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selenakPhoenix Rising
And thus the telepaths subplot concludes, though not Lyta's personal arc. It did take me a few years after the original broadcast to understand why the episode is called what it is, and that she's the titular Phoenix, reborn in flames. (Lyta Alexander, Resistance Leader, does not believe in peaceful Resistance. Also, back in the 1990s it seems red headed telepaths with growing powers and growing anger issues were all over the tv place, and as I wasn’t yet familiar with the X-Men until the movies, I didn't grasp how influential Chris Clarement with his Dark Phoenx arc for Jean Grey must have been.)
The reveal that Byron used to be a Psi Cop and Bester's protegé, and that what made him turn into a blip and then the founder of a cult/resistance movement (take your etiquette of choice) was the order to kill "mundanes" by Bester (and the subsequent indifference by other Corps officials when Byron attempted to report it) makes complete sense, though I wasn't sure back then and I'm still not sure during this rewatch whether it shouldn't have been revealed sooner. Byron, ex-Psi Cop attempting to be a pacifist is more interesting than Byron, failure at poetic speeches is what I'm saying. Though we'd still have the casting problem - Byron rescueing Franklin and Garibaldi by shooting one of his followers and talking the others into surrendering is very sympathetic and moving on paper, but the actor still doesn't have that kind of presence which makes me emotionally believe his followers gone rogue would be first ready to surrender to station authorities on his say so and then to committ suicide with him. This said, the scene with Bester earlier where he attempts to talk to Byron works for me on various levels. It shows they used to be close, it shows Bester's mixture of (failed) manipulation and sincerity, and this is the first time we see Bester remove a glove (btw, the way he does it back in the 90s was when I realised he really could not use his left hand), and the symbolism this has for telepaths on this show is obvious. Dito for the scene between Sheridan and Bester at the end, which, again, brought home botht hat "rogues are family who need to be shown the error of their ways and then readmitted/all telepaths together" is something Bester does/did belief (as opposed to just using it as propaganda towards others) and that this self delusion now has been shattered. Much as pre Star Wars Prequels the assumption was that the "Clone Wars" Leia was referencing in her origiinal message to Obi-Wan was a war against Clones, only to find out it was a war where Clones and Jedi fought against another enemy, this episode is an indication that the Telepath War, when it finally arrives (which it doesn't in this show and eventually never did, since this was one of the post B5 projects of JMS which fell through), wouldn't be "Mundanes" vs Telepaths but Telepaths vs each other. In Crusade, which is set post Telepath War, that's also the implication. And this episode is when the galvanizing spark has been lit. That Bester - who is invested in the "telepaths are family" belief, and who always thought it would be telepaths vs mundanes - should heavily contribute to it by his insistence on taking Byron & Co. personally into custody is fitting tragic irony. (If you take the Psi Corps book trilogy as canon: the third novel, which is set post Telepath War as well, reveals that Bester tried to reach Byron telepathically to keep him from killing himself in his last moments and as a result has to live with a fragment of Byron's psyche inside his mind for the rest of his days.
While all of this is going on, we also get a reminder of why Bester is one of the most entertaining villains of the show when Garibaldi finally manages some alone time and finds out Bester is still two steps ahead of him. This scene has such a "cat plays with mouse" vibe, and I don't know whether Walter Koenig improvised Bester opening only one eye, but it's perfect and darkly hilarious, as is "let me ask you something, Mr. Garibaldi, as one intelligent human being to another - on a scale of 1 to 10, how stupid do you think I am?" Otoh, it's absolutely devastating for Garibaldi to find out that after a year of being mind controlled, he's still controlled in one important aspect, and it makes sense that this is what pushes him over the edge and off the wagon. (More about this in the next episode review.)
The Ragged Edge
So, as opposed to Stephen Franklin's stim addiction arc back in the day I always thought Garibaldi's s5 alcoholism arc was efficient storytelling, made sense for the character and contributed to the overall saga. Garibaldi as a recovering alcoholic had been established from s1 onwards, it comes up now and then, and while not being his sole character trait, it's one of the things that contributes to him being who he is. Last season was a harrowing and deeply frightening experience for him, and he didn't really deal with it, partly because he thought he'd get his revenge on Bester. Finding out about Bester's goodbye present pushing him into his old addiction does, as I said, make sense given Garibaldi's control issues, current inability to direct his rage and self loathing. And as opposed to Franklin's arc, where his addiction only affects himself except for the episode where it finally leads to his temporary resignation, here we get Garibaldi's fall of the wagon almost immediately having results that affect the larger plot line (the mystery of the raiders - a sober Garibaldi a) would have had Franklin with him as backup, and b) would have heard the shot taking his old friend out). Now, would the rational thing have been for Garibaldi to confide in someone about what Bester did - Franklin being the obvious candidate, but there's also Lise Hampton back on Mars? Sure, and in Phoenix Rising he's about to do that (BEFORE falling of the wagon) with Franklin. After, it's another matter. Addiction isn't rational. And Garibaldi telling himself he can still control it and function is very much in character.
G'Kar returns to find himself a bestselling writer and holy prophet very much to his horror leads to a lovely scene with Ta'Lon (when did we last see Ta'Lon - s3 I think?). It's also a bit of comic relief with serious undertones, as it's not something that will go away, and will have long term consequences for G''Kar. The scene with his new follower insistiing that the "Book of G'Kar" is sacrosant in every word and therefore everything in it is correct and G'Kar himself doesn't know better works on various levels - there's writer/reader/viewer meta here, but it's also a comment on various faith's handling of their sacred texts involved. As if to prove he's anything but infallible , G'Kar later makes a judgment call which I misremembered Sheridan and Delenn making before this rewatch, to it, NOT to tell Londo about their new (and inadvertendly Londo caused realisation) that the Centauri are involved or behind the mystery of the shipping raids. Note that the argument here isn't "given all Londo did in the past, we can't trust him" but "he'll get himself killed" , which otoh says something about G'Kar's feelings for Londo ("where he goes, I go") but otoh is headdesk worthy. Firstly, for all his bombast, Londo is actually good at keeping secrets when he has to, especially when lives are at stake. Ask Cartagia. Or Refa. For that matter, G'Kar only found out about the Londo-Morden connection via artificial telepathy. By not telling Londo, G'Kar, who wants to save him, inadvertendly contributes to the unfoldling story of doooooooooom.
The other episodes
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Date: 2022-10-14 12:51 pm (UTC)Note that the argument here isn't "given all Londo did in the past, we can't trust him" but "he'll get himself killed"
Not knowing anything about what comes after, I was absolutely shocked that G'Kar's argument was the latter rather than the former. Quite a change, and a very shippy one as well that hits all my enemy-to-friend loyalty kink buttons :D <33
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Date: 2022-10-14 04:14 pm (UTC)