Survivors
Reviewed by Lady Keela Shanri
Click HERE or HERE to see pictures from the episode.
Well, this was not a great episode, but it was not as bad as some fans seem to think it is. Sure, the ending could be seen lightyears away, but the chance to get to see more of the station, and to find out more about Garibaldi, Londo, and G'Kar was worth it.
The basic plot is that Garibaldi is framed for bombing a Starfury bay on the station shortly before President Santiago arrives there to dedicate a new fighter wing. (He's arriving on "Earthforce One". OH NO!! EARTHFORCE ONE!! Is THIS when that whole Earth politicking and corruption plotline starts? I don't like the name of that ship! He's gonna die on that ship pretty soon! But not, despite what I thought, yet.)
Now, of COURSE we KNOW Garibaldi did not bomb the bay. The mystery is in finding out exactly who DID--and why.
The ending, which is that the bomber was actually one of the people who is working for the President's personal security guard force (and the one who bothered me the most as a character), was distressingly predictable. But at least the clues were set up well ahead of time. And there were some misleading "clues", too. At least, they misled ME. For example, finding Centauri ducats in Garibaldi's quarters, combined with the scene with Garibaldi and Londo in the casino shortly afterwards, made me think briefly that the Centauri government HAD been behind it somehow. That certainly would have thickened the plot! AND...there was a young Centauri guy following Ivanova and Garibaldi around in the beginning scene where they are getting into the low-gravity shuttle. Of course, it COULD have been that he just honestly had to get to someplace that the shuttle was going BUT....hey, it DID fit the other clues! But, no. Bad brain, bad. That's what I get for paying too MUCH attention to the background...
Anyway, as I said, the actual ENDING was predictable, but the writing was decent in the fact that the clues were laid out well ahead of time, and done rather casually. For example: The guy who planted the bomb was from Homeguard--you remember them, the jerks who beat up Delenn's friend and Vir's cousin a few episodes ago?--and in the beginning, there is a passing remark from Garibaldi that the guy who framed him right before he died had been busted last month for wrecking an ALIEN shop! It is at least consistent.
The VERY worst thing about this episode, however, is its guest-star characters. Especially Major Lianna Kemmer. She irritated the HELL out of me! I know she was SUPPOSED to...at least I HOPE she was supposed to...but it was a bit TOO effective if you ask me. And she was perfectly WITHIN her rights to KILL a guy just to get some info out of him? Break into medlabs and set up her thugs to keep Dr. Franklin from getting to his patient? Yeah, right.
And just HOW did someone that young get to the rank of Major and into the PRESIDENT'S personal guard at that age, hmmn? Somewhat unrealistic, but then, if the person who is taking over the investigation DOESN'T just HAPPEN to be someone who was emotionally hurt by Garibaldi as a little kid and is now bitter and wants revenge, the entire plot falls down.
The BEST thing about this episode, besides of course the funny lines that seem to be a B5 trademark, is the character development. We find out that Garibaldi has a drinking problem, but that he hasn't (until this episode) drunk anything for quite a while LATELY. And evidently Londo is one of his best friends! Cool. Londo decides to help him because he thinks that they are very much alike, because they have been through similar things. Yet another reference to Londo's troubled past, which I am curious to actually learn something of someday...
But mainly this is Garibaldi's episode. And Jerry Doyle does a very good job. He shows a BIG range of emotions in this one, from happy and silly, to sad, to completely drunk off his butt or "one with his inner self" as we Centauri say, to angry, to suspicious, to protective, to bitter, to...well, you get the idea. He got to cry into his whiskey (or WHATEVER that stuff was...) run, beat people up, GET beat up, skulk around, make wiseguy cracks, and plot and scheme with everyone from alien Ambassadors to underground kingpins! If you like Garibaldi, you should like this.
Bottom line: As a mystery, it almost completely fails (I say "almost" because I was slightly misled by the whole Centauri ducats thing), but as a CHARACTER piece, it was quite good. Watch it for that, not as a mystery, and you will enjoy it fine.
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