Episode 2.5: The Long Dark

Everyone talks about Babylon 5 as a stunning innovator in long-form storytelling, and while I can see hints of that here and there (the character arcs of Londo and G’Kar deserve an article of their own), after 27 episodes and a movie I feel like I’m still waiting for the story to start. Delenn’s transformation felt like it was starting, but the show keeps ignoring it or outright forgetting that it happened; she wasn’t even in this episode at all. Someone described CHRYSALIS to me as “either the end of the prologue or the beginning of the real story,” and if that’s true the real story is starting veeeeeeeery slowly. The style of storytelling has changed, certainly, but in narrative terms we are still firmly in the prologue.

That said, this is one hell of a prologue. THE LONG DARK is, without question, my favorite episode of this entire show so far.

This episode is ostensibly connected to the mytharc plot, thanks to a last-minute revelation that the creepy space monster may have been trying to fly toward Z’ha’dum—the supposed home of the Shadows. And there are plenty of hints throughout that the space monster is a Shadow itself (nothing concrete—we still don’t know what the Shadows are—but it’s frequently referred to as a “soldier of darkness,” which seems pretty obvious). Aside from those hints, though, this feels like a pretty standard standalone episode focusing on SF horror, and as SF horror goes it’s spectacular. This is aided in large part by Lieutenant Barclay, who joins the upper echelon of B5 guest stars with a wrenching performance as Amis, a soldier with harrowing PTSD.

This all begins when a cryo-ship from 100 years ago shows up at the station; it has an automated navigation system designed to detect signs of intelligent life and fly toward them. It’s old enough that it predates Human/extraterrestrial contact and jump gate technology, so it’s only just now arriving at this location, having spent most of those 100 years in deep space that the rest of Humanity just skipped over. It holds two people in cryo-tubes: a dead man with no wounds but also no internal organs (which is pretty friggin’ spooky all by itself) and a woman named Mariah, who claims to be his wife but is also the only possible suspect in the man’s murder. She is also super hot, so Dr. Franklin falls for her instantly, plus she’s alone and scared and never liked her husband much anyway, so she falls for the Doctor almost as quickly. This gives them a good reason to talk to each other but also makes her look incredibly suspicious. The show takes good advantage of this, and practically intercuts their first kiss with scenes of Amis and Garibaldi talking about a killer space monster, hinting strongly that she either is the monster or is possessed by the monster. What kind of person starts making out with a stranger mere hours after learning that your spouse was murdered in their sleep? A SPACE MONSTER, THAT’S WHO.

It doesn’t help that the cryo-ship’s one prior contact with civilization was a near miss with the same planet Amis was stationed on during the Earth-Minbari war. And he can feel the ship approaching, convinced that whatever is coming will kill everyone. Dwight Schultz kills it in this role, doing his standard crazy-person shtick but layering it with more emotion and pathos than we usually see from him. The A-Team's Murdock was a joke, and Star Trek's Barclay was mostly a joke, but Amis is a character steeped in tragedy, who uses craziness to deepen that sadness rather than hide it in humor. He stumbles around the station, quoting scripture and prophesying doom, and most people assume he’s drunk or high but Garibaldi recognizes the telltale signs of PTSD, and takes him under his wing. (The line “I’ve had the same dream” is absolutely perfect, and says everything you need to know about their relationship.)

It turns out Amis and his unit were hiding on a moon somewhere trying to spy on a Minbari outpost. They assumed it was a dead world, but found some ancient ruins and—instead of running away screaming like a sensible person—decided to camp in them. Some kind of ghost ended up hunting and killing them all, feeding on them but keeping Amis alive for future snacking. (One of the other best lines in the episode comes when Garibaldi asks Amis how he lived, and Amis says “I didn’t.”) He lost his mind and a good portion of his humanity, and it still connected to the space monster closely enough to feel its presence, location, and intentions. When it kills and eats another guy on the station--leaving a body with no wounds and no internal organs, just like the dude in the ship--all the plotlines converge, and they know something's up, and Amis and Mariah are both connected to the thing so they're able to track it down. (The suggestion that the creature, which appears to be some kind of energy being, lived "in" Mariah to stay alive during the trip is one of the best bits of horror in the episode.) Garibaldi and Sheridan want to set a trap, but Amis knows the only good bait is live bait, and offers himself to the creature in order to bring it out into the open. It comes for him, and ten or so people with guns open fire and only barely manage to bring it down, which doesn't bode well for the future Shadow War we assume is coming.

Amis manages to live, and is presumably freed from the monster's influence, though I suspect we won't be seeing him again. Mariah also lives, and heads back to Earth with a promise to return once she's buried her husband and is ready to move on. Something tells me we won't be seeing her again, either, though I like her and I like the doctor, and it would be nice to see them together now that we know their fast relationship was just a red herring in the monster plot.

And then, of course, we get the epilogue, which has all the hints from Ivanova about how the monster got on board the cryo-ship and reprogrammed it to fly toward Z'ha'dum. So it wasn't just a monster, but something very intelligent, and G'Kar's ominous warnings get more frightening by the day. And the best part of all of this is that Ivanova and Sheridan are taking it seriously--they're not just brushing it off as coincidence and superstition, they're treating it with intelligence and respect. The other best part is that the show is obviously building toward a war with some creepy space monsters, and I'm excited to see that as soon as possible. We're still in the prologue, like I said, but it's a very effective prologue.

A+, ten stars, would watch again.

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