And so begins season 4, a season that I think is pretty great even if it does not reach the heights that season 3 managed. It will be a recurring theme for me for the next 22 weeks, but I will talk a lot about how when this season was written Babylon 5, and indeed the entire PTEN network had been given their cancellation notice. JMS ,not wanting to shortchange his fans, decided to re-write much of the season and cram all the big moments of season 4 and 5 into one season, so that the fans would get to see the end of all the major story arcs. They even filmed a series finale, before they got the word that they were getting picked up by TNT. The result is a season that moves at a very fast pace, which is a shame because we lose some of the fun character building episodes.
This episode opens with a sad G’Kar monologue, filling us in on the timeline. He lets us know how Ivanova, Delenn and even Londo are doing while mentioning that everyone is at an incredibly low point in their lives due to recent events. He also relates that the Shadows have paused their attacks and then sets up our plots for the early season with two questions that the characters must face, what happened to Sheridan? And where is Mr. Garibaldi?
We get new credits! My personal favorite mostly because it involves the entire cast.
Back from the credits and we get a scene of Ivanova receiving her morning messages, when she clearly has not slept. She gets dressed and heads off to get in a fight with the League of Non-Aligned Worlds. The various governments have begun recalling their ships, hoping that either the war is over, or that they can use the pause to rebuild their own defenses. The various ambassadors point out that Sheridan died at Z’Ha’Dum and that they dont want to meet a similar fate. The meeting ends and Lennier points out that one of the ambassadors was missing.
Londo gets a walk and talk scene with one of the court ministers, who is prepping him for his meeting with the emperor. Londo is unimpressed, recalling that he has met the emperor before when Cartagia was an infant and a teen. He uses those stories to give the emperor a backhanded compliment before they get down to business. The new emperor introduces himself with a display of how he enjoys spurning traditions, and decorum. He lets Londo know that he wants Londo’s offworld experience with the other races at the court. He also lets Londo know that outside parties requested his appointment.
Vir meets with Ivanova and lets her know what the Shadows know about what happened to Sheridan, that he blew up the city and that he jumped into a chasm before the attack. Vir is pretty convinced that Sheridan is dead, but Ivanova still has faith that the Captain somehow survived.
Later in the evening Londo gets to his room at the palace and finds Mr.Morden waiting for him. He is covered in scabs and wearing a very dramatic cloak in place of his normal business suit. He explains that the Shadows are healing him, and the he was lucky enough to be further away from the blast than others. He also reveals that after the last war the Shadows put their ships on hundreds of worlds to hide them from the Vorlons and others. This time they are going to put their ships on Centauri Prime, with the emperor’s blessing. Londo is outraged, pointing out that Cartagia could not do this without the Centaurum. Morden bluntly tells him that Cartagia has already got a resolution out of them and killed everyone that voted against it. He pours salt in the wound by pointing out that the only reason Cartagia is on the throne in the first place is because of Londo and Refa.
Delenn tries to get through to New Kosh with Lyta in attendance, and it does not go well. New Kosh implies that the Vorlons were taken by surprise by Sheridan’s actions, and that they are scrambling on what to do next, and their plan at the moment is to do nothing, even if Sheridan is alive. Interestingly enough New Kosh also quotes the same superstition that the League ambassadors did, claiming tha no one that goes to Z’Ha’Dum comes back.
Elsewhere Zack finds Garibaldi’s quarters open and bursts in, confronting G’Kar who is just standing in there wearing Garibaldi’s hat. They have a short amusing discussion about Garibaldi’s spirit, and G’Kar announces his intention to go searching for Garibaldi, so that he is not forgotten in the scramble to find Sheridan. G’Kar feels that he owes it to him, as he was one of the first to accept G’Kar after his revelation.
On Centauri Prime, Londo gets to rendezvous with his own prophetic dreams as he stands and watches hundreds of Shadow ships arrive. He heads inside to confront the emperor about it, but is a little too familiar and almost gets murdered by the guards. Cartagia reveals that the Shadows have offered him the chance to become a god as long as he allows the ships and sacrifices his own people if the war comes to their world. Londo is staggered and leaves, confronting the other minister in the hall with the emperor’s madness. The other minister advises him to keep thoughts like that to himself else he be disappeared. He tells a story that the emperor has his enemies heads on a desk in the palace, and that it is better to remain quiet and just hope that everything works itself out.
Lyta is suspicious of New Kosh and his plans. She decides to go to Ivanova and lay out a plan to go to Z’Ha’Dum to see if Sheridan is still alive. She believes that since she and Sheridan both had a link to Kosh she should be able to sense if he is alive or not. Ivanova basically shrugs and goes for it, lacking any other options. She ropes in Delenn and they leave right away. They get to the planet, and reach out but find nothing. They nearly get overwhelmed by a psychic attack from the Shadows, but manage to escape due to Lennier being overly prepared. However after they abandon the plan, we get to see a mysterious cloaked figure wandering the tunnels under the city, and whoever it is drops a piece of Sheridan’s uniform.
Londo is out of options and he reaches out to the only person in the universe he feels he can trust, roping Vir into helping him start a conspiracy to overthrow the emperor. While he is doing this we get confirmation that the emperor does indeed have a secret room with his enemies heads, and that he likes to chat with them late at night.
Vir arrives, and Londo fills him in on Cartagia being insane, and no one being willing to do anything about it. He then touchingly admits that Vir is the closest thing he has to a friend and he admits that he admires that Vir has come so far in his life without losing his integrity and decency. Londo is blunt with Vir, insisting that the only way out of this is regicide.
Back on Babylon 5 the mission has resolved nothing for Ivanova, and she is still not sleeping. She admits to her log that Sheridan is dead, and that she plans on finishing what Sheridan began. We then get to see that Sheridan is indeed somehow alive and living in the tunnels below the city he blew up. He also meets a strange alien who evades his questions and asks to share his fire.
Hard to say where you can find Babylon 5 at the moment, but I am continuing on with some pretty good quality downloads from Itunes that I made years ago.
Where do I know them from?
- Wortham Krimmer as the Emperor is a rare one I have not seen in anything else. He had a short career and has not really done much of anything since Babylon 5.
The Good
- I love the Londo plot here, having the character come face to face with the endpoint of all of his crappy decisions is a great way to drive his plots.
- I like the realistic way that the alliance starts to fracture once the Shadows stop being aggressive, since the show did a lot of legwork to demonstrate how fragile the whole thing was.
- I have always been a big fan of Ivanova’s explanation of the titular hour as well.
The Bad
- I am not a fan of G’Kar being the one to go off in search of Garibaldi. It does not feel quite in character for him. Possibly this is a plot thread that got spliced with another due to the shortened timelines, or it could be something that was supposed to go to Zack but they had to shift as Jeff Conaway started to relapse.
Arc Points (Spoilers Ahead)
- The Vorlons being up to something is more explicit here, with New Kosh basically admitting as such.
- The Shadows show off their own telepathic powers for the first time, which may explain how the giant scary stealth spiders were able to get some converts to their side.
- Londo having to go back and fix the awful shit he did over the course of years is great, even if these days the “mad emperor that everyone is afraid to confront” stuff hits a little more uncomfortably in America.