Progress on the show continues, much more glacially now that the storyline I was most invested in has more-or-less wrapped up.


5x19 "The Wheel of Fire"

I appreciate that Londo is such a presence in this episode in spite of not being present, but also, KNIFE IN THE HEART. Sheridan even notices he wasn't acting like himself! Delenn misses him and wishes he'd contact her; G'Kar feels sorry for him. Someone go talk to him, PLEASE.

(Of course they won't, and he'd push them away if they did. T__T)

I like that it's G'Kar that Lochley asks how Londo is; Sheridan, Delenn, and Vir were all on Centauri Prime, but at this point, the fact that G'Kar is the person most likely to know the lowdown must be visible from space.

I do think that G'Kar understands that Londo sent his friends away not because he wanted to, but for their own safety ("It would not be appropriate ... or safe") and I also suspect that he feels Londo is embracing, or rather being swallowed by, the role of Emperor at the expense of himself. I mean, he doesn't know all the details, but he's seen Londo get swallowed up in a political role before, and I think he parses it that way, and clearly feels a lot of sympathy for him. Delenn actually does understand, on some level, that there's something really wrong with him, but I assume she gets distracted with the pregnancy and doesn't follow up on it.

(It occurs to me, horribly, that Londo's history of highly variable behavior and heavy drinking is going to work against him here, because especially if they're not interacting with him in person, it does make sense that most of them would assume that he's simply reverting back to some of his earlier behavior in his new role. But still! SADNESS! I just wish he'd gotten more time to be the genuinely delightful person that he is when he's happy and is around people he loves and starting to be more comfortable in his own skin. Fixits for the win.)

Also, I am starting to think that Sheridan really did lose most of his memories of the future, because he's shocked by Delenn's pregnancy. But he *knows* they have a child together in the future. (Maybe he assumed adoption? But I think having forgotten most of it is the likeliest thing, for that as well as the Londo situation.) I liked that Franklin's first question is "Do you want to keep it?" and they openly discussed whether or not to end the pregnancy from the perspective of Delenn's safety.

I still find it deeply charming that Sheridan and Delenn alternate sleeping in his human-style bed and her Minbari-style bed; it's just such a sweet cross-cultural thing to do. I kinda hope they keep it up once they're living in the same residence on Minbar, although maybe by that time he'll just cope with a Minbari-style bed as long as there's a Delenn in it. I enjoy them tremendously as a couple.

Unfortunately I still don't really enjoy Garibaldi/Lise. She's such a personality void. I really do like his relationship with Sheridan this season. His deal with Lyta is interesting - she's gone so dark in the last half-season or so, but once again you can trace the steps of it - and Garibaldi running an anti-telepath operation from Mars makes a lot more sense than Garibaldi the corporate exec; he might grow into the corporate role, but using it as a cover for helping Lyta's movement makes more sense for his skill set.

That moment when Lyta has frozen everyone in the Zocalo and is like "How are you gonna stop me, huh?" - and then Sheridan walks in from the side and puts a gun to her head because HE'S BEEN VORLON'D TOO and he's immune to her powers was maybe one of the best Sheridan moments in the whole show. I mean, on the one hand, #lytadeservedbetter but at the same time, running an illegal arms operation out of B5 to support an insurgency and mind controlling everyone in your immediate vicinity is also not on, and it's such a good lore-drop moment because it makes total sense and there's also no point previously when it would have come up, so it's a genuine "whoa!" moment rather than an ass-pull.

Among various other characters I'm feeling bad for at this point in the show, I honestly feel really bad for G'Kar! Once again his and Londo's storylines mirror and reflect each other. They both got what they wanted in the worst way, and Londo is now trapped on his world, while G'Kar can't go back to his, and he can't stay on Babylon 5. (Also, from what we see of him at the end of his life, the next decade and a half will not be kind to him, either.) Still, in typical post-season-three G'Kar fashion, he seems pretty upbeat about taking advantage of the opportunity to explore the galaxy, live on other worlds, and learn about other races.