B5, S03E11-15
Mar. 8th, 2012 09:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sabotabbyPlot! And some filler. But mostly Plot!
Ceremonies of Light and Dark:
There’s a lot of stuff I wanted to say, and was going to say, about this episode, but let’s be honest here—this was one of the ones you were all waiting for me to get to, and it was for five words that Ivanova says at the end.
Ummm I guess the rest was really good too. But I THINK I LOVED TALIA.
Okay, thoughts that are not about Ivanova and Talia and their tragic gay love.
- Londo’s already trying to redeem himself, and because he’s Londo, he’s doing it in the most Machiavellian fashion he can manage. I wonder if he really poisoned Refa or if he’s just dicking with him. Either way is good, really.
- Awww, no one wants to go to the Space Elves’ party. *sadface* It’s okay, I wouldn’t want to go either. From everything we’ve seen about Minbari rituals, they are really long and really boring.
- Man, Nightwatch is really scraping the bottom of the barrel here.
- Lennier loves Delenn! Sheridan loves Delenn! Everyone loves Delenn, basically.
- Wonder what Marcus was afraid of confessing.
- The computer thing was corny as hell but I still enjoyed it greatly. Or, more likely, I enjoyed it greatly because it was corny as hell. I’m going to assume that the AI was not successfully removed and they’re stuck with digital Mel Brooks until the end of time. Wikipedia tells me that it is named Sparky and voiced by Harlan Ellison.
- The new uniforms are ghastly. I don’t know why I should be surprised that Delenn designed fugly uniforms for everyone, given her post-metamorphosis fashion sense.
But seriously, how great is it that Ivanova admitted that she loved Talia?
Sic Transit Vir:
Yay, it’s an episode all about Vir and how he is awesome. Unfortunately, it makes use of that sci-fi convention where someone is married but doesn’t know it and the wife (it’s always a surprise!wife, never a surprise!husband) turns out to be awful. Though I think Vir’s intended takes the cake as a genocidal maniac.
Anyway, that aside, this episode is mainly good for the revelation that Vir is basically the Oskar Schindler of Centauri, using his position as Minbari envoy to smuggle 2000 Narns off their homeworld and onto B5. Once he’s caught, Ivanova takes up where he left off.
Also, Sheridan and Delenn are having a romantic subplot. She does not lose interest despite his inability to cook. I don’t blame you, Delenn; he has other good qualities.
And Ivanova has nightmares about being on the command deck naked. I feel for her.
I am very confused as to what happened between Lyndisty’s presentation of the captured Narn and Londo chewing out Vir. I mean, obviously Vir didn’t kill the Narn, but what did he do? He couldn’t have alerted station security or Lyndisty would be in the brig. It feels like there’s a missing scene somewhere.
But I’ll forgive a lot because Vir is a hero and now everyone knows. Also, now everyone knows that Vir is 5/6 virgin, lol.
A Late Delivery from Avalon:
After all the epic awesomeness as of late, this one is striking in its mediocrity. We meet the unfortunate bastard who fired the first shots in the Earth-Minbari war, now suffering from PTSD that makes him think he’s King Arthur. Even Marcus being adorable and G’Kar teaming up with “King Arthur” to fight crime (and becoming Sir G’Kar in the process) cannot redeem the awful first-year-film-student dream sequences or one of![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
sabotabby’s least-favourite narrative tropes ever: the mental illness insta-cure.
Meanwhile, Garibaldi has an argument with the post office. No, really.
One point for the genre-savvy suggestion that, since the Vorlons abducted and preserved Jack the Ripper, they could presumably have also done so with King Arthur, and one point for the B-plot about B5’s treaty with the Non-Aligned Worlds. Otherwise, pretty dull fare.
Ship of Tears:
Annnnnd we’re back to awesome again, with the return of Bester and the Shadows and even ISN.
Everyone throws the Idiot Ball around for the first half of the episode, including:
- Thinking that ISN being back on the air was a good sign
- Allowing Bester to come aboard with vague assurances that he is there to help
- Allowing Bester to dictate the terms, and conveniently forgetting about the Minbari telepaths that were the alternative to the drug that suppresses his ability
- Letting Ivanova in a room with Bester
- Letting Bester get on the White Star without so much as a blindfold
- Believing anything that Bester says, ever
I don’t know, maybe Bester has some sort of secret making-people-stupid ability along with his secret detecting-ships-from-far-away ability. Also his secret Borg girlfriend.
So they let Bester hang out on B5 because he knows about a plan to transport weapons components for the Shadows. The White Star ambushes the convoy and grabs the transport ship, but the “weapons components” are actually cryogenically frozen telepaths. A Shadow ship appears and looks like it’s going to attack, then backs off—and Sheridan thinks this is strange but doesn't automatically acquaint "strange" with "bad sign." Anyway, they thaw out one of the telepaths and she goes nuts and fuses with all of the machinery in Med Lab. This would be Bester’s secret girlfriend.
Meanwhile, G’Kar is still bugging everyone to join Dumbledore’s Army. I didn’t catch this before, but the reason they were freezing him out before was that Delenn knew about the Shadows before the invasion of Narn and didn’t say anything. So she has to break the news, which he takes a hell of a lot better than I would. So now G’Kar is in.
And just in time, because Garibaldi figures out something that G’Kar didn’t, despite the fact that Garibaldi is reading the Book of G'Quan rather slowly and having to translate as he goes along, while G’Kar has presumably read it tons of times. There’s a reference to “mind walkers,” which Garibaldi reasons are telepaths. Basically, there used to be Narn telepaths, but the Shadows killed off almost all of them before the remaining ones, along with G’Quan, drove them off the planet. Everyone gets all excited because that explains the strange behaviour of the Shadow ship earlier, as well as the psychic popsicles—the Shadows are afraid of telepaths and were trying to weaponize them against other telepaths, or something.
The important things are that Bester pledges to do whatever Dumbledore’s Army wants as long as they can save his Borg girlfriend (yeah, right), and that the Shadows are now openly attacking a planet (ohhhhh shit).
Interludes and Examinations:
That has to be the most dull-as-shit title for what’s an insanely dramatic episode.
Ivanova writes in her diary (what?) that everything is under control, even though the Shadows are staging hit-and-runs all over the Non-Aligned Worlds.
The Brakiri, one of the races being attacked, ask Sheridan to ask Earth for help. Sheridan reminds their ambassador and the particularly slow members of the audience that B5 is independent now and not exactly on speaking terms with Earth. He suggests forming an alliance with the nearby Non-Aligneds, including one of the more impressive-looking aliens I’ve seen on the show so far.
Love it! It’s making me want to cosplay. Anyway. The Gaim, unlike the U.S. government, aren’t too keen on getting into wars they can’t win, and ask for proof that Dumbledore’s Army can actually stand up to the Shadows. Sheridan has to bite his tongue and look uncomfortable. Later on, Delenn—who is awfully handsy with him now, and wearing one of her more absurd costumes—says cryptic things, which reminds Sheridan that, oh yeah, there are Vorlons.
Meanwhile, Londo is all excited because his Season 1 love interest has decided to return. He makes all kinds of elaborate romantic preparations for her arrival—once he ordered a suite full of flowers, I was pretty much expecting something like the Giles/Jenny Calendar reconciliation in Buffy. Anyway, with Morden skulking around the station and possessing some sort of magical ability to turn the lighting to demonic red, you know it won’t end well.
And Garibaldi and Franklin are stuck in After-School Special Land again, with Franklin’s stim addiction becoming a problem and, oh man, do I have to recap this plotline? I hate it so much. Garibaldi tries to stage an intervention again, but this time it doesn’t involve delicious Italian food, and Franklin is all, “YOU’RE NOT MY REAL DAD.” It’s a drag on an otherwise pretty amazing episode. I’ll just say that there are abuses of privacy and in the end Franklin resigns to go find himself or something equally stupid.
In more interesting plotlines, Sheridan finally confronts Kosh and tells him to get off his encounter-suited ass and stop standing there looking cryptic and do something. I’m barely paraphrasing, too. In response, Kosh force-chokes him. But Sheridan is really, really determined. Finally, Kosh says that he’ll intervene and give the Non-Aligned Worlds a victory to get them on side. But there’s a price: When Sheridan inevitably goes to Z’ha’dum to meet his death, Kosh won’t be there. Okay, I can tell where this plotline is going too.
So Londo’s love interest gets iced in a way that is obviously Morden’s doing but set up to look like Lord Refa did it. Londo realizes he hasn’t done anything stupid in a few episodes and goes running right to Morden to take revenge.
The Vorlons attack a bunch of Shadows and win. Yay! Now all of the Non-Aligned worlds are ready to be Aligned. Except that Morden and his invisible Shadow buddies get into Kosh’s quarters and kill him. I would be incredibly upset about this were Kosh not Space Jesus. Before he dies, Kosh invades Sheridan’s dreams and appears as his father and says more cryptic things. The Vorlons request that Kosh’s encounter suit—no body, obviously, because he’s Space Jesus—be put into his ship, which then fires itself into the sun in what was to be the most impressive use of a lens flare until J.J. Abrams rebooted Star Trek.
Oh, and Dr. I Forget Her Name lampshades the use of paper on B5. Thank you, Dr. What's Her Name.
There will probably be a brief hiatus, as I'm on March Break as of tomorrow and will actually try to do things! Outside even. Try to contain yourselves.
Ceremonies of Light and Dark:
There’s a lot of stuff I wanted to say, and was going to say, about this episode, but let’s be honest here—this was one of the ones you were all waiting for me to get to, and it was for five words that Ivanova says at the end.
Ummm I guess the rest was really good too. But I THINK I LOVED TALIA.
Okay, thoughts that are not about Ivanova and Talia and their tragic gay love.
- Londo’s already trying to redeem himself, and because he’s Londo, he’s doing it in the most Machiavellian fashion he can manage. I wonder if he really poisoned Refa or if he’s just dicking with him. Either way is good, really.
- Awww, no one wants to go to the Space Elves’ party. *sadface* It’s okay, I wouldn’t want to go either. From everything we’ve seen about Minbari rituals, they are really long and really boring.
- Man, Nightwatch is really scraping the bottom of the barrel here.
- Lennier loves Delenn! Sheridan loves Delenn! Everyone loves Delenn, basically.
- Wonder what Marcus was afraid of confessing.
- The computer thing was corny as hell but I still enjoyed it greatly. Or, more likely, I enjoyed it greatly because it was corny as hell. I’m going to assume that the AI was not successfully removed and they’re stuck with digital Mel Brooks until the end of time. Wikipedia tells me that it is named Sparky and voiced by Harlan Ellison.
- The new uniforms are ghastly. I don’t know why I should be surprised that Delenn designed fugly uniforms for everyone, given her post-metamorphosis fashion sense.
But seriously, how great is it that Ivanova admitted that she loved Talia?
Sic Transit Vir:
Yay, it’s an episode all about Vir and how he is awesome. Unfortunately, it makes use of that sci-fi convention where someone is married but doesn’t know it and the wife (it’s always a surprise!wife, never a surprise!husband) turns out to be awful. Though I think Vir’s intended takes the cake as a genocidal maniac.
Anyway, that aside, this episode is mainly good for the revelation that Vir is basically the Oskar Schindler of Centauri, using his position as Minbari envoy to smuggle 2000 Narns off their homeworld and onto B5. Once he’s caught, Ivanova takes up where he left off.
Also, Sheridan and Delenn are having a romantic subplot. She does not lose interest despite his inability to cook. I don’t blame you, Delenn; he has other good qualities.
And Ivanova has nightmares about being on the command deck naked. I feel for her.
I am very confused as to what happened between Lyndisty’s presentation of the captured Narn and Londo chewing out Vir. I mean, obviously Vir didn’t kill the Narn, but what did he do? He couldn’t have alerted station security or Lyndisty would be in the brig. It feels like there’s a missing scene somewhere.
But I’ll forgive a lot because Vir is a hero and now everyone knows. Also, now everyone knows that Vir is 5/6 virgin, lol.
A Late Delivery from Avalon:
After all the epic awesomeness as of late, this one is striking in its mediocrity. We meet the unfortunate bastard who fired the first shots in the Earth-Minbari war, now suffering from PTSD that makes him think he’s King Arthur. Even Marcus being adorable and G’Kar teaming up with “King Arthur” to fight crime (and becoming Sir G’Kar in the process) cannot redeem the awful first-year-film-student dream sequences or one of
sabotabby’s least-favourite narrative tropes ever: the mental illness insta-cure.Meanwhile, Garibaldi has an argument with the post office. No, really.
One point for the genre-savvy suggestion that, since the Vorlons abducted and preserved Jack the Ripper, they could presumably have also done so with King Arthur, and one point for the B-plot about B5’s treaty with the Non-Aligned Worlds. Otherwise, pretty dull fare.
Ship of Tears:
Annnnnd we’re back to awesome again, with the return of Bester and the Shadows and even ISN.
Everyone throws the Idiot Ball around for the first half of the episode, including:
- Thinking that ISN being back on the air was a good sign
- Allowing Bester to come aboard with vague assurances that he is there to help
- Allowing Bester to dictate the terms, and conveniently forgetting about the Minbari telepaths that were the alternative to the drug that suppresses his ability
- Letting Ivanova in a room with Bester
- Letting Bester get on the White Star without so much as a blindfold
- Believing anything that Bester says, ever
I don’t know, maybe Bester has some sort of secret making-people-stupid ability along with his secret detecting-ships-from-far-away ability. Also his secret Borg girlfriend.
So they let Bester hang out on B5 because he knows about a plan to transport weapons components for the Shadows. The White Star ambushes the convoy and grabs the transport ship, but the “weapons components” are actually cryogenically frozen telepaths. A Shadow ship appears and looks like it’s going to attack, then backs off—and Sheridan thinks this is strange but doesn't automatically acquaint "strange" with "bad sign." Anyway, they thaw out one of the telepaths and she goes nuts and fuses with all of the machinery in Med Lab. This would be Bester’s secret girlfriend.
Meanwhile, G’Kar is still bugging everyone to join Dumbledore’s Army. I didn’t catch this before, but the reason they were freezing him out before was that Delenn knew about the Shadows before the invasion of Narn and didn’t say anything. So she has to break the news, which he takes a hell of a lot better than I would. So now G’Kar is in.
And just in time, because Garibaldi figures out something that G’Kar didn’t, despite the fact that Garibaldi is reading the Book of G'Quan rather slowly and having to translate as he goes along, while G’Kar has presumably read it tons of times. There’s a reference to “mind walkers,” which Garibaldi reasons are telepaths. Basically, there used to be Narn telepaths, but the Shadows killed off almost all of them before the remaining ones, along with G’Quan, drove them off the planet. Everyone gets all excited because that explains the strange behaviour of the Shadow ship earlier, as well as the psychic popsicles—the Shadows are afraid of telepaths and were trying to weaponize them against other telepaths, or something.
The important things are that Bester pledges to do whatever Dumbledore’s Army wants as long as they can save his Borg girlfriend (yeah, right), and that the Shadows are now openly attacking a planet (ohhhhh shit).
Interludes and Examinations:
That has to be the most dull-as-shit title for what’s an insanely dramatic episode.
Ivanova writes in her diary (what?) that everything is under control, even though the Shadows are staging hit-and-runs all over the Non-Aligned Worlds.
The Brakiri, one of the races being attacked, ask Sheridan to ask Earth for help. Sheridan reminds their ambassador and the particularly slow members of the audience that B5 is independent now and not exactly on speaking terms with Earth. He suggests forming an alliance with the nearby Non-Aligneds, including one of the more impressive-looking aliens I’ve seen on the show so far.
Love it! It’s making me want to cosplay. Anyway. The Gaim, unlike the U.S. government, aren’t too keen on getting into wars they can’t win, and ask for proof that Dumbledore’s Army can actually stand up to the Shadows. Sheridan has to bite his tongue and look uncomfortable. Later on, Delenn—who is awfully handsy with him now, and wearing one of her more absurd costumes—says cryptic things, which reminds Sheridan that, oh yeah, there are Vorlons.
Meanwhile, Londo is all excited because his Season 1 love interest has decided to return. He makes all kinds of elaborate romantic preparations for her arrival—once he ordered a suite full of flowers, I was pretty much expecting something like the Giles/Jenny Calendar reconciliation in Buffy. Anyway, with Morden skulking around the station and possessing some sort of magical ability to turn the lighting to demonic red, you know it won’t end well.
And Garibaldi and Franklin are stuck in After-School Special Land again, with Franklin’s stim addiction becoming a problem and, oh man, do I have to recap this plotline? I hate it so much. Garibaldi tries to stage an intervention again, but this time it doesn’t involve delicious Italian food, and Franklin is all, “YOU’RE NOT MY REAL DAD.” It’s a drag on an otherwise pretty amazing episode. I’ll just say that there are abuses of privacy and in the end Franklin resigns to go find himself or something equally stupid.
In more interesting plotlines, Sheridan finally confronts Kosh and tells him to get off his encounter-suited ass and stop standing there looking cryptic and do something. I’m barely paraphrasing, too. In response, Kosh force-chokes him. But Sheridan is really, really determined. Finally, Kosh says that he’ll intervene and give the Non-Aligned Worlds a victory to get them on side. But there’s a price: When Sheridan inevitably goes to Z’ha’dum to meet his death, Kosh won’t be there. Okay, I can tell where this plotline is going too.
So Londo’s love interest gets iced in a way that is obviously Morden’s doing but set up to look like Lord Refa did it. Londo realizes he hasn’t done anything stupid in a few episodes and goes running right to Morden to take revenge.
The Vorlons attack a bunch of Shadows and win. Yay! Now all of the Non-Aligned worlds are ready to be Aligned. Except that Morden and his invisible Shadow buddies get into Kosh’s quarters and kill him. I would be incredibly upset about this were Kosh not Space Jesus. Before he dies, Kosh invades Sheridan’s dreams and appears as his father and says more cryptic things. The Vorlons request that Kosh’s encounter suit—no body, obviously, because he’s Space Jesus—be put into his ship, which then fires itself into the sun in what was to be the most impressive use of a lens flare until J.J. Abrams rebooted Star Trek.
Oh, and Dr. I Forget Her Name lampshades the use of paper on B5. Thank you, Dr. What's Her Name.
There will probably be a brief hiatus, as I'm on March Break as of tomorrow and will actually try to do things! Outside even. Try to contain yourselves.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2012-03-09 02:31 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-03-10 05:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-03-09 03:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-03-10 05:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-03-10 05:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-03-10 01:34 am (UTC)I just wanted to say i've really been enjoying your episode recaps, soon you'll have caught up with my rewatch (half way through s4), my pace has decreased dramatically since coming back to uni!
no subject
Date: 2012-03-10 05:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-03-10 10:01 am (UTC)including one of the more impressive-looking aliens I’ve seen on the show so far.
The Gaim rock. They feel Proper Lovely Sci-Fi to me with those suits and voices.
And Garibaldi and Franklin are stuck in After-School Special Land again, with Franklin’s stim addiction becoming a problem and, oh man, do I have to recap this plotline?
I'm so looking forward in a slightly mean way to your reaction to stuff.
no subject
Date: 2012-03-10 05:34 pm (UTC)YES. I have a particular love for aliens that are not dudes with rubber foreheads (witness my utter love for Kosh/the Vorlons) and the VOICE holy shit.
I'm so looking forward in a slightly mean way to your reaction to stuff.
I'm glad that there is the odd thing for me to complain about in this show; otherwise, it would be non-stop fangirlishness.
no subject
Date: 2012-06-17 05:06 am (UTC)No, the name is not a coincidence. XD
no subject
Date: 2012-03-13 03:08 am (UTC)One thing that JMS once said about spoilers, "We tell you what is going to happen way in advance. But we don't tell you when, why, how or what it means." Hence all the prophecies. That said, expect death, both satisfying and WTF? Damn near everyone dies and/or disappears. Major characters are dropping like flies. Sort of and sort of not. Forget I said anything.
no subject
Date: 2012-03-14 07:29 pm (UTC)Just when you thought their uniforms could not get any worse, they do. And Zack complains about them itching as well (in a scene that is otherwise pure Lennier awesome).