Darkness Ascending
Reviewed by Lady Keela Shanri
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This was another quite good, but DEPRESSING episode. There were four plot-threads: "The Great Hyperspace Adventures of Ranger Lennier and His Trusty Fighter-Ship", the Centauri vs. the Alliance, the Garibaldi one and the G'Kar and Lyta one. If I left something out, don't shoot me, I only had a chance to watch the episode ONCE before writing this review and everybody was talking all the way through it, and it was rather complex, so I can't remember it very well...
Let's start with the Lyta one, since it's not really connected to the others like everything else is. Basically, Lyta is going around to various businessmen offering to hire out "her" rogue telepaths (Questions: A--where are they now; she seems to be talking about them like they're still on B5, practically! and B--how does she know they'll do what she says blindly?) in exchange for being allowed to colonise the first random uninhabited world they come across while travelling on their business partners' ships. She gets the guy interested at first, until he realises that they are rogues, and his company can ONLY hire Psi Corps telepaths--otherwise, their insurance won't cover it. Same problem Lyta had when she was trying to get a job in Season Four...
So she takes a different tack--she visits Ambassador G'Kar (I guess he got his official title back? It seems to me they were still calling him "Citizen" G'Kar only like two episodes ago!) to take him up on an old deal--a very, VERY old deal. This goes back to the PILOT! Do you, perhaps, remember an infamous conversation about "pleasure thresholds"...? (As Lyta says while strolling out the door in today's episode: "I recently found out--I don't HAVE one." Heh heh heh.) Since Human traders won't help her teeps, she decides to go to the Narns, whom she knows have been desperately wanting telepath DNA back in their race for quite some time. She turns down the "direct mating" method (making G'Kar obviously disappointed...) but offers something even better--not only access to HER DNA, but to LOTS of teep DNA from lots of different people if the Narns will give them enough money, ships, and supplies to go off and look for a planet of their own by themselves. G'Kar says he will consult with his government, then later on he calls her back in and says yes, but only if they will agree to spy on the minds of certain other Ambassadors every now and then. Lyta thinks about it, but then sadly rejects his offer because she DOES indeed have "one tiny shred of decency" left in her. (This made me do a thumbs-up and go, "YES!" under my breath. It's nice to know she hasn't gone ALL the way evil...YET.) As she's dejectedly walking out of his quarters, G'Kar calls her back and says that this was just a test--"no" was the correct answer. If she had said YES, the deal would have been off. So, yes, looks like the Narns are going to help the renegade teeps. Question--does this mean that once new Narn telepaths start being born, they'll also all be part Human? They'd almost have to be...
And what WAS up with that bizzarre dream of Garibaldi's, while we're on the subject of Lyta? Was it just a dream, or was she really messing with his mind? And what's up with glowing green eyes vs. solid black eyes? They both mean strong telepathic activity, but why the difference...?
Now onto the Centauri plot, because it's the most complex one and I'm afraid I'll forget it. Londo seems to be teaching Vir more about how to be an Ambassador, but is interrupted when Vir tells him he's found out that the others suspect them of being behind the attacks (FINALLY someone tells Londo. FINALLY!!) Londo brushes it off until he hears of a Council meeting being called the next morning--when they SAID that no more Council meetings would be called until they had figured out who was behind the attacks--and EVERYONE else is invited EXCEPT Londo!
Meanwhile, they get a disturbing call from home that thickens the plot even MORE. This Minister dude calls up and tells them about what the others suspect, but HE thinks it could be the Narns doing it, because they did after all leave Centauri ships behind on Narn when they pulled out. (Why? Seems like a dumb idea to me; I would've taken 'em with me.) Of course, we know that it is actually either the Drakh in Centauri ships or Drakh-controlled Centauri--not necessarily with Keepers, mind you, but carrying out their wrong orders under fear of death from the Keeper-controlled Regent. But still, this does raise a good point--and it's the first time that anyone on the show has even thought of looking INSIDE the ships to make sure that the people IN them match the outside design! Just because it's Centauri ships doesn't necessarily mean it's Centauri pulling the trigger...
And so, as a doubtful and confused Londo walks away from the monitor, yet ANOTHER layer of plotting and scheming has been laid onto the storyline. Even though it's sad, I love it...
(I especially love Londo's cynical remarks...Vir: "It's like no-one trusts ANYONE anymore!" Londo: "You say that as if it is a BAD thing!" Oh, the Centauri attitude...gods, I'm going to miss it...sniff...)
And now for Ranger Lennier's Amazing Adventures. The good thing about this plotline is that we get to see Captain Montoya again--I'm extremely surprised they didn't decide to kill him, as they do to ALL even vaguely likeable or interesting characters in this show--YET. Unfortunately, they didn't use him very much--he just said dry reports, didn't get to show much more of his fun personality. But that isn't the REALLY bad news. The REALLY bad news is what Ranger Lennier finally managed to bring BACK. He decides to check out his suspicions about the Centauri. He has been intercepting coded messages from them, you understand, and thinks that there might be a hidden base somewhere that they're attacking from. He almost runs out of air--twice (he manages to siphon oxygen off the big Centauri fighter-ship he attaches himself to about halfway through the mission--and I'm not quite sure HOW he managed to punch a hole in their ship without their noticing!) but he makes it. While out there, he does indeed come across some kind of base, and he also sees them blow away a helpless Brakiri mini-fleet that had children on board. Oh, dear...
Well, now he has "evidence" that the Centauri are acting like "cold-hearted rat BASTARDS!" as Ivanova said once, but again, NO ONE thinks of looking INSIDE the ship! It is because of his datacrystal--which Sheridan SHOULD have thrown out an airlock as far as I'm concerned--that this secret Council meeting is being called without Londo for the next day. And just after she finds out, a hysterical Delenn encounters a rather worried Londo and HUGS him, with tears running down her face! When asked why she did it, her only reply that she can safely say is that "she has never done that before, in all the years they've known each other." And Londo walks away even MORE worried. Oh, GODS, sniff...
Now onto the Garibaldi plot, and why I'm ending with this one I'm not really sure, but I guess I gotta begin and end somewhere, right? The bad news: Lise has shown back up again. BOO. (On B5; Garibaldi didn't go back to Mars in this episode.) The good news--we learn a bit more about exactly what IS going on with their relationship, Lise was acting halfway bearable in this episode, and she kinda sorta a little bit kept him from drinking quite as much as he normally would, while she was there anyway. She was still whining, of course, but this time she had a point--Garibaldi IS acting like a moron, and he really shouldn't drink anymore. "Oh, so it's okay to go off the road as long as YOU'RE behind the wheel when it happens, is that it?" Much as she said that line with the typical Lise Whine™, I agreed with her. Also I liked the line she muttered under her breath, as Garibaldi was complaining about how she had taken all the hot water: "Maybe it's just the altitude." ("Or the ATTITUDE...") Anyway, this is a relatively quiet plotline in which we get to catch up on old times. For example, Garibaldi talks about the last time he was in the Fresh Aire Restaurant, which was with Ivanova and Sinclair--yes, that far back--and Sinclair had just announced his engagement to Catherine Sakai! We never DO find out whether they were actually married or not (yes, I am aware that this information can be found in the novel "To Dream in the City of Sorrows", which Straczynski himself has said is cannon, but I haven't read it yet, okay?) but we do learn the rather interesting tidbit that Sakai disappeared only a year after that. ? What happened to her? Anyway, when Garibaldi keeps asking for a cup of COFFEE, the waiter keeps offering him a DRINK, until I thought the guy was being unreasonably stupid and snooty. But shortly afterwards we find out what's really going on--this waiter is evidently one of the people Garibaldi has been calling, or he's in on the know of it anyway, to order things from when he's completely drunk. When he catches Garibaldi pouring whiskey into the coffee, he sneaks up behind him and says, "It seems we WERE talking about the same thing after all..." Oh, dear. Looks like Lise's vigilance isn't doing ANY good at all. When you're hooked so badly that you go to huge lengths to sneak it around people and hide it that much, you've got it BAD...
Anyway, just as bad things happened shortly after the last time Garibaldi was in this "unlucky restaurant" (Santiago being assassinated, Garibaldi being shot in the back, Sinclair being reassigned, etc.) so they happen this time too. He hears of the Centauri evidence shortly after their meal and tells Lise, sadly, that he fears that by this time TOMORROW, the Alliance and the Centauri will be at WAR with each other...
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