"The Coming of Shadows" discussion

[ruuger]

This is the discussion post for the episode 2X09, "The Coming of Shadows". Spoilers for the whole of the series, including the spin-offs and tie-ins, are allowed here so newbies beware.

Summary:
The Centauri emperor visits Babylon 5.

Extra reading:
The article for "The Coming of Shadows" at Lurker's Guide.

Comments

I:) Londo's Dream - b)

[selenak.livejournal.com]

The dream continues with the image of Londo being crowned, and clad in the imperial white we've seen the Centauri Emperor wear throughout Coming of Shadows. The symbolism of Londo starting out the series dressed in purple (s1), moving on to mainly black (after the first third of s2 until the last third of Fall of Centauri Prime in s5) and ending it in white is rather obvious; we see it here in the dream sequence in fast forward. The crown image (Londo doesn't look that much older than he's now, which indicates this isn't something far into the future) is juxtaposed with another image of Londo as Emperor, only this time he is older, much older, coughing, looking drained, turning his head as if feeling watched. If you watch this the first time, you get the impression Londo's reign won't be a happy one, to put it mildly. W'hen I rewatched it for the first time after having seen a certain s3 episode, I was deeply impressed because it also both manages to give a hint at something and not to spell it out, because that should be kept from the viewer for a while yet. What I thought with only s2 knowledge: Londo is MacBeth. MacBeth has murdered sleep, you know, and now MacBeth shall sleep no more. Coming of Shadows is the frst but not the last occasion in s2 and 3 where you can find Londo/MacBeth parallels if you want. Like MacBeth, Londo starts his bloody road with the clear awareness it damms him, as opposed to his co-conspirator, Refa (who stands for Lady M, one assumes), who can only see the short term benefit of ambition. Like with the Scottish duo, the power balance shifts; aft first, it's Refa who pushes and is self assured, whereas later, it's Londo who seizes the initiative. (Though this is where the parallel ends; there is no affection between Londo and Refa at the best of times, as there was between the MacBeths, let alone later on, and of course Refa never goes insane.)

The last and concluding image of Londo's dream is the only one the viewer was already told about, again all the way back in the first episode of the show in season 1. Londo and G'Kar strangling the life out of each other. This is the image described by Londo when talking to Sinclair in Midnight at the Firing Line:

"My people we have a way, you see. We know how, and sometimes even when, we are going to die. Comes in a dream, eh? In my dream, I am an old man, it's twenty years from now, and I am dying my hands wrapped around someone's throat, and his around mine. We have squeezed the life out of each other. The first time I saw G'Kar, I recognized him as the one from the dream. It will happen- twenty years from now, we will die, our hands around each other's throats."

However, Coming of Shadows is the first time the audience actually sees this image as well. Iit will be repeated in Londo's mind various times for us to see from this point onwards - once very quickly near the end of this episode, when Vir asks Londo whether he doesn't want to become Emperor, and on other occasions, notably in Dust to Dust. The question of whether the future is something fixed in the B5 universe is interesting. It's a part of Londo's character that he believes it is (he believes his death dream; he believes Turhan when the later tells him he's dammed) ... and yet at times hopes it isn't. In Coming of Shadows he tells Vir he has no choice. This, of course, is not true, no more than G'Kar's assertion to Sheridan early on and towards his fellow Narn about having no choice is. Years later, in another dream, Londo's image of Vir - who in Coming of Shadows already points out that Londo's assertion isn't true, that he does have a choice - will reply, as an answer to Londo's statement that his life is fixed, that he knows how he will die: "A prophecy is a guess that comes true. Otherwise it's just a metaphor. You could kill yourself tomorrow and the dream would just be a dream."