Babylon 5 4-19: Between the Darkness and the Light

Episode:

85

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Writer:

J. Michael Straczynski

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Director:

David J. Eagle

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Air Date:

06-Oct-1997

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm up to Babylon 5 episode 4-19, Between the Darkness and the Light. The way the title comes up over a shot of a lightbulb swinging in a gloomy cave may not be entirely coincidental.

Between the Darkness and the Light is one of the few titles shared by both Babylon 5 and Deep Space Nine... well, kind of. The DS9 episode was the one that aired first, coming out earlier the same year, and it's just called The Darkness and the Light. It was directed by frequent B5 director Mike Vejar, his first episode for the series (but far from his last).

The Babylon 5 episode, on the other hand, was directed by similarly frequent B5 director David Eagle, who was responsible for episodes like Severed Dreams, And the Rock Cried Out No Hiding Place, and The Hour of the Wolf. His episodes have a habit of ending up at the top of episode rankings, so I have a feeling this is going to be pretty watchable.

SPOILER WARNING: If you've a first-time viewer and you've reached this point in the series then you've got nothing to worry about here, I won't mention a thing about later episodes. Otherwise I'd recommend watching all 85 episodes first and then coming back, because there'll be spoilers for lots of them here.

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The episode begins with a shot of Sheridan back home and safe on Babylon 5, which should immediately ring huge alarm bells for anyone who's been following the series. Babylon 5 episodes almost always begin with a CGI shot of the station, or a ship, or a planet, so skipping it means that something's not quite right.

Franklin's there too and he wants to know how Sheridan got out. He's especially curious about who his contact with the Mars Resistance was. Sheridan can't be much help to him though, as they all use numbers in the Resistance, just in case of situations similar to this.

Sheridan's still in the cell you see and he's really become detached from reality now, seeing his interrogator as Franklin. Man I hope that's not a virtual reality cybernet they've got him hooked into. Sinclair was interrogated with one of those back in And the Sky Full of Stars and was so out of it afterwards he nearly shot Delenn.

Back in Sheridan's head, Interrogator Franklin has gotten bored of asking questions so he switches into gaslighting mode instead, saying how he can't believe that people believe their attack on Earth was their idea, when really it was due to alien influences.

There's two interrogators in the cell with him this time and the one that's been doing the talking is Interrogator #2 from Intersections in Real Time. The ending to that episode made it seem like they were just going to keep throwing new interrogators at him and running the same routine until he cracked, but it seems like they gave up after two. Kind of spoils it a bit.

Turns out that other character (who I'm going to call Interrogator #3) does have lines though, as she wonders if they should bring his father in and threaten to kill him. Interrogator #2 explains that wouldn't work, as if they kill him it'll strengthen Sheridan's resolve and if they don't it weakens their position. They're having this conversation right in front of Sheridan without absolutely no concern that he might pick up on it, as he's so delirious at the moment due to their drugs that half the time he's seeing them on B5 and the other half he's seeing Franklin in his cell.

Finally Richard Biggs got the chance to play an evil interrogator for once after playing so many doctors! Then after B5 he went and played a bunch more doctors.

Interrogator #2 reminds his co-worker that they're here to break Sheridan, not coerce him and also solves a mystery from the last episode. The reason they haven't really interrogated him for information is that they feel that the most efficient way to win here is to get him to publicly admit that he's wrong and mean it. Getting intel out of him will be a lot easier after he's been converted, and it may even be accurate as well.

Interrogator #2 offers Sheridan a nice cup of what he claims is coffee but is actually a drug (I mean a different drug other than caffeine), and he accepts it gratefully... then passes out. I love the prop vial he snaps to empty the drug into the cup by the way.

Sheridan's going to be taking a nap for a while, but the teaser keeps going.

There's the CGI establishing shot! Now we can be sure everything that happens after this is reality.

It's not explicit about what planet this is, but it looks a lot like the shots we've seen of Mars, and the camera zooms into a place with little forklifts driving around. Inside Michael Garibaldi hears someone walking up behind him and pulls his PPG in self-defence. Turns out it's actually a guy he's been waiting for, though his news isn't all good.

The guy was able to get in touch with the Mars Resistance for him, so that's a start.

Unfortunately they didn't believe him when he relayed Garibaldi's message about being mind-controlled when he betrayed Sheridan, so a bunch of them have come by to grab the traitor, stick a bag over his head and knock him out.

It takes a brave actor to let someone punch near their head when they've got a bag covering their eyes. Though it was more likely a brave stuntman in this case.

ACT ONE

Act one begins with Real Franklin receiving a gift from Number One. He gets to be the one who executes the traitor who got their leader captured! Man, Garibaldi's lucky that Ivanova wasn't the one sent to Mars on this mission otherwise he'd already be dead.

And showrunner jms was lucky that this episode ran short by the exact amount needed to cut this scene out of Intersections in Real Time and stick it here instead. It wouldn't have benefited that episode at all.

Garibaldi's not out of the woods yet, as he admits Bester didn't leave him with a receipt proving his brain's been dry cleaned, pressed and starched. But he's desperate enough to let Lyta scan him and confirm his story, if Number One is willing to let her do it.

She is not.

Franklin manages to knock Number One's shot wide and wrestle the gun from her while Lyta grabs a rifle from the table and starts spraying shots everywhere! So that's made the alliance between B5 and the Mars Resistance a little strained.

With Franklin holding Number One at gunpoint Lyta is able to scan Garibaldi, but he's got so many level 12 blocks in there that it'll require a deep scan that could really injure him. It's still less dangerous than a PPG blast to the head though, so she gets it done.

Her eyes turn black and she gets the whole story in a series of flashing images. Meanwhile Garibaldi learns that he needs more fibre in his diet (his words!)

Number One has no reason to believe Lyta's claims about what she saw in his head, so Lyta decides to let her see it too. Everyone gets to experience Garibaldi's hell! There's a dolly zoom shot (like in Jaws) of Number One's face so we know it's working.

She gets a 2.5 second blast of the story so far with each shot going so fast they only take a frame each!

That's enough for Number One and she decides to let Garibaldi go! Glad they got that sorted out so quickly. Well, I say 'quickly', it actually took our heroes 16 episodes to finally scan the guy and learn that he'd been messed with.

You'd think that Bester would've seen this coming, seeing as the Psi Cops also do scans like this on suspects (it's what made Lyta quit in fact), but maybe he just doesn't care.

Meanwhile Ivanova's Liberation fleet has found another pretty nebula to have a space battle in front of. This time they'll be going up against the EAS Orion and EAS Damocles, which are hilariously outnumbered and outgunned with all the Omega Class ships Ivanova has backing up her White Stars at the moment.

These ships have apparently gotten a rep for bad behaviour as she doesn't try to talk them over to her side. She gives them two options: war crimes tribunal or destruction, and waits for them to make their choice. Once the energy beams start firing she knows they've chosen death.

The fights are looking pretty good at this point in the season, though it's hard to get that across with screencaps. You can at least see how the visual effects artists have added extra geometry to this section of a ship just for this close up, which is something they weren't always able to do.

Turns out that 10 year old human vessels still aren't any kind of match for a swarm of cutting-edge Minbari/Vorlon hybrid ships designed to slay legends, but for once the crew of an Earth Alliance ship actually has time to get to the lifepods! I think this is the first time it's ever happened in the series. Ivanova's going to be wondering what the hell she's supposed to do with them all.

Actually they're just going to deliver them to the authorities on Beta 9 so they can have that war crimes tribunal after all. Ivanova has this all worked out and is delivering orders like victory has become a routine to her.

Marcus is a bit put off that they're wasting time going after ships responsible for war crimes and dealing with the survivors when they could be flying to Earth and ending this, but Ivanova wants to grab as many accomplices as they can before they decide to scurry away and hide. These people fired at innocent people and she's not going to let them get away with it.

Back on Mars, Garibaldi's explaining to his new friends in the Resistance that he hasn't actually got a plan to rescue Sheridan. He's pretty sure he knows where he's being held though.

Turns out that Sheridan's been in custody for almost a week, so if Intersections in Real Time really took place over four days, and he was already there for two when it started, then this is happening right after it ended.

Number One isn't willing to risk losing any of her people for this, so it seems like Garibaldi, Franklin and Lyta are going to have to be the ones to break him out. It's only a fascist prison, it shouldn't be that hard.

ACT TWO

Act two begins in a strange room full of unusual-looking people I don't quite recognise.

Wait, I remember this place, this is the council chambers! And these are the ambassadors! We haven't been here since the start of Sheridan's war against Clark.

Delenn's a bit annoyed that Londo has convened a council meeting without inviting the Minbari, so she storms in there and catches him giving a speech to the League. She tells him that the League can't vote without a representative of Earth or Minbar, and he apparently considers her to be close enough to tick both boxes because he starts the vote!

The League has voted! It has been decided, by a unanimous vote, that they will... send their forces to back up Ivanova's fleet! It's not what Sheridan intended, but Londo thinks that it's politically the wisest thing to do. G'Kar thinks it's the moral thing to do as well. 

Turns out that they held the vote without Delenn's knowledge because it made for a more dramatic scene. Uh, I mean they left her out to protect her from any accusations that she arranged this herself in order to save her lover. That's a bit of a turnaround from the beginning of the season where half the ambassadors had sided against her.

It took a massive interstellar war and a series of raids on shipping, but Babylon 5 has actually finally managed to get the League to work together, and now they're finally going to repay the work Sheridan has done for them by teaming up to save him.

Meanwhile Garibaldi's team is already on a mission to save Sheridan, guided by a lone Resistance operative.

No don't shine the light into the camera! Sure it makes some nice lens flares, but it also gives away that there's something attached to it on the left of the frame that's covering up part of the shot. Though I suppose this is only an issue with the 16:9 release which has been made redundant by the new HD 4:3 version.

Here's some trivia for you: Optic Nerve provided the makeup effects for both Babylon 5 and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Which might explain why B5's praying mantis crime boss N'Grath made an appearance in Buffy's first season as a She-Mantis who could assume human form.

I'm mentioning this now because this Resistance fighter, played by Musette Vander, was the one who portrayed her human form.

It's a long walk to Sheridan's prison so they stop for a sip out of the one flask of water they brought. But one of them's apparently been gulping instead of sipping.

This is Actual Garibaldi with them, not the cranky Asshole Garibaldi from the rest of the season, so he's able to joke around a bit about how he believes Lyta when she says she didn't do it and doesn't believe Franklin... because Lyta is a much better liar. I guess what he's saying is that she's better at seeming believable, not that he really believes her.

I wish he hadn't said anything though, because this sets Lyta off.

The others get back to their hike but she stops and tries to process this accusation, eventually going on a rant that she's going to sue someone for spreading these slanderous rumours about her ability to lie. She seems really serious about it too! It's a really bizarre comedy moment that doesn't really fit in this episode. Or any episode really. Of anything.

Anyway, they finally reach a fence and their guide decides this is where they split up. She'll wait around for them so they have someone to lead them back, but she's not going to go risk her life for Sheridan.

I still don't get how a corridor this huge can fit behind the bridge on the White Stars.

Anyway, there's been some bad news for Ivanova: one of the prisoners they recovered from the lifepods has offered information in return from leniency from the tribunal. Turns out that President Clark knows what they're planning to do next, as not all of the EA officers who defected to their side really defected. Clark's got a trap waiting for them and he's using advanced prototype destroyers this time.

Ivanova's fleet is currently heading to a rendezvous with some other ships, so if they stay clear of the ambush and save themselves they'll be leaving those other ships at the mercy of the prototype destroyers. On the other hand, if they bring the fleet to the ambush, their Omega Class destroyers will be be an easy target for the newer models, and they need those ships to prove that humans are turning against Clark. So Ivanova decides that she's going to leave their Earth Alliance ships behind and take on Clark's super-ships with just her White Stars.

Things are going better for Garibaldi's team thankfully, except for him getting a knife in the back after taking on a patrol in the tunnels. Since when do Earthforce security officers carry knives anyway?

ACT THREE

It's a good thing they brought Franklin and he brought some medical supplies, as he's able to stitch up Garibaldi's wound. He can't do anything about the blood he's lost though. Hey there's a newspaper over there with the headline 'SANTIAGO RE-ELECTED', which happened in the very first episode. It's eventually visible in the 4:3 version as well when the camera pans over, but people with the widescreen version get a sneak peek.

There's something else from earlier seasons making an appearance in this scene as well: Garibaldi's Earthforce uniform! Or one that looks just like it anyway. I guess the Mars Resistance has a few surprises in its closet.

Back on White Star 2, Ivanova's convinces the captain of the Agamemnon to hold back by saying all the stuff she already said in that previous scene. Their Earth Alliance ships are an important symbol, they really don't need to get them all blown up in an ambush. And if the White Stars are all destroyed in this fight, it'll be his job to take things from here.

Ivanova also makes a deal with Marcus that they'll each get two and half hours rest on the way to the battle, just to stop him bothering her about it. Fortunately Ivanova's had plenty of time to practice sleeping on the sloping beds by this point. Or time to practice stealing all the pillows and making a bed on the floor, whatever's been working for her.

It's funny how captains not getting any sleep seems to be a recurring problem on this series. Personally if I was in command I'd want to make sure I was more awake and alert than the people shooting at me. But the series was written by a guy who gave up sleep to write more scripts so it's no surprise that tiredness is a recurring theme.

Here's possibly the only glimpse we're ever going to get of Sheridan's prison from the outside. I still can't tell if it's morning or not.

Hey Franklin's got his old uniform on too! They should've put Lyta in her outfit from The Gathering to maximise the nostalgia. Man, I hope Lyta's getting paid extra for this, as waltzing directly into space prison on a rescue mission is pretty high up on this list of things I'd be too terrified to ever do.

Fortunately the guy at the desk recognises Garibaldi from TV (he saw him on ISN I mean, he hasn't mistaken him for Bruce Willis), and Garibaldi's able to come up with a line of bullshit to get them inside. He's less good at coming up fake names on the spot, calling Stephen Franklin 'Dr Stephens' and Lyta Alexander 'Miss Alexander'. Somehow it's funnier that it's played entirely straight and no one has a reaction to it.

It's pretty insane that the guy just opens the door for them, but hey it's not like he's the last line of defence. They still need to get past the cell guards.

Unfortunately the guards at the door don't watch television. In fact one describes it as being "a cultural wasteland filled with inappropriate metaphors and an unrealistic portrayal of life created by the liberal media elite," straight off the top of his head, in a way that makes it sound like the people here have been practicing their brainwashing techniques on him.

The line seems kind of terrible to me, but the scene course-corrects immediately by Garibaldi no selling it with "Couldn't agree more." Then Lyta has to go and ruin everything by pulling a daft face when she disables the other guy with a bit of telepathic pain. This episode's all over the place with its comedy.

Funnily enough Lyta is the one who ends up doing the traditional 'ow my hand' move, after she knocks the guy unconscious with one punch. Lyta also has the job of getting the door code from the guard's mind (he thought it as soon as Garibaldi said 'code') and dragging the bodies into the cell afterwards. Which makes sense as they don't want Garibaldi to tear his stitches. (He tears his stitches).

Meanwhile Franklin has the job of getting Sheridan ready to move, which might be difficult as he's on all the drugs right now and he hasn't eaten in days.

Back on White Star 2, Marcus comes to take his turn getting some rest and finds Ivanova actually managed to fall asleep after all. On a tilted bed! So he does a creepy thing with his hand, waving it over her face while saying "You'll never know."

Turns out that he decided to let her sleep for four hours, breaking their deal. It also turns out that even though Ivanova's been leading the fleet from this ship for a few days now, she hasn't actually been in this room with Marcus since way back in late season 2. The episode Shadow Dancing to be precise.

She brings this up to him because she's been learning Minbari all this time and now she knows what he said to her back then.

Oops, busted. Creepy Marcus got caught being creepy.

I'm not sure how it works that Ivanova's eidetic memory allows her to remember a line she heard a whole year ago in a language she couldn't speak, despite struggling to remember what individual words mean, but hey the trope of eidetic memory is mostly rubbish anyway as far as I'm aware. On the other hand, I have no doubt that Claudia Christian can remember lines from a year ago, or even 25 years ago, because she's an actor and they have superpowers.

Anyway, she tells him 'Thank you,' and walks out! So that could've gone worse for him.

Garibaldi got lucky that his bullshit got them inside, but no amount of bullshit is going to get the three of them out again carrying their prisoner. Especially seeing as there's blood dripping out of his uniform.

Fortunately they have a plan B: murdering everyone.

Garibaldi whips around, shove his gun through the slot in the window, and guns the guy at the desk down, then manages to get the guard next to him as well! These people would've made terrible cowboys with a quick draw this slow. They made terrible guards as well.

There's still a third guard so Franklin blasts him in the neck with surgical precision. Or at least it seems that way, but it wasn't a kill shot! Fortunately Sheridan's lucid enough to get a PPG from the floor and put a second shot into him... and a third, and a fourth.

He puts nine shots into him before he's done, leading Lyta to ask if he's alright. (He's clearly not.)

This was apparently a decision made during editing, as they only filmed him taking one shot. The gun has no slide on it though, so they were able to add more VFX blasts and make it look like he was holding the trigger down. This cleverly changed the ending of the scene from 'Sheridan's recovered enough to nail that guy with one shot' to 'Sheridan's messed up'.

ACT FOUR

Act four begins with Ivanova's fleet facing... this.

Way back in Messages from Earth, we learned that Earth had been examining a Shadow vessel to steal its technology. Sheridan blew the ship up, but it turns out they'd learned enough as Clark's advanced prototype destroyers have been augmented with Shadow technology! (I guess the spiky tentacles must help somehow.)

The good news is that the ships still rotate to generate gravity, so Clark's people weren't able to reverse engineer too much Shadow tech. The bad news is they seem to have replicated the semi-organic hull material and that's the bit that keeps our ships from blowing them up. Hey, I thought Clark was against alien influences!

Captain J. Thompson from the Shadow EA Fleet calls White Star 2 and gives them a standard boring 'You are ordered to surrender your vessels or be destroyed' ultimatum.

Ivanova replies, saying that they won't be doing that, and Captain J. Thompson feels like he needs to request that she identifies herself, even though it must be plainly obvious who she is. This was a mistake.

"Who am I?

I am Susan Ivanova. Commander. Daughter of Andrei and Sophie Ivanov.

I am the right hand of vengeance and the boot that is gonna kick your sorry ass all the way back to Earth, sweetheart.

I am death incarnate. And the last living thing that you are ever going to see.

God sent me."

Then she flicks a switch to fire all of the guns, just to finish that last sentence with an exclamation mark. She let the Orion and Damocles shoot first in that earlier fight, but I guess it's tactically unwise to give your enemy that kind of advantage when it's possible they've got bigger guns than you. Fortunately White Star 2 had its guns pointed at one of the prototype destroyers at the time she flicked the switch or else that would've ruined the effect a bit.

I love all this detail they've put into the chair controls by the way; the lights are even wired up to the switches.

Blue beams! That's new.

The White Stars are tiny compared to an Omega Class ship, so Ivanova has her fleet form up and use their speed to avoid being hit. It's a really bizarre formation, with the ships around the outside orbiting the ones in the middle, but if it confuses the enemy half as much as it's confusing me it's a smart move.

They're also doing drive bys, flying alongside an enemy destroyer and letting their momentum carry them as they pivot 90 degrees to unload their weapons into their side. It's very Battlestar Galactica, except six years earlier.

Man the lighting looks nice in this fight.

Ivanova orders her ships to fly away then pull a high-velocity turn, and the CGI team have gotten very good at having the White Stars move together in a swarm as it's a beautiful looking shot. It's kind of weird that they're so nimble, seeing as the ships aren't exactly starfighter-sized, but I'm too distracted by the pretty explosions to care.

The advanced destroyers clearly have the armour advantage as they're taking hit after hit, while if a blue beam hits a White Star it's just gone. But they're also sitting ducks, nowhere near as quick or accurate as the Shadow vessels the White Stars were built to fight.

Unfortunately Ivanova gets so caught up in focusing her fire on one particular ship that she forgets that she can just do that drive-by thing again and sets them on a collision course!

Fortunately the enemy ship exploded just before they collided, so they only hit a bit of debris!

This does seem kind of bad though. You don't typically see this much wreckage on a ship's bridge when it's damaged, because once things get this bad it's usually all blown out into space. Marcus seems to be the only one conscious on the bridge and he might even be the only one left alive up here. Plot armour is the only thing stronger than a Shadow vessel hull.

The folks doing the Foley work really put the effort in here, adding lots of metal sounds as Marcus shoves a girder out of the way and pulls Ivanova out of the pile of trash she's resting in. They also added a sound effect for when he when he accidentally walks backwards into another girder, even though he pushes it around like it's made of polystyrene.

Seems a bit risky to pick her up and carry her around after an accident like this, but to be fair it's probably even more risky to leave her.

Oh damn, yeah that's a bit more damage than I expected. I don't think it's going to auto-heal from that.

An escape pod flies by as the ship explodes, and I guess we can assume Marcus and Ivanova are inside. You could also assume that Marcus took a minute to try to save people who aren't the unrequited love of his life, but we don't know. This does seem like a bit of a last moment escape kind of situation.

And that was the end of White Star 2, Sheridan's flagship with the B5 shield on the wing that ended the Shadow War at Coriana 6. Are they going to lose their main hero White Star at the end of every season?

Could've been worse I guess. They could've blown up the one with the nice purple railing posts.

ACT FIVE

Act five begins with a shot of Sheridan's... uh, Ivanova's... Marcus's giant fleet?

It's been a while since we've seen those Minbari and Brakiri vessels flying together, and we've never seen them flying alongside Earthforce and Centauri ships like this before.

A White Star arrives and we see Sheridan roaming the halls alone. Seems a bit weird that no one's keeping an eye on him, seeing as he just endured a week of torture (along with who knows how many Franklin/Lyta/Garibaldi comedy scenes on the way back), but he does come across a familiar face.

They've been separated for seven episodes (eight if you count this one), but Sheridan and Delenn have finally been reunited! He saw her standing in front of him so many times during his torture but this time she's real.

I hope he's had a chance to be reunited with some food as well, as I'm sure his body could really do with some oranges about now. He's more concerned about his friend's condition though.

Oh damn, she's in a neck brace. That's never a good sign. Can't be much fun to act in either. At least Marcus got the bed flat for her... even though the Minbari consider it to be bad luck.

Well Sheridan's been tortured and drugged, Garibaldi's been beaten and stabbed, and now Ivanova's been crushed by debris. And that's only in this episode! Delenn's not long recovered after she was nearly cooked alive in an energy beam, so the lead characters have all gone through some crap lately.

Wait, is that the same IV drip they were using on Sheridan earlier? The fluid looks to be at exactly the same level. Also they're using the wrong colour blood; Humans don't have blue blood! (Minbari don't either to be fair, so I'm not sure what's really in it).

The series really foreshadowed that something bad was going to happen to Ivanova at Coriana 6, with how keen she was to get to the fleet in time for the last big fight against the Shadows and the Vorlons. Well, it happened a bit later than expected, but here it is.

Though when she sees Sheridan her first words to him are that they got them. She cleared the way for Sheridan, all the way to Mars. Now she wants something from him in return: she wants to know how badly she's injured, because no one else will tell her.

The scene's slightly spoiled by her saying "I'm not going to make it, am I?" word for word, but the answer is 'no'. She's got maybe a week and that's it.

She's got one last request: that Sheridan leads the final battle from the bridge of the Agamemnon! I suppose it makes sense, seeing as she blew up his last flagship. Plus I guess it's where he left his Army of Light uniform before heading to meet Garibaldi.

Sheridan was the captain of the Agamemnon when he was first introduced back at the start of season 2, so he's come full circle. It would've been better maybe if the bridge looked like it did back then, but then nothing's quite the same as it was back then.

He's got his uniform back but he's kept the beard he grew in prison, and he looks kind of haunted. It doesn't seem like the smartest idea to put him back in command without giving him a moment to recover, but there's only three episodes left this season and they've got a job to do.

A Narn ship and a Centauri ship together in the same fleet! Man, they've got to wrap this war up quickly before one of them finds a reason to open fire on the other.

It's not quite time for Sheridan to lead an alien fleet against Earth itself, but he does set a course for Mars!

Leading an alien fleet against his own people wasn't what Sheridan wanted, but then he didn't want to be captured and tortured either. Sometimes shit happens and it definitely seems like shit's going to happen to Clark's forces next episode.


CONCLUSION

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I couldn't remember where the phrase "between the darkness and the light" came from so I looked it up. My guess was it was a Ranger saying, but it's actually what Delenn says when she meets with the Grey Council:

"I am Grey. I stand between the candle and the star. We are Grey. We stand between the darkness and the light."

Here it seems to be referring to where the characters find themselves at the end of the episode, between the worst of events and the light at the end of the tunnel. Things have to get better next episode, because the characters have already hit as close to rock bottom as they're going to get. Sheridan, Garibaldi and Ivanova are all severely damaged, either psychologically or physically, but mostly both. They've already paid the high cost of their resistance and it doesn't seem like Ivanova is going to recover from it, but all the pieces are now in place for them to bring four years of growing fascism on Earth to an end. Hopefully.

The episode's got a good structure to it, with Garibaldi's A plot and Ivanova's... other A plot overlapping to a degree, but allowed to have some time to themselves when they need it. There's also a bizarre scene of Londo and G'Kar getting the council to vote to help the humans, which has to be the first time they've ever done something to benefit the heroes without a considerable amount of effort from Sheridan. Well, they believe it's going to benefit him anyway, we'll have to see how that works out.

I mentioned in an earlier review that on the very rare occasions that G'Kar and Londo team up they're pretty unstoppable. They took down Lord Refa together, they assassinated Emperor Cartagia together, and here they've managed to rally the entire League behind Sheridan's cause. He once commanded the biggest fleet in history, with only the humans and the Centauri being left out. This time he's got human and Centauri capital ships too!

Ivanova started the season depressed and fairly ineffective, unable to rally Sheridan's forces and keep the momentum going against the Shadows. This time though she took his role seamlessly, leading fleets into battle without hesitation or doubt, and making it seem like it was almost routine for her. It's sad to lose the character, but taking on an entire Earth fleet that also a Shadow fleet and winning isn't the worst way to go out. In fact it reminded me of Delenn's assault on the Drakh in Lines of Communication, even down to her flipping White Star 2 around and unleashing hell into the last ship as it's trying to escape, except with slightly more tragic results. I'm going to miss White Star 2. It may have looked exactly the same as every other White Star, aside from the B5 shield logo and its red railing posts, but it was the hero ship this season and it went down like a hero. White Star 3 is going to have some big shoes to fill.

Garibaldi started the season grumpy and cynical, and was paranoid that Lorien was a secret traitor. But it turns out that he was the secret traitor and now he's got to live with that... thanks to Franklin and Lyta risking their lives to save him. He proved his innocence (kind of) way sooner than you might expect, but that's the benefit of having a telepath on the team I guess. It doesn't feel like a cheat to me, because of how logical it was, how no one was willing to trust him at first, and how Lyta and Number One got a whole clip show in their heads. Sure he fit back into the group very easily, but that's because he's not a miserable asshole anymore and they've got a job to do. It was great to see the real Garibaldi again, partly because of how much of a contrast it is to the Garibaldi he'd become after a year of the Psi Corps pushing him in Edgars' direction, partly because I like Garibaldi! We've finally got one of the main protagonists back after a long absence and he immediately proves his worth.

In fact it's Lyta that bothered me this episode, with her 'I'm going to sue someone' rant and her weird expression when she inflicted pain on that guy. I'm going to blame writer jms and director David Eagle for that though rather than the actress, as there were a few other moments where the episode left me wondering 'what the hell were they thinking?'; it's not quite as good as it could've been. Though overall this was gripping television for me and a handful of flaws were nothing against the momentum the series has built up by this point.

Everything is set up now for an epic conclusion to the Clark storyline. Though maybe the series will pull a swerve and have an episode set on Babylon 5 for a change. Delenn was put in charge, but she left the moment that Sheridan was rescued so now it's just Corwin and Zack running the place I guess. I want a Corwin and Zack episode!

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NOT THIS EPISODE

Sci-Fi Adventures will return with Endgame, a climactic confrontation that promises to bring years of storylines to a thrilling resolution. I mean the Babylon 5 episode called Endgame, not the Star Trek: Voyager finale. Though skipping right to the end would save me from a lot of work...

Anyway, you should leave a comment!