![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rivendellrose"Walkabout" through "The Summoning" - That's right, we're on to Season 4, now!
Walkabout
I want to like Franklin. I really do. But every single one of his episodes is a downer and he spends most of his time whiiiiiiniiiiiiing about how haaaaaard his life is and how much he wishes people understooooooooood him, and it just makes me want to slap him. Nobody here understands anybody else, Franklin. Everybody's life sucks. Go have a pity party with Londo or something. At least then you'd be entertaining. His little girlfriend in this episode was cute, but, inevitably, doomed. Becausewe can't have nice things we can't have anyone but John and Delenn having happily-ever-afters, can we? More of which later.
Re: Kosh2 - The Boy says "he doesn't seem very nice." *Evil grin* No... no, he doesn't, does he?
Grey 17 Is Missing
I have to say, I liked this episode much better than I'd remembered liking it - and for an episode that focuses on Lennier, Marcus, and Delenn, you know that's going to be good. The short version is that I had somehow misremembered exactly why Marcus ends up fighting Neroon, and had got into my head that it might have been some kind of absurd 'champion' thing, implying that Delenn couldn't fight for herself because she's omg a guuuurl. Which, yay, no. As long as Marcus is fighting in order to distract Neroon long enough for her to be sworn in, I'm on-board with that.
The tricky thing about this episode is that Lennier does something so stupid here that it makes me want to whap him one... which I can only assume means that the rest of the fandom wanted to outright murder the little idiot. Seriously, between this and the end of S4, one does start to wonder if Lennier has some kind of weird desire to get Marcus killed. I recognize that he's the best choice to stop Neroon (although, oddly, one would think that Lennier could likewise have gone to any of the Rangers, including the Minbari ones... perhaps he simply thought they might be conflicted, or worse yet believe that Neroon might be a better choice), but what I don't get is his decision at the end to, oh, go ahead and speak for Marcus, who is laying unconscious, bloody, and beaten to a pulp on the table. Um. Hey, Lennier? We know you'd happily get beaten to pulp for Delenn, but, um... why don't you not make that kind of statement for anybody else, please? It makes some of us (like me) a little nervous. I'm sure Marcus would, in fact, agree with him, it just strikes me as more than a little presumptuous of him to just go right ahead and say that for the guy who's just nearly died.
Also, here's another of Marcus' desperate attempts to kill himself for someone. I really should try to count these for the series as a whole. The poor boy just can't seem to give up... and every time I see him do it, I cringe and want to both snuggle him and shove him safe in a box somewhere. ...Which I guess will happen soon enough. Alas.
Another interesting thing about this episode is that, as usual, Neroon could easily be interpreted as totally correct in the things he says about Delenn. As the Lurker's Guide puts it, he "accuses her of creating a vaccum of power on Minbar so that she could occupy it. A religious zealot, guided by prophecy, taking command of a military structure." Which... yup, is pretty much accurate. It's just that it's okay, because it's her destiny! Or, wait, maybe it's okay because we like her? Something like that, anyway. I feel like instances like this are one of the high points of JMS's way of writing - on a lot of shows, Neroon would be a total straw man, he'd be obviously wrong. As it is... well, we're obviously not meant to empathize with him or want him to win (especially in this case, where winning would mean killing poor Marcus and probably Delenn, too), but... well, it's hard not to admit that yeah, he sees her for what she is, even if we like it and he doesn't.
I always feel a bit sad when Marcus applauds Lennier's circuitous logic... mostly because it's really not all that circuitous or tricky. He can't tell anyone in the chain of command, so he's... telling someone outside the chain of command. Wooooo. Lennier must be a genius. I really hope Marcus is tweaking him, here, otherwise it would appear that the bar is set pretty low for cunning in Marcus' world. Which I suppose, considering the types he usually hangs out with, might very well be the case.
The cute little "let's get some of Delenn's back-story while further establishing her relationship with Sheridan!" scene is very cute, but it does rather bring up more questions than it answers. Like why, exactly, the war between the Humans and the Minbari broke Delenn's father's heart (...the only good reason I can come up with is "it is apparently not necessarily a good thing for a Religious Caste Minbari that your daughter has become a genocidal maniac, even if her cause is considered a holy war," mostly because, um, hello, I thought the whole point of the Minbari war was that they didn't regret it until they realized Sinclair had Valen's soul? If Delenn's daddy was all "woe, we shouldn't be doing this!" the whole time, doesn't that kind of tear holes in that idea? Oh, wait, this goes back to JMS's weird last minute change in "In the Beginning" where he decided that Delenn immediately regretted the war, doesn't it? That is something that I so do not buy. This is Delenn we're talking about. Delenn of the "hey, you guys can't carry around my friend's body! I'm going to STEAL IT, CREMATE IT, ALMOST START ANOTHER WAR, CLAIM A MIRACLE AND THEN SHAMELESSLY BLACKMAIL YOU INTO BACKING ME UP AT THE RISK OF DISHONORING YOUR ENTIRE CLAN." She does not do regret. At least not until way the hell after the fact, at which point she angsts and then absorbs the whole disaster into her vast concept of grandiose personal destiny.
...See, this is why, according to my view, Neroon is Not Wrong that perhaps Delenn is not the best person in the world to be leading the Rangers. She's scary. But she's on our side (whatever that is...) so it's okay. ♥
Somewhere in here, Marcus has a line about standing on the bridge, and none shall pass. I nearly choked, as I had forgotten that the show got THAT blatantly "hello, I'm channeling Tolkien!" Dear god. And of course it launches me off into "the black fire shall not avail you, flame of Udun" and all that, and I have to rein myself in before I start going on the whole speech and trying to figure out to what extent Sinclair committed complete cultural pollution by sticking bits of Tolkien mythos into the poor Minbari's religious life. And whether Marcus, with his knowledge of English history, has ever picked up Lord of the Rings and had some kind of weird double-vision religious experience.
As for Garibaldi's plot... Oh, ventriloquist dummies. Creepy, but cliche. And yet, still damned creepy. I love the idea that there are people hiding in this random abandoned sector of the station that is hidden from everyone (it really gets across the concept of how big the place is), but the rest of the plot is pretty "meh." Too much proselytizing, too little of Garibaldi being awesome.
Somewhere, I saw that JMS commented he felt he should go around personally apologizing for the monster in this. I agree. He should. But I'd probably still be laughing too hard about the damned thing to pay him any attention. And anyway, he really wouldn't want to stop by my place, because I still have an active oath to slap him for that horrible hand-waving "diary" in season 5. And for the all the surgery-with-chainsaw lines that almost ruined "Sleeping in Light." So, best that he hasn't gone through with it after all. :P
And the Rock Cried Out, No Hiding Place
The best part of this episode, for me, is how Delenn totally runs Sheridan's life even before he admits that he's in love with her. She comes in all "look, I'm doing that cute thing where I throw around misused English vocabulary that happens to have intimate body parts in it!" and when he doesn't react to this she decides it must really be serious, so she blackmails him into going out to dinner with her. She's my hero. ♥ There's also the teensy fact that she's so obvious about being in love with Sheridan that someone who's just met them can tell. Bless.
Apparently the penultimate scene in this episode (in which Refa finally gets his due) copies "Fargo?" So sayeth The Boy. I can hardly pretend to be surprised, though I've never seen "Fargo" to confirm it. (Hush, yes, there are lots of things I've never seen.) Apart from that, I do take some issue with the fact that we're meant to believe some sort of (somewhat) amicable discussion goes on between Londo and G'Kar wherein Londo is like "hey, we have a common enemy, and I'd like to kill him by pretending to get you captured (but really, it'll be okay because the guards will be loyal to me!), and you'll just have to trust me on that even though I'm perfectly willing to have my own aide captured and tortured in order to accomplish this" and... G'Kar, who has apparently suffered head trauma along with his recent religious experience, replies "okey-dokey!" Seriously - I understand he's changed a lot since then, but I'm having some difficulty comparing this with about two seasons (?) ago, when he was so pissed off with Mollari that he was quite happy to die in an elevator just so that he could watch Londo die with him. Now he's risking his life and freedom just on Londo's word? Too early, JMS. They'll get there eventually, but this is way too early for it.
Also. Delenn maded Sheridan a fleet. (Link goes to a macro made by the awesome![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
icepixie) ♥
Me: *Wibbles, flails, absolutely lost in how adorable 2/3 of my most beloved ot3 is*
Boy: Wow, so... her present to him is to make his awesome unique ship that she gave him not unique at all?
Me: ...You are so intentionally missing the point of this beautiful moment. :P
Shadow Dancing
The tourists at the beginning of this episode, the ones who are Frankly Appalled by their daughter interacting with the Shockingly Unshaven! Franklin are, um, amusing. In a horribly, horribly painful kind of way. And yet, oh, the cliche.
Unsurprisingly, I adore the bits with Marcus and Susan in this episode, even though his whole "I'll tell you you're beautiful in Minbari and then lie and tell you it's a greeting!" thing does seem both ill-advised (duhhhhh she's going to figure it out, Marcus) and also a teensy bit creepy (curse you, JMS, and your stupid stupid stupid professional fanfic that made me second-guess every damned thing that Marcus ever says or does, weighing it for evidence of your inexpressibly frustrating desire to make him a creepy nutball!!!)... and then of course there's poor Susan's efforts to sleep on the Minbari beds. Poor Susan.
And at the same time, we have more sleeping-related cuteness with Sheridan and Delenn! I adore the look on Sheridan's face when Delenn tells him that when he gets back they will spend the night together. It's such a beautiful mingling of horror, excitement, terror, and wonder, with just a teensy bit of "puppy that just heard the word 'WALK'" around the edges. Okay, maybe a lot of that last one. He's so cute when she's terrifying him. Me, I think the latter bit of terror (the "cut off his... access to her family" line) is a bit much (put down another mark in the "surgery with chainsaws" category!), but... whatever. And I love how she totally fails to mention to him that she already did the first night, back on the White Star all those months ago.
Interestingly, Franklin's Big Revelation of the season, which requires him spending months being useless and then getting himself stabbed in the gut and nearly dying... is that he's a whiny little prat. Shit, man, I could've told you that two seasons ago and saved you the massive bleeding and also, you know, the whole 'being useless in the middle of a war' thing. I'm sorry. Like I said, I want to like Franklin - I genuinely do like him when he's not being Mr. Doom and Gloom and Angst all the time. But this season? OMG, I really just wanted him to get over himself. And then that's his grandiose revelation of the whole season - that he needs to get the hell over himself. Wow. Deep.
Also, it just kills me to say it, but... the space battle? Kind of anticlimactic. I felt like it was too much flash and not enough substance, too much cutting back and forth, not enough actually being able to see what was going on. Granted, I was knitting for part of it, so it's possible I didn't give it fair shift. But still.
I so totally do not get how (other than "it was necessary for the plot") anybody got that Sheridan being the hand meant that the "man in the middle" was his equal and opposite number on the other side. I mean, yes, okay, it turns out to be true. Um. That's not hard when the writer is the one making things happen. That whole conversation trying to analyze Sheridan's dream felt a lot like JMS just being like "oh, crap, I have to explain this so I'll just stick it into Ivanova and Delenn's mouths and get it done with." Bleh.
And then the flash-forward scene from "War Without End" - Delenn is all cozy and happy watching Sheridandrool on himself manly and sleeping with his strangely waxed chest exposed (maybe he figures Minbari would find chest hair unappealing? Come to think of it, he'd probably be right about that... unless it's OMG sexy in that bestial barbarian kind of way or something... after all, at least some Minbari men can grow facial hair (see Dukhat), so... I'm venturing a little too far afield here, but these are the stupid little things I get caught up in), and she picks up the snow-globe and... apparently re-enacts a bit from "Citizen Kane," judging by The Boy's compulsion to say "Rosebud!" every time he sees this scene. (Yup, yet another famous movie I've never seen.) And then Anna is all pissy about Delenn.
...Just out of curiosity, how the hell does she know who Delenn is? At some point in the whole "hey, let's let the captain's DEAD WIFE onto the station without letting him know!" thing, did someone happen to say "Oh, you're looking for Captain Sheridan? He's probably in his quarters WITH HIS MINBARI GIRLFRIEND, DELENN! GEE, THAT SEEMED TO MAKE HER ANGRY, I WONDER WHY?!"
The answer to the above is obviously "yes." It was probably Zack.
Z'ha'dum
And it's time for Anna. Who... is, IMHO, much better as played by Melissa Gilbert than by the original actress, but still comes across as decidedly... odd. And not entirely because she's Shadow-touched, I don't think. I can't decide if it's just that I don't like her very much as an actress, or if it's a case of the classic 'actors who are actually together never have great chemistry,' but either way... meh. Oh well, we're not exactly meant to feel that they're the love of the century at this point (although I also doubt we're meant to be wondering what the hell Sheridan ever saw in her).
One thing that amuses me about this episode - Sheridan gets raring pissed about how Delenn's been keeping secrets from him, and she's all "woe, I should have loved him less and trusted him more!" So when he comes back, of course, she never keeps another important secret from him! Right? ...Oh, that whole genocide thing? Nahhhhhh, that's totally different! ...Mostly because she knows he wouldn't be able to forgive her for it if she actually confronted him with it. I mean, really. "You tried to utterly wipe out Humanity because we accidentally killed your teacher, and only stopped because it just happened that the fighter pilot you picked up to interrogate for information about our defenses had Valen's soul (ie, was Sinclair)? Oh, but you were angry? Well, that's okay then..."
"Think of me as a sort of middleman." Gee, do you think he might be the man in the middle? Gosh, I'm not sure.
"I know this isn't the Anna that you knew. What I am is what was made in her. A new personality. She can never come back. But I can love you as well as she did." ...Yeah, because that argument always works and isn't at all creepy.
The Hour of the Wolf
Let's see... Ivanova's trying to drink herself into oblivion, G'Kar is scribbling everything in his book, and Delenn is trying to fast herself to death. So, business as usual. Oh, and Londo is meeting with Mr. Morden! Who is even creepier than ever now that he can spend whole creepy conversations creepily peeling bits of creepy dead skin off his creepy burned body! Yay! ♥ Resurrection seems to make him a bit cranky, too. He's far from his usual, cheery self. But, then, no one's particularly cheerful this episode.
The best part of this episode, for me, is Delenn, Ivanova and Lyta (and Lennier) rushing off to Z'ha'dum to try to rescue Sheridan. Seriously, how many sci-fi TV shows can you think of that would have three female leads run off to rescue one of the men with only a diplomatic attache to assist them? And really, he's just the driver.Not to mention pretty much the physical definition of androgyny on the show. I do love that they do that here.
Whatever Happened to Mr. Garibaldi?
Once again, Sheridan is being molested by higher beings, and I am once again reminded ofmiss_arel's remarks on the phrase "intimately touched by the Vorlons" - "Show us on the doll where the Vorlons touched you, Sheridan." Yeah, the Vorlons and Lorien, too. Poor Sheridan. He just can't catch a break. Vorlons, Lorien, Minbari... Higher beings are always wanting to intimately touch him. It's tragic, really.
The vaaaaaast majority of this episode is Lorien Being Deep. Which, really? Not all that terribly interesting. Congratulations, JMS - you've read some books on philosophy. We're all very proud of you. Now please get on with the plot. However, we do get a nice side-story where Marcus tries again (twice in this set of episodes!) to sacrifice himself for someone - this time, it's hard to say whether it's for G'Kar or for Garibaldi. Theoretically, it's G'Kar (he's the one Marcus is professing friendship for), but possibly he considers this a good chance at a two-for-one deal.
Marcus should really consider talking to someone about this martyr complex he's got. Unfortunately, the closest thing B5 appears to have to a counselor is Franklin, and you'll have to forgive me if I don't necessarily think he's the best person for the job. And obviously he shouldn't try talking to Delenn about it, considering that her method of dealing with her grief over Sheridan is, apparently, to starve herself to death so that she can join him in the place where no shadows fall. Or, failing that, after a major "wow, he really loved me and thinks that when things are going bad you should try to embrace them" revelation, maybe she'll just take all the Rangers and as much of the League of Non-Aligned Worlds as possible with her! Oh, Delenn - you really are a romantic, aren't you? ♥ People keep saying that Sheridan is sort of the Aragorn figure of the series (although also kind of the Gandalf figure). I gotta say, with the whole "riding headlong into destruction, even though we know the odds are horribly against us and mostly because I really would like to die" thing, I am forced to nominate Delenn not for Arwen, but rather for Eomer, or possibly Aragorn himself. (Just kidding, mind you - I don't think there's a one-to-one relationship for just about anyone. Except possibly Vir, who is totally Samwise Gamgee.)
And Sheridan throws himself off the cliff thinking of Delenn. Awww.
The Summoning
The scene with Delenn, Marcus, and Ivanova makes me wave my hands in flaily happiness. Marcus is so excited to go along with Ivanova - he and Sheridan should get together sometime and chase tennis balls, they are both such overgrown puppies. And Ivanova is so "oh god, not him!" And then she tries to show off her leet skillz with Adronato... including lingerie in her orders. Oh dear. Delenn and Marcus are so sweet and polite about it, and both of them get more and more adorable through the scene, right up until Susan is gone and Delenn tells Marcus to tell the crew that she will personally deal with anyone who laughs at Susan's pathetic Adronato. See, they are friends. I will never believe that they weren't carrying on a fabulous, universe-controlling friendship behind the scenes this whole time - I cannot ever give up this belief, because it makes me so damned happy just thinking about it. (...Hush, I'm not talking about anything pervy. Although that would be happy-making as well, so, whatever. ♥)
And then, not five minutes later!
Delenn: Everyone I hold dear is gone!
Me: o_O Um, hello? Just a minute ago you were telling Susan how Lennier would have to stay with you?
It is moments like these that convince me that perhaps my Beloved OT3 is not so good for one-third of that 3. ...Like there could be any doubt of that, but still. It bothers me. I mean... so, I am generally not at all of the "woe, she's so meeeeeeean to him!" camp of Lennier/Delenn. I firmly believe that she cares deeply for him, is very interested in his welfare and future, and so on. At worst, I think she is embarrassed by his crush on her and considers it an inappropriate obsession that he will grow out of once he's matured a bit... and, yes, there's a definite power imbalance in their relationship, which, in her mind (and, by all the evidence we see, his as well) is not at all inappropriate. It's right in their view of the universe that he is subordinate to her, that his focus is serving her needs and not focusing on what he wants. Hell, we're surrounded by military people on this show, anyway, it's not that dissimilar (although of course it's a totally different degree - I'm just making an example). The point is, yes, Lennier's life is very much caught up in Delenn and serving her and making her happy, and that's okay. His choice. She's given him the option of going home several times. Where I start to have Issues with the situation is here, because... well, there is this brief and fairly horrifying indication that, as far as Delenn is concerned, Lennier either isn't worth her concern as a dear person (which seems completely contrary to her interactions with him elsewhere in the series) or that she's just not considering him at all at the moment.
Now, that's all a bit exaggerated, right? I mean, I suspect we've all done the "Damn it, I don't have anyone to talk to about (whatever)!" or "I don't have anybody to hang out with!" or whatever, not meaning any insult to friends who are around, but... aren't exactly That Kind of Friend, or whatever. It's just... I don't know, in this case it really kind of hurts my feelings on Lennier's behalf, the poor sweetheart. ...Especially since she inexplicably cites G'Kar among the people who are gone, when they haven't been at all close in, um, ever, that I've noticed. Wtf? I mean, we all love G'Kar, granted, but... it's a very odd statement all around.
Oh,Sir Galahad Marcus. He's so... him. ♥ As usual, he develops foot-in-mouth syndrome the instant he's anywhere near Susan or even thinking about her, and as usual she is... less than fabulously sensitive about his blathering. Aww. Incidentally, the Guide describes this scene by saying that "he's never actually had relations with a woman, it turns out." Not to make too fine a point of it, but he distinctly says he's never met the right person. I know, and noticed, because I appreciate very much the fact that this show occasionally remembers to be egalitarian on matters of sexuality, and I was very pleased by it.
Incidentally, The Boy says he is not normally a fan of spin-offs, but he would love to see the spin-off that's just the adventures of Marcus. So would I. ...As long as it's nothing to do with the horrible short story JMS wrote. *Shudders*
The less said about the plot with G'Kar and Londo and Vir in this episode, I think, the better. It's a good plot, and I find it interesting and very revealing and... I enjoy it in the sense of the story, but I find it terribly painful to watch nonetheless because of how awful it is for poor G'Kar. It's worth saying, though, that Wortham Krimmer is just plain fantastically evil as Cartagia, and that I really have to hand it to the actors for all pulling off those scenes so well. So well, in fact, that they make me cringe and want to not talk about them anymore. Anyway.
Delenn apparently thinks that the thing to do if a rally is planning on tearing down her plans is to go stand in the middle of it with only Lennier. Good to know that she's not giving up on her tendency to run headlong into danger, heedless of consequences. And of course we get Sheridan back, and he gets a stirring speech that suddenly makes absolutely everyone forget their misgivings about attacking Z'ha'dum. I'd hate him if I didn't love him so much.
Odd thing to notice in all of this, but I had a classic moment of fridge logic last night when I suddenly realized that Delenn had said she'd been afraid she'd never see him again. A very odd thing to say, when just the episode prior she'd calmly told Franklin that if he didn't come back she planned to starve herself to death so that she could meet him where no shadows fall... and then gets the idea that, hey, as long as she's planning to kill herself she might as well take outher allies and Z'ha'dum with her. Apparently she wasn't nearly as confident that Humans and Minbari (and half-Minbari) go to the same place after death as she was pretending to be. (I am reminded, apropos of not a whole lot, of the statement that Elves "know not where" Men go after death.)
In another statement of Grand Irony in the overall context of the series, John promises never to leave her again. Except, you know, for twenty years from now. *Headdesk* Had Lorien not explained that part of the bargain to him yet, or is he just being a total moron in the heat of the moment? It's a terribly cute conversation, but the fact that neither of their statements really make a whole lot of sense as anything but mindless platitudes does ever-so-slightly mar the moment, for me. Oh well. They look so damned cute together that I'll forgive them.
Oh dear, and then right there at the end it's the first intro of OMG!cranky!Garibaldi. I'm with him as regards not trusting Lorien, though. I don't feel nearly as irritable about him as I did the first time through (I was pretty much convinced he was going to come out worse than the Vorlons and the Shadows combined, first time I saw this season), but I still don't like him very much. He's just so... so... cliche, I guess? Nothing against the actor, who I quite like. It's the writing that kind of makes me go "aggggh."
A quick preview for next time! I do not remember anything about the next episode, but the header image on the Lurker's Guide makes it look like it's about Delenn eating John's brains. We always knew those damned Minbari were hiding something.
Image not spoilery for anything past the beginning of S2. Just, you know, faintly horrifying and hilarious, and tending to make one wonder what someone was thinking using that particular image as the header for the whole episode.
Walkabout
I want to like Franklin. I really do. But every single one of his episodes is a downer and he spends most of his time whiiiiiiniiiiiiing about how haaaaaard his life is and how much he wishes people understooooooooood him, and it just makes me want to slap him. Nobody here understands anybody else, Franklin. Everybody's life sucks. Go have a pity party with Londo or something. At least then you'd be entertaining. His little girlfriend in this episode was cute, but, inevitably, doomed. Because
Re: Kosh2 - The Boy says "he doesn't seem very nice." *Evil grin* No... no, he doesn't, does he?
Grey 17 Is Missing
I have to say, I liked this episode much better than I'd remembered liking it - and for an episode that focuses on Lennier, Marcus, and Delenn, you know that's going to be good. The short version is that I had somehow misremembered exactly why Marcus ends up fighting Neroon, and had got into my head that it might have been some kind of absurd 'champion' thing, implying that Delenn couldn't fight for herself because she's omg a guuuurl. Which, yay, no. As long as Marcus is fighting in order to distract Neroon long enough for her to be sworn in, I'm on-board with that.
The tricky thing about this episode is that Lennier does something so stupid here that it makes me want to whap him one... which I can only assume means that the rest of the fandom wanted to outright murder the little idiot. Seriously, between this and the end of S4, one does start to wonder if Lennier has some kind of weird desire to get Marcus killed. I recognize that he's the best choice to stop Neroon (although, oddly, one would think that Lennier could likewise have gone to any of the Rangers, including the Minbari ones... perhaps he simply thought they might be conflicted, or worse yet believe that Neroon might be a better choice), but what I don't get is his decision at the end to, oh, go ahead and speak for Marcus, who is laying unconscious, bloody, and beaten to a pulp on the table. Um. Hey, Lennier? We know you'd happily get beaten to pulp for Delenn, but, um... why don't you not make that kind of statement for anybody else, please? It makes some of us (like me) a little nervous. I'm sure Marcus would, in fact, agree with him, it just strikes me as more than a little presumptuous of him to just go right ahead and say that for the guy who's just nearly died.
Also, here's another of Marcus' desperate attempts to kill himself for someone. I really should try to count these for the series as a whole. The poor boy just can't seem to give up... and every time I see him do it, I cringe and want to both snuggle him and shove him safe in a box somewhere. ...Which I guess will happen soon enough. Alas.
Another interesting thing about this episode is that, as usual, Neroon could easily be interpreted as totally correct in the things he says about Delenn. As the Lurker's Guide puts it, he "accuses her of creating a vaccum of power on Minbar so that she could occupy it. A religious zealot, guided by prophecy, taking command of a military structure." Which... yup, is pretty much accurate. It's just that it's okay, because it's her destiny! Or, wait, maybe it's okay because we like her? Something like that, anyway. I feel like instances like this are one of the high points of JMS's way of writing - on a lot of shows, Neroon would be a total straw man, he'd be obviously wrong. As it is... well, we're obviously not meant to empathize with him or want him to win (especially in this case, where winning would mean killing poor Marcus and probably Delenn, too), but... well, it's hard not to admit that yeah, he sees her for what she is, even if we like it and he doesn't.
I always feel a bit sad when Marcus applauds Lennier's circuitous logic... mostly because it's really not all that circuitous or tricky. He can't tell anyone in the chain of command, so he's... telling someone outside the chain of command. Wooooo. Lennier must be a genius. I really hope Marcus is tweaking him, here, otherwise it would appear that the bar is set pretty low for cunning in Marcus' world. Which I suppose, considering the types he usually hangs out with, might very well be the case.
The cute little "let's get some of Delenn's back-story while further establishing her relationship with Sheridan!" scene is very cute, but it does rather bring up more questions than it answers. Like why, exactly, the war between the Humans and the Minbari broke Delenn's father's heart (...the only good reason I can come up with is "it is apparently not necessarily a good thing for a Religious Caste Minbari that your daughter has become a genocidal maniac, even if her cause is considered a holy war," mostly because, um, hello, I thought the whole point of the Minbari war was that they didn't regret it until they realized Sinclair had Valen's soul? If Delenn's daddy was all "woe, we shouldn't be doing this!" the whole time, doesn't that kind of tear holes in that idea? Oh, wait, this goes back to JMS's weird last minute change in "In the Beginning" where he decided that Delenn immediately regretted the war, doesn't it? That is something that I so do not buy. This is Delenn we're talking about. Delenn of the "hey, you guys can't carry around my friend's body! I'm going to STEAL IT, CREMATE IT, ALMOST START ANOTHER WAR, CLAIM A MIRACLE AND THEN SHAMELESSLY BLACKMAIL YOU INTO BACKING ME UP AT THE RISK OF DISHONORING YOUR ENTIRE CLAN." She does not do regret. At least not until way the hell after the fact, at which point she angsts and then absorbs the whole disaster into her vast concept of grandiose personal destiny.
...See, this is why, according to my view, Neroon is Not Wrong that perhaps Delenn is not the best person in the world to be leading the Rangers. She's scary. But she's on our side (whatever that is...) so it's okay. ♥
Somewhere in here, Marcus has a line about standing on the bridge, and none shall pass. I nearly choked, as I had forgotten that the show got THAT blatantly "hello, I'm channeling Tolkien!" Dear god. And of course it launches me off into "the black fire shall not avail you, flame of Udun" and all that, and I have to rein myself in before I start going on the whole speech and trying to figure out to what extent Sinclair committed complete cultural pollution by sticking bits of Tolkien mythos into the poor Minbari's religious life. And whether Marcus, with his knowledge of English history, has ever picked up Lord of the Rings and had some kind of weird double-vision religious experience.
As for Garibaldi's plot... Oh, ventriloquist dummies. Creepy, but cliche. And yet, still damned creepy. I love the idea that there are people hiding in this random abandoned sector of the station that is hidden from everyone (it really gets across the concept of how big the place is), but the rest of the plot is pretty "meh." Too much proselytizing, too little of Garibaldi being awesome.
Somewhere, I saw that JMS commented he felt he should go around personally apologizing for the monster in this. I agree. He should. But I'd probably still be laughing too hard about the damned thing to pay him any attention. And anyway, he really wouldn't want to stop by my place, because I still have an active oath to slap him for that horrible hand-waving "diary" in season 5. And for the all the surgery-with-chainsaw lines that almost ruined "Sleeping in Light." So, best that he hasn't gone through with it after all. :P
And the Rock Cried Out, No Hiding Place
The best part of this episode, for me, is how Delenn totally runs Sheridan's life even before he admits that he's in love with her. She comes in all "look, I'm doing that cute thing where I throw around misused English vocabulary that happens to have intimate body parts in it!" and when he doesn't react to this she decides it must really be serious, so she blackmails him into going out to dinner with her. She's my hero. ♥ There's also the teensy fact that she's so obvious about being in love with Sheridan that someone who's just met them can tell. Bless.
Apparently the penultimate scene in this episode (in which Refa finally gets his due) copies "Fargo?" So sayeth The Boy. I can hardly pretend to be surprised, though I've never seen "Fargo" to confirm it. (Hush, yes, there are lots of things I've never seen.) Apart from that, I do take some issue with the fact that we're meant to believe some sort of (somewhat) amicable discussion goes on between Londo and G'Kar wherein Londo is like "hey, we have a common enemy, and I'd like to kill him by pretending to get you captured (but really, it'll be okay because the guards will be loyal to me!), and you'll just have to trust me on that even though I'm perfectly willing to have my own aide captured and tortured in order to accomplish this" and... G'Kar, who has apparently suffered head trauma along with his recent religious experience, replies "okey-dokey!" Seriously - I understand he's changed a lot since then, but I'm having some difficulty comparing this with about two seasons (?) ago, when he was so pissed off with Mollari that he was quite happy to die in an elevator just so that he could watch Londo die with him. Now he's risking his life and freedom just on Londo's word? Too early, JMS. They'll get there eventually, but this is way too early for it.
Also. Delenn maded Sheridan a fleet. (Link goes to a macro made by the awesome
icepixie) ♥ Me: *Wibbles, flails, absolutely lost in how adorable 2/3 of my most beloved ot3 is*
Boy: Wow, so... her present to him is to make his awesome unique ship that she gave him not unique at all?
Me: ...You are so intentionally missing the point of this beautiful moment. :P
Shadow Dancing
The tourists at the beginning of this episode, the ones who are Frankly Appalled by their daughter interacting with the Shockingly Unshaven! Franklin are, um, amusing. In a horribly, horribly painful kind of way. And yet, oh, the cliche.
Unsurprisingly, I adore the bits with Marcus and Susan in this episode, even though his whole "I'll tell you you're beautiful in Minbari and then lie and tell you it's a greeting!" thing does seem both ill-advised (duhhhhh she's going to figure it out, Marcus) and also a teensy bit creepy (curse you, JMS, and your stupid stupid stupid professional fanfic that made me second-guess every damned thing that Marcus ever says or does, weighing it for evidence of your inexpressibly frustrating desire to make him a creepy nutball!!!)... and then of course there's poor Susan's efforts to sleep on the Minbari beds. Poor Susan.
And at the same time, we have more sleeping-related cuteness with Sheridan and Delenn! I adore the look on Sheridan's face when Delenn tells him that when he gets back they will spend the night together. It's such a beautiful mingling of horror, excitement, terror, and wonder, with just a teensy bit of "puppy that just heard the word 'WALK'" around the edges. Okay, maybe a lot of that last one. He's so cute when she's terrifying him. Me, I think the latter bit of terror (the "cut off his... access to her family" line) is a bit much (put down another mark in the "surgery with chainsaws" category!), but... whatever. And I love how she totally fails to mention to him that she already did the first night, back on the White Star all those months ago.
Interestingly, Franklin's Big Revelation of the season, which requires him spending months being useless and then getting himself stabbed in the gut and nearly dying... is that he's a whiny little prat. Shit, man, I could've told you that two seasons ago and saved you the massive bleeding and also, you know, the whole 'being useless in the middle of a war' thing. I'm sorry. Like I said, I want to like Franklin - I genuinely do like him when he's not being Mr. Doom and Gloom and Angst all the time. But this season? OMG, I really just wanted him to get over himself. And then that's his grandiose revelation of the whole season - that he needs to get the hell over himself. Wow. Deep.
Also, it just kills me to say it, but... the space battle? Kind of anticlimactic. I felt like it was too much flash and not enough substance, too much cutting back and forth, not enough actually being able to see what was going on. Granted, I was knitting for part of it, so it's possible I didn't give it fair shift. But still.
I so totally do not get how (other than "it was necessary for the plot") anybody got that Sheridan being the hand meant that the "man in the middle" was his equal and opposite number on the other side. I mean, yes, okay, it turns out to be true. Um. That's not hard when the writer is the one making things happen. That whole conversation trying to analyze Sheridan's dream felt a lot like JMS just being like "oh, crap, I have to explain this so I'll just stick it into Ivanova and Delenn's mouths and get it done with." Bleh.
And then the flash-forward scene from "War Without End" - Delenn is all cozy and happy watching Sheridan
...Just out of curiosity, how the hell does she know who Delenn is? At some point in the whole "hey, let's let the captain's DEAD WIFE onto the station without letting him know!" thing, did someone happen to say "Oh, you're looking for Captain Sheridan? He's probably in his quarters WITH HIS MINBARI GIRLFRIEND, DELENN! GEE, THAT SEEMED TO MAKE HER ANGRY, I WONDER WHY?!"
The answer to the above is obviously "yes." It was probably Zack.
Z'ha'dum
And it's time for Anna. Who... is, IMHO, much better as played by Melissa Gilbert than by the original actress, but still comes across as decidedly... odd. And not entirely because she's Shadow-touched, I don't think. I can't decide if it's just that I don't like her very much as an actress, or if it's a case of the classic 'actors who are actually together never have great chemistry,' but either way... meh. Oh well, we're not exactly meant to feel that they're the love of the century at this point (although I also doubt we're meant to be wondering what the hell Sheridan ever saw in her).
One thing that amuses me about this episode - Sheridan gets raring pissed about how Delenn's been keeping secrets from him, and she's all "woe, I should have loved him less and trusted him more!" So when he comes back, of course, she never keeps another important secret from him! Right? ...Oh, that whole genocide thing? Nahhhhhh, that's totally different! ...Mostly because she knows he wouldn't be able to forgive her for it if she actually confronted him with it. I mean, really. "You tried to utterly wipe out Humanity because we accidentally killed your teacher, and only stopped because it just happened that the fighter pilot you picked up to interrogate for information about our defenses had Valen's soul (ie, was Sinclair)? Oh, but you were angry? Well, that's okay then..."
"Think of me as a sort of middleman." Gee, do you think he might be the man in the middle? Gosh, I'm not sure.
"I know this isn't the Anna that you knew. What I am is what was made in her. A new personality. She can never come back. But I can love you as well as she did." ...Yeah, because that argument always works and isn't at all creepy.
The Hour of the Wolf
Let's see... Ivanova's trying to drink herself into oblivion, G'Kar is scribbling everything in his book, and Delenn is trying to fast herself to death. So, business as usual. Oh, and Londo is meeting with Mr. Morden! Who is even creepier than ever now that he can spend whole creepy conversations creepily peeling bits of creepy dead skin off his creepy burned body! Yay! ♥ Resurrection seems to make him a bit cranky, too. He's far from his usual, cheery self. But, then, no one's particularly cheerful this episode.
The best part of this episode, for me, is Delenn, Ivanova and Lyta (and Lennier) rushing off to Z'ha'dum to try to rescue Sheridan. Seriously, how many sci-fi TV shows can you think of that would have three female leads run off to rescue one of the men with only a diplomatic attache to assist them? And really, he's just the driver.
Whatever Happened to Mr. Garibaldi?
Once again, Sheridan is being molested by higher beings, and I am once again reminded of
miss_arel's remarks on the phrase "intimately touched by the Vorlons" - "Show us on the doll where the Vorlons touched you, Sheridan." Yeah, the Vorlons and Lorien, too. Poor Sheridan. He just can't catch a break. Vorlons, Lorien, Minbari... Higher beings are always wanting to intimately touch him. It's tragic, really. The vaaaaaast majority of this episode is Lorien Being Deep. Which, really? Not all that terribly interesting. Congratulations, JMS - you've read some books on philosophy. We're all very proud of you. Now please get on with the plot. However, we do get a nice side-story where Marcus tries again (twice in this set of episodes!) to sacrifice himself for someone - this time, it's hard to say whether it's for G'Kar or for Garibaldi. Theoretically, it's G'Kar (he's the one Marcus is professing friendship for), but possibly he considers this a good chance at a two-for-one deal.
Marcus should really consider talking to someone about this martyr complex he's got. Unfortunately, the closest thing B5 appears to have to a counselor is Franklin, and you'll have to forgive me if I don't necessarily think he's the best person for the job. And obviously he shouldn't try talking to Delenn about it, considering that her method of dealing with her grief over Sheridan is, apparently, to starve herself to death so that she can join him in the place where no shadows fall. Or, failing that, after a major "wow, he really loved me and thinks that when things are going bad you should try to embrace them" revelation, maybe she'll just take all the Rangers and as much of the League of Non-Aligned Worlds as possible with her! Oh, Delenn - you really are a romantic, aren't you? ♥ People keep saying that Sheridan is sort of the Aragorn figure of the series (although also kind of the Gandalf figure). I gotta say, with the whole "riding headlong into destruction, even though we know the odds are horribly against us and mostly because I really would like to die" thing, I am forced to nominate Delenn not for Arwen, but rather for Eomer, or possibly Aragorn himself. (Just kidding, mind you - I don't think there's a one-to-one relationship for just about anyone. Except possibly Vir, who is totally Samwise Gamgee.)
And Sheridan throws himself off the cliff thinking of Delenn. Awww.
The Summoning
The scene with Delenn, Marcus, and Ivanova makes me wave my hands in flaily happiness. Marcus is so excited to go along with Ivanova - he and Sheridan should get together sometime and chase tennis balls, they are both such overgrown puppies. And Ivanova is so "oh god, not him!" And then she tries to show off her leet skillz with Adronato... including lingerie in her orders. Oh dear. Delenn and Marcus are so sweet and polite about it, and both of them get more and more adorable through the scene, right up until Susan is gone and Delenn tells Marcus to tell the crew that she will personally deal with anyone who laughs at Susan's pathetic Adronato. See, they are friends. I will never believe that they weren't carrying on a fabulous, universe-controlling friendship behind the scenes this whole time - I cannot ever give up this belief, because it makes me so damned happy just thinking about it. (...Hush, I'm not talking about anything pervy. Although that would be happy-making as well, so, whatever. ♥)
And then, not five minutes later!
Delenn: Everyone I hold dear is gone!
Me: o_O Um, hello? Just a minute ago you were telling Susan how Lennier would have to stay with you?
It is moments like these that convince me that perhaps my Beloved OT3 is not so good for one-third of that 3. ...Like there could be any doubt of that, but still. It bothers me. I mean... so, I am generally not at all of the "woe, she's so meeeeeeean to him!" camp of Lennier/Delenn. I firmly believe that she cares deeply for him, is very interested in his welfare and future, and so on. At worst, I think she is embarrassed by his crush on her and considers it an inappropriate obsession that he will grow out of once he's matured a bit... and, yes, there's a definite power imbalance in their relationship, which, in her mind (and, by all the evidence we see, his as well) is not at all inappropriate. It's right in their view of the universe that he is subordinate to her, that his focus is serving her needs and not focusing on what he wants. Hell, we're surrounded by military people on this show, anyway, it's not that dissimilar (although of course it's a totally different degree - I'm just making an example). The point is, yes, Lennier's life is very much caught up in Delenn and serving her and making her happy, and that's okay. His choice. She's given him the option of going home several times. Where I start to have Issues with the situation is here, because... well, there is this brief and fairly horrifying indication that, as far as Delenn is concerned, Lennier either isn't worth her concern as a dear person (which seems completely contrary to her interactions with him elsewhere in the series) or that she's just not considering him at all at the moment.
Now, that's all a bit exaggerated, right? I mean, I suspect we've all done the "Damn it, I don't have anyone to talk to about (whatever)!" or "I don't have anybody to hang out with!" or whatever, not meaning any insult to friends who are around, but... aren't exactly That Kind of Friend, or whatever. It's just... I don't know, in this case it really kind of hurts my feelings on Lennier's behalf, the poor sweetheart. ...Especially since she inexplicably cites G'Kar among the people who are gone, when they haven't been at all close in, um, ever, that I've noticed. Wtf? I mean, we all love G'Kar, granted, but... it's a very odd statement all around.
Oh,
Incidentally, The Boy says he is not normally a fan of spin-offs, but he would love to see the spin-off that's just the adventures of Marcus. So would I. ...As long as it's nothing to do with the horrible short story JMS wrote. *Shudders*
The less said about the plot with G'Kar and Londo and Vir in this episode, I think, the better. It's a good plot, and I find it interesting and very revealing and... I enjoy it in the sense of the story, but I find it terribly painful to watch nonetheless because of how awful it is for poor G'Kar. It's worth saying, though, that Wortham Krimmer is just plain fantastically evil as Cartagia, and that I really have to hand it to the actors for all pulling off those scenes so well. So well, in fact, that they make me cringe and want to not talk about them anymore. Anyway.
Delenn apparently thinks that the thing to do if a rally is planning on tearing down her plans is to go stand in the middle of it with only Lennier. Good to know that she's not giving up on her tendency to run headlong into danger, heedless of consequences. And of course we get Sheridan back, and he gets a stirring speech that suddenly makes absolutely everyone forget their misgivings about attacking Z'ha'dum. I'd hate him if I didn't love him so much.
Odd thing to notice in all of this, but I had a classic moment of fridge logic last night when I suddenly realized that Delenn had said she'd been afraid she'd never see him again. A very odd thing to say, when just the episode prior she'd calmly told Franklin that if he didn't come back she planned to starve herself to death so that she could meet him where no shadows fall... and then gets the idea that, hey, as long as she's planning to kill herself she might as well take out
In another statement of Grand Irony in the overall context of the series, John promises never to leave her again. Except, you know, for twenty years from now. *Headdesk* Had Lorien not explained that part of the bargain to him yet, or is he just being a total moron in the heat of the moment? It's a terribly cute conversation, but the fact that neither of their statements really make a whole lot of sense as anything but mindless platitudes does ever-so-slightly mar the moment, for me. Oh well. They look so damned cute together that I'll forgive them.
Oh dear, and then right there at the end it's the first intro of OMG!cranky!Garibaldi. I'm with him as regards not trusting Lorien, though. I don't feel nearly as irritable about him as I did the first time through (I was pretty much convinced he was going to come out worse than the Vorlons and the Shadows combined, first time I saw this season), but I still don't like him very much. He's just so... so... cliche, I guess? Nothing against the actor, who I quite like. It's the writing that kind of makes me go "aggggh."
A quick preview for next time! I do not remember anything about the next episode, but the header image on the Lurker's Guide makes it look like it's about Delenn eating John's brains. We always knew those damned Minbari were hiding something.
Image not spoilery for anything past the beginning of S2. Just, you know, faintly horrifying and hilarious, and tending to make one wonder what someone was thinking using that particular image as the header for the whole episode.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2010-08-03 01:16 pm (UTC)But every single one of [Franklin's] episodes is a downer and he spends most of his time whiiiiiiniiiiiiing about how haaaaaard his life is and how much he wishes people understooooooooood him, and it just makes me want to slap him.
God, you're telling me. I really loved the stim storyline when it first started, because it looked like they weren't just going to do it in two or three episodes and pay lip service to the whole thing. But this is when I finally realized that JMS has no idea how addictions actually work. When I have a project due and I can't manage to quit watching TV and playing with Photoshop, giving myself a stern talking to doesn't usually work. So yeah, the idea that Franklin would just be like, "Man up, son!" and poof! He's on his way to recovery? What a crappy ending to what could have been a powerful storyline. (See also: Garibaldi and alcoholism. "I'm a pretty lady and I love you!" "Okay, I'll stop drinking.")
The cute little "let's get some of Delenn's back-story while further establishing her relationship with Sheridan!" scene is very cute, but it does rather bring up more questions than it answers.
This is one of the times when no matter how much JMS wants to claim the contrary, it's clear he didn't have EVERYTHING mapped out ahead of time. Which is fine; it's almost more creepy if he had? But yeah, if he knew when writing this that Delenn was the one who voted for the war and was all crazy with grief and that, essentially, her decision killed her father, we would have seen some indication of that here. I think there are ways to fanwank this scene with what we learn during "In the Beginning," but it is a little off.
She does not do regret. At least not until way the hell after the fact, at which point she angsts and then absorbs the whole disaster into her vast concept of grandiose personal destiny.
Beautiful.
...trying to figure out to what extent Sinclair committed complete cultural pollution by sticking bits of Tolkien mythos into the poor Minbari's religious life.
I'm rapidly discovering that this is one of my fic kinks that NO ONE IS FULFILLING. Seriously. After WWE, every time someone brought up Valen, I just couldn't help but giggle. "Hee, a dude named Jeff said that." I mean, it's so perfect, and rife for humor and/or momentous revelations, and yet...nothing.
Okay, not quoting what you said about "...No Hiding Place," because I'd pretty much have to quote the whole thing. That's the episode that took me from, "I'm kinda shipping John/Delenn like crazy," to, "I'm kinda shipping John/Delenn LIKE FUCKING CRAZY." It really does watch like fanfic, you know. The adorable pretend 'I don't know English' flirty bits, the 'brand new OC can see your perfect and obvious love,' the big kiss. Sigh.
The scene with Refa and the gospel reminded me of Cabaret at first, but you also have the same thing in Fargo, and in Clockwork Orange, and others I just can't bring to mind right now; it's just one of those well-established tropes - a juxtaposition between violence and upbeat music. I've never seen an instance where it didn't work, because it's awesome.
That macro is AMAZING.
It's such a beautiful mingling of horror, excitement, terror, and wonder, with just a teensy bit of "puppy that just heard the word 'WALK'" around the edges.
Boxleitner totally nails in this scene how weird and exciting it must be to be dating an alien. He swings back and forth between, "Wait, she said what?" to "Heeeeyyyyy, how you doin'" so effortlessly, I love it.
The answer to the above is obviously "yes." It was probably Zack.
Dear God, but this made me laugh.
Damn, I had more talkings than I'd thought. I'll have to finish up later in a different comment.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-04 03:27 am (UTC)(Of course, he does get an awesome heroic death in the end, so that’s nice.)
To be fair, re: “In the Beginning” – the whole film’s narrated by Londo, and presumably his only source of information on the Minbari side of things was… Delenn herself. And her narrative of the war has always been a little… self-serving. Her insistence that the entire Minbari people went mad with grief often feels like she’s projecting her own reaction onto everyone else. There’s the mention of her father here, but there’s also a few lines here and there that give the impression that the Warrior Caste was following the Religious Caste’s lead and weren’t entirely sold on the war themselves.
The funny thing is that even after all the utterly unsubtle attempts to beat us over the head with who the “man in the middle is”… I’m still convinced it’s Lorien. He works so much better than any other candidate.