Magic

Story: The Geometry of Shadows
Written By: J. Michael Straczynski
Season: 2

Another well made and entertaining episode.  This time we get some genuine humor in the Ivanova storyline...quite frankly it isn’t something the show had done too well before this, beyond a few small things with Londo or Lennier (probably why the one time in the first season that those two are together it is truly entertaining).  Ivanova gets promoted to Commander, but she must try being a diplomat with a group known as the Drazi, who are race of divided people based purely on what color scarf they randomly picked out of a box.  Good stuff.

I like that this season has put Londo in a much darker light.  He was just sort of an outlandish ambassador in the first season, he had his serious points, but he was more interested in having a good time.  He was seriously affected by the attack on Ragesh 3, which is mentioned from time to time, but it seems that despite that happening so early he is still just looking to drink and party and gamble and watch girls dance.  They ended the first season with him indirectly giving the command to kill several Narn...it wasn’t really his intention, but he did it and now he is stuck in a weird place of wanting to come up in the world and become a little more powerful, and actually feeling a little out of sorts and guilty for what has happened. I like the conflict he seems to be stuck with at this point.

This season is off to a roaring start at this point. 

NEXT TIME: Jack Maynard