B5, S05E17-19
Jun. 19th, 2012 09:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sabotabbyThe penultimate B5 post! I can hardly contain my excitement.
B5 S05E17-?
Movements of Fire and Shadow:
So many plots! And they all result in D: faces.
- Well, it’s nice that everyone in the ISA is finally agreeing on things. Unfortunately, those things are killing Centauri on B5 and attacking Centauri Prime.
- It’s also nice to see Londo and G’Kar working together. Unfortunately, it involves vomit.
- It’s nice to see Lyta get all mercenary. She’s finally showing some spine! Unfortunately, it’s in service of the Space Hippies.
- I am so confused by the Shadow egg-things that Franklin and Lyta find and how they implicate the Drazi. If the Drazi are behind it, where did they get all the Centauri warships? Actually, if the Drakh are behind it, where did they get all the Centauri warships? I can’t believe that only the Regent and a few people in the military would be able to supply all those ships to go on the offensive without anyone else noticing.
- How did Delenn get Lennier back from the Rangers? Also, oh fuck they’re dead in the water and most of the crew is dead.
- Finally the issue of why the White Stars can’t just definitively end the war is addressed. I rather wish they’d addressed it earlier in the season, because really it was making no sense.
- Garibaldi was surprisingly competent this episode. Huh.
- Was Londo dreaming about the Drakh, or did they abduct him and stick the eye on him? I’m confused.
- The new Drakh look just as stupid as the old Drakh.
- The Regent is fucking awesome.
- Why do the Drakh want to destroy Centauri Prime? What’s their motive here?
- Also, Lyta can kill you with her brain.
I’m making it sound like the episode was more of a hot mess than it actually was. It actually pulled off the fog of war really well, but in doing so, was rather confusing.
The Fall of Centauri Prime:
OW MY HEART
OW
Here, have approximately a gazillion sad lizards:
And because it seems appropriate, I have included a sad tentacle monster to help you understand exactly how freaking sad this episode is:
Look, his two hearts are broken.
There is some plot that involves the Drakh finally emerging and explaining what we all knew about a hundred seasons ago: Having escaped the destruction of Z’ha’dum, they have nowhere else to go, except they remember how Londo turned his back on them, so they have come to fuck up Centauri Prime. I guess that answers my question from the last episode. The Regent creeps me out some more and then dies when his Trapper Keeper dislodges. Londo is obviously reluctant to take up this particular burden, but he’s forced into doing so because the Drakh have bombs everywhere and will kill billions of people if he doesn’t. Meanwhile, Sheridan tries to find Delenn (and Lennier, but everyone seems to have forgotten about Lennier) and stop the Narn and Drazi from completely destroying the planet. Londo gets Trapper Kept and now he’s Emperor and able to project gigantic holograms of himself, not that it helps.
ALL OF THE SADS:
- Londo saying goodbye to G’Kar.
- G’Kar forgiving Londo.
- Londo accepting his fate at the hands of the Drakh.
- Flashbacks to happier times.
- Londo being a dick to everyone because he has to.
- ZOMG THAT LAST SHOT ON THE THRONE BRB CRYING FOREVER.
JESUS FUCK ARE THEY ACTUALLY GOING TO END IT LIKE THAT? DAMN.
ALSO, THEY HAD BETTER DEAL WITH THE DRAKH SITUATION BEFORE VIR BECOMES EMPEROR, I’M JUST SAYIN’.
Ah, yeah, so I really like this one. Especially the callback to Earth history. The only thing I still don’t understand is why didn’t Londo, in his last minutes of freedom, tell G’Kar about the Drakh? G’Kar could have just feigned ignorance long enough to leave the planet and then the Alliance would know who they were dealing with.
The Wheel of Fire:
I guess it’s time to start resolving all the plots. Garibaldi shows up drunk to a meeting and President Obvious finally notices that he’s fallen off the wagon. Sheridan does the, “I’m not mad, I’m disappointed” routine and suspends him until he gets his shit together. Of course, he’s mostly disappointed in himself for not recognizing this plot as recycled from Franklin’s storyline, which is a nice bit of meta if I ever saw it.
Lochley decides to be the only useful person on the station and confronts Garibaldi, and hey, this would actually have been an interesting plotline if she’d gotten involved sooner. In addition to her friend from Neil Gaiman’s episode, her father was also an alcoholic and so was she. See, this is the kind of intervention I wouldn’t mind seeing, because she is not full of shit and has some experience. I am reminded that she could have easily been an interesting character with more episodes and more development.
So Lochley calls up Lise (I guess they have some way of calling that isn’t a video or voice phone) and pretends to be Garibaldi, asking for help. An entirely different Lise, played by the same actress, shows up and is all huggy. What? Now she wants Garibaldi to marry her and take over half of her dead husband’s gigantic corporation. This sounds like a terrible idea, but if it’s going to resolve the Very Special Plotline, I’m all for it. Anyway, he agrees.
G’Kar is back from Centauri Prime and all weepy about having to leave his boyfriend there. The Narns have gotten all cultish and have made little G’Kar action figures, which I imagine they mostly put in compromising positions with their Londo action figures.
Everybody does this, right?
They are so fangirly that he decides to leave forever and go explore the universe.
Where this is all going is that Lyta has been funding terrorism so Earth orders her arrest, but this is difficult because she mind-whammies everyone coming to arrest her and declares that she’s been touched by Vorlons.
(This is much more tasteful than the “show me where on the action figure the Vorlon touched you” joke.)
But Sheridan has also been touched by Vorlons, so he’s able to dodge the mind-whammy and arrest her, but there’s no way to take her to Earth, really. Lochley punches her right in the face. I kind of love Lochley.
Until! Garibaldi finds a way to tie up her plotline. He’ll get his new corporate buddies to lobby the government to drop her sentence if she takes the neural block out of his head. She counters with still wanting to blow PsyCorps shit up. Which he’s okay with. So they work out a money-laundering scheme, and then G’Kar decides that she can come along on his space explorations. And lo, three disparate plotlines were tied up in a neat bow. But it’s not so nice because Lyta won’t remove Garibaldi’s block for another two years, and also she’s basically a telepathic neutron bomb with glowy eyes.
Also, Delenn is pregnant. Raise your hand if you didn’t see this coming. I’ll be waiting right here. By the way, the discussion Franklin and Sheridan have about it is highly inappropriate.
I’m way more excited about the fact that Delenn and Sheridan are finally back in the tilted beds. Their pillow talk involves Londo (whose doesn’t?) and the final shot is of him being sad on his throne. Wait, does this mean that Londo’s plot is not over and there’s still a chance he’ll be okay? Don’t tell me either way; I have three more episodes to go.
B5 S05E17-?
Movements of Fire and Shadow:
So many plots! And they all result in D: faces.
- Well, it’s nice that everyone in the ISA is finally agreeing on things. Unfortunately, those things are killing Centauri on B5 and attacking Centauri Prime.
- It’s also nice to see Londo and G’Kar working together. Unfortunately, it involves vomit.
- It’s nice to see Lyta get all mercenary. She’s finally showing some spine! Unfortunately, it’s in service of the Space Hippies.
- I am so confused by the Shadow egg-things that Franklin and Lyta find and how they implicate the Drazi. If the Drazi are behind it, where did they get all the Centauri warships? Actually, if the Drakh are behind it, where did they get all the Centauri warships? I can’t believe that only the Regent and a few people in the military would be able to supply all those ships to go on the offensive without anyone else noticing.
- How did Delenn get Lennier back from the Rangers? Also, oh fuck they’re dead in the water and most of the crew is dead.
- Finally the issue of why the White Stars can’t just definitively end the war is addressed. I rather wish they’d addressed it earlier in the season, because really it was making no sense.
- Garibaldi was surprisingly competent this episode. Huh.
- Was Londo dreaming about the Drakh, or did they abduct him and stick the eye on him? I’m confused.
- The new Drakh look just as stupid as the old Drakh.
- The Regent is fucking awesome.
- Why do the Drakh want to destroy Centauri Prime? What’s their motive here?
- Also, Lyta can kill you with her brain.
I’m making it sound like the episode was more of a hot mess than it actually was. It actually pulled off the fog of war really well, but in doing so, was rather confusing.
The Fall of Centauri Prime:
OW MY HEART
OW
Here, have approximately a gazillion sad lizards:
And because it seems appropriate, I have included a sad tentacle monster to help you understand exactly how freaking sad this episode is:
Look, his two hearts are broken.
There is some plot that involves the Drakh finally emerging and explaining what we all knew about a hundred seasons ago: Having escaped the destruction of Z’ha’dum, they have nowhere else to go, except they remember how Londo turned his back on them, so they have come to fuck up Centauri Prime. I guess that answers my question from the last episode. The Regent creeps me out some more and then dies when his Trapper Keeper dislodges. Londo is obviously reluctant to take up this particular burden, but he’s forced into doing so because the Drakh have bombs everywhere and will kill billions of people if he doesn’t. Meanwhile, Sheridan tries to find Delenn (and Lennier, but everyone seems to have forgotten about Lennier) and stop the Narn and Drazi from completely destroying the planet. Londo gets Trapper Kept and now he’s Emperor and able to project gigantic holograms of himself, not that it helps.
ALL OF THE SADS:
- Londo saying goodbye to G’Kar.
- G’Kar forgiving Londo.
- Londo accepting his fate at the hands of the Drakh.
- Flashbacks to happier times.
- Londo being a dick to everyone because he has to.
- ZOMG THAT LAST SHOT ON THE THRONE BRB CRYING FOREVER.
JESUS FUCK ARE THEY ACTUALLY GOING TO END IT LIKE THAT? DAMN.
ALSO, THEY HAD BETTER DEAL WITH THE DRAKH SITUATION BEFORE VIR BECOMES EMPEROR, I’M JUST SAYIN’.
Ah, yeah, so I really like this one. Especially the callback to Earth history. The only thing I still don’t understand is why didn’t Londo, in his last minutes of freedom, tell G’Kar about the Drakh? G’Kar could have just feigned ignorance long enough to leave the planet and then the Alliance would know who they were dealing with.
The Wheel of Fire:
I guess it’s time to start resolving all the plots. Garibaldi shows up drunk to a meeting and President Obvious finally notices that he’s fallen off the wagon. Sheridan does the, “I’m not mad, I’m disappointed” routine and suspends him until he gets his shit together. Of course, he’s mostly disappointed in himself for not recognizing this plot as recycled from Franklin’s storyline, which is a nice bit of meta if I ever saw it.
Lochley decides to be the only useful person on the station and confronts Garibaldi, and hey, this would actually have been an interesting plotline if she’d gotten involved sooner. In addition to her friend from Neil Gaiman’s episode, her father was also an alcoholic and so was she. See, this is the kind of intervention I wouldn’t mind seeing, because she is not full of shit and has some experience. I am reminded that she could have easily been an interesting character with more episodes and more development.
So Lochley calls up Lise (I guess they have some way of calling that isn’t a video or voice phone) and pretends to be Garibaldi, asking for help. An entirely different Lise, played by the same actress, shows up and is all huggy. What? Now she wants Garibaldi to marry her and take over half of her dead husband’s gigantic corporation. This sounds like a terrible idea, but if it’s going to resolve the Very Special Plotline, I’m all for it. Anyway, he agrees.
G’Kar is back from Centauri Prime and all weepy about having to leave his boyfriend there. The Narns have gotten all cultish and have made little G’Kar action figures, which I imagine they mostly put in compromising positions with their Londo action figures.
Everybody does this, right?
They are so fangirly that he decides to leave forever and go explore the universe.
Where this is all going is that Lyta has been funding terrorism so Earth orders her arrest, but this is difficult because she mind-whammies everyone coming to arrest her and declares that she’s been touched by Vorlons.
(This is much more tasteful than the “show me where on the action figure the Vorlon touched you” joke.)
But Sheridan has also been touched by Vorlons, so he’s able to dodge the mind-whammy and arrest her, but there’s no way to take her to Earth, really. Lochley punches her right in the face. I kind of love Lochley.
Until! Garibaldi finds a way to tie up her plotline. He’ll get his new corporate buddies to lobby the government to drop her sentence if she takes the neural block out of his head. She counters with still wanting to blow PsyCorps shit up. Which he’s okay with. So they work out a money-laundering scheme, and then G’Kar decides that she can come along on his space explorations. And lo, three disparate plotlines were tied up in a neat bow. But it’s not so nice because Lyta won’t remove Garibaldi’s block for another two years, and also she’s basically a telepathic neutron bomb with glowy eyes.
Also, Delenn is pregnant. Raise your hand if you didn’t see this coming. I’ll be waiting right here. By the way, the discussion Franklin and Sheridan have about it is highly inappropriate.
I’m way more excited about the fact that Delenn and Sheridan are finally back in the tilted beds. Their pillow talk involves Londo (whose doesn’t?) and the final shot is of him being sad on his throne. Wait, does this mean that Londo’s plot is not over and there’s still a chance he’ll be okay? Don’t tell me either way; I have three more episodes to go.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2012-06-20 01:51 am (UTC)In Lyta's last few scenes, I actually grew fond of her bad-assery. It was very confusing. (This is probably because everyone was so awful to her. But still! Such a bad actor.)
no subject
Date: 2012-06-20 01:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-06-20 03:36 am (UTC)But speaking of NOTsomeone, I was actually impressed with Lochley. If you can bring yourself to watch Crusade, she does have some nice scenes with Gary Cole. And the intervention scene wasn't THAT awful.
no subject
Date: 2012-06-20 03:42 am (UTC)The Centauri Prime trilogy is written by Peter David and goes from Fall of Centauri Prime to the bit with Londo and G'Kar. Of course, the last book gets silly since there are so many times the series went to the well of Londo's last day that the attempt to include everything take up about a third of the book.
no subject
Date: 2012-06-20 01:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-06-20 02:30 pm (UTC)Speaking of which, I read a Buffy book by Christopher Golden and I HATED it. So last November, I go to Anthocon and I meet him and he's really cool but the only thing I've read by him is that shitty Buffy book which didn't even make sense from the Buffy timeline (everyone is acting like season 2 characters but they just referred to Angel as being evil). So I'm sitting at a table in a group of people and it's slowing dawning on me that this is Golden and he's really cool.
Thankfully, he didn't seem all that enthused about the Buffy book either and I managed to only see him in groups so I never had the temptation to go "yeah, what the fuck was up with that book?"
Even better, they gave us a complimentary copy of a book with his novella in it and it was really good. So now I can like him as a person and respect his writing (not that I don't have friends whose writing I hate but usually these are friends who are never going to get published).
no subject
Date: 2012-06-20 02:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-06-20 02:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-06-20 04:29 am (UTC)And yes, we probably all do hee.
no subject
Date: 2012-06-20 01:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-06-20 05:08 am (UTC)I actually liked how they dealt with Vir in the books. Peter David is the best media tie-in writer (damning with faint praise I know) and he really took Vir on the journey from season 5 Vir to Emperor Vir.
Even worse, Delenn spends her twilight years invading symposiums to tell the deconstructionist critics that they are jerks.
no subject
Date: 2012-06-20 02:40 pm (UTC)If you were accurate in your assessment that NEARLY EVERY female character was getting pregnant then i would agree with you that it's a problem with Hollywood pushing biological determinism on everyone. But since most characters seem to be sterile on these shows, I don't see the issue.
no subject
Date: 2012-06-20 02:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-06-20 01:38 pm (UTC)You'd think she'd have something, anything, better to do.
no subject
Date: 2012-06-20 01:36 pm (UTC)I guess we should be grateful that Ivanova and Marcus never had sex, or we'd be stuck with a Grief!Baby.
no subject
Date: 2012-06-20 08:53 am (UTC)Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
I'm so petitioning JMS to make more series mainly so you can write more made of win commentary
no subject
Date: 2012-06-20 11:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-06-20 01:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-06-20 05:29 pm (UTC)He can't tell him, because he is "kept" as it were.
no subject
Date: 2012-06-20 10:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-06-21 03:27 am (UTC)I don't know. Suspend yet more disbelief ;).
no subject
Date: 2012-06-21 09:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-06-21 01:23 pm (UTC)