Babylon 5 Episode 12 Season 2
Acts of Sacrifice is one of those rare episodes of a TV show that really hits you hard and makes you think. It’s got two quite heavy and dark stories and one light one, but they’re all perfectly placed and brilliantly acted, and I think you need the levity of Ivanova’s story (why didn’t Claudia Christian get her own spin off? She’s brilliant) to balance out the drama and pathos in G’Kar and Londo’s. Kudoes to Peter Jurasik and Andreas Katsulas for excellent performances under heavy makeup.
Acts of Sacrifice mostly follows the fall out of the Narn Centauri war which recommenced in The Coming of Shadows. To put it bluntly the Centauri are kicking the Narn’s butts. Possibly this could have been related to the damage Londo got the Shadows (that’s what whoever/whatever is behind the macramé ships call themselves) to do to the Narn, but the Centauri have beaten the Narn before in battle, so possibly not. It’s interesting to me that the Centauri do seem to be militarily superior to the Narn, who are a naturally warlike race to whom fighting is second nature. The Centauri that we’ve seen in the show come across as devious, but not particularly warlike. They’re very reminiscent of a decaying imperial power in their rather hedonistic behaviour and appearance. The only thing I can think is that they’re better equipped than the Narn and they outnumber them significantly.
G’Kar appeals to the Minbari and Earth for military assistance. Both Delenn and Sheridan refuse on the grounds that neither can afford to get their people involved in a galactic conflict. There’s also the matter of G’Kar’s previous antagonistic stance when it comes to the Centauri, although Londo is just as guilty on that score, but he’s chosen to stick his head in the sand and claim that the Narn, not the Centauri are the aggressors. Delenn is also in the rather delicate position of being completely powerless, she’s lost all standing with the Grey Council, and is only on the Babylon 5 as a matter of courtesy, possibly they also consider her an embarrassment. However she can’t let anyone else know that.
Relations between the Narn and the Centauri on the station have also deteriorated and tensions are high. During a clash between a group of Centauri and two Narns, a Narn is shot by one of Garibaldi’s trigger happy security people (actually Zack, played by Jeff Conaway). This inflames the Narn on the station and a contingent of them decide to take matters into their own hands. One of the Centauri involved in the earlier attack is killed and G’Kar has to fight the leader of rebels, and beat him in hand to hand combat before he and his followers will obey the ambassador and own up to their crime. Londo doesn’t much care about the Centauri who was killed. According to the flamboyant ambassador he was a trouble maker who was always going to meet a bad end, he levies a punishment on the Narn responsible, but it’s the lightest one he can levy in the circumstances and he does it as a matter of keeping up reputations more than anything else.
Following this Delenn and Sheridan agree to give the battling Narn humanitarian aid and get as many of them as want to come out of the warzone, but can’t offer military assistance. A shattered G’Kar accepts, but breaks down and weeps bitterly in the corridor outside as he knows that his people are doomed.
Londo cut a tragic figure in this episode. He knows he started down a dark path when he asked for Morden’s assistance, but he can’t stop now. He believes it’s predestined, too. He may be riding high on a wave of success and have plenty of backslappers around him, but he’s not happy and he’s losing friends. Garibaldi openly tells him that he scares them which is why they’ve stopped associating with him. He does mend his fractured relationship with Garibaldi to an extent, but it will never be the same again. I don’t know how the writers and actor made me feel so sorry for Londo, who is definitely the villain, but they did.
The final storyline concerns Ivanova. While Sheridan is busy with the Narn Centauri issue he delegates a diplomatic mission to Ivanova. She’s to squire delegation from the Lumati, a stand offish race, who the humans have only recently contacted, around the station and negotiate a treaty of alliance. The delegation consists of two; a senior official and his interpreter, who seems to be a slave of some sort. The Lumati regard humans as an inferior species and it’s all that Ivanova can do to remain in the same room with the official. Largely through a misunderstanding Ivanova obtains their approval and they want to seal the deal. However their way of doing so is to have sex. Ivanova tells Franklin she doesn’t care what’s at stake she is NOT having sex with the Lumati. Something Franklin says about their ignorance of human customs gives the Russian commander an idea and she tells the Lumati that she will have sex with him, only her way. Her way consists of her dancing, shouting, flirting and behaving like a crazy bar girl, all with the minimum of touching. She pulls the wool successfully over his eyes, to the delight of his ‘slave’, who knows she’s lying. She gets his signature, but does receive a gift with a note that next time they’ll do it his way. It was the perfect antidote to the tragic Londo G’Kar storylines.