Babylon 5 Rewatch: Atonement/Racing Mars
Atonement
Aka the one where we finally learn what Delenn did during the war. Incidentally, because I missed this episode during the original broadcast, I watched In the Beginning, the B5 movie about the Earth/Minbari war, before I watched Atonement (which I did only when I aquired the dvds years ago), so the young Delenn scenes always felt like outtakes from that film to me. Anyway, the reveal that Delenn's was the crucial vote starting the war and that she called for no mercy in her immediate grief and rage after Dukhat's death is why I have the headcanon that when Delenn asks Londo to participate in her ceremony in s3 where you tell a secret you haven't told anyone else, she doesn't just do this because she thinks Londo could do with some spiritual renewal, but because she wanted to tell her own big secret to someone who is absolutely in no position to judge her for starting a brutal war and understands it only too well. My other reason for said headcanon is that old Londo is the narrator of In the Beginning and knows all these things about Delenn, and thus I conclude she eventually did tell him, because he definitely didn't learn it from Lennier, and JMS said Delenn never tells Sheridan at all, so Delenn's role remains a secret as far as the public is concerned. (My vignette Mercy is about Londo and Delenn having that long delayed chat.)
Aaanyway. Rewatching Atonement, I feel like the episode is throwing some red herrings about - because come on, who really believes Delenn would break it off with Sheridan if her clan disapproved, despite her pledge? -, to hide what's to come. And whlie there are in fact two reveals (Delenn started the Earth/Minbari war; Delenn is a descendant of Jeffrey Sinclair, and in fact there are countless Minbari descendants of Sinclair/Valen), the second, though it's the one which solves the ostensive problem of the episode (getting consent for the relationship with Sheridan from her clan), is almost incidental, since it's the first, and how she handles it, that's instrumental to her character. You'd think after Anna Sheridan's reappearance Delenn might have stopped her policy of telling Sheridan only selected truths, but no. The secrecy is far too engrained in her, and to be fair, "I started the war which almost wiped out your people" is the type of secret that would teach one a lifetime habit, plus it's already part of Minbari culture. (See Dukhat not spitting the "child of Valen" bit out until he's dying.) When Lennier comes up with "so that's why you're with Sheridan, you feel guilty and that's your atonement", Delenn immediately rejects this with "after all you've seen, you cannot believe that" and Lennier backs off and says that no, he doesn't believe it, but it's what her clan will think once they learn what Delenn has seen in the Dreaming. Now, Lennier is hardly unbiased - I think at least part of him loves the "so that's why she's with the human and not with me" explanation -, but imo he's also not completely wrong. As in, Delenn would have made herself fall in love with whichever human commanded Babylon 5 (unless that person was evil, obviously). A first time viewer knew before she was fixated on fulfilling the Valen-given prophecy both through becoming a Minbari/human hybrid, no matter how many of her own people objected to this, and through her relationship with Sheridan, but Atonement recontextualises it; one reason (one of several, not the only one, but it's definitely there) for this is the need to atone for the "kill them all!" order and her vote.
Here's the thing, though; atonement usually follows confession (not least to the wronged party). Delenn never confessed. Both the Minbari (except for Lennier) and the humans never learn this part about her, and so her big gesture cannot be understood by them in this context. Just as her choice of action of repentance is entirely her own, so is whether or not she ever grants herself absolution. I can never decide whether this is her making it hard or easy for herself. As far as 99% of the people who know her are concerned, Delenn has nothing to be redeemed of. (This, btw, is a great contrast to Londo. People might not know the details of his relationships with Morden and Refa, or that he personally decided on the action that started the second Narn/Centauri war, but they definitely know he was involved, and pushing for it. And of course G'Kar, post Dust to Dust, knows everything, as Sheridan never will re: Delenn.) Since we see in this episode she's very concerned Lennier might change his opinion of her, and keeps Sheridan in the dark more than ever, I would say one reason for this isn't just Delenn thinking that her guilt and atonement is only her own business but the wish not to lose the love and esteem of those she cares about. Which is, for lack of a better term, human, but it's also something I'm never entirely sure the narrative means us to see about Delenn.
The flashbacks presenting us with young Delenn - and may I say, Mira Furlan in full Minbari make-up and different body language really does come across as much younger - and Dukhat (whose actor has a terrific voice and great chemistry with Delenn) pointedly echo Delenn and Lennier, down to the dialogue being partly the same ("I cannot have an aide who never raises her/his eyes" etc.) as the first encounter between Delenn and Lennier in Parliament of Dreams, and indeed the two relationsships have strong parallels, down to young Delenn's way of idolizing Dukhat and loving him (whether as a student or also romantically is up to debate, but for my money these scenes come across as her having at least something of a crush on him). Given Delenn herself is aware of the parallels (hence her repeating Dukhat's joke about the need to look up to Lennier) from the start, I wonder whether she also, at this point, is aware of the danger (i.e. that Lennier in an extreme situation might also be driven to a dark action due to his feelings for her, the wway she was by the loss of Dukhat), but nothing in her behavior towards Lennier signals to me she is. She probably thinks Lennier will mature out of the intensity of those feelings in a less traumatic way.
Racing Mars
The Stephen Franklin and Marcus Cole double act is still amusing to watch, and you know, hats off to JMS for making the punchline of the joke "married" not "two MEN who are married" as far as their fake IDs are concerned. In fact, this episode smuggles not one but two pretty revolutionary (for a 1990s tv show) bits of world building across - the fact that in B5's time, same sex marriage is absolutely normal in human society, and that the Catholic Church doesn't just employ female priests but has a female Pope. (Revealed when Garibaldi snarks Sheridan isn't the Pope - "and he doesn't look anything like her".) I also appreciate the show makes it clear communication with Earth (and Mars) is hard for our heroes now (as it should be, given the situation), and Marcus and Franklin can't just quickly jet over there. That the big Shadow War has just passed the general population by also makes sense, given the Clark administration had a vested interest in not letting any of those news be known.
Captain Jack - 1990s forerunner of a gazillion characters in different media called not just Jack, but Captain Jack - is a one off character who first seems to be comic relief and then turns out to be tragic and a graphic illustration that there are already Keepers around not just among the Centauri (poor Regent!), and that even if you kill the thing, it just grows back once it's joined with you, thus preemptively answering the question why in the future that Sheridan saw, Londo hadn't tried to rid himself of his Keeper in a non-lethal (to himself) way. It also illustrates that the original self of the person controlled is entirely there and horrified at what's going on, which just enhances the awfulness of it, but also that this person can slip little resistance acts in under the Keeper's control. (And not just when drunk, as Future!Londo does it; Jack tried to signal to everyone something was wrong without saying as much, down to looking and gripping at his shoulder, which would indicate the Keeper isn't always mindreading.) ("It doesn't care why I do the things I do as long as I do them", Old!Londo said in War without End's flash forwards.)
This episode also marks the debut of Number One, the female resistance leader on Mars and practically the only human resistance leader we see who didn't come from the military originally. I remember that back in the day, Number One was among the disliked characters, but I don't remember why anymore. I myself neither disliked nor particularly liked her; she seemed a believable guerilla leader to me, and that was that.
Meanwhile on the station, Ivanova forces Sheridan to take a vacation, which on the one hand does get him laid, but on the other gives him the time to seek out Garibaldi and start an argument that shows him from a less than admirable side. Seriously, I think I had forgotten quite how much high handed and arrogant Sheridan comes across in the first argument scene. (Not in the second when he tries to apologize.) Not least because Garibaldi is entirely right, he's a private citizen now, and what he said in his ISN interview wasn't giving away any station secrets, it simply was a criticism of Sheridan well within the rights of free speech. "Giving aide and comfort to the enemy", seriously, Sheridan?
That Sheridan gets upset and high handed this quickly would underline he really isn't capable of taking criticism anymore in a way I'm not sure the episode intends, and I think that's the first, but not the last time the entire Garibaldi (and Sheridan) storyline runs into the problem of originally having been intended for Sinclair and Garibaldi. Now because Sinclair and Garibaldi really were close, I could have bought Sinclair being so bewildered and hurt by Garibaldi seemingly turning against him that an attempt at reconciliation derails into an argument quickly. And of course Garibaldi's own strong feelings for Sinclair would guarantee him feeling doubly betrayed by Sinclalir seemingly ignoring ihm after his return and sharing with eveyone but him. But while Garibaldi and Sheridan had established a very good working relationship by s3 and trusted each other, I never had the impression that they were close personal friends, which means the fallout here basically lacks an emotional hook (imo).
Ivanova and the smugglers: as luck would have it, I've just rewatched the Black Sails s1 episode where Eleanor Guthrie talks the various pirate captains into founding a consortium with her, which made me have some odd crossover/fusion thoughts. Ivanova would be a frighteningly efficient trade boss of Nassau, is what I'm saying.
The other episodes