B5 Rewind: Divided Loyalties

"Divided Loyalties" is a classic episode of Babylon 5, and one of the best of the second year. There are spoilers for this specific episode.

"Until then, Kosh, I want to see you again, just one more time."

"Divided Loyalties" is a classic J. Michael Straczynski screenplay filled with suspicion, misdirection, and revelation. It also follows his favored structure of Introduction (Lyta telling Franklin about the traitor), Rising Action (The assassination attempt on Lyta), Complication (Ivanova's latent telepathy), Climax (Talia revealed as the sleeper agent), and Denoument (Lyta's visit with Kosh). 

JMS closes the door on Talia's arc, but gives Lyta's arc a big leap forward, while further teasing the audience about what Kosh really looks like. The sound at the very end is a dead giveaway if you've seen "The Fall of Night"!

Watching it again makes me realize how much I miss the show and the feeling of seeing it for the first time. The Corps is Mother. The Corps is Father.

The Top 5 of Babylon 5

It's time for my top 5 of Babylon... 5. This is in chronological order, and only concerns the show. 

1. The Coming of Shadows - A classic story balancing character, plot, and prophecy beautifully.

2. Severed Dreams - "The Babylon Project was a dream given form." Not anymore.

3. War Without End - This two-parter pretty much defines the word "epic".

4. Into the Fire - Anticlimactic to some, brilliant to others. Like me, of course.

5. The Fall of Centauri Prime - The title says it all. Gut-wrenching for a truly tragic character.

It is ridiculously hard narrowing down 5 seasons of brilliance to 5 episodes. I'm not even 100% sure that this is my definitive top 5. However, in the interests of spontaneity I shall leave it as it is.