Babylon 5 Episode 17 Season 2
I suppose after the revelations in In The Shadow of Z’Ha’Dum I was expecting another shocking episode, which Knives isn’t really, but then again viewers probably needed something to get their breath back after In The Shadow of Z’Ha’Dum.
There are two distinct parts to Knives, one involving Sheridan and another involving Londo. Now while the Sheridan story is important and harks back to Babylon Squared from season 1, Knives is really Londo’s episode.
When Londo’s friend Urza Jaddo first appeared I thought Londo’s deal and his part in the Narn conflict had come back to bite him, because Jaddo pretended to be an assassin. Once he revealed himself the two men had a good laugh over it. Odd sense of humour these Centauri’s have. We didn’t see Vir’s reaction, but I doubt he was particularly amused.
What I did find interesting and in fact a little odd was that Londo had to describe a lot of the concepts and ideas around the Centauri duelling culture to Vir. I know Vir’s not a duellist, but he is a Centauri and working in a diplomatic capacity would require him to have some knowledge of most aspects of his native culture. It wasn’t just the fine points that Londo explained to Vir, it was almost Centauri Duelling Culture for Dummies.
I spent a lot of the Londo sequences watching Vir actually. He doesn’t say a lot, but his face speaks. Stephen Furst does a fantastic job in this one really, to have so little to work with, but yet to be so fascinating. The choice of weapon of the duellists was also interesting. When you hear about a sword duel, especially with a society that seems based on 17th/18th century Europe, you automatically think of rapiers, but what the Centauri use looks like a thin, long bladed gladius. It may have been easier to choreograph the fight between Londo and Urza using blades like that. Peter Jurasik doesn’t have the sort of physique that immediately says ‘expert swordsman’, although Urza’s face kept reminding me of Mel Ferrer. This may have been intentional, because Mel Ferrer played the evil duellist in the 50’s swashbuckler Scaramouche.
Urza was also dead against the current fight against the Narn, and for that reason Londo’s friend Refa had branded him a traitor. Ultimately it transpires that Urza was playing Londo. He challenged Londo to a duel, a duel he knew he could win as he had always been a superior swordsman to Londo, then sacrificed himself, because by doing so he ensured that Londo would be honour bound to protect his family from any persecution. Londo’s starting to learn that his actions have consequences and he’s reaping what he sowed. Refa and Morden can both go die in a fire as far as I’m concerned.
Sheridan’s story was a little more off the wall and not quite as entertaining to me, although it did reference events from season 1, and I’m sure will have consequences for the future.
Sheridan finds a dying alien and the creature grabs his face before he can get help. The alien dies and then Sheridan starts having realistic visions of things from his past. He’s convinced that a creature like a miniature dragon that he tangled with years ago on another planet appears in his room and tries to kill him. He thinks he sees the Icarus blowing up again. It’s not until they find out that the dead alien passed through sector 14, which Garibaldi refers to as the Bermuda Triangle of Babylon, that the penny starts to drop. Something from that circle of weirdness has invaded Sheridan’s body and mind.
Sheridan takes a ship and overrides Ivanova (in my head she takes him to task about that when he gets back), goes to sector 14 and rids himself of whatever it is that’s within him and returns to Babylon 5.
The story showed me that Sheridan likes baseball (he’s seen taking out his stress twice by hitting balls from their ball machine) and it also played up the connection between Franklin and Ivanova again later. I’m sure I’m not seeing things. I know I’ve booked passage on Ivania, but they seem to be pushing Franklin and Ivanova together.
We’re in the home stretch now and things are starting to ramp up.