The Ragged Edge
Reviewed by Lady Keela Shanri
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This was a pretty good episode. It had two main plots--the main one concerns Garibaldi and the Rangers; the second is a funny sub-plot about G'Kar and his book. Then there's a tiny plot-let about Dr. Franklin that comes in at the end.
Let's start with the Garibaldi one first. The Alliance Ambassadors have decided to hold a "strike" on the meetings until the Alliance can prove that it is strong enough to protect their own citizens. (In a delightful scene at the very beginning of the episode, Delenn tells Sheridan that she will stall the other Ambassadors by telling them they are going to declare war on Earth. Sheridan's harried response? "Fine, give me the paperwork, I'll sign it..." then, AFTER she leaves the room, it sinks in...)
The mysterious attacks are hitting BETWEEN the Alliance races' borders, so they can't protect them with their own militaries, and disrupting their shipping lines. Much as Sheridan hates to admit it, they do seem to have a point. But how do they solve this problem...?
UNTIL, one day, a smuggler pilot actually manages to ESCAPE from one of the attacks! Problem is, he's on the Drazi homeworld, and he was smuggling illegal stuff, so not only can they not count on any help from the Drazi government in this matter, they can't even tell them about it because that would be dangerous. So, they send in their local "Private Eye"--Michael Alfredo Garibaldi, head of Alliance Intelligence.
This was a pretty good plotline all the way through. Except for the fact that Garibaldi's still hitting the bottel again--and so deeply into his addiction that he refuses help when it's looking him straight in the face, which was DEPRESSING. NO, GARIBALDI! DON'T DRINK IT!! NOOOOO!!!! sniff. At any rate, I loved all of Garibaldi's sarcastic lines--"Yeah, Zack, I think you're real cute too!" (in response to Zack's "Are you all right? You look like crap."), I liked his friend, even if he WAS a bit of a drunken idiot, I loved the way that they did one of those classic Babylon 5 parallell/turnabouts, in this case having Franklin trying to help Garibaldi out of HIS addiction (alchohol) when earlier it was the other way around (stims). And I especially liked the view we got of the Drazi homeworld. Now, let me tell you, I never particularly WANTED to see the Drazi homeworld, I never would have thought of it myself, but since I got the chance--I appreciate it. Practically my very favourite part of B5 is when we get to see more about the different alien cultures--and seeing their actual world is a real bonus in that department. So now we can add up the places we've seen in the 23rd century: Earth (kind of), Mars, Minbar, Centauri Prime, Narn, Zha'Ha'Dum, and now the Drazi Homeworld. (It was never given a name other than "The Drazi Homeworld", in case you're wondering.) I liked all that stuff--the way they used to be an "outdoor race" ("Fiq"'s whole recital of the different traditions, including why women's shirts button differently than men's shirts was a neat little conversation, I liked it.), why they have big balconies and small rooms (I ADORED the balcony, actually--looked neat!), the narrow streets, the dark, old, crumbly stone buildings, the big pools, the screeching birds (or whatever) in the background, those rather Roman/Greek-esque looking ruins here and there (at least, I THINK those were ruins--maybe they were working buildings!), the funky old-fashioned Victoria-era style lamps, etc. all of that was pretty xarned cool. I also liked the Drazi bellhop refusing to give Garibaldi his bag AT ALL until he got a tip, then when he saw the tip Garibaldi gave him he sneered and THREW his bag on the floor. Whoops, hope there wasn't anything valuable in there...
I also liked Garibaldi's friend, the easy-going, smartmouthed underground contact. He was likeable, and I was kinda sad when he got killed so soon. "I don't want...the last thing I hear...to be your shouting..." Cool guy.
During the fight scene, I LOVED the way Garibaldi did that dramatic flying LEAP at the assassins while holding out his PPG, taking TWO of them out with only one shot. He got beat up anyway....Later on, he says that "These guys weren't Drazi, it hurts to hit a Drazi way more than it hurt to hit these guys." Actually, he could have gone by their HANDS, which were quite visible during the fight, that they were not Drazi--nice, soft, caucasian-Humanoid skin-covered, not scaly, hands...Anyway, after ALL THAT WORK, and poor Garibaldi getting drunk and messing up AGAIN, which sends him even FURTHER into the bottle because of guilt...the pilot he had come to rescue was already DEAD! Dangit...
But the real bummer came afterwards. Garibaldi found...something (they never let us LOOK at it, DANGIT!! I wanted to SEE it!) off one of the assassins, and they all look at it (except us, the audience), totally confused as to what it is or what it means--until, RIGHT on cue (someone was saying some line about "not being able to trust people" RIGHT when he walked in the door--FORESHADOWING...) Londo walks in. He tells them how he was almost killed by a faulty transport tube (gack) and identifies it INSTANTLY. It's a button, from a uniform on one of the Royal Palace guards--it has the Imperial Seal of Emperor Toscano, (that name sounds VERY Italian...how about..."Tuscany"? Or is that Roman, eh, same thing...), who first commissioned the Palace Guards 2,000 years ago. (WHOAH that is one heck of an old Palace!) The instant Garibaldi finds out what it is, he LIES about where he got it, saying he bought it in the Zocalo, and Londo is more or less dismissed by the others, all stunned and trying to say as little as possible about what they now know to him. They all completely keep the subject of the mysterious attacks OUT of his conversation.
And this is the other part of the episode I did NOT like--the idiot part. "This is where things start to go badly..." indeed. Actually, they STARTED going badly much much earlier, but this is starting on the final downward slant towards "The Fall of Centauri Prime". (I HATE that episode title! I hate that it's so near the END, so there's no time to rebuild, there's no hope, it ENDS that way for the Centauri! ENDS!!!!! Oh, gods, don't get me started, I'll start crying my eyes out again and short out the keyboard and kill myself by accident...) They--meaning Sheridan, Delenn, Garibaldi, G'Kar, and I believe Franklin, decide...NOT to tell Londo what they've found out.
I will explain their reasons in a moment, but first, let me get my reaction out of my system. You may want to hold your hands over your ears for this.
IDIOTS!!!!!
Oh, sure, they THINK that Londo knows all about it and has been deliberately keeping it from them all this time, or at least he's the leak between B5 and the attackers, even if only by accident. Sure, they don't KNOW that Londo doesn't know, that he is just as confused by the information being made top-secret all of a sudden, the mysterious war-time production numbers, the aliens at the Royal Palace, and the Regent's odd behaviour, but STILL, I think they should TELL HIM!!! Gods, he could help FIX THIS if he knew! This is LONDO we're talking about here--he's smart, he's clever, he's tricky, he's powerful and rich, he's got connections coming out of his ears, and even WITHOUT all his power and money I think he'd still be pretty darned good at getting the information he wants when he wants it. But the rest of the advisory board decides deliberately to keep Londo completely out of the loop!
IDIOTS!!
You saw it right here, folks--not ALL of Londo's downfall, and that of his planet, is his own fault--SOME OF IT WAS DONE BY OTHERS!
ARGH!
Sorry, that just bugs me. Fall of Centauri Prime my ass...grumble grumble grumble...
The tiny subplot is that Franklin is going to be leaving B5 to accept the position of the head of the Xenobiological Research Facility back on Earth. He'll be succeeding Dr. Benjamin Kyle (the first, original, pilot-episode doctor--love the continuity!) and it's a HUGE honour (both the position and the fact that he'll be following Kyle, who is "a tough act to follow".) However, Franklin will not be taking his job until January 2263, outside the run of the main series, which will--mostly--end in 2262. Still, how sad...
And now, after all that depressingness, for the G'Kar subplot, which was quite funny, and I think we all need that right about now. Well, I do, anyway. G'Kar and Londo come back aboard on a Centauri transport (kinda confusing; since they were already both ON B5 in the last episode, but as I understand it the order of "Day of the Dead" was fiddled with a bit for some reason), evidenced by the fact that everyone else getting off with them is also Centauri. During some LOVELY banter from Londo, ("To stay away from them forever--well, NOBODY could afford THAT!"--personally, I think he's just getting revenge for that "TOO ANNOYING TO LIVE" joke) they both notice that all the Narns are...staring...at G'Kar. In fact, they're BOWING to him! What the Abyss is going on...?
G'Kar is totally baffled, because EVERYWHERE he goes, Narns keep bowing at him, until he goes back to his quarters to discover...Ta'Lon!--lurking outside his door. We haven't seen Ta'Lon in a while, and I must admit, he's a likeable character, for a Narn. G'Kar frantically asks him, "WHAT IS GOING ON!!!"
Then Ta'Lon explains how, when he (G'Kar) went to Centauri Prime with Londo, everyone was worried he was going to be executed or something, so to keep his book that he's been writing safe in case that happened, the Kha'Ri (ah, the council has been reestablished? Well, that's good news for the NARNS anyway...THEY had their planet attacked in the SECOND season, so there was time to rebuild before the show ended entirely. Not like I'm fragging BITTER or anything...) decided that someone should break into his quarters and "liberate" it.
"'LIBERATE' IT?!" yells G'Kar, totally panicked. "It was my ONLY copy! WHERE IS IT?!"
And from there, haltingly and hilariously, Ta'Lon goes on to tell him that they've made...a "few" copies...oh, just about 5 or 6...hundred...THOUSAND...EEEK! (And he hadn't been able to proofread it yet! As a writer, I can sympathise with his humiliation!)
"It's going to outsell the Book of G'Quan, they say," Ta'Lon tells him. "Congratulations, G'Kar. You're a religious icon!"
Then we have that great line where Ta'Lon offers to KILL him ("Is that supposed to reassure me?" "I'm a warrior. That's all I know.") and then Londo teasing him about it later "I didn't know you had children, G'Kar!" he says, about the young Narns that are following G'Kar around EVERYWHERE. Then when he finds out that he is referred to in the book as "prideful windcatcher", he says, "As Mr. Garibaldi would say, 'I think I'll wait for the movie.'" and moves out. Great stuff. People keep hanging outside G'Kar's door, hoping for wisdom. After Ta'Lon convinces him why his people need to hear this type of stuff--"All our lives, we've known only one thing--hatred, and fear." (Um...that's TWO things, but hey...) "It is time we learned a new lesson." (Like mathematics? Sorry--like Londo, I'm on a roll here...) So, finally, in a great scene, G'Kar GIVES them some wisdom...just not the way they wanted...
First, he points out to a young accolyte who calls him "Most Holy" that "there is no Most Holy here, just me." and I LOVED the conversation about how the book was a work in progress, and you shouldn't take it so literally. It was like having Jesus himself talking with a fundamentalist Christian--great social commentary! Then the "put your face in the book". This was just hilarious. G'Kar keeps going on about how, if you really think I'm all that holy, and that the only people we can trust are other Narns, then put your face in the book. So he does so.
SLAM!
"OOWWW!"
"That was Lesson Number One..." smiles Ta'Lon.
So, altogether, even if it WAS depressing because of Garibaldi hitting the bottle, Franklin leaving ("The Breaking of the Fellowship"), and Londo being deliberately left OUT of the loop, this was quite a good episode. May we see more of this quality or higher as the season continues--after all, it's the last one we've got.
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