Text 14510, 110 rader
Skriven 2007-05-12 12:37:48 av jphalt@aol.com (922.babylon5)
     Kommentar till en text av rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated
Ärende: The Ragged Edge: my review
==================================
After a long delay (sorry, there's just been no time for watching/
reviewing lately), here's the next one:


THE RAGGED EDGE

Garibaldi picks the worst time to turn back to the bottle in this key
episode.


THE PLOT

Sheridan finally gets a break in the string of attacks that have been
plaguing the Alliance member races. The latest attack, on a shipment
to the Drazi Homeworld, has left a survivor - the human pilot, who
managed to get to an escape pod just before his ship was destroyed.
Now there is a potential witness.

There are also complications. The shipment was not a legitimate one.
The pilot was a smuggler, delivering illicit goods - items banned by
the Alliance charter - to the Drazi government. It is a given that the
Drazi will not want that pilot to live to testify. Fortunately,
Garibaldi has a contact on the Drazi Homeworld. Garibaldi embarks on a
covert op. His job? Get in, use his contact to find the pilot, and get
out again.

It would be a delicate mission even if Garibaldi was at his best. But
in the wake of Bester's revelation of the last episode, Garibaldi has
slipped back into his former alcoholic ways. When his contact (who
last saw him during his prior drinking days) offers him a bottle,
Garibaldi simply can't resist accepting... leaving him ill-prepared
when the mission starts to turn bad.

Meanwhile, G'Kar and Londo return to the station to find that, in his
absence, G'Kar's book has been seized, taken to Narn, and published.
The chronicle of G'Kar's journey of the past few years has proved an
inspiration - and G'Kar now finds himself thrust into the unwanted
role of religious icon!


THE GOOD

Garibaldi's resurgent alcoholism is handled so much better here than
it was in Survivors. There, Garibaldi was turned into a stereotypical
"movie drunk" in the space of about two scenes, only to "get better"
about as quickly, with no enduring consequences. Here, the subject is
dealt with in a subtler, more believable, and altogether more
meaningful fashion. Garibaldi doesn't just slide into the bottle and
become a useless lump. The first half of the episode sees him at the
top of his game. He's his usual wary self, and his fast reaction to
Tafiq's entrance shows that his instincts are as good as ever. If only
this mission had come a week or two earlier, Garibaldi would have
probably carried it off.

But Garibaldi has been beaten down, by Bester, by the telepaths, by
his old demons that he's let back in. He knows it, too, and to a
certain extent is even embracing it. His denial of Stephen's company
is a conscious decision. Right now, he wants to fall into an alcoholic
abyss. When Tafiq offers the drink, Garibaldi only makes a half-
hearted protest, which he himself quickly cuts off before accepting.
It would likely have taken only a 2-sentence explanation to make Tafiq
understand why Garibaldi wouldn't drink with him. But Garibaldi wants
the drink, and is not yet ready to admit that taking the drink will
hurt his ability to carry out the mission. Even at the episode's end,
Garibaldi blames other factors - the long trip to Drazi, the
unexpected nature of the robed figures' attack - rather than blaming
his slip. As the last shot of the episode shows us, Garibaldi will
need to fall further than this, and make bigger mistakes than this,
before he will be able to pull himself out again.

This episode noticeably ratchets up the stakes for several arc
elements. Despite his alcoholism, Garibaldi does manage to come back
with a piece of physical evidence that links the attacks to the
Centauri. This, in turn, leads to echoes of the Londo/G'Kar material
from "In the Kingdom of the Blind."  By this point in the season, all
the chess pieces have been placed on the board. Now the show is
starting to really move forward with them.

G'Kar's final response to the question of whether or not to involve
Londo in what is known is revealing. First and second season G'Kar
would still have said, "Tell him nothing," but for very different
reasons. Then, G'Kar believed all Centauri were pure evil. He would
have believed to his core that Londo was complicit, that Londo was
actively betraying the Alliance. Now G'Kar is much wiser and far more
tempered. Now he knows that Londo cannot be involved in this... but at
the same time, that Londo would react with outrage that would surely
lead to his death.

Some of my favorite scenes in this episode revolve around G'Kar, and
his reluctance to assume the role of spiritual leader. This is, of
course, the episode with the classic "put your face in the book"
scene. Katsulas is marvelous, and Ta'Lon's follow-up line is the
cherry on top of the whipped cream at the top of the sundae. Katsulas
and Marshall Teague, as Ta'Lon, are becoming almost as enjoyable a
double-act as Katsulas and Peter Jurasik are.

Finally, the episode's final act signposts the gradual closing down of
the series, as Stephen receives a job offer that will require him to
move on from Babylon 5 at the end of the year. The audience shares a
bit in Sheridan's reaction, not being entirely happy at the reminder
that, while the saga may continue in some other form, the "Babylon 5"
that has been screened for 5 seasons will - at the end of the current
season - never be seen again.


My Final Rating: 7/10. A very solid installment.

Next Up: "Day of the Dead."
--- SBBSecho 2.12-Win32
 * Origin: Time Warp of the Future BBS - Home of League 10 (1:14/400)