TV: Babylon 5, S2 Disc 5

Episode 17: Knives

Knives opens with scenes to set the tone for the rest of the hour.  First,  Garibaldi and Sheridan hitting baseballs and discussing the ghost-story part of B5 (and no, not Gray 17, that's later) .  Sheridan expresses a love of the haunted places everywhere; it's up to the viewer to decide if this is better related to his pledge to go to Z'ha'dum or his never-again-seen fondness for black projects.   Second, Vir and Londo arguing the merits of Centauri opera. All SF shows have a species whose Opera is used to comic effect.  Just as they complete singing an aria together, a plot point drops!  It's Londo's old friend from Back Home, an old friend fallen on hard times: he's allied with a loyalist faction and Refa  is about to attainder his personal fortune.  He challenges Mollari to a duel and loses, knowing that Londo is honor-bound to provide for his family.


In the ghost story, Sheridan finds an apparently dead Markab that starts, grabs him, and infects him with a typically SF alien parasite.  Soon he's dizzy and hallucinating, then acting strangely, and finally heading out in a Starfury to Sector 14; that's the one B4 was in -- Quadrant 14 by comparison was another Narn rout at the hands (tentacles?) of the shadows.  Encountering another tachyon/time distortion/spatial anomaly in the B4 area, the non-corporeal alien leaves Sheridan.  It's a sensation he'll grow accustomed to...

Pros: Some good Centauri development, something made scarce since they became the proxy villains of the story.
Cons: The Sheridan plot is completely stock TV SF, bearing no importance other than to refresh viewers' knowledge of B4.

Then: C
Now: C+

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Episode 18: Confessions and Lamentations


The Markabs, first named last episode, contract a pandemic that wipes them all out.   There's some false tension that the disease is contagious across species, leading to acts worth of frantic research and containment attempts.   The station is quarantined, sparking unrest. Franklin starts down the long road of stim abuse.  By the time a potential treatment has been determined (and our heroes walk, walk, walk to the Markab quarantine), all the Markab on the station -- and soon, the Markab homeworld - are dead*.  
 
Delenn, who by happenstance befriends a small Markab child, makes a grand, noble, phony sacrifice to give the dying comfort before it's known that other species are immune.  A cheap ploy given too much run-up, as any casual viewer would guess that there's little chance a series lead would contract a quickly-fatal disease at this point in the show.  It does give her the opportunity to flirt a little more openly with John than she has previously...

The B plot reverses the Delenn-Sheridan dinner date, with John calling on the Minbari for a home-cooked dinner.  It reveals the Minbari dining experience (at least with two high-ranking religious caste members) as absurdly constrained by banal ritualism.  The sequence is not played overtly for comedy -- until John nods off during between-course meditation, vaguely insulting his hosts...


The "C" plot pays mention to Keffer's growing obsession with the Shadow vessel he saw in hyperspace and his search to find one again.  Sheridan has an idea now of what he's looking for, and curtails the effort without explanation.
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* Kind of a shame to introduce a whole new race with relatively decent makeup and then exterminate them in the space of two weeks.  Why not kill one of the non-aligned worlds who have taken a supporting role before?  It'd be a continuity nod, and a great opportunity to expunge a weaker season-1 era set of prosthetics.

I nominate the fin-headed guys from Deathwalker.  One appears in Divided Loyalties, still with the atrocious makeup...

Pros: Maintains "no cute kids" pledge by introducing and then offing another alien waif.
Cons: Stock medical-emergency-of-the-week plot.

Then: B-
Now: B-

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Episode 19: Divided Loyalties

Lyta Alexander, former B5 Licensed Commercial  Telepath returns with a secret: One of the command staff is a Psi Corps-programmed mole, and she can prove it!  All that's necessary is that she telepathically send an activation code to... well, every human anywhere near the command staff.  Unfortunately, whoever is harboring this Psi Corps sleeper personality effectively dies once the sleeper is activated.  This news makes everyone reexamine the people around them, and also unfortunately puts a huge burden on Pat Tallman, who mugs and shrieks her way through half her screen time.   Seeing her now, it's little wonder the powers-that-be had her replaced after The Gathering.

Ivanova's hatred of Psi Corps comes up again, only now she's willing to admit she is actually a latent teep herself; an unscientific P1-at-best.   She eventually relents, and of course she's clean.  And so's everyone else in the command staff, as they one by one file into Sheridan's office, never asking who is this woman giving us comically frustrated glares?

But Talia's not in the command staff.  Just after Ivanova's been ruled out, Talia bops in, and Lyta capriciously sends the activation code.  Talia half-faints, grabs Garibaldi's gun and tries to kill Lyta before being restrained and led off, spitting curses.  Kind of a rotten Psi Corps mole, her being a member of the Psi Corps and all -- perhaps she's less likely to be invited in on anti-Corps activities?

As if to head off later questions about the telepathic recordings Kosh made of Talia in season 1, Garibaldi has purposeful flashback of events he was absent during and (presumably) goes to see Kosh.  This is never followed up on, and the only person seeing Kosh here is Lyta, getting one last chance to fail a gravitas check and tease Kosh's true appearance yet again.   There's only 3 episodes left until that little bit is finally paid off...

Elsewhere, John and Delenn continue their slow, very slow, flirting in the zen stone garden where she used to meet Sinclair. Talia and Ivanova also have an inoffensive, completely-off-camera relationship that has never been referenced previously.  It's rather left-field, given a complete lack of scenes together since Legacies in season one, which marked their relationship moving from adversarial to... well, friendly-adversarial.

After, Talia, now in her sleeper-personality, is apparently granted full freedom to come and go as she pleases.  Sure, she's a scheming Psi Corps agent now, and has sworn and attempted to kill Lyta in front of basically the entire command staff, but the good guys just shrug and assume the Corps will sweep everything under the rug for fear of exposure (to who? The EA government they control, per Hague?).  It's credibility straining on both counts: that our heroes expect nothing from the grand puppet-masters of the EA, and that the Corps obliges them.

 --

 *  In a present-day series facing the same situation, I would bet that the good guys would introduce sleeper-Talia to the nearest airlock for an unfortunate accident rather than take a chance on her spilling her guts to the Corps.  Whoever spaced her would possibly keep the details from Ivanova, leading to terrible drama in later seasons.   That's just off the top of my head.



Pros: Fairly deft (for B5) red herrings as to the mole for almost everyone; particularly Ivanova.
Cons: The bad removal of Talia.  Further, Patricia Tallman is awful, but it makes Delenn's twitterpation around Sheridan seem endearing in contrast.

Then: A
Now: C-
Episode 20: The Long, Twilight Struggle

Six months of war with the Centauri has pushed the Narn to the brink.  Desperate, they plan an all out attack aimed at severing the Centauri supply lines in order to buy a reprieve.   Unfortunately, the Centauri know about the plan, and while Londo will let the Shadows deal with the Narn assault*, the main Centauri fleet will assail Narn.   Demonstrating atrocious continuity, Londo is aghast at the possible use of outlawed mass drivers to pummel the Narn cities from orbit; in And Now For A Word.. he knew full well his government was going to use them in the war.   He shows he's losing his stomach for slaughtering Narns by the thousands, as well as finally beginning to dread just what the Shadows are going to want in return, but Refa handwaves his concerns in the best political tradition.

The result is a good scene of Londo looking sickened as his forces pummel the Narn homeworld from orbit; it's only a little disappointing that the effects of the bombardment planetside are unknown; perhaps the CGI wasn't up to it.  We are told, not shown, that they have been "bombed back into the stone age."  Yet enough survives for the Narn government to give G'Kar a final order: as the only ranking member of the government off-world (really?) he is to remain free.  And so, the bombastic, perpetually outraged G'Kar quietly approaches Sheridan and asks for sanctuary.

Whatever Londo's misgivings, he still goes before the B5 council and reads the terms of Narn surrender pact, which from the excerpts we hear seems to have had a preamble reading something like: "We the Centauri, being EVIL, declare the following in order that the galaxy knows we are bad, not good!  Oh, and, who wants to be next?"   including such difficult-to-swallow terms a rejection of any outside government oversight of their conduct, and a 5000% reprisal for the murder of any Centauri by a Narn civilian.  Including, naturally, the murderer's family.  Londo puffs himself up and, as closing, demands the immediate deportation of G'Kar back to Narn for trial. Sheridan, who hasn't had much opportunity to act with that humans-in-sf moral superiority, stands up and informs Londo of G'Kar's new status.  Obedient Sheridan-groupie Delenn backs the decision.   He'll only allow G'Kar's removal from the council, but G'Kar gets to speak in parting. 

During their long stretch as adversaries on B5, Jurasik and Katsulas often brought out great moments in each other; with his rebuttal, Katsulas plain blows Jurasik out of the water; adding one to the sadly short list of Great Momentous in B5 Speeches.  There's no question which side the writer was on.**

Far, far too late, now that there is hardly a political downside, Sheridan goes to G'Kar and makes an unofficial alliance to work toward a free Narn. Where were you all year, Sheridan?
 

The B plot involves Epsilon 3 making an appearance.   Draal has assimilated himself into the Great Machine, and it has returned his youth and vigor of "30 years ago" -- explaining why he's now played by an irritatingly hammy John Schuck rather the serene and world-weary Louis Turene.  He calls for a face-to-face meeting*** with Sheridan and Delenn, rambles on pompously about how Starkiller has made good decisions, and, at length, throws his resources in to Sheridan's two-front war.

In parting, Draal suggests Delenn introduce him to "the others," and so as the episode ends John arrives in a crowded conference hall; humans, Minbari, Garibaldi... Kosh.  He learns the rangers' purpose, and receives co-captain authority from Delenn.  His episode-closing speech about holding the line (shout-out to Sinclair) against the darkness is medium-good for B5, but pathetic in comparison to G'Kar's resignation from the council.


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* The Shadows demonstrate a new trick, an ability to disrupt jump points, destroying the ships which generate them.   But why do ships in retreat often open the jump point behind their ship, requiring a long about-face to actually win free (basically allowing time for the Shadows' tactic to work)?  The Raiders in season 1 went straight ahead.

** Again playing the "changes in a contemporary version of B5" game; it would not be difficult at all to couch the Centauri terms in a regretful, nation-building let's-help-these-backward-people tone that would  be far more effectively chilling in understatement.

*** This part is lengthily padded; Draal has the ability to project his consciousness everywhere and yet insists on face-to-face discussions.  So we have long scenes of Sheridan and Garibaldi questioning the authenticity of Draal's invitation, the shuttle traveling to Epsilon 3, more establishing shots of the Great Machine, greetings, partings.  It sure feels that this episode was coming in short on time at final cut.

Pros: Lots of payoff as we start to close out the second season.
Cons: For all this payoff, so much padding! And John Schuck is even worse than Pat Tallman.

Then: A
Now: B+