| Episode: | 103 | | | Writer: | J. Michael Straczynski | | | Director: | Janet Greek | | | Air Date: | 03-Jun-1998 |
This week on Sci-Fi Adventures I'm watching Babylon 5 season 5 episode 15: Darkness Ascending. A bit of a miserable title for this one. Also most of the time the series puts its episode titles over an establishing shot of the station, but twice this season they've put it over one of the characters instead and both times it's been Garibaldi. So there's some immensely pointless trivia for you.
The episode was directed by Janet Greek, which is a name that showed up a lot in seasons one and two, especially at the start of the most important episodes, but then disappeared entirely for seasons three and four. This is her third episode this season though and she'll be back for two more stories before it's all over.
Warning: I'll be recapping, screencapping, reacting to and commenting on this entire episode, so there will be SPOILERS below. There may also be spoilers for earlier episodes too. There will not be spoilers for later ones.
Garibaldi walks in and surveys the carnage. There's fire and flickering lights, debris and dead bodies, a bunch of bananas in a pile on the floor... it's just a mess. It's not entirely clear what happened here, but he finds that Sheridan's left him a clue scrawled in his own blood.
Zack's lying nearby and he's written a message in his own blood saying "WHERE WERE YOU?". So either the two of them got a bit creative and macabre with their final texts, or they figured they should leave someone a note just to let them know that this is their fault.
Just then Franklin crawls out of some wreckage, saying "We needed you!" So Garibaldi's friends aren't all dead, but they are all very disappointed. Actually Franklin catches a PPG shot from off-screen in the chest, so he is actually dead now too.
Wait, that's not a flamethrower, that the gun he was carrying in his big damn hero flashforward in Babylon Squared! In that alternate future he stayed behind to buy time for the others to escape, but now he is the invading evil threatening the station.
I'm always impressed when I see them wreck sets like this, though I can't help think about all the work it must have taken to get it back to looking pristine again. All the hanging bits of pipe they have to remove and signs they have to screw back on.
Anyway Garibaldi's understandably a bit disturbed by what he's seeing and takes a step back.
Just as the bar is about to engulf him entirely Garibaldi wakes up... and realises he's not alone.
This is the second time a woman's mysteriously appeared in Garibaldi's room in the last few weeks, after Dodger's appearance in Day of the Dead, and this time it seems like it really is a telepath screwing with him. Man, the guy's already paranoid enough, this is the last thing he needs. Especially considering that Lyta was supposed to be the telepath they knew they could trust! He must still trust her to an extent though as he doesn't go anywhere near the gun he has under his pillow.
Lyta explains that she's decided to stop hiding her Vorlon enhancements and now she's testing to see just what she's capable of. And she's apparently decided to test her powers on her friends in their sleep! The white eyes are a clue that her abilities have evolved as they used to turn black when she was really pushing herself.
She tells him that it's just a dream and he wakes up again. Maybe it was all a dream and she was projecting herself into like Kosh did with Sheridan's dream in All Alone in the Night, and G'Kar's dream in Dust to Dust. Maybe she was never in his mind at all (she totally was).
Suddenly his door opens by itself and this time he's ready with the gun.
You can tell she knows him better than anyone as she's totally unfazed at finding herself at gunpoint. I'm a bit concerned about how everyone's able to break into the Head of Covert Intelligence's quarters so easily though.
This is one of the most interesting cold opens that Babylon 5's done I reckon, despite the fact that most of it was just a dream. And it doesn't really set up a plot.
ACT ONE
Turns out she managed to get in here so easily because he gave her a key, so that actually makes a lot of sense. He also told her that he'd only be gone for a few weeks. I was wondering what the deal was with him and Lise these days and it turns out that he's just gotten so distracted with being the Head of Covert Intelligence for the Alliance that he just didn't go back to Mars with her.
Sheridan didn't overhear much, just the part where Delenn tells Lennier that "... he has been too busy keeping the Alliance from falling apart. As soon as we have proof that the Centauri are responsible for these attacks we'll bring him into it." Which is why the President's office should probably have a door on it! Delenn has no idea that Sheridan was there however, and he seems happy to keep it that way for the moment.
At least Lennier's had some luck with his secret mission to catch the Centauri in the act of attacking a ship. He's detected coded Centauri signals that coincide with the attacks. Now he just has to figure out what he can do with them.
Lyta's trying to convince this guy to hire her rogue telepaths, with the payment being a homeworld of their own. Unfortunately all of the benefits the telepaths could provide his company wouldn't make up for the loss of their contract with the Psi Corps. This reminds me of Moments of Transition back in season 4 when she couldn't convince a company to give her a job because she wasn't part of the Corps herself anymore. That bloody Psi Corps is always in her way.
He tells her that she's going to have to find another company with more resources and no ties to Psi Corps. Well, there is that one company that tried to release a telepath virus last year and got its CEO executed by the Psi Corps. I don't think that one has any ties with Psi Corps at this current time. Plus its current owner just happened to arrive on the station five minutes ago.
But Lyta decides to call G'Kar instead.
This means that he has a day off to go to the casino! Just like the good old days. But he's not actually interested anymore, so he'll have to find something else to occupy his time.
Lise and Garibaldi are having no trouble finding stuff to do together, but the mood takes a turn when she discovers a surprisingly well-hidden bottle of whiskey in his room. I figured he was just leaving them all over his floor these days.
ACT TWO
Garibaldi knows that he's got a serious drinking problem, he's even having nightmares where all his friends die because of him, but he finds ways to justify it because, well, he's got a drinking problem.
He tries to make it seem like it's not an issue this time, because he's got his life together now. All those other times he fell back into drinking he was in a terrible place, but this time he has a great job and he has her! Then he admits that Bester taking away his control has really bothered him, but he can at least control what he does to himself, and allow himself a small bit of rebellion. She wants him to prove he has control by not drinking anything during the time she's on the station, so he pours the whiskey down the sink.
I hate it when people waste food and drink, but hey it's probably the cheapest stuff he could find.
Lennier's got a theory that the Centauri have a secret base and has been coming up with some technobabble in order to find it. Unfortunately the Maria has been called back by order of President Sheridan so he won't be able to pay them a visit and spy on what they're up to after all.
Delenn is the master of twisting conversations around and now she puts him on the defensive, accusing him of not sending Lennier on a sneaky solo mission even though he was the blatantly obvious choice. Now it's his turn to admit that he was wrong and that he was trying to protect her, bringing up all the other people she's cared for and lost recently like Marcus and Neroon... wait, Neroon? Seriously? That's the only other name they could come up with? They were eventually allies I guess but she didn't exactly care for him.
Though in the end it doesn't really matter if Sheridan changes his mind or not, as it turns out Lennier's taken a fighter and gone off on his own. Which is bad because we already know from the last episode that these things have less than seven hours of oxygen.
ACT THREE
I wonder if stealing a fighter and going on a rogue mission against the orders of the president counts as 'betraying the Rangers'. Would this fulfil Ghost Morden's prophecy from Day of the Dead? Lennier did make a point of mentioning it right before he left.
Back on the station, G'Kar is in his quarters looking at papers when he hears the door bell.
We learn that these two haven't sat and had a conversation in six years, since that time back in The Gathering where he wanted some of her DNA so that his people could create telepaths, so the movie has finally become relevant again! G'Kar reveals that one of the main reasons they wanted telepaths was to protect against the Shadows, which is a bit weird as they didn't even know that telepaths could be used against the Shadows until Garibaldi figured it out halfway through season three, but whatever.
Turns out that she's finally decided to take him up on his offer. In fact she's offering him lots of DNA samples from rogue telepaths and what she wants in return are deep-range ships to look for a colony world. G'Kar will have to run the deal past his government, but it seems like this might actually work out.
Also she namedrops the title of her actress' memoirs on the way out by saying that he once asked her what her 'pleasure threshold' is (while he was trying to sleep with her), and she's recently discovered... she doesn't have one. (She's still not going to sleep with him).
With so many other characters gone now Garibaldi's feeling like the last one to leave, but Lise reminds him it won't be long until he goes back to Mars, and asks if he's spoken to Sheridan yet. He immediately changes the subject. Lise mentions that she's been checking through what Edgars Industries has been up to, seeing as it's her company now, and some of it's kind of a concern. So she's looking forward to him coming back and helping her with it.
Garibaldi finally gets his coffee but claims it tastes terrible and then goes off to sort it out.
Seconds later there's a call from Captain Montoya on the Maria telling them that it's been 48 hours since the scene where he told them that Lennier had run off in a fighter. This is considerably longer than the 7 hours of air they carry. Fortunately they can carry 36 hours of air in this episode, so considering his skill at meditation he might still be alive. I imagine getting part of his lung removed this time last year in Rumors, Bargains and Lies isn't helping though.
His fighter lets him know it has detected a ship so Lennier finds just enough breath to engage stealth and sneakily attach his craft to their hull. Turns out that Minbari fighters have the secret ability to drill through the hull of another ship and tap into their air supply. So that's why he went out without enough air for a return trip... because he knew there was a way to get an oxygen refill when he got there! He ended up latching onto a ship instead of a secret base, but that's close enough.
ACT FOUR
Meanwhile Londo's woken up by Vir as there's an urgent message from homeworld. First though he has to get a bit of coughing out of the way. Just enough to remind us that when we saw Emperor Londo in flashforwards he had a bit of cough too. It's the cough of a bad destiny.
The guy on the screen informs Londo that Sheridan's people have fabricated evidence to blame them for the recent attacks on Alliance shipping! But then he switches to blaming the Narn when it's clear that Londo has too much respect for Sheridan to believe he'd do that, and he makes sure not to accuse G'Kar of being involved either. He's being careful not to point the finger at anyone Londo trusts, though he comes off so smug and insincere that I still wouldn't believe anything he said.
Actually I do believe him when he says that if the Alliance attacks the Centauri will fight back. It's really starting to seem like all roads lead directly to war.
There's one catch though: the telepaths will have to spy on the ambassadors from time to time. We know G'Kar well enough that he'd never really ask for that, not anymore, but I guess we don't know Lyta well enough anymore to know if she'd accept.
Turns out that she chooses to decline, because she still has lines she won't cross. Unlike Byron, who did spy on the ambassadors. The idiot.
I'm confused though. Why did Lyta refuse to scan the ambassadors to get her people everything they wanted, when she had no problem invading Garibaldi's mind earlier just for the hell of it? Is she being principled here or just pragmatic?
Meanwhile poor Lennier, who's been stuck lying in a cockpit for days at this point, finally gets a chance to see if the Centauri really are behind the attacks on shipping. Perhaps it is all just a cunning deception by the Narns like the guy on the screen said.
Lennier tells the ship to detach and fly into the debris so that he's not noticed. I guess he's gotten bored of flying the ship himself after so many days and is happy to let the computer take over. It's a weirdly nosy computer though, as it asks Lennier if he'll meditate to conserve oxygen again. He decides he'd rather pray for a while instead. He's taking a gamble that the others will receive his distress call and get here before his air runs out.
ACT FIVE
Sheridan looks absolutely gutted and he gives Delenn the bad news: they've found Lennier's fighter, and he's alive and doing fine. Plus he succeeded in his mission and got them the evidence they need. It really isn't awesome news though as now they'll have to support the Alliance worlds when they take action against the Centauri.
The camera follows Delenn as she walks out into the maze of corridors, half smiling and half crying, like G'Kar did in Acts of Sacrifice. Though by the time Londo finds her she's mostly crying.
I dunno, she once declared war against her husband's homeworld and nearly exterminated his entire race, and she still has plenty of chances to hug him. Things look a bit bleak right now, but even if they do go to war one day it will end and then there'll be time for more hugs.
Sheridan wishes he could throw the evidence away, but they have obligations. Plus it'll probably save a lot of lives if they intervene and stop the Centauri killing people.
Garibaldi finds time away from his own plot to drop by the docking bay and Sheridan tells him that they'll need him soon like they've never needed him before. Oh man, why'd he have to tell him that? He's struggling with a drinking problem that's knocked him off his game and he's supposed to be disentangling himself from the station so he can go to Mars and marry Lise!
Franklin's currently trying to do his Alliance job, asking Londo for data that can help them deal with viruses crossing species (step 1: assure him that it won't be used for biological warfare), but they're interrupted by Vir. Damn, I've just realised that this may be the last time that anyone's ever going to be talking with Londo about Interstellar Alliance business.
Vir reveals that Sheridan and Delenn have called a meeting to reveal who the attackers are and everyone's invited... except for them.
So that's a bit of a dramatic ending. Maybe not Chrysalis-level dramatic, despite what he says about the restaurant, but it's never great when the last, best hope for peace fails.
CONCLUSION
For a series about a station built to prevent another war, Babylon 5 does seem to feature a lot of wars. There was the Narn-Centauri War, the Shadow War, the Minbari Civil War, and the Earth Civil War. Now they're gearing up for an Alliance-Centauri War, which is even more depressing because of how far everyone's come by this point. The Shadows and Vorlons aren't manipulating anyone anymore! They've got everyone in an Interstellar Alliance working together! All the major empires have had regime changes! The good guys won and the remaining bad guys became good guys, but things have still gone to crap and it's all the fault of the pesky Drakh. Though that's not entirely true, as all through this episode characters are sabotaging themselves and others with their secrets.
Delenn greatest flaw might be her need to keep secrets and Lennier's greatest flaw is what he's keeping secret, so the two of them are a good fit for the story. I mean the whole business about Sheridan cancelling Lennier's mission didn't quite work for me, because he does it before talking to Delenn, and her claim that he should've sent Lennier himself was just weird; they failed to convince me that his years of experience as an ambassador's aide makes him the obvious choice for the mission. But I definitely bought that Lennier would go to extreme lengths to carry out Delenn's task for him, and that Sheridan calling it off would only make him more determined to get it done. He doesn't believe he could ever betray the Rangers, but he's already stolen one of their fighters and gone rogue for her, and he hasn't even finished his training yet! He survived this time, barely, but if Delenn had just been honest with Sheridan, Lennier could've spent half that trip in a nice comfy White Star instead.
Secrets are also a problem in Londo's plot, as basically everyone knows something he doesn't, and that means he's spending his last few days on the station hanging around bored instead of doing anything helpful. He could've been the Alliance's greatest ally in figuring out what the Centauri are up to, instead the only information he's getting are lies from back home and it's really frustrating for me because he's become such a sympathetic character.
The Garibaldi plot is all about how dishonest he's being to Lise, himself and Sheridan about his drinking problem. He can't even go through a meal without having a drink at this point, and the consequences are being heavily foreshadowed. The causes are also examined as Garibaldi thinks back to everything he's been through over the past 6 years. Losing his friends, being shot in the back, getting mind-controlled and nearly executed... it's no wonder he's a mess really. Still, the plot gave Jerry Doyle another chance to prove that he was actually a pretty decent actor, so at least something positive's coming out of this slow-motion disaster.
The G'Kar and Lyta story also dwells on the past as the two characters revisit the deal offered during their very first meeting in the pilot movie. There's only one deception here, when G'Kar tests Lyta's principles (unless she cheated by scanning his mind and lying to him). Both characters have come a long way over the years, with G'Kar becoming a much wiser and gentler person, and Lyta becoming something else. Did she invade Garibaldi's dream at the start or is he just paranoid about telepaths? The G'Kar scene makes me think she didn't, but who even knows anymore?
Overall I thought this was an alright story that provides the characters with something to do and gives the current arc a huge shove forward. The break is officially over and the series is back into full-on arc plot. It's nowhere near as good as the last episode that lead to a Centauri War though.
NEXT EPISODE
If you have opinions about Darkness Ascending you're welcome to leave a comment.
Title: "Darkness Ascending"
ReplyDeleteImage: Garibaldi rising from bed.
Me: "Well, that ain't good."
It doesn't make much sense that Minbari can't make better air scrubbers for their fighters, but I suppose it's more dramatic and less icky than the alternative explanation of them obviously not having a toilet.
ReplyDeleteThey can make better air scrubbers though. They've upgraded from 7 hours of air to 36 hours of air in the last week alone!
DeleteI guess that trainee Ranger who had the panic attack has important relatives!
Delete