B5, S03E21 & 22
Mar. 23rd, 2012 07:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sabotabbyAnnnnd it’s the end of Season 3! I love season finales because I’m a sucker for the Big Dramatic Reveal. Also epic space battles.
Shadow Dancing:
And in fact, an epic space battle is at the centre of the penultimate episode. Having figured out that the Shadows are corralling refugee ships into a particular sector, presumably to kill everyone all at once, Dumbledore’s Army prepares to launch a surprise attack. This involves convincing all of the Non-Aligned Worlds to participate, which Delenn manages by being Delenn. She also tells Sheridan that she wants his Denn'Bok in her chrysalis after the battle is over, if you know what I mean. Um, but because she’s Minbari, there obviously has to be a complicated ritual first. Delenn, can’t you just share a few drinks and toss the guy on a bed? Well, I guess Delenn can’t drink. And the beds don’t look that comfortable. Too bad. For the record, I’m for schtupping your romantic interest before the big battle rather than waiting for afterwards. It avoids tragedy. Right, Garibaldi?
Speaking of, Ivanova and Marcus are sent ahead on the White Star. Poor Ivanova can’t tell that Marcus is flirting with her in Minbari and also can’t sleep on the tilting beds. Anyway, they encounter first a scout ship, then an entire Shadow fleet, and the space battle is ON. Hey, I bet Ivanova’s latent telepathic ability could come in handy right about now! I was actually surprised that she didn’t at least try.
Alas, the space battle is broken up with the resolution of Franklin’s after school special. Drugs are bad, mmkay? They lead to dressing like a goddamned hippie and then getting your stupid ass stabbed. He hallucinates a much better-groomed Alt!Franklin who taunts him for being a failure. I really like Alt!Franklin—can we keep this one?
So Dumbledore’s Army does kick some ass, but at a cost. For some reason, even though the good guys lose two ships for every Shadow ship they take out, the Shadows retreat. WIKTORY! Garibaldi raises the important issue of, “hey, now that they know you can hurt them, do you think there might kind of be reprisals,” which for some reason no one else has considered. Sheridan is a little busy with dream interpretation to come up with anything better than, “er, patrols?”
Finally, we get to Delenn’s pre-sex ritual with Sheridan, which is basically just her watching him sleep. Man, I would hate that. I’m clearly never going to have sex with a Minbari. Anyway, she seems to like what she sees, so you know something bad is going to happen.
And it does! Anna Sheridan, source of the Dead Wife Angst, looking substantially less dead than we were led to believe, and apparently arriving via tiny secret Shadow vessel. Now, that can’t be good. Delenn is more surprised about this than I am and reenacts someone’s prophetic dream from another episode by dropping a snow globe. Seriously, they have snow globes in the 22nd century?
It would be such an awesome twist if Anna Sheridan turned out not to be evil.
Z’ha’dum:
Nope, she’s totally evil. And re-cast. The new actress has much better hair, I must say.
Seriously. Don’t you dare break Delenn’s heart, show!
There are a couple of quick subplots—G’Kar and Ivanova are hanging out these days, with G’Kar somehow procuring some nuclear space mines for her. Nice. I’m glad they’re friends. G'Kar needs more friends. Londo’s been promoted and will now be splitting his time between the Centauri imperial court and B5, but he doesn’t take this as a compliment so much as an indication that the Emperor is afraid of him. Oh, and a new human servant of the Shadows tells Londo to GTFO the station, pronto.
Needless to say, Sheridan’s a bit stunned by his wife not being quite as dead as he thought, but he does not lose his genre-savvy. He immediately brings Anna to Franklin for tests to see if she’s a clone, evil cyborg, alien-pollen-induced hallucination, or what have you. She’s totally human, however, and definitely Anna Sheridan, but there’s a definite BUT implied when Franklin looks at her brain.
Anna’s story is that she’s been on Z’ha’dum the entire time, and Delenn knew. Yikes. Delenn admits that yeah, there was not an actual body, and you know what that means on a sci-fi show, but does Sheridan actually think that his wife would have gone along with the whole “join us or die” thing that the Shadows have going on? Not so much, as it turns out. He does agree to go to Z’ha’dum with Anna to hear what the Shadows have to say, on the condition that she explains what happened to her and the rest of the Icarus crew. She tells him that the Shadows are actually great guys, seriously, you’d really like them, they serve tea and everything, and the fact that everyone else besides her and Morden died was just an unfortunate accident. Sheridan asks Garibaldi to do some secret things for him—things that Garibaldi is not keen on doing—and then he and Anna take the White Star and head off to meet his Z’ha’DOOOOM.
I should mention that there are loads of flashbacks to previous episodes scattered all over the place. So in case you forgot, Anna was super-excited about the archeological dig on Z’ha’dum, Kosh warned Sheridan that if he went there, he’d die, and future!Delenn begs Sheridan not to go. Sheridan obviously has a plan, because he acts like an asshole whenever he has a plan. As soon as he’s gone, a bunch of Shadows show up and surround B5. Ivanova puts the station on red alert and sends out Starfuries, but they look pitifully out-gunned.
Anyway, the Shadows actually do serve tea, or at least a kindly middleman named Justin serves everyone tea, while he and Morden explain all about how awesome the Shadows are. Basically, the Vorlons are forces of order, sort of like a socialist nanny state, making sure that younger races don’t fuck up and ruin everything. And the Shadows are more like social Darwinists, getting the various younger races to fight it out so that the survivors emerge stronger and smarter. Sheridan struggles to keep a poker face throughout all of this. Finally, they tell him that they haven’t killed him because then he’d be a martyr (yawn) but if he doesn’t willingly join them and give up on the whole “uniting all the races” thing, they will—
—oh, Anna’s been mindwiped, basically. She was fused with a Shadow ship like they planned to do with Bester’s Borg girlfriend. Justin and Morden keep up the Hannibal Lecture and it doesn’t sound like they’re going to stop mansplaining any time soon, so Sheridan pulls out a gun and starts shooting everyone. Hah. I love Sheridan.
Meanwhile on B5, several of G’Kar’s nukes have gone missing. They’re aboard the White Star, set for a collision course on Z’ha’dum! Delenn listens to what’s basically Sheridan’s suicide note as, having escaped the tea party of genocide, Sheridan stands looking down at what seems to be a Sarlacc pit. He hears Kosh telling him to jump, so he does (you should always do what Space Jesus says), just as Anna looks up to see the White Star about to go boom. The Shadow ships menacing B5 suddenly leave.
And so this season ends with the war at a standstill, Sheridan missing, presumed dead though obviously not, Garibaldi missing (he was in one of the Starfuries and never came back), and an inspirational voiceover from G’Kar. Oh, and a new crater for Z’ha’dum. Sweeeeet!
Okay, prediction time:
- Obviously Sheridan’s not dead, and one of those prophecy-evading explanations will emerge by the first episode of season 4. He’ll find Space Jesus in the Sarlacc pit.
- Garibaldi’s disappearance has something to do with Sheridan’s mysterious instructions.
- Ivanova’s telepathy will play more of a role to the point where she’ll be able to jam a Shadow ship with her brain.
- The Ivanova/Marcus thing will end in tears. Sheridan/Delenn won’t.
- Franklin’s boring drug plot is finally over.
- Londo will be Emperor by the fourth season finale. (And Vir will be Emperor by the series finale.)
- The fourth season will conclude the Shadow War storyline and the fifth season will be about something completely different.
- Morden is dead-dead, and will be replaced by the guy who was talking to Londo.
- Draal will finally get to do something instead of being inconveniently out of the picture whenever there’s trouble.
- Someone in the main cast will be Killed Off For Real.
- There had better be some more episodes about Mars and the PsyCorp and President-For-Life Clark.
By the way, can anyone tell me what these ships are? One looks Minbari but the other one, I’m not sure about.
Marking or Season 4? I can't decide.
Shadow Dancing:
And in fact, an epic space battle is at the centre of the penultimate episode. Having figured out that the Shadows are corralling refugee ships into a particular sector, presumably to kill everyone all at once, Dumbledore’s Army prepares to launch a surprise attack. This involves convincing all of the Non-Aligned Worlds to participate, which Delenn manages by being Delenn. She also tells Sheridan that she wants his Denn'Bok in her chrysalis after the battle is over, if you know what I mean. Um, but because she’s Minbari, there obviously has to be a complicated ritual first. Delenn, can’t you just share a few drinks and toss the guy on a bed? Well, I guess Delenn can’t drink. And the beds don’t look that comfortable. Too bad. For the record, I’m for schtupping your romantic interest before the big battle rather than waiting for afterwards. It avoids tragedy. Right, Garibaldi?
Speaking of, Ivanova and Marcus are sent ahead on the White Star. Poor Ivanova can’t tell that Marcus is flirting with her in Minbari and also can’t sleep on the tilting beds. Anyway, they encounter first a scout ship, then an entire Shadow fleet, and the space battle is ON. Hey, I bet Ivanova’s latent telepathic ability could come in handy right about now! I was actually surprised that she didn’t at least try.
Alas, the space battle is broken up with the resolution of Franklin’s after school special. Drugs are bad, mmkay? They lead to dressing like a goddamned hippie and then getting your stupid ass stabbed. He hallucinates a much better-groomed Alt!Franklin who taunts him for being a failure. I really like Alt!Franklin—can we keep this one?
So Dumbledore’s Army does kick some ass, but at a cost. For some reason, even though the good guys lose two ships for every Shadow ship they take out, the Shadows retreat. WIKTORY! Garibaldi raises the important issue of, “hey, now that they know you can hurt them, do you think there might kind of be reprisals,” which for some reason no one else has considered. Sheridan is a little busy with dream interpretation to come up with anything better than, “er, patrols?”
Finally, we get to Delenn’s pre-sex ritual with Sheridan, which is basically just her watching him sleep. Man, I would hate that. I’m clearly never going to have sex with a Minbari. Anyway, she seems to like what she sees, so you know something bad is going to happen.
And it does! Anna Sheridan, source of the Dead Wife Angst, looking substantially less dead than we were led to believe, and apparently arriving via tiny secret Shadow vessel. Now, that can’t be good. Delenn is more surprised about this than I am and reenacts someone’s prophetic dream from another episode by dropping a snow globe. Seriously, they have snow globes in the 22nd century?
It would be such an awesome twist if Anna Sheridan turned out not to be evil.
Z’ha’dum:
Nope, she’s totally evil. And re-cast. The new actress has much better hair, I must say.
Seriously. Don’t you dare break Delenn’s heart, show!
There are a couple of quick subplots—G’Kar and Ivanova are hanging out these days, with G’Kar somehow procuring some nuclear space mines for her. Nice. I’m glad they’re friends. G'Kar needs more friends. Londo’s been promoted and will now be splitting his time between the Centauri imperial court and B5, but he doesn’t take this as a compliment so much as an indication that the Emperor is afraid of him. Oh, and a new human servant of the Shadows tells Londo to GTFO the station, pronto.
Needless to say, Sheridan’s a bit stunned by his wife not being quite as dead as he thought, but he does not lose his genre-savvy. He immediately brings Anna to Franklin for tests to see if she’s a clone, evil cyborg, alien-pollen-induced hallucination, or what have you. She’s totally human, however, and definitely Anna Sheridan, but there’s a definite BUT implied when Franklin looks at her brain.
Anna’s story is that she’s been on Z’ha’dum the entire time, and Delenn knew. Yikes. Delenn admits that yeah, there was not an actual body, and you know what that means on a sci-fi show, but does Sheridan actually think that his wife would have gone along with the whole “join us or die” thing that the Shadows have going on? Not so much, as it turns out. He does agree to go to Z’ha’dum with Anna to hear what the Shadows have to say, on the condition that she explains what happened to her and the rest of the Icarus crew. She tells him that the Shadows are actually great guys, seriously, you’d really like them, they serve tea and everything, and the fact that everyone else besides her and Morden died was just an unfortunate accident. Sheridan asks Garibaldi to do some secret things for him—things that Garibaldi is not keen on doing—and then he and Anna take the White Star and head off to meet his Z’ha’DOOOOM.
I should mention that there are loads of flashbacks to previous episodes scattered all over the place. So in case you forgot, Anna was super-excited about the archeological dig on Z’ha’dum, Kosh warned Sheridan that if he went there, he’d die, and future!Delenn begs Sheridan not to go. Sheridan obviously has a plan, because he acts like an asshole whenever he has a plan. As soon as he’s gone, a bunch of Shadows show up and surround B5. Ivanova puts the station on red alert and sends out Starfuries, but they look pitifully out-gunned.
Anyway, the Shadows actually do serve tea, or at least a kindly middleman named Justin serves everyone tea, while he and Morden explain all about how awesome the Shadows are. Basically, the Vorlons are forces of order, sort of like a socialist nanny state, making sure that younger races don’t fuck up and ruin everything. And the Shadows are more like social Darwinists, getting the various younger races to fight it out so that the survivors emerge stronger and smarter. Sheridan struggles to keep a poker face throughout all of this. Finally, they tell him that they haven’t killed him because then he’d be a martyr (yawn) but if he doesn’t willingly join them and give up on the whole “uniting all the races” thing, they will—
—oh, Anna’s been mindwiped, basically. She was fused with a Shadow ship like they planned to do with Bester’s Borg girlfriend. Justin and Morden keep up the Hannibal Lecture and it doesn’t sound like they’re going to stop mansplaining any time soon, so Sheridan pulls out a gun and starts shooting everyone. Hah. I love Sheridan.
Meanwhile on B5, several of G’Kar’s nukes have gone missing. They’re aboard the White Star, set for a collision course on Z’ha’dum! Delenn listens to what’s basically Sheridan’s suicide note as, having escaped the tea party of genocide, Sheridan stands looking down at what seems to be a Sarlacc pit. He hears Kosh telling him to jump, so he does (you should always do what Space Jesus says), just as Anna looks up to see the White Star about to go boom. The Shadow ships menacing B5 suddenly leave.
And so this season ends with the war at a standstill, Sheridan missing, presumed dead though obviously not, Garibaldi missing (he was in one of the Starfuries and never came back), and an inspirational voiceover from G’Kar. Oh, and a new crater for Z’ha’dum. Sweeeeet!
Okay, prediction time:
- Obviously Sheridan’s not dead, and one of those prophecy-evading explanations will emerge by the first episode of season 4. He’ll find Space Jesus in the Sarlacc pit.
- Garibaldi’s disappearance has something to do with Sheridan’s mysterious instructions.
- Ivanova’s telepathy will play more of a role to the point where she’ll be able to jam a Shadow ship with her brain.
- The Ivanova/Marcus thing will end in tears. Sheridan/Delenn won’t.
- Franklin’s boring drug plot is finally over.
- Londo will be Emperor by the fourth season finale. (And Vir will be Emperor by the series finale.)
- The fourth season will conclude the Shadow War storyline and the fifth season will be about something completely different.
- Morden is dead-dead, and will be replaced by the guy who was talking to Londo.
- Draal will finally get to do something instead of being inconveniently out of the picture whenever there’s trouble.
- Someone in the main cast will be Killed Off For Real.
- There had better be some more episodes about Mars and the PsyCorp and President-For-Life Clark.
By the way, can anyone tell me what these ships are? One looks Minbari but the other one, I’m not sure about.
Marking or Season 4? I can't decide.
no subject
Date: 2012-03-25 03:14 pm (UTC)