Ceremonies of Light and Dark
Reviewed by Lady Keela Shanri
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This episode, while not one of B5's very best, was still quite good--and complex, with three plotlines and a running gag.
It seems that these Nightwatch dudes who managed to escape the big purge in the last episode because they were hiding are trying to get to Sheridan and re-take the station in the name of Earth by kicking out their Minbari support--remember, it was the three Minbari cruisers who saved the day in the last episode. To this end, they decide to kidnap Delenn.
We now go to the other main plotline because it ties so tightly into the first one.
This concerns a Minbari "Rebirth Ceremony", which is to be conducted at a time of great change. But as Marcus says, "I think you'll find that everyone else around here is going to be engaged in ceremonies of their own for a while."
They are...that funeral in space was a nice touch. We see our heroes in Earthforce uniforms ONE last time, while the bodies of some of those who died in that last great battle are committed "to the deep". For burial at sea or in space, the words still fit...
Anyway, Delenn and Lennier go around trying to get everyone to join in the ceremony, with mixed and rather amusing results. Marcus makes vague evasions and won't say WHY he doesn't want to do it, just that he doesn't, and quickly makes his escape. When Delenn pins him down later on, he says finally that the REAL reason he doesn't want to do it is not because he doesn't know how, but because he thinks he HAS given up everything already--his brother died, his colony was destroyed, everything is gone. Then, Delenn says, "THAT is what you must give up--your guilt."
Marcus: "Guilt? For what?
Delenn: "For being alive.
Londo--"When I thought of those who need to confess and meditate, you were at the TOP of the list", says Delenn--gets one of the funniest parts of the whole episode when they ask him to join:
Londo: "So, what does one do in this 'Rebirth Ceremony'"?
Delenn: "We meditate, on what has been, what is, and what is to come."
Londo: "Oh, for a moment there, I was thinking women, drinking, and debauchery! But I forgot I was talking to Minbari."
Delenn: "Then you must give up something that is dear to you, and tell someone a secret you have never told anyone else."
Londo: "Sounds positively FESTIVE! But I am afraid I will have other plans..."
(Don't smack me if I didn't get that exactly right, my memory isn't perfect, you know.)
G'Kar's answer was equally amusing: "But I've already BEEN born once, and quite efficiently I should think!"
Undaunted, Delenn is determined to hold the ceremony ANYWAY, and "if some should choose not to come, that is their loss."
Lennier then reminds her that she had promised to greet the Captain of one of the Minbari warships and give him a tour of the station, so that he might see what he had saved, and so off she goes--taking Marcus along instead of Lennier, whom she STILL wants to try to convince to go along with the ceremony.
So they are almost there when they get seperated briefly for some reason and WHOMPH Delenn is kidnapped! As are the Captain of the ship and a young aide.
Here we get into the good stuff. Marcus's cocky-sounding (but true) threat to the syndicate at the bar ("In five minutes, I'll be the only one at this table still standing. Five minutes after THAT, I'll be the only person in this ROOM still standing.") and then the great scene between him and Lennier afterwards. "I was carrying a lot of repressed anger around." "And now?" "I'm not REPRESSED anymore!", plus Lennier's poignant revelation that he is in love with Delenn, even though he has accepted the fact that she is meant for another--but has he REALLY? This scene was also memorable because it showed Lennier being truly emotional for what may be the first time. I mean, if you wanna talk "repressed", he's it. "Don't you think I want to rip this station apart with my bare hands looking for her?" he yells at Marcus, pacing back and forth, fists clenched in rage. "She is my mentor, my friend, my..." he lowers his voice. "As part of the Rebirth Ceremony, I have to tell someone something I have never told anyone before. I choose you to hear this:
"I love her."
Oh, geez...sniff...
GREAT scene for Lennier, one of my all-time fave characters. Also I was rather impressed that he's able to lift someone larger than himself completely off the ground with one hand...
Then the scene at the end, when they THINK they've got Delenn safely rescued--but that crazy sideick dude throws a knife at Sheridan--shows us again just how much these two kids are meant for each other. Delenn sees the knife coming, yells "John! NO!" and throws HERSELF into its path.
Wow...
She turns out to be all right, but since she'll be laid up in Medlab for a while and therefore unable to conduct the Rebirth Ceremony, the main characters carry the ceremony to HER. While she's laying there, Sheridan, Garibaldi, Ivanova, and Franklin all come in and make their confessions to her.
Sheridan confesses that he truly loves Delenn (like she didn't know that already!), Garibaldi confesses that he's afraid, all the time, afraid of what he might do if he ever let go, Ivanova confesses that she thinks she loved Talia (sniff!) and Franklin confesses that he thinks he has a problem. Well, that's the first step...
And they all give something up...their Earthforce uniforms, and everything that goes with them. But Delenn has had a surprise made up for them in their quarters...
We now go onto the subplot, Londo and Lord Refa, which only got one scene, but WHAT a scene--the best one in the whole episode, as far as I'm concerned!
Londo wants to convince Lord Refa to give up his alliance with Mr. Morden, over a nice drink (BWAHAHA) in the Zocalo. Remember, Morden said that he had Lord Refa "secure the planet for us" in "Matters of Honor", which conversation Londo had taped. Londo wants him to break it off because he is afraid that the Shadows will turn on the Centauri once they are done using them, and this unfocused aggression, fighting small wars all over their borders, is weakening the Centauri Rebublic too much. "Only an idiot fights a war on two fronts," says Londo. "Only the heir to the throne of a KINGDOM of idiots fights a war on TWELVE fronts! You WILL give up your little alliance with Mr. Morden, yes?"
"Why SHOULD I give up this alliance?" demands Refa. "He is my best chance for the throne!"
WHOAH, this guy doesn't think small, does he? Yon Cassius hath a lean and hungry look indeed...
(But then, like everything else on B5, this was foreshadowed well in advance, in "The Long, Twilight Struggle"--when Refa meets Londo to discuss the Narn/Centauri war, where is Refa sitting? ON THE THRONE. Hard to get much more obvious than that...)
Why should he? "Because I ask you as a friend", Londo says, "because your patriotism should be greater than your ambition--and because, I have just poisoned your drink."
Refa looks stricken. Londo goes on to tell him how it is a two-part poison, each part harmless by themselves, but deadly when combined. The first part, which Refa has just drank, stays in the body dormant for YEARS, until the second part is consumed, upon which they "have a little party in your cardiovascular system. And then you will be...QUITE dead."
"But why, Mollari?" begs Refa, in shock.
To make certain of his cooperation. If Refa doesn't tell "that fool Cartagia" to pull back from all these border skirmishes, Londo will have his contacts in the Royal Palace make SURE that Lord Refa is "introduced" to the SECOND half of the poison...
Ah, one of the best B5 moments of all time...
After that excellent bit of Centauri politicking, it is time to move on to our running gag. The command officers have to remove and change their passwords before they can use the outside channels again safely, or else EarthGov will be able to shut them down. To do this, they have to re-boot the entire system. Which unfortunately lets "Sparky the Computer", the Artificial Intelligence personality that was shut down immediately after B5 first went on-line, get started back up again as well. This was HILARIOUS even if it didn't add anything to the plot. I especially loved it when Garibaldi SHOT the wall-panel to make it shut up...
(The REALLY scary thing is that "Sparky" was voiced by HARLAN ELLISON! Believe it or not.)
And at the end of the episode, Sheridan, Garibaldi, Ivanova, and Franklin all come out wearing NEW uniforms--NOT Earthforce, but Minbari-designed, all snazzy in black, with a funky triangle pattern on the front. "What's the matter?" jokes Sheridan to the staring crowd in C&C. "You've never seen a man who's been reborn before?"
And with that symbol that they have TRULY broken off from Earth, I leave you. Valtoo!
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