Episode 4.15: No Surrender, No Retreat

After a long string of low-thrills episodes--some of them great, most of them bland--B5 has remembered how much more interesting it was when it was about a war, so it started another one. This episode crackles with an energy the show hasn't had in a very long time; even RUMORS, BARGAINS, AND LIES, which I loved, didn't have this kind of tight pacing and dynamic motion. Earth has started killing civilian targets in its ongoing plunge into fascism, and that's a crime Sheridan won't abide, so he we're off to the races. For the most part, it's awesome.

We start with Sheridan and Ivanova reading the riot act to the League of Unimportant Aliens: they all have mutual defense treaties with Earth, but since Earth never honored those during the Shadow War and Babylon 5 has been protecting them non-stop, it's time for everyone to admit who their real friends are. I assumed the League had immediately thrown in with B5, but apparently not because Londo hatches a plan to get himself and G'Kar to sign an official declaration of support in order to help sway the others, and that only makes sense if the others hadn't already been swayed. Or maybe they have, and Londo's just an moron? Which--believe me--I have not discounted. The Londo/G'Kar scenes are the weakest part of the episode, largely because they're mostly just Londo talking and Londo is not good at talking. His best moments in the series are when he stares at something tragically, realizing his life is destroyed; watching him give this giant speech about how they aren't friends but they totally are friends but maybe they could be better friends but obviously they can't was, to put it bluntly, exhausting. Londo has moments that I love, but I've given up hope that I will ever love him as a character.

Besides which: why are Londo and G'Kar reconciling when they have clearly already reconciled? We saw this happen over a long string of episodes; they apologized, they worked together, and they freed the Narn. Londo worked his weird tentacled butt off trying to make up for what he'd done wrong, and he gave the Narn in general and G'Kar in particular everything they wanted. We frigging watched G'Kar forgive him, on screen, right in front of us. And now we're supposed to believe that none of that happened, and that actually being free has somehow turned G'Kar against him again? Londo is more responsible for the freedom of the Narn than any other five people put together--including G'Kar himself--and G'Kar can't be arsed to share a drink with him or sign on the same page? I don't buy a single wordless sneer of it. It feels like the show is trying to recreate its glory days in more ways than one--"what used to work so well? A giant war plot and these two characters hating each other. Alright then, let's do that again and see what happens."

Speaking of people who helped free Narn, Vir is back! For...maybe twenty seconds, doing nothing of importance, and looking so skinny and aged it took me most of those twenty seconds to figure out it was really him. Did Stephen Furst have some personal problems during filming? Is this him returning after a traumatic death in the family, or a stint in rehab? Because he was gone for a long time, and this was a weird way to bring him back, and he does not look good.

I say that the Londo/G'Kar stuff was the weakest part of the episode, and it was, but the most infuriating part was the one scene with Garibaldi: he sees that B5 has declared war on Earth's criminal government, and says that he wants to help save it but refuses to help Sheridan save it. Dude: you gave an entire speech a couple of episodes ago about how Sheridan was evil because breaking away from Earth and starting his own government was wrong. Now you're going to help other people do exactly the same thing, but you still hate Sheridan because...because? This is the most inconsistent brainwash of all time. MAKE UP YOUR MIND ABOUT WHAT AGENDA YOU'VE IMPLANTED IN HIS BRAIN, YOU STUPID SHOW. It's getting ridiculous.

And while we're on the subject: I know from reading the Lurker's Guide stuff that JMS is trying to use Garibaldi to present the idea that Sheridan really IS a changed lunatic, and really IS overstepping his bounds, but Garibaldi is not remotely the person I trust to communicate any of these ideas because HE HAS BEEN MIND-CONTROLLED. He's not thinking or acting like the real Garibaldi, and nothing he does is actually attributable to him. If you want me to take this "Sheridan is mad with power" stuff seriously, put it in someone else's mouth. Delenn talked about it a little one time--let's see more of that. Because Garibaldi is grotesquely unreliable right now, and we'd be stupid to trust anything he says.

Okay: that's all of the bad stuff out of the way. Everything else was great. Sheridan takes a big fleet to Proxima 3, site of all the recent civilian deaths, and engages the Earth fleet there--or, more specifically, he gives them the opportunity to engage him. What makes this episode so fascinating, and what elevates the battle scene above so many previous ones this show has given us, is the question of which Earth ships are actually willing to follow Earth's illegal orders. Long before he gets out into the field, Sheridan and his agents work to figure out which ships and commanders are willing to fire on civilians, and which are not; he's not going in hot, ready to kill everyone in sight, he's dotting all his I's and crossing all his T's to make sure that this is a legal liberation of an oppressed planet. We talk about the specific ships by name long before we see them in battle, and we learn which ones have done what, and thus by the time the engagement actually starts we know who all the players are, and we know what's at stake, and we almost--but not quite--know who's going to do what, and why. It adds a layer of character and tension over the top of the special effects that really makes the whole sequence sing, and I loved it. One of the good guy captains is Richard Gant, a character actor you will recognize instantly even though you can't really point to a single iconic role he's ever played in a show; he's been in everything, but always in supporting roles. One of the bad guy captains, who apparently got his post by being loyal to President Clark, is Ken Jenkins, who you will instantly recognize as Dr. Kelso from Scrubs; watching Gant be noble, and Kelso be a twerp, is very satisfying, especially when the lower-ranking crew members start to make their own opinions known. In the end, Sheridan's fleet manages to scare off or cripple the Earth ships, and even manages to turn two of them to his side, including Gant, who I suppose I should start referring to by his character's name of MacDougan, or Mackie as Sheridan calls him. I don't know how long he'll stick around, but he's a great captain with an effortless authority, and I like having him on the show.

I've spent more time talking about bad things than good things, but that's just because the good things don't take a lot of time to explain: Sheridan starts a war, does his homework, and a wins a battle through both shooting and talking. It was well done and I loved it. There are some things this show is much better at than others, and I'm glad it's back in its comfort zone again.