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

[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.