{"id":7240,"date":"2019-03-27T13:00:23","date_gmt":"2019-03-27T20:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/?p=7240"},"modified":"2019-03-20T21:32:21","modified_gmt":"2019-03-21T04:32:21","slug":"mark-watches-babylon-5-s05e15-darkness-ascending","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2019\/03\/mark-watches-babylon-5-s05e15-darkness-ascending\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Watches ‘Babylon 5’: S05E15 – Darkness Ascending"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the fifteenth episode of the fifth season of Babylon 5<\/i>, Lennier makes a discovery; Delenn and Sheridan disagree for a short time; Garibaldi lies; and Lyta attempts a strategic deal. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch Babylon 5<\/i>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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

So, I said this in the video for this episode, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a good place to start here: I understand why some of the events in the previous episode needed to happen so that this <\/i>could happen. We needed Lennier to be in exactly that place (and had to establish his incredible oxygen-preserving ability) for this episode to be grounded in that reality. Garibaldi\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s brief scenes in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Meditations on the Abyss\u00e2\u20ac\u009d are the set-up for the return of Lise and their uncomfortable conflict. I still don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get Findell\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s inclusion, though, and I wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t say that this made the previous episode more exciting.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

That being said: OH MY GOD, I LOVED THIS EPISODE. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s complicated and messy and somehow begins the closure of a story that was hinted out YEARS AGO??? This show is RUDE.<\/p>\n

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

Let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just start with Lyta because HI HELLO HOW ARE ALL OF YOU HOW IS THIS HAPPENING. I certainly<\/i> forgot the offer that G\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Kar made to Lyta all those episodes ago, yet what I love about this callback is that it places these characters where they were years ago\u00e2\u20ac\u201das a reminder, that is\u00e2\u20ac\u201dand then immediately grounds them in their current incarnations. Neither Lyta nor G\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Kar are the same character anymore, and yet, they still cycle back to this deal to exchange genetic information for compensation. But this isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t something offered as an exploitation or a chance to get ahead at the expense of someone else. No, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Lyta taking up the promise she made to Byron\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s people and doing what she can (to a point!) to make that promise a reality. And I love that this season is consistent about Lyta\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s growth here. She has gone through such hell over the years, and now we see her completely dedicated to her own destiny and the destiny of other telepaths. She isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t willing to take shit from others; she knows what she wants. She is tired of waiting for other people to allow her into their spaces; she is carving her own.<\/p>\n

Of course, I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t ignore that her comfort manifested in a messy way in this very episode. At the opening, we watch her enter Garibaldi\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s dreams without his consent, and then she uses her powers to try to mask the experience as a dream. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s… super messed up??? Right? I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t feel like the show was telling us she was allowed to do that, but STILL. LYTA. MAYBE DON\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T DO THAT.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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

The dream did give us a further glimpse into Garibaldi\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s subconscious, though I feel like at this point, this is conscious thought now. He knows what he is doing, and he knows that he is lying to Lise. He seemed far more upset that he got caught than anything else! So, he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s defensive throughout this episode, and because of that, he says a lot of ridiculous shit. Like, how can he keep saying that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s in control when he literally messed up a major mission due to his drinking? Actually, I know exactly<\/i> how can say something like that because I went through a similar stage of denial with my own alcoholism. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve written about it before, but for context, I was bizarrely private with my alcohol consumption because I was deeply ashamed of it. And while I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have someone like Lise in my life trying to get me to stop, I certainly told myself over and over again that I was in control of my life and my drinking when I ABSOLUTELY WAS NOT. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so easy to slip into that kind of denial, too, to convince yourself of a reality that isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t happening at all! So it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s frustrating to see, not just because I hated seeing Garibaldi lie to Lise, but because I felt PERSONALLY ATTACKED. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s that whole meme of, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I am in this photo and I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t like it.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

So, here\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a question: Was Garibaldi\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s dream his subconscious’s way of warning him? I felt like that was the point. Even if that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s obvious, is he going to heed that warning? Will this oncoming war with the Centauri sober him up or not?\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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

I just want to state that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m so here for this show depicting Sheridan and Delenn as a complicated but very loving couple. They fight and disagree, but them being together is not the conflict itself<\/i>. Rather, the show explores the complications of marriage and diplomacy, and it does so in a way that keeps these two together. Sheridan didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to send Lennier to the Centauri border to protect him and Delenn; Delenn secretly sent him anyway in order to protect Sheridan and give him plausible deniability in case something went wrong. THEY DID THIS ALL FOR LOVE. And love can make people do messy, complicated things!!!<\/p>\n

But this story goes beyond that. As I had mentioned before, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a tension in Lennier\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s mission because the audience knows the truth and knows that if he succeeds, he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll only discover half<\/i> of the secret. Even then, this episode gives us one of the most monumentally messed up scenes in the whole show: Lennier latching onto a Centauri ship and watching hopelessly as it destroys life. Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, I just didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even think about this possibility, but it was there all along! He was always tasked with getting evidence of these attacks, which means that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d inevitably see one happen and be unable to stop it. That would be devastating to watch for anyone, but for someone like Lennier? NO. NOPE. TRULY TERRIBLE.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

God, what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going to happen next??? I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know! We have a few scenes from past episodes to guide us. Like, at some point, Delenn and Sheridan have a child, and they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re also going to be imprisoned on Centauri Prime. But how much of what we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re seeing is Drakh control or Drakh manipulation? What is Londo going to do??? Will he try to protect the Centauri or is he going to accept that his people are doing something terrible<\/i>? I GENUINELY DON\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T KNOW.<\/p>\n

The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Darkness Ascending\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":"