{"id":7216,"date":"2019-03-06T13:00:40","date_gmt":"2019-03-06T21:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/?p=7216"},"modified":"2019-02-25T20:14:00","modified_gmt":"2019-02-26T04:14:00","slug":"mark-watches-babylon-5-s05e06-strange-relations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2019\/03\/mark-watches-babylon-5-s05e06-strange-relations\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Watches ‘Babylon 5’: S05E06 – Strange Relations"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the sixth episode of the fifth season of Babylon 5<\/i>, EVERYTHING IS AN UNCOMFORTABLE MESS. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch Babylon 5<\/i>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Oh, I liked this episode and the messiness and the DRAMA and the developments that managed to make me feel both joy and terror. Things are falling into place, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122M SCARED.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Lochley<\/b><\/p>\n

Well, I was close, but NOPE. Still wrong, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all. And I do have to accept that I might be wrong about Lochley as a character anyway<\/i>, but I feel like the events of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Strange Relations\u00e2\u20ac\u009d helped solidify her character for me. Assuming there aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t other<\/i> secrets she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hiding, I should note. (OH GOD, now I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m doubting myself again<\/i>.) Here, she not only further clashes with Garibaldi, but we see how her political mind works; her morals are spelled out more clearly; and I think<\/i> I can see a possible path to the future we saw in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Deconstruction of Falling Stars.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Lochley\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s struggle here is on multiple fronts, and the script deals with all of them without giving that sense of stories being spread too thin like I felt in the previous episode.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And up first: the truth of her relationship with Sheridan. Oh my god, MARRIED??? For three months??? Look, I figured out the whole previous relationship thing, but this was a shocker… until I thought about it for like FIVE SECONDS. Oh, they absolutely<\/i> act like a married couple at times, at least in the sense that they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re both headstrong and seem to fall into disagreement within minutes of being around one another. Now, it doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t feel like an antagonistic thing, and it sounds like it used to be much, much worse when they were together. But with that emotional anchor in their past, these characters are able to trust one another without all the other bullshit getting in the way. So yeah, this really was<\/i> a logical and reasonable choice. Lochley gets to be a symbol, and<\/i> she gets to work with someone she knows she can trust.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

That being said… OH LORD, DID I EVER DISAGREE WITH HER ON BESTER. I get that she is also struggling with the intersection of her military duty and her personal morality. On some level, she recognizes that what Bester is doing to the rogue telepaths is wrong. But what exists beyond that? She mentions to Lt. Corwin that she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s worried that Bester is right, that allying with the telepaths will backfire on them. That worries me! Part of it is because I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not even sure how the show itself feels about the rogue telepaths. In one sense, I feel like we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re supposed to sympathize with them and want the best for them. But Byron as a character confuses me at times. Is<\/i> he the charismatic martyr that we should be wary of? Should Lyta be wary of him, too? Or is he being positioned as a hero? I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t tell!<\/p>\n

There is one part here, though, that I wanted to call specific attention to. Garibaldi has an understandably intense reaction to Bester\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s presence on the station, and Lochley has an utterly offensive reaction to that<\/i>. She seems to treat Garibaldi as if he just merely dislikes Bester, as if he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s got beef with him that compels him to act out irrationally. Yet she also tells Sheridan that she knows what Bester was accused of doing to Garibaldi, and… lord, how the hell would you even be remotely<\/i> okay being around that man if you knew what he did to someone else? Even worse, she deploys some truly damaging logic when talking of Bester: He didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t do anything immoral or wrong to me<\/i>, so I am obligated to help him.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

YEAH. NO. THAT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S TERRIBLE. She doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even disagree with Sheridan when he describes the Psi Cops as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Fascists R Us.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d So she knows<\/i> what horrible things the Psi Corps and Bester have done, but just because he hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t done them to her personally, she still has to entertain politeness with him? NO. MAKE FASCISTS ENDLESSLY UNCOMFORTABLE FOREVER. Forever!!! This made me so angry, and thus, it paints her actions in a different light. Look, Garibaldi is an asshole a lot of the time, but he was justified in wanting to clobber Bester, and Lochley\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s treatment of Bester is suspect at best<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Telepathy<\/b><\/p>\n

Even though Lochley eventually comes up with a solution to Bester that delays any action for sixty days, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m still worried about where this is heading. She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so bound by duty that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hard to see the charity in her actions. She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s pragmatic, but does she care<\/i> about the rogue telepaths at all? I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really get that feeling. And while that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s happening, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Lyta\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s continued relationship with Byron, which shows us a character who does<\/i> deeply care about these people. (Well, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d argue that pretty much everyone else wants them to have safety and such, too. Dr. Franklin clearly wants to help them, and Sheridan is willing to go to bat for them, too.) Granted, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a romantic element here, too, and I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to ignore it. Does that cloud Lyta\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s judgment? Maybe, but part of Lyta\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s arc over the course of this show has always involved her need for a space of her own. Here, with Byron\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s people, she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s found a purpose. The idea of a telepath colony or world is immensely appealing to her! Well, so is Byron, too. These two have an energy and a chemistry that we didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t see in Lyta and Zack. (I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m guessing my prediction is gonna be 100% wrong, then.) But where will this take them? Again, we know one piece of this puzzle, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so UPSETTING. Is it Bester who pushes them to that point, or is it Sheridan, or will it be Lochley, or is it ALL OF THEM.<\/p>\n

A New Role<\/b><\/p>\n

And I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m in the same space when it comes to G\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Kar and Londo. Oh, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m just as amused as Delenn and G\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Kar at the thought that G\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Kar gets to be in the royal court on Centauri Prime. Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s SO MUCH. This is a race of people seen as garbage and animalistic by the Centauri people, and now, one of them is instantly promoted to one of the more powerful positions in the whole government.<\/p>\n

But I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m torn<\/i>. The position is still one where G\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Kar is protecting one of the main people who tormented his people. And I get that G\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Kar is at a place where this doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t bother him anymore. Still, this also places him in exactly the place we saw him in during \u00e2\u20ac\u0153War Without End.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d So is the future unchangeable? Is that what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s about to happen? IT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S SO UPSETTING. Why is this show doing this to me???<\/p>\n

The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Strange Relations\u00e2\u20ac\u009d can be downloaded here for $0.99<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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

– The paperback edition of my debut, ANGER IS A GIFT, is now up for pre-order!<\/a> It comes out on May 7, 2019.\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":"