{"id":7041,"date":"2018-10-25T13:00:43","date_gmt":"2018-10-25T20:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/?p=7041"},"modified":"2018-10-15T10:10:57","modified_gmt":"2018-10-15T17:10:57","slug":"mark-watches-babylon-5-s02e02-revelations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2018\/10\/mark-watches-babylon-5-s02e02-revelations\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Watches ‘Babylon 5’: S02E02 – Revelations"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the second episode of the second season of Babylon 5<\/i>, this is becoming cruel. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m only two episodes into this season, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m just so, so wrong. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch Babylon 5<\/i>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Trigger Warning: For discussion of grief<\/b><\/p>\n

How is this season happening HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO DEAL WITH ALL OF THIS<\/p>\n

The Darkness<\/b><\/p>\n

At this point, I feel confident that the Shadows are that weird, pseudo-invisible race we saw Morden talking to in the season one finale, and that they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re the Darkness that G\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Kar warns of. That warning, though, comes with yet another fascinating transformation. The changes hinted at last season are now coming to fruition, and the idea of a G\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Kar who is willing to put aside his need for revenge to save everyone<\/i> is utterly captivating. In just a single episode, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s clear that his experience out on the Rim changed him. Oh, he still has a desire for vengeance; that hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t gone away. But by the time he returns to Babylon 5<\/i>, his motivation has changed. What he saw fucked him UP. Uninhabited words are now full of a race long ago told to have waged war on the entire galaxy. Now, because this is part of the Narn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s religious text, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an element of doubt that the other council members experience, namely Sheridan and Mollari. (Well, Mollari is more complicated, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll get to him.) Plus, they didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t see any of the things G\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Kar did, such as those creepy-ass ships that attacked the Narns. So there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a frustration here because the audience knows G\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Kar is right, that there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a terrible force gathering strength and allies in the Centauri, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s only a matter of time before they unleash their power on the rest of the galaxy.<\/p>\n

How the hell do you deal with that? G\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Kar ends this episode in defeat. He can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t accuse Mollari of leaking the information on the Narn recon mission, and his proof is gone. How can he convince these people that they need to band together to save themselves from a greater threat? It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a mirror to Lennier\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s conversation with Delenn before she emerged. How the hell are these cultures going to overcome their differences?<\/p>\n

Mollari<\/b><\/p>\n

Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, Londo Mollari is on a dark path, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m worried<\/i>. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t believe there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s any question in his mind that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s allied himself with a powerful, violent force. Twice now, his conversations with Morden have ended in the death of other Narns. Granted, it may not be ten thousand<\/i> of them this time, but that doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t exactly exonerate him for leaking the recon mission. Those poor Narns were destroyed within seconds of their jump, and the Shadows are just going to continue picking them off, aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t they? Morden warned that it would be one step at a time. How many other beings are going to have to die? Does Mollari regret what he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s done, or is his ambition so high that he can quietly justify his actions? Oh, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, this is so much darker than I expected, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122M SCARED.<\/p>\n

Sheridan<\/b><\/p>\n

I recognize that the show has a lot of exposition work to do for Sheridan upfront, so these first two episodes are rather heavy on storytelling for him. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Points of Departure\u00e2\u20ac\u009d introduces him and his reputation to us; but \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Revelations\u00e2\u20ac\u009d reveals a more personal history. Sheridan\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s wife died two years prior to the present day, and for those two years, Sheridan has been unable to progress in his grief because he feels he is responsible for her death. What I got from this plot is that Sheridan is a workaholic, and his focus on his work isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t always a positive thing. However, his perception of events is skewed because he didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know his wife\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s side. He punished himself for two years, despite that Anna was always<\/i> going to be on that ship. That isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t his fault! Still, grief works in funny ways, and I appreciate that we got to see a vulnerable side of Sheridan so early into the show.<\/p>\n

Delenn<\/b><\/p>\n

HI, THERE ARE SO MANY PLOT TWISTS IN SEASON TWO ALREADY, BUT NONE OF THEM FUCKED ME UP MORE THAN THIS ONE. Oh my god, Delenn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s transformation was TO BECOME PART HUMAN. No wonder this was so controversial and so necessary<\/i>. What better way for the Minbari to understand humanity\u00e2\u20ac\u201dand hopefully remain friends and allies with them\u00e2\u20ac\u201dthan for Delenn to become<\/i> human? I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m still blown away by this. How human is she, exactly? What are the biological differences? How will other Minbari react to her when they see her? How is this going to affect future events? Will the warrior caste hate her???<\/p>\n

WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS SHOW DOING????<\/p>\n

The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Revelations\u00e2\u20ac\u009d can be downloaded here for $0.99<\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n

– My YA contemporary debut, ANGER IS A GIFT<\/a>, is now out in the world!\u00c2\u00a0<\/strong>If you’d like to stay up-to-date on all announcements regarding my books, sign up for my newsletter<\/a>! DO IT.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"