Of course, all of this is complicated by two factors. The first are a pair of intruders. One of these is the first-person-ignorant Zathras, who speaks in humble prophetic riddles such as to warm the heart of any Game Master, and is truly one of the most endearing supporting characters in B5 history. He was caught in the middle of the station just as the problems were commencing. The other intruder is a mysterious blue space-suited character who is apparently responsible for (or deeply involved in) the time heist of B4, but who is making a painful sacrifice to give everyone a chance to get off. Zathras refers to the figure as the One, and is a fanatical devotee (see the video below). JMS pulls an awesome stunt by both showing us (at the end) who the One is, and having it still be full of all sorts of (partially misleading) implications that remain unanswered.
The other complicating factor is that, every time the station shudders through a hiccup in time, everyone gets a vision of the past or future. For the visiting Garibaldi, it’s a flash-back to his leaving Elise on Mars, as raised in “A Voice in the Wilderness.” For visiting Sinclair, it’s a vision of a catastrophic attack and boarding of B5, with future-Garibaldi informing him that he’s set the self-destruct sequence, and shooing him off the station so he can do a Horatius at the Bridge with a BFG Plasma Rifle (Babylon 5 – Babylon Squared Flash Forward Scene). The ties to Lady Ladira’s prophecy in “Signs and Portents” are clear, and bodes poorly for our favorite space station.
Everyone gets off B4 who wants to, but after an initial whimsical pair of humorous scenes (Sinclair and Garibaldi and Ivanova at breakfast, plus Garibaldi asking Sinclair questions to pass the time as they shuttle to B4), the future looks highly ominous no matter which way on turns.
The B Plot would be a big deal in most eps, but here it’s almost overshadowed by the A Plot. Delenn has been summoned to the Grey Council, to be informed that she’s been elected their new leader, putting an end to her B5 assignment and her relatively free life.
Delenn’s struggle with this is almost foregone, given the nature of the series, but it’s more revelations about the Minbari and Delenn, and has a downstream impact on both that will play heavily in the future of the series.
One irony to this episode is that it was played out of order to the original intent. It was actually supposed to happen earlier in the season, which not only changes how we get introduced to Garibaldi’s lost love on Mars, but also Delenn’s ballsy invocation of Grey Council authority in “Legacies.”
Overally, it’s a hell of an episode, and almost more than a single ep can handle. In both plots we want to see more — more consideration by Sinclair and Garibaldi as to what’s going on (and perhaps more flashbacks/forwards), and more time spent with Delenn learning more about the implications of the Council’s decision and her own decision following that. Cramming everything into a sixty minute time slot feels like a cheat.
But it’s still a damn fine piece of entertainment, and the explicit (even fanfared) announcements that there is a planned future to the existing story and JMS is piloting us there was nigh-unheard of in TV of that era. The promise that we’d eventually see the other side of what was going on made it an incredible bit of comment fodder from the online fan crowd, and made it clear to those still following the show that this was something special to watch.
Better yet, this episode shows a comfort among and between the actors and the show that’s been largely missing. One of B5’s weakenesses in its first season was writers and actors (some of them relative neophytes) struggling to get into the groove with who they were and what the story was. This ep is a milestone in having the players work seamlessly together and being absent of clunky line writing/execution.
It would be the biggest WHAM of the season — until the finale, two eps away.
Most Dramatic Moment: Delenn turns down the big promotion before the Grey Council. Or, maybe, a trapped Zathras informing Sinclair that he has a great destiny …
Most Amusing Moment: It almost has to be a Zathras line: “Zathras not of this time. You take, Zathras die. You leave, Zathras die. Either way, it is bad for Zathras.” Though both the breakfast scene with Ivanova (Babylon 5: Breakfast Prank) and the fasten-zip conversation between Sinclair and Garibaldi are certainly worthy contenders (Random Question: Pants? ( from Babylon 5 )).
Most Arc-ish Moment: Well, it’s got to be the unveiling of the One, all agey and everything, from under the space helmet. That had folks talking for years until the final reveal as to what the heck was going on, in Season 3 (“War Without End”).
Overall Rating: 4.8 / 5 — Just a scosh rushed, but a perfect example of JMS showing us the future without spoiling us as to how we got there.
Lurker’s Guide: http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/countries/us/guide/020.html
Babylon Project: http://babylon5.wikia.com/wiki/Babylon_Squared
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0517631/
AV Club: http://www.avclub.com/review/babylon-5-babylon-squaredthe-quality-of-mercy-83593
Noise2Signal: http://noise2sig.nl/2011/04/06/babylon-5-babylon-squared/
One thought on “B5 Rewatch: 1×20 "Babylon Squared"”