Babylon 5: Epiphanies
March 31, 2019 10:06 AM - Season 4, Episode 7 - Subscribe

Garibaldi has issues adjusting to life on B5. Bester makes his annual pilgrimage to make an offer to B5 high command... "Why, the Emperor himself said I would only be allowed to leave over his dead body. I thought, 'Well, how strange. Mr. Allan said I would only be allowed back onto Babylon 5 over his dead body.' With my busy schedule I'm afraid I can only accommodate so many requests. I'm sorry, Mr. Allan, but I'm afraid you'll simply have to wait your turn!"

-B5 celebrates the end of the Shadow War.
-Franklin gives G'Kar an eye prosthetic, but since it's meant for humans it won't be as good as it could be. G'Kar gratefully accepts. G'Kar confirms that he has refused the leadership of the Narn.
-Garibaldi is trying to remember his abduction, but can't. He gets an encoded, subliminal-message-type message from an unknown sender. He immediately goes to Sheridan... to resign as head of security! They try to talk him out of it, but with the war over, he wants to find his own path in the universe.
-G'Kar and Garibaldi have a lovely moment as Garibaldi packs up his quarters: Garibaldi tries to apologize for going missing to G'Kar, as G'Kar would not have been captured or lost his eye if he had not been out looking for Garibaldi. G'Kar refuses the apology, and picks up Garibaldi joyously, saying he's the only thing outside the Narn that G'Kar cares about. G'Kar thanks Garibaldi, especially as looking for Garibaldi put G'Kar in the right place to free the Narn.
-On Earth, Bester learns that Prez Clark is worried about B5. They don't want to attack it directly, after what happened last time, so he's assembled PsiCorps, Night Watch, EarthForce, and the Ministry of Peace to discredit B5.
-In a comedic segment, Allan is training new security recruits on how they have to check everyone because you're never sure who will walk onto B5 -- only for Londo and Bester to walk on, one after the other. Londo had previously set up some things to run in his absence.
-Allen and Garibaldi meet to swap the emergency codes. Allen says Garibaldi is making a mistake by retiring; Garibaldi says people thought hiring Allen was a mistake, too. Allen thanks G and departs.
-Allen, the new security chief, preps Lyta for a meeting with Bester, as she shops to re-fill the apartment that Kosh2 forced her to empty out. She's pissed -- people only come to her when she's needed. Allen admits that the rumours of Vorlon modifications made her a little... spooky. Lyta figured that was it, but no one would admit it to her; she agrees to help.
-EarthGov has announced that travel to B5 is forbidden.
-Londo and G'Kar meet in the Zocalo. G'Kar says that, with Narn free, he considers Londo to be no longer something he needs to think about, and he hopes it stays that way. He walks away.
-In the meeting with Bester, he first argues that Lyta should be arrested as a rogue telepath, but Sheridan forces him to move on from that point. Bester admits that EarthGov intends a disinformation campaign against B5, to discredit them. He'll help B5 prevent some of it -- but B5 staff need to take him to Z'ha'dum to search for tech that can help restore his lover, Caroline, who is still in cryostorage on B5. As B5 staff argue, Lyta senses Bester trying to scan them, and shuts him down so strongly that he physically reacts.
-Sheridan promises passage to Z'ha'dum, and Bester reveals the plan: Earthforce will disguise their Starfuries as B5 Starfuries, and use them to attack a ship enforcing the travel and trade embargo on B5, in Sector 49.
-Bester tries to get Lyta to willingly rejoin PsiCorps, as she is obligated to share her new power with the Corps. After all, "The Corps is mother, the Corps is father." Lyta replies that, in that case, "I'm an orphan."
-On the White Star, Delenn notes that Sheridan does best when life is chaotic. When they arrive at Z'ha'dum, they see a mass exodus of unknown ships -- Shadow allies -- and the planet detonates.
-Bester, distraught, talks to Caroline despite her being in cryostorage. Yes, he let a bunch of Psi ships (disguised as B5 ships) perish, but it was for her -- and that didn't work. But now he knows how to hurt B5, too.
-Sheridan expresses to Lyta that he suspects she somehow telepathically blew up Z'ha'dum, and not to pull shit behind his back again lest he hand her over to PsiCorps.
-Allen comes to visit Lyta right after that convo. She's still upset, but hey -- he brought pizza.
-Sheridan muses about the exodus from Z'ha'dum. Who are these allies of the Shadows? The show then cuts to the regent Londo installed on Centauri prime, who wakes up with a lumpy alien on his neck. This was last seen in the future sections of War Without End Part 2, on Emperor Londo's neck...
posted by flibbertigibbet (3 comments total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
This is when s4 shifts from the Shadow War to the Earth Civil War.
posted by flibbertigibbet at 10:18 AM on March 31, 2019 [1 favorite]


Nice, Lyta-heavy episode, especially with Bester. I always felt she was an underused character.

Zack hitting on Lyta was all kinds of cringey. Him bringing pizza, though, is right in character.
posted by Thorzdad at 6:23 PM on April 1, 2019 [2 favorites]


Sheridan starts off the Everyone's A Dick To Lyta motif that continues into Season 5. The conclusion of that scene in particular seems very un-Sheridan -- threatening to turn Lyta over to the Corps to be vivisected? Really?

Lyta has some amazing moments in this episode, though. Mindslapping Bester is a badass move. Koenig's final monologue, once the laborious plot exposition is over with, is also great.

And the poor Centauri Regent doesn't even get time to enjoy his pastel palace. For a character with so little screen time, I was surprised by how much I felt for him. Unlike Londo, the Regent did hardly anything to deserve that fate.
posted by Pallas Athena at 5:04 PM on May 6, 2021


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