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B5 5x09-10
"In the Kingdom of the Blind" and "A Tragedy of Telepaths."
Those were so fun! Londo and G'Kar on Centauri Prime! Jailbreak! NA'TOTH! Bester! Also some telepaths I guess.
5x09 "In the Kingdom of the Blind"
I STILL DO NOT LIKE THE NECK PARASITES
I ALSO DO NOT LIKE THE RED EYE GUYS
And I do not like the revelation that it's the Centauri who are attacking shipping lines and presumably trying to break up the Alliance, I do not like it at all.
Londo and G'Kar on Centauri Prime, however, are everything I hoped they'd be.
(Pretty sure the episode order in this part of the series is wonky. Byron says that he found out about the Vorlons "last night", which was episode 5x07, before "Day of the Dead." And I get the definite impression that Londo and G'Kar left for Centauri Prime in 5x06, this is clearly the first time Londo has been there with G'Kar as his bodyguard, but there was a whole entire two episodes in between, including one in which we saw both of them on B5. However, moving "Day of the Dead" before 5x06 fixes both of those problems and also, I think, fixes the slight not-quite-rightness with Londo and G'Kar in that episode if that happens before the bodyguard thing happens, so I'm just going to put it there in my personal headcanon order.)
Moving on!!
I realize that G'Kar is here at least partly as a personal challenge to himself, partly as a poke in the eye towards the Centauri, and partly to protect Londo (which as per the events of this episode he is quite serious about), but the Centauri court alternately goading/mocking him, and dismissing him, is really hard to watch at times. I like Londo alternately standing up for him and letting him fight his own battles, but a little more standing up would be nice at times.
Londo's FACE after G'Kar refuses the Centauri noble jerk's goading to punish the guy who hurt him with the shock whip.
TOTAL HEARTEYES. He's just so fucking proud of him!
And G'Kar is perfectly serious about protecting Londo, moving between him and the door when anybody shows up, and then that scene in the hallway where they're being stalked by assassins and get separated!
G'Kar: When I move, run.
*pushes Londo, turns to face assassins, Londo epically fails to run*
G'Kar: Run!
And then the door comes down between them and Londo literally flings himself against it trying to get back to him. How is this show ripped straight from my id.
It took me a minute to figure out what was going on with the knife reversing direction. I assume the whole assassination attempt was an attempt to pin Londo's death on G'Kar (his monologue earlier in front of the whole court about how "We stab Centauri in the front" - that's exactly what they just tried to do with Londo) and then the red-eye guys/neck parasite people saved him because he's more useful to them alive? I guess? The Regent clearly knows that Londo is slated for Doom™ after himself.
.... Then G'Kar just in the process of casually dropping the last assassin as the door opens, lol. Love the little "Are you okay?" check-in with each other.
NOTHING IS OKAY, WE'RE IN NECK PARASITE COUNTRY NOW, PEOPLE.
5x10 "A Tragedy of Telepaths"
I keep expecting Bester to die this season, so I was convinced that whole scene where he's just standing against the wall staring at nothing after the firefight was going to end with him turning around and collapsing because he's been fatally shot, but no, he'll be back to plague them another episode, I guess! Actually, what we found out in that little speech about the way he perceives telepaths vs normals was enlightening and also horrible considering the role he's in and the fact that he's spent his whole career hunting down telepaths for the government. Bester, how do you exist.
(I am still not that invested in the telepath plot, apart from the Bester parts of it, but things are clearly going in a very bad direction.)
Meanwhile, on Centauri Prime, Na'Toth! Jailbreak!! Whee!!
The whole conversation with Londo and G'Kar just hanging out in Londo's quarters casually chatting is adorable, before it all goes sideways.
G'Kar: Maybe your people are planning to invade themselves for a change.
"Once you finish killing each other, we can plow under all the buildings and plant rows of flowers that spell out the words 'Too Annoying To Live.' In letters big enough to be seen from space."
Londo:
And then the whole Na'Toth plot kicks off.
Why is it always the ones where they work together that end up pushing them farther apart? Because I do think this episode persistently reminded G'Kar of everything Londo is responsible for, and that's underscored at the end when Londo is basically treating the whole thing as a grand adventure - he had fun! he got to do something noble and heroic for a change! (there really is some part of him that is basically starring in a Dumas novel in his own head) - while G'Kar is well aware that getting Na'Toth out was just the first step; she's a shattered wreck because of what Londo's people did to her. Londo had a great time and counts it a win; G'Kar just got kicked in the face with a lot of reminders of everything Londo is responsible for. (Including all the actual personal trauma that being in the cell with Na'Toth had to have brought back for him. "I have endured your cells," he says, speaking from experience, while Londo completely misses every single implication and bounces cheerfully to how awesome it all was.)
Although, to be fair, Londo gets kicked in the teeth occasionally himself in this episode. The whole sequence where Na'Toth is talking about the fall of Narn, while he's standing against the wall, fully aware and clearly writhing with guilt that he was watching the bombardment she's discussing, the ruin of her world, from space on the opposite side. Visual evidence from Tumblr for extra pain.
We talked a little while back about Londo and G'Kar having their first fight born out of affection in the bomb shelter during the bombardment of B5 a few episodes ago, but their confrontation in the cell is a real fight - G'Kar is hurt and furious and he is essentially caught between two friends here, the one who is suffering terribly, chained up in rags in the dark, and the one who's standing there in his court finery saying he can't do anything to help her. He's so hurt and upset that he's ready to kill someone and it hurts even worse because the only person he has to take it out on is someone he also cares about and literally just risked his life to protect in the last episode.
Londo's eventual plan to get her out of her cell without anyone realizing what has happened to her is both brilliant and absolutely horrifying. Londo, I think you just fucked up that prison guard for life. (I do really like the detail of the guard looking at her with sympathy when he thinks Londo is having her bricked up to die. Working in the Centauri royal palace must be a terrible job.)
I also love the visual of Londo taking her chains off.
... while she tells him she's going to kill him as soon as she's free, and his only reaction is "Get in line." He really is just completely unafraid of the Narn, in general.
I also really love the three of them in the cell together once G'Kar shows up, although it's so dark you can't see a whole lot.
And Londo is just so *gentle* with her, handling her so carefully, now and later!
The thing I really can't get over, though, is that his plan for getting her out of the palace hinges around playing his old role as a drunken buffoon. The guy who would rather be a monster than be laughed at, now leans into his old reputation as a laughingstock, a joke, to save her life. And he doesn't really care! I mean, he's hitting every wrong note in that conversation with a contemplative and withdrawn G'Kar at the end, but Londo isn't embarrassed or ashamed, he's on an absolute high. He's leaning into his inner swashbuckling hero, he helped rescue an unjustly imprisoned maiden from a tower, and he loves it. (I truly think he's mentally parsing it more or less like that, too.) Meanwhile G'Kar is all too aware that they scored one small success, righted one tiny part of a great wrong that is going to leave Na'Toth damaged for life, and his friend and (at times) fighting partner is the reason why she was there ...
This is a nice visual with them at the window at the end, though.
Londo: Great time, huh? How about lunch?
G'Kar: Leave me to brood about your people's war crimes in peace.
(Screencaps from here.)
Those were so fun! Londo and G'Kar on Centauri Prime! Jailbreak! NA'TOTH! Bester! Also some telepaths I guess.
5x09 "In the Kingdom of the Blind"
I STILL DO NOT LIKE THE NECK PARASITES
I ALSO DO NOT LIKE THE RED EYE GUYS
And I do not like the revelation that it's the Centauri who are attacking shipping lines and presumably trying to break up the Alliance, I do not like it at all.
Londo and G'Kar on Centauri Prime, however, are everything I hoped they'd be.
(Pretty sure the episode order in this part of the series is wonky. Byron says that he found out about the Vorlons "last night", which was episode 5x07, before "Day of the Dead." And I get the definite impression that Londo and G'Kar left for Centauri Prime in 5x06, this is clearly the first time Londo has been there with G'Kar as his bodyguard, but there was a whole entire two episodes in between, including one in which we saw both of them on B5. However, moving "Day of the Dead" before 5x06 fixes both of those problems and also, I think, fixes the slight not-quite-rightness with Londo and G'Kar in that episode if that happens before the bodyguard thing happens, so I'm just going to put it there in my personal headcanon order.)
Moving on!!
I realize that G'Kar is here at least partly as a personal challenge to himself, partly as a poke in the eye towards the Centauri, and partly to protect Londo (which as per the events of this episode he is quite serious about), but the Centauri court alternately goading/mocking him, and dismissing him, is really hard to watch at times. I like Londo alternately standing up for him and letting him fight his own battles, but a little more standing up would be nice at times.
Londo's FACE after G'Kar refuses the Centauri noble jerk's goading to punish the guy who hurt him with the shock whip.
TOTAL HEARTEYES. He's just so fucking proud of him!
And G'Kar is perfectly serious about protecting Londo, moving between him and the door when anybody shows up, and then that scene in the hallway where they're being stalked by assassins and get separated!
G'Kar: When I move, run.
*pushes Londo, turns to face assassins, Londo epically fails to run*
G'Kar: Run!
And then the door comes down between them and Londo literally flings himself against it trying to get back to him. How is this show ripped straight from my id.
It took me a minute to figure out what was going on with the knife reversing direction. I assume the whole assassination attempt was an attempt to pin Londo's death on G'Kar (his monologue earlier in front of the whole court about how "We stab Centauri in the front" - that's exactly what they just tried to do with Londo) and then the red-eye guys/neck parasite people saved him because he's more useful to them alive? I guess? The Regent clearly knows that Londo is slated for Doom™ after himself.
.... Then G'Kar just in the process of casually dropping the last assassin as the door opens, lol. Love the little "Are you okay?" check-in with each other.
NOTHING IS OKAY, WE'RE IN NECK PARASITE COUNTRY NOW, PEOPLE.
5x10 "A Tragedy of Telepaths"
I keep expecting Bester to die this season, so I was convinced that whole scene where he's just standing against the wall staring at nothing after the firefight was going to end with him turning around and collapsing because he's been fatally shot, but no, he'll be back to plague them another episode, I guess! Actually, what we found out in that little speech about the way he perceives telepaths vs normals was enlightening and also horrible considering the role he's in and the fact that he's spent his whole career hunting down telepaths for the government. Bester, how do you exist.
(I am still not that invested in the telepath plot, apart from the Bester parts of it, but things are clearly going in a very bad direction.)
Meanwhile, on Centauri Prime, Na'Toth! Jailbreak!! Whee!!
The whole conversation with Londo and G'Kar just hanging out in Londo's quarters casually chatting is adorable, before it all goes sideways.
G'Kar: Maybe your people are planning to invade themselves for a change.
"Once you finish killing each other, we can plow under all the buildings and plant rows of flowers that spell out the words 'Too Annoying To Live.' In letters big enough to be seen from space."
Londo:
And then the whole Na'Toth plot kicks off.
Why is it always the ones where they work together that end up pushing them farther apart? Because I do think this episode persistently reminded G'Kar of everything Londo is responsible for, and that's underscored at the end when Londo is basically treating the whole thing as a grand adventure - he had fun! he got to do something noble and heroic for a change! (there really is some part of him that is basically starring in a Dumas novel in his own head) - while G'Kar is well aware that getting Na'Toth out was just the first step; she's a shattered wreck because of what Londo's people did to her. Londo had a great time and counts it a win; G'Kar just got kicked in the face with a lot of reminders of everything Londo is responsible for. (Including all the actual personal trauma that being in the cell with Na'Toth had to have brought back for him. "I have endured your cells," he says, speaking from experience, while Londo completely misses every single implication and bounces cheerfully to how awesome it all was.)
Although, to be fair, Londo gets kicked in the teeth occasionally himself in this episode. The whole sequence where Na'Toth is talking about the fall of Narn, while he's standing against the wall, fully aware and clearly writhing with guilt that he was watching the bombardment she's discussing, the ruin of her world, from space on the opposite side. Visual evidence from Tumblr for extra pain.
We talked a little while back about Londo and G'Kar having their first fight born out of affection in the bomb shelter during the bombardment of B5 a few episodes ago, but their confrontation in the cell is a real fight - G'Kar is hurt and furious and he is essentially caught between two friends here, the one who is suffering terribly, chained up in rags in the dark, and the one who's standing there in his court finery saying he can't do anything to help her. He's so hurt and upset that he's ready to kill someone and it hurts even worse because the only person he has to take it out on is someone he also cares about and literally just risked his life to protect in the last episode.
Londo's eventual plan to get her out of her cell without anyone realizing what has happened to her is both brilliant and absolutely horrifying. Londo, I think you just fucked up that prison guard for life. (I do really like the detail of the guard looking at her with sympathy when he thinks Londo is having her bricked up to die. Working in the Centauri royal palace must be a terrible job.)
I also love the visual of Londo taking her chains off.
... while she tells him she's going to kill him as soon as she's free, and his only reaction is "Get in line." He really is just completely unafraid of the Narn, in general.
I also really love the three of them in the cell together once G'Kar shows up, although it's so dark you can't see a whole lot.
And Londo is just so *gentle* with her, handling her so carefully, now and later!
The thing I really can't get over, though, is that his plan for getting her out of the palace hinges around playing his old role as a drunken buffoon. The guy who would rather be a monster than be laughed at, now leans into his old reputation as a laughingstock, a joke, to save her life. And he doesn't really care! I mean, he's hitting every wrong note in that conversation with a contemplative and withdrawn G'Kar at the end, but Londo isn't embarrassed or ashamed, he's on an absolute high. He's leaning into his inner swashbuckling hero, he helped rescue an unjustly imprisoned maiden from a tower, and he loves it. (I truly think he's mentally parsing it more or less like that, too.) Meanwhile G'Kar is all too aware that they scored one small success, righted one tiny part of a great wrong that is going to leave Na'Toth damaged for life, and his friend and (at times) fighting partner is the reason why she was there ...
This is a nice visual with them at the window at the end, though.
Londo: Great time, huh? How about lunch?
G'Kar: Leave me to brood about your people's war crimes in peace.
(Screencaps from here.)
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What was it? I don't remember this part
But I definitely remember this episode -- I think I've watched this entire part of the season with laser focus on the Centauri and the Narn and have no memory of anything else XD
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What was it? I don't remember this part
It's basically that he thinks of himself and the telepaths as one people, and regular humans as a different one. They've just been in a firefight with some telepaths in which some of the security personnel were killed or wounded, he says the wounded are not his problem because "you take care of your own, I'll take care of mine" (or something like that). When the security chief points out that "some of yours" were just shooting at them a minute ago, he says that all families have disagreements sometimes. It's just an interesting little window into how he sees the situation he's in.
(As far back as the first episode of season five, we know that he expects a war between humans and telepaths, and he expects to win, so presumably things are more or less going according to how he wants them to.)
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Actually commenting on your review post proper! I love everything about both of these episodes except for the non-Bester telepaths! Sorry, Byron. You could probably have sustained a fourth-season-style short arc of two or three episodes, but anything past that point is too much emo telepath cult.
I STILL DO NOT LIKE THE NECK PARASITES
I ALSO DO NOT LIKE THE RED EYE GUYS
As previously mentioned, since I had developed a disproportionate attachment to the Minister who became the Regent, this episode gut-stabbed me on that front. "No, no bright colors anymore. Just darkness." And the horribly telling way that even though drunken suicidal despair is deeply out of character for the rattletrap little teetotaler elected by the Centaurum specifically because he had no political ambitions or caprices and so is the top-secret reclassification of all sorts of traditionally public information, the Royal Court seems in the main to accept it because however weird their Regent has gotten in recent months—and wandering the palace at night scaring the servants with demented apparent monologues is weird even for Centauri Prime—at least he's not a flamboyantly murderous megalomaniac like Cartagia. The bar is in hell.
TOTAL HEARTEYES. He's just so fucking proud of him!
It's true.
And then the door comes down between them and Londo literally flings himself against it trying to get back to him. How is this show ripped straight from my id.
That entire sequence is ludicrously loyalty-bonded and you're right that it seems in part to be the set-up for the exposure of all the unexamined fault lines in their relationship in the next episode, but what makes it work for me is that it's all true: the willingness to die for one another, the wounds they are still learning how to live with; it's all part of the same history that brought them to this entangled point, which can cut either or both of them at any unforeseen second but also gives them the chance of getting through whatever it is; none of it cancels out, none of it balances, none of it erases, it's just all real and so here we are.
Actually, what we found out in that little speech about the way he perceives telepaths vs normals was enlightening and also horrible considering the role he's in and the fact that he's spent his whole career hunting down telepaths for the government. Bester, how do you exist.
Cognitive dissonance, the hell of a drug!
(Seriously, I don't think he can afford to think about the assumptions which sustain his life, which is what he's doing on the antagonist end of the scale.)
The whole conversation with Londo and G'Kar just hanging out in Londo's quarters casually chatting is adorable, before it all goes sideways.
The sarcasm is A-1, but I also love the cultural thing about the spoo, even before it turns out to be plot-relevant. (In high school, I silkscreened my brother a T-shirt from a fan graphic on the internet that read "Spoo: The Other Blue Meat.") It is obviously a real difference in foodways, and they are just as obviously arguing deliberately about it. As a person on one side of a Yiddish dialect feud that has nearly outlived the cultures that generated it, it rings true to me.
Although, to be fair, Londo gets kicked in the teeth occasionally himself in this episode. The whole sequence where Na'Toth is talking about the fall of Narn, while he's standing against the wall, fully aware and clearly writhing with guilt that he was watching the bombardment she's discussing, the ruin of her world, from space on the opposite side. Visual evidence from Tumblr for extra pain.
I like your tags.
I believe Na'Toth's testimony is the first time we see the bombardment from the Narn side: we watched originally from Londo's perspective, in space where it was bloodless and silent. That single image of impact is really, shatteringly effective, '90's CGI be damned. Her narration is spare and just as dreadful as it needs to be.
... while she tells him she's going to kill him as soon as she's free, and his only reaction is "Get in line." He really is just completely unafraid of the Narn, in general.
Yes. There are a lot of places in this episode where he needs to be hit by the cluebat—and G'Kar is certainly trying—but matter-of-factly treating Na'Toth as a person isn't remotely one of them.
The thing I really can't get over, though, is that his plan for getting her out of the palace hinges around playing his old role as a drunken buffoon. The guy who would rather be a monster than be laughed at, now leans into his old reputation as a laughingstock, a joke, to save her life.
Yes!! And watching Londo decide to burn himself down reputationally on Centauri Prime for the sake of a Narn is more than ironically satisfying, it's an actual yardstick of how far he's come: he used to pretend he didn't care, now he really couldn't give a flying about how he's seen because he's doing the right thing. The guard has to believe in his cruelty, the woman who supplies the court clothes (shout-out to her moment of mutual sexual distraction with G'Kar: "Animal magnetism, what can I say?") in his debauchery, the Royal Court in the inability of their Prime Minister and Emperor-elect to keep it in his shirt even when he's on state business, which is obviously not disqualifying for the post, just tactfully ignored like so much aristocratic indulgence and excess. His adrenaline high at the end is not unearned. It's just so close and yet so out of synch with everything this adventure raked up for G'Kar.
Londo: Great time, huh? How about lunch?
G'Kar: Leave me to brood about your people's war crimes in peace.
A+.
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YES.
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YAY.
I agree on loving everything except most of the telepath plot. That's a good point - there's nothing especially wrong with Byron and his telepaths that couldn't have been fixed by having the plotline resolved in two episodes rather than spread across half the season.
As previously mentioned, since I had developed a disproportionate attachment to the Minister who became the Regent, this episode gut-stabbed me on that front. "No, no bright colors anymore. Just darkness."
I didn't even have any particular attachment to him, and it was still devastating! All the more so because we know that Londo's flash-forward-revealed fate is bearing down on him with the inevitability of fate and karma. (I do find it interesting, now that we know a little more about them, that he seems to be holding it together astonishingly well in Sheridan's vision of the dystopic future. The Regent is falling completely apart after about a year of having one of these things on him. Londo had to deal with it for fifteen years!)
what makes it work for me is that it's all true: the willingness to die for one another, the wounds they are still learning how to live with; it's all part of the same history that brought them to this entangled point, which can cut either or both of them at any unforeseen second but also gives them the chance of getting through whatever it is; none of it cancels out, none of it balances, none of it erases, it's just all real and so here we are.
Yesssss. It's all part of the same messy tangle - they'd risk their lives for each other, they can really hurt each other, and they're having to navigate it. And it's great to watch.
Also agreed on the spoo cultural differences (and the performative arguing about it) being a great touch!
I believe Na'Toth's testimony is the first time we see the bombardment from the Narn side: we watched originally from Londo's perspective, in space where it was bloodless and silent. That single image of impact is really, shatteringly effective, '90's CGI be damned.
It is. And you can see it really sinking in for Londo. As guilty as he felt about it already, this is really hammering home that those were real people down there, and one of them is in front of him now, making it real in a way it wasn't quite for him before.
There are a lot of places in this episode where he needs to be hit by the cluebat—and G'Kar is certainly trying—but matter-of-factly treating Na'Toth as a person isn't remotely one of them.
Yes! And another thing along those lines that I really love is that when she expresses confusion about Londo's plan in his quarters, he goes ahead and explains it *to her* - I think it might have been tempting to direct that piece of dialogue to G'Kar, who he has a greater rapport with, but he looks her in the face and tells her what they're going to be doing and why.
And watching Londo decide to burn himself down reputationally on Centauri Prime for the sake of a Narn is more than ironically satisfying, it's an actual yardstick of how far he's come: he used to pretend he didn't care, now he really couldn't give a flying about how he's seen because he's doing the right thing.
Yes! I love this, all of this. (Also G'Kar flirting with various women at court, including the disrobing scene. G'Kar, why are you like this.)
the inability of their Prime Minister and Emperor-elect to keep it in his shirt
I love this. <3
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I am reasonably confident that their prominence came about because the season had shot most of its A-plots in the latter half of the fourth season, but I remain equally confident that there were better alternatives.
(The thing where JMS wrote more than ninety percent of the five-season teleplays himself is phenomenally impressive and may remain unparalleled in terms of sheer hours of television written, but given how much of the fifth season needed to be rejiggered on a deadline, I have wondered occasionally what it would have hurt to have had more writers in the room to bounce ideas off or absorb some of the strain.)
I didn't even have any particular attachment to him, and it was still devastating!
Fair! It is an objectively body-horrific thing to happen to anyone!
I appreciate how literally the set design commits to the shadowing of the palace without making it feel artificial—much more afternoon and twilight filtering through the curtains and night meetings as opposed to the brightly swathed daylight horror of Cartagia's reign.
(I do find it interesting, now that we know a little more about them, that he seems to be holding it together astonishingly well in Sheridan's vision of the dystopic future. The Regent is falling completely apart after about a year of having one of these things on him. Londo had to deal with it for fifteen years!)
That's really true! I hadn't considered it. I guess it's ironically useful to have built up a reservoir of experience of living with the unspeakable?
And another thing along those lines that I really love is that when she expresses confusion about Londo's plan in his quarters, he goes ahead and explains it *to her* - I think it might have been tempting to direct that piece of dialogue to G'Kar, who he has a greater rapport with, but he looks her in the face and tells her what they're going to be doing and why.
Yes! That's a great point! And the previous moment he was talking over her to G'Kar: "Can she make it?" As soon as she speaks for herself, he redirects immediately to talking to her.
(Also G'Kar flirting with various women at court, including the disrobing scene. G'Kar, why are you like this.)
The face that Londo makes about it.
I love this.
Thank you! Please feel free to steal.