Here we can freely talk about the fallout from Lochley actually selling a part of the Babylon 5 station to the Brakiri when the Drazi had put in an offer first. And also Rebo and Zooty’s stellar careers as politicians, ushering in an era of peace that lasted centuries.
Or, you know, true spoilers from “Day of the Dead”.
I didn’t pick up on it until I happened to see someone mention it in a synopsis for “Sleeping in Light” (I guess it must’ve been the season-by-season guidebooks), but Kosh’s line in this episode is pretty explicitly (by his standards) telling Sheridan where to meet Lorien when he’s ready to die.
You think it’s breaking canon to suggest that people’s souls may exist after their deaths in the B5verse? I have only one thing to say to that:
Seeeto reeecho maaalvo raaay.
(not to mention the fact that, in B5 Lost Tales, we get an actual demon who needs to be exorcised)
It’s interesting how this episode reverses the Londo-G’Kar dynamic. Subtly, and in a small way, but it does.
Obviously, it’s important to the Londo story as his last real moment of happiness before everything comes crashing down on him. (This is an advantage of putting it later, in the Lurker’s Guide order.) We do have to pay the terrible price for that of having Adira back 🙂
But it’s also an episode which presents G’Kar as wrong about a religious and moral question, and as acknowledging his wrongness. He feels that, by not experiencing what the others on that side of the station did (and Londo is always going to be the most important point of contrast for G’Kar as a character), he missed out on something that would have been (in a small way) personally transformative.
At the end of the episode, Londo comes out as superior to G’Kar (again, in a very small way), and that’s not really something that we’ve seen since, gosh, Midnight on the Firing Line?
Is there some reason that they couldn’t figure out a way to have Kosh make an actual appearance in this episode? The reference is nice but it would have been great to see him again. Maybe just add one more character to the Brakiri part of the station running into Kosh? Also, one minor quibble (re: Morden/Lennier)- Why did Morden say that Lennier would betray “The Anla-Shock” and not Sheridan himself? It doesn’t really seem like he is literally betraying the Anla-Shock, esp. since Delenn is *technically* Ranger One (“The One Who Is”) at that point.
Most likely reason is that JMS hadn’t entirely figured out what Lennier was going to do later in the season, or wanted to give himself some wiggle room.
The Rangers seem big on loyalty and service to everyone, not just their own organisation. So if a single Ranger betrays anyone (especially a really important and valuable president) all the others would feel the guilt and shame.
Well, in plot terms, I don’t think you want either Lennier or the audience knowing that much, so that’s why. And who knows why dead Morden does or says anything? It’s a literary convention that prophecies are only clear in hindsight.
But also, even on Delenn=Ranger One, it’s not actually untrue. When Lennier abandons Sheridan, he is betraying Delenn as well.
In fact, in some ways he’s betraying Delenn far more than he is Sheridan. Sheridan may trust Lennier, in a casual everyday sort of way, the way in which you might trust someone that you don’t know particularly well but who’s generally seemed like a decent person. Without ever thinking about it very much. (Boxleitner plays that really well in Objects at Rest, that baffled, “What the hell is going on here?” sense of something that just hadn’t registered as a possibility coming at him.)
But Delenn *trusts* Lennier. And unlike Sheridan, she trusts *Lennier,* not the way in which you trust most people, but the way in which you trust a particular person that you know (or think you know) extremely well and that you are aware that you trust.
And there’s an interesting connection to this episode in the betrayal. Because what is revealed about Lennier in Objects at Rest, when they discover his notes, is that he’s been deluding himself into a position where abandoning Sheridan is saving Delenn from a “terrible mistake.” Not betraying Delenn at all, “really.”
So when Lennier insists that he would never do what Morden says in Day of the Dead, you can connect those dots. His insistence is part of the problem: if he was willing to admit the possibility, that would indicate a degree of self-awareness that might make the possibility less likely to be realized.
The phrase “betray the Anla’shok” is also a bit of misdirection, suggesting that he’s going to do something to harm the Rangers as an organization rather than harm some individual. At least based on a surface interpretation. But again, most prophecies tend towards vagueness and hidden meanings anyway.
I’ve not had time to re-watch this but I have been thinking about Season 5 structure. It’s not, as a host put it, and I had remembered it, the two parts of ‘Byron’ and ‘Everything Else’, the latter being ‘Centauri Prime’ and ‘Denouement’. Four parts if you count this episode which is far removed and felt oddly jarring given we’ve just started the ‘Centauri Prime’ arc. A bit stop-start. If it had come in a week earlier it would have been a good flag wave of ‘here comes the high quality story you like so much.’
But could I do better? That’s my usual guage for measuring.
I took a break after season 4 and am just now catching up with season 5. (Apropos of nothing) this episode fits extremely well with the halloween decorations that I am seeing pop up everywhere now.
Also, I know why it couldn’t happen, but I would have loved to hear Michael O’Hare say “Hello old friend” one more time