“Apotheosis” is “The fact or action of becoming or making into a god; deification.” There are three gods in this episode — or, rather, three individuals who either consider themselves gods or are treated as gods by others: Sheridan, Ulkesh, and Cartagia. This is their story.
Sheridan has a plan — but announces he’s realized that no such plan can be carried out while New!Kosh (Ulkesh) is on board. The answer is to get rid of him. Sheridan approaches this with a full idea apparently in mind, in consultation with Lorien, all of which feels a bit — off to everyone.
The first step is to send a security team off to expel the ambassador. That goes about successfully as one can imagine, Ulkesh possessing a force field capable of holding off the small arms fire.
Next, Lyta comes to him and says she’s learned there’s a piece of Kosh still being held by a human. Ulkesh is torqued at the effrontery of mere mortals.
Meanwhile, Sheridan has collapsed. Lorien comes over and passes energy into Sheridan, reviving him. That raises some questions that are answered when Delenn visits Sheridan (and Lorien) in his cabin later. It turns out that, yup, Sheridan died on Z’Ha’Dum — but he was revived, temporarily, by Lorien’s own life force. And by “temporarily” they mean about twenty years, after which time he’ll … just … stop.
Delenn is gobsmacked and grieving, given how long Minbari and Humans normally live. Sheridan says some inspirational stuff, then seals the deal by offering her an engagement ring. Which she tearfully accepts. Curtain.
Well, there are plenty of thrills in this plotline. The compression issues, though, continue to plague the season, as the whole idea of picking a fight with, then kicking off, the Vorlon (or even that Ulkesh is an insurmountable threat if he remains) is something that should have been spun over a couple of eps. The actual confrontation is most fraught from the viewer’s sense of what it represents (OMG THEY’RE FIGHTING THE VORLON!), but the actual execution in FX is slightly dodgy and close, and it all seems to wrap up far too quickly. (The glimpse of what the Vorlons really look like when they’re not projecting themselves as angels was, though, kind of cool.)
Sheridan is determined and grim, and we understand why by the end — he’s on a time table. Worse, his status as The Guy Who Lived (at Z’Ha’Dum) is causing people on B5 — ordinary civilians — to get really reverent toward him, which, coupled with Garibaldi being surly and Lorien being cryptic, would make anyone a bit grim. Alas, organizing a take-down on Ulkesh is not not going to make his reputation any less illustrious.
B-Plot: Londo is informed (through the genial but still-skin-flaky Mr Morden) that the Vorlons are wiping out Shadow-touched planets. But not to worry, since the Vorlons
MORDEN: … will never attack Centauri Prime. Small colonies, deep range planets, sure, but to destroy a world as big as this? No. They don’t have the will.
The Shadows have no idea that the Vorlons have grown a pair and upped the stakes. Or else they’re feeling desperately optimistic.
Londo is flabbergasted in turn when the Emperor refuses to order the Shadows away, even supporting their request to put the Centauri fleet at alert to fend off the Vorlons. And flabbergastment turns to gobsmackery when Cartagia secretly countermands the fleet order to Londo later on, their meeting held in Cartagia’s secret office, which is populated by the heads of his former enemies and inconvenient allies (the one closest to Londo a face cast of Andreas Katsulas).
CARTAGIA: You and I, Mollari — we will turn Centauri Prime into an inauguration pyre, to commemorate my ascension into godhood. The fire of our world will light my way. Yes, you see it, don’t you? If I become a god, how will our world survive without me? I cannot just abandon it, that would be cruel. And anyone who followed me would obviously be inferior. Best to put them out of their misery. I will take it all with me, in spirit. Don’t send the ships. Let it burn, Mollari — let it all end in fire.
And for those who remember Kosh telling Emperor Turhan how the coming conflict will all end — “In fire” — shudder just a little bit more.
Londo, once out of Cartagia’s presence, calls up Sheridan (“Londo? Probably calling collect.”) to confirm the Vorlons’ movements. They’re about seven or eight days from Centauri Prime. Yikes.
Londo, though, has a plan, if he can convince the Emperor without losing his own head. He points out that a god without worshipers is, well, yeah, a god, but not an acclaimed one. He dodges the canny suggestion that he’s asking to be left out of the coming conflagration by suggesting that the Emperor accompany him and G’Kar back to Narn for G’Kar’s public trial and execution. The Narn will see his splendor and great justice, and spread the word throughout the galaxy.
It’s a bravura performance and perfectly framed piece of manipulation … and Cartagia seems to fall for it.
The stinger for the episode is Londo visiting Cartagia, who is down in G’Kar’s cell to oversee his transfer to the ship to Narn. Cartagia doesn’t like the way G’Kar is looking at him, Narnish glare and all. Londo demurs offering a suggestion and hustles off, at which point Cartagia casually comes to a decision.
CARTAGIA: No, I don’t care at all for the way he looks at me. Pluck out his eye.
GUARD: Which one?
CARTAGIA: I don’t know … doesn’t matter … that one.
And the doors close as we fade, appropriately, to black.
This ep does a great job of upping the stakes in this whole plot thread. Londo was already out to take down Cartagia — now he, too, has a deadline. Worse, even though he successfully manipulates Cartagia, the emperor still holds all the cards, the offhanded mutilating of G’Kar demonstrating that quite vividly. Both Jurasik and Krimmer are doing solid work here.
Meanwhile: Garibaldi keeps feeling resentful about people handling him with kid gloves — and with some justice, as there’s another possible threat that nobody’s questioning, but that he’s keeping an eye on through the security cams: Lorien and Sheridan. Zack’s a bit shocked, but …
GARIBALDI: Then how come nobody’s grilling the captain? He breezes in here, says he’s back from the dead, feeling a lot better now, thank you very much, and everybody buys it. “Boy howdy, that’s great, yessir, great to have you back.” Meanwhile, I get the third degree and “are you okay, Chief?” every time I sneeze. Does this make any sense to you?
But while he’s justifiably paranoid about that and about Sheridan, he’s completely bottling it up regarding his own memory gaps and flashbacks.
His concerns aren’t helped when Sheridan basically says to his face that he can’t reveal his plan concerning the Vorlons to Garibaldi — but then sends him off to “arrest” the Vorlon ambassador, an apparent suicide mission. His reaction leads the others to note that he seems a bit — cranky.
Once Ulkesh is out of the way, Sheridan started contacting the Alliance worlds, pulling together a huge fleet of warships to fight the Shadows and the Vorlons, as Ivanova explains to Garibaldi.
GARIBALDI: And then what?
IVANOVA: Then what what?
GARIBALDI: If we lose, there is no then what. If we win … what next? We’re still renegades, I don’t think there’s anyone left on this side of hte galactic core we haven’t honked off, we can’t go home — sometimes I don’t know what scares me more, winning or losing.
IVANOVA: And I thought I was depressing.
Yeah, things aren’t going well with Mr Garibaldi, and Jerry Doyle is doing a fine job selling it.
Overall: More rush-rush, as we hurtle toward even bigger climactic scenes in the next few eps. Everyone is on their toes and doing fine work, but when the drama and/or action dials are twisted to 11 practically every minute, it starts to get hard to grab a breath.
Most Dramatic Moment: Cartagia’s madness reaches its apex. “Let it all end in fire.” Goosebumps time.
Most Amusing Moment: Cartagia casually offering Londo a snack has he sits down amongst the heads of the Emperor’s “Shadow Cabinet.” The absurdity amidst the horror equals a nervous chuckle in the human brain.
Most Arc-ish Moment: The breakout, battle with, and death of Ulkesh (and Kosh). The Vorlons stand — er, float — revealed, not angels, not gods, but creatures of energy and rage — and creatures that can be defeated.
Overall Rating: 4.5 / 5 — Lots of fun, but rushed in time and cramped in space. (Rating History)
Other Resources for this episode:
- Lurker’s Guide
- Babylon Project Wiki
- IMDb
- AV Club (covers eps 1-4 of the season)
- J Paul Halt
- TV Tropes
- Sci-Fi Musings
Next episode: “The Long Night,” in which one plot comes to fruition, and another starts really kicking up the action.
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