selenak

Objects 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 ~~goes into the West~~ lives out his Lorien-provided life span, says goodbye to his wife and friends and station, and enters Valinor, err, goes beyond the Rim. This time around, what struck me most was that the episode calls attention to the fact Sheridan is aware that this „from man to myth“ transition will happen, and he does it this way (as opposed to staying on Minbar) because it will be strategically useful to Delenn and the Alliance. („They will remember.“) Once upon a time, Kosh promised to teach him to fight legends; now, he‘s able to create them. He‘s also doing it for emotional reasons, of course; that „Sunday going out for drive“ is so very him. But he knows what he‘s doing.

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