Last best hope for peace going GREAT so far.


Well, Shit Got Real in that last episode for sure. I've been watching season 2 with my husband, and he's been kind of mildly entertained but so-so about it, but I could feel his interest perk up when things got twisty and morally ambiguous. (He tends to prefer twisty, dark scifi shows like Black Mirror and Altered Carbon; this show has been a bit on the light and morally direct side for him so far, but that got his attention.)

Doom!! So I mentioned before that I was a little surprised that Londo's doomprophecy came into the series so early. I don't know that I'd say I remembered this episode specifically, but this was more like where I was expecting it. (I'm sure I wasn't paying enough attention to remember it from 1x01. Honestly, I've been surprised I was paying enough attention in season one to remember everything I've remembered - I think I must've been far more into this show at the time than I still knew all these years later.)

I do actually know some big-picture plot/Londo stuff from later on, which I'm mostly trying to forget for viewing purposes, but one thing about watching this while being kinda-sorta spoiled is that I feel like I can pick up foreshadowing much better - it's not a purely unspoiled viewing experience, but I'm also able to enjoy some of the layering, and, I think, picking up on quite a few dominos/resonances/thematic circularity for later, which I'm really having fun with.

And I think this past few episodes are where I really started to see why I was riveted by Londo and G'Kar as a teenager, because they have exactly that vibe of being extremely focused on each other, both as individuals and as symbols of everything they hate about the other's government, while not actually having any particular reason to be that focused on the other one's reactions, because they don't like each other in the slightest! But there's a definite Best Enemies quality to them that is iddy for me. Even when they don't have to, they show up to needle or otherwise annoy each other, or even - as in 2x09, before everything goes completely off the rails - make a peace gesture at each other. There's a Vibe and I can see why I was fascinated by the Vibe, because it's the kind of thing I'm still into all these years later, and I couldn't have encountered too many examples of it back in the early 90s when shows were less layered and less inclined towards redemption arcs and enemies-to-whatever arcs; I can see why I tuned into this one with all the power of laser focused id.

Oh, a bit randomly, I also enjoyed the episode with Londo's wives a lot! I guessed that Timov(?) was the one he'd keep, but even before that, I was thinking from the beginning that she was the one he _should_ keep, because she's the one who'd stab him in the front instead of the back. And then that's exactly what happened, and I liked it. (Husband thinks Londo might also know that she's the one who gave him the blood transfusion that saved his life - if she knows they're the same blood type, he probably does too.) Which seems likely. But I think it's mostly that he *is* fairly politically savvy and likes being around people who aren't liars and don't play games with him, even if they're fairly unpleasant otherwise. Anyway, I think it's interesting how in just one episode she went from being a played-for-a-joke harridan to a fairly complex character whose relationship with Londo is surprisingly interesting, and I hope she shows up again.