Babylon 5 4-06: Into the Fire

Episode:

72

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Writer:

J. Michael Straczynski

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Director:

Kevin James Dobson

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Air Date:

03-Feb-1997

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm writing about Babylon 5 episode 4-06: Into the Fire, which continues on from the cliffhanger ending of the previous story: Out of the Frying Pan. Actually the last episode was called The Long Night, but my title's better.

Into the Fire was the second and final episode directed by Kevin James Dobson, who had previously directed Whatever Happened to Mr. Garibaldi? That was perhaps the weakest episode of season four so far, but that's like saying it was the worst choc-chip cookie in the pack. Okay, I'm going to have to take these off my desk or else all my metaphors are going to end up being cookie related.

Anyway, here's a fact you'll never read anywhere else, because who would ever care: the week after The Long Night and Into the Fire were broadcast, Deep Space Nine aired its own epic two-parter called In Purgatory's Shadow and By Inferno's Light. Bit of a 'darkness leading to fire' theme going on in both series. Voyager tried to join in with Jekyll & Hyde Doctor story Darkling, but maybe it would've been better if it hadn't.

This recap/review will feature SPOILERS for this episode and the series up to this point, but I'll not spoil anything that comes after it, so it's first-time viewer safe.

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The episode begins with a beautiful shot of a White Star hanging out in front of a nebula. The Eagle Nebula, to be specific, as this was created from the photograph Pillars of Creation, taken by the Hubble Telescope two years earlier. They've edited it a bit, but it's still immediately recognisable.

It's one of the prettiest and most striking nebula backgrounds in the series so far, but the colours aren't exactly representative of what you'd see with the naked eye, so no bonus points for realism!

Have the White Stars always had comfy seats underneath the front windows?

This is the sixth episode in a row to start with someone making a personal log and this time it's Ivanova. She and Lorien are still searching for First Ones to bring in as allies during their fight against the Vorlons and Shadows, and they've actually found five of them so far! They just need to find one more and they've got the whole set.

Ivanova's dying to fly off so they can join Sheridan's fleet in time for the greatest space battle in history, but Lorien feels it's apparently absolutely essential that they get them all, so she's got to wait just a little longer. It's not his plan though, it's Sheridan's. He's forming a crucible to force out the truth, apparently. That bastard Kosh was right after all, it is going to end in fire, but it's going to be a metaphorical fire.

Here they are! It's funny how all the First One races aside from the Shadows and Vorlons have each packed their entire civilisation into just one ship. It's not like they're heading anywhere, they just got bored of planets I suppose.

Lorien tells Ivanova that these guys are almost as old as the Vorlons, and he'll introduce her to them. They haven't spoken to anyone else in centuries, but they'll definitely remember him.

Meanwhile Sheridan's leading the other White Stars to attack a Vorlon observation post on an asteroid. The series' new VFX team has the starships moving in swarms and flying around like starfighters, even though they're hundreds of meters long, but it kind of works I think.

I'm mostly just happy that I've finally been reminded what episode this shot is from! It's in the season five opening credits, so that's at least 22 times I've tried and failed to remember the story which had them attacking giant sci-fi mushrooms.

Oh I should mention that Sheridan and Delenn are leading this attack in person, which is an incredibly dumb idea seeing as they're only ones (aside from Lorien) who seem to know the plan. I can't say it's not in character though and they thankfully manage to destroy the asteroid base and survive to rejoin the fleet, or else this would've been a very depressing and surprisingly early series finale. 

Sheridan's very proud of his new fleet, telling Delenn that there's "Thousands of ships from over two dozen races working together for the very first time." Most of the races already pulled together a fleet like this to take on the Shadows back in Shadow Dancing, but I guess this fleet must be bigger and include more races.

And that's how the teaser ends.

ACT ONE

Act one begins with Lyta and Marcus hanging out in a bedroom. You know, I don't think we've ever seen these two share a scene together until now. I checked to see if he was on the OG White Star during Lyta's trip out in Walkabout, but he wasn't even in that episode, and he wasn't in Hour of the Wolf when she went to Z'ha'dum either. Oh wait, they were standing next to each other at the end of The Summoning.

They're discussing the Vorlons, because they're very newsworthy at the moment. Lyta's heard that by the time the Vorlons arrive at Coriana 6, a second fleet will be ready to blow up Centauri Prime, and she's wondering why we're trying to save this planet and not the other one. Marcus reveals that it's simple maths: Coriana 6 has six billion people, Centauri Prime has only three billion. Wow, that planet has a surprisingly low population. Also Marcus is wrong: Sheridan's fleet is going to Coriana 6 because that's the one Lennier told them about first.

Marcus just hopes that the Centauri have gotten rid of all Shadow influences by now, or else they're screwed.

Cut to Centauri Prime, where Londo's quickly arranging the departure of the Shadow vessels parked on the island of Selini. He also decides to have a sit down on the empty throne, which actually still exists! I was worried that the Narns smashed the show's only prop last episode, but it turns out they destroyed a replica. Minister Virini soon gets him out of it, but it'll be his eventually.

Londo also asks for the Ministers of War, Intelligence, Transportation and Security to be brought to him. Hey that spells 'wits', or at least it would if anyone here was speaking English.

I wonder why the posts on Sheridan's ship are lit red, when the ones on Ivanova's bridge are lit purple. Is it for red alert maybe? Oh, it's so we can tell the ships apart! Ivanova's ship has purple light panels on the back wall as well.

Delenn suggests that they let Ivanova sit this one out as they have so many ships here that one more's not going to make a difference. But Sheridan promised that she'd be part of the fleet last episode and she will be... even if it leaves Zack Allan in charge of the station and puts her on track for a tragic and avoidable death. I suppose they do need her to bring Lorien here.

Wait, I've just realised that Garibaldi's still on Babylon 5. He went through all season three without ever getting to ride on the White Star and now they've left him behind again! It's like they want him to be grumpy all the time.

Oh hey the oldest being in the galaxy just dropped by Ivanova's quarters for a chat. Ivanova was really eager to catch up to the rest of the fleet in time to join the battle, but it seems she's taken a detour to B5 to get a drink and tidy some files away. There is a good reason for this however: the scene was originally written for the previous episode and got moved. This seems to keep happening to Ivanova's scenes this season.

Lorien explains a bit about his race here, confirming that he does have a race and he's not a species of one. Plus his people didn't invent an immortality serum (like the one from Deathwalker), they're naturally immune to aging. They can die from injury or illness though and in fact many of them have. The rest have gone away beyond the rim... which turns out to mean the galactic rim in this case.

He believes that nature eventually concluded that immortality was a bit of a misstep, as later generations of his people started to die from old age and it seems pretty typical for other races as well. He feels that only those who have a brief life can believe that love lasts forever, and that's a gift he has had to live without. Well I suppose he could've believed it for the first century or two, but that doesn't seem so long when you're as old as sapient life itself.

Nice of him to drop that spoiler on Ivanova by the way. Now she's got to deal with having a finite life without the illusion that love is eternal.

It's a shame that they're all too busy to really sit down and chat with Lorien though, because the guy must know an insane amount of stuff about everything. He knows the history of the First Ones, he knows about the beginning of life in the galaxy, he's got a billion or so years of history in his head and a good memory. When the Vorlons, Shadows and other First Ones were the younger races, his people were the First Ones to them. And you can tell he's been around as he knows English somehow!

There's a brief clip of the Vorlon fleet on its way to either blow up Coriana 6 or Centauri Prime and then we're back with Londo, who is also busy sorting out paperwork. He's clearly in a hurry but he's interrupted by the Minister of Intelligence with some personal information to be delivered to him in private. I like this guy by the way, he does a good job in the scene.

The minister explains that Cartagia told him to look into Adira's murder and ordered him not to say a word to Londo about it while he still lived. But then Cartagia died, so he figured that was his cue to tell Londo about what we already saw back in Interludes and Examinations.

Basically Morden killed Adira and framed Lord Refa for it to manipulate Londo into working with the Shadows again.

I understand why Londo might be a bit ticked off after learning that he's been played by Morden, but it doesn't feel like it should be that big a deal to him. All Morden's manipulations did in the end was drive him to permanently deal with a rival who definitely did cause the deaths of his friends Prime Minister Malachi and Urza Jaddo. But Londo goes to pieces over it, literally flipping a table as he demolishes his room.

It's a great scene though, all filmed in one take... somehow. The camera's not just keeping him in frame as he flies around the room, it's also spinning around him. It's pretty impressive!

The director apparently wasn't keen on doing it all in one unbroken shot at first, and I can see his point. He was the one who directed Garibaldi raging out in Whatever Happened to Mr Garibaldi? and that scene worked well with multiple takes and quick cuts. But here they ultimate went with one take and I think it was the right choice.

ACT TWO

Act two begins with the punchline to that scene a few episodes back where Ivanova told people she was learning Minbari, as she says "Ah hell!" while trying to get the crew to go faster and it turns out that means 'continuous fire'.

She's been doing pretty well otherwise though, as she's been commanding the ship without a translator all this time.

Lorien explains her mistake, because of course he can speak fluent Minbari as well.

I love the way they both turn to look at each other simultaneously here. Lorien and Ivanova are a better pair than Lorien and Sheridan, they should've given them more scenes together! You can see what I mean about her ship being purple by the way. I'd think I'd rather have this White Star to be honest, as I don't need red lights everywhere putting me on edge.

Meanwhile Sheridan's fleet has been busy seeding those nukes they got from the Gaim back in Z'ha'dum all over the asteroids near Coriana 6. Man, I hope they plan to remove them again after they're done.

Back at Centauri Prime, Londo has brought Mr Morden in for a chat. The guy's fully healed at this point, he's even got the hair back, so there's no need for the creepy cloak anymore. I wonder if he was tempted to stick his hair up into a fan shape to try to fit in.

Londo orders him to remove the Shadow vessels from the island of Selini, but he refuses. Not that it's likely his choice, seeing as he's just an agent for the Shadows who follow him around everywhere, invisible.

Oh, well, turns out they're dead now. Seems like it's significantly easier to kill a Shadow than it is to kill a Vorlon (though that gang of Shadows dealt with Kosh pretty easily back in Interludes and Examinations). I don't know how Londo knew about Morden's invisible friends, but I can imagine he learned it from the Minister of Intelligence during their meeting. That guy knows everything, he's awesome.

There's been a real shift in the power dynamic between Londo and Morden now that Londo's got himself a well-armed personal guard, but Morden still refuses to move the ships.

He points out that Londo doesn't really have any way to threaten them, and he's does have a point. Shadow technology is thousands of years beyond Centauri technology. Just a handful of these Shadow vessels were able to destroy the entire Narn fleet and they have an island covered in them.

I mean what's Londo going to do, destroy the entire island of Selini?

And Londo nukes the entire island of Selini.

The blast is so big that it can be seen from space and they can feel it all the way over in the Royal Palace. Morden reacts like his family just got blown up and I guess they did. Turns out that a lot of Centauri died as well, volunteers who knew what was going to happen, as they couldn't risk tipping the Shadows off.

It's almost like Londo's competing with Sheridan at this point. Sheridan kills a Vorlon, Londo kills a room full of Shadows. Sheridan murders an ambassador, Londo assassinates an emperor. Sheridan sacrifices a White Star and crew, Londo sacrifices an entire island.

Morden is dragged away, yelling that Londo has made a mistake, and that even if the Shadows lose they have allies who'll make sure Centauri Prime pays the price.

It's really satisfying for Londo to get the upper hand on Morden and save his planet from the Shadows, but the sad thing is we've already seen in War Without End that Centauri Prime does pay the price.

3-16 - War Without End, Part 1

We're now very much on track for the future that Sheridan visited. The future he sacrificed himself at Z'ha'dum to avert.

The act ends with Ivanova arriving to join up with Sheridan's fleet just in time. We learn here that Sheridan is commanding White Star 2, but we still don't know what Ivanova's ship is called. Is it White Star 1 maybe, or was that the one that blew up at Z'ha'dum?

Ivanova really is just in time as well, as the Vorlons and Shadows arrive moments later.

ACT THREE

The Vorlons and Shadows go straight for each other, completely ignoring Sheridan's puny irrelevant fleet. Seems like Sheridan could just let them beat the crap out of each other and then take down the wounded victor afterwards... but that's not what he's going to do.

Instead he starts setting off asteroid nukes, blowing up Shadow and Vorlon vessels! See I told you he was competing with Londo. Turning an asteroid field into a mine field is one of Sheridan's oldest tricks, as it's how he got Earth's only real victory in the Earth-Minbari War. He only took down one unstoppable ship back then though, so he's got to step up his game if he's going to win this.

Lyta does her Deanna Troi thing here, using her telepathic abilities to tell Sheridan that "They're pissed".

Now it's a three-way battle outside, but what Sheridan really wants is for the Vorlons to pick up the phone. He tries explaining to them that Coriana 6 is a low-tech planet and they just ignore him.

But Delenn has a plan! They can use Lyta to send a telepathic signal that they can't ignore.

Back on Centauri Prime, we get a brand new establishing shot of a city! At least I think it's new. Didn't the VFX people have enough on their plate for this episode without coming up with a whole city as well?

I mean they even did this in-cockpit shot of Starfuries flying across a Vorlon ship, with a wireframe version of the scene displayed on the screen inside the model. Now I know why some of the effects in the last episode looked so terrible: Netter Digital were busy that month.

It'd be interesting to visit a parallel universe and see what the episode would've looked like if Foundation Imaging were still doing the effects instead of Netter Digital. I've a feeling they would've done a better job keeping the scale of the ships consistent and made more of an attempt at keeping the physics realistic, but I'm not sure it would've looked much better overall. This is a flashy effects scene, for 1997 TV anyway. The Centauri city looks fantastic as well.

Anyway, Londo has called Vir into the episode to tell him that he has removed the last of the Shadow influence on the planet and there's a gift waiting for him outside.

Season 2's In the Shadow of Z'ha'dum began with a conversation between Morden and Vir, where he asked him what he wanted. Vir replied that he'd like to live just long enough to be there when they cut off his head and stick it on a pike as a warning to the next ten generations that some favours come with too high a price. He said that he wants to look up into his lifeless eyes and wave...

... like this.

I want you to understand that I don't approve of removing people's heads and placing them on pikes, but I love this scene so much. I love that out of everyone that Morden asked, only Vir got exactly what he wanted. And we get a brief black and white flashback in the episode to remind us that it is what he wanted.

To be honest I was expecting Vir to be horrified and that what he thought he wanted wasn't actually what he wanted at all... but yeah it kinda was. Both his friend and his planet are finally free of this son of a bitch's attempts to tempt and manipulate them into waging war and assassinating people to gain power.

But last season Londo got a bit of prophecy from Lady Morella saying that killing the one who is already dead would be a bad thing. Has Londo made a horrible mistake here by killing Morden? Or will he later avoid the horrible mistake by saving Sheridan (in the War Without End future)? Or will there be a third character who counts as 'already dead'? Prophecies, man...

Meanwhile Sheridan calls in the other First Ones to attack the Vorlon planet killer before it can blow up Coriana 6! He wanted to keep them in reserve, but they'd ran out of time. The Sigma 957 Walkers must be happy; they were recruited to help the Vorlons, even though they hated them, but instead they've been given an opportunity to utterly wreck their most powerful ship!

Well, one of their most powerful ships anyway. Back on Centauri Prime, Londo rushes to tell Vir that he's eliminated all Shadow influence on the planet and sent the Vorlons all the proof they need, but the second planet killer is still on the way.

Vir realises that there's still one thing influenced by the Shadows left on the planet... Londo himself.

And the planet killer moves to block out the sun, for the sake of a dramatic shot. I'm not complaining, I love when we get a POV shot that looks up, or down, or basically anywhere that gives the impression we're in a real place and not just a set.

Just don't look up at the top left of this shot.

Londo tells Vir to kill him, to save the planet. It doesn't sound like much of a sacrifice, seeing as he'd be dead either way, but it's definitely more of a sacrifice than Cartagia or Refa would've ever made. Plus he doesn't even consider running to a shuttle and just leaving the planet. He really does put the safety of his world above himself.

Way way back in A Voice in the Wilderness, Londo was one of the candidates considered to become the new guardian of the Great Machine on Epsilon 3 because of his potential capacity for self-sacrifice. Now we've got the proof he's got it in him. Well, we've got more proof. We've already seen him ask G'Kar to strangle him to death in War Without End, and G'Kar went and did it.

But Vir doesn't have it in him to murder his friend, and this turns out to be fortunate as the ship flies off on its own. The destruction of their planet killer at Coriana 6 has got the Vorlons pulling their other ships over as reinforcements. So really Centauri Prime was never in danger of being destroyed and everything they did was unnecessary! Cartagia really had it coming though.

Man, I can't believe we're only 26 minutes into the episode.

Back on White Star 2, the Vorlons have finally picked up the phone, the Shadows too, both of them speaking through Lyta. One side zaps Sheridan, the other zaps Delenn, so now both actors have to stand there perfectly still with a wibbly energy effect composited over them.

ACT FOUR

Lorien uses his telepathic powers to broadcast what they're seeing to the others and it turns out that Sheridan is seeing a woman trapped inside a prison of crumpled up plastic who speaks via a flashing gem on her collar. So that's a bit weird. (To be fair it looks less like cellophane and more like ice when the camera moves).

She asks Sheridan why they oppose the Vorlons when they've had their best interests at heart this whole time. Sheridan points out that he's noticed that they're happily blowing up their planets (and he doesn't approve), but they're not making a move against the Shadows' homeworld itself.

They use Kosh's old line about how he does not understand, but this time he actually does. Sheridan brings up Kosh's old line about understanding being a three-edged sword: there's your side, their side and the truth. The truth right now is that the younger races don't need the Vorlons or the Shadows.

Meanwhile Delenn's having a chat with someone a bit more animated. The Vorlons are represented by a woman frozen in ice, a metaphor for order, so I guess this means that Susan Ivanova is a metaphor for absolute chaos?

Shadow Ivanova puts on a bit of a William Shatner performance (in a good way), augmented by the occasional Shadow sound, and makes the case that the Vorlons' philosophy is a dead end. No evolution, no change. Then she walks off camera and comes back as Shadow Franklin! Wow, was the use of multiple narrators in the season 4 opening titles meant to foreshadow this scene? Probably not. Though the way the Shadows are using the form of people she knows as an avatar reminds me of Deep Space Nine's godlike Prophets, because they do the exact same thing.

It cuts between Sheridan and Delenn simultaneously revealing that the Vorlons and Shadows don't attack each other directly because they only want to kill the message, not the messenger. They want the other side to know that they were wrong. It's not about teaching or helping the younger races any more, it's about two parents each trying to manipulate their kids so that they'll side with them, forcing them to choose.

Aww, they should've put Shadow Delenn in her old makeup for this scene, or even current Delenn if they wanted to make a point about evolution and change. Sure it would've taken hours longer to shoot, but it would've been cool!

Incidentally, it's funny how the Shadows are all about change but they carry on doing the same thing cycle after cycle, over and over and over again.

Both sides tell the characters to do as they're told, but Sheridan and Delenn tell them that they're done choosing between them. This must be very confusing to the people seeing this as a telepathic broadcast, as Lorien's not going to be cutting between scenes for them; they're getting both conversations at once.

Just then an asteroid collides with White Star 2's hull and jostles the ship a bit. Probably not one of the ones with a nuke in, but I'm sure it would've been fine if it was, nukes generally don't go off if you hit them.

They've still got a problem though, as when the ship rocked, Lorien's hand crossed into the energy field for a moment and gave away to the Shadows and Vorlons that he's been projecting their secret conversations to everyone else. It's similar to how this close up gives away that the White Star model doesn't have enough detail for these kinds of shots.

Lorien pulls Delenn and Sheridan back out of their dreamworlds with his nebulous telepathic powers, but the Shadows switch to plan B: kill them all with their death cloud. The temperature drops so low that they can't use their engines to escape and there's a whole lot of missiles pointed their way.

Seems that neither the Vorlons nor the Shadows want the truth to get out. But they appear on the bridge as projections to give them a chance to change their mind.

It's a Kosh MK 1 encounter suit! It's a bit strange we're not seeing the Vorlon's true form, but Netter Digital had already pushed their rendering capacity to its limits on this episode so we're lucky to get the CGI Shadow really.

Lorien tells Sheridan and Delenn that it's up to them to talk their way out of this, and steps out of shot.

Sheridan brings up the Vorlon question, "Who are you?" and the Shadow question, "What do you want?" but points out that the Vorlons and Shadows have never answered the questions themselves. Delenn continues, saying that after millennia of conflict they don't know anymore. They've been trapped in the cycle as much as any of them. But that's over now as all the other races know the truth and refuse to play along anymore.

The Shadow (played by Ed Wasser) replies in a creepy Morden voice that the others won't follow them if they're dead and sends a missile at White Star 2. But a Drazi warship crew sacrifice themselves to take the hit! The Drazi sure took their time to do something helpful, but they've stepped up in a big way here.

A Minbari war cruiser goes next, with other ships moving to surround White Star 2 and protect them. I like that smoky fog effect presumably caused by the death cloud (though it doesn't show up well in still screencaps). It adds some depth that the space scenes don't usually have.

Delenn tells the Vorlon and Shadow holograms that the others have rejected them too. They can't have a war when no one will pick sides and no one will fight. This is the power of collective bargaining in action. The pebbles have voted and the avalanche is cancelled.

The Shadows and Vorlons can still wipe them all out, they are far more powerful, but then they really will have failed as guardians.

Then Sheridan decides to yell "NOW GET THE HELL OUT OF OUR GALAXY! BOTH OF YOU!"

Lorien feels it's probably best to step in and dial things down after that, saying that it really is their time to leave. Creepy Modern Shadow childishly asks if Lorien's going to come with them beyond the rim, and he says yes! The Kosh-lookalike is a bit concerned about being alone out there, but Lorien assures them that they'll be reunited with all the other First Ones! And they'll have a big party.

And with that the Vorlons, the Shadows and all the other First Ones fly away together. None of them can stay behind this time, that's why Ivanova had to find all the First Ones. Lucky they were all reachable in a couple of days of travel really!

Lorien tells Sheridan and Delenn that it's their job to look after the younger races now and to step aside themselves when it's time.

Then he turns into a glowing ball of energy like Jason Ironheart in Mind War and flies off faster than light! I stitched this together from a panning shot because a: I couldn't resist and b: I wanted to get Lorien and White Star 2 in the same picture.

So does this mean that they get to keep his ancient fish ship then? If it wasn't the oldest starship in the galaxy before it almost certainly is now.

ACT FIVE

That's it, they've actually resolved the Shadow War arc that's been going on since halfway through the first season, and yet somehow the episode keeps going.

Londo's finally gotten rid of Morden and his associates, his planet's safe, and Cartagia's dead, but he's scared to be happy because every time he's happy something terrible happens (the last time it was Adira being murdered). Vir talks him into it though and they even have a hug!

Seems that they'll both be going back to Babylon 5 soon. Londo might be prime minister now, but he thinks it would be best for him to be somewhere far away from all the people who disagree with his decision to free Narn and those who aren't keen on him murdering emperors.

Does this mean they'll be sending a new ambassador to the station as well? Or is Vir going to be ambassador?

Meanwhile Sheridan's fleet has split up and everyone's gone home. This means the White Stars have returned to Babylon 5, and the station's never looked prettier.

Sheridan mentions that its now the third age of mankind, which is something that's been mentioned in the opening title narration but never explained. In fact the first words of the whole series were "I was there at the dawn of the third age of mankind," spoken by Londo in a voice over. Ironic really, because he was one of the few characters who wasn't at Coriana! (Along with Garibaldi, Franklin, G'Kar, Vir, Zack... okay maybe a lot of characters weren't there.)

He continues to explain that the first age was when they were too primitive to make their own decisions, the second age was when they were manipulated by the older races, and this new third age is the point where they've finally been allowed to stand on their own.

The old magic has gone, but now they can make their own magic and their own legends. It's a bit of a cheesy ending, but after all that misery and hopelessness they went through to get here I'm inclined to let them off. There isn't even a hook to get people coming back for the next episode, it's just letting them be happy and victorious for once.

And then the miserable, hopeless 'everything's fucked' season 3 end credits music comes on and ruins the mood. There's no sound in this GIF though so you're just going to have to imagine it.


CONCLUSION

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Here's another spooky Babylon 5/Deep Space Nine coincidence to add to the pile: both shows started their penultimate season with a six-part story arc that's actually really good. I usually watch an episode, take the screencaps and finish writing about it before I even think about moving onto the next one, but I watched these six back to back. Because I had to; Babylon 5 made me do it.

The series has been ramping up the serialisation each season, and it's reached the point where every episode this season has flowed together to tell one story leading up to this, the final episode of the Shadow War story arc. That's not a spoiler; the arc couldn't have reached a more definitive conclusion than this. In fact this would be a good place to jump off if you're after an ultra-happy ending where everyone wins and gets hugs. Though I wouldn't recommend it.

Like the other episdes so far this season, it's split into Londo's plot, the main Shadow War plot, and something else that some other character's doing. In this case Ivanova's the one off doing her own thing, as she's sent off to search for the First Ones for the 50th time. It's funny how many scenes there are about her being impatient to get to the battle, it's really important that she gets to be part of this fleet, but once she gets there she does absolutely nothing! Really all she does in the episode is chat with Lorien, but they make a surprisingly good pairing, so I'm fine with that. He's more likeable here than he's ever been... just in time for him to go away forever. At least we've still got Ivanova! She tempted fate by begging to be at the fight, but fate was kind to her for once.

Fate was also pretty kind to Londo, as his planet was spared without any personal sacrifice required, thanks to Sheridan. Sure fate bailing him out at the last minute means that he blew up all those innocent people and made an enemy of the Shadows' allies for nothing, but he can't really be faulted for that. Plus it was a great scene!

The Gathering

It's amazing that Londo Mollari, the drunken joke of a character who had to borrow gambling money from Garibaldi, has now assassinated his emperor, become prime minster, gunned down Shadows in his own throne room, blown up an island full of Shadow ships, freed the Narn, and given Vir the head on a pike he's always wanted. He's come a long way from the time in early season one where he teamed up with Valen, the revered prophet of the Minbari, to interrogate dancers at a nightclub.

Londo has made all kinds of terrible decisions during the series, he's enabled murder and oppression on planetary scale, but I'll say this about him: if he hadn't worked with the Shadows they would've just found someone else, but only he was patriotic enough, brave enough and devious enough to fix the situation afterwards. Sheridan spends the episode setting up a crucible for the Vorlons and Shadows, but this arc has also been a crucible for Londo. Given a chance to be a decisive leader he proved he was up to the task, to the point where he was willing to give his life for his people. And he's never seemed so driven and energised. I like this Londo, I think we should keep him.

Classic drunk Londo was actually the first character to speak in the show, as he started the pilot movie with the line "I was there at the dawn of the third age of mankind." It's taken a while, but we we're finally there too! The great darkness spoken of in prophecy has been defeated... though not every fan was keen about how it ultimately ended.

Babylon 5 isn't the only sci-fi epic to feature ancient aliens with creepy black organic ships that drop by on younger races and cause mayhem every thousand or so years as part of a cycle, and it's not the only story where the heroes have to form alliances and make the greatest fleet ever so they can stop them. At a crucible. Some sci-fi epics have really screwed this up and made people a bit angry. But I think B5 gets it right, and it does so because it doesn't suddenly flip our understanding of the conflict on its head at the last moment. For seasons now Sheridan has been asking over and over 'Who are the Vorlons?', 'What do the Shadows want?', and has been told that he doesn't understand or that he's not ready to have the full truth. But he's known the truth for a few episodes now, he knows it's a battle of warring philosophies, and the big mystery had become how he was planning to stop two super-advanced elder races from having a millennia-spanning planet-shattering row about how to raise their kids.

There's a number of ways it could've gone down: they could've found ancient tech with a 'Kill all bad First Ones' button on it, they could've uploaded a telepathic virus that sent them to sleep and made them self-destruct, Lorien could've called in the Techno-Mages, Jason Ironheart, the Soul Hunters, the Lumati, a Berserker Probe and Timov to blow both sides up... but in the end the heroes just said 'No, we're not doing this anymore,' and that was it. Well, after they blew up an asteroid base and a planet killer first that is; the episode goes out of its way to make sure anyone expecting a space battle doesn't come away disappointed.

Personally the only part that bothered me was how the Shadows and Vorlons were portrayed as scared children at the end. I feel like if the core storyline at the heart of a series about a diplomatic station isn't solved by talking then the show's probably doing something wrong, but they took it just a little too far at the end. It's supposed to be about the older generation making way for the young, not the older generation acting like kids in front of granddad! And I don't even know what I think about "Get the hell out of our galaxy!" I suppose it's very... Sheridan.

It's crazy though that they've ended the show's main plot just 6 episodes into season 4 (of 5), way sooner than anyone could've expected. Sure at the time jms assumed this would be their last season and events were accelerated a bit to wrap more plots up by the season finale, however the conclusion of the Shadow War was only moved up by an episode or four. The show is named after the Babylonian creation myth which says the universe was created from the conflict of order versus chaos, but ending the Shadow War two thirds of the way through was actually part of the plan. We're still more or less on track. Now we see what happens after the big happy ending.

The war is over, but it's left the B5 universe in a very different situation. Both the Narn and Centauri have been freed from tyranny and the Vorlons have gone off to live on a farm where they'll be very happy. Not every race is doing so well though, as the Minbari have lost their Grey Council and the humans are still under the boot of President Clark and the Psi Corps. And I couldn't even tell you what state the League of Non-Aligned Worlds is in right now.

Anyway, there's 16 episodes left of season four, I hope they're as good as these last six were.

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COMING SOON

Babylon 5 will return with Epiphanies. But next on Sci-Fi Adventures it's the second run of Short Treks!

Thanks for reading, by the way. If you want to tell the galaxy what the hell you thought about Into the Fire, then you can leave a comment in the box below, or drop by the Sci-Fi Adventures Discord. Or both.