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B5 3x15-17 ("Interludes and Examinations" and "War Without End")
Deep breath:
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
I'll just get the elephant in the room out of the way first: I did actually know how Londo's story ends. (As apparently so did anyone who'd seen season 3.) I knew he gave himself to the Shadows and had about 20 years of being a Shadow puppet ruler before G'Kar kills him as we're told in the first episode is going to happen. What I didn't know was how or exactly why, although I'd also osmosed that it was more on the heroic sacrifice end of things than going completely darkside.
I just didn't expect to find so many of the details out so early!
Once I got the AAAAAAAAA out of the way - the thing on his neck! AAAAAAA! - I think this is actually less of a *bad* bad end than I had been worried about. I've been speculating and wondering, and I guess I assumed that Londo's personality would've been completely wiped away - but it isn't at all, I mean, his life is obviously horrible, but he definitely has periods of lucidity and being in control; in fact, possibly quite a bit of the time over the years, based on how he explains to Delenn and Sheridan that the amount of time he can shut the creature down has been declining. I also don't get the feeling this is the first time he's seen G'Kar in all that time; it's possible they have regular contact, I guess? And Vir is around too. So he's not completely gone, he's not completely alone, and he's himself at the end. I think this was all significantly less terrible than most of what I'd imagined.
(While still being pretty terrible. I mean, he's spent 15 years either being meatpuppeted or drunk all the time. No wonder his health is failing.)
Even though at this point we don't know much about how he and G'Kar develop between now and then, the softness in that last scene with them is impossible not to notice, and once again in the area of "less terrible than I was imagining," he's in control for their final conversation and he specifically asks G'Kar to kill him. I had guessed that it was probably a mercy killing just based on what little I knew, but I hadn't realized it would be as voluntary as it is, as opposed to G'Kar killing something that basically hasn't been Londo in a long time.
So I might have watched that scene a few times now. That final view of them, dead and still entangled (possibly holding hands, even; their arms are in shadow so it's hard to tell), and Vir picking up the - chain of office? thing? is so poignant.
I also truly cannot get over how that episode recontextualized the Babylon 4 episode in season 1! There's so much of it where I thought I knew what was happening by the end of the episode, but actually I Did Not. I don't know how much of this was planned and how much was refitted from whatever the original plan was when they lost Sinclair, but *wow*. (The identity of the person inside the spacesuit was an especially delightful mindfuck, because of how obvious it was in the original episode for anyone who's familiar with sci-fi tropes that the person in the spacesuit is definitely future Sinclair even before we see his face, and how in fact it turned out to be three different people and absolutely NONE of them was future Sinclair; even the aged Sinclair that we saw originally was in fact current day Sinclair after being artificially aged in the time field!)
Mild negativity about Sinclair, cut for your easy avoidance:
It was nice to get closure for Sinclair, though, and interesting to see his very different relationships with Delenn and Garibaldi than Sheridan has with them. Sinclair's last act with Garibaldi is to try to protect him, which seems very true to the relationship those two have. (As much as I did feel sad about Garibaldi being shut out of the final fight!)
About "Interludes and Examinations," I have much less to say - I knew Adira came back in some way, but that was definitely not what I was expecting in the slightest. Poor Londo (the scene where he starts crying, *ow*), although wow, Londo, way to learn exactly the wrong lesson. STOP LISTENING TO MORDEN, WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU.
I did not expect Kosh's death in the slightest! What!! (Although maybe the Vorlons should consider being slightly less maddeningly cryptic with their warnings. "If I do what you ask, it will lead to my death" - really, Kosh, how hard would that have been?) Actually, between Kosh dying and Franklin quitting (with Garibaldi once again as the mom friend there), not to mention Adira's death, this episode was a pretty rough ride for our cast.
ETA: Also, I'm reasonably confident that I'm back into episodes I've seen. I don't think I saw all of season 3, but I'm pretty sure I saw the episodes in this general area; I don't remember anything specifically, but I keep getting flashes of familiarity as I go along, especially surrounding Franklin's storyline (I definitely remembered that *something* altering happened to him, although for some reason I vaguely remembered it was telepath-related, not a drug addiction) and I got a similar sense of familiarity off the apocalyptic flash-forwards and the views of a ruined Centauri Prime.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
I'll just get the elephant in the room out of the way first: I did actually know how Londo's story ends. (As apparently so did anyone who'd seen season 3.) I knew he gave himself to the Shadows and had about 20 years of being a Shadow puppet ruler before G'Kar kills him as we're told in the first episode is going to happen. What I didn't know was how or exactly why, although I'd also osmosed that it was more on the heroic sacrifice end of things than going completely darkside.
I just didn't expect to find so many of the details out so early!
Once I got the AAAAAAAAA out of the way - the thing on his neck! AAAAAAA! - I think this is actually less of a *bad* bad end than I had been worried about. I've been speculating and wondering, and I guess I assumed that Londo's personality would've been completely wiped away - but it isn't at all, I mean, his life is obviously horrible, but he definitely has periods of lucidity and being in control; in fact, possibly quite a bit of the time over the years, based on how he explains to Delenn and Sheridan that the amount of time he can shut the creature down has been declining. I also don't get the feeling this is the first time he's seen G'Kar in all that time; it's possible they have regular contact, I guess? And Vir is around too. So he's not completely gone, he's not completely alone, and he's himself at the end. I think this was all significantly less terrible than most of what I'd imagined.
(While still being pretty terrible. I mean, he's spent 15 years either being meatpuppeted or drunk all the time. No wonder his health is failing.)
Even though at this point we don't know much about how he and G'Kar develop between now and then, the softness in that last scene with them is impossible not to notice, and once again in the area of "less terrible than I was imagining," he's in control for their final conversation and he specifically asks G'Kar to kill him. I had guessed that it was probably a mercy killing just based on what little I knew, but I hadn't realized it would be as voluntary as it is, as opposed to G'Kar killing something that basically hasn't been Londo in a long time.
So I might have watched that scene a few times now. That final view of them, dead and still entangled (possibly holding hands, even; their arms are in shadow so it's hard to tell), and Vir picking up the - chain of office? thing? is so poignant.
I also truly cannot get over how that episode recontextualized the Babylon 4 episode in season 1! There's so much of it where I thought I knew what was happening by the end of the episode, but actually I Did Not. I don't know how much of this was planned and how much was refitted from whatever the original plan was when they lost Sinclair, but *wow*. (The identity of the person inside the spacesuit was an especially delightful mindfuck, because of how obvious it was in the original episode for anyone who's familiar with sci-fi tropes that the person in the spacesuit is definitely future Sinclair even before we see his face, and how in fact it turned out to be three different people and absolutely NONE of them was future Sinclair; even the aged Sinclair that we saw originally was in fact current day Sinclair after being artificially aged in the time field!)
Mild negativity about Sinclair, cut for your easy avoidance:
here
I had forgotten how wooden he is. I really do vastly prefer Sheridan in the captain role, and just seeing them side by side, with Sheridan's wider emotional range and playful boyish energy, reminded me of why.It was nice to get closure for Sinclair, though, and interesting to see his very different relationships with Delenn and Garibaldi than Sheridan has with them. Sinclair's last act with Garibaldi is to try to protect him, which seems very true to the relationship those two have. (As much as I did feel sad about Garibaldi being shut out of the final fight!)
About "Interludes and Examinations," I have much less to say - I knew Adira came back in some way, but that was definitely not what I was expecting in the slightest. Poor Londo (the scene where he starts crying, *ow*), although wow, Londo, way to learn exactly the wrong lesson. STOP LISTENING TO MORDEN, WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU.
I did not expect Kosh's death in the slightest! What!! (Although maybe the Vorlons should consider being slightly less maddeningly cryptic with their warnings. "If I do what you ask, it will lead to my death" - really, Kosh, how hard would that have been?) Actually, between Kosh dying and Franklin quitting (with Garibaldi once again as the mom friend there), not to mention Adira's death, this episode was a pretty rough ride for our cast.
ETA: Also, I'm reasonably confident that I'm back into episodes I've seen. I don't think I saw all of season 3, but I'm pretty sure I saw the episodes in this general area; I don't remember anything specifically, but I keep getting flashes of familiarity as I go along, especially surrounding Franklin's storyline (I definitely remembered that *something* altering happened to him, although for some reason I vaguely remembered it was telepath-related, not a drug addiction) and I got a similar sense of familiarity off the apocalyptic flash-forwards and the views of a ruined Centauri Prime.
no subject
That's a completely reasonable set of responses; it's an utterly deranged thing to do in the middle of a TV show! Not to mention the way its closing of the time loop cuts off any further foreknowledge at a point where it raises the most questions to have had any at all.
It's such a grand example of how knowing exactly how it all ends can be just enough to make you make all the wrong choices along the way, but it's also lighting up in neon lights that even knowing it will end badly doesn't make the good choices mean less - the only thing that really does matter is doing the right thing (the noble, kind, forgiving thing) at some point between now and then, because that's what turns the Bad End into a Good End, even if the actual events are still the same.
*underlines this comment, highlights, adds some heart eyes around the edges*
And I love that all those good choices—which would matter in their own right even if they couldn't shift an inch of the eventual future, as is indeed the case with all of our lives and the heat death of the universe—alter so little. They don't give Londo a gentle, joyous end of life. They don't loophole out the death of G'Kar. We're not looking at a Space Christmas Carol, where the future can be diametrically reset from its terrible foreshadowing. It's just that the little they alter matters so immeasurably much. What was seen to happen, happens, but it doesn't mean at all the same thing and it accomplishes so much more.
(btw, sorry for the deleted comment; I misclicked at the very start of typing it and accidentally posted, so I figured it made more sense to just deleted it and write the whole thing than edit 95% of the comment in.)
No worries! I have to run off and collect my watch from the repair shop, since ironically for this conversation it stopped. [edit] Got my watch back, time restarted.