I'd forgotten how much happened in this ep - I had an idea that it just had the Delenn thing and Garibaldi getting shot and the assassination - I'd forgotten about the return of Mr Morden and his "friends" :)

This was a marvellos culmination of all the threads in S1 - little seeds have been sown throughout and then theres a massive sowing here that screams "give me S2 now!"

Who killed the president? - how big is the conspiracy? What will Delenn turn into? What has it to do with the Vorlons and of course the biggest of the lot - who the hell are Mr Morden's associates and what are their plans for Londo?

I'm sorry I'm off to watch the first ep of S2 :)

(And I know all the bloody answers :P )

"Naughty naughty, very naughty" :lol:

Okay, first off I'll just say I was mildly disappointed with the ending of the ep. It seemed rather anti climatic, especially as I was waiting for something big to happen with Sinclair. But, I guess if I hadn't heard about him not being on the cover of the S2 boxset, I wouldn't have expected anything major to happen with him, so I shouldn't complain too much.

Anyway, the rest of the ep was great. I'd forgotten about Sinclair's woman. And what an exceedingly romantic proposition he delivered - "Look, do you wanna get married or not?" :rolleyes:

I thought I recognised Petrov, but it just turned out to be someone who to me looked very much like Seann William Scott.

Morden is creepy. It seems very much a case of be careful what you wish for between him and Londo. Londo is only just realising the extent of what he asked for, and I'm guessing he'll pay for that decision in the future.

I was quite shocked at the presidential assassination. Did we ever see the president? I can't remember... :unsure: Seems like there's a lot of people involved in the setup. I'm guessing they're linked to the shadow things? Or are there 2 separate conspiracies going on? :huh:

Oh yes, and finally, what is Delenn going to turn into? And what's it got to do with Kosh? And damn Sinclair for getting there too late and not finding out more about what happened to him at the battle of the Line. :angry:

I can't go straight onto S2, as I now have to wait for the bleeding thing to download. <_<

And bloody hell, look at the time, no wonder I'm :yawn: . G'night. :sleeping:

Some of those questions start being addressed in the first couple of episodes of Season 2 Michelle. Not saying which ones though. So you'd better get your skates on with those Season 2 d/ls ;)

Regarding the point on Sinclair, at this point no one knew that the character wouldn't be returning, otherwise I'm sure he'd have got a better send off than that.

We never saw President Santiago, but the image they popped up on screen of him in the episode itself was that of Doug Netter, one of the Executive Producers :lol:

Bedtime for me now as well I think :yawn:

So, here we are, the end of the season, and boy what a finale !!

As Michelle's pointed out already, a welcome return for both G'Kar, and by extension the Narn. Their petty squabbling and posturing with the Centauri/Londo has been sorely missed over recent episodes :) In fact, Londo and G'Kar are perfect charicatures of their respective peoples.

They also both add to what little humour there is within this episode; G'Kar's heavy schedule for example, and Londo's;

:lol: :lol: :lol:

This episode both culminates a lot of the breadcrumbs that have been dropped and scattered throughout the first season, as well as laying certain groundwork for season two. Both are done, pretty well.

Speaking of G'Kar's return, this episode is littered with reappearances; G'Kar, Sakai, Morden, Jack.

The episode sees President Santiago's goodwill to the Outer Planets tour coming to Io, with tragic consequences. The clues to this resolution to season one have been there and have been laid all through the first season. Pro Earth Groups unhappy with Santiago's pro-Alien relations stance, rumours of Psi-Corp and Earth Force up to no good, it's all there. You could be forigven for thinking though that such a move would have been a little too bold. Killing a President ?? Are you nuts !!

We get the first glimpse of Santiago here, albeit a still picture, actually played by none other than Doug Netter, one of the show's executive producers. AS Joe states on the commentary (Which you shouldn't listen to yet btw), "First chance I had, I killed him off!" :lol:

Sure was lucky that the Vice President, Morgan Clark had to disembark just before the tragedy due to ill health. Come to think of it, he didn't look to ill whilst being sworn in aboard Earth Force Two :rolleyes: Was he in on it ??

You also get Clark's disturbing initial address;

Certainly sounds like a sentiment shared by most of the Pro-Earth groups we've been hearing about all year. Earth moving towards iscolationism. And what effect will this have on B5 ?? Santiago was said to be a popular supporter of the project ??

On board the station, we have the whole Devereux/Garibaldi/Petrov/Jack story that culminates with Jack shooting Garibaldi in the back. This speaks volumes. Who ever's behind this has the clout to infiltrate Garibaldi's security detail. There's also the fact that Devereux has an unregistered PPG, inferring that he's with Earth Force Security somehow. One of the great things about B5 is that the groundwork is subtle, and usually in the background. Here for example, Jack was introduced a while back, his part slowly building up to the point where we have him here, a trusted aide, only to reveal himself as a traitor. I don't think this is particularly spoilerish to say now, but that original character trait would originally have gone to Laurel Takashima (First Officer in the Pilot episode, The Gathering). Takashima was involved with setting up Jeff in that episode, as well as being the one to shoot Garibaldi in the back at the end of the first season. When she wasn't picked up for the series, that part of her character was passed to Jack. There is another part to her character though. What it is and who it's passed to I can't yet say ;)

This is just one of the threads to this episode though. There's also the return of Mr Morden and his 'Associates'. This time going a step further on Londo's behalf and wiping out an entire Narn outpost. Just what is Morden up to ?? And why more importantly ?? The inferenace again is that they're somehow playing Londo, but to what end ?? What are they really up to ?? And why is destiny on their side ?? Is there any link with Sinclair and his destiny ?? And what were those creatures with Morden in his room ?? It'll be interesting to see what the exact price to Londo of this help will be. You get the impression that it won't be as easy for Londo as Morden's flipant answer would have us believe. The point of the particular exercise was apparently to get Londo noticed within the upper levels of Centauri political society. Interesting. Is Morden using Londo to get to the Centauri ?? And why ??

There's also Delenn and her story. We've seen the device used to construct the chrysalis being constructed throughout previous episodes, Legacies for example. But here it's completed and put to use. What is she doing ?? A chrysalis infers a change, but what to ?? What things did Delenn want Sinclair to know ?? There's also Delenn's question to Kosh, and his one word reply - "Yes". What was the question, and why was Delenn so disturbed by that answer ?? To the point that she sought audience with Kosh before initiating the chrysalis and her change. Why would Kosh reveal himself to her ?? We certainly get the impression that there's a relationship there between the Minbari and the Vorlons. How far does that relationship go ?? Are they both in on what's going on with Sinclair and the prophecies/destinies ??

I also loved the moment with G'Kar when he finds out through Na'Toth that the outpost in Quadrant 37 has been destroyed.

Both G'Kar and Sinclair are right, we were at a crossroads, we can't go back, and as Sinclair points out, nothing's the same anymore.

On a more positive note we see Jeff proposing to Catherine. He's a very, very lucky man :angry: A bold move for a leading character though, being married off. It's never happened in Trek for example.

And so ends the first season, with more questions raised than answered, but a great journey, and this is where the show starts to get really interesting.

So see y'all for season 2 next week :thumbsup:

Ah, that makes more sense. So he's not in S2 at all? Do we just get a side comment "Sinclair left his command cos he was upset about the president?" :unsure: I know, "wait til next week". :rolleyes:

I never even noticed that image. Perhaps I was having a micro sleep at that point. :lol:

Well, I didn't actually mention it (not in this thread anyway), although I meant to. Put it down to tiredness. :lol:

I don't recall hearing that either. Perhaps I shouldn't watch crucial episodes at 3am. :lol:

I think this is where watching the series a 2nd time through must help, cos I can't remember seeing him before. :rolleyes: Was still a shock nonetheless that one of Garibaldi's own crew was in on it.

That's interesting. So Takashima was involved in changing the logs of the lift bays and getting that "changer suit" thing on board? Or something else? I can only assume she was not picked up for the series cos she was a diabolical actress. :lol:

It's addressed well. That's all I'll say for now :) Next week will answer that particular question for you.

I'd forgotten as well, until his grinning face popped up on the vid screen :lol:

It was very subtley placed Michelle ;)

You're right, that kind of thing does benefit from repeat viewings. One of the great things with B5, no matter how many times you see it, there's still new information/angles to unravel. Jack first appeared in I think it was AND THE SKY FULL OF STARS, way back towards the beginning of the season.

It would have been revealed that she was the support on the station for the assassination attempt against Kosh. Not directly probably, in fact, it's highly likely she wouldn't even have known what she was doing, but that's wandering towards spoiler territory so I'll have to expand on that at a future date ;)

Ben Sisko aside, of course :)

That was different though, that was towards the end of the series where it made little difference.

The whole point of Trek not doing it was that they didn't want to tie their leading man down, whereas B5 took that step at the end of it's first year.

That, and I forgot Ben Sisko :P

:sleeping: time for me, back to w**k tomorrow :rolleyes:

and so the end of the season and did they save the best till last or what?

An excellent episode packed with incident and perfect for giving the viewer the desire to see what happens next.

The only disapointment is of course that I know Sinclair is not in season 2 so it seems a very strange way for the character to depart, I can only assume they were expecting him to be back for the second season.

oh and who wouldnt want to marry Catherine - shes gorgeous!!!!!

Sinclair gets points for the best wedding proposal ever. :)
"Look, do you want to get married or not?"

Yaye for B5 having what certainly looks like a courtyard maze. :)

And I wonder... when Garibaldi was brought to Medlab, Franklin had him turned back-down on the stretcher... surely as Garibaldi was shot in the back (and the wound wasn't "through and through", as we'd have seen bloodstains when he was crawling to the lift), shouldn't he have been turned back-up? Or was it just because it would have looked awkward for him to try and pass on the message to Sinclair in that position? :p

:lol:

I've wondered that before as well. They obviously don't like Garibaldi very much :lol:

:lol: One of my favourite pieces of dialogue from the whole series :lol: :thumbsup:

In a word: wow! :o

So much brilliance going on in this episode that even the return of that Sakai bird and Sinclair's God-awful proposal speech can't ruin it :lol:

This episode grabs hold from the moment Petrov dies and doesn't let up for an instant. The increasing tension throughout is executed perfectly.

I love the way the shot of Clark being sworn in mimicks Lyndon Johnson's after JFK's assassination :thumbsup: Are their more parallels there, with Garibaldi's mate killing Devereaux and his men, assassinating the assassins so to speak, like Jack Ruby? :unsure:

Garibaldi's investigation is very well done, too. I particularly like the scene where he goes to question the Lurkers, and the subsequent scene where he uncovers the "medical supplies" and figures things out. And then when he tells Sinclair what's happening and the commander starts running... great stuff, and probably the fastest that Michael O'Hare's ever moved :lol:

The destruction of Earth Force 1 is, I think, one of the finest moments in tv sf, shocking because you know it's coming but still hope that it can be stopped. Not on this show.

Can't forget the events in Quadrant 37, of course, because they are monumental. I love Londo's conversations with Mr Morden.

"What is the price for this...help?"

"No price, Ambassador. But at some point in the future, if we deliver on our promises, we may come to you and ask you for a favor. That's all."

And what were those things he was "communing" with?? :fear:

I am always impressed by G'Kar's reaction. You immediately think that he will blame the Centauri, but he figures out what's going on very quickly.

"Tell the commander he was right. We were at a crossroads, and there is no going back."

:thumbsup:

And as for Delenn... For some reason, when she goes to visit Kosh, the sight of her taking one breath from the breathing apparatus always reminds me of Dennis Hopper in Blue Velvet :lol: Damn Sinclair for forgetting to go see her sooner :rolleyes:

And to cap it all off, one of my favourite closing shots (with the music, especially) and a wonderfully prophetic final line "Nothing's the same anymore..."

One of the best season finale's ever :thumbsup:



Kosh's Wibble of the Week:

"And so it begins..."

:thumbsup: