Welcome back! It’s religion week on the station, an episode where we get some insight into a few of the faiths of the station. Also, an assassination attempt and a little bit of romance, all rolled into a single 42 minute episode. This episode also gives us a thematic glimpse of the series to come, but more on that later. Unlike the last few episodes, this episode will have three almost distinct story lines interweaving, so hang on tight.
The powers that be have decreed it a good week for the station to show case the major religions of the occupants of the station. The intent is that by exposing the major beliefs of the different residents, a deeper understanding can be achieved. For us, that just means we’ll get some fun insights into a few of our favorite characters, and continue down the road of transforming some somewhat cardboard characters into three dimensional figures.
The episode begins as it often does with Chief Garibaldi watching folks disembark onto the station. Things are going your normal day on B5 – confiscated “ceremonial” knife, etc., when Garibaldi sees a woman he recognizes board the station, mutters to himself, and leaves to find Sinclair. Cue plot line A.
Flip to G’kar, busy singing to himself as he cooks. The song is great – all about fishies in the sea, and not a one for me, in a very Gilbert and Sullivan-esque way. The song was an original to the show and had a great flair to it. G’kar sits down to eat what looks like a boar’s head with seafood when he’s interrupted by a courier.
“Are you ambassador G’kar?”
“This is Ambassador G’kar’s quarters. This is Ambassador G’kar’s table. This is Ambassador G’kar’s dinner. What part of this progression escapes you?”
Oh, G’kar! Tu’pari, the courier, delivers a message cube and leaves. G’kar doesn’t want to watch the message yet – but he does. And so he learns that his old Narn rival, Du’Rog, is dying, but not without a parting gift. In return for some unmentioned antagonisms from G’kar in the past, Du’Rog has seen to it that all of his worldly assets will be liquidated at death and given to a contract with the Thenta Makur – the Narn assassin’s guild. During his understandable bout of freaking out, we learn that his aid, Ko’Dath, the stiff and unfriendly aid, has been replaced with Na’toth, who is much more personable (and wittier). Granted, Ko’Dath’s departure was by way of an accidental airlock venting, so let that settle in for a moment.
(Sinclair does the voice over. I swear, this will be relevant at some point.)
As he’s getting ready for the Centauri religious ceremony, Garibaldi arrives at Sinclair’s quarters to warn him that Catherine Satai is on the station. We don’t have much context yet, but you can easily guess she’s an old flame by the way the stoic commander almost emotes.
Ah, a Centauri religious festival! If we had to guess what one might look like, this is it. Wine, food, and idols everywhere, the Centauri know how to do religion like only a dunk aristocracy could. This particular celebration is to honor the defeat of the Xon, a rival sentient species on their homeworld. While there were still two species, the Centauri would celebrate how many of their people had survived each year, at least until they had finished exterminating the Xon. This great scene ends with Londo crawling down the table (drunk), telling each person just how cute they are. As he passes out, he proclaims himself to be cute, “but in purple, I’m stunning!” Observant viewers should pay attention to the idol of Li in this episode – that’ll come back up later in another episode.
Sinclair excuses himself from the Centauri festival to find Catherine. It’s obvious there’s history there, but both skate around it. There’s a brief mention of Carolyne, who we last saw in the pilot episode, but Sinclair tells us that its over between them. In other words, single man on the prowl!
G’kar confronts Na’toth, unsure who to trust. She dismisses his fears, pointing out that if the assassin’s guild was really after him, he’d know it. After all, they leave a death blossom as a warning so the victim can put their affairs into order. No death blossom? Then the threat can’t be real, he’s just over reacting.
G’kar goes to sleep fitful and happy and wakes up to find a black flower on his bed pillow. Of course, we all suspect the last person to mention the death blossom. He confronts Na’toth about it again, and she in turn questions why he would tell her so much if he suspects. “Because you keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.” An expression, G’kar suggests, that the Earther’s no doubt borrowed from Narn. While I think the expression works for both cultures, I find it unfortunate that we would have to make this kind of allusion. The ST franchise did the same thing with Klingon’s, to humorous (and sometime ludicrous) extremes. But I digress.
Delenn is waiting for a new arrival to the station. Onto the station comes a young Minbari, someone that will feature prominently in the series for the years to come. I am of course referring to Bill Mumy’s character, Lennier, who’s been in the credits all along, but hadn’t yet made an appearance. We see him at his initial, initiate, groveling self in this episode, a babe lost in the in the wilderness of Babylon 5. Lennier is no sooner introduced than Delenn pulls him aside and makes him promise to never refer to her as Setai, or to the grey council, again. No one must find out, she warns him.
G’kar decides the best way to protect himself from being assassinated is to hire some protection. And who better to go to than our recurring man sized praying mantis character, Negrath. Negrath of course hooks G’kar up with a giant, lumbering slab of protection.
We switch briefly to dinner at what we have in the past been told is Babylon 5’s finest restaurant, Fresh Air, where Sinclair and Catherine are dining. The quick recap is that indeed, every three years, these two crazy kids get a bit of nostalgia, replay the same dialog to each other, then hook up. And yes, its been three years.
The Minbari ceremony (remember religion week?) has begun! There’s lots of triangles! and chants! and bells! Delenn is master of the ceremony, and between all of the meaningful glances is a speech that we one day learn is a speech Valen gave. On a fresh watch, what struck me most about this somber ceremony, besides all of the deep stares and mysterious red fruit, is that it ends with Delenn giving Sinclair a Meaningful Look and quoting, “and so it begins.” Memories are a fuzzy thing, but these are the words I often hear in Kosh’s voice (where is our Vorlon, any way?).
Flip. G’kar comes back to his quarters from the ceremony to discover his bodyguard is dead! Na’toth rushes off to get the courier.
Flop. Meanwhile (this is one of those “quick back and forth segue” bits) Catherine, the commander’s flame and a reputable surveyor, learns that her last survey has made her a very, very rich woman.
Flip. G’kar confronts the courier, who admits to him that the threat was give to him by none other than his own aid’s father. Dun dun dun!!
Flop. Sinclair is enjoying an audiobook of Tennyson, as I’m sure all great commanders to when unwinding, when Catherine shows up laden with wine and food and in a mood to celebrate. This was a prime time show, so let’s just skip straight to one thing leads to another, they kiss, and the rest is up to your imagination.
Flip. G’kar, outraged at the connection between his aid and his enemy, makes a call home to demand he be sent a new assistant. The Narn on the other end is very understanding, and adds an apology that they hadn’t been able to send a courier to him yet, but should have one for him soon. Wait, what? G’kar turns in time to see the gun fire.
Flop, to what can only be categorized as pillow talk between Sinclair and Catherine.
Flip. And we learn Na’toth is no slouch, because when he finds the broken glass, she rushes into action. G’kar, we quicky discover, is being held by the “courier” (assassin), a ring of “pain givers” around his neck and wrists. This next bit is best summed up by just saying Na’toth arrives, attempts to convince the assassin that she’s really his backup, then emphasizes her point by beating on G’kar (and oops, did she break the pain givers in the process?). Together, they overpower the assassin and knock him out. When he wakes up, the three of them are sitting at disembarkment, where G’kar convinces the assassin that its been three days already, and that he’s placed money in his account so that the rest of the guild will think he betrayed his contract and hunt him down. We know this is probably a trick, but its a well played scene that really brings home how much we like Na’toth.
Sinclair escorts Catherine off. Rich woman or not, she has obligations to do some more surveys, but she promises to be back in a week. There is a bit of dialog here that is of possible import – Catherine, after learning about the Minbari ceremony, teases Sinclair that the ceremony he was at is also a marriage ceremony – if there were significant looks involved. Ah, what?
Finally, Sincair demonstrates Earth’s religious ceremony by taking the ambassadors down a lineup of people representing all of the faith’s of Earth. Interestingly enough, the people and their faiths were real, according to an interview with JMS.
And so concludes another episode! You walk away from this episode initially feeling like it was largely fluff, but there are moments of significance buried throughout, from the idol of Li to the insinuation of the Minbari ceremony, not to mention getting to see another side of G’kar.
Related articles
- The Babylon 5 Rewatch: s1e1, Midnight on the Firing Line (datanode.net)
- The Babylon 5 Rewatch: s1e2, Soul Hunter (datanode.net)
- The Babylon 5 Rewatch: s1e0, The Gathering (datanode.net)
