s2e18: Confessions and lamentations

John!

We’re watching the pioneering 90s TV show Babylon 5. If you want to join us, hit subscribe then go to your account and turn on the Let’s Watch notifications.

Well, that lands differently, in a post-COVID context.

At one point in this episode, Franklin mentions previous mass outbreaks: the Black Death, AIDS and I think a fictional one. He doesn’t, of course, mention COVID-19, because it hadn’t happened yet, at the time of producing the show. When I watched this in the 90s, as a young teenager, it was very much a theoretical concept: ‘the plague’ was an item of history, interesting but not directly relevant. The early 20th century flu pandemic had been oddly forgotten. AIDS had arrived when I was too young to really be aware of it or understand it.

Watching ‘Confessions and lamentations’ now, it’s remarkable how many details it gets right, and how it nails so many of the public health and policy and cultural problems that lead us into this cycle again and again. It’s got religious beliefs getting in the way. Cultural pride and nationalist exceptionalism causing governments to be overly relaxed (hi, Boris). Slow reaction speeds and a lack of communication between countries (or planets, in this case). It’s got people responding in nonsensical ways that harm themselves and their communities. It’s even got absurd conspiracy theories being spread by racist/xenophobic idiots.

The episode also focuses on the medical experts, doing their best to stay calm while everyone else loses their minds, and coming up with a treatment in record time. Having to deal with hospital corridors overrun with the dead and dying, without knowing how to treat the symptoms. It perfectly captures the growing unease among the station staff and then population, as it tips over into panic and fear.

It does all these things, but hooks it off two key relationships: Franklin and Lazarenn, and Sheridan and Delenn. The galaxy-spanning disaster is filtered through those four, which keeps everything rooted in character. We instantly believe that Franklin and Lazarenn go way back (Franklin even mentioned as Markab doctor a few episodes ago), and their heroic efforts to fight the disease are the heartbeat of the episode. When Lazarenn dies, part of us goes with him, even though we’ve only known him for this episode.

Starting the show with the comedy dinner scene is a good move: it wrong foots the audience, setting up one type of episode when we’re about to experience something altogether different.

Director Kevin Cremin has thought about every scene, identifying the pivotal moment each time. The camera is always moving, giving a sense of urgency to the proceedings. Orbiting around Lazarenn’s portentous line: “It is 100% fatal. And 100% contagious.” The incredible Jaws-style dolly-zoom when Franklin takes the stim — done so subtly that I almost missed it. The perfectly still and simple framing of the shot after the Markab child is reunited with his mother…and then that stumble. The big crane shot revealing the endless rows of bodies in the docking bay. There are so many moments in the episode that are perfectly captured, with the visuals and the editing lifting the screenplay. For a show which can sometimes resort to very basic camera and editing setups, this feels like something special.

It’s devastating, of course. A couple of over-played music cues aside, the episode sticks to a solemn tone, rarely giving in to cheap drama or emotional manipulation. On first viewing it was shocking; on repeat viewings, it is tragic. I’d been rather dreading getting to this episode, with every mention of the Markab or sighting of them in council chambers a reminder of what was to come.

This has always been a powerful episode of television, and of Babylon 5. Post-COVID, it also feels more real than ever, in a way that all of us can appreciate.

Next up is ‘Divided Loyalties’.

‼️ SPOILER STUFF ‼️

I mean, we don’t see the Markab again.

There’s a throwaway line by the barman at the end, citing a rumour that the Vorlons planted the disease among the Markab population in the first place. Given their behaviour later in the series, that’s entirely believable. Perhaps the Markab were aligned with the Shadows in the past, or their homeworld was used as a base?

There’s a lot of Franklin here, of course. The creation of a cure for drafa is one of his life’s greatest achievements. A career high. He’s saved millions, probably billions of Pak’ma’ra lives, and likely others. But that achievement came too late, and billions of Markab died. That wasn’t his fault, but that collective failure will weigh heavily on him.

As such, we see his stim-taking increasing. Lazarenn, despite everything going on, never stops thinking about his friend and cautioning him to look after himself. All of this will eventually lead to Franklin’s breakdown in season 3.

It’s a clever episode for creating a huge problem and testing each character to see how they’ll react. He’s not in it much, but Garibaldi’s moment of helping the injured Markab back to his feet tells us a lot about his character, despite his words and attitude. We learn an awful lot about Delenn and Lennier. Ivanova stays perhaps the most calm of everyone, but you can see her fighting her rising fear.

Delenn tells a story of being lost and finding herself in a temple. It’s unclear, given her telling and her childhood memories, whether the kindly figure was real — perhaps a priest — or a vision. She describes them as glowing, a being of light, and the impression is that they vanish as her parents arrive. The vision talked of the temple as if it was theirs: which raises the question of it being Valen, in some form. Perhaps Delenn mentioned this story to Sinclair, who made certain that someone would be there to help her at the given moment? Or perhaps the glowing figure was a Vorlon, revealing themselves to her and ensuring her faith and obedience for what was to come?

Finally, there’s Keffer, who is still poking about trying to find Shadow vessels in hyperspace. That will, obviously, not go well. Nobody has been taking him seriously, and it’s interesting to now have the twist that Sheridan knows all too well what’s going on, but is unable to tell him.

Right. That was a tough one. We’re into the tail end of season 2, though, so it ain’t gonna get easier.