowledge its inevitability. We weep for what is being lost and we treasure what once was, hoping to one day have it again.

It will never be. But we dream anyway.

That about does it for now. Join me again in a week for news of G’Kar’s journey, an assassin and the return of a familiar face on the station where, in the year with no surrenders and no retreats, we discovered the giants in the playground.

This is Elias. Signing out.

Best Lines of the Night:

1. Franklin: “Now, I figured the odds were 100 to one against which, I guess, goes to shows you I wasn’t born to gamble.”

2. Franklin: “The other day I was thinking about what you said about God a few weeks ago and I remembered an old human saying. ‘Can God make a rock so big that even He can’t lift it?’”

G’Kar: “Yes, I’ve heard it, but–”

Franklin: “I wonder if that’s the wrong question. I wonder if the right question is: ‘Can God create a puzzle so difficult a riddle, so complex that even He can’t solve it?’ What if that’s us? Maybe a problem like this is God’s way of doing to us a little of what we do to Him.”

3. Lyta: “You know the Vorlons used telepaths as weapons during the Shadow War, but what no one stopped to consider was that in war you have a certain number of small weapons, a certain number of medium-size weapons, and one or two big ones…the kind of weapons you drop when you’re out of the small weapons…and the medium weapons…and you’ve got nothin’ left to use.”

Garibaldi: “Someone like that would…be the telepathic equivalent of a thermonuclear device. A…a doomsday weapon.”

Lyta: “Pleased to meet you Mr. Garibaldi.”


//TAGS | 2022 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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