Babylon 5 Rewatch: “The Summoning”
An excerpt:
And then we have the tour de force: G’Kar being lashed. Part of this is the editing, as the intercutting among the various closeups is very well done, but it’s the delivery and expressions that really sell it. There’s Cartagia calmly but intensely counting off each lash, his voice growing incrementally more enthusiastic with each number, as he knows that—one way or another—he’ll get what he wants by the time he stops counting. And his head never moves, as he intently watches G’Kar being lashed. There’s G’Kar, wincing in pain with each lash but keeping himself under control until the thirty-ninth—and then there’s the actual thirty-ninth when he lets loose with the scream that is very obviously cathartic for everyone in the room, albeit for different reasons. There’s Vir, looking increasingly nauseated, as he’s likely never seen anything quite this depraved in his life.
And then there’s Mollari. First we see him regarding Cartagia. He’s standing behind the emperor, so Cartagia can’t see the expression of purest disgust and contempt on Mollari’s face. Then he looks up, and we see the same devastation that Mollari had on his face in “The Long, Twilight Struggle” when he watched the bombing of Narn. He plaintively mouths, Scream! to G’Kar. And then the look of relief when G’Kar finally relents.
Just a masterpiece of a scene.
