After the somewhat experimental “Intersections in Real Time” Babylon 5 gets back to normal business.  We are now only four episodes from the end of the season so everything moves very quickly to get all the pieces in place for the finale.  We get an interesting battle scene, some shocking developments as well as Garibaldi getting back in the fold.  

The episode opens up with a jarring scene of Sheridan safe and sound back on Babylon 5 having a nice chat with Franklin.  The perspective quickly shifts to show that he is still in detention, and being interrogated under the influence of heavy drugs and some kind of scifi device.  The two interrogators then have a conversation in front of Sheridan on the relative merits of threatening to murder the captain’s father.  The two then decide on upping the amount of drugs they give him.  

Elsewhere Garibaldi is frantically trying to make contact with the resistance.  Unfortunately for him the Resistance decide to make contact with him first, beating and kidnapping him.  Back from the credits he is sitting with a black bag over his head, when Number One brings Franklin to see him.  She is pretty dead set on just murdering the chief, but Franklin insists on talking with him first.  Garibaldi tries to convince everyone that he knows how to spring Sheridan from prison, but no one is buying it.  Thankfully for Garibaldi, Lyta is present and agrees to scan Garibaldi.  Franklin and Lyta hold everyone at gunpoint while she does this, and then she is able to use her creepy super telepath powers to project everything she found into Number One’s mind.

On the war front, Ivanova is prosecuting things a bit more harshly than Sheridan, but these days I approve.  She informs ships that they will surrender and face charges of murder, or be destroyed without delay.  The White Stars and the allied ships make short work of the Damocles and the Orion destroying their weapons and engines.  They make sure to scoop up the life pods and deliver them to civilian authorities.  Marcus questions the slow approach but Ivanova is adamant that anyone who fired on civilians must be captured and held to account and not be allowed to slink away once the war is over. 

Garibaldi outlines the details of where Sheridan is being held, but Number One lets them know she cannot support the mission to rescue him, leaving the Babylon 5 folks on their own. They head off with only one Resistance member to help them and she only shows them to the right tunnels to take on their own before leaving them to it.  There is a cringey bit of business where they argue over who is drinking more than their fair share of water and then they continue on. 

On the station, an alarmed Delenn rushes off to a meeting that Londo has convened without her knowledge.  She arrives just in time to see the results of a unanimous vote.  It turns out that Londo is planning on throwing the support of all alien governments behind Sheridan.  Even G’Kar is participating.  They point out that he risked himself time after time on behalf of everyone and now that he is in danger, it is time for everyone to repay him. 

At Ivanova’s war fleet one of the surrendering EarthForce officers attempts to trade information for leniency letting them know that a special force of elite Earth destroyers will be waiting for them at their next rendezvous.  He also gives them the happy information that the reason Earth can do this is that not every ship that defects really defects 100%, and some of them are working both sides.  Marcus and Ivanova reason out that Clark’s plan is probably to eliminate all of the rebel Earth ships so that he can more easily make the case that the whole war is just alien governments trying to prey upon Earth.  Ivanova decides to rush headlong into the trap to avoid this, figuring that the White Stars have the best chance at victory.  

The Babylon 5 crew back on Mars end up having to jump some security officers in the tunnels leading Garibaldi to get stabbed in the back(a recurring motif for the poor man).  Franklin patches him up quickly before they get changed into EarthForce uniforms for the next phase of their plan.  They head right up to the front gate and Garibaldi is able to use the natural policeman’s desire to brutalize prisoners to gain entry.  They manage to overpower the cell guards and they begin dragging Sheridan back out.  The front desk guard begins to argue, which causes a small fight, and Sheridan disturbingly decides to shoot one of the guards quite a few times before they dash off. 

As Ivanova and Marcus prepare for battle, he manages to trick her into getting some rest.  They have a brief conversation where Ivanova reveals that she knows a bit about how he feels before they head into their battle.  The enemy fleet is revealed to be Earth destroyers that have been modified using Shadow technology.  This deeply offends Ivanova and she delivers a cold and threatening monologue to the enemy captain before launching her attack.  This battle feels less one sided than most of the fights have been, but the White Stars manage to prevail.  In the last moments a piece of debris hits Ivanova’s White Star and Marcus barely manages to drag her unconscious form from the bridge before the whole thing explodes. 

There is a small sweet scene of Sheridan and Delenn reuniting, before both of them have the sad job of heading over to see a dying Ivanova. I like that Sheridan tries to shrug off what happened to him, before deciding to be honest with Delenn and just let her know he is not quite ready to talk about what happened.  Ivanova is proud to let Sheridan know that she managed to destroy the enemy fleet.  She presses Sheridan on her condition, and he lets her know that she is not going to make it. She then makes him promise to do something for her.  Turns out her request is that he command the last few battles from on board the Agamemnon. Sheridan honors her request, and reports over there to take over before ordering the fleet to advance to Mars. 

This is one that flew by, while having to cram in a bunch of plot.  We get Sheridan’s rescue, Delenn’s arrival, and the mortal wounding of Ivanova all in one go.  All of the pieces are now finally in place for the aptly named, “Endgame” and it promises to be an epic conclusion.  

Where do I know them from?

• Marc Gomes as Eisensen the prisoner, appeared in the two part premier of Season 8 of the X-files as an FBI agent.
• Musetta Vander as Felicia the Resistance tunnel rat, is most notable to me as the lead Siren from O Brother, Where Art Thou?

The Good

• Everything is still moving quick, but we got a good space battle, and we also were able to check in on Londo and G’Kar.  It feels like it has been way too long. 

The Bad

• In a normal season I feel like this would have been two or three episodes at least. 

Arc Points (Spoilers Ahead)

• With everything in place we move on to the last big battle, though I enjoy how the show even manages to subvert that.
• Ivanova has such great faith in the rightness of her cause, I wonder if the character had stuck around, how she would feel that so many of these people she was arresting were never going to be charged.
• We also come full circle for Sheridan, his first appearance was on the bridge of his ship, and now he is returning.
• Garibaldi is quickly forgiven by everyone, which is a bit of a stretch, but then again they need him for the next episode anyway.
• Ivanova’s wounding pairing up with her acknowledgment of Marcus’s feelings really foreshadows that something else even worse is going to happen.