The other two reviews on this one suffer from the same flaw: they are superficial (like the nowadays world, I would say). All this while the WHOLE story, characters, symbolism and (most of the) behavior in this show tries to convey a much more complex take on things, using A LOT of allegories on subjects like life, death, morals, feelings, war, peace, and of course ... mysticism (or religion, if you like), nicely packed in a science fiction scenario. From this point of view, this "boring" chat between Sheridan and Lorien is not only necessary, but within the spirit of the show. Babylon 5 was never intended to be an all out action packed series (like many others), but a combination of action and reflection on various subjects that are present both in the show and in present life (sort of a cleverly done mystical Star Trek).
No one mentioned it yet in the reviews, but this is a good episode to notice it: do you think that the year of the first Shadow War (rougly 1260 in Earth time, aka the years of Genghis Khan and the Great Plague, when a great part of humans died), the 1000 years between the first Shadow War and this final one (also mentioned in the Apocalypse, go figure), the "triad" of Sinclair, Delenn and Sheridan (alegory to the "holy trinity" in Christianity), the resemblance of Shadows and Vorlons to the devils and angels in Abrahamic religions (even to the point of the questions they like to ask other races) and a bunch of other things in the show ... are by accident? Cause if you do, you missed the whole point and meaning of the series, and you will of course find the Sheridan - Lorien dialogue "boring"...
Me, I'm not a religious person at all (far from it, I would say), but the symbolism is expertly done to the finest detail, really. Lorien's "low energy" part is from my POV an overly cautious attempt to touch the idea of god (overly cautious because Lorien "can't create life", but can only "revive" beings in certain conditions), and his talk with Sheridan is absolutely necessary to make a fearless, "above all" character from a previously "Vorlonized" puppet, a character who can think for himself and take the needed decisions to separate the younger races from the abusive Shadow-Vorlon interference at the end of the series.
I'm really sorry for those who saw "boredom" and "low energy" in this episode, because as I said, it's both in the spirit of the show AND essential for the future development of the story and characters. Dr. Franklin's "walkabout" is infinitely more boring than this part - at least this HAS A MEANING (both in theory and practice). The superficial ones might have trouble getting the idea though - no offense...
No one mentioned it yet in the reviews, but this is a good episode to notice it: do you think that the year of the first Shadow War (rougly 1260 in Earth time, aka the years of Genghis Khan and the Great Plague, when a great part of humans died), the 1000 years between the first Shadow War and this final one (also mentioned in the Apocalypse, go figure), the "triad" of Sinclair, Delenn and Sheridan (alegory to the "holy trinity" in Christianity), the resemblance of Shadows and Vorlons to the devils and angels in Abrahamic religions (even to the point of the questions they like to ask other races) and a bunch of other things in the show ... are by accident? Cause if you do, you missed the whole point and meaning of the series, and you will of course find the Sheridan - Lorien dialogue "boring"...
Me, I'm not a religious person at all (far from it, I would say), but the symbolism is expertly done to the finest detail, really. Lorien's "low energy" part is from my POV an overly cautious attempt to touch the idea of god (overly cautious because Lorien "can't create life", but can only "revive" beings in certain conditions), and his talk with Sheridan is absolutely necessary to make a fearless, "above all" character from a previously "Vorlonized" puppet, a character who can think for himself and take the needed decisions to separate the younger races from the abusive Shadow-Vorlon interference at the end of the series.
I'm really sorry for those who saw "boredom" and "low energy" in this episode, because as I said, it's both in the spirit of the show AND essential for the future development of the story and characters. Dr. Franklin's "walkabout" is infinitely more boring than this part - at least this HAS A MEANING (both in theory and practice). The superficial ones might have trouble getting the idea though - no offense...
