Personally, I'm never really bothered by characters being denied agency when the denial of such agency is the entire point. In situations like Talia's and Garibaldi's, it's all about the fact that they've been violated. It's the entire tragedy of Talia's character, and we can already see from the final scenes of this episode that Garibaldi's awareness of what happened to him and what he did because of it is torturing him, which makes for great drama.

And as for Ylgn pbafgnagyl trggvat wrexrq nebhaq naq qvpxrq bire ol gur tbbq thlf NAQ gur onq thlf... like, JMS is not without his flaws as a writer, and even he admits that not everything he tries to do pans out, but there isn't much he does by accident.

Agreed. They're both clearly evil but different flavors of evil. I wouldn't call Stalin and Caligula twins.

That's fucking beautiful.

In college, thestaticinhersmile introduced me to the phrase "Qrrc Sevrq Qryraa" in reference to the post-Fgnesver Jurry scenes in "Zbzragf bs Genafvgvba."

She's a funny gal.

I seem to recall JMS stating pretty clearly that Carolyn Sykes'/Catherine Sakai's role would have been different from Anna's specifically because the Shadows were already up and about and sending Morden on their errands during Season 1, while Sykes/Sakai would still have been Sinclair's main squeeze and living on Babylon 5 part-time. At the very least, she wouldn't have been involved in waking them up since they were already awake and gathering their forces.

Since Sakai was intended to eventually trg va gebhoyr jvgu n znwbe Rnegu pbecbengvba -- V'z thrffvat Rqtnef Vaqhfgevrf? -- V svaq vg sne zber yvxryl gung fur zvtug unir orra hfrq gb onvg Fvapynve vagb pncgher ol Rqtnef' crbcyr gur jnl Furevqna'f qnq jnf hfrq gb onvg uvz.

This does, of course, leave open the question of how things would have gone down in this finale, but there are several instances where Furevqna'f nep qviretrq sebz Fvapynve'f, fb guvf zvtug whfg or bar bs gurz.

Dude... the HIGHEST of fives.

Did it come with the gravy? That's the real question.

I didn't even need to use the Rot13 decoder to know what Ylgn'f Shaxl Rlr Fuvg Cneg 1 was. Love you, girl.

Somewhere in the future, some scientist fused the vocal stylings of Whitney Houston and Toni Braxton, and we got Cailyn's songs from this episode.

Cheesy? Sure. But I fucking love them. 90's forever, people. No shame.

I personally like that Stephen's story isn't resolved in one episode, and I certainly appreciate it wasn't resolved by a rando hook-up. I'm all for the healing power of booty, but I don't think it would have been very fitting in this context. I like that his time with Cailyn was just one step on his journey. This isn't going to be a quick fix for him, and what he needs to work out is going to take some time and real soul-searching.

I don't find Franklin and Cailyn's encounter Trekkian at all. No declarations of love were made. No insistence on the part of the characters or the narrative that this was anything sweeping or epic. Two people randomly encountered one another, were attracted to one another, had a little flirtation and a little sex, and that was kind of it. They touched each other's lives briefly, and it's likely because of it that Franklin was more inclined to hook her up with some carte blanche medical care, but I don't think either one is carrying a torch for the other. Sometimes people touch your life for a moment, then they pass out of it. there's a whole range of experiences between heartless one-night stands and epic romance, and I think their brief little story fit somewhere on that spectrum.

Regarding the fruit, there are hydroponic gardens on Babylon 5. We see them in the core scenes all the time. Sheridan made a big deal about losing control with the fruit when he got there, because he hadn't had access to it on his ship. We've also seen Delenn purchasing some alien-looking fruit in the Zocalo, and Franklin shared some fresh juice with his dad, so my guess is you can get it, but the market price must be steep.

"Sheridan knows the Shadows killed Kosh, right...?"

I think Sheridan grieves for Kosh, but does he feel guilty on the level that releasing Morden indirectly led to Kosh's murder? I don't think so. Assuming he knows that Morden was involved, and I'm not certain he does, I think Sheridan is mature enough to know that a person can't possibly anticipate every consequence that trickles down from a decision. And I think he knows that 1) Morden had to be released at that time. It had to be done and was unequivocally the right decision to make in that moment, and 2) even if Morden hadn't been involved, if the Shadows wanted Kosh dead, nothing would have stopped them. Morden's involvement was incidental. So, while I'm sure he grieves for Kosh and feels somewhat responsible, I don't think he's flagellating himself over it. This is war. People gonna die. And Sheridan, being a soldier, has made a certain amount of peace with that. I doubt he'd be a career officer otherwise.