{"id":7051,"date":"2018-11-02T13:00:22","date_gmt":"2018-11-02T20:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/?p=7051"},"modified":"2018-10-24T09:31:47","modified_gmt":"2018-10-24T16:31:47","slug":"mark-watches-babylon-5-s02e07-soul-mates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2018\/11\/mark-watches-babylon-5-s02e07-soul-mates\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Watches ‘Babylon 5’: S02E07 – Soul Mates"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the seventh episode of the second season of Babylon 5<\/i>, Londo\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s wives arrive on the station; Talia\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ex-husband does, too, and CHAOS REIGNS. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch Babylon 5<\/i>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Trigger Warning: For manipulation, gaslighting, consent<\/b><\/p>\n

At least two-thirds of this episode is what I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d consider \u00e2\u20ac\u0153lighter\u00e2\u20ac\u009d fare, and thus, this kinda felt like a break from the emotionally-heavy episodes I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen in this batch. Not all of it, though, because WOW, I REALLY HATE MATTHEW STONER. So, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll start easy and move to the more complicated plot.<\/p>\n

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

YES. I LOVE ALL OF THIS. I have said this before, but I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m a sucker for science fiction stories that include a non-human learning to be human or at least to understand it. In Delenn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s case, that attempt at understanding is incredibly personal, given that she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s transformed into a hybrid of a human and a Minbari. As I said on video, the last episode focused more on the cultural and social challenges that Delenn faced. This one, however, dealt with some of the physical ones. And through it all, she has Ivanova by her side, AND I LOVE IT SO VERY MUCH. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s something so sweet and tender about Ivanova teaching Delenn about how to car for her hair, something she has never had to do when she was all Minbari. Haircare is so drastically different from person to person and from culture to culture, so Delenn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s scenes were a pure expression of cultural exchange. Ivanova shared what she knew with Delenn, and it came from a genuine, caring place.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Also, I was correct in assuming that Delenn now menstruates, right? Oh, that<\/i> is gonna be a huge thing for her, but I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m glad Ivanova is there to help her out.<\/p>\n

Londo\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Wives<\/b><\/p>\n

You know what I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d like to see? A science fiction story that does polyamory or polygamy, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not<\/i> a man with multiple wives. That always seems to be the go-to for SF at large, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d really like to see it explored without it hinting at male fantasies. Which isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t to say that what is onscreen is necessarily a fantasy, but rather that this trope can often fall into that kind of depiction. For me, Londo\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s three wives\u00e2\u20ac\u201dDaggair, Mariel, and Timov\u00e2\u20ac\u201dwere interesting characters, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what they represented that intrigued me the most. One wife was greedy, both sought power, and the third remained exactly the same the whole time. Timov\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s certainty is captivating because, at all times in this episode, she remained honest<\/i>. She told Mollari how she felt, she never shied away from the truth, and I believe that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ultimately why he chose her but divorced the other two. As he puts it, he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll always know where she stands, and I think he respects that sort of integrity. Never once did she lie about herself or her emotions, and she never tried to appeal to Mollari in order to get him to keep her.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Stoner<\/b><\/p>\n

What an unfortunate name, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all. It was a little distracting! But that aside, YIKES, WOW, WHAT A CREEPY FUCKING CHARACTER. Keith Szarabajka plays him with a slimy sense of confidence that oozes off every word that Stoner utters throughout \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Soul Mates.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Even if there weren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t all these hints that he was hiding something from the people around him, I would not have trusted him in any way. Ugh, his manner was just so gross<\/i>, so props to both Szarabajka and the script for making him so despicable. But why do that? Why make him slimy and arrogant and terrible? Wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t his manipulation have worked better if he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d been nicer<\/i>?<\/p>\n

My take on this is that Stoner\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s arrogance is part of the man\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s shtick. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s open about the fact that he is an asshole and rude, yet he never seems to assume that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not<\/i> going to get exactly what he wants. That certainty exists in practically every interaction he has here: when he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s selling the Centauri artifact he found; when he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s interrogated by Garibaldi and makes REALLY GROSS AND INAPPROPRIATE comments about Talia and their past together; and he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the worst when he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s finally face-to-face with Talia. He is so open about how much he doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t care, how clever he thinks he is, and how sure he is that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll get away with anything he wants. That assuredness, though, is what makes his empathic skill so horribly creepy. We know he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s terrible, and so, after Talia has her conversation with him about leaving and getting \u00e2\u20ac\u0153cured,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d we expect that Talia will continue to ignore him.<\/p>\n

NOPE. Instead, she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s very, very<\/i> suddenly about to leave with Stoner. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so jarring that I thought, for a moment, that my version of the episode had omitted a vital scene. Perhaps he said something to her that finally convinced her to leave the Psi Corps, and combined with her experience over the last few episodes, it wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have been a huge surprise.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

EXCEPT I ASSUMED SHE WOULD MAKE THAT DECISION FOR HERSELF. So we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re presented with something that feels out-of-character for Talia, but that’s the point<\/i>. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what convinces Garibaldi to set up a trap for Stoner, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s how we learn the truth: the same Psi Corps experiments that pushed Jason Ironheart gave Stoner an empathic ability rather than a telepathic one. And he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so, so fucking creepy about it, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, and it puts his behavior into the context I needed to understand it. He could just make a person feel what he wanted them to feel, thus he moved about the galaxy certain that he could escape any situation. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so awful! He would bend a person\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s emotional reality with his mind, so it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s like\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 a really extreme form of gaslighting? Except maybe not even that, because a person wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even question their reality because they would simply believe Stoner\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s.<\/p>\n

UGH. I NEVER WANT TO SEE HIM AGAIN.<\/p>\n

The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Soul Mates\u00e2\u20ac\u009d can be downloaded here for $0.99<\/a>.<\/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":"