I'm finally over the cold, but I had to take care of some things in Real Life and make up for lost time over there. But now I'm back at it here!
There's also the news. How shall I say it? It's like watching a train-wreck in slow motion. Why am I mentioning the news? Because it perfectly dovetails into the opening teaser of:
"Dust to Dust" (B5 S3E6)
There's also the news. How shall I say it? It's like watching a train-wreck in slow motion. Why am I mentioning the news? Because it perfectly dovetails into the opening teaser of:
"Dust to Dust" (B5 S3E6)
The opening teaser of this episode is like a mini-episode in and of itself. A member of Nightwatch is harassing a merchant on the station for having a poster that protests President "Total Scumbag" Clark. That's my nickname for him. Sheridan stands up for the merchant, and the guard reluctantly backs down, but you can tell there's going to be continuing and ever-growing tension between Sheridan and the Clark Administration. I typed Trump Regime without even thinking about it and then had to correct myself.
Then there's another moment, completely unrelated, where Londo threatens the Drazi, saying the Centauri could do the same thing to them as they did to the Narn. To quote That Orange Guy, who was himself quoting mobsters, "It would be a real shame." "There will be consequences."
Anyway, enough about how much the above relates to someone I've typed enough about and onto the Main Plot.
Bester returns! It looks like Bester is turning into a frenemy on Babylon 5. Sheridan doesn't like him. Ivanova wants to hurt him. Franklin starts to think it's not such a bad idea. Garibaldi can't stand him. Whether they want to admit it or not, I actually have to agree with Bester. They work well together.
But that's getting ahead of myself in the episode. Before Bester reaches the station, Sheridan reminds everyone that they have so much more to hide from Bester than they did before. What they know about Clark, how they leaked that information out, and having a secret resistance of their own are all things Bester can't find out about. To say nothing about the rouge telepaths they helped last season. That all got me imagining about what Bester would do if he found out and how he'd react! The solution to have a bunch of Minbari Telepaths to block out anything Bester can sense is golden. A quick fix before Franklin can give Bester an injection to suppress his telepathy for a few hours.
This time, Bester is after someone who the command crew of Babylon 5 would also like to see arrested: someone, and a main distributer at that, supplying a drug called Dust. It enhances the strength of Telepaths for several hours, and can potentially give others telepathic abilities. If you invade someone else's mind while using dust, you experience everything they experience. The distributor is preparing to sell dust to alien governments to be used as weapons.
G'Kar buys dust off of a dealer, hoping it will harness telepathy in Narns. A twist when the dealer asks who G'Kar will test the drug on and then, after the dealer leaves, G'Kar uses it on himself! G'Kar's eyes turn black. He sees things in a stylized MTV music video way. Then he looks like he's wigging out.
One of the best exchanges when Bester and Garibaldi are looking for the distributor comes from when they're interrogating a suspect who might know where the distributor is, and the suspect denies knowing anything and pulls the old "I have rights!" card. Bester, even without his telepathic abilities can see right threw him and says, "Officially, he has rights. Unofficially, he's lying." Line of the episode! Bester bluffed and got the suspect to tell them everything about where the dirstributor is.
Then comes the scene of the episode! G'Kar goes to Londo's quarters, tosses aside Vir, and heads straight for Londo. G'Kar looks like he's going to tear Londo limb-from-limb. Then the episode cuts away to Garibaldi and Bester catching the Dust Dealer, before cutting back to Londo, who's on the floor. I like that they cut away because now I can imagine G'Kar doing things to Londo that would've been censored for violence on daytime cable TV in the '90s.
After that, G'Kar enters Londo's mind. The black background while G'Kar's in there is perfect. Why? Because there's nothing else there. It's just Londo and G'Kar. He finds out that the only reason Londo was on Babylon 5 was because no one else was stupid enough to take the job. He taunts Londo about it, but it makes him more than just a little bit hypocritical, because G'Kar took the job too!
After the taunting, G'Kar looks through Londo's deep, dark secrets, and finds out that he conspired with Morden. Then G'Kar becomes enraged. He wants to know everything. "All of it, Mollari!!!! ALL OF IT!!!!!!!" Then the images flash by fast and frantically, at the same pace that G'Kar is taking it all in. "ALL OF IT!!!!!!!!" Such an intense scene!
Riding right off of that, G'Kar suddenly sees his father, who's hanging and dying. Then his father tells him, "Honor my name." That would've been bound to send him over the edge for sure. Until Kosh projects an avatar of a Narnian Angel to tell G'Kar to break the cycle of hatred. That was a twist that I didn't see coming, but a twist that had to happen since JMS wasn't going to have G'Kar kill Londo and have Londo be written out of the show.
In the aftermath, G'Kar is sentenced to 60 days in jail. 60 days for drug use, two assaults, and one mind invasion? Ummm... I like G'Kar, but the Judge basically gave him a slap on the wrist. Though I think she only did it because Sheridan stuck up for G'Kar.
Overall, this is another one of my favorite Babylon 5 episodes. Definitely in the Top 5. I would've loved this episode if I'd seen it when I was 16. This series keeps getting more and more exciting as they keep getting deeper and deeper in. It's like a page-turner now. I give it a 10.
Then there's another moment, completely unrelated, where Londo threatens the Drazi, saying the Centauri could do the same thing to them as they did to the Narn. To quote That Orange Guy, who was himself quoting mobsters, "It would be a real shame." "There will be consequences."
Anyway, enough about how much the above relates to someone I've typed enough about and onto the Main Plot.
Bester returns! It looks like Bester is turning into a frenemy on Babylon 5. Sheridan doesn't like him. Ivanova wants to hurt him. Franklin starts to think it's not such a bad idea. Garibaldi can't stand him. Whether they want to admit it or not, I actually have to agree with Bester. They work well together.
But that's getting ahead of myself in the episode. Before Bester reaches the station, Sheridan reminds everyone that they have so much more to hide from Bester than they did before. What they know about Clark, how they leaked that information out, and having a secret resistance of their own are all things Bester can't find out about. To say nothing about the rouge telepaths they helped last season. That all got me imagining about what Bester would do if he found out and how he'd react! The solution to have a bunch of Minbari Telepaths to block out anything Bester can sense is golden. A quick fix before Franklin can give Bester an injection to suppress his telepathy for a few hours.
This time, Bester is after someone who the command crew of Babylon 5 would also like to see arrested: someone, and a main distributer at that, supplying a drug called Dust. It enhances the strength of Telepaths for several hours, and can potentially give others telepathic abilities. If you invade someone else's mind while using dust, you experience everything they experience. The distributor is preparing to sell dust to alien governments to be used as weapons.
G'Kar buys dust off of a dealer, hoping it will harness telepathy in Narns. A twist when the dealer asks who G'Kar will test the drug on and then, after the dealer leaves, G'Kar uses it on himself! G'Kar's eyes turn black. He sees things in a stylized MTV music video way. Then he looks like he's wigging out.
One of the best exchanges when Bester and Garibaldi are looking for the distributor comes from when they're interrogating a suspect who might know where the distributor is, and the suspect denies knowing anything and pulls the old "I have rights!" card. Bester, even without his telepathic abilities can see right threw him and says, "Officially, he has rights. Unofficially, he's lying." Line of the episode! Bester bluffed and got the suspect to tell them everything about where the dirstributor is.
Then comes the scene of the episode! G'Kar goes to Londo's quarters, tosses aside Vir, and heads straight for Londo. G'Kar looks like he's going to tear Londo limb-from-limb. Then the episode cuts away to Garibaldi and Bester catching the Dust Dealer, before cutting back to Londo, who's on the floor. I like that they cut away because now I can imagine G'Kar doing things to Londo that would've been censored for violence on daytime cable TV in the '90s.
After that, G'Kar enters Londo's mind. The black background while G'Kar's in there is perfect. Why? Because there's nothing else there. It's just Londo and G'Kar. He finds out that the only reason Londo was on Babylon 5 was because no one else was stupid enough to take the job. He taunts Londo about it, but it makes him more than just a little bit hypocritical, because G'Kar took the job too!
After the taunting, G'Kar looks through Londo's deep, dark secrets, and finds out that he conspired with Morden. Then G'Kar becomes enraged. He wants to know everything. "All of it, Mollari!!!! ALL OF IT!!!!!!!" Then the images flash by fast and frantically, at the same pace that G'Kar is taking it all in. "ALL OF IT!!!!!!!!" Such an intense scene!
Riding right off of that, G'Kar suddenly sees his father, who's hanging and dying. Then his father tells him, "Honor my name." That would've been bound to send him over the edge for sure. Until Kosh projects an avatar of a Narnian Angel to tell G'Kar to break the cycle of hatred. That was a twist that I didn't see coming, but a twist that had to happen since JMS wasn't going to have G'Kar kill Londo and have Londo be written out of the show.
In the aftermath, G'Kar is sentenced to 60 days in jail. 60 days for drug use, two assaults, and one mind invasion? Ummm... I like G'Kar, but the Judge basically gave him a slap on the wrist. Though I think she only did it because Sheridan stuck up for G'Kar.
Overall, this is another one of my favorite Babylon 5 episodes. Definitely in the Top 5. I would've loved this episode if I'd seen it when I was 16. This series keeps getting more and more exciting as they keep getting deeper and deeper in. It's like a page-turner now. I give it a 10.
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