Babylon 5 Rewatch: The Long Night/ Into the Fire

[selenak]

The Long Night
You know, the last time I rewatched this Breaking Bad did not yet exist, and so despite his stints in The X-Files Bryan Cranston was not yet on my radar. It’s a bit weird, seeing his younger self playing Ranger Ericson whom Sheridan has to ask for a suicide mission. (A Breaking Bad/ Babylon 5 fusion would work in that drugs and healthcare are still an issue in the 23rd century, and I can see Walter White replying to Morden’s question first with what at the start of BB he thinks to be true (“protect my family”), only for further questioning to reveal what he confesses to be true by the end of the show (Empire business/ to feel alive). He’d probably rise to temporary King of Down Below/Dust Manufacturing while managing to ruin his family in similar ways. Would he be Garibaldi’s brother-in-law? And Jesse Pinkman starts out in a similar position (former student and small time crook), though with Jesse’s luck, he turns out to be a latent telepath, meaning he later has the Psi Corps after him as well…

Aaaanyway. The very Centauri centric The Long Night unsurprsingly is one of my all time favourite B5 episodes, as the conspiracy against Cartagia comes to its climax. Since for the first time, we see conspiracy members other than Londo, Vir and G’Kar, I wonder how and when Londo recruited them. He probably left it as late as possible for fear of discovery, but once he had the seven days schedule, he knew he needed more allies for the post-Cartagia clean up operation. Still, pitching “join me in an imperial assassination” is an extremely dangerous proposal to make to people not Vir, one imagines.

This is also one of the best Vir (and Stephen Furst as an actor) episodes. Note he’s confident enough at the initial conspirator meeting to politely but firmly argue refute one of the other conspirator’s arguments, and is listened to. Then we get Vir in familiar since s1 nervous babbling mode when he delivers the poison to Londo - and btw, his and Londo’s joking out of sheer nervous tension feels so emotionally true -, then the sheer shock when it turns out he becomes the one to actually kill Cartagia, and then what is possibly my favourite Londo & Vir scene, the aftermath of Cartagia’s assassination and Vir’s reaction to it.

It’s also one of my favourite B5 scenes, full stop. Back then, I don’t think I had seen any other show or read any other book which cared to depict the toll of assassinating such an unquestionable monster as Cartagia on a sympathetic character. You usually get either victory celebrations over an evil tyrant, or a Disney death in which the tyrant in question falls instead of being killed by one of the heroes directly. Here, the show leaves no doubt killing Cartagia was the right thing to do and still shows how the fact he has now killed with his own hands hits Vir. That he seeks refuge in drink is such an early Londo thing to do is gutwrenching to both Londo and the viewer, because Londo doesn’t want Vir to become like him. Vir’s summation of what he used to want from life - “a small title, nothing fancy, and someone who could possibly love someone like me” guts me no matter how often I rewatch with what it says about Vir’s loneliness throughout his life and the way he must have been raised. And then Londo’s reply, providing the comfort after all that hurt (“…you still have your heart, and your heart is a good one - and for that, I still envy you”), which in its raw emotional honesty shows how far they’ve come with each other.

Because the personal is always political, the scene even gets a perfect wrap-up, Vir’s sad comment after Londo told him the withdrawal from Narn is in progress and they see the celebratory fireworks. (“What is it all for? What was any of it all for?”) The second Narn/Centauri war, that is. It’s a bill which Londo still has to pay, and he knows it, though not yet.

Meanwhile, G’Kar gets yet more biblical imagery - you could call one scene “The Passion of G’Kar”, and he even falls once like Jesus carrying the cross - before playing his part in the Cartagia coup, and then simultanously experiencing the liberation of his people and, for the first time, the discovery that a gulf now exists between him and then. I dare say however G’Kar imagined Narn becoming free again, this was not it. And now he has to figure out the rest of his life.

Lastly, the Ivanova and Sheridan scene at the start of this episode is another heartwarming example of what on this particular rewatch has become one of my favourite human & human friendships on the show. Not least because I know Sheridan will indeed keep his promise to Susan here. He may have a big brother instinct towards her, but he doesn’t patronize her, and in the next episode ensures she is indeed there when the battle starts.




Into the Fire

Aka the one where as a first time watcher, I was stunned to discover the big war ends mid season. I remember this being as controversial as the way it ends back in the day, i.e. not in a mighty battle (early skirmishes to draw the Shadows and Vorlons in not withstanding) but in an independence declaration and both Vorlons and Shadows diminish and go to the West go beyond the Rim. Then and now, though, I think it was the right choice. The big fleet and other first ones not withstanding, Shadows and Vorlons have been depicted as so much technologically superior that there was no way Sheridan & Co. could have beaten them both militarily at the same time. And as of the s3 finale, the dispute between Shadows and Vorlons being ideological in nature rather than the usual “forces of good vs forces of evil” had been established. The solution consisting of the younger races rejecting both (as embodied by Sheridan’s “now get the hell out of our galaxy!”) rather than to continue playing canon fodder for them therefore is the only one I can see on a thematic level. (And I still find it far more satisfying than the way DS9 handled the Prophets vs Pagh Wraiths thing, grrr, argh.)

Sidenote: now, even if JMS had known in time he’d get a fifth season, I assume the Shadow war would still have ended in s4… but not after six episodes. And still, I think in this case - as opposed to some other storylines - real life worked to advantage for the show here, because the sense of urgency in these first six episodes is so strong that I can’t imagine a more leisurely narrative providing it.

Meanwhile on Centauri Prime: Bye, bye, Morden. The way Londo takes out the Shadows on Centauri Prime is both ruthless and brilliant - btw, on this rewatch it struck me that Sheridan and Londo both organize assassinations in their respective plotlines - of Kosh 2 and of Cartagia respectively - and both need a suicide gambit from members of their team to pull off a key part of their plan - and, in a fitting karmic irony, contributes to further his own fate. By which I don’t mean his ascension to Prime MInister. Because now the Shadows and their allies have a personal reason to hate on Londo. Which they did not before. Also, by killing Morden, you could say Londo has killed one already dead. (Albeit patched up to full fashionable flair just in time to die.)

I’m with jesuswasbatman: if Londo had not killed Morden, Morden upon finding himself left behind once the Shadows went to the West went beyond the Rim would have been indignant and felt betrayed by them, and probably would have warned Londo about just what toys the Shadows also left behind before you can say “Keeper”. And yet: knowing all this, I still find myself smiling when Vir arrives in that garden. Incidentally, it’s pretty telling that Vir does wave. I mean, this is Vir, who does not gloat about anyone’s death, Cartagia included. (And even if Londo had been the one to kill Cartagia as was the plan, I don’t think Vir would have gone “hooray”, despite considering Cartagia a monster.) And yet he’s happy that his reply to Morden’s “what do you want?” Question did come true. Methinks this is because while Morden wasn’t a Cartagia-style sadist, he was a direct instrument to Londo’s path to the Dark Side, and while Vir knows Londo made his own decisions (and thus is responsible for them), he still hates Morden for it.

On a note of Vir’s emotions at this point of the show, one of my earliest B5 fanfics was Knowing Love, which is a Vir pov set after the next episode, “Epiphanies”, and mildly spoilery for it. (In that it includes information where Vir, Lennier and Marcus are around this time, and what their plans are.) Mostly it looks back on Vir’s story so far, though.



The other episodes

Comments

[cahn]

WELL. That was certainly something I was not expecting, having the entire war wrap itself up in the sixth episode!!

But also: Cartagia finally got killed!! And VIR did it!! And also everything you say about that scene with Londo and Vir afterwards <3
(“…you still have your heart, and your heart is a good one - and for that, I still envy you”)
YES

Also G'Kar!! Did he just bust out of his chains by the sheer force of his G'Kar-ness?!

Not least because I know Sheridan will indeed keep his promise to Susan here. He may have a big brother instinct towards her, but he doesn’t patronize her, and in the next episode ensures she is indeed there when the battle starts.

I was so glad! I was never going to forgive either Sheridan or JMS if he didn't keep his promise to Susan, but of course he did <3

Because now the Shadows and their allies have a personal reason to hate on Londo. Which they did not before.

...but aren't they gone now?

Also, by killing Morden, you could say Londo has killed one already dead.

ahahahaha, I caught that this time around! ETA: thanks again so much for listing all the prophecies in the wwe comments, I refer to that list a lot 🙂

I’m with Jesuswasbatman: if Londo had not killed Morden, Morden upon finding himself left behind once the Shadows went to the West went beyond the Rim would have been indignant and felt betrayed by them, and probably would have warned Londo about just what toys the Shadows also left behind before you can say “Keeper”

Ohhhh, I was wondering about that. Has anyone written a "three ways Londo avoided his fate" AU fic?

And yet: knowing all this, I still find myself smiling when Vir arrives in that garden.

Heh, I remember asking about whether Vir would get what he wanted, way back when. It's certainly satisfying.

I'm not used to a story where the big bads are defeated halfway through fourth season! Or even 4/5 of the way through, in general. But there is a lot still out there! Like, Londo isn't even emperor yet!
Also EARTH
This would, I think, not have occurred to me before the last six years, when I was a bit more naive than I am now, but those having happened, I'm all... But what about earth?? They are still headed by a conspiracy that was conspiring with the shadows... What are they going to do?? (And I know JMS won't have forgotten.)

[selenak]

That was certainly something I was not expecting, having the entire war wrap itself up in the sixth episode!!

I think that's true for all unspoiled audiences, and certainly the one during the original broadcast. Like I said, if JMS had known in time he'd get a fifth season, I think the Shadow War would still have wrapped up in s4, but not after six episodes. (The Earth Civil War is another matter.)

...but aren't they gone now?

The Shadows themselves, yes. But Morden wasn't their only minion. You'll find out more soon.

ahahahaha, I caught that this time around!

Congratulations - I didn't during my original watching!

Has anyone written a "three ways Londo avoided his fate" AU fic?

Not to my knowledge. I think hobsonphile wrote a "Five things" for Vir, though, and in at least one of them Londo does. At any event, there is still canonically one way left - the "greatest fear" one.

Also G'Kar!! Did he just bust out of his chains by the sheer force of his G'Kar-ness?!

Yes. More seriously, Narn being very strong has been established, and G'Kar has the best motivation possible (Londo's promise to free Narn). Still, he ought to be weakened by weeks of torture, but - he's G'Kar!

Also EARTH
This would, I think, not have occurred to me before the last six years, when I was a bit more naive than I am now, but those having happened, I'm all... But what about earth?? They are still headed by a conspiracy that was conspiring with the shadows... What are they going to do?? (And I know JMS won't have forgotten.)

Quite. Especially since conspiring with the Shadows was just one aspect of Earth turning into a fascist autocracy - that alliance may have helped Clark, but if you think about it, the major steps were accomplished by non-Shadow-means (the Santiago assassination, Night Watch, changing laws etc.). Ergo, the fact the Shadows are now gone doesn't change anything about Earth's political situation. That is the next big plot line.

Like, Londo isn't even emperor yet!

He won't become Emperor this season. But he will before the show is wrapped up, which is one reason why I'm really glad we did get season 5.

[lightofdaye]

Just something I've been thinking about reading your reviews last week and this week about Londo's dangers and the conspiracy and of course in this episode he tells Vir to kill him before the Vorlons destroy Centauri Prime right?

But Londo also has the centauri prophecy of his death thing going right? So he knows Vir can't kill him and Centauri Prime won't be destroyed because he know G'Kar's going to kill him there when he's much older. Or is centauri prophecy not that detailed/accurate?

[selenak]

Going by the season 5 episode, The Very Long Night of Londo Mollari, we have canon on that question, albeit only what Londo himself thinks. As you’ll recall, in this episode. Londo is in the tv friendly kind of coma where he talks with himself as embodied by various other characters. At one point he says that he can’t possibly die now because he’s seen his death, it’s years from now, via G’Kar, and he’s old. (Not to mention Emperor, though he doesn’t say that.) His inner Vir points out that this isn’t so; “prophecy is a guess that comes true”, and if Londo decides to die right now, he can, which would make his death vision metaphorical in nature instead of literal. Now leaving aside it’s very adroit of Londo to make Vir the one to state free will is possible, fate is not pre-determined, I took this to mean that Centauri prophecy can come true in a literal fashion, but doesn’t have to, it can also serve as a metaphorical prediction.

Remember also, in s1’s Signs and Portents , Lord Kiro mentions the prophecy through which he knows he’ll be “killed by Shadows”. Now, since he has no idea about the alien race called Shadows, he believes this to apply to the literal shadows and as such, it doesn’t make much sense to him. And there’s the “Babylon 5” - the station - “Will end up in fire” from the same episode, which does come eventually true, but in a very different fashion from what the characters expect (and from what the Centauri seeress warns Sinclair about).

[redfiona99]

Wait, that was Bryan Cranston!!!! (Point, given who Sheridan Starkiller is and what he's just gone through, at least we know he's not asking for anything he wouldn't do himself.)

>>Also, by killing Morden, you could say Londo has killed one already dead. (Albeit patched up to full fashionable flair just in time to die.)<< I have presumed that is that, as it were.

[selenak]

It was indeed Bryan Cranston. Presumably at this point in his actorly life grateful his agent got him another gig to pay the monthly rent. And yes, I think knowing that Sheridan is prepared to walk the walk is something true not just for the audience but for the characters in-universe as well - I mean, Ranger Ericson would know Sheridan went to Z'ha'dum in addition to his Minbar war exploits.