This kind of psychodrama, with a character like Londo, should hit it out of the park. Instead, things get muddied a bit too much between subplots and trying to get a little too cute on a little too small a budget with Londo’s dreamscape.
A-Plot: Londo suffers a major heart attack in the episode intro. While there’s lots of pulse-pounding (so to speak) MedLab intensity, the focus is (or should be) on Londo’s internal mindscape, as he meets with mental representations of the other major players (Delenn, Sheridan, Vir, and, ultimately, G’kar), trying to come to grips with, and then avoid, dying.
If only he can actually face the figure of G’kar, haunting him from the shadows behind.
LONDO: I can’t. I don’t know what he wants from me.
VIR: Yes, you do. The thing that has eaten away at your heart until it could not endure the pain a moment longer. You must let go of this, or you will die here, alone, now.
LONDO: Perhaps that is for the best then.
Each of the characters, Ghost of Christmas-like, adds pieces to the puzzle of Londo, but it’s the last, G’kar, that draws forth the burden of guilt the Centauri has been living under — not just what he did, but what he didn’t do, as he stood by silently as the Narn homeworld was bombarded, as well as when G’kar was nearly flogged to death.
G’KAR: One word, Mollari. One word was all that was required of you.
LONDO: It would not have mattered. It wouldn’t have changed anything! It would not have stopped!
G’KAR: You’re wrong, Mollari! Whether it was me or my world, whether it was a total stranger or your worst enemy! You were a witness! It doesn’t matter if they’d stop! It doesn’t matter if they’d listen! You had an obligation to speak out!
Words we should all live by.
Londo’s mindscape G’kar is as relentless as the real one. Facing his sins of omission is the price Londo has to pay in order to survive.
B-Plot: Meanwhile, Lennier, at the end of S.4, realized that his love for Delenn would always be unrequited, now that she was married to Sheridan. Thus he decides to leave B5 and become a Ranger. This is not a pure act on his part — it meant both to remove the ongoing pain of watching Sheridelenn canoodling, but also to try to prove to her that he’s a great hero, too (even, perhaps, to have her feel guilty about both his sacrifice and, if it happens, his death).
Delenn, for her part, realizes all this, but is unwilling to confront Lennier about it, standing by to let him go. It’s a mistake that will come back to haunt both of them in the future.
Unfortunately, for me, it haunted this episode, too, drawing too much of the emotional focus from Londo’s struggle. There are too many similar beats; if Lennier’s departure could have been shifted forward or back an episode, both plotlines would have benefitted.
Other Bits and Bobs: That’s largely it. No sign of our new station commander, Lochley. No mention of telepaths.
Meanwhile: JMS has noted a tremendous, and sad, irony, in this ep. He usually had chats with Richard Biggs (Franklin) about anything medical, as prep, and did so over lunch on this show’s medical activity. The script was still bouncing back and forth to whether it was heart failure or poison that had struck Londo down, and Biggs favored poison, as no heart problem for Londo had been previously mentioned. Joe, in turn, argued that people could have heart troubles or defects that they never knew up, until one day it hit them, often with tragic consequences.
As, it turned out, was the case with Richard Biggs, only a few years later.
Overall: Good, but the B-plot distracts, with serious emotional notes, from the A-plot, weakening both.
Most Dramatic Moment: There are actually quite a few here (in both plots). But the biggest has to be Londo finally telling G’kar he’s sorry. Too little, too late … maybe. But it’s a good clearing of the table for him (and for G’kar) as we head into the next phase of their relationship.
Honorable Mention has to go to the recap clips from 2×20 “The Long, Twilight Struggle” of Londo watching the bombardment of Narn. That still gives me chills.
Most Amusing Moment: Vir and Lennier, sharing a last few moments as the sidekicks, discussing Vir’s drink, a “Shirley Temple.”
LENNIER: What kind of drink is that?
VIR: I’m not sure. The bartender called it a “Shirley Temple.”
LENNIER: Interesting. I’ve studied many earth religions and I don’t think I’ve ever heard of that particular temple.
VIR: Me neither. But, it’s real good.
LENNIER: Well then. I shall make a point to visit it on my next trip to earth.
Honorable Mention to another Vir scene where, thinking Londo had been poisoned, he shouts out his frustration at all the assassins that seem to keep coming to B5.
VIR: What is wrong is you people? Don’t you have anything else better to do? Why don’t you get a hobby? Read a book or something?
Most Arc-ish Moment: Way too many all in line with the flashbacks, flash-forwards, and character beats. I’m going to go with something just in passing: Londo (in his mindscape) mentioning to Sheridan that he always somehow had the weird sense that the latter was there when he, himself, died. Londo, of course, mentioned foreseeing his own death at G’kar’s hands in 1×01 “Midnight on the Firing Line,” long before Sheridan ever entered the show; we actually see it in Londo’s dream sequence in 2×09 “The Coming of Shadows,” and Sheridan’s time-jumped presence (and the outcome of the G’kar/Londo strangling match) is explained in 3×17 “War without End, Part 2”. Now that’s arc.
Honorable mention to the same conversation with mindscape Sheridan, as the latter keeps changing uniform, progressing over the past years, and into the future, finally vanishing in a flash of light. Remember that moment …
And Honorable Mention to mindscape Delenn’s tarot reading (the art is dodgy, but who’d have anticipated that sort of screen capture?). In any rate, it’s a lovely summary of Londo’s life to date.
And a third Honorable Mention as well to Lennier’s departure, which sets the character on his final arc extending into the season.
Overall Rating: 3.8 of 5.0 — Good ep, with a lot of excellent constituent parts, but ultimately the Lennier bits distract from the Londo bits, and the attempt to make those Londo bits a truly surreal mindscape never quite gel. (Rating History)
Other Resources for this episode:
- Lurker’s Guide
- Babylon Project Wiki
- IMDb
- AV Club (covers eps 1-5 of the season)
- TV Tropes
- Sci-Fi Musings (home of the little videos in so many of these reviews I’ve done)
- Sundry Thoughts
- Cap-That (more images than you can imagine!)
Previous episode: 5×01 “No Compromises”
Next episode: 5×03 “The Paragon of Animals” … O HAI telepaths! And the return, therefore, of Lyta Alexander …
Reposted on Pluspora.
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