The Summoning
Reviewed by Lady Keela Shanri
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(There hardly WERE any pictures from this episode, for some odd reason...)
This episode was again, pretty good but not great. It's hard, really, to judge these first six episodes of Season Four seperately, because they are really practically a six-parter with the words "To be continued" left out. Actually, a SEVEN-parter, with "Epiphanies" sorta being the epilogue--and the teaser for things to come. But that's a subject for later. For now, let's address "The Summoning". It had two basic main plots--one about the Vorlons and Delenn's quest to attack Za'Ha'Dum--and one on Centauri Prime, with Londo and G'Kar (mainly.) And the subplot was about finding Mr. Garibaldi.
Let's deal with the Vorlon storyline first. The episode starts off with Ivanova trying to convince Delenn to lend her a White Star so she can go off and look for some more First Ones to join the fight. After all, they found some the last time they went looking for them. She shows off her "command" of the Minbari language ("Hatrack ratcatcher to the port weapons! All hands prepare for brickbat lingerie!") but Delenn and Marcus, both trying VERY hard not to laugh, tell her that even though she is "good" but with a bit of an accent, she will still need a translator. Since Lennier must stay with Delenn, Ivanova will be forced to put up with Marcus yet again. Heh heh heh...
The scenes with the two of them on the White Star were absolutely precious. ("I'm picking up something." "A unicorn?") and that whole thing about "delusions of grandeur" was hilarious. But what started off fairly lighthearted soon turns dark as they disover a funny little pocket in hyperspace--hiding a HUUUUUUUUGE Vorlon fleet. With HUUUUUUUUUGE ships. Some of them 3-4 MILES long!
EEK.
So what are the Vorlons UP to with this huge fleet? For this we must turn to Lyta Alexander, who, on Delenn's request, tries to get information out of New Kosh on what exactly he is hiding, but for her efforts only get slammed across the room telekinetically and tortured. (Ugh.)
Zack Allen goes off to rescue Mr. Garibaldi. Using the tip that I'm assuming Marcus gave them from the last episode, they have pinpointed which ship he's on. Zack and a squadron fly out to meet the ship and fire at it in only small amounts, but it BLOWS UP anyway, after ejecting a life-pod. Mr. Garibaldi is, indeed, inside the pod. He's in bad condition but looks like he's gonna be all right later. Zack, however, can't shake the feeling that there's something wrong with him.
Meanwhile, this strange ship is coming towards B5 through hyperspace, and its' a type no-one has seen before. When it reaches B5 it activates the station's OWN docking bay codes and lets itself in without permission! Not good. The whole station goes on red alert and Security is sent to the docking bay to deal with whatever should come out of that ship. Garibaldi comes along too even though he's not all the way healed yet. "Well, I'll be damned." he says when he sees WHO steps out of the mystery ship. (And you don't know how TRUE that statement is, Mr. Garibaldi...)
Back in the Zocalo, some of the League Ambassadors have gathered to start a riot against Delenn because they are afraid that her plan to attack Za'Ha'Dum will bring the Shadows' wrath down on them, that if they stay quiet the Shadows will leave them alone (yeah, right.) (As a side-note--I must say, I liked the Brakiri Ambassador who came to Delenn and warned her about the rally earlier; he was a cool guy and I liked the actor.) Delenn tries to convince the crowd that the Shadows will attack ANYWAY, but the mood is turning ugly as they surge against her and fights break out. Then everything suddenly STOPS as everyone looks up in absolute shock at the person walking calmly up the stairs to the balcony of the second level.
It's SHERIDAN!
"Captain", says the Drazi Ambassador who had started all this mess, all embarrassed, "we thought you were dead."
"I was." says Sheridan. "I'm better now." (great line, but why am I reminded of Monty Python? "But I'm not dead yet! I'm feeling much better now! LA LA LA LA LA" (THUNK)). And he's evidently brought...groan...Lorien back with him. Well, I guess he sorta HAD to, since it was Lorien's ship that brought him back to B5 in the first place...
Anyway, he makes a rebel-rousing speech of his own, and within seconds has the entire crowd turned TOWARDS his cause not against it, and evidently the alliance he formed among the League Worlds looks like it might be coming back together too! What a mercurial bunch.
Speaking of mercurial, that's the perfect cue for our cut back to Centauri Prime and the plot--and I do mean PLOT--going on there, to kill the "mercurial" Emperor Cartagia. Vir and Londo are walking in this really COOL-looking courtyard, all alien but still pretty, with swirly, twisty designs and crescent-shapes, sculpted trees, mosaic-tiled walkways, marble benches, etc. and discussing the plot. "But I've never been involved in a con--" Vir protests, then Londo shushes him, "I've never been involved in a conspiracy to kill ANYONE before, not to mention the EMPEROR. I mean, there's got to be a better way! I thought we were past this kind of thing CENTURIES before! Can't we reason with him--"
They are cut off as His Imperial Craziness himself walks around a tree and runs into them (well, not LITERALLY), accompanied by a retinue of servants! This was a GREAT scene, both very funny AND very creepy and horrible at the same time. Cartagia's hands are covered with blood--G'Kar's blood--and he talks about torturing people and chopping off their hands--"Great Maker, did you--" Vir asks in horror. "No, he passed out before we got that far. Loss of blood I suppose. Very inconvenient." But on the OTHER hand, it's FUNNY--the thing about "politically correct" torturers--"I really don't know what to do, I sent him to my BEST pain technician--'pain technician'" (rolls eyes) "We used to call them torturers, but ever since they got organised, it's 'pain technicians'...", the way Cartagia just keeps going on and on and on in one unbroken line without letting ANYONE get a word in edgewise, even when they are trying to answer a question HE just asked them, and the sight gag with the servant. (Cartagia wipes off his hands on a towel which a young servant-boy behind him ATTEMPTS to take from him afterwards, but the Emperor THROWS the towel negligently over his shoulder so hard that it goes over the SERVANT'S shoulder as well, the servant follows it briefly with his eyes, then faces forward with this wonderfully world-weary expression. It PAYS to watch the background details on this show!) Anyway, through all this silliness, the main thing that we find out is that not only is poor G'Kar being tortured, but that Cartagia will have him KILLED if he does not scream. "I know I said he was your gift, Mollari, but..." Eventually, the group parades on past Londo and Vir, leaving them there absolutely stunned and disgusted.
"Londo", says Vir, with the most anger I think I've ever heard in his voice, "You know what I said earlier, about there's got to be a better way?" (looks over both shoulders to make sure no-one is listening.) "I was wrong. KILL HIM!"
WHOAH. When VIR is that mad...
Then we have another very intense scene with Londo and G'Kar in G'Kar's cell. The poor Narn is wearing the tattered remnants of the jester's outfit the decadent Centauri nobles had put on him for their amusement earlier, chained to the wall so that he cannot even sit down, and though he's trying very hard to hide it it's obvious he's in terrible pain. Londo tries to convince G'Kar to give Cartagia just one scream, because if he dies, both of their plans will be destroyed too. "I need a live ally, not a dead martyr!"
G'Kar explains how his people "do not oblige conquerors" and that if he gives Cartagia what he wants, he will no longer be a Narn. "But if you are DEAD, will you be a Narn then? No, you will be food for Cartagia's pets. And your people, will they be Narns too? No. They will be slaves, and then DEAD slaves. Is that what you want, G'Kar? Is it?" G'Kar never gives him an answer and he leaves the cell.
What follows is one of the DARKEST and most depressing scenes I have EVER seen on B5, and maybe on network T.V. in general. (Well, maybe that one scene from DS9 where Garak has to torture Odo, and you can tell from the look in his eyes that Garak is being "tortured" just as much, is in the same league when it comes to sheer intensity.) First we have a small bit of comedy, as Londo and Vir are rousted out of their beds and taken the gods know where to some random room in the palace to meet Cartagia (and again it's late at night; doesn't this boy EVER sleep?! If I didn't see other Centauri awake in the daytime I'd swear the race was nocturnal!) and when they get to the door, they both stand there deferring to the other, not wanting to go first! That was great, and it provides a much-needed tension break before what comes next.
(And my mother pointed out--this is ANOTHER parallell to "I, Claudius"--there's a scene in that in which Claudius and one of his friends are summoned by Caligula in the middle of the night and they are scared to DEATH, wondering, "But it's so LATE! What does he WANT with us?" etc, JUST the kind of things Vir was saying, and then it turns out that what Caligula is going to do is...DANCE for them. In drag. In very very skimpy drag. Come to think of it, maybe death would have been preferable...)
Thank the gods Cartagia doesn't want to dance, but parallells aside, there is NOTHING funny about this scene, nothing at all. This room he's brought them to is his "sanctuary", where he comes to think, to dream, plan for his coming "godhood" (ahem) and "play". And tonight he is going to "play" with G'Kar.
G'Kar is chained to a pillar as His Imperial Lunaticness explains that the electro-whip the guard holds has been set to deliver an increasing jolt of pain with every strike. At 40 it will kill even a Narn. If G'Kar does not scream, he will die.
This is SO intense. The scene is one unbroken cut; it does not go away to other parts of the plot mid-way, it does not skip any numbers. We see--and almost FEEL--every single strike of that electro-whip into G'Kar's back, the numbers reaching inexorably higher. The stark spotlight-and-shadows lighting, Cartagia's huge, spooky eyes and bony face lit from beneath, looking like a ghoul, G'Kar's obvious extreme agony, Vir and Londo's reactions (Vir almost throws up), all of this combine to make one of THE darkest and most intense scenes I have ever seen. But at 39 G'Kar finally manages to swallow his pride--he screams, and he lives. Barely. And Cartagia gets this HORRIFIC smile across his ghastly white face...
SHUDDER!
Back to the other plotline--what ARE those pesky Vorlons up to anyway?
It appears that with those huge ships Marcus and Ivanova discovered in hyperspace, they are going around attacking Shadow bases. But they're not just attacking the BASES. They're wiping out entire PLANETS, killing off huge civillian populations to get rid of ANYTHING the Shadows "touched". Like cutting out an infection, "and if any healthy tissue gets cut out along the way, well, that's all right 'cos it's all for a good cause", says Franklin, angrily. EEP. They've already killed one planet with 4 MILLION people on it--it seems as if they'll stop at absolutely nothing...
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