Darkness Ascending

I remember that back in the day when the episode was first broadcast, there was some discussion as to whether Lyta was part of Garibaldi's nightmare or whether she was actually there, because on the one hand, his subconscious is certainly (some some reason) paranoid enough about telepaths to produce this scene, on the other, well, it fits with Lyta's trajectory, though it's not clear why Garibaldi of all the possible people on the station. The rest of his dream, of course, is blatantly obvious, but given his own trajectory and the fact that if you're an addict who has fallen off the wagon, the idea that you can "control" your addiction instead of it controlling you is ridiculous, he doesn't escaple the cyle he's in but contributes even more to it.

Garibaldi has the lack or bad fortune, depending on your pov, of it being Lise who catches first at the hidden bottles, and he can smoothtalk her into "I can control this" because she's in love iwth him, and because Lise appears to have a certain amount of self deception installed (see also: being married to William Edgars). Otoh, Lyta's other scenes this episode don't concern Garibaldi, they're with a guy she pitches her rogue telepaths business idea in vain to, and then with G'Kar, which is a good thing for everyone concerned. As I said a few posts earlier, the Narns are so obviously the right candidates to go to for human rogue telepaths that it's amazing Lyta didn't think of this before, and that for ths plot reason alone G'Kar had to be off station when Byron made his ill fated attempt. Speaking of that, though, I find Lyta proving her integrity by refusing to listening in on other ambassadors for the Narn regime something of a weird test, given she and the other Byron followers did just that a few episodes ago (and then didn't use the leverage other than making the ambassadors angry, granted). Anyway. We get canon that the original B5 pilot, The Gathering, took place six years ago from this point in the series, as it was then when G'Kar made his original pitch to Lyta for DNA and benefits. (BTW, andraste wrote hilarious and not unlikely story in which he makes Bester a similar proposition during season 1's Mind War.) They've both changed a lot since then, but not so much that G'Kar doesn't want clarification as to which part of the proposition Lyta accepts. This scene is setting up some spoilery stuff a few episodes later, and I'll say more about G'Kar & Lyta then.

Meanwhile: the scene where Sheridan starts with calling Delenn on her lying and circumventing hin and is maneuvred into defending himself to her in three steps was, as I recall, according to JMS inspired by him wanting Delenn to show off her "Jesuit skills". No kididng. See, this is why Delenn is a tried and practiced politiician and Sheridan is not, ans why Delenn as President and Sheridan as head of the Rangers might have worked better in the first year of the Alliance.Though while I love that scene for Delenn's sheer gall and rethorical arts, my favourite Delenn scene comes later, when she leaves the room to vent her sheer relief about Lennier's survival, sees Londo and carried by both said relief and the awareness this means the end of the Centauri in the Alliance at the very least goes to embrace him for the first and last time. It has so many elements at once, the leftover Lennier feelings, the fact that Delenn does have real affection for Londo despite herself, but also an elemement of a Judas kiss, because by keeping him out of the loop (despite her conviction that in this particular case, he's actually innocent) instead of sharing their concerns and investigating together, they've all but sealed his fate. There are all the years they've known each other - and Londo, Delenn and G'Kar were on B5 longer than Sheridan - , and possibly the awareness of the guilt they both carry, for while Londo didn't start this war, he started another, and so did Delenn.

Secret Agent Lennier: Living and dying for the One is what he wanted to do even before joining the Rangers, given that the One is Delenn. During the original broadcast, what I didn't notice here was that while we see Centauri ships a plenty, we do not see actual Centauri....


And All My Dreams, Torn Asunder

Aka where the fact that the Centauri rather recently not only conducted a brutal war against the Narn but were menacing other people until Londo, not believing in multifront wars, poisoned Refa's drink to put an end to this in s3, makes the current denials sound completely false to tv audience and in-universe people alike. (Not to mention that "we don't do that kind of thing.... except when at war with the Narn" is a really lame argument, since that war was started by the Centauri.) (Otoh, both Narn and Centauri certainly attacked outposts with both military personnel and civilians on them without being at war, see Midnight on the Firing Line vs Chrysalis, etc.) However, Londo is right about the evidence other than Lennier's being circumstantial, which I didn't notice the first time around, and of course no one asks the one big question: what do the Centauri get out of all this? In the case of the prelude to the Narn/Centauri war, it was obvious. But raiding attacks on various alliance members do not in any strategic book qualify as good moves to enlarge one's Empire, especially since they're designed to make everyone team up against you, including the largest firepower in the current galaxy. As Londo puts it in the narration of In the Beginning, the movie on the Earth/Minbari war, even at the height of its power, the Centauri Republic avoided engaging the Minbari. You'd have to be Cartagia-style mad to do so now, and after self immolation.

Speaking of self destruction, Zack is the next person to catch Garibaldi out, and knowing all the tactics alcoholoics use personally, he doesn't fall for them... except at the end, because he still is talked into letting Garibaldi extricate himself instead of reporting his condition at once. Terrible choice, but ic for Zack whose loyalty to Garibaldi always was intensely strong. Still a terrible choice, because no matter how much Garibaldi might have meant it, he's well and truly past being able to keep any promises but the one to the bottle in this condition. And again this directly impacts the larger plot, as Garibaldi's assurance that it was the Centauri who shot first, not, as the audience but no one else saw, the Drazi, destroys what vanishingly little chance there was for there not being an all out war against Centauri Prime.

Londo and G'Kar back on Centauri Prime: despite this being the final act of the tragedy, there's still black humor as per usual with these two characters as Londo's "where I go, he goes, and where he goes, I go" lands them both in prison, Prime Minister or not. I will have such a lot to say about both characters next week that I'll limit myself here to: G'Kar, I don't think Delenn bought this "I need to save Londo's life for the greater good" for a moment, but she's a practiced politician, see above.

The other episodes