Rewatch for Season 3, episode 22 – Z’ha’dum

Here are your recaps:
Dreamwidth
Livejournal
(And yes, I know I spelled discussion wrong in the title on DW but it won’t let me edit it.)

LOTS and LOTS of stuff at The Lurker’s Guide to Babylon 5



One hell of an ep, wasn’t it?

Anna arrives and we know there’s something off about her from the beginning, don’t we?

And poor Delenn.

And OMG! Michael!

And BOOM!!!!!! Bye, bye, Z’ha’dum!

And this:


*

1. How much of the history from Morden, Anna and Justin was true?
2. Were you surprised at what John did?
3. Does he compare to Gandalf? If not, then who?
4. What was the most unexpected thing in this episode?
5. The Shadows call John a nexus – an unchanging element in the story. How did this happen?
6. Oh and what about the Shadow agent that called Londo home? What was that about?

Rewatch for Season 3, Episode 20 – And the Rock Cried Out, No Hiding Place


Made by Scifi man

Recaps are found at:
Dreamwidth
Livejournal
And Analysis and JMS comments at The Lurker’s Guide to Babylon 5

This is one hell of an episode!

Z minus begins with Z minus 14 days –

Londo has a scheme to solidify his power and deal with Refa’s betrayal in a most brutal way. He uses Vir and G’kar and it is a most diabolical plan. I have to admit, I did enjoy Refa’s fate with the sermon and the song over the top of them

The Baptist preacher, Reverend Dexter, comes to B5 and brings a Buddhist, a Rabbi and a Muslim cleric with him. His sermon is fiery, but quite calm for a Baptist and certainly more inclusive than any I’ve known. I loved watching them all singing the song with the singer!



And John gets his fleet of Whitestars!

Reverend Dexter says this in his sermon:
Every day, here and at home, we are warned about the enemy. But who is the enemy? Is it the alien? Well, we are all alien to one another. Is it the one who believes differently than we do? No, oh no, my friends. The enemy is fear. The enemy is ignorance. The enemy is the one who tells you that you must hate that which is different. Because, in the end, that hate will turn on you. And that same hate will destroy you.


*

1. Did you feel more satisfaction than you should have when Refa got his? I did. Did he deserve it?
2. Did you notice that when Reverend Dexter was talking to John about ‘her’, he seemed surprised when John said Delenn? I actually have always thought the minister was referring to Ivanova. I believe she was as in love with John as she was Talia.
3. Did G’kar know the whole plan from the beginning?
4. Were you surprised at the clergymen working as spies?
5. What did you think of Londo?

Rewatch for Season 3, Episode 18 – Walkabout

The recaps:
Dreamwidth
Livejournal
Read more at The Lurker’s Guide to Babylon 5

Lots of symbolish stuff and mysterious stuff… and an unfriendly new Kosh.

Several pretty interesting story lines in this one. The new Vorlon Ambassador arrives on Babylon 5 and he’s different. Lyta arrives, too, both mad and sad that Kosh is dead.

We find out that Narn has about ten ships left yet the commander wants to go after the Minbari. G’kar is still banking on the humans.

Franklin has gone walkabout in Downbelow and even though that has always annoyed me, this time it didn’t. I really liked this speech.
I was always taught that if you're not careful, you can lose yourself in the world. You get too busy with things, not busy enough with yourself! Spend your days and nights living someone else's agendas, fighting someone else's battles, and you're doing the work you're supposed to be doing, but every day there's less and less of you in it all! Till one day, you come to a fork in the road, and because you're distracted, you're not thinking. You lose yourself. You go right, and the rest of you, the really important part of you, goes left! And you don't even know you've done it till you realize, you finally realize, that you don't have any idea who you are when you're not doing all those things! …
By going walkabout. You just leave everything, and you start walking. I mean, the Foundation adopted the idea from the Aborigines back on Earth. The theory is, if you're separated from yourself, you start walking and you keep walking until you meet yourself. Then you sit down, and you have a long talk. Talk about everything that you've learned, everything that you've felt, and you talk until you've run out of words. Now, that's vital, because the real important things can't be said. And then, if you're lucky, you look up, and there's just you. Then you can go home.

Perhaps he learned from Cailyn James that sometimes the universe puts you right where you need to be.

Lyta goes out Shadow hunting on the White Star. She finds out that there may be a piece of Kosh in Sheridan.

Some things I pondered or Questions:

1. What did Lyta fail at that she was so apologetic for?
2. Why did they let the other 3 Shadows go?
3. Does G’kar have a piece of Kosh? He went into his head as well.
4. Why did Lyta’s eye bleed?
5. How did G’kar get a whole fleet to come with him?

Oh and there’s Breen! All planets have Breen and G’kar said this about the Earth version: It's an Earth food. They are called Swedish meatballs. It's a strange thing, but every sentient race has its own version of these Swedish meatballs! I suspect it's one of those great universal mysteries which will either never be explained, or which would drive you mad if you ever learned the truth.

Rewatch for Season 3, Episode 16 – War Without End – Part One

Here are the links to recaps:
Dreamwidth
Livejournal
And analysis at The Lurker’s Guide to Babylon 5.

This was a very thrilling episode when I first saw it all those years ago. Sinclair, the note, Zathras, Babylon 4 and Old Londo! What could be better?

TIME TRAVEL!

The arc is getting into full swing and it pays not to look too closely at all the timey-wimey stuff… they could have benefitted from Tony Stark’s time GPS – much less clunky than what they used.

But Zathras was cool as ever. How can we not love him?


It does seem the Minbari have a lot they haven’t told anyone at all, doesn’t it? And there’s more! Wait ‘til the next episode! I did love hearing Marcus speak Minbari.

This is also one of the last good uses of Epsilon III that I remember.


*

1. What was your favorite scene?
2. Did Sinclair write the note to himself?
3. Why couldn’t Garibaldi go back to B4?
4. Did you think Sinclair was more animated in this and the next one than he ever was before?

Rewatch for Season 3, Episode 14 – Ship of Tears

Recaps are here:
Dreamwidth
Livejournal
And the Lurkeri’s Guide to Babylon 5 analysis and commentary from JMS.

A Bester episode… you probably know how much I love Bester and Psi Corps. But it is what it is. And G’Kar insists on being read into what Sheridan and the others are doing. Delenn must then explain why they let Narn be captured and occupied by the Centauri in order to lay low until they were ready to fight the Shadows.

There is a lot of mumbo jumbo about telepaths interfering with the organic blending of person/ship for the shadows and we still don’t really know why they have a ship full of blips heading to the Shadows… why would they want the one thing that seems to f-up their ships? Not sure putting teeps in the ships makes much sense to me.

Bester has a sweetie who is also pregnant. He wants her saved.


And there you have it.

Oh we find out that G’Quan and the remaining Narn teeps ran the Shadows from the Narn homeworld.

OH, ISN is back with the new world order and the sanitized BS news report.


*

1. Why didn’t whoever was holding Besters girlfriend know she was pregnant before sending her to the Shadows as spare parts?
2. Does using telepaths in Shadow ships make sense to you? It does not to me.
3. Was Bester’s wig the worst one yet?
4. Who is sending Teeps to the Shadows? Clark?

Rewatch for Season 3, Episode 12 – Sic Transit Vir

And here are the recaps:
Dramwidth
Livejournal

And the analysis and Comments from JMS at The Lurker’s Guide to Babylon 5

And a funny Londo scene to remind us that we still love him.


Ivanova and the naked dream… doesn’t everyone have this one?
Nightmare time!


John, Delenn and the almost kiss – a lot like reading fanfiction, eh?

And Vir and his blushing (and racist) bride.


Unfortunately, this episode is all too chilling. Lyndisty is way too much like too many people I’ve met here where I live. Pretty little things with the most vile stuff coming out of their mouths. She is an unapologetic monster and she doesn’t even know it. We have way too many people like that today on earth. *hops off soapbox*

Abrahamo Lincolni is a cool idea… Vir is a good guy and so cute.

*

1. So have you had the naked at work/school/in public dream?
2. The analysis did bring up an interesting question – Ivanova mentions tweaking the Abrahamo Lincolni bio and that the Centauri would never notice it in their data base. How did she get into their data base?
3. And Vir says ‘we’. Who could the others in ‘we’ be?
4. Have you ever seen such a mess as John made?

Rewatch for Season 3, Episode – Severed Dreams

We have another of VJS2259’s fantastic recaps:
Dreamwidth
And
Livejournal

And a long, long analysis and commentary from JMS at The Lurker’s Guide to Babylon 5.

*

And now, my take on the thing.

Wow! This one was a doozy. Apart from the shit hitting the fan, we also find out that the Shadows have their allies attacking one another and playing them off the Centauri – making a lot of Chaos!

We find out that Ron Howard’s dad was also Sheridan’s dad.

It begins with Londo in line in to leave (or come back to) the station and some not so nice comments about the Narn.

And the Alexander in a firefight with the Clarkstown, which they destroy and a few words about how awful civil wars are. The Alexander calls B5 and let’s them know they are headed there. Sheridan says okay. Hague has been killed and Ryan is in command.


We find out that Mars has refused to acknowledge Clark’s declaration of martial law and Orion 7 and Proxima 3 have broken away from Earth as well. Clark attacks Mars as well as the other colonies.

ISN is shut down by troops and we don’t find out the truth they’ve not been allowed to tell

Delenn departs for the Grey Council and breaks the staff of Valen, after she confronts them for ignoring her when she warned them of the Shadows.

Clark’s ships come into B5 and attack the Alexander and the Churchill as well as the station. Hiroshi, captain of the Churchill, sacrifices herself to save the Alexander


Lots of destruction later, it looks as if it’s curtains for the station when Delenn comes to the rescue! And man, does she ever!


The station follows the colonies and announces its independence.

The dream of a place for humans and aliens to meet in peace is severed.

Except for the actual war, this is the modern day US. I do hope we can resolve our mess before we break out in civil war.

*

1. Were we surprised when Corwin finally threw in with the Captain?
2. Would Delenn have blasted the Earth ships?
3. Did you notice all the Nightwatch people in line to leave when Delenn comes back?
4. How are they going to make a living and eat now at B5?
5. Is G’kar a full member of Sheridan’s dissidents now? He certainly does his part!

Rewatch for Season 3, Episode 8 – Messages from Earth

Links to VJS2259’s recap of this episode
Dreamwidth
Livejournal

And the analysis at The Lurker’s Guide to Babylon 5

The arc is really getting going in this episode.

Lots of important things happen:
We find out about the shadow ships on Mars and we know that Earthgov and PsiCorps knew about it.
The accusations against Clark are coming out on earth.
Nightwatch is becoming scarier and their reach is stretching.
Zack is conflicted and bothered by what they’re asking when they want him to find out where Sheridan went.
Sheridan took his White Star to stop a shadow ship from being taken unearhted from Ganymede.



It’s getting deep!

Susan had bacon and eggs! (isn’t Susan Jewish?)

And G’kar is writing his book!

Sooo

1. Do we ever find out all of PsiCorps involvement with Clark?
2. Marcus is a fighting fool, isn’t he?
3. Where did he get bacon and eggs?
4. Did she share? Would you have?


Have a Merry Christmas!!!

Rewatch for Season 3, Episode 6 – Dust to Dust

Here are the recaps:
Dreamwidth
Livejournal

And a long analysis at The Lurker’s Guide to Babylon 5

My favorite character is in this one: Bester (NOT).


This one is about the drug called Dust, which tends to make non telepathic persons temporarily telepathic, which is apparently addictive. It’s on the station and Bester shows up to find the person selling it.

Sheridan and his cohorts know they cannot allow Bester to scan them or he will know what they are up to. Ivanova wants to kill Bester, which I am all for, but Sheridan decides to use Minbari telepaths and insist that Bester take sleepers.

G’kar is buying dust because he means to look into Londo Mollari’s mind. He does and sees a lot but Kosh jumps in to stop him from seeing all of the truth. He does beat the crap out of Londo and ends up in the station jail for 60 days.



There is a lot going on in this one – and nothing!

*

1. Did Bester seem creepier than usual?
2. Do you think Psi Corps really dissected Talia?
3. Did you suspect how bad the Vorlons were at this time? I didn’t.
4. Did Bester already have Garibaldi singled out for what was to come?
5. I liked Ivanova’s solution – did you?

Rewatch for Season 3, Episode 4 – Passing through Gethsemane

Okay, I totally forgot to post this – I rewatched and then forgot what the hell I was doing!

Links to recaps:
Dreamwidth
Livejournal
And a pretty analysis at The Lurker’s Guide to Babylon 5


This is another episode that the man who is an atheist wrote that goes to the actual center of a belief when Brother Edward talks about the fact that he has always wondered what he would do in Christ’s place in the garden of Gethsemane, where Christ remained even though he knew he would be betrayed. He finds out in a moving and sad story of sin and atonement.


In the end, when the new brother is introduced to Sheridan, we get a lesson from Brother Theo on mercy and forgiveness.

There is some discussion of death of personality – Garibaldi and Sheridan seem to think people are getting off easy. Are they really?

There is other stuff – Lyta as a what- Vorlon? Was Kosh traveling in Lyta? Why? She is all healthy and has gills and pumped up powers… what the hell did the Vorlons do to her?


What do you think about this episode?