Things heating up all over: between Earthforce and B5, between Delenn and Sheridan, between Marcus and Ivanova. Plus we get to find out more about the Shadow Ships, and G’Kar is just way too happy.
I liked the breakfast scene: another brief glimpse of day-to-day life in B5. The “Traitors” sign in the background (obviously from the Ministry of Peace) adds a foreboding aspect to what is otherwise an ordinary morning.
The goopy gray stuff looks gross but strangely appealing.
SO SWEET that Marcus bought eggs and bacon for Ivanova!
I adore Marcus. He seemed like too much for a Pretty Boy to have much substance at first, but he’s really growing on me. He’s growing on Ivanova, too, I can tell. Heh.
G’Kar seems remarkably mellow in his cell. I’ll be interested in seeing if he maintains his mellow-tude once he gets out again.
Interesting to see a sample of Narn writing. I’d be curious to know if this was just a one-time sample that didn’t really mean anything, or if someone on the show actually took the effort to create a Narn alphabet and language (or portion thereof).
At first I thought I recognized the actress who played Dr. Mary Kirkish; she looked a lot like the actress who plays Samantha Carter on SG-1. But as soon as she started speaking, I realized she wasn’t the same person.
Intriguing…more evidence that Earth Central already knew about the Shadow ships. And creepy that just TOUCHING those ships can kill a human!
So many questions: How did the other Shadow ship find out about the buried Ship? Was that with Earth Central’s help? Why are they working with the Shadows? From the pin that Garibaldi showed the others, it looks like Psi Corps is involved. Don’t answer me.
Interesting that Sheridan asks the others to leave the debriefing because he needs to be alone, but then asks Delenn to stay. The glances, the small touches…these two clearly have a special bond which is just getting stronger.
Sheridan: … and right now, more than anything else in the world I wish it would rain. Just for a little while.
I thought for sure that they would have their first kiss when they were both in the sleeping chambers…I admit I was glad they didn’t. I’m really enjoying watching the way their relationship is developing: a genuine friendship slowly blossoming into something more.
Plus I’m an old-fashioned romantic, and am finding the current interactions between Delenn and Sheridan MUCH more swoon-y than if they jumped into bed together straight off. Their courtship, if you can call it that, is much more believable, given their characters.
I’ve said before but I have to stay again — there’s such good writing in this series!
Delenn: I will watch, and catch you if you fall.
Nothing better happen to either of these two or I’m going to be really upset. I’m serious.
From the Season Five dvd box cover, I knew that at least Delenn would come back from the mission, so I figured the two of them would survive this episode despite Sheridan’s semi-farewell speech to his crew.
The Ministry of Peace talk was pretty horrifying, mostly because this sort of thing has actually HAPPENED in our real-life past.
Zach is trying to hold onto his integrity and not rat out Garibaldi but sadly, I don’t have much hope.
And with martial law in effect by the end of the episode, it looks like things are going to heat up even more on B5. As if the series needed any more heating up, argh! I’m worried for all the characters whom I’ve come to care for!
Marcus: Did I mention that my nose is on fire? And that I have fifteen wild badgers living in my trousers? I’m sorry, would you prefer ferrets?
Marcus gets the best lines in this episode. 
I loved the scene where he realizes that Ivanova is only half-listening to him so he starts spouting nonsense. I love the look she gives him partway through.
Marcus: There is always the threat of an attack by, say, a giant space dragon, that kind that eats the sun every thirty days. It’s a nuisance, but what can you expect from reptiles.
But most of all, I love the fact that she cares so much about what happens to her captain, and wishes she could be there with him to help protect him.
One of the reasons I’m enjoying B5 so much is because the characters are developing so believably. It’s easy for a writer to throw in the fact that the second-in-command cares about the captain. BUT it takes planning, good writing and careful pacing to make her speech completely logical and believable.
We’ve seen how much Sheridan cares about his crew, and the lengths he will go to in order to support and protect them. He’s stood up for Ivanova in the past as well as recognizing her accomplishments, and has also been a genuine friend to her.
Interesting to discover that the Shadow Ships rely on a living creature that merges with them after stepping inside. I wonder what human stepped inside the Shadow Ship that Sheridan and Delenn were hoping to destroy? Or was it a human? Can the Shadow Ships merge with ANY living creature? Does the type of living creature (and the creature’s personality, etc.) influence the Shadow Ship? What sort of “proper handling” is necessary for a merging to work? Don’t answer me.
Garibaldi: You know what they say, No good deed goes unpunished.
How ironic that it’s the Agamemnon who confronts them at the end of the mission. I’m glad that they figured out a way to escape without having to destroy them.
Next episode: Point Of No Return (2).
[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]
10 comments ↓
Am I the only one who misses “Don’t tell me!” — ?
Deb, “don’t answer me” is fine. But why the change from our usual mantra?
You’re spoiling the chances of a filk song about it, you know. Ahh, you DO know, don’t you? YOU want to write the song.
Tsk, tsk. Selfish.
A lot of the “don’t tell me” questions don’t get answered at all in the show, but that’s what novels are for.
Looking at the shot of Sheridan and Delenn reminds me that in this show Delenn often looks as if she’s short. Whereas actually she’s reasonably tall as women go – 5′8″ or so I think – it’s just most everyone else in the show is really tall! IIRC Sheridan and Garibaldi are both a couple of inches or so over 6′ whilst Ivanova is somewhere around 5′10″. So it’s kind of deceptive!
A lot of the “don’t tell me” questions don’t get answered at all in the show, but that’s what novels are for.
And fanfic! But yeah, JMS has never really felt the need to explain everything. Which is another reason I love the show. You know what you need to know, but as in real life there’s a lot of stuff that may never be fully explained. It isn’t wrapped up in a nice neat bow and handed to you.
Some of the questions are left for each audience member to answer for themselves. Good writting in a good show that get you to think about yourself and your world comes along so infrequently.
Currently six episodes ahead of you, but I seem to be on a one-a-day habit. Over this course of re-watching, I find myself pleased that some things that seem to have occurred later did occur by this number of episodes.
The Lurker’s Guide has a lot for this episode…don’t start reading them until you finished the series and are going on the second viewing. However, the glop at breakfast was blueberry yogart. JMS, in this universe has the cost of transporting goods from Earth with refrigeration or a higher volume to content as being very high. Personally, I can’t see why there wouldn’t be chickens being raised on the station. Here on Earth, I would think the cost of transporting farm goods with refrigeration is not significantly higher than the transportation without refrigeration, so the cost of taking something needing refrigeration on a two day trip would not be that much more. Then again, it is Joe’s universe, and the rules he makes are his rules.
Nancy Stafford, Dr. Kirkish, also has a long list of TV show credits, but seemed to take a break from acting between 1998 and 2002. Her biggest series was “Matlock”, 75 episodes as Attorney Michelle Thomas, but also seen in Quantum Leap (Miss Deep South – June 7, 1958 …. Pageant Coordinator Peg Myers) and as Joan Halloran on “St. Elsewhere”. Remember, we are looking these up for Deb so she does not end up see if the B5 character will be coming back in future episodes.
The security gaurd that is the Nightwatch supervisor I don’t think is Zack’s security service superior. I think he became self-apointed, or was the first to interact with the Minister. Very hard to have two bosses like that.
“Interesting to see a sample of Narn writing. I’d be curious to know if this was just a one-time sample that didn’t really mean anything, or if someone on the show actually took the effort to create a Narn alphabet and language (or portion thereof).”
Pout. Now I’m feeling neglected. I put in a comment just two episodes ago (regarding Vir’s shirt) that happened to answer this, so I must guess that you may not always be reading the comments we leave for you. Alas, alack. I think I’ll go get a big helping of Spoo and just…. SSSSSiiiiiggggghhhhhh.
Hvideo, sorry for missing that comment of yours! I do try to read all the comments, but sometimes I fall behind and miss some, especially if there are a lot of comments. I’m finding the report-writing more time-consuming that I expected, so sometimes it comes down to a choice between catching up on all the comments (esp the more detailed and history-oriented comments) and writing a report.
My plan is to focus on the report writing for now, and go back and reread all the comments more closely when I’ve finished each season, or at the end of the series.
I hope this doesn’t count as a spoiler. There is a reference back to this encounter with the Agamemnon in mid-season-4. It is so subtle that I think even the actors missed it at the time. The only reason why I caught it was that I was watching season 3 on telly and season 4 on video concurrently at one point (rewatching). But yeah, keep an eye out for that.