WOW. Fantastic episode.
First off, how cool to finally get a glimpse of the royal palace on Centauri Prime! I like the emperor and the prime minister — how tragic that they both died this same episode. 
Interesting to discover that the emperor’s hair-do is only a wig. I know that Londo’s was real because of a night-time scene in an episode a while back. The fact that the emperor shaved his head just makes him even more of an independent spirit, doesn’t it?
Sheridan: G’Kar…don’t do something we’ll both regret.
G’Kar: It’s too late for that, captain. Too late by far.
Some amazing character development in this episode.
A scene between Sheridan and G’Kar, for example, when Sheridan was trying to convince G’Kar to open up a dialogue with the emperor instead of complaining about his visit.
I’m impressed by Sheridan’s devotion to B5’s prime purpose (to promote peace) despite pressure from the military and ambassadors.
Lots of intrigue in this episode! Like Londo’s Centauri friend plotting behind the scenes, using Londo to build their case for taking over after the emperor dies.
Vir: Londo, don’t do this. There’s no turning back once you start down this road.
Vir was much more interesting in this episode, trying to convince Londo not to give in to the intrigue….he has a lot more backbone than I previously gave him credit for. I’ll be interested to see what happens with his character now that Londo has purposely chosen the Dark Side.
Emperor: How will all this end?
Kosh: In fire.
Interesting that the emperor wants to see the Vorlon so much. Was it really merely curiosity? Also interesting to hear that the Centauri sent people into Vorlon space and none returned.
Or was it because the emperor wanted to ask the Vorlon his question and knew, for whatever reason, that the Vorlon had an answer?
Do Vorlons know about the future? Are they involved in time travel somehow? Don’t tell me.
I was shocked when G’Kar announced his plan for killing the emperor. I figured the emperor was a goner from the moment he made that moving good-bye speech to his prime minister, but I hadn’t expected G’Kar to want to do the dirty deed himself. And die in the process!
Emperor: The past tempts us, the present confuses us, the future frightens us. And our lives slip away, moment by moment, lost in that vast terrible in-between.
Unfortunately I already knew he wasn’t going to die after seeing the header graphic on TV.com’s episode list, but I didn’t know what was going to happen with the assassination attempt.
However, it certainly helped emphasize how much G’Kar thirsted for Narn revenge, enough to give up his own life.
Interesting to find out about the telepath communication system, with a pair traveling with the emperor and a pair back on Centauri Prime.
Londo: It has begun.
How agonizing to find out that the emperor had intended to apologize in his speech, to express deep regret for all the things the Centauri had done to the Narn. And then to see G’Kar swallow his pride and make overtures of friendship toward Londo, NOT KNOWING that his people were in the process of being massacred because of Londo.
AUGH. How incredibly sad. It’s clear from the expression on Londo’s face that he is shocked and conflicted, aware of the underlying betrayal and possible of the heartbreaking “what might have been.”
And then that frightening vision of Londo’s, where he sees the Shadow ships fly above, is crowned emperor, and is strangled years later by a one-eyed G’Kar:
!!! Is this just a dream? A vision of what might happen? Or a vision of what will happen?!??? DON’T TELL ME. Augh.
So much for my hopes that G’Kar and Londo could be buddies someday, eh?
Then the whole business of the Ranger with his secret message for Garibaldi…FROM SINCLAIR!! Sinclair in black with slicked back hair. Holy cow…more and more intrigue: a secret Minbari (or Minbari friend?) army, gathering and watching and waiting.
Holy cow. And so the war begins.
Next episode: GROPOS.
[For those who comment below: As the title of my blog indicates, I'm watching B5 for the very first time so PLEASE refrain from posting plot/character spoilers/hints about upcoming episodes, or including links to pages with spoilers (unless you warn readers that they contain spoilers). More info about spoilers here. Thanks so much! - Debbie]
13 comments ↓
Heh. To quote a certain Vorlon, And So It Begins.
I really really want to be able to watch it again like you do, without knowing what’s coming. Prepare for your mind to be blown.
A couple of other great scenes I remember (well, this episode is pretty much solid great scenes):
Dr. Franklin visiting G’Kar with the message from the Emperor, going from comical (G’Kar complaining about the Emperor keeling over on his own, and hoping he might recover so he can go through ith the assassination) to dramatic (Franklin making G’Kar listen, and actually change his mind _after being so bent on revenge that he was willing to die for it_).
The scene where Londo lied to everybody else about the Emperor’s dying words (with a brief cut to the two Centauri telepaths, implying that they know he’s lying but are too cautious to let on) and then Lord Refa asking what the Emperor _really_ said. (As per your standard request, I’m not going to say whether or not they actually are “both damned”.)
This is always the cut-off point where I say if anyone can get through this episode and not be totally hooked on the series they are not destined for B5.
This episode is amazing on so many levels. I really, really like the Centauri Emperor, such an interesting character and I particularly like the scene between him and Sheridan.
G’Kar ramps up his character spectacularly in this episode, really started to make me take notice. Love the scene of Vir finally stepping in to try and turn Londo from his path. That scene between Londo and G’Kar in the bar is just chilling. And the epic number of tragic missteps or “mis-timings” leading through the episode takes one’s breath away.
And the Emperor’s last words to Londo are just devestating. Lost opportunities and inevitable paths…
Keep watching :). I won’t say it keeps getting better, because I think this is one of the best episodes in the series (it took the dramatic Hugo award that year), but the series does stay just as good :).
–”Are they [the Vorlons] involved in time travel somehow?”
Absolutely - you ask them a question and might get to understand the answer 2 or 3 years later…
And of course, this won the Hugo that year, and deservedly so.
We know that Centauri have prophetic dreams - and in particular, they know how they will die (Londo has had the same dream about G’Kar for years, long before they first met). It’s possible that the Emperor knew, somehow, that Kosh (or a Vorlon) would be present at his death, and he was not expecting to live that long, hence his curiosity.
Lots of good lines in this one, particularly from Emperor Turhan: “The past tempts us, the present confuses us, and the future frightens us. And our lives slip away, moment by moment, in that vast, terrible in-between.” JMS’s personal philosophy shining through in Sheridan’s counterpoint, to live each day as if were your last.
I don’t think the emperor shaved his head — I think he just went bald with age and grew tired of trying to hide that fact for appearances’ sake…
“…now that Londo has purposely chosen the Dark Side.”
One of the things I’ve always loved about B5 is that while there is definite good and definite evil, and good guys and bad guys, there is also middle ground and people who sometimes choose one and sometimes the other. It’s rare to see a show sufficiently nuanced to depict this; B5 is.
As to Londo and G’Kar … their relationship is extremely complex because those are the two most complex characters on the show. Don’t take anything for granted, with either one. You’re going to get surprised by both as time goes by. (In both good ways and bad ways.)
By the way: I don’t know if you ever read the tie-in novels. As with most shows, most of the B5 tie-ins aren’t that great. But there are a few that you should see if you can get your hands on a copy of. The first is To Dream in the City of Sorrows by Kathleen M. Drennan (which can be read any time in seasons four or five) and the “Legions of Fire” trilogy by Peter David, which should be read after finishing the series. (I won’t give you the titles of the books in the series because one of them is a spoiler.) All four are very well written, and all fill in a great deal of material that is either background or what happens after the series that isn’t shown in the various made-for-tv and now direct-to-DVD movies.
Hello, old friend,
Yes, I think that by the time of this episode airing that those fans who were not watching from The Gathering to start following the show.
Remember, we know about the shadow ships, Londo has only seen them in his dream, so while we might know what they mean, he might not. I don’t think he has any intel on them. I don’t think there would have been any surviving Narn to see them, either. Only us and Keefer.
We get to see the “great hand, reaching out across the stars” as seen by Elric a few episodes back.
Somewhere in the lurker’s guide JMS describes this as a ‘bookend’ episode, the other one being S1E1, with the Narn attack on Ragesh 3.
Centari telepaths: They do seem to be used differently amoung the Centari. These and Lady Ladira seem to be able to transmit images, with Ladira giving Sinclair the images she was seeing. A bit different than who Earth has taken advantage of it’s telepaths.
Some JMS comments:
=====================================
I may not have been clear in my meaning when I said “accellerating the arc.” This doesn’t mean doing anything ahead of schedule; it just means that now we begin cranking the story into a higher intensity level. We’ve been kind of floating toward our destination…now we begin the process of accellerating. If you recall Literary Structure from English Lit 101, there’s the Introduction, the Rising Action, the Complication, the Climax, and the Denouement. Year one up through about the first eight episodes of year two are Introduction; we are now in Rising Action stage. Remember that this is structured like a novel, and you’ll generally have some idea of where you stand in the progression.
=====================================
Turhan originally came in to audition for Elric in “Geometry;” we wanted someone with more menace (Ansara), but we were all just blown away by how wonderful and sweet and nice a person he was, and as he left, I told John Copeland, “I’m gonna write a part just for him.”
So I did, and we cast him, and everyone on the set loved him…to the point that, at the end of the shoot, they were saying, “You BASTARD, how could you bring this WONDERFUL man in here and then KILL HIM OFF SO WE CAN’T HAVE HIM BACK?!”
=====================================
Re: parallel visuals between MotFL and CoS…yes, precisely. In some ways, they were set up as mirror-image parallels of one another, to show how the wheel turns, to quote G’Kar. The opening council meeting, the attacks, the determination to kill the other, alternately Garibaldi or Sheridan having to stop them by calling on the question of consequences if followed up on…it shows CoS as sort of the “dark mirror” of the first episode. Everything we saw when we first thought we knew what the series was has now totally reversed and been turned on its head.
They also focus on one of the main questions that B5 addresses itself to: what is important to you? what are you willing to sacrifice? how far are you willing to go to get what you want? For me, a large measure of defining WHO we are is by WHAT we are willing to do, and what we want, and the means by which we pursue those goals. The other theme of course is sacrifice, which recurs throughout the show in one form or another.
Minor note: Turhan Bey did manage to come back in the fifth season, but playing another character (of course).
With regards to Londo’s dream, this is his reoccurring “death dream” that he mentions to Sinclaire way back in “Midnight on the Firing Line”.
If you go back and look at various crowd shots in previous episodes of this season once or twice you can spot a human or Minbari Ranger. Nice bit of continuity having them around unobtrusively before they were introduced.
One recurring theme in the series is “be careful what you wish for; you may get it.” This episode absolutely screams it, between what happens to and for Londo and G’Kar. And, in some ways, the audience, getting this oh-so-brief glimpse into post-captaincy Sinclair.
JMS does confirm that while Londo lies at first about what the Emperor said to him, his later admission to Lord Refa is the truth. Given the Emperor’s attitudes and what he’s learned about Londo by that time, it’s no shock to hear what he said. Whether he spoke truly we’ll find out over the next couple of seasons…