We have finally arrived.  All of the little bits of planning that we have seen from Sheridan, every strategic choice he has made all season has been leading to this.  Sheridan is not done being sneaky though, as his plan for the battle is something we have not seen from him yet.  We also get some tragedy mixed in with Ivanova and Marcus, but other than that this episode is all about Sheridan and how he plans to end the Earth Civil War for good. 

We open on Marcus sitting with an unconscious Ivanova.  Delenn comes in to tell him that the transport that will be taking her back to Babylon 5 has arrived.  Marcus argues that she should stay, but Delenn eventually convinces him that she will be more comfortable back on the station.

Things then shift over to a massive Resistance mobilization on Mars complete with a Franklin voice over.  We also see them rolling out the telepaths.  Their contact from EarthForce arrives and is mystified about the plan, but she agrees to smuggle frozen telepaths to as many ships as possible.  While that is settled Garibaldi and another team scout out a secondary target, and with that we have most of our characters in their places for the final battle.

At an EarthForce bunker the Resistance storm in and seize the place with the help of a traitor.  Franklin and Lyta begin preparing for their part of the plan. When the doctor finishes, Lyta heads outside.  

In space Sheridan does one final pep talk to the crew of the Agamemnon before he address the fleet, explaining the necessity of attacking Mars before they can move on to Earth.  He also makes it clear that the White Stars and the ships that have defected will be the main attack force, while the League ships will only provide support.

 For the first time since “No Surrender, No Retreat” we also get a look inside the enemy ships.  A General Lefcourt is in command of the armada above Mars from the Apollo.  The show quickly establishes that he is a cautious and intelligent commander who is not 100% a Clark supporter, but feels that it is his duty to fight Sheridan and the other rebels. In his address to the fleet he reminds everyone of their duty, and implores them to forget that the people they are killing were once friends. 

Marcus is ready for his portion of the plan, though he is distracted by thinking of Ivanova.  He feels that somehow Babylon 5 might be able to still help, but Lennier shuts it down uncomfortably.  This naturally raises Marcus’s suspicions, but they conversation is derailed by their mission to jump to the surface of Mars and blow up an EarthForce supply base. 

Garibaldi and the ground team take shelter, while Marcus jumps into the atmosphere.  I like how this uses some pre-established lore to accomplish, as it has been mentioned in the past of the show that Minbari jump engines are far more accurate than Earth engines. The White Star wrecks a bunch of stuff and runs off.

General Lefcourt receives the news about the attacks all over Mars, but decides that they are trying to split his force, so he orders everyone to maintain their positions.  He wonders about what Sheridan’s next step will be, as he believes(correctly) that Sheridan still has some more tricks.

Lyta makes contact with the telepaths that were delivered to the Earth ships and they wake up and start following their Shadow programming, interfacing with the ships and shutting them down.  Franklin explains all of this to a soldier, who is horrified.  Franklin is somewhat ashamed, but justifies it that they are fighting for Earth, and for the hope of their own future cure, even if they don’t realize it.  While he explains we see some of the telepaths take the ships, and Sheridan’s plan appears to be working perfectly.  

Leftcourt is pleased to see he was right as Sheridan jumps in with his fleet, but before he can do anything his ship begins malfunctioning.  To his credit he quickly realizes that something must have been slipped on board.  Only about ten ships of his fleet are unaffected, but they are no match for Sheridan’s fleet and are quickly routed.  Sheridan then quickly moves on to attack Earth while the Earth fleet is disabled.  He orders Marcus to rejoin the fleet, and Marcus uses the opportunity to begin figuring out what kind of things Babylon 5 could possibly do for Ivanova.

Marcus manages to find out about the Alien Healing Device, he tricks Lennier into leaving the ship and then promptly speeds off to Babylon 5.  Delenn and Sheridan figure out what he might be doing, but they have no way to warn the station, and no time to pull back and send someone after him.  They are committed to hitting Earth and ending the war. 

Sheridan and his fleet arrive, and Sheridan makes an impassioned plea to the whole planet. This is intercut with President Clark sitting at his desk and furiously scribbling on a notepad.  The only response they get is the planetary defense grid coming online and firing, but we get to see a party of soldiers and legislators march through the halls on Earth towards the President’s office.  Clark finishes his writing, punches some commands into a computer.  As people begin trying to break down his door he shoots himself in the head, leaving them to discover that he has left a cryptic note and programmed the defense grid to fire on Earth itself.  

Sheridan is informed and the fleet gets to work destroying as many of the platforms as they can before they fire.  The League ships finally get the chance to step up and they assist.  The Agamemnon takes a beating and loses its weapons, meaning they are going to have to do a suicide ramming of the last platform.  Thankfully the Apollo jumps in and Leftcourt shows what a swell guy he is by destroying the last platform and sparing the Agamemnon’s crew.  

Sheridan prepares to head down to Earth to accept the consequences of his actions, while Franklin speeds back toward Babylon 5 to try and intercept Marcus.  In a nice touch the ISN reporter that got forced off the air all the way back in S3E10 “Severed Dreams” comes back and tearfully delivers the news broadcast that Earth has been liberated from President Clark.  The last shot we see is of Marcus hooked up to the Alien Healing Device and telling Ivanova that he loves her. 

I like this big finish for a number of reasons.  The first is that Sheridan’s whole campaign has been about using the least amount of violence necessary and it carries through to here.  Instead of disabling the Earth ships and wiping them out, he just disables them to go around.  Another thing I like is that he realizes he cant just declare victory, that someone on the ground is going to have to step up, which is why he has been building contacts with the various resistance groups.  Finally I am impressed that Sheridan knows that despite his victory that the next step is for him to surrender himself to the civilian authorities.  All of this makes for a very mature resolution that still manages to be thrilling, not an easy thing to pull off.  The Ivanova/Marcus stuff is probably the weak spot as the high melodrama of their story conflicts with everything else, but all in all a great conclusion to one of the longest running arcs in the show. 

Where do I know them from?

• Ungela Brockman playing the EarthForce NCO, has had a long career on TV, but I know her best as showing up as a corporal in Starship Troopers.
• J. Patrick McCormack as General Leftcourt, is another actor with a long history, generally playing authority figures, including an admiral in Deep Space Nine. 
• Carolyn Seymour as Senator Crosby, has worked extensively as a voice actor, often portraying Mon Mothma in Star Wars video games. She also appeared a few times in ST:TNG as a romulan.  
• Julian Stone as Captain Charlie Mitchell, is another video game voice actor, I remember him best as the news reporter from Command & Conquer:Generals-Zero Hour.

The Good

• Great battle sequences and Sheridan’s speech to Earth are highlights.  The final battle also makes some smart visual references to the Battle of the Line.
• Sheridan’s plan being the culmination of lots of little plots is a great touch. 

The Bad

• The Ivanova/Marcus stuff comes off a little half baked.  It may have felt better if this was the mid-point of season 5 instead.

Arc Points (Spoilers Ahead)

• I like the detail that every one of Franklin’s medical logs references something from an earlier episode, Marcus’s beating at the hands of Neroon, and the death of the singer he had a one night stand with.
• The “Something is Amiss” with Earth plot was so long running that it feels nuts to finally be over. It really showed the benefit of long form TV story telling.
• For as compromised as the season is, everything feels well done overall enough that if you did not know about the compressed structure it may have just been a slightly off season for the show.
• It is ironic that the story goes to great lengths to save Ivanova, but Claudia Christian will not make it to Season 5 due to circumstances that are still somewhat murky.  Both sides claim that the other are responsible.  
• The show does a good job of making you both fearful and hopeful for what happens to Sheridan after his surrender.  Leftcourt seems pretty sympathetic, but at the same time the government is still nominally under the control of President Clark’s administration.  If this were made today I have to think that more would be made about the political parties involved.