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B5 4x10-13
I DO NOT LIKE THE NECK PARASITES
I DO NOT LIKE THEM AT ALL
I mean, narratively I like them, but having had the flash-forward to Londo and his whole world being enslaved by them, and then actually encountering them when no one knows what they are yet (because apparently Sheridan never tells anyone anything if he can help it) is *the worst.* Especially since now we know that if they're shot/removed, they just grow back. HOW ABOUT NOPE.
I wasn't expecting to, but I really enjoyed Marcus and Franklin on Mars! The banter is A+++. "Your honor, that's when I shot him." And they are a fun team. I love seeing Franklin more relaxed and playful than he normally is on B5. (On a side note, Orion comments that he loves Evil Franklin, who we saw in both Franklin's acid-trippy experience while he was dying of being stabbed, and then again when the Vorlons and Shadows were talking to Delenn and Sheridan. It is very clear that the actor has an amazing time when he can step out of his usual straight-man nice-guy role.)
In general, there's a lot of humor in this part of the show and I'm having a great time with it. Ivanova and Sheridan: "You have a face that inspires trust." "I'd rather have a face that inspires fear." Sheridan, under his breath: "That too."
And the entire sequence with Ivanova and Zathras on Epsilon-3! Her face journey was amazing. "Zathras has no one to talk to, so Zathras talks to dirt." I started laughing so hard I could barely breathe at that whole speech.
Loved Garibaldi reuniting the girl and her dad, and only giving them a token charge for it. His face when he's watching them, and then he gets a hug from the girl! I still have no idea what in the world is going on with his plot, especially since he's so obviously still *him.* Orion pointed out that he's him except when he's dealing with Sheridan, and that would probably be easier to brainwash in than a whole personality change, but that makes it even sadder because it *is* still him and the wedge that continues to be driven between him and the others is just so tragic!
My guess earlier this season (once it became clear that his brainwashing is unrelated to the Vorlon-Shadow plot) is that Psi Corps did it, and now I'm even more convinced Psi Corps is involved somehow after we had the telepaths in the latest Garibaldi episode who suicided so they couldn't be interrogated. This would also mean I was right in my earlier guess that Bester's reference to hurting B5 was referring to Garibaldi, although this is still the most slow-motion Evil Plot of all time. Am currently guessing that the whatever-it-was that Garibaldi's ex was buying on B5 is not a cure for some kind of telepathy disease but rather that it's intended to wipe out the telepaths. (I hope this means Bester shows up again soon...)
We didn't see G'Kar and Londo's first encounter after the Dust in season three, but this season, we definitely see the first time they've been in the same room together since G'Kar told Londo that Londo no longer exists in his universe - the scene in Sheridan's office when he's trying to talk them both into allowing White Star ships to patrol their space. Awkwardness set to maximum. The way that G'Kar visibly spends the whole scene not looking at Londo, and the two of them talking to Sheridan instead of to each other!
Sheridan scheming to get the League worlds to agree to the White Star patrols was downright Machiavellian, and it's interesting how that cut back and forth with the even more high-stakes scheming on board the Minbari vessel. I assumed the religious caste's attempted mass suicide (and the thwarting thereof) was part of a reconciliation plan that Delenn and Neroon put together, but .... I guess not? Lennier was acting on his own - possibly? That episode was confusing, and I have no idea what Neroon is up to at the end. Don't betray them, Neroon! Or have a neck parasite! I want to like you! (Please no hints about what he's up to.)
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I also remember noticing at the time that their fake marriage is played as a joke in the traditional sense that it amuses one half of the pseudo-couple as much as it annoys the other, but not in the sense that same-sex marriage just exists in this future without any particular emphasis.
Am currently guessing that the whatever-it-was that Garibaldi's ex was buying on B5 is not a cure for some kind of telepathy disease but rather that it's intended to wipe out the telepaths. (I hope this means Bester shows up again soon...)
I sincerely enjoy the way Garibaldi's personal plot has just flanged off into sf noir at this point.
Awkwardness set to maximum. The way that G'Kar visibly spends the whole scene not looking at Londo, and the two of them talking to Sheridan instead of to each other!
Yes! It is very reminiscent of their total inability to have a conversation like normal adults in the first season, except this time around it isn't for comedy.
I have neglected him in comments to date, but I am intensely fond of Neroon.
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Yes! Actually that was something else I was going to remark on - it's another of those little moments when it's odd to remind myself that I'm watching something from the mid-90s, years before same-sex marriage was legal anywhere, twenty years before it was nationally legal in the US. But it's completely unremarkable; the joke is that they're personally annoyed by having to be undercover as married to the point of semi-friendly married bickering, not that the marriage itself is a joke or would be seen as anything other than perfectly ordinary by anyone else. (It's demonstrably normal because otherwise it wouldn't be a good cover story. The fact that it's useful to go undercover that way means that nobody's going to think twice about it.)
I sincerely enjoy the way Garibaldi's personal plot has just flanged off into sf noir at this point.
He's definitely in a different genre than everyone else by now! Which I guess has been lampshaded or possibly foreshadowed throughout the series (the hat, the revolver, the drinking problem). He's always been a little bit of a classic noir detective. Now that's his entire deal. I'm still hoping he loops back around to rejoining the main cast eventually rather than being off in his own plot (as it seems Londo is starting to do, very reluctantly).
It is very reminiscent of their total inability to have a conversation like normal adults in the first season, except this time around it isn't for comedy.
Yes, that's such a good point! As always, they continue going through multiple iterations of circling back around to the same place, except different.
I await further Neroon! I'm having such fun.
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Yes! I hadn't thought of it from that angle, but you're right. And it gives the show a way to signal the total normality of same-sex marriage in this future, even if standards and practices of the time preclude seeing the actual thing.
(In other news of SHOW WHY ARE YOU LIKE THIS, technically the existence of same-sex marriage was floated as far back as "The Parliament of Dreams" in Season 1, with the Minbari rebirth ceremony which we learn after the fact "doubles as a marriage ceremony. Depending on how seriously anyone took it, somebody got married the other day." – "Maybe that's why G'Kar was smiling. Funny, I didn't think Londo was his type.")
Which I guess has been lampshaded or possibly foreshadowed throughout the series (the hat, the revolver, the drinking problem).
G'Kar can really wear that hat, though.
Yes, that's such a good point! As always, they continue going through multiple iterations of circling back around to the same place, except different.
I really like this orbital metaphor. It's very useful for them.
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I think one of the reasons I enjoy this stretch less and was less eager to revisit it is that Garibaldi's storyline here bums me out -- it's painful, but without the classic tragedy that makes the painfulness of Londo's arc satisfying. I guess I just don't enjoy noir as a genre...
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(I love Sheridan, twisty little tactical genius that he is, but in this run of episodes I keep wanting to shake him to AT LEAST share the reasoning behind his plans with the core people who are involved in carrying them out, or warn them of bad things that might happen, or something! He really does deserve a poke in the hubris, but Garibaldi is the one person who's willing to do it and he's being manipulated.)
It just feels odd to me and kind of off that the only person still in Garibaldi's corner is Zack. I thought he had closer friendships with the others than that, and it's possible that they're *all* being manipulated right now or that they really were just work friends, but it's so strange. He should still hang out with Ivanova and Franklin now and then, even if they're no longer working together! But thinking of it as a noir plot makes me realize why he needs to be isolated; it just feels out of step with what came earlier.
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That is a very good point -- I never thought about it like that, but yeah, that makes it feel particularly unfair.
and he's actually right, even, that Sheridan is tromping all over people with his plans this season.
Nod. This has definitely always been part of why I don't enjoy this part of the storyline. It makes perfect sense for Sheridan, his character, his position, his strengths, his background -- to be acting the way he's acting this season, but I don't like it very much and I think Garibaldi's criticism is quite valid, for all that it appears to be brainwashing-induced/heightened. (I think this is all intentional choices on JMS's part, but I just don't enjoy these particular choices much.)
but it's so strange. He should still hang out with Ivanova and Franklin now and then, even if they're no longer working together!
Yeah, it's weird to me as well. I suppose it would make sense if he were being manipulated also into avoiding them, but I would still expect THEM to reach out, and I don't remember getting that sense. (Although of course my memories of this part are pretty hazy, just that I didn't like it :P)
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Agreed. >.> I do think it's intentional, and it's frustrating because the conflict between him and Garibaldi could easily have been set up in a more organic and in-character kind of way. It makes sense that Garibaldi's protective instincts would clash with Sheridan sending his people into danger without telling them why, and it makes sense that he'd resent being shut out of decisions he was a part of in the past. And it makes sense that the objections would come from him and not Ivanova, because she's more used to the military chain of command and also looks up to Sheridan as a mentor.
But with Garibaldi's objections to Sheridan coming essentially out of nowhere and the show clearly signposting that he's been brainwashed, it both undermines his (actually fairly reasonable) objections, and undercuts both of them as characters, because Sheridan is also being pretty unreasonable in the level of his defensiveness to Garibaldi's pushback, but he doesn't get the same in-universe consequences for it.
Yeah, it's weird to me as well. I suppose it would make sense if he were being manipulated also into avoiding them, but I would still expect THEM to reach out, and I don't remember getting that sense.
Right!! Garibaldi is brainwashed, but what's *their* excuse? :P It's possible that they hang out occasionally in scenes we don't see, since clearly there's quite a bit going on off-camera in this part of the series, but considering how Garibaldi's isolation is important to the plot here, I think we actually need to see it at least a little bit. I mean, Marcus is only around rarely, but we see just enough of e.g. him eating in the cafeteria with the others to know that he does hang out with them. The fact that we don't see it *at all* with Garibaldi suggests that it's not a thing. This is not how found family on a spaceship is supposed to work, you guys!
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I find this detail extremely clever and aaargh.
It just feels odd to me and kind of off that the only person still in Garibaldi's corner is Zack. I thought he had closer friendships with the others than that
I believe you are now firmly into the set of arcs that were supposed to spill over from Season 4 into Season 5 and the pacing affects a lot of the character dynamics for me, even while I love a whole bunch of stuff in this stretch of episodes. Garibaldi gradually withdrawing from the company of his friends, or his friends slowly realizing that their normal interactions are stalling out, would read very differently to the audience than the more sudden and therefore more suspicious isolation of this season as it reached the screen. We're into speculation on my part, but I feel a lot could have been done with Garibaldi being low-key off in a way that even the audience is willing to chalk up to political tensions and PTSD and which the main characters are willing to accommodate because obviously a person needs recovery from whatever the hell happened to him out on patrol, a sort of Overton window drift until suddenly it's clear that he's just not on the same page with his formerly closest friends and colleagues anymore—which to be fair is what happens in this season, it just happens on a much more compressed timeline and it feels like the kind of paranoid thriller that works best as a slow burn.
[edit] Returned the majority of this comment to plaintext because it doesn't look from the drift of the conversation as though anything I was going to say is actually spoilery!
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I have so many structural feelings about Seasons 4 and 5 and they boil down to still, after thirty years, being really angry at the network!
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Gah. I need to rewatch. Must rewatch. I so loved season 4.