After the breakneck pace that was set getting all the pieces in place for the Shadow War story arc, we get a bit of a pause before the last big push.  It makes sense in a way.  The last few episodes have been all about the Vorlons and what they are up to, and now we get a little time to see the Shadow’s response.  The Vorlon planet killer looked like your standard scifi solution to destroying a planet, but the Shadow’s version is something else, as creepy and unsettling as all their other tech.  On top of all of this we also get to speed run our way through the remainder of the Centauri plot, which is a shame as this has been the plot that has been making these episodes entertaining.

We kick things off in C&C where Ivanova lets Sheridan know about the Shadow planet killer.  It appears as a great black storm that covers a planet and kills everything on the surface.  Both of them marvel at the fact that they are caught between two powerful and seemingly unstoppable forces.

On Narn Londo has called a meeting of some prominent Centauri he can trust. As happens every time Londo brings up the emperor he gets his face rubbed in the fact that he was the one that put Cartagia on the throne.  He manages to get past that and convince the assembled nobles that with the Vorlons on the rampage they need to kill the emperor quickly.  Even Vir chimes in to convince the others that murder is necessary.

Sheridan and Ivanova have a sitdown to discuss the rapidly growing coalition fleet outside, and she admits that being part of something like that has always been her dream.  Sheridan dashes her hopes a little by ordering her to take Lorien and complete the search for the First Ones even though she feels that they have already looked everywhere.  She admits that being left behind is one of her fears, stemming from her mother’s suicide.  She extracts a promise from Sheridan to let her be with the fleet in the coming battle. 

Cartagia is in high spirits on Narn, laughing at a court jester, and enjoying the replica imperial palace.  He also casually lets Londo know that he and Londo will get to watch the Vorlons destroy Centauri Prime from a distance, and that he wants Londo with him so that Londo can be his first high priest.  While he is deep in conversation with Londo the jester is behind him mocking him, something that he eventually notices and that causes the entire court to freeze in terror. Once Cartagia laughs everyone else does too, and Londo steals away to meet with G’Kar.  He is aghast when he sees that Cartagia has had one of his eyes removed.  Londo moves past it and lays out their plan.  G’Kar will be given special weak chains that he will be able to break and cause a disturbance during his trial.  Londo will use the opportunity to kill the emperor without his guards noticing.  

Later on Londo has a furtive meeting with Vir who delivers an unmarked package to him.  Londo has set the least suspicious Centauri he knows to pick up his order of assassination poison, and he quizzes VIr on how the stuff will work.  It is a pretty slick device, carrying a low dose of poison and a sealant on the needle that will cover up the hole.  Vir does caution Londo that it will need to be administered directly between Cartagia’s hearts and that the poison should work almost instantly.  They share a fun little joke about how this could screw them over if the emperor is able to shout to his guards before sobering up and getting to business. 

G’Kar gets paraded before the local Narn populace in a humiliation ritual with strong crucifixion overtones. He makes it before the emperor, who casually mentions to Londo that he had G’Kar’s chains switched by his personal guards. Londo has no choice but to absorb this potentially disastrous news and watch as Cartagia sentences G’Kar to death by vivisection. Londo should not have doubted G’Kar’s strength, because even without the trick chains he is able to burst out of his chains and start a ruckus with the guards.  Londo and Vir spirit the emperor to a back room, but Londo gets attacked by Cartagia before he can do the deed, and a startled Vir is forced to be the one to actually kill him. Londo smoothly summons the guards claiming that he simply collapsed.

Londo summons the court and announces the emperor’s death. He uses Catargia’s interest in mysticism to claim that this is a sign that the Centauri should leave Narn and no one challenges him on it.  Some of the ministers appoint Londo as prime minister, and he quickly begins organizing the court to plan to expel the Shadows. 

Back on the station the war council receives direct information on the Shadow planet killer from a ranger who clearly has excellent health coverage and would never need to resort to crime to pay his medical bills. The cloud apparently is made up of thousands and thousands of nuclear missiles that burrow to the planet’s core and then detonate causing massive instability to the planet.  Lennier then drops the news that they know where the Vorlons are headed. They make plans to gather the league and brief them.

Londo and Vir share a sweet scene when Londo finds a drunken Vir attempting to drown the guilt he feels about Cartagia in a bottle of liquor, a rare outburst from the normally sober Vir.  Vir wants to know how drunk he needs to be before he cant see himself in the mirror.  Londo is gentle with him, explaining that the fact that the murder of even a monster like Cartagia affects him like this is a good sign for his soul, leaving unsaid that Londo’s own soul has long since been compromised. Londo expands on that thought by pointing out that he has always been envious that Vir has made it as far as he has without sullying himself, the way Londo felt he had been forced to.  As they sit quietly together they are interrupted by fireworks as word spreads that the Centauri are pulling out of Narn. 

Sheridan gathers ambassadors and lays out a strategy to engage the Vorlons while also attracting the Shadows and the rest of the First Ones into one climatic confrontation.  Sheridan’s plan to lure the Shadows depends on sacrificing Ranger Ericsson and his crew to plant evidence of a fleet gathering that they will be tempted to interrupt.  He needs the crew to fight to the death to protect the false information, so that the Shadows will be convinced of it’s veracity.  

G’Kar gets a great scene back on Narn, when he interrupts a crowd of Narn trashing the throne room. He chastises them for their destructive celebration and for some of them viewing the Centauri as a model for how to order their society so that they can extract their vengeance.  G’Kar melts down on them declaring the Centauri to be a lost people who should be pitied more than emulated.  When no one seems to listen and they question what he has endured he begins laughing manically and simply walks away.  There are reasons why G’Kar is my favorite beyond his general slutiness.  

Later on Sheridan personally monitors the decoy mission, before Delenn comes in and they leave together to go to their ship, and head off, as Sheridan says, into the fire. 

As is mostly the case with these episodes I find the Londo/G’Kar/Vir storyline to be more compelling while everything else feels quite rushed.  Each of the three characters in that arc get some great moments in this episode, compared to the very business-like moments for everyone else. We are approaching the end of a six-episode arc that was originally going to be at least twice that long so it makes sense that some things feel a little undercooked. Next is the grand conclusion to the Shadow War arc with “Into the Fire”. 

Hard to say where you can find Babylon 5 at the moment(maybe Roku Channel?), but I am continuing on with some pretty good quality downloads from Itunes that I made years ago.

Where do I know them from?

• Bryan Cranston pops up as the ranger, three years before Malcolm in the Middle would get him some notice and eleven years before Breaking Bad would catapult him to stardom.  Aside from Babylon 5 he will always be Hal in my heart. 

The Good

• The Cartagia plot gets a satisfying and abrupt ending.  I kind of love the detail that everyone had an “oh no… anyway” reaction to his death. 
• I like the visual work done in this episode on Narn, even down to the fact that there are different guard uniforms for the soldiers which shows off that the emperor is more vulnerable here than at home where he would exclusively have his personal guards.

The Bad

• Visually the grand fleet at the end of the episode looks a little off when compared to shots they had in the past.
• It feels lame that the grand confrontational battle is going to happen at a planet we have never heard of before.   

Arc Points (Spoilers Ahead)

• Garibaldi constantly complains about how they can stop the Shadows and the Vorlons, all the while Sheridan is leaving hints that his objective is not to defeat them in battle, which I like. 
• Vir will continue to be haunted by this murder even suffering nightmares in future episodes about it.  He is just a good guy that Vir.
• I like the look of sadness Londo gets on his face when he feels like he is being dragged one step closer to his feared end of becoming emperor himself one day.
• G’Kar’s scene in the throne room is terrific, and Andreas Katsulas should have won some shit for it.  I still think of him exploding about the Centauri being a lost people anytime people try to say that terrible people should be emulated in some way.  G’Kar also shows that while Londo feels like he is being dragged, it is pretty easy to just take yourself off of a path, as long as you are willing to walk away.