Mark Watches ‘Babylon 5’: S02E20 – The Long, Twilight Struggle

In the twentieth episode of the second season of Babylon 5, I HURT EVEN MORE THAN THE LAST TIME. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Babylon 5.

Trigger Warning: For extensive discussion of terrorism, warfare, colonialism, and occupation, .

You know, there is a light at the end of the darkness. 

It’s there, in the scene Draal hinted at when he said that Delenn needed to introduce Sheridan to the “others.” I’m glad that it’s at the end of the episode that we learn the full extent of the Rangers and that they’ve brought Sheridan into the fold. That pledge to fight against darkness is necessary, because otherwise, this is somehow the darkest episode yet. Which I realize is risky to say because every time I point out how grim this show has gotten, IT GETS WORSE. And I’m fully expecting it to get worse, now that the Shadows have helped the Centauri occupy Narn.

Seriously, though, this episode has a largely bleak ending, one that is both shocking and utterly heartbreaking. That’s largely due to the sense of inevitability in the story: as we watch it unfold, we see the trap set into place. We despair as G’Kar is ignored—yet again, I might add, which only heightens the tragedy—and the Narn are decimated by the Shadows. We witness the briefest flash of reluctance in Londo, which he immediately says is not reluctance, and the hope that he might stop this nightmare from unfolding is destroyed. 

It’s not surprising in hindsight that this war was so quick and so brutal. It was orchestrated that way, and with the Centauri allied to the Shadows, it was always going to be a rapid thing. The coming darkness that Delenn speaks of us is all the confirmation I need that this was merely a precursor to a greater presence for the Shadows. Still, I had some faith, however minuscule it was, that the Narn would find some way to prolong the war, to outlast the Centauri as they had done before, to prevent this all from happening. But the reality is that they were always at a disadvantage. The Centauri had better weapons. The Shadows. A populace of governments in Earth and the Non-Aligned Worlds who were all reluctant to stand up to them for fear of violating their own diplomatic efforts. The show hasn’t been subtle about that, nor has it ignored the small and large ways in which other communities were complicit in the spread of this menace. 

Still, at the end of the day, “The Long, Twilight Struggle” exhibits the gleeful lengths the Centauri were willing to go to achieve victory, to dominate another culture completely. And perhaps that is why Londo behaves as he does during the council meeting after the Narn have surrendered: He feels so guilty over the extreme and vicious slaughter of the Narn that he lashes out at all the wrong people. It’s easier that way, isn’t it? He doesn’t have to blame himself if he can puff himself up with bravado and ire, as if his government’s demands are anything but utterly barbaric. In this, JMS and the rest of the writing staff capture the truly heinous edge to dictatorships and empires, and I think that’s why this episode hit me so goddamn hard. I’ve lived under and within an empire my entire life. I’ve watched governments around the world perpetuate some of the most vile shit one could ever imagine, and so, so much worse. And I know that for a while, most of them get away with it. 

And the Centauri are getting away with it. They broke protocol to use mass drivers to obliterate a planet, to destroy it to such a degree that not only did the Narn have to surrender, but they couldn’t use it. As Lord Refa puts it, the Centauri can now move in at their leisure. Because who’s going to want to live on a planet so vastly eviscerated? But the part of this episode that kills me more than anything else is the terms. It’s hard to think about them because they reveal the true purpose of the Centauri: to subjugate another race. Which isn’t a new revelation! But it’s spelled out so horrifically, y’all. The Narn can’t represent themselves; their lives are worth one five-hundredth of the life of a Centauri in the most literal terms; they will be “re-civilized,” which is terrorist code for any number of oppressive institutions. 

The Narn’s defense of themselves is also painted as terrorism. It’s such an insidious little thing, isn’t it? These people USED MASS DRIVERS TO BOMB A PLANET. How are the Narn the terrorists? How can Londo utter these words when he knows that he called upon the Shadows to execute so very many people? He wears a mask of rage and supremacy during those council scenes, but I know there’s a disgust buried deep in there. This man knows what he did to get where he wanted. Was it worth it? Can he do penance for his crimes?

At this point, frankly speaking: I don’t care. I really don’t care about his redemption because this is too raw, too real, too gut-wrenching. G’Kar feels, at times, like a shell of his former self. And how can he not be? He knows most of his friends and family have been murdered, and after just a few decades free of Centauri rule, they appear to be right back where they started. 

Still, I found a comfort in G’Kar’s words to Londo, and it’s what I want to end this review on. Those in power who harm and abuse often believe they are invulnerable and invincible, but G’Kar’s words remind me and remind Londo that resistances always form, always persist, and in the case of history, the Narn will just teach the same lessons of independence and sovereignty all over again.

No matter the cost.

The video for “The Long, Twilight Struggle” can be downloaded here for $0.99.

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