#reference to s03e21: shadow dancing

[therighthandofvengeance]

Marcus: hey, if Captain Sheridan were a vampire, what would he eat?

Ivanova: Marcus, I swear to whatever higher power there may be- if you say “blood oranges” I will take a week’s worth of personal days.

Marcus: it’s… blood oranges.

[Ivanova immediately pulls out a travel pillow and sleeping mask]

Ivanova: well, it’s no big, fancy, four-poster bed with a garden view, but it’s a start. see you later!

[woodsfae]

B5 s03e21 Shadow Dancing previous episode - table of contents

I see the next episode is called z'ha'dum (dang I have been mis-spelling that a dozen different ways) so the "z-minus" must be referring to that. This coming at the end of season 3 also affirms for me that Sheridan must survive z'ha'dum despite the prophecy of death. Some heart-stopped-but-he-survived pedantry. I still think Dr Franklin is going to be pivotal. But that's next episode! 

Delenn is speaking before the League of Aligned Worlds or whatever their acronym is. She and Lennier are wearing somber brown and green-grey, as opposed to their usual jewel-tones. Are they trying to dress down to fit in with the lower species? LOL. 

Delenn is asking for more ships than the individual worlds feel they can risk, and is promising that the Minbari are commiting considerable forces as well. 

The Shadows have been driving refugees into sector 83 for months, and Sheridan thinks an attack on the corralled population is imminent. 

It's funny, I used to think Marcus looked annoying but now I'm always so happy to see him. He seems to have recovered from Neroon beating his face in. 

THE PLAN: Ivanova and Marcus are going to sector 83, going completely dark, and are waiting for the Shadows to turn up. Then they're getting out ASAP without engaging them, at any cost. Presumably to summon the rest of the waiting forces that Delenn has just negotiated to be waiting. 

The League is acquiescing to Delenn's request and lending the alliance all their spare ships and then some. Ivanova is in command of the White Star with Marcus as her leal interpreter and they're off! I'm not sure if I think this is going to work, or if it's going to be a miscalculation and they're going to be in a really bad position coming into the season finale. 

"Sometimes people walk away because they want to be alone. Sometimes people walk away because they want to see if you'll folllow them into hell."

Uncharacteristically insightful for Garibaldi, but also, don't play those games. You can't walk yourself into hell on the slim chance that the person you're chasing is hoping to be caught. 

Guest Star Barbara is not making a good impression on me, but we are also shown that Stephen Franklin is looking a little less rough than in his last appearance. 

Z MINUS SIX DAYS

I'm absolutely positive that's counting down to Z'ha'dum now. 

Minbari beds are...not ideal. And it would be pretty strange to wake up to another person at a 45 degree angle staring you (or not) straight in the face. 

"You're the most beautiful woman I've ever met," says Marcus, then claims it's just a greeting. 

"It meants...my words are inadequate to the burden of my heart."

"That's an unusual greeting."

"They're an unusual people."

Fingers crossed that Susan will remember the pronounciation and repeat it to some unsuspecting Minbari man. 

Fingers also crossed that Susan never ever dates Marcus.

LOL the Minbari beds' feet tip up enough to be almost flat. And then some. asdfkljahf. So you can angle towards either bulkhead based on preference? hah.

Minbari continue to be hilariouly bizarre. Delenn shares a Minbari custom that, when a couple has been flirting as long as they have been, they spend three nights together while the man sleeps and the woman observes his sleeping face. If she likes it, cool. If not, they're finished. 

Stephen Franklin just tried to intervene in a mugging and got a gut-stab for his trouble. Perhaps this will be how he finally meets himself. 

Rough stuff. He's dragging himself along in bloody handprints to try to find help. 

I guess I'd say I've met myself through injuries, but the end result has been me fixing myself up the vast majority of the time, and I'm not even a doctor. Though granted, the injuries have never been a gut stab.

Susan has finally got comfortable, by stealing all the pillows from the beds to make a pallet, and immediately gets an urgent page to the bridge. That tracks!!

The White Star has picked up a signature that's probably-definitely a Shadow ship, and they've come out of the moon-shadow they've been hidden in at the same time. badadadadada tension! 

In the splotchlights Delenn brought Sheridan to keep track of the battles, it looks like Sheridan's going extremely grey. Stress grey. 

Dr Franklin is chillin in a pool of his own blood, chatting with a hallucination of himself. Finally! Space AA can come to a conclusion and Stephen's final form can appear. 

I like how the Shadows' ships move in space. It's quite unlike anything else I've seen. 

Ivanova is returning fire on the Shadows ship, despite the direct orders to escape and not engage for any reason. 

And a whole fleet of Shadows ships are coming into view! Dozens, perhaps even a hundred or more. 

"Well, who wants to live forever?" Ivanova says, and they send the signal to the rest of the fleet. I continue to like her more and more. 

Hmmm. Hallucination!Stephen is a lot harder on Stepehn than I think is fair. This is a really harsh internal dialogue. And uncomfortably relatable? But this kind of negative self-talk can be really improved by finding a good therapist. 

Ahh, so the Grey Council's dramatic spot-lighting has a practical effect! It's also a holographic war-room. Sheridan directs the Minbari telepaths to jam the Shadows' capital ships, and deploys the waiting fleet. They got the message! The White Star's backup is on the way. 

"Don't you go passing out on me - that's just another kind of running away."

I BARKED with laughter at that line. Internal!Stephen is a dick. 

Hmm in the war room lighting, Delenn also looks like she's going grey, so I'm not sure if it's a stress-grey thing or a lighting thing. 

The battle continues. The CGI has noticably improved from s01 and s02. 

The Minbari beds make more sense when they're full of telepaths at work than full of humans failing to fall asleep. 

It appears that the League fleet has driven off the Shadows, but the music and Delenn and Sheridan's mien is somber. Injured personel from the fleet are coming in at the same time as Franklin is getting medical attention. 

"We did ok. Not great, but ok," Sheridan says. Frame it as a victory!! As Ivanova points out, it's the first time they pulled together the League. And they drove them off!! 

Z MINUS 4 DAYS

Garibaldi watches Franklin sleep. I ought to write the fic I have floating around in my head where they get together and only inflict their emotional idiocy on each other.

Garibaldi: "Don't ever do this to me again."

Well that isn't a deterrent. to me.

Delenn is out of the brown-and-green and back into her jewel tones. 

Ivanova thinks the Shadows have been deliberately leaving Babylon 5 alone and hearing this, Sheridan has a flashback to his vision of Ivanova, with a raven on her shoulder, asking "Do you know who I am?" 

Working out the vision - Susan is a latent telepath and said (irl) she doesn't know who she is sometimes. Sheridan also saw himself in a PsiCorps uniform, and Ivanova again in all-black with a veil saying "yuou are the hand." I remember this, but it's handy that they're recapping this because I didn't remember the exact specifics. But they haven't figured out what they think it means. But they better hurry up because a Shadow vessel is in hyperspace going places to do things!

Franklin is the CMO again. Apparently. Unofficial up to the point that Sheridan walked in and offered it to him again. 

Stephen's personal revelations are good - it's important to know yourself. And I like that he's realized he's always defined himsef by what he isn't, and how that didn't serve him well. Psychologically speaking.

hmmm cute. Sheridan's sleeping, and Delenn's watching him with a little smile. And danger is afoot on b5, going by the ominous music and shots of various humans and aliens. Zack Allen wakes up Ivanova to tell her someone's coming on board.

SHERIDAN'S WIFE. fuck yeah

But now I have a new question, considering the multiple shots of a shadow shuttle flying around: is she herself, or is she a puppet of the Shadows? 

Z MINUS 2 DAYS

*definitely not making high pitched noises right now*

Who in the fuck gave Anna the codes to Sheridan's quarters? Like. She's been declared dead and everything. I blame Zack.

z'ha'dum alert