B5 4x16-17 in brief

[sholio]

But first, a word from my id.


I just need to pause for this screencap of Londo's little smile after G'Kar walks away at the end of the bar scene in "No Surrender, No Retreat." He's just so happy about it! (Also, this is like the first thing that's gone his way with no terrible repercussions since like - season one? If that?)



(Screencap from Babylon 5 at cap-that, which I suspect I will be visiting again.)



Moving on, brief thoughts on "The Exercise of Vital Powers" and "The Face of the Enemy."


Ouch, ouch, and also ouch. Well, Bester, I don't think B5 is going to be interested in helping you with your robogirlfriend problem anytime soon. (Also from everything currently happening with Franklin and the resistance, it doesn't look like curing the Shadow-manipulated telepaths is really in the cards anymore anyway. Orion's comment on the Most Awkward Catacomb Dinner with Franklin, Lyta, and Number One: "I don't think the doctor's getting any tonight.")

I still love the lawful evil thing Bester has going on; I really enjoy not knowing which way he's going to break in any particular scene. The whole sequence where he's speculating on whether or not to kill Garibaldi, leave him a prisoner in his own mind, etc, when presumably he's already decided (well, about 90% decided) to release him - peak Evil Weirdo. And he goes ahead and gives him his memories back when it would probably have been a lot simpler and less problematic for him to just leave him blocked or wiped. Bester, you'll be building escapable deathtraps with saws next.

Garibaldi betraying Sheridan was absolutely brutal. (I'm guessing this would have been even more brutal if it was Sinclair, which presumably was the original plan - the guy who gave him his last chance and who he was quite a bit closer to than Sheridan.) And Ivanova's kill order for Garibaldi! That being said - as much as I hate it, I can see her doing it without it being OOC: she's very oriented to Sheridan, and I think the whole command crew is in War Mode right now.

I am hoping the next move is a jailbreak. Fingers crossed! I kept getting familiar flashes through most of the first half of season four, but I'm definitely well into episodes I haven't seen now; I have no idea at all where any of this is going.

Comments

[sovay]

(Also, this is like the first thing that's gone his way with no terrible repercussions since like - season one? If that?)

He earned it!

(Thank you for sharing the screencap. I love everything that flickers across his face as he takes in what the emptied glass means.)

- peak Evil Weirdo. And he goes ahead and gives him his memories back when it would probably have been a lot simpler and less problematic for him to just leave him blocked or wiped.

And it fascinates me that Bester explains his choice as the lesser cruelty, because while it is true that leaving Garibaldi locked helplessly in his own body would have been monstrous, he could easily have rationalized the decision not to restore Garibaldi's memories as a kindness, the full knowledge of his violation and his crimes being so obviously excruciating. Killing him would have been the safest thing to do; leaving him in his overwritten state would have been the next safest. But no, he puts him back in his right mind, and it's completely opaque to the audience what he actually means by the gesture.

Garibaldi betraying Sheridan was absolutely brutal.

I mean it with appreciation but also seriously: that scene really fucked me up. Turning Sheridan's drugged arrest into an alternative music video is even worse and weirder than soundtracking Refa's murder to thematically apt gospel—it doesn't matter that it occurs to me now that whoever was in charge of writing that song was doing their best PJ Harvey, it's distorted and industrial and cinematographically disturbing with its slow-mo strobe-lit freeze-frames of violence that seems to blur on forever in snaps of awful clarity in a way that no other scene I can bring to mind in the show approaches, even the hammering quick cuts of the memory download in "Dust to Dust." I can understand why they weren't pulling out those kind of stylistic stops every week. But it slugs the audiences as hard as it does Sheridan and even hunting down the track and listening to it over the years has never totally desensitized it for me. It's like one of the snuff recordings from of Strange Days (1995).

And Ivanova's kill order for Garibaldi! That being said - as much as I hate it, I can see her doing it without it being OOC: she's very oriented to Sheridan, and I think the whole command crew is in War Mode right now.

Agreed. I think it would have hit even harder in the alternate-history season where we could have spent real time building the distance between Garibaldi and the rest of the command staff, but it snaps into place in that moment that none of them have any idea any longer who the hell he is. And now that Bester's told him what was done to him, he doesn't know who the hell he was, either.

[sholio]

(Thank you for sharing the screencap. I love everything that flickers across his face as he takes in what the emptied glass means.)

Yes! His whole face journey there is wonderful - as is his face when G'Kar not only sits down but drinks the offered drink and then actually turns to speak to him (the first time he's spoken to Londo, of his own free will, post-Cartagia). Londo can barely even answer; he's so breathless with - hope, maybe. Thinking back to season two, how he kept reaching out to people and they kept smacking his overtures back (because you were aiding and abetting genocide, Londo, you idiot!) but he still does it, he reached out not just because he didn't want G'Kar to hate him forever (although obviously that too, even if he didn't intend it to be obvious) but because it was the right thing for both of their worlds, and the right thing for Babylon 5. And this time, G'Kar reaches back, and he can hardly believe it. As you say, he earned it.

But no, he puts him back in his right mind, and it's completely opaque to the audience what he actually means by the gesture.

Yeah, I think this might be the first time in all of the Bester episodes when it's entirely unclear what purpose he's serving by doing this. Usually, his motives might be opaque, but once you know why he's there (even if the B5 characters don't) it's obvious why he did what he did, but here ... it's not. It could be anything from wanting Garibaldi and the B5 crew to suffer more as revenge for Carolyn, all the way to having become creepingly fond of them and not wanting to leave him in an unrecoverable state, or even because it is, this time, the actual morally right thing to do; we simply don't know. (And maybe, neither does he.)

Turning Sheridan's drugged arrest into an alternative music video is even worse and weirder than soundtracking Refa's murder to thematically apt gospel—it doesn't matter that it occurs to me now that whoever was in charge of writing that song was doing their best PJ Harvey, it's distorted and industrial and cinematographically disturbing with its slow-mo strobe-lit freeze-frames of violence that seems to blur on forever in snaps of awful clarity in a way that no other scene I can bring to mind in the show approaches, even the hammering quick cuts of the memory download in "Dust to Dust."

It was shocking and brutal in a way that hits harder because the show hasn't done this particular thing before. And the cuts between the ICN broadcasts talking about Sheridan being treated well and getting the help he needs, to Sheridan being beaten up in prison and lying bruised on the bare floor of a cell - *ouch*. (We already know that ICN is the puppet voice of the administration, but just, ow.)

[sovay]

and then actually turns to speak to him (the first time he's spoken to Londo, of his own free will, post-Cartagia)

Yes! I hadn't thought about it in so many words, but Londo has initiated all of their interactions for ages, both assassination plots included. The last time G'Kar went looking for Londo, he was telepathically off his face. And this time he goes looking for him to make an alliance on his own terms when Londo has clearly given up the hope of it happening—he's just drunk his own drink when G'Kar arrives. So it's even more breathtaking.

It could be anything from wanting Garibaldi and the B5 crew to suffer more as revenge for Carolyn, all the way to having become creepingly fond of them and not wanting to leave him in an unrecoverable state, or even because it is, this time, the actual morally right thing to do; we simply don't know. (And maybe, neither does he.)

I like the idea of Bester himself not knowing: it would fit his curious mix of cold-eyed self-awareness and totally unexamined acceptance of the system in which he's embedded. One of the reasons I find the suborning of Garibaldi so painful is that on some level it feels to me totally unnecessary. Despite the widely shared conviction that a war is coming between the two strains of humanity, I am actually willing to bet that if Bester had come to Babylon 5 with news of a Shadow-tech virus tailored to exterminate/subjugate any human with the genes for telepathy—which incidentally involves a far greater proportion of the population than the active expression of telepathy which is the Corps criterion for membership—he could have gotten their support to work the thwarting of Edgars into the rest of their two-pronged war, not merely as a matter of preserving a valuable resource against the Shadows but because everyone in the room would have recognized the viral solution to the telepath problem as obscenely wrong! (Just get Lyta to Mars with that information and she'd take care of the mission herself.) Or if the timing was too tight to involve Babylon 5, once he found Garibaldi in Earthgov custody and slated for reprogramming by the Shadow-infiltrated Corps, Bester could have made him a deal instead of counter-brainwashing him! Whatever his feelings about the Psi Corps as an institution or Bester personally, Garibaldi in his right mind would not hear a story about a genetically engineered holocaust and just shrug. There were potential allies in play, not just tools. And it's so clear that none of these possibilities occur to Bester, despite his previous occasional team-ups with the B5 crew. Facing the apparent first strike in the long-feared mundane-telepath war, he can't even let himself think about trusting a mundane. And so he says that he used Garibaldi because he had no other choice, but he actually did! He probably had choices I haven't thought of! He just couldn't see them. I love him as a fictional creation and as a person he drives me up the wall.

(We already know that ICN is the puppet voice of the administration, but just, ow.)

Yes. It is very striking to me now how much the depiction of Earth's descent into fascism pulls zero punches of it couldn't happen here.

(I was actually just coming back to this comment to explain that while driving home from an appointment this afternoon, my brain bothered to show its work that the PJ Harvey/Strange Days connection was Juliette Lewis covering "Hardly Wait.")

[sholio]

I hadn't thought about it in so many words, but Londo has initiated all of their interactions for ages, both assassination plots included. The last time G'Kar went looking for Londo, he was telepathically off his face. And this time he goes looking for him to make an alliance on his own terms when Londo has clearly given up the hope of it happening—he's just drunk his own drink when G'Kar arrives. So it's even more breathtaking.

That's such a good point, and I hadn't thought about it either! And I love it! In fact, other than the Dust-fueled beatdown, I think the last time G'Kar sought out Londo ... was to buy him a drink after the Emperor's apology. (And probably one of the only times he's *ever* initiated contact; I don't remember him doing it much if at all in season one, either.) So there's a lovely symmetry there. And I also really love how G'Kar going looking for him elevates their interactions here in a way that G'Kar simply accepting Londo's offer of a drink in his quarters wouldn't have. He had to think about it, and then go find him. And he did drink the offered drink, which he also didn't have to! Just telling Londo "yes, I'll sign it" would have been enough, but no, he genuinely did reciprocate.

(Given the timing, I absolutely would not put it past him to have intentionally let Londo twist in the wind for a while and then show up just as he was losing all hope.)

One of the reasons I find the suborning of Garibaldi so painful is that on some level it feels to me totally unnecessary. [...] Whatever his feelings about the Psi Corps as an institution or Bester personally, Garibaldi in his right mind would not hear a story about a genetically engineered holocaust and just shrug. There were potential allies in play, not just tools.

Ugh, that's so true, and now all of it hurts even more! Because yeah, they absolutely would have helped if they had known. But it never occurred to him to ask. And all the collateral damage, including Garibaldi's betrayal of Sheridan, was completely incidental - none of that *had* to happen; all that Bester's plot required was getting Garibaldi inside so they could get the information and access they needed.

I love him as a fictional creation and as a person he drives me up the wall.

WORD. I keep wanting him to do better! He keeps having these near misses with being a decent person, and then just doing the other thing instead. He's fascinating and awful and I'm delighted every time he shows up.

It is very striking to me now how much the depiction of Earth's descent into fascism pulls zero punches of it couldn't happen here.

They really do a good job with it. I suspect I would have found it a lot harder to believe in 1997.

[sovay]

In fact, other than the Dust-fueled beatdown, I think the last time G'Kar sought out Londo ... was to buy him a drink after the Emperor's apology.

That's great. And it doesn't close up all that time between them, but neither of them expects it to. It's another orbit.

(Given the timing, I absolutely would not put it past him to have intentionally let Londo twist in the wind for a while and then show up just as he was losing all hope.)

(He did let him lean on that doorbell rather a while.)

And all the collateral damage, including Garibaldi's betrayal of Sheridan, was completely incidental - none of that *had* to happen; all that Bester's plot required was getting Garibaldi inside so they could get the information and access they needed.

Agh. Yes. How much more efficient literally any other plan would have been.

They really do a good job with it. I suspect I would have found it a lot harder to believe in 1997.

It was a lot more historical. I recognized all of the references from my reading, not the news.

[sheron]

Garibaldi T.T

[sholio]

T___T

(Season 5 has been giving excellent Garibaldi so far, though.)

[aelfgyfu_mead]

These episodes broke my heart! Yes, I think Ivanova's kill order is absolutely in character for her and yet cost her a lot. But Garibaldi betraying Sheridan was a total gut punch.

[sholio]

It HURT. I am so relieved the team is back together this season - minus Ivanova, woe.