{"id":7231,"date":"2019-03-18T13:00:04","date_gmt":"2019-03-18T20:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/?p=7231"},"modified":"2019-03-12T16:12:12","modified_gmt":"2019-03-12T23:12:12","slug":"mark-watches-babylon-5-s05e11-phoenix-rising","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2019\/03\/mark-watches-babylon-5-s05e11-phoenix-rising\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Watches ‘Babylon 5’: S05E11 – Phoenix Rising"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the eleventh episode of the fifth season of Babylon 5<\/i>, Bester is the goddam worst. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch Babylon 5<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Trigger Warning: For discussion of police brutality, nonconsensual medical procedures, alcoholism.<\/b><\/p>\n

That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s truly the message of this episode, isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t it? And I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to ignore that Sheridan and Lochley both made choices that affected this outcome, but the main factor that sent this south was BESTER. He escalated things beyond where they were needed, and even in the end, when EarthGov didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t rule in his favor, he just couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t let it go!<\/p>\n

But I wanted to start with Garibaldi\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s plot before I delve into the disaster that is the telepath story in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Phoenix Rising.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s bad enough that Garibaldi was so horribly mistreated, that he was manipulated through telepathy into turning against his friends, and that there was no real way to prove what was done to him. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s why he decides to confront Bester in the man\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s quarters. If he can get Bester to finally admit the truth, justice might actually be within reach. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an act of desperation, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also one that makes perfect sense in the moment. Garibaldi can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get closure without some sort of public reckoning. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not like Bester is at all shy to admit exactly<\/i> what he did! He spells it out succinctly here, and he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s done it before! But it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s always in private and he always retains plausible deniability.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

There is, of course, a terrible irony in what Bester did to Garibaldi. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an act that is later given a parallel when we learn what Bester did to Byron. Bester loves to manipulate people; this we know far too well. But the way<\/i> he manipulates others always seems to involve an intense cruelty. It wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t enough to just fuck up Garibaldi\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s life. He had to telepathically block Garibaldi from ever causing harm to him. He stripped him of his agency, his ability to choose, but left his rage intact<\/i>. Thus, Garibaldi can only simmer; he can only stew; he can only exist within his anger, but can never do what he wants to do with it. Yes, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an act of self-preservation on the part of Bester, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so much more than that.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Bester is the worst.<\/p>\n

I get why this episode is called \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Phoenix Rising.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d In the ashes of what happens in this story, Byron\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hope for a peaceful telepath existence rises and continues on. But this could also be called \u00e2\u20ac\u0153A Tragedy of Telepaths\u00e2\u20ac\u009d because THIS IS SUCH A TRAGEDY. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s even more so because Byron\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s backstory is revealed, and lord, this is a million times more intense because of it. Byron himself fascinates me because he is a character who is dedicated to his own moral system, right up until the end. But that system did not just form randomly; it is not arbitrary. Byron\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s past as a Psi Cop, one who was once manipulated into murdering non-telepaths, directly influenced the development of his policy of non-violence and his hatred of the Psi Cops. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s such a bold choice of an origin, which does make me sad that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll no longer be around anymore.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Yet even that<\/i> decision makes sense to me within the worldview of Byron. Byron left the Psi Corps after Bester threatened to have him immediately executed if he didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t fire on a ship of mundanes. As Byron put it, this was intentional<\/i>. Bester wanted Byron to feel guilt over killing the mundanes because it meant there was blood on his hands, too. Again, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s such a cruel form of manipulation! And given Bester\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s monologue at the end of the episode, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s easy to see why he thought this would work. He thought it would compel Byron to feel like he was on the same side. Instead\u00e2\u20ac\u201dAND MUCH MORE BELIEVABLY SO!!!\u00e2\u20ac\u201dit pushed Byron away. He saw through the manipulation, and he vowed not only to never kill again, but to help other telepaths not use violence as well.<\/p>\n

So, his backstory lends a context to his entire characterization in this season, and it also<\/i> explains why he is so upset that some of his followers turned to violence anyway. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s always taken that as a personal failure, and now I know why! He feels like he failed these people, that he wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t a good enough teacher, that he let them down. Is that necessarily fair? I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really think so, but in Byron\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s mind, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all that matters. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s why he decided to meet the others in Med Lab, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s why he arranged what he hoped would be a peaceful end. Even within that, there is his deliberate attempt at holding one\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s self accountable, something he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s tried to do ever since he was complicit in the murder of innocent people. He wants to hand over all those responsible for violence so they can be brought to justice… as long as the innocent telepaths can escape.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a metaphor here, intentional or not, and it reminded me of how those of us who have been on the receiving end of police brutality, or communities with fraught relationships with the cops, react to the presence of law enforcement. No matter the intent, sometimes the very presence<\/i> of cops exacerbates a situation. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s something Lochley and Sheridan come to understand and then HATE about Bester. Of course, Bester proves this fear and concern over and over again by overreacting or deliberately goading the others. One of the telepaths makes this clear when he yells out that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153not going back\u00e2\u20ac\u009d with the Psi Cops. Because when presented with the choices\u00e2\u20ac\u201dgo with the Psi Cops or fight for freedom\u00e2\u20ac\u201donly one of those seems appealing. And I get that! We all know the Psi Cops are a disaster and one of the worst organizations in the entire show.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But even that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not why Byron does what he does. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s about impurity; it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s about how he didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t live up to the promise he had made himself and the others. He killed one of their own in order to save everyone, and even that is just a step too far for him. So yes, none of these people wanted to go back with Bester; but I feel like there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s another component here. They had become something that strayed from their core values, and there was no coming back from that.<\/p>\n

IT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S VERY INTENSE. But so is this ending, which took me a moment to understand because I was focusing on the news broadcast so much that I DIDN\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T EVEN NOTICE THAT GARIBALDI HAD POURED HIMSELF A DRINK. My attention was on the wrong detail! Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m upset. And after the events of this episode, Garibaldi\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s relapse has such weight<\/i>. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a reaction to feeling helpless, isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t it?<\/p>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122M A MESS.<\/p>\n

The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Phoenix Rising\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":"