Day of the Dead

An *Opinionated Babylon 5 Episode Guide* review.

Review of a Season 5 episode of *Babylon 5*.

## Episode information

* **Season:** 5
* **Episode:** 8
* **Original airdate:** 11 March 1998
* *Day of the Dead* at The Lurker's Guide to Babylon 5, the longest-running fansite
* *Day of the Dead* at The Babylon Project, a canon *Babylon 5* wiki
* *Day of the Dead* at Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia
* *Day of the Dead* at the Internet Movie Database

## Review information

* Review link
* Published: June 12, 2017

## SF Debris synopsis

*What do you get when you combine an alien ritual, Penn & Teller, and Neil Gaiman? Answer: Who the hell knows.*

## Post-Episode Follow-Up

### Final Score: TBA

***Fine***

"Day of the Dead gets a stamp of 'Fine'.

It's certainly an unusual outing, and one that thankfully steers away from Soul Hunter territory, for a different kind of experience. It's an episode about taking a moment with some of the characters. And not just with regards to the dead.

Londo, for instance, is on the cusp of receiving something that he long dreamed of, but never thought he could. And now he sees that it's valueless. His visitor has a chance to briefly forget about that. And before morning, to perhaps give him a bit of a morale boost, before he attains that. And others too, but I'll get to that in a moment.

The episode is cute and it does have some interesting aspects, which, again, I'll get too in a second... But I have to say, that ultimately, it's rather unremarkable as a work in and of itself, hence why the stamp is merely 'Fine'.

Okay, now I'm going to talk spoilers. If you're watching *B5* and do not want to know things that will happen throughout the show, then stop watching the video now. Three, two, one... *Everyone was the murderer*. So the ghosts that we see are not consciously wished for, but rather fulfill a subconscious desire. Londo, for instance, needs the touch of his long lost lover to go off and become emperor. To put his heart into it, just as she gave her heart to him, for who he was. Lochley got a chance for some closure, finally, on something that has always haunted her.

Thus, Leneer's is most interesting, in that it's Mr. Morden. Showing the path that he is now on. His visitor isn't a lover or a long-lost friend, it's a warning. Leneer became a Ranger for all the wrong reasons, and if you've followed the events that happened, you know where he is going. And so Mr. Morden, the one who gives you what you want, but at a terrible price, is there to let Leneer know, that if he tries to get what he wants, it will end badly for him. And given that he's the only one who actually sought out this experience, it makes it all the more telling. He had made a comment about Londo, back in Dust to Dust, that was rather fitting. A darkness in the heart cannot be cured by moving a body from one place to another. Jealousy that Leneer struggles with, is not something he can cure by running to and from places, but only by accepting what reality is.

Zoe passes on a message to Lochley to give to Sheridan. And it's from Kosh: When the long night comes, return to the end of the beginning. This was written by JMS specifically for this episode, to ensure that the message would have some meaning. What it likely means is that when Sheridan is about to finally die, he needs to return to *Babylon 5* at the end. Remember the quote of Kosh that starts off the titles for this season ? 'And so it begins...' *Babylon 5* was the beginning, ergo, the end of the beginning is *Babylon 5*, so when the station is destroyed, Sheridan must be there.

There is also a small bit and then a payoff later, based upon the fact that this is Penn and Teller we're dealing with. Teller, as I've said, never speaks on camera, so Zooty only speaks through the machine. Rebo says, that in the entirety of their career, Zooty has only ever once said something to him himself. Just... 'Why ?'. At the end, Zooty covers up the machine with his hat and whispers to Sheridan: 'Because it tells me to.' Three explanations are possible with this, I'll save mine for last. One, is that Lochley had said that life needs mysteries, and so the meaning of what that is is also given a little bit of mystery. The second one is the suggestion that he's covering not machine, but his heart, and so he said he does what his heart tells him to do. Well, that's all well and good, but my theory is that this is foreshadowing. Who else do you know who has a little companion that goes along with them everywhere, and everything they do is because that's what that little companion tells them to ? It's emperor Londo Mollari, to whom was speaking to just moments earlier. Who would have that creature attached to him by the former servants of the Shadows. What's the difference between Zooty and Londo ? When Zooty says serious things, it's a joke. But as a politician, no matter what Londo says, it's taken seriously..."

## See also

* Opinionated Babylon 5 Episode Guide
* Babylon 5 Season 5 reviews