s4e2: Whatever happened to Mr Garibaldi?
I've never had a friend who wasn't a Narn
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This episode is the one that matches my memory of season 4: sophisticated, huge in scope and implication, experimental in style and deft in its storytelling. The season opener was a slight disappointment, but ‘Whatever happened to Mr Garibaldi?’ is packed full of interesting creative choices.
To start things off, let’s acknowledge the sound design. A lot of heavy lifting is done by the audio in this episode, especially on the (unnamed?) planet where G’Kar is conducting his investigation. We get that establishing shot from space, showing lightning coursing across the dark side of the planet, then throughout every scene there’s flashes of lightning from outside and thunder reverberating about the place.
There’s a hint of exteriors, when G’Kar first enters the bar, and outside of his hideout. The set design, VFX, lighting and sound mix together in a highly effective way that conjures up a far more complex space than actually exists. It feels like we’ve been to a fully realised planet, even though we only really see a bar and a small room. It’s probably the most effective off-station sequences I’ve seen in the show so far, managing to hide the edges of the set and the limitations of budget and tech. I want to know more about that planet!
It also does a much better job than ‘Z’ha’du'm’. In the season 3 finale, there are a couple of big CG shots of the surface, and then cramped, drab corridor interiors. I wish it had got a treatment as cohesive and imaginative as the planet in this week’s ep.
A lot is going on here: we have Sheridan in the pit, having an existential crisis. We find out that Garibaldi is alive and captured by the Psi Corps. We follow G’Kar’s investigation, get unexpected and very welcome Marcus scenes. Delenn’s mental state hangs by a thread, as does the alliance against the Shadows. And the episode still finds time to have G’Kar be captured and delivered as a gift to Mollari on Centauri Prime. It never feels rushed, despite cramming in a lot.
I’ve mentioned the designers already, but special props to the editing here as well. It’s a tightly edited piece, but also knows when to breathe. The sequence when the Centauri guards blow a hole in G’Kar’s hideout, and the Narn is on his feet and firing back in a split second is thrilling. Garibaldi going nuts in his cell is delivered with a fractured edit that perfectly depicts his suffering. The scene between Londo and G’Kar in the prison cell is edited with a slow precision, holding its shots for longer than usual, emphasising how pivotal the momen is between the two characters.
And then — that moment when Londo leaves the cell and the light falls upon G’Kar’s face, and it’s a revelation. G’Kar seeing a path forward for the first time. It’s a beautiful moment, made all the more tragic and ironic by him being in chains, and the desperation of the situation. It’s an incredible bit of character and plot wrangling to pull off, that Londo and G’Kar would work together, and that we’d have any sympathy at all for Londo. But it works.
The scenes between Marcus and G’Kar are similarly excellent, especially G’Kar’s comment that Garibaldi is his first non-Narn friend. He says it as if it had only just occurred to him, as he says it to Marcus.
One thing I would say, is that I wish they hadn’t revealed Sheridan and Lorien at the end of 401. It would have made this episode even more powerful.
It’s all gold, basically, shot with invention and panache and edited cleverly. So much so that it’s another case of me thinking “did Mike Vejar direct this one?”, having missed the opening credits. Nope, it was Kevin Dobson.
Good job, Kevin.
Next up is ‘The Summoning’.
‼️ SPOILER STUFF ‼️
Every close-up shot of G’Kar’s eyes in this episode made me wince, knowing what’s coming up. I wonder if that was simply a good directorial choice, or an explicit bit of foreshadowing stipulated by JMS?
We’re barrelling towards Cartagia’s end and the culmination of the Shadow War, though both feel impossibly far off still.
The most mysterious stuff here is around Sheridan and Lorien, and the exact nature of his fate. I can’t quite remember how Sheridan’s resurrection here ties into his shortened lifespan. I’d also entirely forgotten that Lorien is THE First One: that’s a nice touch. Presumably the energy being we see holding Sheridan is Lorien’s true form? Perhaps throughout this entire sequence that is in fact the reality of the situation: Sheridan being held by the energy being that is Lorien, keeping him alive? The cave could be the illusion, the dream, rather than the other way around.
Delenn is about to go all-in on a mostly suicidal attack on Z’ha’dum, a detail which I’d forgotten. Her despair and desperation is palpable.
Right, I’m 100% in on season 4 now. Can’t wait to be reminded of what comes next.
