The Fall of Centauri Prime

And so, the torch passes...and in a way, we say goodbye to TWO wonderful characters at once...

"I have been many things in my life, Mollari. I have been silly. I have been quiet when I should have spoken. I have been foolish, and I have wasted far too much time. But I am still Centauri...and I am not afraid..."
--From the Regent's death-speech.

"Isn't it strange, G'Kar? When we first met, I had no power, and all the choices I could ever want. Now I have all the power I could ever want--and no choices. No choice at all.
--From Londo's good-bye.

Reviewed by Lady Keela Shanri

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This has got to be, without a doubt, the most DEPRESSING Babylon 5 episode that has EVER existed, in the history of the universe, for the entire space-time continuum, in all perpetuity.
Not that I'm saying I didn't like it or anything, you understand...
In this episode, Straczynski finally gets back on his stride with great dramatic scenes, excellently-written lines, deep symbolism, and tear-jerking moments.
But WHY did it all have to be for such a horrible cause, WHY?!
While this was a quality episode, I do NOT agree with it, and I do NOT at all agree with the so-called "logic" of the "plot" that led up to it in the previous episodes. Still, I will attempt to review it now...as well as I can, if the tears hitting my keyboard don't cause it to short out...
The tragedies just keep mounting in this episode. We are started off with a horrible shot of Centauri Prime in ruins ("I think of my beautiful city in flames..."), burning like mad, while things are still falling apart everywhere. G'Kar is hurt when the roof of his cell caves in (whoops, looks like that WASN'T as safe a place as I thought!) and Londo rushes in to save him. Then Londo meets with the Regent for the last time, and finally learns about..."Them".
This scene was absolutely heartbreaking, but wonderfully done. Wayne Alexander made such a sinister Drakh you'd never BELIEVE that was kindly old Lorien talking to Londo there. (Then again, I never really liked or trusted Lorien myself...) Peter Jurasik did an excellent acting job as well, as always, in this entire episode, which was really a showcase for him. (Even more so than "The Very Long Night of Londo Mollari".) I could always tell whether he was saying something under his Keeper's control or not by HOW he said it. The flashbacks in the scene in which he meets the Drakh were timely--and bore out EXACTLY what I had said at the time. (The one where Morden warns him that they have friends and "they'll see that Centauri Prime pays the price!" especially...) We learn the Drakh's scary, creepy motives--they not only want revenge, they want Centauri Prime, as a new homeworld, and as a race to control, to reshape in their own image... They say that now they have the Centauri right where they want them--a beaten, broken people who will have to rebuild, and who will HAVE to rely on the Drakh to do it. (At this point, not to offend anybody, but I glared at the T.V. screen and said, "F### off!" but I SAID the actual WORD...and that's not a word I say very often!) And if Londo says no...well, they have fusion bombs planted all throughout the planet...YIKES!
But the real glory in this scene MUST go to that ditzy little fop of a courtier, the Regent.
Who suddenly shows himself to be not all that ditzy at all.
(Although I reserve the right to call him "little", Great Maker, man, when Londo shakes him by his lapels he almost picks him up off the floor!)
In this scene, the Regent is smart, calm, collected, absolutely at peace with himself and the universe. For once, he is not funny, but very poignant, and instead of being all nervous and fluttery he is absolutely calm. He is not, as we thought all this time, a ditz, or stupid, or crazy. He is a perfectly intelligent person with real feelings--which we learn, tragically, just in time for him to DIE! He tells Londo about his fate, and how to keep the blame off himself, with wry, sad humour ("You can blame anything you want on me! I won't mind."--meaning, after he's dead--oh, GEEZ...) and when he dies, he does not kick and scream, or shake, as you might expect from this "cowardly" character, but instead meets his Maker with utter dignity.
How did this happen? How did this character evolve from a fluttery DORK in "Sic Transit Vir" to a brave, decent, honourable character who gets a full-blown hero's death scene? Only on B5 (or DS9) could such a miraculous transformation take place. But I'm glad it happened--even if it DID make the scene that much more tragic. If you can watch this scene, complete with his beautiful farewell speech (could you ever have foreseen "Mr. Fluttery" holding his head high and saying the words, "I am NOT afraid"?!), and keep your eyes dry, you have no emotions. And at the end, one person--Londo--knows the truth, and forgives him for what he's done. I thought that was important. Such a decent person should not go down in history as totally evil.
Goodbye, Regent. We'll miss you. Sniff. I hope they'll let you decorate your cloud in Heaven with pastels...
And a big round of applause to Damian London, for an absolutely fantastic acting job going all the way back to Season Three.
Just when you've semi-recovered from THAT, the episode gets even SADDER. Lennier and Delenn, still trapped in hyperspace, think they are going to die and Lennier confesses his love for her! Then--they LIVE, as the Centauri ships that found them are going to rescue them, not kill them. (Under Londo's orders--he had to BEG the Drakh to spare her life.) So Delenn does one of those Minbari "lie to save face for another" things and pretends that she did not hear him, the...um...that beeping noise...was too loud...yeah, that's it...Oh, geez...
Meanwhile (actually earlier but oh well) Sheridan's White Star fleet finally arrives at Centauri Prime and orders the Narn and Drazi fleet to stand down. Na'Tok (he may be a classy Narn, but I am really starting to HATE him! BOO!! HISSS!!) snootily tells Sheridan that now that they are there, the White Stars can HELP them attack Centauri Prime. Sheridan cusses him out (go Sheridan!) and refuses to do so. However, he does NOT do what I really wanted him to do...which was to open fire on THEM! I kept yelling at the screen, "SHOOT THEM!! BLOW THEM OUT OF THE SKY!!" and if not that, then at least, for pete's sake, LEAVE completely and just LET the Centauri blow them away when they arrive! Or, even better, get the Centauri ships talking if possible, then use their HELP to blow the Narns and Drazi away! I know I'm predjudiced, but I have NO respect for those Narn and Drazi fleets at ALL, and I wanted them DEAD and RIPPED TO BLOODY SHREDS, floating in the vacuum of space, for all eternity...and I wanted SHERIDAN to do it! And put Na'Tok's head outside the Council Chambers of the Alliance on a pike as a warning to the next ten generations that if you disobey a direct order from the President, THIS will be your fate...
But it was not to be, and Sheridan only stays there and quietly talks with Londo...who has gotten his Keeper by now, and surrenders. Centauri Prime SURRENDERED! WAAAHHHHH!!!
Londo's good-bye scene with G'Kar was just as heartrending as the Regent's death--even though Londo isn't going to be PHYSICALLY dead. It starts off with a bit of lame humour--all the small attempts at humour in this episode fall completely flat in the tragedy--and then goes on to a very deep, sad farewell speech, in which Londo warns G'Kar that after he becomes Emperor, which will be in only moments, he may start acting differently--and he can't say WHY G'Kar, of course, thinks that he only means that the position changes people and that he understands. Oh, gods...
The scene where Londo got his Keeper was REALLY creepy (and more than a bit gross...) He comes forward bravely to accept his fate, and the Drakh...pulls this sticky bit of yick off his CHEST and drops it to the ground, where it then grows legs and climbs up Londo's body. When it injects itself into his neck, you can see him clench his fists from the pain...oh, dear...
And so, ANOTHER wonderful character--in fact, THE best character in the whole damn show!--is destroyed. WHY?!! Why does Straczynski have to kill all the BEST characters, why can't he visit this kind of misery on boring ones?! And I would like to point out that practically all the other main characters have done some really NASTY things to get where they are today--Delenn started the Earth/Minbari War and Sheridan just outright USED those teepsicles, for starters--and THEY do not have to undergo an everlasting horrible torment for SIXTEEN FRAGGING YEARS!! THEY get off scott-free! That is TOTALLY unfair!!! Some fans may say that everything on B5 is wonderful, but I am not like most fans, in case you haven't figured that out. This is unfair, and I will NOT accept it no matter what. And I reserve my right to say so, as loudly and as often as I want. (Oh, sure, many B5 characters have DIED, but Londo's fate is WORSE than death. It's torture, on and on and on. I mean, I imagine death hurts when it's happening, but it's only a short while and then it's over...)
Goodbye, Londo. We'll miss you. Sniff. Somebody pass me another box of Kleenex? (You think I'm kidding, but I'm not. Even THINKING of this episode makes me weepy!)
And it's not over yet. First, Londo makes Vir the official Ambassador to Babylon 5--the real, decent Londo is still in there, struggling away, and this is one of his last acts--to get Vir AWAY from Centauri Prime so that he won't be in danger of the Drakh as well. Vir thinks he is acting extra-nasty but Londo can't tell him WHY he's acting so cold. He makes a speech to the people, in his new Imperial robes in which he tells them that they SHOULD be angry, resentful, etc, instead of calming them down, like he told Vir he would, and uses the haunting phrase over and over again, "We are alone. We are alone."
Oh, GEEEZ....
Then we get a montage of his life--the drunken looser, the conniving villian, the betrayed anti-hero--and last, the ancient, decrepit Emperor from his dream, being strangled by G'Kar. And he walks, alone, to the Temple of the Great Maker for his coronation ceremony, while bells ring all day and all night to symbolise those who died during the bombing.
Then some more stuff happens--the others wonder what's wrong with Londo, they go back to Babylon 5, they look at the Shadow technology, Lyta acts kinda creepy and Franklin compares the Shadows' leaving to the breakup of the Soviet Union...
...but as far as I'm concerned, from this day forth, Babylon 5 is OVER. Oh, sure, I'll review the last few episodes. But my hearts won't be in it.

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