Babylon 5 First Time Viewing Continues S4

TV night continues at my buddy Robert's place. We continue to watch Babylon 5 for the first time. Tonight we got in three more episodes from Season Four episodes 5, 6 & 7.

First up tonight was S4 Ep5 "The Long Night" Londo and Vir plot the assassination of Emperor Cartagia. Meanwhile, Captain Sheridan sets into motion his plan to bring the conflict between the Vorlons and the Shadows to a resolution.

Wow... what an episode I don't know where to start. Guess I'll start with G'Kar, Londo and Vir. The assassination of Cartagia was inevitable. And when the moment came I knew it was going to be Vir who did it. I am still not a fan of Londo but I did enjoy his speech to a drunk and very distraught Vir after the killing. G'Kar's response to his fellow Narn about not attacking the Centauri and focus on rebuilding their homeworld was fantastic.. this character has come so far since the very first episode. He really is one of my favorite characters, which surprises me as if you'd ask me at the beginning of all of this which character would be my favorite, he would be on the bottom of the list.

Back on B5, Sheridan having to send that ship to it's death was hard to watch. I kept telling Robert that there was no way I'd be able to be a commander and to knowingly send someone in as a guinea pig and know that you are responsible for their inevitable death.  It was a powerful scene but B5 has had many powerful scenes.. it's one of the main reasons why I am really loving this series.

And I have to say the one thing that I am not liking about this season is the character change in Garibaldi. Now I know we haven't gotten his full story.. that something might be up but it's hard watching this bitter and kind of mean Garibaldi after the many seasons of a character that I really enjoyed.. guess will have to wait and see what happens with his character.

Our second episode of the night is S4 Ep6 "Into the Fire" Sheridan has managed to get the Vorlons and Shadows into one sector, where they are not attacking each other directly. He and Delenn lead a fleet into the sector where the source of the conflict is finally revealed, this is the end of the Shadow War.

Another Wow.. episode. Okay I'll be the first to admit that I kind of like Londo in this episode. First finding out the news about his beloved Adira and him just breaking down was a tug on my ol' heart strings. But what really got to me was his showdown with Morden. Actually giving him a chance to remove the Shadow from Centauri Prime but Morden calls his bluff and Londo does something that I never expected.. he blows up the entire island that the Shadow where hiding on, killing them all along with some Centauri people who sacrificed themselves to save their world. It was one of those jaw dropping moments.. I loved it.

And then of course I loved the gift he gave Vir by putting Morden's head on a pike in the middle of a courtyard (as a few seasons ago Morden asked Vir what he wanted and this was it) and I loved that Vir went through with what he said he would do and gave it a little wave. And then final scene with Vir telling Londo that not all of the accomplices to the Shadow were gone from their homeworld and when the Vorlon ship arrives Londo telling Vir to kill him so that they don't destroy his homeworld was amazing.

The other big thing in this episode was the conclusion of the Shadow War. The battles scene were great and I did like how they concluded the war but it all seemed to easy for me. They wrapped it up in a nice little bow with very little issues.

I liked that the older races (the firsts) have left the younger races to fend for themselves. To me this episode felt like a series finale (which I knew wasn't the case since it was only episode 6 of season 4) but it left me wondering where is this series was going to go next.. I mean "Third Age of Mankind" has begun.
 
And our third and final episode of the night is S4 Ep7 "Epiphanies" Garibaldi resigns his position. Bester returns with news of Earth Alliance plans to isolate and discredit Babylon 5.

I figured that the Earth Alliance had to get back into the picture as we haven't heard much from them since B5 left the alliance. I liked Bester's confrontation with Lyta. And I like that the keep Bester in that grey area, not knowing if he's good or bad but then in the end he's in it for himself.  The Garibaldi story moves forward a bit. He gets a weird trippy video message and then quits B5. Not sure where they are going with this.

After the amazing six episodes that started this season, this one was good but no where near as great as the ones that preceded it.

Overall another amazing night of Babylon 5!!