{"id":7249,"date":"2019-04-05T13:00:28","date_gmt":"2019-04-05T20:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/?p=7249"},"modified":"2019-03-26T10:23:46","modified_gmt":"2019-03-26T17:23:46","slug":"mark-watches-babylon-5-s05e19-the-wheel-of-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2019\/04\/mark-watches-babylon-5-s05e19-the-wheel-of-fire\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Watches ‘Babylon 5’: S05E19 – The Wheel of Fire"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the nineteenth episode of the fifth season of Babylon 5<\/i>, Lyta makes demands; Garibaldi is discovered; G\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Kar is overwhelmed; and Sheridan and Delenn experience a major change. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch Babylon 5<\/i>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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

Oh, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s SO MUCH going on here, so let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s jump into it!<\/p>\n

Garibaldi<\/b><\/p>\n

If I have anything to nitpick here, it has nothing to do with the depiction of alcoholism and addiction. Even though my experience with it intersects only partially with Garibaldi and Lochley, I can still recognize how this disease manifests in others. And it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s important to have differing depictions of these sort of things to help folks understand that this experience is not a monolith. There is no one way to be one, to deal with addiction, or to live with it. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the beauty of seeing such very, very different characters having this common ground between them. There are<\/i> shared aspects to the experience that a lot of folks have.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll talk more about that in a second. I kind of expected the show to deal with the more specific failures that Garibaldi had been responsible for. While Sheridan suspected that his friend had started drinking again, we don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get a solid timeline for when that suspicion began. Did Sheridan ever come to know how many missions Garibaldi botched? How many people died because of him? I get why the script ultimately focuses on the more personal stakes here, but I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get a sense that Garibaldi was held accountable for some pretty heinous things that happened because of him. On the other hand, however, I greatly appreciate how much care and compassion is demonstrated by both Sheridan and Lochley. That stuff is important to see! Garibaldi needed to hear that Sheridan wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t furious with him (at least not right then) and that his friend was ready to listen to him. Sheridan allowed vulnerability by being<\/i> vulnerable, and it was such a compassionate response. Lochley, meanwhile, was more forceful, but her technique was to drive home the point that Garibaldi was not alone. He repeatedly tells her that she doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t understand what he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going through, but she knows that isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t true! And if Garibaldi hadn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t consistently lashed out at her during that conversation, he would have found that out a lot sooner.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But this is Garibaldi we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re talking about; he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s quick to being defensive. So I appreciated that he did apologize to Lochley for snapping at her. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m interested, then, in seeing how his genuine desire to do better\u00e2\u20ac\u201da desire I do believe!\u00e2\u20ac\u201dis going to be complicated by the deal he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s made with Lyta. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t doubt that one of the reasons Garibaldi was driven into his relapse was the neural block that Bester gave him, but I also don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t exactly feel ecstatic about where his story is going. Part of that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s because there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just so much unknown! Which\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 you know, this is going to require me to talk about Lyta a lot, so let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just go there.<\/p>\n

Lyta<\/b><\/p>\n

Wow, hi, she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a lot, isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t she? And without that crucial reveal, I started questioning the writing choices for her character in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Wheel of Fire.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Yes, she was more confident in herself and in her mission, and yes, she was also willing to bend the rules more frequently. But controlling an entire room full of people? Funding bombings of the Psi Corps? It was just a tiny stretch too much, at least initially. Why? Why would she do these sort of things? And why would she be so righteous about what she was doing?\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Yeah, it really changes the context of the episode to find out that the Vorlons basically made her into the telepathic version of a thermonuclear weapon. She knows<\/i> that by this episode, and I bet she figured it out after Byron died. If you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got that kind of power\u00e2\u20ac\u201da power that must seem limitless to her\u00e2\u20ac\u201dwouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t you act invincible? Wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t you believe that no one could hurt you or detain you or stop you for any reason? That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s exactly how she behaves in this episode! So, her ego has played a huge part in her character arc, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all complicated by the emotional reason why she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s doing what she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s doing. Well, and not just her! Garibaldi\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s need for closure intersects with her need to the destruction of the Psi Corps. This might be a symbiotic relationship with this goal in mind, but it could so easily turn toxic, too. If Lyta is willing to violate the consent of so many people at once without a second thought, how far will she go to liberate the other telepaths? I GENUINELY DON\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T KNOW.<\/p>\n

David<\/b><\/p>\n

There are three episodes left, and somehow, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got a TON of time left to cover in this story. Delenn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s pregnancy is now finally here, but there are only a couple hours that remain to explore it? What about the events of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153War Without End\u00e2\u20ac\u009d? I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m now going into this last block of episodes wondering if there will be a major time jump at some point. I still believe that G\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Kar and Londo will die strangling one another, so how do we get there? What about the imprisonment of Sheridan and Delenn? WHAT WILL DAVID LOOK LIKE?<\/p>\n

G\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Kar<\/b><\/p>\n

Let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just appreciate the fascinating journey that G\u00e2\u20ac\u2122kar is on and how it contrasts with Londo\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s. Long ago, G\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Kar would have relished the opportunity to have the kind of reverential power he now has. His desire for retribution would have taken center stage, and his story would have gone in a much, much different direction. But G\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Kar is at a point where he could not be less interested in power or worship. He wants nothing of the sort! And yet, many Narns see him as a religious figure to be idolized and worshipped, despite that this is deeply uninteresting to him. G\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Kar wants people to listen to him, and he wants to teach his people, but the adoration he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s receiving is TERRIFYING. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s senseless and without deep thought! People want to mirror G\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Kar, to do exactly as he does, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s part of that elevation to godhood that haunts him in this episode. It doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t matter that he decries the attention and worship; even these acts are seen as noble because of course<\/i> a great man like G\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Kar would be deeply humble.<\/p>\n

It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an endless cycle, and G\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Kar\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s plan to break it is brilliant. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so pure<\/i>. He just wants to leave it all behind and to explore the cosmos, meeting other races and species and cultures so as to further his own scope of the universe. If he wants to celebrate the diversity of difference, what better way is there? And maybe, just maybe, while he is an absurd distance from home, his people will stop looking to him to answer all their questions. They have to figure these things out for themselves!<\/p>\n

Hell, maybe Lyta will find an uninhabited world for the telepaths! Well, if she doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t SET HERSELF OFF LIKE A BOMB. Oh god, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m so nervous for the end of this show??? I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know where this is going!<\/p>\n

The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Wheel of Fire\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":"