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Skriven 2007-05-29 12:14:30 av jphalt@aol.com (1432.babylon5)
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Ärende: Day of the Dead: my review
==================================
"Parting is all we know of Heaven, and all we need of Hell."
-PFC Dodger, Killed in Action, quoting Emily Dickinson.


THE PLOT

It is the Brakiri Day of the Dead, a Brakiri religious festival timed
around the orbit of a comet in their home system, which only occurs
once every 180 years. As part of the ceremony, Captain Lochley sells
the Brakiri a portion of the station for one night, with assurances
that the ownership will expire at sunrise. Lochley assumes it to be a
harmless religious ceremony, with the Brakiri insistence that this
portion of the station will be "Brakir" obviously standing in as a
metaphor.

But when night falls, metaphor becomes reality. The Brakiri portion of
the station vanishes, evidently into thin air. Those sleeping in that
portion of the station - including Lochley, Londo, Garibaldi, and the
visiting Lennier - find themselves cut off from the rest of Babylon 5,
and visited by ghosts of those who have died.

For Londo, the night brings him a reunion with his lost love, Adira.
For Lochley, the night provides a reminder of her own past, in the
form of her teenage friend Zoe. Garibaldi spends the night with the
late, but still seductive, PFC Dodger, and Lennier... gets the most
unexpected visitation of them all, when Mr. Morden comes out of the
shadows to tell him that he is fated to betray the Anla'shok.


THE GOOD

Objectively, I realize there have been "bigger" and "better" and more
"heavy-hitting" episodes of Babylon 5 than "Day of the Dead."
Nevertheless, I have seen this episode a few different times now -
more times than any other single episode of the series, truth be told
- and every time I find myself absolutely enchanted by it. I could
criticize it for lacking much sense of danger or conflict, but this
would strike me as missing the point.  "Day of the Dead" is a
beautiful, even lyrical, piece of television, and easily ranks among
my favorite episodes of the entire series.

So now that you know this will NOT be an objective review, we can
begin

I found each of the visitations to be valuable in its own way. The
pairing of Lochley and the dead Zoe reveals significant backstory to
the new captain. For Lochley, Zoe is the Ghost of Christmas Past. She
shows how different the captain once was, and provides an explanation
for why she has changed so much. We see that Lochley spent some of her
teen years as a runaway, hiding from a rigid military father while
doing drugs with Zoe and - it is implied - prostituting herself to
survive from one day to the next. Despite her closeness with Zoe, it
is not a lifestyle Lochley remembers fondly. She directly states that
it was a bad time, and that she's done her best to try to forget the
things she did to survive. This casts some light on why Lochley is so
rigid about following rules and about discipline; the last time she
cast the rules away, it did not go well for her.

It is fair to say that "Day of the Dead" is Lochley's best episode.
Scoggins hits every note dead on, and she is matched by Bridget
Flanery as Zoe. The slight pause and then catch in Scoggins' voice
when she reveals her password - "Zoe's dead" - is emotional enough in
itself. The nonverbal reaction to that password from Flanery is even
better. Zoe comes across as almost desperate to gain some
acknowledgment from Lochley that she is at least somewhat of a happy
memory for the captain. There's a real sense of need in Zoe's
insistence that she and Lochley "had fun, didn't we?" And the scene in
which she admits to Lochley that she remembers dying and that "it was
bad" is nothing short of haunting. Still, none of this is allowed to
go over-the-top to become maudlin. There's enough of a light touch
(Zoe waving at Garibaldi on the monitor, Zoe proving she's not a ghost
by needing to go to the bathroom) to keep it from falling into
melodrama.

I also enjoyed seeing Garibaldi with Dodger again. This is no
surprise; I quite liked both Dodger and actress Marie Marshall the
first time around, in "GROPOS."  Although I like Denise Gentile's
Lise, I find myself reflecting in both episodes that Marshall actually
has better screen chemistry with Jerry Doyle. There's a gentle
playfulness in the interaction of the two characters. If Lochley's
visit is the most emotional, then this visit is the most humorous.
Moving the episode back to its proper place also makes more sense of
Garibaldi's insistence that this is one of "Bester's tricks," and his
later declaration that it had to be telepaths. Post-"Phoenix Rising,"
it is a lot more reasonable that Garibaldi would have both Bester and
telepaths on the brain. That may be the most important service
Dodger's visit gives to Garibaldi. For one night, he gets to be freed
of his demons (no guilt, no manipulations, no alcohol) and be the old,
jocular Garibaldi, singing Emily Dickinson poems (and one by Edna St.
Vincent Millay) to the tune of "The Yellow Rose of Texas."

Londo's visit also allows him a last night of piece. Unlike Garibaldi,
however, Londo uses his night with Adira to do the obvious, and
apparently to do it several times. Good for him. This is the first
truly carefree night of Londo's life since Adira's death, and the last
such night he will ever have. For the length of this one episode,
Londo gets to recapture his Season One innocence. But, as their last
scene reminds him and us, innocence is like a single breath or scent.
You can only cling to it for so long before the real world reasserts
itself..

The final pairing is the most unlikely: Lennier and Mr. Morden.
Despite being the most unpredictable pairing, I also found it a
perversely satisfying one. Lennier has come to the station seeking
wisdom. He likely expects an apparition (Marcus?); it is fair to note
that he, alone of all the regulars, takes the Brakiri superstition
seriously. However, the appearance of Morden is the last thing Lennier
is expecting, and the last thing he wants. Morden actually speaks a
fair bit of good sense to Lennier, right from the beginning:


          "Don't come to the dead for wisdom, Lennier. My head was cut
from my body.
          Even now it rots on a pole outside the Imperial Palace.
Birds have taken the hair
          for their nests, maggots ate my flesh. And you want
wisdom? ...No one should
          ever want to talk to the dead."


Despite his protestations, Morden does have wisdom. He points out that
Lennier is on the wrong path ("Delenn does not love you as you love
her, and she never will"), which Lennier rejects. Lennier's rejection
of Morden's words leads to Morden's prediction: that Lennier will
betray the Anla'shok. Again, Lennier rejects Morden's words, and then
refuses to hear any more from his guest. Morden's a villain;
everything he says must be a lie. This despite the fact that, even
when alive, Morden always did more damage with truth than with lies.


Some mention should be made of the appearance Penn and Teller as Rebo
& Zooty. Though their routines in this episode are about as funny as
death by strychnine poisoning, I'm not entirely sure that's
unintentional. Certainly, the running joke of Lochley being unable to
find anything to watch or listen to on Babcom other than Rebo & Zooty
routines and movies seems designed to showcase only the most labored
of gags. In any case, while Penn is annoying (as ever, in my own
opinion), Teller is charming, with many bits of casual background
business that greatly enhance his scenes. I also loved Lochley's stone-
faced reaction to the pair, particularly her dry reply to Sheridan's
"This is something you can tell your children about."


THE BAD

Though I thoroughly enjoyed the material with Lennier and Morden, I
did not enjoy the exchange between Lennier and Delenn near the
episode's start. Lennier's insistence on referring to Sheridan not by
name and not as Delenn's husband but instead as her "partner," comes
across as frankly ham-handed. I can see why it's there - establish
Lennier's internal conflict and deep denial prior to Morden's
appearance - but it feels overdone and ever-so-slightly out-of-
character. This is a problem that plagues much of Lennier's fifth
season arc, for me. There is nothing that Lennier does this season
that, in outline form, I have any problem with. Lennier's moral armor
has shown cracks since late Season Two, cracks that only grew deeper
throughout Seasons Three and Four (notably in his "We are not the
same" speech to Marcus).

No, it's not Lennier's actions that jar, but the way those actions are
presented. It's all too heavy-handed. Too much of it feels forced and
rushed, lacking the subtlety with which this character has been
handled in previous seasons. Part of it may simply be due to the lack
of episodes featuring Lennier this season (this is Episode 12 of 22,
and is only Lennier's second Season Five appearance). Whatever the
cause, the character - an understated highlight of previous seasons -
just doesn't feel quite "right" this year.


My Final Rating: 10/10. No, it probably doesn't deserve full marks -
but as noted, this is not an objective review. I love this episode, it
is my single most-rewatched episode of the entire series, and I simply
cannot find it in myself to give it less.
--- SBBSecho 2.12-Win32
 * Origin: Time Warp of the Future BBS - Home of League 10 (1:14/400)