The last of our victory laps occur as the remainder of the central cast leave B5, everyone having named a successor in their old role. Dr. Hobbes and Ta'Lon are particularly nice, organic choices, moving recurring characters up to prominence -- a shape of things to come for TV.
This neat wrap-up of for the show is marred by mandatory danger to our heroes, in the form of a random coolant leak on the presidential transport. And when John is trapped with the noxious fumes by the fail-safe door, Lennier, still harboring his resentment, sees his chance and refuses help to Sheridan. Instead, he flees, having betrayed the Anla'shok in a kind of trivial, high school way. Then about ten seconds later, his conscience brings him back. And then guilt makes him flee again in his fighter, never to be seen again.
By then, John has used a Rangerstick to break the door -- and to be sure and clear away all of the safety glass before fleeing the room full of poison... because someone might have been cut!
Quickly, Delenn has had someone back home go through Lennier's things, read his diary, and tell her about the volumes of Delennier fanfic he'd written. Sheridan, ever diplomatic, reasons that maybe Lennier only returned briefly to make sure he was dead, not from pangs of conscience.
There's still one surprise left: since he's been missing out on the long goodbyes, Londo, head of that out-of-the-IA Centauri Republic, is waiting for them on Minbar! Clumsily, the effects of alcohol on the keeper* are avoided, so Londo can't warn them about the keeper in the urn he's giving them for their unborn child.
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* Since it's clear about these effects, why does the keeper allow him to drink at all?
Pros: Jurasik's doomed melancholy.
Cons: "There is no use in attempting to trace this signal, my anla'shok training has taught me how to avoid such things." One last bit of over-thinking...
Then: B+
Now: B
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Episode 22: Sleeping in Light
The tone of the episode is just what's needed: the end of the series gives everyone a funereal air. Like the fifth season that followed it, the farewells, the reminisces, these character pieces in the margins are great B5. The monologues about "what we've built here" and "going to the sea" are unfortunately typical B5, which fill time ponderously while refusing to trust the actors to carry a moment.
Equally problematic is the second half, when Sheridan, on one last "sunday drive" on his way to his appointment with Lorien, stops in at a nearly empty B5. In another chunk of exposition, we learn that All that trade from those surrounding empires? All those people? Gone. The station is redundant, and due to budget cuts is going to be demolished. The EA hasn't announced that, yet, and the IA clearly doesn't know. But to squeeze all this into the episode, it's going to be destroyed with very small preamble.*
 |
| Hokey buildup aside, this sequence works beautifully. |
Walking through the empty main corridor, Sheridan has a chance meeting with a now-limping Zack Allen. It starts as a nice, if lesser, meet and farewell, and then morphs into Yet Another Writer Editorial as Zack talks about how "we did everything we set out to do, and they can't take that away from us**" -- what ambition, Mr. second second-in-command-of-security!
Maybe he did bed Lyta after all...
At Coriana Six, Sheridan's at the end of his rope. Lorien appears for one last Tolkien homage, carrying Sheridan to the grey havens beyond the rim.
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* The reason given is that an intact station would be a "menace to navigation." Is that the best we could come up with? Does Epsilon 3 care? Will the jump gate be removed, too?
** One nice thing, Zack specifically says "people" to refer to B5's population, not the early-series "humans and aliens" nonsense.
Pros: Excellent CGI for the demolition; far better than the times we saw the station destroyed in prophecy.
Cons: Menace to navigation? Seriously?
Then: A
Now: B+
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