The War against the Clark Regime on Earth goes from Cold to Hot, as Earthforce war crimes provoke Sheridan to action. This episode bears the name for the season, so it’s a clear turning point for the B5 saga.
A-Plot: Sheridan has decided to take the war to Earth, after Clark’s forces, under orders, slaughtered tens of thousands of refugees trying to escape Proxima 3. He goes before the League of Unaligned Worlds and drops the long-awaited other shoe: he’s had his White Star fleet patrolling their borders on their behalf, but now he needs to pull those ships back for the assault on Proxima 3. He demands that their governments abrogate any mutual defense pacts they have with Earth — which, after all, has done nothing for them — and that they provide ships to protect B5 in case Clark tries an end run. It’s heavy-handed and blustering, but Sheridan has built up credibility and presence that lets him get away with it in a fashion that neither Jesuitical Sinclair nor eager Boy Scout original Sheridan could have.
G’kar speaks up in favor:
G’KAR: During their war with the Minbari, I supervised arms sales to Earth. They promised to held us when we needed them. But where was Earth when our borders were being attacked? Where was Earth when the Shadows were rampaging across our territories? They did nothing! We owe them nothing in return.
Sheridan doesn’t want them fighting Earthforce ships directly, though — he wants this to be a human civil war only (handwaving that the alien White Star ships are crewed by Minbari).
SHERIDAN: Beyond that: don’t get involved. Anyone who gets between us and them won’t live long enough to regret it. You will not respond to requests for military assistance from President Clark or the Earth Alliance, except in the form of humanitarian aid. From now on, Earth stands alone. We’re taking back Proxima 3. We’re taking back Mars. And then — we’re going to take back our home. Or die trying.
Sheridan gets info on the besieging EA ships at Proxima, but wants to know which might defect if given the chance — or, from the other perspective, wants to know which ships have been slaughtering civilians. He’ll accept anyone’s surrender, but having an idea of who might stand down will affect the battle plan. As he briefs his Starfury pilots:
Sheridan deploys his forces to break apart the the EA destroyers in orbit around the planet. He learns from Marcus that the Heracles and Pollux are the ships that have actually fired on civilians; the others either haven’t, or have gone out of their way to avoid it.
The attack begins, White Stars and Starfuries whizzing about, explosions, blasts, pew-pew-pew, etc. Sheridan calls on the EA fleet to surrender, talking to one of his old friends captaining the Vesta. The Pollux is destroyed when a damaged White Star plows into its hanger deck. Captain Hall the Heracles, who is the fleet commander refuses to surrender — only to have his first officer and crew turn on him.
(Here’s a video of the battle with all of the character bits, sigh, cropped out.)
(This video has much better resolution, but also includes a lot of bits from coming episodes.)
Afterwards, Sheridan talks with the surviving ship captains (and first officer), trying to sway them to the righteousness of his cause.
LEVITT: Captain, I wasn’t about to let Captain Hall get the rest of our crew killed defending Clark’s policies. I happen to disagree with those policies. But that doesn’t mean I agree with your actions, either. It’s not the role of the military to make policy.
SHERIDAN: Our mandate is to defend Earth against all enemies, foreign and domestic. Now Clark has become that enemy. Your oath is to the Alliance and to the people back home, not to any particular government.
MACDOUGAN: Splitting that hair mighty thin, John.
This brings out an ethical debate — one that this entire episode is anchored in — that is more effective than Sheridan’s past agonizing aloud, or his arguments with Garibaldi. And it’s one that’s satisfactory in not having a clean-cut answer: Sheridan and MacDougan (et al.) could argue academically all day long about the moral imperatives that a soldier must follow (as no doubt they used to back at the Academy), but Sheridan has a strong set of supporting arguments both in Clark’s increasingly erratic and bloodthirsty behavior, and in Sheridan’s efforts at Proxima 3 to minimize the conflict.
Ultimately, one ship withdraws from the whole conflict, one stays behind at Proxima 3 to guard it from retaliation, and the two others join up with Sheridan.
In all it’s a pretty spiffy space battle, with a bit more strategy than some of the Shadow War stuff. The White Stars seem a lot less effective against more conventional EA ships than they should be — though JMS brushed that off as their being more careful not to engage in wholesale slaughter of Humans. Indeed, the battle is interesting as a challenge of ethics — who is fighting whom; the decisions made by the commanders of the EA ships before, during, and after; Sheridan’s own self-imposed boundaries on what this battle, and war, should be characterized by.
(Only real niggle about the pew-pew-pew is that it was early on stated that the rotating sections of EA ships locked down during battle, which never happens here despite plenty of time for it. Of course, that would have required either expensive “zero gravity” shooting, or else everyone being strapped down into their seats, but …)
B-Plot: After the Council meeting, Londo approaches G’Kar. He plans on throwing the Centauri behind Sheridan’s actions against Earth, and wants G’Kar to convince the Narn to do the same.
LONDO: I don’t believe I have ever been in your quarters before.
G’KAR: Unless you include a cell on Centauri Prime. I apologize for the lack of chains — the cleaning service must have removed them.
LONDO: It has much the same feeling as your world. Dry, red, and depressing. It — isn’t it amazing how quickly we fall in to familiar patterns as soon as we come into one another’s orbit? Like comets that flare when they get too near the sun. I did not come here to spar with you, G’Kar. I came … to talk to you.
It’s an intensely uncomfortable scene. G’Kar is silent, glaring, bitter. Londo is torn between his reflex disdain for the Narn and wanting to apologize for all that happened to them, and to G’Kar. His shame over his own actions, and pain over them as well, are very obvious, very real, and G’Kar refuses to let him off the hook.
Londo offers his thanks to G’Kar for all that he did and endured that freed both their worlds, and his respect for what he did. G’Kar rejects both sentiments. But Londo comes as close to an apology has he ever can.
LONDO: You may not believe this, G’Kar, but all I have ever wanted is to do whats right for my world. I’m a patriot. As are you. I made some … very bad choices in the last two years. Because I did not think. Those choices almost destroyed my world. And yours. That is a humbling realization, G’Kar. If, with a single wrong word, I can become the enemy, then do I any longer really understand who the enemy is?
[Londo describes the joint diplomatic statement he has in mind.]
G’KAR: Why?
LONDO: Because while I do not know who the enemy is any longer, I do know who my friends are, and that I have not done as well by them as I should have. I hope to change that. I have made many mistakes. I hope — I hope to do better.
In the end, Londo pours them both a glass of something, and proposes a toast. “To the humans, and to the bridge that they created between us, in the hope for a better future, for both our worlds.” G’kar pours his back into the bottle and just glares. Londo, unshriven, shuffles out of his room. Hell of a scene.
Later, Londo is drinking in the Zocalo. G’kar enters. Sits down at the bar beside him, not making eye contact. Drinks a drink. “Issue the joint statement. I will sign my name. But not on the same page, do you understand that?” And so each man has bent just a bit in the face of their personal demons.
Londo and G’kar have been largely missing for some episodes, so it’s a delight to see them not only back in action, but together. I always sort of remembered the two of them being a lot more comrade-like after the Shadow War, so the reminder that these two are still deeply divided always comes as a surprise. Excellent work, as usual, from both Katsulas and Jurassik.
Meanwhile: Circling back to a Season 3 plot thread, Franklin is still working on telepaths that were cybernetically taken over by the Shadows to pilot their ships (“Ship of Tears“). He’s getting nowhere in removing the implants (let alone getting telepaths to not try to take over the station whenever awakened), but Sheridan leans hard on him to figure it out because he wants them for some undisclosed purpose.
Vir has a nightmare, waking up with a start shouting, “I didn’t do it!” Could be just a bit of fun. Could be one of those precognitive dreams that the Centauri have …
Garibaldi learns from Vir about B5 going to war. Vir’s a bit surprised that Garibaldi isn’t enthusiastic.
It’s an interesting character moment for them both. Garibaldi’s “madness” has mellowed some; he comes across as a lot more reasonable in his mistrust of Sheridan, as if whatever manipulation has been done on him as soaked in, integrated with the rest of his personality.`
At the end of the ep, as the Voice of the Resistance is announcing the victory at Proxima 3, Garibaldi leaves B5 for Mars, planning to never return.
Overall: Everyone likes the big battles, and this episode delivers on that in spades, with not just some excellent action but all the prep before the mission, and the ethical debate afterward. It shows Sheridan’s ruthlessness, his compassion, and his growing role as a leader.
JMS has written that the overall Earth Civil War plot had to be significantly compressed to fit into a 4-year model (once that truncation of the show was announced). Another element that got significantly compressed — at first — was the Londo/G’kar arc, and Londo’s ascension to the throne. The scenes in this episode were a focused effort by JMS to provide at least some emotional closure, and it works spectacularly; fortunately, he’d be able to revisit these characters in Season 5.
Most Dramatic Moment: After wrenchingly dramatic attempts at rapprochement, Londo pours a drink to toast with G’kar, with the explicit thesis of how the Humans have helped save both of them, and the implicit thesis that, just maybe, the two of them can overcome the past as well. And G’kar silently pours the liquor back onto the flask, rejecting idea.
Very honorable mention to G’kar actually showing up later in the bar to — barely — accept the deal, and to — sort of — drink that toast.
Most Amusing Moment: As with last episode, the humor is more incidental and subdued. For example, after Ivanova has told the fighter pilots only to trust encoded messages from B5, not voice messages that could be faked.
CORWIN: So from now on, I guess the operational phrase is, “Trust no one.”
IVANOVA: Trust Ivanova. Trust yourself. Anyone else? Shoot ’em.
Most Arc-ish Moment: Sheridan’s White Star sports the first “Army of Light” (B5/Sword/Shield) logo. This is a big step toward something even bigger.
CORWIN: I was noticing the new paint job on the White Star 2. Won’t they — I mean, won’t they know it’s him?
IVANOVA: I think that’s the general idea, Lieutenant.
Overall Rating: 4.6 / 5 — Not just a strong space battle episode (though it is that), but the G’Kar/Londo stuff is stunning. (Rating History).
Other Resources for this episode:
- Lurker’s Guide
- Babylon Project Wiki
- IMDb
- AV Club (covers eps 15-17 of the season)
- TV Tropes
- Sci-Fi Musings (home of the little videos in so many of these reviews I’ve done)
- Sundry Thoughts
Next episode: “The Exercise of Vital Powers” … as we get the oddest-named episode in the series, and learn a lot more about what’s happening on Mars.
(Google+ links to this post here and here.)