B5: Season 4, Episodes 17-20
May. 14th, 2009 01:50 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
icepixieI had to do some screaming into my pillow after these episodes. It was, in fact, quite theraputic. I may go do it again after I finish my writeup. Oh, MARCUS.
The Face of the Enemy
- And we continue the pain from the last episode. Oh, Michael. You poor, poor Judas.
- Susan reeeeally needs to stop tempting fate in these personal logs of hers. She of all people should know how much Murphy hates a phrase like, "as long as there are no more problems."
- DON'T DO IT! IT'S A TRAP! Argh. Sheridan, you just walked into the basement of the horror film house.
- Jeebus, PsiCorps just keeps getting creepier, you know?
- So that bit about a war between the telepaths and the mundanes was a giant flashing neon sign about the plot arc for S5, yes?
- Yay, Ivanova gets to go lead the fleet! Even if it's under terrible circumstances. And even if it leads to even more terrible circumstances GOD DAMN YOU JMS I HATE YOU WITH EVERY FIBER OF MY BEING.
- The heartrending scene of Garibaldi's betrayal was unfortunately undercut by that dreadful music. Could they fire this composer already? Yeesh. I was also not a fan of the seizure-inducing freeze-frames and blinking lights. Ecch.
- ...Is Delenn telepathic now? Or is it just by the power of LURVE that she knows Sheridan's in trouble?
- "Extinction"? Come on, now.
- At least Edgars recognizes that the normals made the teeps second-class citizens. That's about the only thing he has going for him.
- Okay, the recorder-in-the-tooth thing was a bit gross.
- AHA! I KNEW IT WAS BESTER CONTROLLING GARIBALDI'S ALTERNATE PERSONALITY ALL ALONG! (I really did. Because I was spoiled. Although I hope I would've caught it from the clues they planted earlier...)
- So in a way, Garibaldi actually has to thank Bester for rescuing him from the Shadows? That's a bit of an awkward position.
- I...actually don't hate Bester a lot of the time. Have I mentioned that before? He's far too ends-justify-the-means, of course, but his ends are actually rather noble.
- Although that is a terrible fate to leave Garibaldi to.
- Oh, Susan. Now your wonderful friendship with Michael is over as well. I want to retreat to my happy little shipper world for a while.
- Heh. Earthdome should be shaking in its boots now that Ivanova's in charge of the fleet.
Intersections in Real Time
Gotta admit, I find watching psychological torture about as entertaining as watching grass grow. Aside from liking the upsetting of expectations at the end (I figured on electric chair + last-minute rescue), this was pretty blah for me.
Between the Darkness and the Light
aka The Episode Where I Spent the Last Ten Minutes Mentally Shrieking "NOOOOOOOO!!!!!"
- Sheridan's not going to lose that beard, is he? Sigh. I'm not a fan. Makes him look much older.
- Oh, Michael. :(
- Yay, Franklin! Hear him out!
- Yay, Lyta!!
- And BWAH! Yes, you show her, Lyta.
- Oh, Londo. You have HONOR now. *squishes*
- YAY ALIENS! I got all verklempt there for a moment. Oh, you wonderful, united bunch of species.
- Is the knife in Garibaldi's back representative in some way of the Judas metaphor they've been working? I feel like it's a pretty significant place for an injury.
- "Or four hours and fifty-nine minutes of me bothering you about it." Oh, Marcus. *sobs*
- Aaaand then he turns a bit creepy. "You'll never know [about my creepy almost-touching-you-while-you-sleep-because-I'm-too-chicken-to-actualy-talk-to-you maneuver]." JMS, your id is showing, and it's scaring me.
- Hmmm. So if Susan has an eidetic memory, does that explain why she could operate so many systems on the White Star with, like, no training?
- Bwahahahaha! And she remembered the words. And has learned Minbari. And she LIKES HIM! I was kind of wondering when that 'ship would sail, you know? (AND GOD DAMMIT IT WAS ONLY FOR ONE EPISODE ARGH ARGH ARGH. We could've used more! Not just because it's fun, but because it would've built some more credibility for the next one!)
- Oh, HELL. That's a Shadow ship grafted onto an Earth one. ACK.
- Indeed, the GOD SENT ME speech is much, much better in context. *gets out of Susan's way*
- So here's how the ten seconds or so at the end of the battle went for me:
Marcus: "Susan!"
Debris: *flies toward ship*
Susan: *puts hands over face*
Me: "Yeah, like that'll help! EVASIVE MANEUVERS!!"
Debris: *crashes*
Show: *commercial break*
Electrical systems: *sputter, spark*
Marcus: "Susan?" *searches*
Susan: *moves a bit*
Me: "You found her! All is well!"
Marcus: *picks up a very still Susan*
Me: "Oh, wait. This is the end of S4...this is...oh, FUCK. I THOUGHT I HAD MORE TIME UNTIL THIS HAPPENED!" *starts crying*
- And then other stuff happened, and Susan was dying, and John was talking to her and Marcus was holding her hand and I was really, really not dealing well with it at all. Damn you, show.
Endgame
- On the upside, since I was spoiled, I didn't spend the entire episode wondering if Susan was going to live or die. I'm pretty sure that would've been worse than knowing what was going to happen. So...yay spoilers in some cases?
- I loved all the movement on and around Mars, with spaceplanes resupplying destroyers, lights blinking, things taking off and landing. It felt very real, and very much like a port.
- Hmmm. There was some new patch on the woman's arm in the first scene on the Apollo. Looked like...a lowercase letter alpha on a starfield? Maybe she was supposed to be one of Clark's elite forces.
- Oh, Marcus. There is something you can do. And you, you dear, brilliant fool, are going to do it.
- Oh, that was very slick, putting the altered telepaths on the enemy ships. This whole chess game they're playing is just breathtaking.
- Indeed, they are using people as weapons.
- Uhhhh...Marcus? You could've at least taken a shuttle or something instead of an entire freaking White Star, yes? That was a bit dumb.
- Clark is a bit Hitlerish, isn't he? The suicide only cements it.
- Oh, no. You have to ram it, don't you? I would've hated to watch this unspoiled!
- ...Deus ex Apollo?
- Oh, Marcus...
- Okay, now that I'm over the initial emotion of it, two criticisms: I wish we'd seen more of Marcus coming to love Susan, because as it stands, we basically got him thinking she was beautiful, which...is a start, I guess. I can fanwank more to it, but wish there had been more onscreen. (I know, it's courtly love and all that, but he does in fact live in the 23rd century, much as he appears to come from circa 1350.) Also, him saying the words was just too much. His actions spoke much louder than words.
- You know, it's interesting that Delenn and Sheridan had to go through the whole inquisitor thing to prove that they would die for each other, but it's Marcus who dies for Susan. Hmmm. I'm not sure what to make of that right now.
- Also, they just won the war. They retook Earth. And yet it all seems to fade away as we focus on this moment, this particular sacrifice. That's impressive.
- Yep, still need to do some screaming. And once that's done, somebody needs to point me to some damn fix-it fic.
The Face of the Enemy
- And we continue the pain from the last episode. Oh, Michael. You poor, poor Judas.
- Susan reeeeally needs to stop tempting fate in these personal logs of hers. She of all people should know how much Murphy hates a phrase like, "as long as there are no more problems."
- DON'T DO IT! IT'S A TRAP! Argh. Sheridan, you just walked into the basement of the horror film house.
- Jeebus, PsiCorps just keeps getting creepier, you know?
- So that bit about a war between the telepaths and the mundanes was a giant flashing neon sign about the plot arc for S5, yes?
- Yay, Ivanova gets to go lead the fleet! Even if it's under terrible circumstances. And even if it leads to even more terrible circumstances GOD DAMN YOU JMS I HATE YOU WITH EVERY FIBER OF MY BEING.
- The heartrending scene of Garibaldi's betrayal was unfortunately undercut by that dreadful music. Could they fire this composer already? Yeesh. I was also not a fan of the seizure-inducing freeze-frames and blinking lights. Ecch.
- ...Is Delenn telepathic now? Or is it just by the power of LURVE that she knows Sheridan's in trouble?
- "Extinction"? Come on, now.
- At least Edgars recognizes that the normals made the teeps second-class citizens. That's about the only thing he has going for him.
- Okay, the recorder-in-the-tooth thing was a bit gross.
- AHA! I KNEW IT WAS BESTER CONTROLLING GARIBALDI'S ALTERNATE PERSONALITY ALL ALONG! (I really did. Because I was spoiled. Although I hope I would've caught it from the clues they planted earlier...)
- So in a way, Garibaldi actually has to thank Bester for rescuing him from the Shadows? That's a bit of an awkward position.
- I...actually don't hate Bester a lot of the time. Have I mentioned that before? He's far too ends-justify-the-means, of course, but his ends are actually rather noble.
- Although that is a terrible fate to leave Garibaldi to.
- Oh, Susan. Now your wonderful friendship with Michael is over as well. I want to retreat to my happy little shipper world for a while.
- Heh. Earthdome should be shaking in its boots now that Ivanova's in charge of the fleet.
Intersections in Real Time
Gotta admit, I find watching psychological torture about as entertaining as watching grass grow. Aside from liking the upsetting of expectations at the end (I figured on electric chair + last-minute rescue), this was pretty blah for me.
Between the Darkness and the Light
aka The Episode Where I Spent the Last Ten Minutes Mentally Shrieking "NOOOOOOOO!!!!!"
- Sheridan's not going to lose that beard, is he? Sigh. I'm not a fan. Makes him look much older.
- Oh, Michael. :(
- Yay, Franklin! Hear him out!
- Yay, Lyta!!
- And BWAH! Yes, you show her, Lyta.
- Oh, Londo. You have HONOR now. *squishes*
- YAY ALIENS! I got all verklempt there for a moment. Oh, you wonderful, united bunch of species.
- Is the knife in Garibaldi's back representative in some way of the Judas metaphor they've been working? I feel like it's a pretty significant place for an injury.
- "Or four hours and fifty-nine minutes of me bothering you about it." Oh, Marcus. *sobs*
- Aaaand then he turns a bit creepy. "You'll never know [about my creepy almost-touching-you-while-you-sleep-because-I'm-too-chicken-to-actualy-talk-to-you maneuver]." JMS, your id is showing, and it's scaring me.
- Hmmm. So if Susan has an eidetic memory, does that explain why she could operate so many systems on the White Star with, like, no training?
- Bwahahahaha! And she remembered the words. And has learned Minbari. And she LIKES HIM! I was kind of wondering when that 'ship would sail, you know? (AND GOD DAMMIT IT WAS ONLY FOR ONE EPISODE ARGH ARGH ARGH. We could've used more! Not just because it's fun, but because it would've built some more credibility for the next one!)
- Oh, HELL. That's a Shadow ship grafted onto an Earth one. ACK.
- Indeed, the GOD SENT ME speech is much, much better in context. *gets out of Susan's way*
- So here's how the ten seconds or so at the end of the battle went for me:
Marcus: "Susan!"
Debris: *flies toward ship*
Susan: *puts hands over face*
Me: "Yeah, like that'll help! EVASIVE MANEUVERS!!"
Debris: *crashes*
Show: *commercial break*
Electrical systems: *sputter, spark*
Marcus: "Susan?" *searches*
Susan: *moves a bit*
Me: "You found her! All is well!"
Marcus: *picks up a very still Susan*
Me: "Oh, wait. This is the end of S4...this is...oh, FUCK. I THOUGHT I HAD MORE TIME UNTIL THIS HAPPENED!" *starts crying*
- And then other stuff happened, and Susan was dying, and John was talking to her and Marcus was holding her hand and I was really, really not dealing well with it at all. Damn you, show.
Endgame
- On the upside, since I was spoiled, I didn't spend the entire episode wondering if Susan was going to live or die. I'm pretty sure that would've been worse than knowing what was going to happen. So...yay spoilers in some cases?
- I loved all the movement on and around Mars, with spaceplanes resupplying destroyers, lights blinking, things taking off and landing. It felt very real, and very much like a port.
- Hmmm. There was some new patch on the woman's arm in the first scene on the Apollo. Looked like...a lowercase letter alpha on a starfield? Maybe she was supposed to be one of Clark's elite forces.
- Oh, Marcus. There is something you can do. And you, you dear, brilliant fool, are going to do it.
- Oh, that was very slick, putting the altered telepaths on the enemy ships. This whole chess game they're playing is just breathtaking.
- Indeed, they are using people as weapons.
- Uhhhh...Marcus? You could've at least taken a shuttle or something instead of an entire freaking White Star, yes? That was a bit dumb.
- Clark is a bit Hitlerish, isn't he? The suicide only cements it.
- Oh, no. You have to ram it, don't you? I would've hated to watch this unspoiled!
- ...Deus ex Apollo?
- Oh, Marcus...
- Okay, now that I'm over the initial emotion of it, two criticisms: I wish we'd seen more of Marcus coming to love Susan, because as it stands, we basically got him thinking she was beautiful, which...is a start, I guess. I can fanwank more to it, but wish there had been more onscreen. (I know, it's courtly love and all that, but he does in fact live in the 23rd century, much as he appears to come from circa 1350.) Also, him saying the words was just too much. His actions spoke much louder than words.
- You know, it's interesting that Delenn and Sheridan had to go through the whole inquisitor thing to prove that they would die for each other, but it's Marcus who dies for Susan. Hmmm. I'm not sure what to make of that right now.
- Also, they just won the war. They retook Earth. And yet it all seems to fade away as we focus on this moment, this particular sacrifice. That's impressive.
- Yep, still need to do some screaming. And once that's done, somebody needs to point me to some damn fix-it fic.