Hour of the Wolf |
| Spoilers for Hour of the Wolf
OK, back to Hour of the Wolf. Season 4's overall title is "No Surrender, No Retreat". You'll notice the opening credits have changed once again, this time having every major cast member speaking a line:
It was the year of fire... -- Lennier In fact, each actor had to say the whole of that speech, then Joe edited together the pieces, picking and choosing who said what. There are hints for the future in there. You will notice Garibaldi and Sheridan, the two whose futures are undetermined (assuming they HAVE one!) get the two lines that drop no hints.
Once again it's G'kar who sets the scene. There's a reason for this, as you
will understand later on. If it sounds like he's reading from something.
Think about it!
The League worlds are falling apart, convinced that with Z'ha'dum's main
city destroyed, the heart has gone out of the Shadow's fight and they can
return to their own worlds. Besides, if the Shadows want revenge then they
want to make sure they're home worlds are protected. Sheridan was, as Justin
said, the Nexus. He was the glue that held everything together. With him
gone everything falls apart. I'm reminded of G'kar's quote from Revelations:
Things fall apart;
Last time, those final words were ominously spoken over Delenn's
image, and that proved a red herring. But who'll come to Babylon 5? The rest
of the poem certainly fits...
The members of the League maintain Delenn's acting out of grief over the
loss of her lover (ooh, she's NOT happy about that!) and ignore the fact
that there remains a very real and present danger.
Emperor Cartagia (played with brilliantly terrifying insanity by Wortham
(Bob) Krimmer) is a man whose nature is outlined early on, both by Londo's
comments "Majesty. I would swear you have not changed since the last time I
saw you" (peeking up the skirts of the ladies of the court) and the fact
that Cartagia sports a commoner's crest. He is, without a doubt, a vulgar
and crude man, based in large part on the character of the emperor Caligula
from Roman history.
In Londo's absence, it's Vir who gets the information about Z'ha'dum and
instantly hands it over to Ivanova. The news that Sheridan was seen falling
into a two mile deep chasm is devastating. It seems he is, truly, dead.
Nevertheless, Morden has survived, much to Londo's disgust, picking at the
skin of his hands (btw, watch that. There's a continuity error where Ed
Wasser changes hands between shots.) Anna Sheridan is well and truly gone,
as for John, Morden is giggling too much to show an opinion on the subject.
In his radiation burned and damaged form, the man is quite mad. Still, he's
sane enough to convince the equally nuts emperor to permit the Shadows to
put their ships on Centauri Prime (on the island of Selini.) When Morden
leaves, Londo's left staring at the flakes of skin that mark the man's
existence, like ash blown in the wind.
And then there's the question of Kosh. Where the old Kosh was supportive in
such times, if only silently, Kosh Ulkesh really couldn't give a damn.
Sheridan is 'irrelevant' and his only value lies in the fact that he has
'opened an unexpected door'. This Kosh is far more Warrior orientated, while
the old Kosh seemed closer to a religious caste type (to borrow from
Minbari patterns). Delenn is disgusted, but Kosh doesn't care about that
either. The Minbari, their allies for so long, are now deemed valueless. The
revelation comes as a shock to both Delenn and Lyta, although Lyta keeps it
hidden.
To quote Joe from Jane Killick's guide: "The thing about the Vorlons is that
they're very smug and they're very self-satisfied and they think they have
all the bases covered. They think they will bring in humans to use as canon
fodder during the war and we'll do what we're told. But they didn't count on
the human capacity for surprise, and what Sheridan does at several turns
surprises them. His ability to turn the first Kosh around to help him was
certainly not something they had counted on, and when he actually struck at
the heart of Z'ha'dum, they saw an opportunity here to get an edge in their
war of philosophy, if you will." But it's not just the humans. They're of
the opinion they don't need anyone now. Sheridan's opened the unexpected
door, and they think they can toss the rest of us aside. Guess what?
Zack finds G'kar in Garibaldi's quarters, looking for answers. The
reinterpretation of Daffy Duck as 'sort of the Egyptian God of frustration'
is a nice piece of light-heartedness in an otherwise depressing episode.
(BTW, Jerry Doyle is NOT a WB fan and he keeps being given WB toys at
conventions. Apart from the fact he doesn't like them, he simply hasn't the
mansion he'd need to store them all, so he gives them to children's
hospitals.) G'kar is going to search for Garibaldi. Given he's persona non
grata as soon as he leaves Babylon 5, this is a dangerous undertaking.
We see Londo's nightmare come true. The explanation of why he was wearing
the purple coat, as opposed to the black one he usually sports these days
(his clothes have been becoming darker in keeping with his character) is
wonderfully banal. A simple need for the other to be cleaned ensures he
looks as he remembers when he goes onto the steps of the royal palace and
looks up to see the Shadow ships flying overhead.
Cartagia, of course, is jumping up and down like a delighted schoolboy, but
when Londo tries in his horror to get the man to realise the nightmare he's
just unleashed, Cartagia snaps back into the murderous emperor. This
unpredictability is what makes Cartagia so terrifying. You can't plan ahead
because on the slightest whim he could suddenly go from your best friend to
your assassin.
Cartagia's revelation that the Shadows have offered him godhood in return
for being allowed to rest their ships finally convinces Mollari of the error
he and Refa made putting this madman on the throne. As he backs away from
Cartagia's wide-eyed stare we see the full realisation of what he's done,
and the cost. The poor minor minister can only wring his hands in despair
and plead with Londo not to speak his feelings too loudly. Londo is a voice
of sanity in a court gone insane. They can't afford to lose him to one of
Cartagia's temper tantrums.
Lyta says it feels darker somehow carrying the new Vorlon. He is a very
different kettle of fish to the old Kosh Naranek. And those streams of
energy between the two aren't CGI. That's called rotoscoping. CGI is done on
the computer in 2 or 3D, letting the computer do the work. Roto work is done
by hand, one frame at a time.
There were some new CGI scenes in this one. The fly-in to the garden on CP,
CP itself, the new Palace shots, a new B5 shot and some Z'ha'dum stuff. Each
year they recycled stock shots and added a few new ones to the mix.
The minister (played wonderfully by Damian London) was not lying about the
heads. But keep your eye on the one on Cartagia's left. You'll see it again
later, and you might be surprised to find out who it is in real life! (um,
no, Babylonian productions don't routinely cut off actor's heads! It's a
copy!) In his hour of need, Londo turns to bumbling, innocent, Vir; the one
man who has managed to completely escape the pitfalls of even minor power
and remain honest and decent, not to mention his quiet work has gone almost
completely unnoticed on Centauri Prime. Who would suspect the timid Vir of
being part of a conspiracy?
We learn the meaning of the title from Ivanova. I don't know if this is a
real Russian thing, or if Joe made it up, but I've lived in that time on
more occasions than I'd care to remember and it certainly fits. When I was
at college my tendency to be up into the wee small hours meant students
suffering that same feeling often knocked on my door seeking someone to talk
to (I was a moral tutor for my college, and weekend duty officer). I sure
was popular during the Hour of the Wolf!
The new White Star does not have a name. None of them do, officially,
although later one of the captains WILL give his a name. This one is merely
"White Star 2", since 1 was destroyed.
The black eyes of Lyta resemble the look of G'kar in Dust to Dust, so it may
simply be the result of intense telepathic work, but the more sinister
implications (of Shadow connections) cannot be ignored. Besides, think about
it. Telepaths were created by the Vorlons as a weapon against the Shadows.
The result of intense telepathic activity is someone who looks like s/he is
under Shadow influence. What does this say about the Vorlons and their
relationship with the Shadows. Just how different ARE those two, anyway?
And those contact lenses HURT! They were not made specifically for Pat and
are round, being big enough to cover her whole eye. Problem is, being that
big they also press into the bone on either side and she couldn't wear them
for long before her eyes started to weep. She hated them! They didn't make
any especially for her because, unlike Andreas, she wouldn't be wearing them
every day. So she just had to suffer the things.
It's interesting that, once again, it is in the voice of their fathers that
the characters hear the siren call. G'kar had his revelation from his
father, Sheridan relies on his... we've mentioned this before. Joe's fixated
on the father figure as the one who guides, whether for good or, in this
case, to lure them to their doom. However, Lyta picked up two voices, she
just didn't know it. The voice of infinite sadness isn't that of the
Shadows. It's of someone else.
The eyes we see are a Shadow face, and we saw them before in Voices of
Authority.
Good thing Lennier was quick witted! But there's no sign of Sheridan, and
Delenn's depression is apparent, as is that of the other women.
And then we get the first clue that maybe things aren't all bad. The
stumbling figure in the caverns of Z'ha'dum drops a Captain's stat. bar to
the floor. We saw Sheridan hand over his stat. bar in There All the Honour
Lies to the cloaked figures for his 'one moment of perfect beauty', and we
saw him remove it again signifying his surrender of his EF position during
Messages from Earth. But in the first instance he said "I've got about a
dozen of them" and in the second the implication was he'd be back for it if
he could. This time the still unidentified figure lets it remain in the
dust, forgotten. It's a symbol of what was. What will be is yet to be
determined.
Vir is happy to help Londo, but he's not so sure when he learns what they
are going to do. The assassination of the emperor is hardly your usual
favour!
Ivanova has come to accept Sheridan's loss. Now she faces the future
determined that his cause not be forgotten. It's her memorial to him, and a
way of keeping going.
And who's that guy at the end? He only answers Sheridan's questions with
more questions, but at least 'who are you?' is the Vorlon question. It was
this person Lyta sensed before, Joe tells us in Jane Killick's book. Why is
he so sad? Why is he interested in Sheridan at all?
This is the dark before the dawn of a new day and, like any predawn
time, chilly and black. Slowly but surely, the sun will come up again. It
just takes time.
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