Text 16744, 179 rader
Skriven 2007-08-04 04:54:46 av jphalt@aol.com (3221.babylon5)
     Kommentar till en text av rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated
Ärende: Darkness Ascending: my review
=====================================
The last calm before the storm, as the final bits of arc are gathered
together for the season climax.


THE PLOT

Lennier, still working on his assignment for Delenn, has come up with
a promising theory regarding the attacks. Before each attack, there is
a transmission that Lennier is certain must be coming from a hidden
base. He believes that this can be tracked - but only at the moment of
transmission, right before the attack. Before he can put his theory
into practice, however, Capt. Montoya's ship is recalled - by
Sheridan, who has discovered Delenn's secret assignment.

Determined to complete his mission, Lennier disobeys orders,
commandeers a fighter, and launches himself into hyperspace - with
just enough air to last him, at most, 48 hours. He will come back with
the proof of the Centauri involvement in the attacks, or he will not
come back at all.

Meanwhile, Londo receives a message from Centauri Prime, informing him
that the Alliance may be planning to "fabricate evidence" to implicate
the Centauri in the attack. If the Centauri are attacked, he is told,
it will be the beginning of a war... sentiments echoed by Garibaldi,
when he learns of Lennier's mission.

Finally, G'Kar receives a visit from Lyta, who has a proposal for him
- or rather, an answer to a proposal he made a very long time ago.


THE GOOD

I'll start where the episode starts: with Garibaldi's nightmare. The
nightmare itself is well-done, giving a lot of insight into
Garibaldi's continuing insecurities as he sees all his friends dead,
their dying blood and (in Stephen's case) breath demanding to know
where he was when they were slaughtered. The final part of the
nightmare, as an evil version of Garibaldi encases the "real" Michael
in a kind of gloop while he stands, helpless, reflects the
helplessness Garibaldi has felt lately. He was helpless at the hands
of the telepaths when they held him and others hostage in Medlab; he
is helpless to do anything to act against Bester; this led him to
drink, which contributed to him being helpless to save an old friend
and an important contact on the Drazi homeworld; and this helplessness
made it easier for him to drink more, which in turn raises fears in
him that he will be helpless when he's needed. A vicious circle, which
sees poor Mr. Garibaldi being beaten/beating himself at every turn.

The really unsettling part comes when he wakes from the dream, though,
only to be greeted by Lyta, sitting cross-legged on his bed, probing
him with her enhanced powers. We're never entirely certain whether
this scene is "real" or truly just a dream, but my money would be on
it being "real." It certainly ties in with the direction in which
Lyta's character has been moving. Either way, among the (simple, yet
eerie) effect of her eyes, the cross-legged posture, and the way
actress Patricia Tallman tilts her head as she delivers each line ever-
so-calmly, it all comes across as being incredibly alien. It's one of
the single most disturbing images in the whole of the series.

Still, that's nothing to the horror of watching Garibaldi self-
destruct while wide awake. In addition to the helplessness we're
already aware of, the scene where he takes Lise to dinner brings home
another point that has to be looming over him: that he is basically
the last man standing. He dines with Lise in the same restaurant where
he, Sinclair, Ivanova, and Catherine Sakai dined during their last
moment of happiness, just before all hell broke loose, in
"Chrysalis."  Now, as Garibaldi relates to Lise, "Sinclair's gone;
Sakai, she disappeared... now Ivanova's gone and Franklin's heading back
to Earth at the end of the year. You know, sometimes I feel like the
last soldier on the battlefield; I'm looking around and I'm wondering,
'Where the hell did everybody go?' " If one thinks about it, there
really aren't many people left who Garibaldi is close to. Sinclair is
back in the past; Susan's gone; his close friendship with Londo turned
out to be one of many casualties of the Narn/Centauri War. In earlier
seasons, Garibaldi has always had someone who is both a friend and a
(relative) equal to turn to; now, he's alone, and feeling old and
vulnerable. The addition of the rudest waiter outside of Parisian
cafes probably doesn't help matters much.

The scene in which Lise finds Garibaldi's bottle sees Garibaldi fall
back on a series of rationalizations, justifications, and denials.
He's drinking as an act of rebellion; he's drinking because now he has
a position of responsibility and can control it; he's drinking because
it's been a stressful last six months. He tries to show Lise that he
can control the bottle by emptying that bottle into the sink in front
of her... but by the end of the episode, he's secretly slipping liquor
into his coffee. It's going to take a major lapse to get Garibaldi to
admit to a problem - the kind of lapse that devastates a planet...

While Lise tries to hold Garibaldi back from a hell that's mostly of
his own making, Lyta goes to G'Kar to bring up a very old proposition
of his. G'Kar has long been the series' strongest character (Londo
held that title for most of the first season, but G'Kar's character
complexity passed Londo by way back in Season Two, if not late Season
One), while Lyta has emerged as a personal favorite of mine since
about mid-Season Four. It is perhaps inevitable that any episode that
combines these two characters will win some favor with me. The two
characters play absolutely wonderfully off each other. G'Kar's tone of
reminiscence as he recalls his original offer to Lyta, from back in
"The Gathering."  Lyta's very brief look of self-consciousness/
embarrassment as G'Kar mentions wanting to know her "pleasure
threshold." Then a look at Lyta's newfound confidence in herself, as
the mousy woman who had to be badgered into even bending a rule back
in "The Gathering" now openly, brazenly flirts with G'Kar, pressing
those buttons that will convince him to meet her terms. Beautifully-
written, beautifully-acted scenes. I particularly liked that G'Kar,
being no fool, still has a moment of pause to see just how far Lyta
has gone (though of course, G'Kar's "test" is flawed, given how easily
Lyta could have picked his thoughts out of his mind at that moment...
which is not a flaw, since I'm fairly certain that this is exactly
what Lyta is doing). The highlight of the episode, in my opinion.

There is plenty of good material to go around in this episode, though.
The scenes with Londo early in the episode are revealing. Given what
is now a rare day of freedom, where he can do anything he wishes,
Londo suddenly finds that he has nothing to do. A great contrast with
Season One Londo, who rarely had any pressing business, and who had
enormous fun getting roaring drunk while watching strippers or
gambling. Now, those pleasures have become passe; the joy in life that
characterized Season One Londo has vanished, leaving a man who - when
he isn't working - has nothing at all. It's especially poignant on
second viewing, when the viewer realizes that the lull of this episode
is Londo's last real chance to grab some pleasure before the fire.

Of course, the central thread of the episode is Lennier's drive to
complete his mission for Delenn, disregarding orders and common sense
to do so. In many ways, this foreshadows Lennier's fate. Like Marcus,
Lennier has joined the Rangers for the wrong reasons; like Marcus, he
allows that which haunts him to drive him to take foolish chances.
Here, it pays off, leaving Lennier a hero (for now). Indeed, there is
much heroic in Lennier's conduct. He doesn't lose his head. He
conducts himself calmly and sensibly once he has chosen his rogue
path. He does get very lucky, but it's his own careful planning and
patience that allows him to capitalize on that good fortune. One
senses that having to watch the slaughter of innocents, helpless to
interfere, adds yet one additional burden onto Lennier's troubled
soul, giving him yet one more push down his fateful path.


Other moments: Delenn's embrace of Londo, and her explanation for it.
A poignant beat, showing some development on her part. She can now
fully recognize Londo as both a flawed individual and a friend; in
Season Three, she only really saw his flaws. Garibaldi's opening
nightmare had him envisioning a slaughter that he was responsible for
because his friends needed him and he wasn't there; as the episode
nears its close, Sheridan informs him that he will soon be needed like
he's never been needed before. Garibaldi's expression says that he
does not take this as good news. It's horrible timing, in any case.
Garibaldi's the right man for the job... It's just a shame that the job
has caught him at the wrong time. Lastly, Garibaldi's words to Lise
end the episode as a harbinger of doom. The title tells us that
Darkness is Ascending, and by the episode's close, it truly has. The
calm is ending. Next comes the storm.


THE BAD

There are no significantly bad elements to this episode. No scenes
really stand out as false, and all the actors are fully in-character
throughout. Still, the episode does perhaps feel a bit diffuse, what
with Garibaldi & Lise, G'Kar & Lyta, Sheridan & Delenn, Londo & Vir,
and finally Lennier's mission at the center. While none of these
individual threads could really be removed, I do have to wonder if the
scenes with Lise - save for the final one - mightn't have been better
placed in "Meditations on the Abyss," which was an episode that, if
anything, seemed to have too little going on. The frequent shifts did
cause me, at points, to fall out of the story to where I was observing
the goings-on without really being involved in them, even though there
was nothing actively wrong with the scenes themselves.

In any case, while this was another transitional episode (I believe
the final transitional episode), "Darkness Ascending" is much more
effective and foreboding than the previous installment was. Next, if I
recall correctly, the fireworks begin...


My Final Rating: 7/10
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