Whatever Happened to Mr. Garibaldi?
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This episode, while of general high quality as is almost all of the early part of Season Four, had some problems that kept it from being great. It had three plotlines--one about Sheridan on Za'Ha'Dum, one about Delenn STILL trying to get a force together to ATTACK Za'Ha'Dum, and one about G'Kar going off to find out "whatever happened to Mr. Garibaldi?" In the time-honoured Centauri tradition of getting the bad stuff out of the way first so that from that point on, anything ELSE has to be GOOD, I'll take care of the Sheridan thread first.
Now, that sounds like I have something against Sheridan. I don't (like I said in my review of "Za'Ha'Dum", you won't catch ME bad-mouthing anyone who's willing to sacrifice himself to save Centauri Prime!)--it's the OTHER person with him I can't stand.
Lorien.
I'm getting ahead of myself here--basically, Sheridan is trapped in limbo of some kind on Za'Ha'Dum, "between moments", between life and death. THIS is really my whole problem with this part of the plotline, it's too metaphysical, mystical, and quasi-religious for me. It doesn't belong in SCIENCE-fiction. Sure, the Rangers and First Ones are a bit fantasy-ish too, but this is just too MUCH. If only Straczynski had actually come out and SAID that Sheridan had fallen all the way into the pit and been ALMOST dead when he hit, and that Lorien had "breathed on the embers" (i.e., done his little life-energy trick) at JUST that moment, barely in time, and SAVED his life, then I would have been okay with it. But it's way too full of long-winded pseudo-philosophical theories that SOUND deep but don't actually MEAN anything if you take the time to LOOK at them. I know those of you who ARE religious are going to slam me for this review, but I don't care, it BUGGED me. As far as I can tell, the reason we even HAVE John Sheridan through the entire rest of the show was because some alien "angel" brought him back to life with a fragging SPELL!
Let's address good ol' Lorien, that refugee from a Tolkien convention, himself. While Wayne Alexander IS a good ACTOR, I could not STAND Lorien as a CHARACTER. By the third episode of Season Four, when I had figured out what both of the main guest-star characters of this section of episodes were like, I was CHEERING whenever I saw Emperor Cartagia's name listed on the screen, and BOOING for Lorien, even though Lorien is a GOOD guy and Cartagia's a villian! Why? No, not because I'm psycho although that is of course part of the equation. Because Cartagia, for all his faults, is at least ENTERTAINING, a wonderfully flambouyant character who gleefully eats the furniture of each and every scene he's in. Lorien makes me want to go to sleep and throw up, simultaneously! He's so DRIPPY. (And was it just me, or did his explanation of how "when we are born, we are given time in a series of finite moments" remind anyone else of Lyndisty's explanation of time being given to you in tiny little pretty boxes, and the instant you find out you need them, they're gone?) Lorien was boring beyond belief and I could not STAND his constant nonsensical blithering. Sheridan should have tried to beat him silly SOONER! I've said it before and I'll say it again--the VILLIAN is way more fun! (Or as Billy Joel once said, "I'd rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints/The sinners are much more fun..." If you don't like a B5 site that uses corny song lyrics to prove a point, then what are you doinghere?) On the other hand, the sinister Mr. Sebastian, the Inquisitor (from Season Two's "Comes the Inquisitor"), also played by Alexander, was a GREAT character. I guess I can put up with mysterious evilness better than I can mysterious "good"-ness... And no comments from the peanut gallery about what that says about me!
On to the next plot, which is relatively simple. Delenn has not been eating for nine days, and Dr. Franklin (who does the voice-over intro for the episode this time) is worried about her, so he goes to her and tries to convince her that HEY, she's half-Human now, she can't go without food for two weeks without harm anymore. Why is she doing this? What will be served?
"Justice will be served", says Delenn, who is punishing herself for the way she kept the truth about Anna Sheridan from Sheridan. She figures that if he is dead, the least she can do is allow her soul to join his, "in the place where no shadows fall."
Gee... Franklin is later seen going through Sheridan's stuff, trying to figure out what parts of it should be sent back to his family, etc., and he finds a datacrystal from one of his personal logs that he thinks Delenn should see, so he calls her in to look at it and then leaves her. The message is a quiet, personal one from John, in which he talks about how his father always said that the only way to deal with pain is to try to turn it into something positive, "if you're falling off a cliff, you may as well try to fly. You've got nothing to lose!" He then goes on to say that he never believed this would happen, after the war and all, but here he is, deeply in LOVE with a Minbari (Delenn of course!) Delenn turns off the recording with tears in her eyes and resolves to do JUST what Sheridan's father had said--turn pain into something good.
To this end, she assembles the Rangers, which are the last force left that she has any control over, explains to them how the League of Non-Aligned Worlds has almost completely broken up and returned their ships to their own homeworlds, MISquotes Sheridan, and asks THEM to help her attack Za'Ha'Dum. Of course, her being Ranger One and all they'd kinda HAVE to do what she says, but it's still a good scene for her anyway, showing her strong, determined side again, and I see why she became a politician--she's GREAT at making speeches. (It was almost a poem!)
On to the BEST plotline--the title one. G'Kar has for some reason ended up at this little white planet with no name in search of Mr. Garibaldi (I assume he must have gotten some clue to lead him there--wherever "there" was--in a scene we didn't see, between the two episodes.) He at first engages in friendly banter with the trader who sold a part of Mr. Garibaldi's Starfury to someone else, ("You know what they say--Finders keepers, losers--buys 'em from finders!" I can see that as a Rule of Accquisition...) but the instant he wants to know HOW the guy found that particular Starfury floating out in the vastness of space, the guy gets evasive. G'Kar insists, but the bar-owner (a SCRUNGE if I ever saw one, and not a terribly good actor either may I add) takes offense, G'kar stands up to fight, and WHOOSH behind him is MARCUS of all people, who has just extended his fighting-pike. The two of them kick some serious butt in the inevitable barfight that follows, and take the trader prisoner, but afterwards, it seems that the authorities are STILL looking for them rather eagerly, even though they didn't do anything all THAT bad. This worries Marcus, but G'Kar shrugs it off, and after that infamous line about "pikal envy" (one of THE most over-quoted phrases by fans on the Internet...) they get some rest.
Meanwhile, back in the bar, the scrungy bar-owner is looking over photos of Narns trying to identify G'Kar to a couple of guys...with very fancy uniforms...and slanted, furry eyebrows...oh, gods. "Are you sure is was a Narn?" asks one of the Centauri guards. "Of COURSE it was a Narn, it's not like they're easy to miss!" snaps the bar-owner, and eventually identifies G'Kar--the last of the Kha'Ri, and turns him in for the reward without the SLIGHTEST compunction.
Back to their little hideout--Marcus actually USES the words "Wakey-wakey" (a true British-ism) to wake up the trader dude, and threatens, politely, to nail his head to the wall if he doesn't tell them what they want to know. This must have worked because in the next scene of this plotine, Marcus has a name but does not know WHERE the guy they're looking for is. This CONVENIENTLY (I'm sorry, but as much as I LOVE the stuff that comes of this the set-up just seems too flimsy and coincidental for me) makes G'Kar tell Marcus that he HAS to go back to B5 and use its resources to track down the person, which CONVENIENTLY leaves G'Kar all by himself.
So of course, shortly after Marcus's shuttle leaves, G'Kar is ambushed by a ton of Centauri soldiers. G'Kar takes out a few of them, but is soon incapacitated with a shoulder wound and brought down. Cut to...
Londo, asleep in his quarters in the Royal Palace on Centauri Prime, who is very irritated by CONSTANT knocking on his door (note: Delenn was also more or less asleep with her eyes open when Franklin came in to talk to her in the beginning of the episode, and HE also had to ring many times--parallell?) and finally staggers out of bed. Being Londo, he picks up a DAGGER and hides it behind his body before opening the door. No idiot he.
His late-night visitor is--probably THE most harmless person in the entire palace, that nervous, hand-wringing No-Name Minister Dude. He tells Londo that Cartagia, even though it is the middle of the night (he also visited his heads late at night in the LAST episode, and seemed to be way TOO full of energy in the day as well; doesn't this guy ever sleep? Okay, okay, enough silly speculations...) wants to see Londo RIGHT NOW. "Why?" grunts Londo, more annoyed than scared at this point.
"The Emperor does not reveal his MIND to me, only his...intentions...? PLEASE, HURry!!" (This is a VERY close parallell of a scene from "I, Claudius", but I won't point that out here...whoops I just did.)
Wanting a minute to get dressed first, Londo sends the already panicked little fellow into COMPLETE cardiac arrest by slamming the door on him, and the next time we see Londo he's all dressed and walking into the throne room.
Cartagia, looking as snazzy as he always does despite the late (early?) hour, is cheerfully displeased with Londo as he enters. Londo explains that he had to be suitably attired, and goes into this HUGE absolute crock of #### about how if he was under-dressed, that would hurt his dignity and therefore also the dignity of the Centauri Republic, since he was appearing in front of the Emperor. "Then I suppose I should not have you killed for it?" smiles Cartagia casually, sounding like he's joking but actually being dead serious. Londo then lays it on even THICKER about how if Cartagia killed him he would also be killing a piece of himself (huh?) and that would be a REAL shame. Being the moron that he is, Cartagia BELIEVES that, chirps "I LIKE you Mollari!" (which would WORRY me to no end...), and offers Londo a gift. And if he refuses it...well...
So Londo reluctantly accepts before he knows what it is, and what should come staggering through the door but G'KAR, in chains!! (Of course this was set up earlier but it's still a stunning scene.)
WHOAH.
Having heard that keeping one's head on one's shoulders is conducive to good health, Londo naturally has to act like he's PLEASED with the "gift" when all the time you can see the horror, shock, and disgust in his eyes. This is another indication that, like I keep saying, Londo is NOT all the way evil.
A trooper to the end, G'Kar looks straight into His Imperial Psychoticness's huge eyes, and asks, "Would you happen to know...where Mr. Garibaldi...might be?"
"Who?"
Whatever DID happen to Mr. Garibaldi, anyway? That's a good question, and it is hardly answered at all in the following scene. The good Security Chief is in civvies, looking very beat up and haggard, locked inside some tiny little round room with nothing but a chair, and being interrogated by a maddeningly calm voice that never identifies itself. Garibaldi freaks out and starts trying to smash the place up, so "they" gas him and in walks...a PSI COP?
HMMN...
We then have the best scene in the episode, probably one of the best in the series. With the flashy, scene-stealing Cartagia (and let me tell you, up until this point, I would have thought it nearly IMPOSSIBLE to steal a scene from LONDO!) out of the way, we get a truly superb scene with just Londo and G'Kar. Alone, in G'Kar's tiny dank cell, in the dark.
This scene is so intense it almost hurts to watch, but it is very very good, full of strong emotions even thought neither of the characters ever raise their voices. Londo explains how G'Kar will be tormented and then killed in horrific ways (this is ANOTHER episode not to watch while eating, although at least we don't get visuals this time) but it is obvious he doesn't mean it as a THREAT, rather as a sad, resigned warning. "Does this please you?" asks G'Kar softly.
"No." says Londo, without even having to think about it. "Once, long ago...." he shakes his head. "No, not even then."
He then tries to make a deal with G'Kar. He says that although G'Kar will suffer and there is nothing he can do about it, he WILL be free once Cartagia is dead. He wants G'Kar to HELP him accomplish that. G'Kar agrees--but ONLY if Londo promises to free Narn in return. Londo agrees to that, and their relationship has hit a new level.
And so has the plotting and scheming...BWAHAHA. Great Maker, I LOVE this kind of stuff!
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