Text 4913, 197 rader
Skriven 2006-07-26 21:58:00 av Robert E Starr JR (5410.babylon5)
Ärende: Whatever Happened to Mr.
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A purely transitional episode, and an episode that has at its heart the
very idea of transition, nevertheless is another triumph with a few
breathtaking scenes, some thought-provoking dialogue, and great
performances. The show has fully matured by this point in its run, and
the effect as all the running plots start moving inexorably to their
climax is truly breathtaking.


THE PLOT

John Sheridan is dead. His body is lifeless. He has no pulse. He does
not hunger, or tire, or even do as the bear does in the woods. He is an
ex-Sheridan.

So why is he walking around, far beneath the surface of Z'ha'dum,
having long philosophical discussions on the nature of identity, time,
entropy, and surrender with an alien named Lorien? Who is Lorien, and
what can he offer to Sheridan? What is his connection to the Vorlons
and the Shadows? And can he bring Sheridan back from Z'ha'dum, back
to life, to the people who need him so very badly?

When you look into an abyss, Nietzsche wrote, the abyss also looks into
you. If so, then perhaps Lorien represents the abyss into which John
plunged himself, looking back into John's soul, showing him who he is
and what he could be.

Sheridan isn't the only one who has disappeared into an abyss,
however. Mr. Garibaldi is still missing, whisked away in a Shadow ship
to an unknown destination where he is interrogated by a disembodied
voice and gassed and tormented when he won't give the right answers.
Garibaldi is in a hell all his own. There is no chance of escape, and
there seems no chance of rescue. In fact, in the wake of Sheridan's
death and the breakup of the League of Non-Aligned Worlds, it doesn't
seem that anyone on Babylon 5 is even sparing a thought for the fate of
Michael Garibaldi.

And so it is that G'Kar has taken it on himself to track down
Garibaldi. He's doing a pretty good job of it, too, when we first see
him in this episode. He has found a man who salvaged a piece of
Garibaldi's Starfury, and is determined to learn where that man found
the information that led him to that piece of salvage.

But Sheridan and Garibaldi aren't the only ones facing an abyss.
G'Kar has left the safety of Babylon 5. There are few greater prizes
for amoral bounty hunters than the last surviving member of the
Kha'Ri.

And for a Narn, there are few abysses as deep, dark, or terrible as the
dungeons of the palace on Centauri Prime. The odds of a Narn surviving
being made into a "gift" and a "toy" by an insane Centauri Emperor?
Why, they would be about as likely as those of a human returning from
the dead...


THE GOOD

Any episode centering on Andreas Katsulas' G'Kar is at an immediate
advantage. G'Kar's journey has already been a fascinating and
complex one. Here, that journey is taken even further than ever before.
As Sheridan did at the end of Season Three, G'Kar has left the safety
of Babylon 5 on a quest that will lead him to his own abyss.

But before G'Kar confronts his own worst nightmare, there is great
fun to be had. One of the wonderful discoveries of this episode is that
G'Kar is actually making some pretty decent progress in investigating
Garibaldi's disappearance. Maybe Garibaldi should have enlisted
G'Kar as a partner when he turned private detective later, because
G'Kar actually makes a fairly decent detective (sorry, getting ahead
of the story, I know...)

The G'Kar/Marcus pairing in the first half of the episode is hugely
enjoyable, and I loved the warmth between the two characters. Marcus'
answer to G'Kar - why he came to help - is touchingly delivered, as
he confesses to G'Kar that he's never had a friend who was a Narn
before "and precious few of any other kind." The sadness at the center
of Marcus' character, as he goes on to observe that most of those he
ever had called "friend" are now dead, gives another postcard glimpse
at the tortured soul beneath the Ranger's bravado.

And of course, there's a great, laugh out loud and cheer moment as
Marcus interrogates the man who salvaged a piece of Garibaldi's
Starfury. Marcus' weather forecast is much more entertaining than the
local newscast's... and probably at least as useful.

The real meat of G'Kar's story comes after Marcus leaves him,
however. G'Kar enters the abyss as any victim must enter hell -
bruised, in agony, and in chains. But as he is brought before Emperor
Cartagia, G'Kar still maintains that incredible dignity that no other
character on this show (or probably any other) can match. Cartagia's
mocking question to him - "Do you have anything to say?" - is answered
beautifully, as G'Kar stays true to his quest and asks the Emperor if
he knows what happened to Mr. Garibaldi. Even the giddily insane and
insanely powerful Emperor Cartagia is at least momentarily at a loss at
this.

The best scene of the G'Kar subplot, however, has to be the scene
between G'Kar and Londo. In the last episode, Londo realized that the
emperor he put on the throne is a mad monster. As Londo told Vir,
Cartagia must be removed for the sake of Centauri Prime... but as Londo
also told Vir, there is no one on Centauri Prime that Londo can trust.

Londo joked in the last episode about how sad it was that the closest
thing he had to a friend was Vir. It is no joke now, however, when he
realizes that the second-closest thing he has to a friend - and the
only being other than Vir on all Centauri Prime that he can truly trust
- is his hated enemy since Day One of the series: G'Kar.

The beautiful thing about the Londo/G'Kar scene is the balance of
power. G'Kar is in chains, beaten, powerless, destined to die
horribly "as a toy." Londo is the Emperor's personal advisor, one of
the most influential men in the Centauri Republic. And yet G'Kar has
all the power in this scene. It is G'Kar's help that Londo is in
need of. G'Kar must say "yes," or Londo's hopes for his people are
doomed. Even though Londo is free and G'Kar is not, Londo is in the
weaker position here. G'Kar has nothing to lose, and Londo has his
entire civilization waiting on G'Kar's answer.

As much as I love the scenes with G'Kar, particularly the ones on
Centauri Prime with Cartagia or Londo, my favorite scenes in the
episode are those involving Sheridan. The conversations Sheridan has
with Lorien resonate with meaning, musings of a type rarely found on
television - rarely found anywhere, outside the confines of classic
Literature. Take Lorien's "tick" and "tock" speech as an example.
"Tick," Lorien reflects, "a possibility for joy is gone. Tock - a
careless word ends one path, opens another." It is impossible to hear
that speech without my own mind being drawn to my own missed
opportunities and paths not taken... which is the power of a genuinely
well-written piece of dialogue.

Then there are Lorien's questions for Sheridan in the "dream
sequences" that aren't, combining both the Vorlon and Shadow
questions. "Who are you?" and "What do you want?" Both are necessary,
and that is the failure of both Shadows and Vorlons. The Shadows
can't understand that "What do you want?" is dangerous if you don't
know who you are; the Vorlons refuse to acknowledge that knowing who
you are is meaningless if you do not also know what you want. Lorien,
the "father," the First One, represents the sanity between the two
insane extremes - realizing that both questions on their own mean
nothing, unless those questions are asked together.

Wayne Alexander is wonderfully effective as Lorien, combining wisdom
and compassion with that great theatrical voice. It is also appropriate
that the same actor should play Lorien who played Sebastian in "Comes
the Inquisitor."  In "Comes the Inquisitor," Sebastian examined Delenn
by asking only the Vorlon question, over and over again. Delenn never
was quite able to answer; as Lorien observes in this episode, there is
no good answer to that question, on its own. In this episode, Lorien is
examining Sheridan. But Lorien asks both questions. He does not torture
Sheridan, but guides him to accept the reality of his own death, to
stop trying to escape fate and surrender to it. To stop being "the man
in the middle," "caught between tick and tock," and to be who he can be
"when (he is) no longer afraid."

"It is easy to find something worth dying for," Lorien tells Sheridan
gently. "Do you have anything worth living for?" In this way,
Lorien's ancient wisdom directly echoes Mr. Garibaldi's inherent
common sense from the end of Infection, when Garibaldi confronted
Sinclair with the exact dilemma. Sinclair could not answer Garibaldi
(ultimately the answer he found was entirely based on self-sacrifice,
the loss of the future in exchange for an endless loop of past and
present). Sheridan does find an answer for Lorien, however, and for
himself.

And with this, the episode ends on a breathtaking final image, as
Sheridan at last lies - apparently dead - at Lorien's feet, with the
alien looking down on him, giving no guarantees (other than awareness
of Bruce Boxleitner's contract) that the captain will ever return
from Z'ha'dum.


THE BAD

Once again, it is hard to find much that is weak in this episode. The
journal entry that Stephen finds and shows to Delenn is, perhaps, just
a touch too precious not to strain credulity. The bar in which G'Kar
and Marcus find themselves early in the episode appears to be populated
entirely by "seedy bar" stereotypes.

Nit-picks, that pale beside the thoughtful dialogue between Lorien and
Sheridan, or the image of G'Kar, caught in his own worst nightmare
but refusing to surrender his dignity. The single look on Londo's
face - horror, revulsion, and pity - as he first looks on G'Kar...
that one second of screen time is more than enough to make up for such
minor issues.

Another great episode, in a run of great episodes.


My Final Rating: 9/10
      
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