The Long, Twilight Struggle

Reviewed by Lady Keela Shanri

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WOW.
This episode, being both very Centauri-heavy and arc-heavy in general, was almost as good as "The Coming of Shadows"! (And you KNOW what I thought of that one...) Whoah, what a heavy impact! The B5 storyline will never be the same after this one. From this point on there is absolutely NO going back. We are, after all, almost to Season 3--the "Point of No Return"...
There were two main plotlines, which were only slightly related. I'll get the more "minor" one out of the way first, so that I can save the good stuff for last. Not that the other plot was BAD, mind you...
The subplot was about Draal, remember him? The dude who plugged himself into "The Great Machine" on Epsilon III, the "uninhabited" planet that B5 orbits? Well, he "comes" onto the station in the form of a hologram to tell both Sheridan and Delenn that he has important news for them. He then summons them both down to the planet where he tells them he has been studying everything they have been doing on B5 and he knows it ALL--right down to the B5 officers' top-secret resistance cell thingie. But he will keep their secrets, and "they would have to dig through three miles of rock to get them out of me--and die in the attempt!". See, he wants to make an alliance between his Machine and B5, to help fight against "the coming darkness". And as a wise precaution, he advises Sheridan NOT to tell his government about this alliance. Sheridan and Delenn say sure, it sounds like a good idea. This is a BIG deal because it places all this incredibly advanced technology at B5's beck and call! Then Draal makes a cryptic comment about how there are...others...down here with him, and how he should introduce Sheridan and Delenn to them, but then they get interrupted, and we are left with Draal calling out irritatedly for someone named...Zathras.
ZATHRAS? As in, that scrungy little alien guy from Babylon Squared, "mathematics not Zathras skill", "you are not the one", time stabilisers, all of that? THAT Zathras?
Yes indeed, the plotlines of "The Great Machine" and B4 are starting to come together...
I must say, I was pleasantly surprised with this part of the episode, and especially with Draal. I had remembered him as an irritating character that I could not STAND when I first saw him. But here, he was FUNNY. He kept going into big, grand, speeches all the time as he talked, then would snap into "normal conversation mode", such as when he noticed suddenly that Sheridan had been standing there in a bathrobe all this time, then he would go RIGHT back into "speech-mode". It was hilarious! And the explanation of why he suddenly looks so different (it was a different actor--John Schuck, who was also in Star Trek) made some kind of sense given what we had ALREADY been told about the Machine and did not seem TOO forced. Not to mention this line: "You've changed, Delenn. I like it.". I kept expecting LYTA to say something like that in yesterday's episode and was confused and disappointed when she didn't; thank the gods SOMEBODY noticed!
And at the end of the episode, the Rangers are brought out into full view, and Delenn hands over co-responsibility for them to Sheridan! So he's now a Ranger LEADER, and he barely even knows these people! (Sinclair is still Ranger One back on Minbar, though.)
As an interesting side note...notice that KOSH is there...?
Hmmmn...
Okay, enough of that, on to the REAL story.
First off, the episode OPENED on Centauri Prime, so instantly my attention level went way up (I'm not the only one--my mom yelled "OOH! SSSSHHHH!" and cranked the volume when she saw the words "Centauri Prime" on the screen. Heh heh I've trained them well...) Londo and Lord Refa are planning their next dastardly move. After some clever and smarmy banter in which Refa casually lets drop the information that the new Emperor is little more than a figurehead--and KNOWS it--(notice Refa was also sitting ON THE THRONE, you can't GET much more symbolic than that), Refa reveals his true motives for dragging Londo here. Refa wants to do nothing less than...bomb NARN itself! Using BANNED weapons no less!
("Why don't you destroy the entire Narn homeworld while you're at it?" "One thing at a time, Ambassador. One thing at a time.")
But things aren't quite that simple. See, their intelligence suggests that the Narns will soon be attacking the Centauri colony Gorash III, a key supply depot. They know that the Narns will be using most of their fleet to attack that colony--leaving their homeworld vulnerable. For a short time. For, they think, a short enough time so that there will be no real danger.
Of course, the Centauri want to attack then. But they have to do something to make sure the Narns will be good and weakened at Gorash III so that their ships will not be able to get back to Narn in time.
Just GUESS who gets THAT honour?
That's right--Lord Refa wants Londo's "special fleet" that everyone is convinced he has to be the deadly...distraction that the Centauri need.
Oh, boy...
Londo, to his credit, is at first violently opposed to the idea. He is getting more and more afraid of his, or should I say, Morden's..."associates". But Refa eventually manages to talk him into it by explaining how attacking Narn this way would cause the war to end within days instead of months, and by playing up how it would SAVE so many Centauri lives. Reluctantly, he finally agrees. And as a final damning stroke, he "gets" to ride in the flagship, watching the "glorious" battle firsthand, riding in the position of "honour". As the eerie image of the battlecruisers washes across Londo's reflection in the window, you can clearly SEE the shock in his eyes.
Things are going back to "the way they were". People are dancing in the streets of Centauri Prime, they now OWN Narn, the Kha'Ri is disbanded (and we can safely presume, DEAD, except for G'Kar), they are becoming more and more expansionistic and vicious, and once more, the name "Centauri" is making entire star systems tremble.
You got what you wanted, Londo...
Or DID you...?
This episode remarks another bravura performance for Peter Jurasik, who is, and I know I've said it before but that won't stop me from saying it again, THE best actor on the show. There are a couple of others who come close...but he's IT. The invasion scene, the scene in his quarters aftwards listening to the news broadcast--from happy to shocked and deeply saddened--and the Council Chamber scene later..ooh, that was soooo touching and scary. Londo is no longer teetering on that cliff--he's fallen off, being completely swallowed in darkness. As he SNARLS at Sheridan and seems to be feeling both pleasure AND anger while barking his terms to the Council, and in his treatment of G'Kar--CITIZEN G'Kar--especially, he is the darkest we've ever seen him. At this point, Londo has truly become a villain.
But there's STILL something in the eyes, in the tone of voice, that suggests he DOESN'T fully like what's happening--that he's in over his head, lost, afraid.
Now THAT'S acting.
Come back, Londo, we miss you...
(Notice that he paused and coughed during that speech, too? Just like he did IN THE VISION...oh, boy...)
I must also mention Andreas Katuslas here, too--although he got somewhat less to do, G'Kar was never better than when he was battered, defeated, lost--but NOT humbled. Even when he was being snarled at, threatened, and his entire homeworld had been "bombed back to the stone age", he could still hold his head high in defiance. To turn his own words back on him, "The wheel turns, does it not?"
(Plus, we get to see one of his relatives here--but the poor guy's DEAD, now! For those of you paying attention, G'Sten was played by the same guy who played the original, nut-ball "Soul Hunter" in the episode of the same name.)
The symbology, of the candles representing hope, and just as the bombing of his world is at its worst, he snuffs out the last one, was also wonderfully poignant.
From the bombing of Narn, to the full-fledged introduction of the Rangers (Marcus must be about to show up!), to the tie-in of the Great Machine to B4, to yet another mention of the sadistic, cold-blooded decadence of Emperor Cartagia (they teased you a LOT before they actually showed the character, didn't they?), to Ambassador G'Kar losing his title and becoming a wanted man, to the first use of the phrase "Army of Light", this episode was FULL of extremely important arc material. From Londo, G'Kar, Delenn, and even Draal, it was full of great acting. And from beginning to end, it was full of the big, sweeping, dramatic themes and emotions we've come to expect from Babylon 5.
This is televsion sci-fi at its best. If you don't watch this episode, you are really missing out.

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