Objects at Rest

And so, the torch is passed to "the next generation"...

Reviewed by Lady Keela Shanri

Click HERE , HERE , HERE , HERE , HERE , HERE , HERE , HERE , HERE , HERE , HERE , HERE , HERE , HERE , or HERE to see LOTS more pictures from the episode. (Hey, these ARE The Final Five here, I'm allowed to be extravagant if I want!)

Well. This was another VERY VERY touchy-feely type episode, which normally I do not like--HOWEVER, being Babylon 5, they have to throw some darker moments into it. Which suits me just fine.
The plot? First, Ta'Lon shows up and gets a message from G'Kar saying, among other things, that HE, Ta'Lon, will now be the Narn Ambassador to the Alliance. (ExCUSE me? I know I keep saying this but WHY IS THERE STILL A NARN AMBASSADOR TO THE ALLIANCE AT ALL?! WHY WEREN'T THEY KICKED OUT OR AT LEAST BEAT UP SEVERELY FOR FIRING ON CENTAURI PRIME AGAINST SHERIDAN'S ORDERS?!! ARGHH! Sorry, I'm all right now...) Then Franklin gives control of Medlab over to Dr. Lillian Hobbes (the one who I always think of as "his sister" 'cos she LOOKS so much like him) and leaves. Sheridan and Delenn attempt to "leave quietly" but their departure has been leaked to ISN and it's all over the news, so they have to put up with a crowd and a speech anyway. Lennier has a break in his training, so he comes with them. Just before they leave, Sheridan, who has been "symbolically" given command of the White Star for their journey to the new Alliance Headquarters on Minbar, turns around and looks at the new heads of B5, all lined up in the C&C window and Lochley salutes him, he salutes back. Then they leave. On the way there, a coolant leak happens on the ship and while trying to save the Ranger who caught it first, Sheridan is trapped behind a glass divider. Lennier shows up and puts his hand over the button to let Sheridan out, and....RUNS AWAY! Whoah! Sheridan then uses the Ranger's pike to get them out himself, while Lennier gets into one of those funky little fighter things and leaves. Somewhere in here we get a shot of how Mr. Garibaldi is doing--he puts together a new Board of Directors for Edgars Industries--made up of troublemakers, on purpose! Then Sheridan and Delenn get to Minbar, where they see the GORGEOUS new buildings and unpack, and then Londo shows up. They have a nice dinner, and Londo gives them a "tender" gift for their child when he/she (we already know it's going to be a boy, but Londo doesn't) turns 16, which is when a person "comes of age" in Centauri culture. They are not allowed to open it until then. Londo SEEMS to be his old self but he is very anxious about the lack of alchohol (wait--that IS like his old self, never mind...) and Delenn can almost see his Keeper! They thank him for his gracious gift and he goes back to his ship and sadly looks out the window as the Drakh speak to him in his mind and tell him that since he has done such a great job, he now gets one hour free of them. Oh, goodie, a whole HOUR, whoop-te-do...
And just WHAT did he do for them?
Well, that lovely silver vase with the gift for Baby Sheridan when he comes of age actually contains, not water from the river that flowed past the very first Royal Palace 2,000 years ago...but...a KEEPER! Asleep. YUCK!
Then I don't think much else happens except that Sheridan does a really really LONG message for his baby and eventually wakes up Delenn with his yammering, so she tells him to go to sleep and the credits roll. Oh, wait--Lennier calls up on the holographic telephone and apologises profusely and basically says that he is not worthy to exist in Delenn's universe right now--but so help him, no matter WHAT, he'll redeem himself in her eyes someday.
Okay, now notes about what I thought of all these things.
1. Lochley and Sheridan's farewell was very nice. Touching without being sicky-sweet. Same for Franklin and Hobbes' promotion/seperation.
2. G'Kar's message bothered me, not only was it drippily philosophical and way too long like his last good-bye was, but what the HECK was up with him standing there in the chamber next to Ta'Lon? Was it a hologram, Ta'Lon hallucinating, "symbolic" somehow, what? Whatever, it just didn't make much sense.
3. I liked the fact that the ISN reporter who told everyone about Sheridan and Delenn's leaving was, you know, THE ISN reporter-lady, HER, "The No-Name Reporter Chick". The one who was the last we saw before Clark's troops took over the station and the FIRST we saw after they came back on for real when Clark was assassinated. Her. Lovely bit of continuity, that.
4. Where was Corwin? His name was listed in the credits, but I SWEAR I never saw him anywhere! It would have been lovely to have him there in the window with the other members of the "next generation" of the rulers of B5--Lochley, Number One, Vir, Ta'Lon, Zack, Hobbs, and...Corwin! But he wasn't there...
5. I liked the way they showed Number One settling into her new job. With her and Lochley in two of the top positions (oh, and Hobbs too!) the WOMEN are taking over! As it should be. Heh heh heh...
6. The way that Sheridan, when forced to make a goodbye speech, very cowardly-like turned to DELENN and made HER say it, was priceless.
7. Zack's goodbye to Sheridan and Delenn ("Heck, I'll probably still be here when they turn out the lights!") was very well done too.
8. That end salute--the one in the picture at the top of this review--was LOVELY. So wonderfully symbolic. I'm really glad they included that.
9. Sheridan's being fretful and restless at EXACTLY the same moment that the coolant leak started on the White Star was just a BIT too convenient for me.
10. Lennier's refusing to help get Sheridan out--thinking that, maybe, if Sheridan was DEAD he could get Delenn!--was CREEPY! Very out of character--but the way Lennier has been acting lately, maybe not as much as it would have been earlier! And a nice twist to the story. Without this scene--and Londo's, later, it would have been all "sweetness and light".
11. I thought that Lennier was going to commit suicide when he went off alone in his little fighter-thingie like that! But he didn't. Serves me right for listening to melodramatic half-spoilers on the Warner Bros. B5 message board so often...
12. That new Alliance facility--if that IS what it was, and not just some random building--was absolutely GORGEOUS. One thing I will say for the Minbari, they do make beautiful buildings. Oh, and in general, all the shots of Minbar--which were all NEW ones we haven't seen before, as far as I'm aware--in this episode were simply stunning, and it was nice getting to see a tiny bit more of the planet.
13. I loved how Garibaldi put all the troublemakers--and that one guy was a total SNOT--on his Board of Directors! Great idea and SO Garibaldi. He doesn't want a bunch of mealy-mouthed yes-men (and women) he wants people who will say the TRUTH, and not always be playing up to him. So he picks the most UNRULY employees! I love it.
14. Back on Minbar--Londo's visit. I liked this sequence, if only because it had Londo--what's LEFT of him (sniff) in it. At first, it may seem like just a random totally coincidental excuse to get a chance to see the character again one more time before the end ('cos, you realise, the LAST episode takes place in the future after Londo's DEAD so this really is the very last time! SNIFF!) but it quickly takes on a darker and plot-intensive turn when his present is revealed to be a Keeper! We saw a bit of the old Londo here, his real personality coming out in his little talk about how the best thing about being at the top is how your very prescence there "kills" all the jerks who've hated you all their lives. But that thing about "You're sure you don't have ANY drinks?" was not just the basic Londo drinking habits--he wanted to get away from his Keeper. He was trying DESPERATELY to find SOME way to get out of giving them his horrible "present", even at the last second! Oh, dear...sniff...And that look in his eyes as his ship goes away and he stares out the window at the stars...oh, geez...
And what about Delenn almost being able to see his Keeper? What's up with THAT? Is it just because she's half-Human/half-Minbari, therefore "special" (and also a "Child of Valen"--but that applies to a LOT of Minbari), or can ALL Minbari see Keepers, if they are allowed to look at someone who has one while said person is sitting still, for a good, long, solid moment, under quiet condtions? (I say all the above to explain why, if the latter is true, EVERY Minbari wasn't seeing Londo's keeper. He has to sit still, they have to REALLY look at him and be quiet and still enough to really think, to see it. That's my theory, anyway, and I'm sticking with it!) At any rate...INTERESTING...
Oh, and the way the Keeper sees things was truly creepy and grotesque-looking. And to think I thought Londo was ugly BEFORE...
15. One last comment--that note to his son was WAAAAYYY too long! Hey, Sheridan, it's true that you only have 19 years, yes, but do you really want to make a recording that's 19 years LONG?! It was a cute idea at first, then it quickly became cuteSY, then boring, then cloying, then nauseating. Hence the phrase "ad nauseum". Couldn't think of anything else to fill 10 minutes with, Straczynski? That's funny, 'cos I could have thought of LOTS of possible scene-lets that could have taken place in that time, showing the new leaders settling into their jobs, etc. Oh, well. Next time, Sheridan, remember: Never START a conversation, but always finish it!
And with that, the show is, essentially, over. There's only one last glimpse into the future and then it's all gone...

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