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selenakObjects at Rest
You know, this scene between Sheridan and Lochley might just be the only one this season which isn‘t about immediate station business. My suspicion back in the day was, and still is, for that matter, that JMS avoided giving them one on one scenes to avoid even the whiff of a suspicion he might be for a love triangle, given that he had made her Sheridan‘s ex, and for that same reason let their few conversations be strictly professional. By doing so, methinks he erred a bit in the other direction, i.e. a shared joke or two or anything like that to indicate that hey, even this very brief marriage thing aside, they went to the same academy together would not have been amiss. This said, it kind of works on a Watsonian level, i.e. I can see both Sheridan and Lochley going for professional-only behavior given it‘s the year after a Civil War, he‘s a new President, she‘s not strictly speaking his subordinate but still under his authority (sort of), and it avoids making her job look like nepotism. And I do like that one quiet moment between them with, with him saying he‘s glad she‘s there, and later their shared silent salute.
Ta‘lon as the new Narn envoy: Ta‘lon is another of those characters, like the Regent, who didn‘t have that many scenes over the years if you think about it, but still from the time he and Sheridan were prisoners together kept coming back and managed to leave an impression, a strongt sesnse of his personality. I suspect if Julie Caitlin Brown had been available for more than one episode, Na‘Toth might have been the next envoy, but since the story worked out as it did over the years, Ta‘Lon is an excellent choice, and G‘Kar‘s goodbye message to him very touching.
(Btw, it just occured to me: Vir is the only one of the four ambassadorial aides - four if you count Lyta for Kosh 1 - who at the end of the show has become the new ambassador, and who despite all the drama and heartbreak of the last few years is in a better place than where he started out from. Lennier, well, more about that in a second, Lyta is off with G‘Kar for now but has a telepath war to fight in her future and at any rate is now so powerful that she can‘t live with other people for long anymore, and Na‘Toth has returned to Narn to heal after a horrible imprisonment. I have no doubt she will recover, and will help rebuild her planet, but still, if you think of the confident sarcastic woman who strolled into G‘Kar‘s quarters in „Parliament of Dreams“, you can‘t say she‘s better off now.)
Everyone assembling in C-i-C as Sheridan and Delenn leave on their White Star deliberately restages the s1 cast photo with the people who now have our heroes‘ jobs, and it‘s worth pointing out that there‘s a female commander, a female chief doctor and a female spy-in-chief (though Zack is the one who has Garibaldi‘s original job) in this 1990s show at the end. Also, since JMS kept using her in his various spin-off attempts, it turns out Lochley will command B5 longer than either Sinclair or Sheridan.
As touching as the continuing goodbyes are, it‘s of course not what got debated when this episode first was broadcast. This was when a sizable part of fandom said, and continues to say, that „Lennier would never“. Here I disagree - under these circumstances, and repenting it just a few minutes later, wanting to undo it, he would. And Delenn talking to Sheridan about how one bad moment of being your worst self destroys a life time of service, asking him whether he can forgive Lennier, is not just talking about Lennier, but evidently thinking of her own bad, fatal for many moment. That Sheridan says he probably would, but could never be sure whether Lennier truly had repented or whether he hadn‘t returned to finish the job, that trust, once broken, couldn‘t be really restored is probably why Sheridan will never find out about the start of the Earth/Minbari War.
Now, all this doesn‘t mean I didn‘t have a complaint back in the day. Remember, if you were unspoiled, you were waiting ever since Day of the Dead as to whether Morden‘s prediction that Lennier would betray the Anla‘shock would come true. His actions as the fulfillment of this particular prophecy seemed very last minute to younger me, and also I was grumbling „how is almost killing Sheridan betraying the Rangers?“ before recalling „fine, betraying the Ranger ideal and vows, okay“. Older me doesn‘t feel it was that much last minute, but still wonders whether it shouldn‘t have happened a bit earlier in the season. Otoh, well - it couldn‘t have before that „I love you“ - „I know“ from Fall of Centauri Prime, and there weren‘t that many episodes left.
This episode also features the last in-show appearance of Londo. (Not the last screen appearance, since he also has a sizable part in In the Beginning.) Here, too, my feelings have somewhat altered. I used to grumble about Sheridan‘s lack of a time trip memory again, since Londo asking for some alcohol, rather urgently, clearly signals he‘s already worked out it incapacitates the Keeper. On this rewatch, though, I feel milder, because let‘s face it, if Sheridan really doesn‘t remember, then Londo asking for a drink is nothing unusual. What I do wonder, still, ils whether he would have warned Sheridan and Delenn if they had provided him with alcohol. Because circumstances on Centauri Prime haven‘t changed, i.e. the Drakh could have still detonated all those bombs to kill millions of Centauri in retalation once the Keeper inevitably reawakens and/or they realize Londo is out of contact for good.
A criticism I‘ve seen making the rounds back in the day was that preparing a ticking time bomb for Delenn‘s future child is kind of pointless since David at age 16 isn‘t a prince about to succeed the throne, he won‘t inherit his parents‘ offices. True, but leaving aside that David as mentioned last week is a symbol, and the Drakh preparing a bad fate for him is a threat to that future, I think the show did make it clear the Drakh are into retaliation. There‘s no need for Londo, specifically, to be their tool. They could have him killed and used someone else, whomever the Centaurum would have voted in next (not yet Vir). But they wanted payback for his turning against the Shadows. If they feel this way about Londo, I bet they feel strongly about John „Get the hell out of our Galaxy“ Sheridan and Delenn, too. Lastly, as the child of Alliance VIPs, David would make a perfect spy.
It used to be popular fanon that Lennier redeems himself by rescueing David when the boy is sixteen. I can buy that (it‘s not the books version, but then the third volume of the Centauri trilogy is really not good, especially John and Delenn as sitcom parents and Garibaldi reduced to a couple of quips, so it‘s not my canon anyway), but my own preference is the one I used most recently in my Trick or Treat story Soul Food, i.e. Lennier goes to Centauri Prime not sixteen years later to rescue David, but now.
Sleeping in Light
Yep, still gets my vote for one of the most perfect series finales. I salute JMS for choosing to end the series not with some final big battle but with an almost chamber play like intimacy while still allowing epic feelings. The soundtrack by Christopher Franke is gorgeous, and the sequence in which the station finds its end - in fire, as was prophecied in season 1, but like with Londo‘s death, under completely different circumstances than originally imagined by the audience - still makes me misty-eyed.
Also: while I like Sheridan and Delenn, they‘ve never been my favourite characters. And yet I am never tempted to fast forward through their scenes in this episode, I find them touching and compelling. It‘s JMS at his most LotR-fan-like, as Sheridan
The balance the show manages of how it manages death still awes me. It never feels either like gratitious slaughter nor like disneyfied avoidance. Here, the death the characters face isn‘t solely Sheridan‘s; in the scene where they‘re all together on Minbar, they each remember their lost ones. But they also celebrate the lives their dead have lived, that they still live, that Sheridan has lived and will soon leave behind. Vir‘s story about Londo listening to the Pa‘kh‘mara manages to be both an elegy without being one and sum up one part of what makes this show so appealing, that death and comedy, beauty and ugliness, joy and despair all keep being intermingled.
Speaking of Vir, seeing him here for the first and last time as Emperor Cotto was an excellent way of saying goodbye to the character in the knowledge that he’s happy while also telling us without spelling it out in dialogue that yes, Centauri Prime has been saved. Garibaldi, possibly the most broken of the human characters in s5, has managed to take that last chance and turn it into a good life for himself. Stephen Franklin, too, is happy. Ivanova is the only regular who starts out the episode feeling discontent with her existence, seeing it as empty, and she, too, finds new purpose in this episode. (BTW, on the one hand I wish there‘d been one last scene between her and Sheridan, as their relationship keeps growing on me with every rewatch, and they bring out the best in each other, but on the other hand their last scene back in s4 was perfect for that, plus giving Susan the scene with Delenn is more meaningfull in the context of the two women - who will survive - helping each other.
The final credits sequence („financed by the Anla‘shok Memorial fund“ still makes me laugh) juxtaposing the characters as we first met them underlined, one last time, how well the show developed them for five years. (And btw, anyone who says that hey, this episode was filmed in s4 already so you can just go from s4 to it and skip s5 is wrong. Basta. One more time.) Can I nitpick thing even in this perfect series finale? Sure, if I think about it in theory. To wit: Sheridan being President for fourteen years followed by Delenn being President for the next two while Sheridan becomes head of the Rangers is one of those things that comes from wanting a LotR ending for a story that‘s not set in an ancient monarchy but in supposedly a restored democracy. (Though I have to tell you, after living through Helmut Kohl‘s and Angela Merkel‘s times of office, which each rivals Sheridan‘s, I‘m no longer as doubtful on Sheridan keeping reelected as I was when I was decades younger.) But honestly, that‘s only what I think if pondering B5 world building, not when watching the episode itself. Then I don‘t care.
Lastly: JMS giving himself the cameo as the dock worker who switches off the lights on the station was something young me hadn‘t been awqre of, which I only noticed during rewatches, and on each rewatch it becomes more meaningful to me, not least because we‘ve lost so many of our cast already, and honestly, the man isn‘t getting any younger. But what a life‘s work. Even if he hadn‘t created anything else - and he has, and I like a lot of it - , Babylon 5 is enough to secure him immortality.
It is the last of the Babylon stations. There would never be another.
Links: Survivors Delenn and Vir after Centauri Prime has been liberated from the Drakh
Proserpina, Returning My attempt at an Elizabeth Lochley portrait. Has some spoilers for Crusade, but should be understandable even if you‘re not familiar with it.
Confessions and Lamentations: A Babylon 5 Soundtrack is Andraste‘s epic playlist for the entire show.
The other episodes
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Date: 2022-11-13 06:33 am (UTC)Heh, Sheridan and Lochley. I guess that didn't bother me as I'd mostly forgotten they were married... but yeah, it would have been nice for there to be a bit more camaraderie. Although I think it maybe does say something that Lochley is so buttoned-down with Sheridan?
Have I mentioned how much I love Number One being the new station head of spying? I LOVE IT. I love her! And I hope that twenty years in the future she and Franklin are still having regular rendezvous when they're in the same space.
Everyone assembling in C-i-C as Sheridan and Delenn leave on their White Star deliberately restages the s1 cast photo with the people who now have our heroes‘ jobs
I just loved this and part of me wanted to follow these guys for longer. I loved the continuity, that some stories were ending but that just meant that other stories were beginning.
That Sheridan says he probably would, but could never be sure whether Lennier truly had repented or whether he hadn‘t returned to finish the job, that trust, once broken, couldn‘t be really restored is probably why Sheridan will never find out about the start of the Earth/Minbari War.
Yeeeeeah. Aw Delenn! ALSO. Lennier!! poor kid getting set up for this :(((((
(as you know -- but for anyone who doesn't follow me -- I had a whole bunch of reactions to Lennier (and could not wait two weeks for this post) here)
Basically I want ALL THE FIX-IT for Lennier now. ALL OF IT.
It used to be popular fanon that Lennier redeems himself by rescueing David when the boy is sixteen...
but my own preference is the one I used most recently in my Trick or Treat story Soul Food, i.e. Lennier goes to Centauri Prime not sixteen years later to rescue David, but now.
Why not both! I LOVE your headcanon and also maybe he just sticks around and so happens to be there when David is sixteen and gets drawn there...
ALSO LONDO
I spent a lot of that scene going, "is this Londo making that gift or is that the Drakh??" and, well, I guess they answered that for me in the end...
What I do wonder, still, ils whether he would have warned Sheridan and Delenn if they had provided him with alcohol. Because circumstances on Centauri Prime haven‘t changed, i.e. the Drakh could have still detonated all those bombs to kill millions of Centauri in retalation once the Keeper inevitably reawakens and/or they realize Londo is out of contact for good.
So I got the impression that the Keeper didn't have access to what Londo said/did while intoxicated, even afterwards? In which case I could see that Londo could have warned Sheridan and Delenn about what was in the urn and what was going on with him, but would not have been able to take the opportunity to escape or get rid of the Keeper or anything like that. (Which would also have been an extremely moving and courageous scene, but I can see that's not where JMS's story went.)
"Sleeping in Light": I certainly DID have Epic Feelings about it! I watched this while chatting with
After writing Neroon asking Delenn to cut her hair, I found it hilarious that she did cut her hair after being on Minbar for twenty years, though I guess she didn't cut it much. And mostly was paying attention to her hair so as not to be so devastated --
I've said a lot of harsh words about the Sheridan/Delenn relationship, but I felt like the last couple of episodes did sell me on the relationship (...with the exception of the whole Lennier thing and how it intersected with Delenn's war issues, but anyway), just in time for my heart to just break for her, the way she is trying so hard to give Sheridan the sendoff he wants, and she just can't quite manage it, and that heartbreaking bit where she stretches out her hand to him but he doesn't look back. And coupled with that, the devastating way that Boxleitner plays Sheridan so that at the beginning of the episode, he's basically twenty years older, but by the time he leaves Delenn, he's shuffling like a much older man. AGH. (And it just gets even worse as he leaves Babylon 5 :( )
I did feel like JMS had, in addition to reading too much Tolkien, read too much history, and knew that all love stories end in death :( But as you say, it's the flip side of the other side of history, which is that stories keep going on (which we saw so poignantly in "Objects at Rest," with the new crew), and stories are remembered, and get meaning from being remembered. (And I love that Zack goes to Centauri Prime with Vir!)
I just lost it when the lights got turned off (I did not realize that was JMS, although
also. I was not expecting to get all teary-eyed during the CREDITS. I'm JUST SAYING.
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Date: 2022-11-13 09:01 am (UTC)Fixit for Lennier stories:
Why not both! I LOVE your headcanon and also maybe he just sticks around and so happens to be there when David is sixteen and gets drawn there...
I'd like this version, too, to be sure.
So I got the impression that the Keeper didn't have access to what Londo said/did while intoxicated, even afterwards?
Alas, I think the Keeper must be able to get at least the general gist of it, though presumably not every single detail, given that Old!Londo in War Without End seems to believe that if the Keeper awakes before Sheridan and Delenn have left the planet, the Keeper will make him re-arrest them; that's the argument he uses (along with "we have unfinished business") to make G'Kar kill him, after all.
Then again, clearly the Keeper can't be able to catch all of Londo's thoughts even when not drunk, or it would have known why Londo got drunk after capturing time travelling Sheridan in the first place and immediately alerted the Drakh. What Londo says is "it does not care why I do the things I do as long as I do them", so presumably the Keeper is generally more of an empath than a telepath but able to relay strict instructions from the Drakh to Londo, plus it can take over and control his movements when necessary.
the way she is trying so hard to give Sheridan the sendoff he wants, and she just can't quite manage it, and that heartbreaking bit where she stretches out her hand to him but he doesn't look back.
Now let me evilly remind you of your original reaction to Delenn's reaction when Lorien breaks the "twenty years, no more, no less" news to her in s4. Methinks it was something like "that doesn't seem too bad?"
More seriously, yes, it's a heartbreaking scene, and definitely the one that made me make the Aragorn-and-Arwen comparison.
it's the flip side of the other side of history, which is that stories keep going on (which we saw so poignantly in "Objects at Rest," with the new crew), and stories are remembered, and get meaning from being remembered
Yes, this. B5 has this meta dimension about storytelling, not in a fourth-wall-breaking fashion as is the custom more and more these days, but woven into the narrative. Which I love.
I was not expecting to get all teary-eyed during the CREDITS. I'm JUST SAYING.
Awwww, yes. BTW, I did not mention this before, but I appreciate the credits include that footage of the behind the camera crew, not "just" their names, because a series like this is also a major group effort.
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Date: 2022-11-13 09:18 am (UTC)Ta‘lon as the new Narn envoy: I think he's the only significantly reoccurring Narn other than Na'Toth, so he certainly was the best choice from that point of view. I do wonder at Ga'Kar thinking the Narn need a more warrior like ambassador at that point. (Tangentially, I had to check b5 wiki to know Dr Lillian Hobbs was also a reoccurring character to replace Dr Franklin)
Lennier: I remembered reading about what he does ahead of time but I'm surprised it happens so late in the show. That and Londo's gift and the telepath war leave a lot of room for spinoffs outside the five year plan which is interesting.
As someone who think perhaps too much more about nuts and bolts and practicalities than character arcs, that bit seemed quite contrived. The White Star happens to break just as Sheridan's on his walk, traps him in a deadly room with a convenient glass door ,that Lennier can open and he can't but he can break it with a stick. It's room they are locked in for the good of the ship but Sheridan busting out of it doesn't endanger the ship in any way? Hmmm.
But as a character thing it is good. It's nice that John is shocked and disbelieving because he's known about Lennier not like him/Delenn's marriage since at least the start of the season and has always been nice (but appropriate awkward to my mind) to him and never suspects him. And it's a nice subversion that Lennier's change of heart is too late, in a normal show he'd make it back in time and be forgiven. I wonder if Sheridan would forgive him if he'd made it back or not. (realistically, wouldn't the trust be gone either way? Sheridan might not be so lucky the next time Lennier had a moment of weakness)
The Conversation between Sheridan and Delenn afterwards, I thought was excellent. They are both in character understanding, somewhat cross paths without fighting or getting angry about it and the show doesn't let Delenn win and be right but allow Sheridan to be upset but still be a kind and forgiving person but still with very understandable doubts. It does show their strength as a couple.
So: Sleeping In Light. Would it be heretical to say it was fine and leave it at that? Anyway I got it and liked it but I wouldn't say I was attached enough to them to get very emotional. But I liked it. I liked Franklin holidaying at the Garibaldi's. I like Garibadi being happy and having a daughter. I liked that Zach Allen at least got an invitation to the Minbar party even if he wasn't actually there. I found Emperor Cotto fooling around with ladies surprising and funny. Kind of sad Talia and Lyta didn't get a mention.
(And realism wise, Age makeup never works that well and of course this means fashions/Earth Force uniforms/everyone's ship designs don't change in 20 years which seems a little silly but there you go.) On another note the Alliance meaning B5 is obsolete really makes me wonder why they didn't use it permanently . I never saw the logic of using Mimbar and thus showing favouritism to a member race.
while I like Sheridan and Delenn, they‘ve never been my favourite characters. And yet I am never tempted to fast forward through their scenes in this episode, I find them touching and compelling. This I agree with. I think the most affecting scene to me is when they're in bed and Sheridan is prattling on about what he wants and strategy and so on, while Delenn is lying facing away from him clearly just devastated and barely holding on. Great acting from Mira Furlan there.
The final first/last shots credits was great though. I've heard theories the 'documentary bit' means the whole series is an in-universe documentary/propaganda film which I don't really agree with though.
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Date: 2022-11-13 11:41 am (UTC)It's nice that John is shocked and disbelieving because he's known about Lennier not like him/Delenn's marriage since at least the start of the season and has always been nice (but appropriate awkward to my mind) to him and never suspects him. And it's a nice subversion that Lennier's change of heart is too late, in a normal show he'd make it back in time and be forgiven. </>
Indeed, I remember this being my expectation the first time I watched that scene. And yes, Sheridan's reaction was both realistic and sympathetic.
Mira Furlan's acting: one of the best things I've ever seen her do was a Croatian film called The Tour, in which a group of actors becomes trapped between the lines when the Kosovo war beraks out, and there's one scene in particular where she says so much by just her facial reactions while other characters talk....
No documentary or propaganda piece would have included Grey 17 is missing. :)
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Date: 2022-11-13 09:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-11-13 11:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-11-13 03:31 pm (UTC)Totally understand the lack of time. Thanks for doing this anyway (and putting up with my uninsightful insight in general, lol) This boxset has been sitting next to my desk for a couple of years now and this gave me a good opportunity to watch it without burning out trying to binge it.
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Date: 2022-11-13 01:38 pm (UTC)I should have thoughts about Lennier in "Objects at Rest," but I'm all up in my feelings about "Sleeping in Light" now, so nah. I agree with what you've said here, especially about Delenn's comments and what they mean--this is Delenn at her most self aware, when perhaps through the rest of the arc she was at her least. I always stop a bit at her, "everything is going to be okay" line, but I wonder if she realizes that this is the moment where she and they move past all of the tumult that Lennier has brought them (however self inflicted)...I turn that one over a lot.
I don't have Lennier thoughts, but I suppose I can always be relied on for Delenn feelings!
Anyway--I have loved following along with your rewatch. It has been great fun to revisit the show through a different lens and have an opportunity to connect with so many people who love it. Thank you doing it.
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Date: 2022-11-14 06:19 am (UTC)To this day, close to twenty years after I first saw it, I cannot get through "Sleeping in Light" without sobbing my face off.
I don't blame you, this one just is a tearjerker in the best way.
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Date: 2022-11-15 01:00 am (UTC)Re: Going out for a Sunday drive - it pleases me that, however late, Sheridan does gain some political nous. Because yes, if he'd died on Minbar someone would have used it (see also 'The Deconstruction of Falling Stars').
I think that none of our heroes end up on home soil is also a very Tolkein touch (which I think makes Garibaldi Sam ... which sort of works). I am also pleased to see Zack Allen, sidekick to Emperor Cotto I.
(For me the crying starts with the shot of Delenn on the bench. That shot.)