selenak

And so the first season ends. I watched the entire credits this time, to hear Sinclair intone "it was the dawn of the third age of mankind" once more.

Even upon repeated rewatch season finale - which is a very good season finale - loses nothing of its power for me. Back in the 1990s, when I first watched it and had no idea how it would be resolved, I didn't dream of Sinclair leaving as a regular, or what on Earth Delenn was going to turn into, but I knew I wanted more of this show. Also, while I did know about the Kennedy assassination, of course, we weren't so familiarized with the iconography of it at school, and thus something like Clark's swearing in being a deliberate evocation of the LBJ swearing in (down to the woman next to Clark wearing a pink dress, the way Jackie Kennedy did) went right past me. In retrospect, and not just a few decades of additional knowledge but three heavy volumes of LBJ biography by Robert Caro later, this is somewhat unfair to Johnson, but reflecting the "he was involved in the JFK assassination!" theory which people of JMS' generation would have been deeply familiar with.

What I admire yet again is how skillfully this finale brings to a climax, wraps up and continues to spin so many threads. The political situation on Earth had been referenced in many episodes, but you always could take it as part of the world building upon first watching, not the preparation for a presidential assassionation (and ensueing political takeover). The Narn station in sector 37 getting wiped out echoes the fate of the Centauri station in the very first episode, Midnight at the Firing Line, and Londo and G'Kar have changed roles now in terms of who attacked whom. Londo's season long frustration and despair at his job and the Centauri poitical situation now makes him take the Faustian deal Morden offers. G'Kar, otoh, amidst all his bluster shows signs of unease when Sinclair pleads with him (not enough to do something about it, but he does hear Sinclair, and remembers it later); if you recall from Mind War that G'Kar is aware of the older races (other than the Vorlons) lurking in the universe, it's not so suprising that he should be the first person (other than Kosh and Spoiler, who knows from Kosh) to draw the correct conclusion as to what just happened. G'Kar setting out to investigate, as well as his speech to Ivanova marks a big turning point for G'Kar, and not a moment too soon. (His opening scene scorn for treaties as well as a lot of his s1 behavior is one reason why now that the Narn need allies, it will be an uphill battle.) Also, Morden's "ten thousand, a hundred thousand, a million, what's the difference?" question to Londo is still one of most chilling moments of the show, perhaps now more than ever, because of what the decades since then have brought back from what I had believed to be in the past. BTW, kudos to Ed Wasser and the directors for Morden always speaking in a low key, pleasant voice, and smiling more often than not - the same character shouting and sneering wouldn't been as nearly as effective. And of course, all hail for Peter Jurasik for his performance as Londo ins this episode throughout. This is one big reason why I absolutely hate it when people claim you should start B5 with season 2. If you haven't come to care for Londo in s1 and are mentally yelling "don't do it, Londo!" at this point, the emotional effect of what follows is very different. Note that clever JMS, as if to signal Londo hasn't become a none note villain over night, has his last scene being the one where he shares the vigil for between-life-and-death Garibaldi with Ivanova, because he cares about Garibaldi.

(Not exactly subtle but nonetheless very effective: Londo meeting Morden in a labyrinth which is a part of the B5 garden which we've never seen before. This came in handy when I wrote my "Londo meets each of the Endless" Sandman crossover, because naturally, this is when he meets Destiny.)

I remember how incredibly creepy and effective the Shadow appearances here were for me the first time I saw this episode. Not least because until then, all the ships I had seen on my tv and movie sci fi looked very very different. Something organic and spidery like the Shadow vessels just had not existed yet. (And was only possible due to early GCI.) About a gazillion more advanced GCI later, it's not new anymore but still very effective. We humans are probably DNA coded to find spidery forms creepy. And of course the blurry, nearly invisible forms Morden talks to are even more so.

Delenn's last minute attempt to tell Sinclair what he wanted to know all season: how much do you think would she have told him if he'd made it to her quarters in time? What we find out at the start of s2 or what we find out mid s3, to put it as cryptically Vorlon like as possible for newbies? That she wants to tell him at all is interesting, because it occurs to me it might be because while she's reasonably confident she will fulfill the prophecy, she's not 100% certain and thus aware she could also die. In which case she probably doesn't want Sinclair to continue not knowing, and if her attempt failed chances are the next Minbari ambassador sure as hell would not tell him.

More about Delenn's actions here when we see their repercussions in s2.

Sinclair and Catherine Sakai: you know, this is why I appreciate Kathryn M. Drennan's novel To Dream in the City of Sorrows. We'll see Sinclair again, but not Catherine, and while she's a minor character in the B5 verse, I have grown fond of her (more so with every rewatch), and to go from seeing her and Sinclair happy together here to never finding out (except in that novel) what happened to her would otherwise have been not a little frustrating to me. Though I will saw that the scene where they tell Garibaldi and Ivanova about their engagement makes me go even more "awww" on Garibaldi's behalf, declaring his ~~love~~ friendship to Jeff, not knowing that... well, old time watchers know, newbies will find out.

One thing I'm grateful for is that the episode doesn't leave Garibaldi shot on the floor but had him drag himself into that elevator and be medically recued from immediate death, so that the first time around, I was reasonably sure he would survive. (Evil smirking aide not withstanding.) Re: aide: Yet another reason to be glad Ivanova and Londo were keeping watch together while Sinclair caught up on some sleep. Upon rewatch, not fretting about the aide anymore, I wonder what the two talked about. (Londo and Ivanova are one of the few character combinations in the show's history who practically have no scenes a deux together - usually they're in the room with other people.)

Lastly, a somewhat spoilery observation and question re: former Vice President and now President Clark and future political developments on Earth.

Who

ws on

the

grass knoll?

I had somehow forgotten we actually see Clark here on screen. For the remaining show, JMS always keeps him off screen, at least in my memory, as opposed to the other villains like Morden, Cartagia or finally the Drakh. I always thought it was a good storytelling choice in that it made the Earth turning increasingly fascist feel far more like a question of a system going evil (and needing to end) as opposed to One Evil Tyrant needing to be toppled. (Though of course it's arguable how well or ill the aftermath of such a system was depicted in s5.) But the fact that there was actually an actor playing Morgan Clark makes me wonder whether said actor thought he'd landed a good recurring villain gig (not an unreasonable assumption, if you're just going by this particular episode) only to be disappointed? The other thing I appreciate about Clark's depiction is that in his one appearance here, he looks exactly like an average middle aged politician - even the name, Morgan Clark, is standard - , this going against the narrative of the evil outsider corrupting the system. Clark is as inside as it gets.

Thus having concluded the first season, I'll start my s2 rewach next weekend, with again two episodes per Sunday review.

The other episodes