| Episode: | 93 | | | Writer: | J. Michael Straczynski | | | Director: | David J. Eagle | | | Air Date: | 18-Feb-1998 |
Sci-Fi Adventures is finally back! This week I'm watching Babylon 5 season 5 episode 5. All the fives. It's a shame that Deep Space Nine didn't go to nine seasons, as it never got to complete the set. Also Odyssey 5 got cancelled in season 1 and Brooklyn Nine-Nine didn't even make it into double digits. I've still got hopes for Avenue 5 though.
I'm not going to be swayed into liking this episode, by the way. I remember it being a particularly bad episode from the mediocre half of a disappointing season, and I have no intention of allowing myself to inadvertently enjoy it. This isn't going to be a repeat of last time, when A View from the Gallery managed to win me over by the end. Sort of.
Though that being said, it was directed by David J. Eagle, who gave us episodes like Severed Dreams, And the Rock Cried Out, No Hiding Place and The Very Long Night of Londo Mollari, so maybe it'll turn out to be one of the better season 5 stories. I'll let you know.
There will be massive SPOILERS below for this episode and the story so far, as I'll be going through it scene by scene writing comments under screencaps. I'll not spoil a thing about what comes after it though.
Then it cuts to a brand new classroom set, where Ranger students are getting instruction. The last we saw of Lennier he was heading back home to become a Ranger himself, so you'd expect to see him here, but nope. There is a pak'ma'ra in the back row though! So that's different. Rangers have all been human or Minbari up to this point.
Turval is currently teaching his students about meditation and some of them are proving to be better at dealing with distractions than others. The pak'ma'ra is so good that they've dozed off entirely. Another, a Minbari called Rastenn, doesn't consider sitting and thinking to be an actual challenge, which I suppose is part of the reason he's failing so badly. Turval suggests that he should forget the thinking part for now and they can work on that in the advanced classes. Man, smart-ass teachers are so much better when you're watching them on TV instead of being in their class.
But Durhan lets Turval's smart-ass apology for his untimely words slide, as the two have reached the 'playful banter' stage of post-war reconciliation. Durhan's just dropped by tell Turval that they'll both be departing for Babylon 5 in a few minutes, as he was instructed to bring someone with him and he's decided it's only fair that the rest of the universe gets a chance to suffer from his wit. Turval decides to bring two escorts: the Warrior Caste student who can't meditate and a Religious Caste student called Tannier who couldn't help grinning like an idiot during their entire conversation.
The scene ends with Tannier hyped to be going to the home of peace... and the episode cuts straight to someone called Lex getting their ass kicked in DownBelow. Turns out that a certain crime boss wasn't too happy that Lex was late paying his debts. It's been a while, but Deuce is finally back! You know, from the season 1 episode Grail? He was the one who had a fake Kosh that he was using to suck people's brains out.
Trace has his boys shoot poor unfortunate Lex, and tells them to leave the body as a message to everyone that there's a new power on the station. Babylon 5 belongs to him.
I feel like Trace must have missed the first few seasons, as people are murdered all the time in DownBelow. Sometimes they even have their brains sucked out. No one's going to be intimidated by this, especially as there's apparently nothing to indicate who did it or why.
Anyway, that's the end of the teaser.
ACT ONE
It turns out that Delenn only called them here because she wanted to know how things were going with the Rangers, so there's no big drama happening here. Not with these guys anyway.
Zack lets him know that Byron's come up with some candidates for the psychic covert ops squad he's putting together, so that thread hasn't been forgotten. Unfortunately Garibaldi hasn't forgotten his dislike of Lochley either, and when he sees her looking for a table he invites her over into his trap. Then he immediately starts winding her up, bringing up how she wasn't exactly on their side during their civil war, and suggesting that she might feel some obligation to arrange for Earth to replace some of the fighters they lost in the conflict. These two are definitely not at the playful banter stage of post-war reconciliation.
Garibaldi puts her on the spot, asking her to tell them what side she fought for, making a private question very public. The other people in the room start looking very uncomfortable all of a sudden, and poor Zack's caught at the epicentre of this event.
And then everyone claps as she walks out! Well, okay some people clap, about a third of them I think, but it sure feels like all of them when it happens. It seems a bit weird that anyone here would applaud someone saying 'I couldn't turn against my corrupt government because it'd make duty, loyalty and honour meaningless', as it kind of implies that everyone here abandoned either their duty, loyalty and honour when they did it. I don't have a problem with the speech or the character of Lochley, but the reaction was a mistake I think. Especially as we're encouraged to sympathise with the person who just followed the orders of a fascist government over the person who fought to defeat them.
Then again my sympathy might only be with her because Garibaldi's being a real grumpy cynical paranoid git this season. It was fine last season when he was mind-controlled, but now it's getting a little obnoxious. They should've ended the scene with Zack saying something like "Michael, you've just gotten a room of soldiers to clap for someone as she explained why she fought on the opposite side; they must really be getting sick of you."
Lochley gets in a transport tube, which happens to be the exact one that the President of the Universe is currently in. She tells him about her chat with Garibaldi, and admits that there are issues that need to be addressed. Sheridan offers to talk to him about it, but she'd rather handle her own problems and he assures her that he has confidence she will.
This is the corridor set that fits right between the Zocalo and the Customs Area but they've placed some carefully positioned trash around and stuck some plastic freezer spacers in front of the lights to make dramatic shadows, and suddenly it's a dark corner of DownBelow.
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| Star Trek: The Next Generation 1-01 - Encounter at Farpoint |
Anyway Detective Zack is on the case. He knows that the heat given off a PPG burst doesn't cauterise a wound instantly, there's a bit of bleeding first, but there's no blood here. Therefore the victim was likely killed elsewhere and then moved to this spot afterwards. He shouts to the extras, asking if they saw or heard anything, but they couldn't say anything if they wanted to, not without being paid by the production, so they remain silent.
Zack's got a nice speech though, explaining that there's going to be more killing and it could be one of them next, unless they help him catch the killer. Trace has got them scared, that's his plan, but their fear isn't helping anyone.
Wait, have we seen that henchman he's standing next to before? I think he was one of the smugglers that Ivanova was trying to recruit in Racing Mars. I've seen Trace before as well, as he's played by one of the many actors to come to Babylon 5 from the Mortal Kombat movies. He's called Trevor Goddard, and had the role of Kano... a crime boss.
ACT TWO
The guy makes the case that they're in a position to take over all the rackets here as long as they keep their heads down. Trace has a different idea though. He replies that the trick to making it big in a place like this is to just keep killing everyone who comes after them, until one of the replacements is corrupt enough to come to an arrangement. That's how it worked for him on Beta 7... until he got kicked out due to the war.
They talk to her about how they've opened up Ranger membership to all the Alliance races, not just the humans and Minbari. Now they've got two Drazi, two Yolu, three Abbai and a pak'ma'ra. Huh, what's a Yolu and an Abbai? I don't think we've seen them before.
Durhan admits that they have no idea what to do with their pak'ma'ra, as he's not typical Ranger material. You couldn't really picture him twirling around with a staff. It's a bit mean of Durhan to attack the whole species though, saying they're all "slow, greedy, selfish, not very bright".
This is Delenn's time to shine, as she gets to use all of her compassion for others and her ability to see the best in people to come up with a military application for their pak'ma'ra recruit. Current Ranger training methods were created for Minbari, but she suggests that they could take advantage of the pak'ma'ra's natural ability to be shunned and unloved. They should be trained as couriers, she says, as everyone in the galaxy tries very hard not to notice the poor buggers. The two masters recognise her wisdom.
Delenn and Turval continue to chat outside, and he brings up his former student Marcus! He tells her that his fate wasn't entirely unexpected as he joined out of guilt, looking for a way to atone... and he's concerned that Lennier has joined for the wrong reasons as well. Hey the episode remembered Lennier after all! He's apparently pushing himself too hard, being reckless, as if he's trying to prove something. Yep, that sounds like him alright.
This is a bit of a private chat, so Tannier and Rastenn are sent off to make themselves acquainted with the station. There's not much of a plot going on right now though so the episode decides to check in with Garibaldi for a bit as he briefs his new telepathic operatives.
Once that business is dealt with, Garibaldi moves onto the next thing on his agenda: getting Zack to give him Lochley's personal files. He makes the point that he did the same thing when Sheridan arrived! He knows there's something else going on here and he won't be satisfied until he finds out what it is. Strange though how he hasn't tried asking Sheridan yet.
They're interrupted when Zack gets a call, telling him that a lurker called Cynthia Teegarden has information on the killer and wants to meet with him. So he goes off alone to DownBelow. So much for Zack being smart; it's like he wants to be murdered!
The two Rangers are also down in DownBelow, trying to learn about all the dark places. This is a five mile long station though, so there may be more dark places here than they have time for on this visit. I mean Franklin went missing for days.
As they walk off screen we see Trace walking the other direction on his way to meet up with the bait in this trap he's setting for Zack.
But she's only halfway out the door when she overhears him mention they'll be murdering the guy, and she's not into that at all. They've got her name on file, they'll know she was involved!
Trace has one of his goons grab her so she can't go warn anyone. In retrospect, yelling to Trace about it first probably wasn't the smartest thing she could've done.
Why is it that the Warrior Caste never wants to fight when they've got a good cause? They only ever seem to fight a battle that they know is going to be a curb stomp, like against Earth or against the Religious Caste. I feel like Neroon fighting Marcus was the most equal fight we've seen any of them in, and even then the result wasn't really in doubt.
Tannier runs off on his own undeterred, ready to show Trace's thugs what a Minbari Ranger is capable of.
Trace decides that they might as well make a statement with him instead, seeing as he's here, and his goons give the Ranger a good kick to the chest before showering him with punches. I keep waiting for Rastenn to show up to help his buddy, but it seems like he really doesn't want to get involved.
Man Zack got lucky here, he'll never know how close he came to death. Though on the other hand, Zack's survived in this job for a year now and he was a security officer for years before that, so maybe he would've gotten out of the ambush just fine. Maybe he would've taken down Trace's whole gang single-handedly!
ACT THREE
Turns out that the lurker who inadvertently called Zack down to be executed also called security to save Tannier's life (even though Zack was already heading down there anyway). Unfortunately it seems that she got on a transport and left, leaving them without a witness who can tell them who did this. Trace keeps sending messages, but he never tells them who they're from!
While they work on identifying the perpetrators, the Rangers prepare for Mora'Dum - the application of terror. Marcus talked about this to Franklin back in A Late Delivery from Avalon, but he wasn't too forthcoming about the details. Delenn also mentioned that "terror is a form of communication" a couple of episode ago in The Paragon of Animals, so it seems like they're all on the same page here.
Basically the Rangers have independent authority in any world that's signed up to be part of the Alliance, and are above local security and police forces. So that's a bit of a bombshell that's being dropped here. I don't remember her mentioning that in her speech back in Rising Star. They're basically like the Spectres in the Mass Effect games, and that's more fun when you're playing as one than when you've got them running around on your space station.
Delenn claims that she's already spoken to Sheridan about this and he agrees with her, which confuses Lochley as that isn't like him. Now it's Delenn's turn to be confused as she wonders why she'd know that. Besides it's totally like Sheridan to take Lochley's authority away, like when he let the telepath colony move in back in No Compromises. Anyway, Delenn assures Lochley that this isn't about revenge, it's about terror (and the camera zooms in a bit to emphasise that point). Yeah, that doesn't actually make it better.
Then we get more of the conversation between Lochley and Delenn, except entirely in voice over this time, as they discuss the kind of terror the Rangers will be inflicting. It's the variety of terror that cripples and destroys from within. Except they're not actually inflicting it, they're facing it. Delenn explains that Tannier has to take on the thing that scares him as soon as he can walk again or else it'll always have power over him. This is actually based on something that happened to writer jms, as he was once mugged and nearly killed. As soon as he got out of the hospital he went right back to where it happened.
The scene ends with a shot of a barely-healed Tannier limping out of Medlab in obvious pain, while Delenn tells us that the others can't help him, as he has to do this alone. Even if it kills him. Man, the Rangers seemed so friendly in the teaser, but it seems like they're setting up this guy to die just so he's not afraid of incredibly life-threatening situations. Not that he's demonstrated any kind of fear at all so far.
ACT FOUR
A couple of his goons go out to scout, but it's too dark for them to notice the Rangers lurking in the shadows. The Rangers wait until the goons check in over the radio and then beat them up live on air. Trace figures that security must know something they don't, so if he and his goons can make their way out of the levels that they've evacuated, they should be safe. But as they head down the corridor something's lurking behind them, taking them out one by one like a slasher villain. It takes a while though, as Trace has got a lot of men!
We get a montage of Rangers hitting goons in the head, until only Trace is left. I guess they were all given a good description from Tannier to let them know which one to leave standing. Trace runs off, terrified, and ends up going right where the Rangers want him.
Trace isn't an idiot, he knows he's not going to do well against a trained Ranger in stick combat, but Turval assures him that Tannier's still training, so he's not even that good! Plus he literally just limped out of a hospital bed after suffering a beatdown that would've killed a human. Really this doesn't look great for the Rangers, putting a recruit into a fight in this state. They definitely look a bit menacing in this lighting though, with their jagged bone crests shining bright against the shadowy walls. It was worth them taking the extra effort to get all these spotlights set up in advance.
Trace yells that he's got his rights, so Tannier hits him across the face with a pipe. Seems that his rights have changed in Sheridan and Delenn's allegedly more utopian future. He now has the right to pick up the damn stick.
The two Ranger masters team up to deconstruct Trace verbally, calling him a classic bully archetype and a coward, who has less technique with a pike than even their pak'ma'ra recruit. Man, they just can't leave that poor pak'ma'ra alone.
Trace drops the staff and switches to punches so that he can actually get some hits in, so Tannier finishes the job with his fists. Afterwards he tells the others that he feels no more fear. So that's good, he's solved that problem that I'm not even sure he had. He also pities Trace because he'll never rise above being a rubbish bully. I wonder though, if there was a way Tannier could've confronted his fear without violent retribution, like maybe he could've been brave and not hit him?
Now that they're done Zack can take Trace away and explain to the court that the Minbari are allowed to rough up suspects now. With any luck they'll also have some kind of evidence to connect him to the murders, even though we've heard nothing about it yet. I suppose Tannier is a witness to what he did to him.
After Turval leaves, Delenn calls Durhan on the fact that Tannier was fighting a bit too well with the pike, almost like a Warrior Caste master had given him some tips. Hang on, she was watching?
He tells Zack that he thinks the Minbari are genetically incapable from walking away from a fight, bringing up examples like Delenn wiping out the Drakh in Lines of Communication and the Earth-Minbari War. This one tiny little comment kind of shifts our perspective on the whole story. Up to this point we've been hearing people tell us how things are, with utter conviction, as if they were delivering truth straight from the writer's mouth. But now we've got an outsider pulling us out to a more objective point of view. He's wrong though, Delenn walked away from a fight in Moments of Transition when she surrendered during the Minbari Civil War. Then she walked into an energy beam and won anyway.
Zack points out that Garibaldi doesn't know when to quit either, as he's still trying to get those files on Lochley. In fact the scene gives us the definite impression that he's going to check Zack's computer the moment he's out the room. Hopefully Zack chose a good password.
It's kind of reassuring though, to learn that the Alliance's Head of Covert Intelligence doesn't have the power to spy on any personal information he feels like. Zack does, but he doesn't.
Cut to the two of them in bed, facing opposite directions, Delenn looking angry and Sheridan looking guilty. She's mostly angry that he didn't tell her immediately. We don't learn what she learned and I'm not going to speculate because I know the answer, but it seems fairly obvious what we're meant to assume.
CONCLUSION
Wikipedia defines a learning curve as being "a graphical representation of the relationship between how proficient someone is at a task and the amount of experience he or she has." I guess jms chose the title because it sounds a lot better than The Rangers Learn a Lesson. The lesson being that you have to get back on the horse that bucked you before the fear has time to take root in your mind. There's also a lesson here about how bullies are cowards, but I'm not sure that information's really all that useful unless you've got a special forces team to take out their backup, and even cowardly Trace found the courage to throw some punches when he was isolated.
There are two storylines here: Garibaldi investigating Lochley and the Rangers visiting the station, though calling what Garibaldi did an 'investigation' is maybe an exaggeration. Really all he did was pester Zack a couple of times.
The trouble with the Lochley and Garibaldi plot is that it kind of feels like wasted time, seeing as the mystery is so soap opera and trivial and it doesn't even get solved this episode! We do get a memorable speech from Lochley at least, but it's memorable for the wrong reasons. People recall it as being one of the worst bits of season 5, more because of the reaction of the crew rather than anything she says. It's understandable that they'd have a respect for Lochley and they'd certainly appreciate it when she says she'd stick out her neck for them, but clapping after she explained why she was morally justified in not fighting alongside them in the war they'd just been through seemed very strange. Especially as they were fighting fascists who were murdering civilians.
The Rangers plot is also a little weird, and I think that's partially because we're getting a lot of scenes from the Rangers' perspective, but jms doesn't fully commit to giving the whole episode over to the guest stars this time and making it obvious that it's from their point of view. So we get scene after scene of Minbari masters sharing their wisdom, but only Garibaldi's scene at the very end to tell us 'this is showing us how they think, it's not necessarily the writer speaking universal wisdom through his characters.
It's also weird because it's all about Minbari Rangers in training, but Lennier never shows up. I can understand why he wouldn't be one of the two learning a lesson, as he doesn't need to be taught to sacrifice his life or face his fears, but it's strange how the one time we see a class of students he makes no appearance at all. I'm not even sure Tannier needed to learn to face his fears to be honest, as there wasn't a hint of reluctance from the guy at any point in the story. There wasn't much hint of internal injury by the end either, though I suppose the presence of the other students implies a bit of a time skip.
The episode's not just about the students learning a lesson though, it's also about the Minbari masters learning how to be flexible in how they treat alien recruits, and Lochley learning that the Space FBI has some weird customs she's just going to have to adapt to. From this point on the Rangers have the legal right to beat the shit out of their suspects on any Alliance world they visit and that's just how it is. There's something sinister about it all, despite the 'do the right thing, no matter the scale of it' message. Though I think it makes more sense if you bear in mind that these traditions were started a thousand years ago by a guy from the future with a death wish who repeatedly went down to DownBelow to get his face punched in. Beating up thugs in the B5 slums is part of the Rangers' DNA whether they know it or not.
Overall I wasn't entirely keen on this one. It's got Turhan Bey back and Byron never shows up, and yet it's defied the odds to become my least favourite episode so far this season. But I didn't hate it, and I enjoyed the scenes of the two Ranger masters trading insults with respect. As much as I like Neroon, I think Durhan has replaced him as my favourite Warrior Caste guy.
NEXT TIME
You should leave a comment by the way!
these traditions were started a thousand years ago by a guy from the future with a death wish who repeatedly went down to DownBelow to get his face punched in. Beating up thugs in the B5 slums is part of the Rangers' DNA whether they know it or not.
ReplyDeletePerfect distillations like this are a big reason why I read your blog.
Zack narrowly avoided being given a permanent limp this episode. I hope his luck holds out!
ReplyDeleteWow, Space 1999 and Total Recall 2070 never had a chance.
ReplyDelete