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Babylon 5 2x07 "Soul Mates"
I rewatched this one tonight, mostly for the Timov of it all, but also ...
I had forgotten this was the episode in which Delenn makes her speech about reincarnation and souls finding each other again. It's just such a random throwaway episode for a moment like that, and it's in the context of Delenn at Londo's Ascension day party (whatever that is, we still don't know), talking to Garibaldi about his love life, of all things.
Delenn: We Minbari believe, as do some humans, that souls travel together. Some groups of souls are drawn, one to the other in life, to relive good relationships from the past. And if possible, to make right the bad ones.
Garibaldi: You're saying that these other people and I run into each other, lifetime after lifetime, because our souls have some kind of cosmic sewing circle going on?
Immediate cut to this:
.... quite possibly one of the only times in the entire show so far that the whole cast is in one place and more-or-less happy. (Ivanova's there; she's behind Lennier.) I think possibly the only other time in the whole series up to this point that we saw them all together like this was in the various religious festival scenes in "Parliament of Dreams" back in early season one - and it'll also be the last time for at least a couple of seasons, considering that the Narn-Centauri war starts in a couple of episodes.
Other random observations from the episode: I noticed there was a female musician playing with the Centauri band in the background at Londo's party. It's not like we don't know that "entertainer" seems to be one of the few occupations open to female Centauri, but it is unusual to see a mixed group of female and male Centauri doing the same job.
Also, this episode highlights one of the things I love about the Centauri worldbuilding in the show, which is that in spite of Centauri women having next to no official power in their culture, and no female Centauri characters who recur in more than an episode or two, the show repeatedly shows us Centauri women who are tough and determined and resourceful, and deals with the various ways in which women in such a society seek power, and the methods they use to achieve that. As Dragear says in this episode about her own behavior (paraphrasing from memory), "I am what my father, and Londo, and my society made me." Which seems to be part of what prompts Timov to make the choice she does to save Londo's life; as she says to Franklin, even 20 years married to Londo can't strip out every shred of her ethics, and neither can her society.
We see in this episode three different women with three different ways of handling their own relative powerlessness about their own choices: Dragear plays up to her husband, Mariel tries to better herself and get back at her unloved husband at the same time via cheating and murder, and Timov refuses to play the game at all and tries to be a person she can respect. Their society says that women are there to be ornaments; but the show itself makes it clear that this is cultural, not biological -- they are just as intelligent, resourceful, and diverse in personality and ethics as people anywhere.
(I also find it interesting that divorce apparently is not a thing that even male Centauri can choose for themselves, at least among the nobility; it takes an imperial act.)
I had forgotten this was the episode in which Delenn makes her speech about reincarnation and souls finding each other again. It's just such a random throwaway episode for a moment like that, and it's in the context of Delenn at Londo's Ascension day party (whatever that is, we still don't know), talking to Garibaldi about his love life, of all things.
Delenn: We Minbari believe, as do some humans, that souls travel together. Some groups of souls are drawn, one to the other in life, to relive good relationships from the past. And if possible, to make right the bad ones.
Garibaldi: You're saying that these other people and I run into each other, lifetime after lifetime, because our souls have some kind of cosmic sewing circle going on?
Immediate cut to this:
.... quite possibly one of the only times in the entire show so far that the whole cast is in one place and more-or-less happy. (Ivanova's there; she's behind Lennier.) I think possibly the only other time in the whole series up to this point that we saw them all together like this was in the various religious festival scenes in "Parliament of Dreams" back in early season one - and it'll also be the last time for at least a couple of seasons, considering that the Narn-Centauri war starts in a couple of episodes.
Other random observations from the episode: I noticed there was a female musician playing with the Centauri band in the background at Londo's party. It's not like we don't know that "entertainer" seems to be one of the few occupations open to female Centauri, but it is unusual to see a mixed group of female and male Centauri doing the same job.
Also, this episode highlights one of the things I love about the Centauri worldbuilding in the show, which is that in spite of Centauri women having next to no official power in their culture, and no female Centauri characters who recur in more than an episode or two, the show repeatedly shows us Centauri women who are tough and determined and resourceful, and deals with the various ways in which women in such a society seek power, and the methods they use to achieve that. As Dragear says in this episode about her own behavior (paraphrasing from memory), "I am what my father, and Londo, and my society made me." Which seems to be part of what prompts Timov to make the choice she does to save Londo's life; as she says to Franklin, even 20 years married to Londo can't strip out every shred of her ethics, and neither can her society.
We see in this episode three different women with three different ways of handling their own relative powerlessness about their own choices: Dragear plays up to her husband, Mariel tries to better herself and get back at her unloved husband at the same time via cheating and murder, and Timov refuses to play the game at all and tries to be a person she can respect. Their society says that women are there to be ornaments; but the show itself makes it clear that this is cultural, not biological -- they are just as intelligent, resourceful, and diverse in personality and ethics as people anywhere.
(I also find it interesting that divorce apparently is not a thing that even male Centauri can choose for themselves, at least among the nobility; it takes an imperial act.)
no subject
My immediate reaction is that it celebrates a coming-of-age marker, something to do originally with assuming the responsibilities of one's house, but I might have just headcanoned that in 1994.
.... quite possibly one of the only times in the entire show so far that the whole cast is in one place and more-or-less happy.
Nice.
and Timov refuses to play the game at all and tries to be a person she can respect.
I still wish the fourth season had had room for her return.
(I also find it interesting that divorce apparently is not a thing that even male Centauri can choose for themselves, at least among the nobility; it takes an imperial act.)
Londo's family could force a divorce when he married the dancer, but then it was a cross-class love match and she had no family to exert any weight of their own. When it's an arranged alliance, given the volatile operations of the Centauri court under ordinary circumstances, I bet it's in the imperial interests not to disturb the extant politics as much as possible.
no subject
Yeah, I assume so too! It's plausible both in terms of who they are as a society, and also the time as given in the episode - namely, that it's his 30th, which makes sense for Londo being probably somewhere in his 50s, very reasonable for a coming-of-age milestone for a noble house scion in a society like theirs who would have gotten his adult legal powers in his mid-20s or so.
.... quite possibly one of the only times in the entire show so far that the whole cast is in one place and more-or-less happy.
Nice.
Souls finding each other, indeed! I just love that it cuts directly from that speech of Delenn's to that scene which is one of vanishingly few scenes in the whole show that encompasses the whole cast together. And like so many of the show's plausibly deniable statements of theme, it's in an episode which is very much not about that, and it's completely unclear if this is literally true, or if it's a religious belief, or merely a vague inference. But it is there.
When it's an arranged alliance, given the volatile operations of the Centauri court under ordinary circumstances, I bet it's in the imperial interests not to disturb the extant politics as much as possible.
Oh, that makes total sense, actually! And also fits very well with how cultural stuff tends to work on real life, where there's not an absolute one-size-fits-all solution, but rather a series of situational conditions. It's entirely possible that a divorce could happen if both noble families agreed to it, but most don't want to rock the boat to that extent, or forfeit the money and advantages conferred from the match. And Londo going over everyone's head to the Emperor is very him. (Probably earning himself some lifelong enemies among relatives of Mariel and Dragear that he's not currently in a mental state to think about the consequences of ...)
no subject
Good math!
And like so many of the show's plausibly deniable statements of theme, it's in an episode which is very much not about that, and it's completely unclear if this is literally true, or if it's a religious belief, or merely a vague inference. But it is there.
Yes. It's such a good show for that kind of echo.
It's entirely possible that a divorce could happen if both noble families agreed to it, but most don't want to rock the boat to that extent, or forfeit the money and advantages conferred from the match.
I just realized we actually see something close to that—Vir's engagement to Lyndisti falling through when he loses his position as ambassador to Minbar and implicitly some of Londo's favor and is no longer such a rising star. Both families are embarrassed and the arrangement which is complete in all but consummation is tactfully deferred in a way which actually means dissolved. Presumably some documents back home are shredded and some deals predicated on impending prestige do not come off and there's an end to it except for the gossip. No one does offer again for Vir for the rest of the main timeline of the show, even after he's got some status of his own in Season 5. (Doylistically, I assume it's because of the buck wild nature of that season, but in-text it makes me wonder how badly a Centauri can burn their marriage prospects. I have always assumed that Londo was married to Timov in fairly short order after the scandal of the dancer.)
And Londo going over everyone's head to the Emperor is very him. (Probably earning himself some lifelong enemies among relatives of Mariel and Dragear that he's not currently in a mental state to think about the consequences of ...)
I one hundred believe this.