s4e1: Hour of the Wolf

I need a friend and a patriot

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As an exercise in picking up the pieces from the season 3 finale, ‘Hour of the Wolf’ nevertheless manages to find a lot of new ground to cover and makes for an intriguingly sombre season opener.

Delaying the explanation of what happened to Sheridan and Garibaldi is a nice touch: it puts the whole episode on edge, the survivors in limbo and unsure of when or how to move on. A decisive death of either character would be one thing, but instead they’re left rudderless and reluctant to look to a new leader.

I only wish they hadn’t shown Sheridan in the cave at all. Saving that for the following episode would have been even more effective. Of course, seeing Sheridan alive introduces more questions than it answers: how did he survive, and who is the tall alien?

There’s an unexpected amount of Lyta in this episode, as she joins up with Ivanova and Delenn (and G’Kar) in an attempt to rescue Sheridan. It’s a fun escapade, though some more dramatic directorial flourishes would have brought the mind control sequence to life. We don’t really feel the pressure of the Shadow presence floating in space, and Lennier’s escape solution is a little too convenient. A psychic battle between Lyta and the Shadow might have been more interesting.

The really exciting stuff in this episode all takes place on Centauri Prime. It’s the first time we’ve seen the royal palace properly, outside of the throne room. The production design is clever, making it feel like a large, Mediterranean space mostly through clever use of curtains. Wortham Krimmer is great fun as Cartagia, whie Damien London does some really interesting stuff with his recurring minister role — always camp, always silly, representing the dafter side of Centauri political culture, and yet here there is a terror behind his eyes. It’s a flamboyant performance that hides the subtleties.

Morden lives! Which is a surprise, although he’s not looking great. Ed Wasser clearly having a lot of fun here. We also realise that Sheridan’s actions hurt the Shadows more than we might have thought, and the Vorlon response is ominous and curious: something has changed, and the sense is that the war is going differently this time compared to 1,000 years ago.

The recurring scene opener of Ivanova on the couch, drinking, hopeless, is something I wish they’d leaned into more. The entire episode could have been more overtly structured around her groundhog day experience, permanently stuck in the hour of the wolf. More boldness in the directing and the edit could have really brought out those themes, with the episode itself reinforcing that sense of being awake at 3am, stuck with your worries and your thoughts.

It’s compelling stuff, most remarkable by how little it resolves from the season 3 ending. We’ll get answers soon enough.

Oh, and that establishing shot of the garden is gorgeous.

Next up is ‘Whatever happened to Mr Garibaldi?’.

‼️ SPOILER STUFF ‼️

There’s a lot in here, although much isn’t obvious on first viewing. For a start, we don’t quite realise yet what the Vorlons are about to do: engage in open warfare against the Shadows, and not care about who gets caught in the crossfire. Lots of hints, with Ulkesh’s general demeanour and Lyta’s clear discomfort.

We also don’t know at this point that there’s only half a dozen episodes left until the Shadow War plot is wrapped up entirely. I remember assuming that the entirety of season 4 would deal with the Shadows — by this point I’d largely forgotten about the Earth stuff, as the entire back end of season 3 is all Shadows.

Garibaldi is missing, and that will of course go very bad. At this point we still have nothing much to go on. Same with Lorien: we see him at the end of this episode, but have no context to draw conclusions either way. The fact that this tall-headed fellow is at the bottom of the chasm in the middle of Z’ha’dum’s main city is intriguing for sure — I can’t quite remember how much we get in the way of answers.

We have Londo drifting slowly into his destiny and his vision of Shadow ships on Centauri Prime. Vir also is now on his way to homeworld, which will ultimately lead to him assassinating Cartagia. I love all that political intrigue stuff at the start of season 4.

Finally, the Garibaldi search is really a Macguffin to get G’Kar off the station and into the danger zone. That won’t go well for him, but it sets both him and Londo on their final paths — which, ultimately, will be good for the galaxy.