Londo's helplessly told story about how things just happen at the whims of empire which G'Kar regards as though Londo is telling him that every now and then the gravity just stops working on Centauri Prime. Not just Cartagia's uncountermandable shadow, but the whole system in which Londo is so starkly enmeshed and would be even if he hadn't set in motion the war machine that Na'Toth barely survived.
Thinking about it in those terms also makes it a really interesting echo of the somewhat less serious fight in the B5 bomb shelter, because G'Kar (however fueled by spite, trauma, etc) nailed the exact problem with Londo that is the main problem here: he really does carry his shelter, his cage, around with him. In this case, Londo is so tangled up in Centauri hierarchy and politics that he can't even imagine any way of getting Na'Toth out of the cell other than by going through proper channels. "I can't," he says over and over again, because he knows his orders wouldn't be followed, and all he can think of that would get her out of the cell is giving an order to free her. "When I am Emperor ..." That's really the only solution he sees, getting to a high enough level that he can enact actual change. But G'Kar (and Na'Toth's own pitiable condition) does actually push him hard enough to break through some of those cage bars. I'm trying to think if he's ever done that before in quite this way, because yeah, he did plan Cartagia's assassination, which is not going through proper channels in the slightest, but it's also in some sense still following the way things are done on Centauri Prime. But this is not only thinking outside the box in a way he doesn't generally do, it's using the exact aspects of the system that boxed him in earlier as part of his solution, when he relies on the fact that Centauri simply ignore anything socially unacceptable happening in their vicinity.
It's actually quite a breakthrough for his overall, I guess, moral development, and it's really interesting to have it contrasted against the Bester plot happening in the other half of the episode, Bester being Bester with his usual inflexibility about following the part of the rules/his orders that he's there to follow.
I don't always get the feeling that the A and B plots in an episode are contrasting against each other, but I definitely feel that here because of how obviously the show cuts from the B5 characters discussing the importance of working together near the beginning of the episode, to Londo and G'Kar doing exactly that, and then it does the same thing in reverse at the end, talking about things falling apart, which they kind of did.
Although even then, things don't just seal right back their new normal, because one of the points of this episode is that they can't, and therefore I love it.
Yeah! I mean, I love and also hate it, because their trajectory for the last 10-15 episodes or so has tended to be falling more closely into alignment through the events of any given episode, not being pushed further apart. And this episode is pretty explicit that this *did* push them apart, going from G'Kar casually eating in Londo's quarters in their first scene, to refusing Londo's invitation to come eat with him at the end. But it really had to. There is a lot they've never talked about, a lot they *can't* talk about, and that's going to keep coming up for them. If the fight in the bomb shelter was their first actual fight (and resolution of a fight) as friends - at least that we've seen - then this is their first real, serious split over the extremely major things that have separated them for most of the show. And it doesn't seem to have driven a huge wedge between them - they're still talking, still reasonably friendly with each other, but they are going to have to process this.
(Edits once again) It also occurs to me that the final shot of the two of them on the Centauri cruiser through the window is a really well-done way to showcase that, because from outside the glass it's a really beautiful shot of them watching the stars and Na'Toth's ship together, and then once you pan inside and hear their conversation you can see how far apart they actually are, and then it pans out on G'Kar standing there alone. It's just really nicely done.
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Thinking about it in those terms also makes it a really interesting echo of the somewhat less serious fight in the B5 bomb shelter, because G'Kar (however fueled by spite, trauma, etc) nailed the exact problem with Londo that is the main problem here: he really does carry his shelter, his cage, around with him. In this case, Londo is so tangled up in Centauri hierarchy and politics that he can't even imagine any way of getting Na'Toth out of the cell other than by going through proper channels. "I can't," he says over and over again, because he knows his orders wouldn't be followed, and all he can think of that would get her out of the cell is giving an order to free her. "When I am Emperor ..." That's really the only solution he sees, getting to a high enough level that he can enact actual change. But G'Kar (and Na'Toth's own pitiable condition) does actually push him hard enough to break through some of those cage bars. I'm trying to think if he's ever done that before in quite this way, because yeah, he did plan Cartagia's assassination, which is not going through proper channels in the slightest, but it's also in some sense still following the way things are done on Centauri Prime. But this is not only thinking outside the box in a way he doesn't generally do, it's using the exact aspects of the system that boxed him in earlier as part of his solution, when he relies on the fact that Centauri simply ignore anything socially unacceptable happening in their vicinity.
It's actually quite a breakthrough for his overall, I guess, moral development, and it's really interesting to have it contrasted against the Bester plot happening in the other half of the episode, Bester being Bester with his usual inflexibility about following the part of the rules/his orders that he's there to follow.
I don't always get the feeling that the A and B plots in an episode are contrasting against each other, but I definitely feel that here because of how obviously the show cuts from the B5 characters discussing the importance of working together near the beginning of the episode, to Londo and G'Kar doing exactly that, and then it does the same thing in reverse at the end, talking about things falling apart, which they kind of did.
Although even then, things don't just seal right back their new normal, because one of the points of this episode is that they can't, and therefore I love it.
Yeah! I mean, I love and also hate it, because their trajectory for the last 10-15 episodes or so has tended to be falling more closely into alignment through the events of any given episode, not being pushed further apart. And this episode is pretty explicit that this *did* push them apart, going from G'Kar casually eating in Londo's quarters in their first scene, to refusing Londo's invitation to come eat with him at the end. But it really had to. There is a lot they've never talked about, a lot they *can't* talk about, and that's going to keep coming up for them. If the fight in the bomb shelter was their first actual fight (and resolution of a fight) as friends - at least that we've seen - then this is their first real, serious split over the extremely major things that have separated them for most of the show. And it doesn't seem to have driven a huge wedge between them - they're still talking, still reasonably friendly with each other, but they are going to have to process this.
(Edits once again) It also occurs to me that the final shot of the two of them on the Centauri cruiser through the window is a really well-done way to showcase that, because from outside the glass it's a really beautiful shot of them watching the stars and Na'Toth's ship together, and then once you pan inside and hear their conversation you can see how far apart they actually are, and then it pans out on G'Kar standing there alone. It's just really nicely done.