Sleeping in Light

And so it ends...

Reviewed by Lady Keela Shanri

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SNIFF!
This, the very, very last episode of the show, was an absolutely HEARTRENDING episode. (I still was more upset over "The Fall of Centauri Prime", but this one got me as well.) Set in the year 2281, it is more of an epilogue than part of the normal story. To reflect this, it does not have the normal setup for a B5 episode--there is no teaser in the proper sense of the word, no theme song, no opening credits (regulars OR guest stars; it's all done at the end instead). There is an opening monologue of sorts--and Garibaldi gets to say it, this time. Nice touch.
Basically, what happens is that Sheridan has been having this dream about Lorien bringing him back to life on Za'Ha'Dum over and over again and since it is now the year 2281, 20 years after Lorien said that he could bring him back for only 20 years, he sees the repetition of the dream as a sign that he is now dying. He tells Delenn (after she comes outside "in search of the same air molecules" he was looking for) to "send the messages". Then they stay out there and watch the sun rise, something John has never done on Minbar, in all the years he's been there. He wants to be able to "take the image with him."
And all over the galaxy, on all different worlds, Rangers suddenly burst in to give their disturbing news: On Earth, GENERAL Ivanova (yes, she's back! Although I wouldn't have minded getting a chance to say a proper goodbye to Lochley, too--I guess that salute in "Objects At Rest" was it, for her) is just about ready to kick her publicist's (SLAM the door comes open.) On Mars, Garibaldi, wealthy tycoon, is smoking a cigar and reading the newspaper when HIS DAUGHTER (!), Mary, comes skipping in, with "Uncle Stephen" Franklin, who looks, dare I say, quite nice in glasses and pure white hair! Then the Ranger comes in to give them their message, and Garibaldi decides to come see Sheridan one last time too, even though they have had their differences in the past. And on Centauri Prime, a VERY exasperated and EMBARRASSED Emperor Cotto the First (YAY!!!) is interrupted in the middle of....erm....enjoying himself, with two young ladies...(ahem) when the Ranger calls.
But in the end, they all come to Minbar, where they have, as John wanted, a happy party. (But first, Franklin examines Sheridan and tells him he only has 4 or 5 days to live. YIKES!) Garibaldi tells a funny story about a Pak'ma'ra. Then Vir (who also looks VERY nice and distinguished in his Imperial Whites, and with the grey in his LONG hair) tells a sad one about how one day he and Londo heard the Pak'ma'ra SINGING, quite by accident, and it was so beautiful it actually made Londo cry. (Oh, GEEZ...) Then he says he wishes Londo could be here (so do I! sniff!) and then they all raise their glasses in a tost "to absent friends, in memory still bright." Garibaldi toasts his best buddy, G'Kar. Vir toasts Londo (remember, they both died at the same time.) Delenn toasts Lennier (oh, geez. LENNIER? What happened to him?! sniff!) and then both Ivanova AND Franklin toast Marcus, at the same time. Oh, geeez...
Then after the party, when they've all had a chance to see each other and Sheridan one last time, Delenn takes Ivanova aside and, after explaining how her new duties as President of the Alliance (Delenn's PRESIDENT? Whoah!) took her away from the Rangers, they need a new En'til'zha now, and she would like Ivanova to take that position! Ivanova thinks about it, and eventually says yes. How symbolic, and what a nice way to remember Marcus... (of course, there are two problems with that: one--Ivanova doesn't have any Ranger training that I know of (well other than being able to speak Minbari) and two--she's yet ANOTHER case of joining the An'la'shok for the wrong reasons...but hey, it's still a lovely gesture.)
Then in the night, Sheridan wakes up and tells Delenn that tomorrow is Sunday, Earth time. And that every Sunday, his dad would take them all out for a drive in some random direction, for fun. Tomorrow, Sheridan is going to go for a drive.
Delenn knows that this means he knows he's going to die tomorrow and she tries to talk him out of it, but he needs to feel space beneath him one more time, and besides, it's like the Minbari tradition of going out to sea, so...
She does not like this but goes back to sleep reluctantly.
Then the next morning, he gets out his old black Minbari uniform one last time and puts it on, and Delenn meets him in the hallway, and the goodbye scene between them is SO heartbreaking, it makes me start misting up again just thinking about it. When they hug each other one last time, you can see REAL tears in both of their eyes. "Goodnight, brightest star in my sky." says Sheridan. "Goodnight, you ARE my sky, my sun, my moon..." says Delenn back. Then they finally part, and he walks away down the corridor. She reaches a hand out to him...
...but he does not look back. Oh, DEAR...
John's funky new White Star (more like Blue Star, but hey) pops out of a jumpgate near...Babylon 5! When he gets there he finds nobody except two people: One is someone named Commander Wills, who is there for "the ceremony"--turns out that B5 was sold back to Earthforce a few years ago, and what with the recent budget cuts, and with most of B5's original purpose now being handled by the Alliance, which is headquartered on Minbar, the station is now being decommissioned--and will be soon destroyed. Oh, GEEZ...Sheridan leans on a pole and whispers to himself, "Still linked together, even at the end..." (sniff!)
Then the other person who is still there shows up--ZACK! Like he said, he is still there, "until they turn the lights out." He offers to take Sheridan out for one last bite to eat in the Zocalo, (and I thought Sheridan should have said YES, it would let him see some more of the station one last time and also spend some more time with Zack, who did not come to the party because he thought Zack was on Earth, and sent the letter there, when in fact he was on B5, so he never got the letter.) but Sheridan can tell he's running rapidly out of time, so he tells him no and leaves.
Then we see three things going on at once:
1. Sheridan tells his ship to go to Coriana 6, where he won the Shadow war. He is getting weaker and weaker by this time.
2. Delenn can't sleep alone; she brushes her hand across his pillow and then slithers over and HUGS it. Oh, geez....
3. All the old gang, or what's left of them--Zack, Garibaldi, Franklin, Ivanova, Delenn, and Vir gather together on Babylon 5 to take one last look at it.
Sheridan is fading fast, when he sees a big ball of light surround his ship and an (unfortunately) familiar voice calls to him, "Who are you? What do you want?" and there, in the ship with him, is--LORIEN?!
"Did you think we had forgotten you?" he chides Sheridan gently, and tells him that "the others are waiting", Beyond the Rim. (Note: This is SOOOO Tolkien--at the end of the last book, when all the Elves have gone across the Sea, Gandalf comes back for Frodo to take him along too. Not to mention that Frodo called The One Ring "the wheel of fire"--which is, incidentally, the name of Season Five...) and a huge, overwhelming sea of light surrounds the cockpit of the ship.
"Well, will you look at that," Sheridan sighs with awe. "The sun is rising..."
And with that, his eyes flutter gradually closed and he "sleeps in light". And the light disappears from the cockpit--taking him with it, somehow.
And afterwards, as ISN reports, no body is ever found. Since everything was sealed in his ship, that's a big mystery as to how he got out. And so he goes down in history as a legend, like King Arthur--he might not REALLY be dead, he just went away across the Sea, and might return to help mankind in its our of need again, etc. etc. Or at least that's the legend.
Back in the real world, all our heroes take one last look at B5 and then leave. A pudgy guy with glasses--a seemingly ordinary janitor--comes in to turn the lights out. The last one on the station. But this is actually J. Michael Straczynski, the writer/creator/producer of Babylon 5! HE turns the lights out. How very, very apppropriate.
And then, a huge ball of fire engulfs the station from the end to the front, advancing up it, ripping bulkheads apart like paper in a hurricane. All of it. It all ends...in fire...
Pass me another Kleenex, would you? Oh, GEEEZ...
Then the epilogue. Ivanova narrates it, as she has done on many other occasions. We see scenes of where everyone ends up later. Ivanova in her new Ranger One uniform (looks nice on her, too, by the way). Franklin rushing yet another patient to emergency surgery at his institute (a Pak'ma'ra; is there a theme here?)
Garibaldi arrives home to see that his daughter, Mary, has won first place in her very first tennis tournament (by the way, she's DEFINITELY his daughter; she's got his smartmouthed attitude all the way!)
Emperor Cotto being called to bed by an anxious wife (she's wearing white, and as far as I can tell only the members of the Imperial Household can do that, so I'm assuming she's his wife) while staying up late working on some kind of paperwork with...ZACK! And get this--for some odd reason, Zack is now in a Ranger uniform! This is only a tiny throwaway scene, but for me, it means something: If Zack is a Ranger, and Rangers have a very special role in the Alliance, and one of them is working side by side with the Emperor of the Centauri Republic, then THAT must mean that THE CENTAURI ARE BACK IN THE ALLIANCE!! Or going to be soon. That means they have returned to grace! YAY!!! I was SO glad, I don't want them to be wrongfully hated and shunned for something they didn't do forever! And even though it was never said, I got the distinct impression that the Drakh were now gone as well.
And then it's over. But "for those of you who have been archiving this ISN Special Broadcast (brought to you by the An'la'shok Memorial Fund)" we have special end credits. They show each person, or all the main ones, anyway--Sheridan, Ivanova, Garibaldi, Delenn, Lennier, Franklin, Vir, Marcus, Lyta, G'Kar, and Londo (I know that's not the right order, but I don't care) in both their very very FIRST appearance, on the left side, and on their very very LAST appearance, on the right side. So cool. Sheridan with longer hair and no beard vs. Sheridan grey and grizzled, Vir as the pudgy, spiky-haired, vampire teddy-bear vs. Emperor Cotto the First, the slender, dignified, middle-aged Centauri statesman, Lyta with short hair and a trench coat (from "The Gathering") vs. Lyta with long hair and that funky black leather thing she always wore, Ivanova in her original uniform vs. General Ivanova, young Franklin vs. white-haired Franklin, Garibaldi WITH HAIR! vs. Garibaldi totally bald and with a slight beard, Lennier as the attaché who will not look up vs. Lennier the Ranger, Marcus as himself vs...a CRYO TUBE?! (This has led many, MANY fans to assume he might still be alive, but in stasis!) Delenn as FULL-MINBARI vs. older, grey-haired half-Minbari Delenn, G'Kar with his weird other makeup in "The Gathering" vs. old G'Kar with only one eye, and finally, Londo with his spiky hair, PURPLE coat, long flowing cloak he used to wear to Council meetings, and extra-long fangs vs. the old, decrepit, white-haired Emperor Mollari. Oh, geez...
Aside from a few minor quibbles (such as the fact that they should have had David there, Ranger training, schmanger training! And all those loose ends! Well, more fodder for fanfic...) this was a good episode, although very very sad, and a most appropriate end to the series.
And so it ends...swallowed in fire but not in darkness...

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