The Shadow War is over.  One of the largest plots, and certainly one of the longest story arcs beginning all the way back in Season One is over.  Add to that the Centauri plot is mostly over.  Another arc that can trace itself back to Season One (the same episode even), is now concluded.  All of the different characters, separated at the beginning of Season Four, now reassemble back at Babylon 5 and start facing the changed world they live in.

 

The characters start off in celebratory mode, with fireworks, flybys and general partying across the station. Sheridan is more introspective, talking about the costs of the war in voice over.  He is interrupted by Delenn and the two happily embrace while watching the celebrations from afar.

 

Back on Earth our favorite slimy antagonist Bester is being briefed on a new Earth program to discredit Babylon 5.  Bester’s superior alludes to the end of the Shadow War as being something that had the president running scared, and he wants to start moving against his enemies quickly.  The interesting thing to me is that this suggests that the Shadows had been the ones telling Earth to not try and retake the station, and without their help and guidance President Clark is quickly drawing up enemies lists in classic paranoid leader fashion.

 

After credits we get a few more details from Bester’s superior.  Bester points out that they could just send the fleet against the station again, but the plan instead is to get them to lose support from the alien governments.

 

Londo has another meeting with the royal court minister back at the palace and breaks the news that due to his inoffensiveness to pretty much everyone he has been chosen as regent, until a more careful emperor selection process can be completed.  The minister takes the new power and immediately begins planning aggressive redecorating of the palace.

 

Garibaldi is back to his routine, shaving and making drawings in the fogged mirror, though he cant bring himself to draw a happy face.  He is interrupted by his comm system, which displays something remarkably like what I see when I get migraines.  He orders his computer to delete the message and then promptly heads to a staff meeting and resigns.  The others are suitably shocked, but Garibaldi goes on a rant about having to fight other people’s battles and talks about going into business for himself to try and find happiness.

 

Down in customs, Zack is training newbies when Londo walks in.  Londo casually brags about killing the emperor, confuses Zack and moves on.  He tries to continue before Bester arrives under guard and demands to meet with the command staff. Before he can even do anything else he gets summoned to a meeting wit the captain, leaving right before a group of Elvis impersonators arrive on station.

 

G’Kar gets a sweet reunion scene with Garibaldi.  The ex-chief is nervous as he had heard that G’Kar had been captured and tortured while he was out looking for him.  G’Kar despite or because of being one eye down, sees it differently.  G’Kar credits the chain of events with helping him free his own people, and he is absurdly happy.

ack is understandably unhappy about Garibaldi’s resignation, and about being called to replace him.  The discussion gets tabled when they watch an ISN report that Babylon 5 is now considered off limits to all Earth ships.  Zack however is sent to fetch Lyta from her quarters to help the command staff prepare for their meeting with Bester.  Lyta complains about no one coming to her except to ask for her help.  Zack is direct with her, that her association with the Vorlons, who recently went on a planet killing spree, has made her unpopular amongst the general populace.

 

Londo is glad to be back, until he crosses G’Kar’s path.  He steels himself and walks up to the narn.  G’Kar lets him know in no uncertain terms that he no longer has any use for Londo or any Centauri and wishes to have no contact with any of them now that his world is free.

 

Bester protests Lyta’s presence but the Captain is not concerned.  Bester gets down to business, letting the command staff know that there is another phase of Earth’s campaign against them.  He refuses to tell them what it is unless they go to Z’Ha’Dum to try and find something that can help the telepaths that are in stasis.  While they discuss it Bester attempts to read the crew, getting stopped somewhat violently by Lyta much to his shock.

 

Bester gets a promise from Sheridan that they will go and he reveals that an EarthForce patrol will be ambushed and murdered by a Black Omega Psi-Corps squadron with the deaths being blamed on Babylon 5.  Sheridan, Delenn, Bester and Lyta leave for Z’Ha’Dum while Ivanova leaves with a few squadrons to save the EarthForce patrol.  Ivanova arrives just in time and the Babylon 5 ships and the EarthForce patrol box the Black Omega ships in and annihilate them.

 

On the White Star Bester confronts Lyta, insisting that she is far stronger than she should be.  She demures but Bester is not fooled for a second and he tries to guilt her into sharing whatever made her stronger with the corps.  The ship arrives at the planet and they catch unknown ships evacuating from the planet and going through the local jump point.  Delenn points out that even with the Shadows gone, their servants and allies remain.  Lyta reports that the planet seems completely quiet, and this causes Sheridan to snap into action, ordering the ship to flee from the planet.  His caution is justified as the whole planet blows up shortly afterwards and they are forced to jump away empty handed.

Bester gets some time to have a heart to heart with his frozen lover.  He confesses that he does not feel that bad about sacrificing his men if it means getting one step closer to bringing her back.  He also confesses to her freezer that he still has a plan to hurt Sheridan and the others more than they can imagine.

 

Sheridan drops by the visit Lyta, and he spins out his theory that Lyta used her prior knowledge of Z’Ha’Dum to telepathically send a signal to destroy the planet the moment they hit hyperspace.  Lyta allows that maybe it was because she hated Bester, or that maybe the Vorlons left an implanted command.  Lyta refuses to admit to anything, and Sheridan angrily lets her know that even if he agreed, that taking action like that without his approval or knowledge would lead to him to turn her over to the Psi-Corps.  Later with Ivanova, Sheridan worries about where the ships they saw leaving were going.  We get treated to a closing scene of the regent back on Centauri Prime waking from a nightmare to discover an alien parasite on his shoulder.  The same kind of parasite that Emperor Londo will one day carry.

 

Everyone got back together just in time for Garibaldi to leave the group.  The episode also set up Earth as the next big conflict, now that the Shadows are gone.  With the next few episodes we are going to be sprinting through a bunch of the fallout of the Shadow War, and it wont be confined to Earth either.  For now next week we can look forward to the maddening propaganda stylings of “The Illusion of Truth”.

 

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?

• Victor Lundin as the Psi-Corps boss, had a long career, though this was his first gig since he had been on an episode of the Batman tv series with Adam West.  He also appeared in the original Star Trek, as well as Get Smart.

 

The Good

• The conflict with Earth is brought back to the fore and recontextualized now that the Shadows, Clark’s main supporters, are gone.
• Lyta gets some more character time, though the character herself lampshades that she is generally a plot device rather than a character.

The Bad

 

• I have never been a fan of how quickly Garibaldi moves from team member to outsider.  Something I will chalk up to the squeezed together season 4 and 5 episodes.

Arc Points (Spoilers Ahead)

 

• Fallout from the Shadow War is starting, with the Shadows servants setting themselves up on Centauri Prime, and them leaving all of their human CPUs behind.
• I like that President Clark immediately panics and starts swinging as soon as he does not have the Shadows backing him.
• Bester reaffirms his alliance with the station, but both sides underline the fact that neither trusts or likes the other.
• Garibaldi leaves! This sets up some good stuff down the line, but it was a shocking moment back in the day.
• I like the faith that Babylon 5 had in fascist governments and their work ethic, like that they would go to the trouble of staging an attack. I imagine our own government would just say there was an attack, which seems much easier.