"The Fall of Centauri Prime" (original) (raw)

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Contents: Overview -Backplot -Questions -Analysis -Notes -JMS

Overview

As Sheridan races to stop the Alliance ships from attacking Centauri Prime, Londo's fate, and that of his people, is decided.

P5 Rating: 9.22

Production number: 519 Original air date: October 28, 1998 (US) DVD release date: April 13, 2004

Written by J. Michael Straczynski Directed by Douglas Wise

Plot Points

Sheridan didn't arrive in time to stop the Alliance ships from bombarding Centauri Prime. The capital city was hard hit.
The Regent is dead, killed by the Drakh to give Londo an alibi for the attacks on the Alliance cargo ships.
Though he believes the Narn can never forgive the Centauri as a whole for what they've done, G'Kar has personally forgiven Londo.
The Drakh have planted a Keeper on Londo. He has agreed to the implantation, forced into it by the Drakh's claim that they've planted hundreds of fusion bombs all over Centauri Prime and will detonate them unless Londo cooperates.
Londo has been crowned as emperor of the Centauri Republic.
Delenn and Lennier have been rescued from hyperspace by the Centauri and reunited with Sheridan.
Londo has officially appointed Vir as the new ambassador to the Alliance.
The Alliance has demanded large war reparations from the Centauri, large enough that the Centauri economy will be on the brink of collapse. Londo has agreed, but has told his people that they'll rebuild Centauri Prime alone, without any help from other worlds.
Over a dozen ships have been sent to the Vorlon homeworld since the Vorlons left. All have been destroyed by the Vorlon automatic defense systems. According to Lyta, the Vorlon homeworld is off limits "until we're ready... in a million years."

Unanswered Questions

What work was the Drakh referring to when he claimed Centauri Prime was "perfect ground for us to do our work?"
What will happen to the Alliance now that at least two of its member races have disregarded the President's orders?
How badly was Centauri Prime hit?
Why didn't Londo tell G'Kar about the Drakh? Was he afraid that the knowledge would put G'Kar's life at risk?
What happened to the Keeper that was attached to the Regent? Was it the same one the Drakh later removed from his chest?
What other Shadow technology do the Drakh have?
What's on the Vorlon homeworld? What determines whether humanity is ready to go there?

Analysis

One of the first things the Drakh said to Londo was the Vorlon question, in this case, "Who are we? What are we but a shadow of a shadow?" Most likely it's completely innocuous, but it's possible that with their masters gone, are the Drakh now beginning to ask themselves questions other than the one put forth by the Shadows.
The Drakh told Londo that they wanted a home. That's the same thing the Drakh representative told Delenn in"Lines of Communication." If she had given them a world as they'd requested, would they have settled there and not come in force to Centauri Prime? Likely not; they were already on Centauri Prime in at least some capacity, since the Regent had already been implanted with a Keeper ("Epiphanies").
The Drakh desire for a homeworld echoes the telepaths' struggle for the same thing. Both the servants of the Vorlons and the servants of the Shadows have been left adrift and homeless after the First Ones' departure.
The Regent was under Drakh control, but there may have been others; someone had to plant the fusion bombs all over Centauri Prime (assuming that wasn't just a bluff) and place the Shadow pods on the Centauri warships. Obviously it's possible that all this was done by ordinary Centauri under the Regent's orders (which can only be disobeyed on threat of death, as Londo said in"In the Kingdom of the Blind") but the question still remains, how many other Centauri are under Keeper control?
The Regent died when his Keeper was removed, but in"Racing Mars," Captain Jack survived the loss of his Keeper -- and it even grew back. Maybe it's simply that the Regent's Keeper completely removed itself, while Captain Jack's was still partially in place. Or it may be that a Keeper can control whether its host lives or dies when it leaves.
Keepers grow, or at least live, on the bodies of Drakh. That suggests that the Keepers aren't independent entities per se, but are instead appendages of the Drakh. Shadow organic technology can receive instructions over large distances as evidenced by the pods, so it's possible that Keepers employ the same techniques to stay in contact with their parent Drakh even when far away.
It may also be the case that Keepers are in extremely short supply; for example, it's possible that each Drakh can only be linked to a single Keeper.
Accepting the Keeper -- and the position of Emperor -- may have been the fulfillment of the last of Lady Morella's prophecies ("Point of No Return"): "You must surrender yourself to your greatest fear, knowing it will destroy you." Londo accepted the loss of his autonomy and moved one step closer to his dream of death ("The Coming of Shadows") for the sake of saving his people.
Londo's acceptance of the Keeper, self-sacrifice for the sake of his people, is in line with the Third Principle of Sentient Life as taught to Minbari ("A Voice in the Wilderness").
Londo told Sheridan that in exchange for freeing Delenn, he might ask Sheridan for a favor in the future. What nature of favor did he have in mind? Was asking for a favor Londo's idea or the Keeper's? Londo has exchanged favors for favors before ("A Voice in the Wilderness") and the fact that his tone abruptly became belligerent just after he asked for the favor implies that the Keeper took control of him at that point.
On the other hand, this favor may just cancel out the one Londo already owed Sheridan for telling him about the approach of the Vorlon fleet ("Falling Toward Apotheosis").
Delenn speculated that she and Lennier might find a million-year-old jumpgate left behind by the First Ones. That has already happened at least once ("Thirdspace"). Given what happened in that case, Delenn would probably have second thoughts about actually trying to activate such a device.
The Centauri warships that rescued Delenn and Lennier might well have been preparing to destroy them, only to receive orders to the contrary from Centauri Prime at the last moment.
Lennier's admission to Delenn probably won't change her attitude toward him significantly, since as she said, she already knew he was in love with her. But it may eliminate any possibility that he can maintain his facade of platonic devotion toward her, and may make it harder for him to convince himself that he can win her love.
How did Londo convince the Drakh not to kill Delenn? Or did he give the order on his own? If the Keeper didn't regard such an order as a threat to its interests, it might have allowed him to do so.
What were the reparations demanded of the Centauri? Are they the reason the Centauri apparently still hadn't rebuilt after 17 years ("War Without End")? Why would Sheridan go along with a demand that would crush an entire world for two decades? As a student of Earth history, and given his familiarity with World War II in particular ("In the Shadow of Z'ha'dum") Sheridan must have recognized that crushing war reparations can have unintended consequences, e.g. the rise of the Nazi party in a Germany crippled by humiliating sanctions after World War I. Why would he risk something similar happening on Centauri Prime?
One possibility is that he felt he had no choice; the Narn and Drazi had already amply demonstrated their willingness to take matters into their own hands when they weren't getting satisfaction from the Alliance. Sheridan may have felt that anything less than outrageous sanctions would prompt some of the Alliance races to start killing again.
It's also possible, of course, that the reparations will have nothing to do with the state of Centauri Prime seventeen years hence (at which time there will once again be fires burning in the capital city.) Perhaps Centauri Prime's future condition will be due to the Drakh or the war against them (which will take place in the next twenty years, according to Delenn's recollection at the end of"Rising Star.")
The Narn and Centauri are now mutually responsible for large numbers of civilian deaths on each other's homeworlds. Each homeworld ended up under the control of enemy forces after being bombarded, though most of the Centauri don't know about their occupiers yet.
The particulars of Londo's speech were almost certainly dictated by the Drakh. By isolating Centauri Prime from the other worlds, the Drakh will more easily be able to work in secret without attracting the Alliance's attention.
Londo said the Centauri were now alone in the universe. That resonates with Kosh's description of the Centauri ("Midnight on the Firing Line"): "They are alone. They are a dying people. We should let them pass."
Londo referred to the war, and the attack on Centauri Prime, as "the long night." Is that related to Kosh's message to Sheridan in"Day of the Dead," "When the long night comes, return to the end of the beginning?"
This is the second time Londo has sent Vir away to protect him from Shadow influence; he arranged for Vir to be the ambassador to Minbar in"A Day in the Strife."
Franklin said, "We know the Shadows had hundreds of allies." Did he mean hundreds of individuals, or hundreds of races? If the latter, who were the Shadows' allies besides the Drakh, and how does Franklin know about them?
One possibility is that the word "Drakh" refers to Shadow servants in general, not one particular species. That would also explain why the Drakh on Centauri Prime doesn't look like the alien who boarded the White Star in"Lines of Communication." (That alien identified himself as an emissary of the Drakh, though, so it's possible he wasn't Drakh at all.)
Is the Vorlon homeworld related to the new Earth mentioned in"The Deconstruction of Falling Stars?" That episode took place a million years in the future, at which time humanity would, according to Lyta, be allowed onto the Vorlon homeworld. There's some symmetry if the Vorlon homeworld is the new Earth: the Drakh had a home but lost it thanks to the Vorlons (in the form of Lyta's enhanced powers, which set off Z'ha'dum's self-destruct mechanism in"Epiphanies") while humanity lost a home but gained a new one thanks to the Vorlons.

Notes

Keepers can't be seen unless they choose to be seen.
A Keeper doesn't control its host all the time, according to the Regent; it only does so when its interests are at stake.
The primary weapons of a White Star produce recoil.
Weapons-console sequence for continuous fire of a White Star's main weapons: Green, then red twice.
Centauri warships are equipped with tractor beams, just like Minbari ships ("And the Sky Full of Stars," among others). It may be that tractor beams are a natural extension of artificial gravity technology, which both the Centauri and Minbari employ. Earth ships, at least until Earth's recent acquisition of artificial gravity ("Rising Star"), have to tow objects conventionally ("Soul Hunter").
Either Centauri encryption isn't very thorough, or Vorlon/Minbari codebreaking technology falls just short of being able to crack it in real time. Sheridan's first officer was able to discern voices in the transmission to the Centauri fleet, but not any words. That implies that the transmission was encrypted using some form of audio transformation.
The idea of boarding up all the windows in the palace ("In the Beginning") was originally Vir's.
Shadow remote-control pods aren't as efficient as directly employing a sentient being as the brains of a ship.
It's possible to visit the San Diego ruins.
The weapons used in the terrorist nuking of San Diego ("Midnight on the Firing Line") could be traced back to the breakup of the Soviet Union, according to Franklin.

jms speaks

This is a devastating episode, by the way...so much happens in this that it's kinda staggering, actually.
Of the final 5, this one, and the last two, are my favorites. And I like 'em all.
Yes, the capital was getting beat up, but there's a difference between thousands of dead and billions dead...Londo sacrified himself to save the lives of billions.

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